Advances in Resource Selection

At our faculty meeting last week, we were all introduced to the newest members of our school community: our new school set of iPads. Our district is in the middle of a large initiative to get every school equipped with at least one set of iPads to share with the whole school. Considering our school just had WiFi installed for the first time about month ago, this set of 30 iPads is actually a pretty big deal. We talked about the sharing procedures, different useful apps, how to transport them to our classroom, and other basics. I had just completed the Professional Development module last week, so I was excited to get to participate in this new PD in our school, as well as take part in using the iPads. 

However, even though there was much excitement surrounding the possibilities that come from having iPads available, when I went back to my classroom, I was met with another, less welcome, surprise. Our district has some pretty strict filters and restrictions on the internet, and when I went to look something up on Google, I could not access the website. The website, www.google.com, was blocked on my computer. It usually works, but for whatever reason that day, I could not access Google. This experience prompted me to really get to work on researching and proposing some changes that could be made to our diocesan technology resources. 

I found out that the diocesan educational technology office supplies resources and provides support for 8,500 students in 36 elementary, middle, and high schools across southern Nebraska. The budget although sufficient, is by no means overflowing, and the people in charge are rather strict about what is and is not allowed in the schools. In today's society, I do understand the need to make sure that the media our children are receiving are high quality and beneficial, but the teachers also should be able to teach without being worried about constantly being blocked or filtered away from a website. 

The one resource that I think we are missing out on the most in our district is access to Google Drive. Thie resource is hugely helpful to both students and teachers. Basically, each student creates an account on Google Drive, and then they have access to all of the assignments and resources provided for them by their teachers online. The possibilities for teachers are limitless-they can create assignments, projects, upload videos, provide links to websites, manage assignments, track progress, provide timely feedback that can be accessed at any time by the student or teachers, ask questions and give comments to students outside of class time, allow students to work collaboratively on projects at any time, and so much more. With Google Drive, teachers and students are connected in a way like never before, which greatly enhances the learning experience. Google Drive is also a great tool for communication between teachers and other teachers or teachers and parents. Teachers can send out editable documents, surveys, or videos for teachers or parents to view and contribute to, and this can all happen at any time in any place.

The project I ended up with will hopefully be at least a good starting point for a conversation about some of the issues we have regarding access to resources. I know this is a commonly discussed problem in our schools, and I hope we can make a change with the right conversations. 

Difficulty in Resource Selection

Throughout my first year of teaching, I have had so much support in my school. My principal is the picture of what a principal should be, my fellow teachers are very supportive, the parents of my students are wonderful, and I truly love my students. The school system is very community-oriented and we all care about each other. However, one area where my school really struggles is in the area of using technology resources. We have a sufficient amount of technology (not too much, but sufficient), but we are extremely limited in what we are allowed to use.

For example, I took a class during undergrad that was all about using technology to support and enhance classroom instruction. I learned SO much, and really planned on using as much of the material from the class as possible. However, one major tenant of this class was focused around using a certain resource: Google Drive. I am a person who has used Google Drive for years; it was instrumental in all of my jobs in college, and I used it during practicums and student teaching. My technology teacher also used it for almost everything, and I was so excited about using it in my classroom. However, our district does not allow teachers to use Google Drive for anything. In fact, it is completely blocked on our computers. Many times throughout this year, I have thought about how useful Google Drive would be in whatever situation (sending a parent survey, editing a collaborative document with the other 3rd grade teacher, communicating with fellow teachers, etc). The rationale that the district provides is that we cannot use Google Drive because the company of Google has many moral and ethical disagreements with the Catholic Church, and we cannot support the company as a result. While I have not done much research about that, it seems like this argument might be a little diluted, and I need to look into it some more.

So, as a first year teacher in a system where we are greatly limited in our options of resources to use, I am torn about what to do exactly. While I have made it work without Google Drive, I know it would make my life easier to be able to use it. I also know that the administration in my school is on the same page as I am in regards to this, so talking to them would not probably help. I need to talk to the people who are higher up on the ladder, but I do not know who to talk to or how to talk to them. I'm planning on reaching out once I have my project done for this module to hopefully have some more definite and concrete answers and arguments for them. Until then, I will make it work with what I have!

Professional Development for iPad Implementation

Although my school is quite limited in technology currently, given the fact that my classroom has only one computer, and it is my school laptop, we are beginning to take baby steps in this area. Starting in August, the school will have access to a shared iPad cart with 30 iPads for the school. There are 12 classrooms in the school (2 per grade, K-5) who will be able to check out the whole cart or a number of iPads on a sign-out process. I don't know exactly how this will work as far as individual student usage (signing in, saving data, etc) but I am excited regardless!

In my research about effective professional development in the school setting, I found that one of the most important things principals can do in this area is to provide clear objectives for their PD. Just as teachers must have clear, measurable objectives for their lessons, principals must do the same. Without a clear purpose, even a well-run PD session can leave the attendees wondering what they were supposed to gain. My principal, who will be mostly in charge of implementing the iPads into our classrooms, is an effective educator who should be able to do this without a problem.

For my project, I researched a variety of iPad implementation techniques and connected those to an 8-month PD plan. I did research about what should and should not be done when a school implements iPads into instruction, and incorporated a lot of those ideas into the plan. For example, we start by talking about general iPad care and expectations and basic functions. We also will discuss our goals and objectives for using the iPads before we dive into specific functions. By the end of the year, we have met our objective of each teacher using the iPads at least once weekly for whole group and once weekly for small group instruction in any subject area. The teachers in my school come from a wide background of technological capabilities, with some brand new teachers and some who have been teaching for 30+ years. For this reason, it is important to provide some differentiation and some general instruction to all 12 of us. Hopefully, even though we do have some differences, we will all be able to meet the goals.

There is a lot of discussion and many expectations already about using the iPads next year, and I hope we will be able to use them for instruction and not to replace instruction. With an effective PD plan, we should be able to incorporate our iPads efficiently and successfully into our classrooms.