Like many others in my position, I often lament the fact that discussions with teachers around Web 2.0 and the changing classroom often fall by the wayside and teachers can’t or won’t considering how to implement this into their classrooms.
This fall I spent about 4 sessions with a small group of teachers interested in exploring the possibilities of the Read/Write Web. These sessions were fairly interactive and we met to discuss how the use of new tools were impacting learning. They also were candid about the challenges and struggles they faced and frustrations with technical and time issues.
On Tuesday many of these teachers and a few others listened to Darren talk about his journey and his innovative approach to teaching and learning.
Today I spent the afternoon with some of these teachers who all teach high school math. They were truly enthusiastic about what they might be able to do with their students. After our conversation on Tuesday with Darren, they were excited about the use of an Interactive Whiteboards. There was one at our division office that rarely got used. I made arrangements to have it shipped to their school to try out. Kids at Christmas. Usually a Friday afternoon PD session on a beautiful, sunny spring afternoon is about the worst time to think about innovation in education. Not a problem for this crew.We spent the afternoon learning, laughing and discussing the future. They were jacked.
Tonight at 10:11PM I received an email from one of them. Here’s an excerpt:
Hey I’m officially a loser….computer use on a Friday night! I got my wiki going!! How great is that.
This is about the best residual for anything I might have done to help.
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March 24th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Your high school math teachers should check out this blog:
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?cat=6
It is a high school math teacher in California’s lessons. He uses a projector for his lessons and has links to the power points he uses. There is a lot of great stuff there if you haven’t checked it out before.
Another great site to share power points is http://www.slideshare.net I use it to put reviews of the power points we use in class right into our classroom blog.
I have a SmartBoard IWB and I don’t think I could teach without one now. It so easy now to just export whatever we work on as a .pdf file for review, sharing, etc. The students love using it. I’d suggest purchasing a presentation mouse though, because I noticed before I had one I was always just up at the front of the room.
I’ve set up a wiki of the things I use in my 6th grade classroom: http://gesdmath.wikispaces.com
And, it’s Friday night, the last Friday of my spring break and I’m listening to podcasts, writing lesson plans and reading blogs. I think that says something unfortunate about my social life as well.. haha
March 24th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I think that’s wonderful that a group of teachers have been inspired…. and to spend a Friday night investigating and creating is a great sign!
I have had similar things happen in my area (Nelson, New Zealand) where we have had a lot of older teachers “converted”. It’s all in the delivery, and showing them good working examples; you’ve got to stress that it actually is easy once you learn how. Also, especially for teachers in our area having step-by-step back up help notes is invaluable!
Plus, I wouldn’t say we’re creating losers, perhaps computer geeks is a better word! Hopefully these teachers will be hooked enough to either find out more about web2.0 tools themselves or seek out those who can teach them more!
Well done, emails like that make it all worthwhile don’t they!
Kind regards, Rachel
March 25th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Congrats, Dean! I love getting emails like that and have received a few similar to that since starting the web 2.0 usergroups in Walled Lake. Sometimes change seems to happen so slow and it can be discouraging. However, we need to remember that once it starts it is contagious. I bet your math teachers will begin talking with their co-workers and soon there will be a flurry of excitement. Your next problem will be figuring out how to get more whiteboards at the school!
Pam