A Student Centered Classroom

Moving to a student centered classroom has been easier than I had thought.  Actually this process has taught me a lot.  Our students are digital natives therefore they don't have hesitation when it comes to technology.  Rather their thinking is more freer than an adult's thinking.  When I release the control in my classroom and allow students the freedom to problem solve or to create, their finished product is always better than I had imagined and always done in a different way than what I would have chosen or even thought of.    An example of this in my classroom was when students were asked to create a presentation of the zoo animals they learned about on our class field trip.  Not only did the students choose apps or web tools that I hadn't thought of using they also surprised me with the content they chose to use in their presentations.  Examples of this would be the students who chose to not only take pictures of the animal at the zoo but also took a picture of the informational sign outside the animals habitat, and recorded a zookeepers presentation of an animal.    I  was also pleased that the students uploaded the sounds the animals made, songs, and additional pictures from the web.  I never would have dreamed a year ago that first graders, when given the freedom, would be so on task and so focused on a given assignment.

It is so important for the students to use the iPad as a tool to learn and not the apps or web tools.  Apps and web tools will come and go but if the students learn to problem solve, create, and produce using their iPads they will be successful no matter what app, tool, or program is available.

Now more than ever a teacher must be a facilitator and encourage students to collaborate  and work together.  Classroom environment must be conducive to this and one way I found to do this is to arrange student desks into learning groups where they are encouraged to discuss and share.

Authentic assessments are also more valuable in this process.  An assessment that requires a student to think and produce is more meaningful than answering a set of questions.

The hardest part of moving to a student centered classroom is getting students to value the process.  Students will work harder, stay on task longer, and produce more meaningful activities if given the chance to be involved in their own learning?  Giving students choices.  is a very powerful tool to use.

Communicating with St

In order for technology integration to be successful in our schools all persons involved in this integration must be fully vested.  We refer to these groups of people as our stakeholders. Stakeholders  include school board members, administration, teachers, and parents.  Parents are the stakeholders that I find to be the most important concerning day to day integration of technology.  This does not mean that the other stakeholders have less importance in this process.  However, as a teacher, in order for the one-to-one iPad initiative to work in my classroom effectively I have to have the support of my parents.  When addressing my parents at the beginning of the school year there are specific points that must be communicated.  First, I must have their support.  Parental support would include making sure their child has their iPad charged completely each day, reinforce digital citizenship at home, and follow iPad care instructions in order to keep iPad in good working condition.  Second, a positive attitude towards the one-to-one initiative.  And finally the last point would be open communication.  Parents, as well as myself, need to keep the lines of communication open during this new process.  Parents should feel comfortable in sharing their concerns and/or difficulties with me so that changes to this process can be made through out the year to ensure a successful integration.

Conquering Distraction

     Distraction in the classroom has been an issue teachers have encountered since the beginning.  Now in this digital age there is even more opportunities for students to become distracted.  In the article, Freedom, Digital Distraction and Control, the author sites three approaches for conquering distraction.  These approaches include:  control by authority, control through technology, and self control.   My first year of the iPad 1-1 initiative was definitely controlled by authority.  My students were required to have their screens turned down during instruction or until given permission by me to turn them over.  I spent a lot of my time policing the room trying to keep students on the appropriate site or app.  What I found was that students became very crafty in their ability to hide what they were doing and I felt compelled to control the environment even more.  What I have learned from this first year of the 1-1 initiative and from my technology courses is that my students were born into this digital age and that they are digital natives.  Technology is a way of life for them and I don't want to continue approaching my classroom management for technology punitively.  Instead, my goal would be to make the activities engaging enough that students won't become distracted but would instead be completely involved in the lesson. Thus reaching the final goal of students exhibiting self control.  Students who feel they have some control over their learning environment are more likely to take ownership of the activity or project thus eliminating the desire to become distracted with something else.   Allowing students choices when completing an assignment, assigning students activities that require them to produce a final product rather than just skill and drill, and teaching students to become curators of their learning resources are just a few ways to get students actively involved in their learning environment.  

     Throughout the past year I have collected ideas, evaluated current activities and made notes of how to make them more productive, and collaborated with colleagues so that this next school year the technology use in my classroom will be more effective and less distractions will occur.  This will be an ongoing process that I will have to continue each year in order to keep up with technology and to move up on the SAMR model.