Looking on the bright side is a conscious choice we can make when faced with the everyday stressors and extenuating circumstances that are part of everyday life.
I’ve been trying to see the flowers, and for the most part it has worked well. My students are great. Using multiple resources to show parents what we are doing, like sharing our Cardboard Challenge and Maker Mondays photos has provided great advocacy and outreach opportunities.
But even though I can see the benefits of a positive attitude this week has certainly weighed me down in the negative.
It started with the tech survey I’ve mentioned before. Even accepting the understandings that 1) it is a directive, not a choice for me to administer the survey 2) I don’t know what the goal is of the survey and 3) I am not expecting to see the results it is STILL FRUSTRATING because the questions make no sense and the students don’t get it. Add the piece that the students are questioning the validity themselves (if I use the iPad every day why do I have to pick weekly? if I share Dad’s computer does that mean I personally own one? In my house mom checks my emails before I send them, so do I choose easy, hard or something I can’t do?) and the whole thing makes no sense. Plus my librarian research showed that many schools use this tool. I just don’t get it.
Now I find myself falling farther into negativity with this discussion on 1:1 initiatives. I’ve read articles, blogs, and studies and watched some terrific interviews and the end result is we are doing it wrong here at my school district.
These are, of course, my opinions. But I have searched through board minutes and emails, policy handouts and curricula, anything I can find to try and verify whether I’m the one missing the obvious – and I don’t think so. In our district tech journey so far I don’t believe decisions have been made by teams of the interested parties, I don’t feel that clear goals were defined or procedures put in place to meet goals.
Here’s a brief overview of what is happening, at least on the elementary level.
For the 2013-14 school year, a handful of teachers were chosen to pilot an iPad program. They were given 6 iPads for their classrooms and 1 teacher iPad. There were a couple of days of training and some informal online sharing networks were established. The elementary schools also received a cart of 15 iPads to be shared among the 350-450 students in their buildings. 2014-2015 brought a few more teachers into the program. I was lucky to be part of that and received 6 iPad minis and 1 regular for teacher use. The carts in the schools were outfitted with an additional 15 iPads and – the piece de resistance – the original pilot teachers had the 5 desktop computers removed from their classrooms for year 2 of their program. There was no definitive discussion about this – the teachers showed up in September and the desktops were gone. It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that this wasn’t working well. We all know there are some areas where tablets are a great tool of choice and some where you just need a keyboard and computing power. After the teachers voiced their issues, they were given 2 keyboards to use with their 6 iPads. This year, those teachers still do not have desktops back in their rooms. The school district claims they don’t have any more and are not spending money on computers at this point. I truly feel that the lack of planning, discussion and follow-up send a clear message about the underlying philosophy of technology integration in the district.
One more point – I almost cried when I heard mention of a planning committee of 65 people to look at a 1:1 initiative in this interview. I just applied for a spot on a strategic planning committee – 6-8 people (2 of them teachers) will be selected to work on a committee to address all 4 of these areas - Student Growth and Achievement, Staff Professional Development and Growth, Pupil Services, and Educational Technology.
10 focus areas were identified. 5 committees are being formed with six to eight members on each. The committees are supposed to include community members, administrators, teachers and perhaps high school students. This particular committee seems to include some of the most critical areas in strategic planning. Am I overreacting or does it seem ludicrous to lump all of these areas together and then choose a small handful of people to gather information and discuss options?
It’s hard to think positively about my little area when the big picture grows increasingly dismal.
I’ve been trying to see the flowers, and for the most part it has worked well. My students are great. Using multiple resources to show parents what we are doing, like sharing our Cardboard Challenge and Maker Mondays photos has provided great advocacy and outreach opportunities.
But even though I can see the benefits of a positive attitude this week has certainly weighed me down in the negative.
It started with the tech survey I’ve mentioned before. Even accepting the understandings that 1) it is a directive, not a choice for me to administer the survey 2) I don’t know what the goal is of the survey and 3) I am not expecting to see the results it is STILL FRUSTRATING because the questions make no sense and the students don’t get it. Add the piece that the students are questioning the validity themselves (if I use the iPad every day why do I have to pick weekly? if I share Dad’s computer does that mean I personally own one? In my house mom checks my emails before I send them, so do I choose easy, hard or something I can’t do?) and the whole thing makes no sense. Plus my librarian research showed that many schools use this tool. I just don’t get it.
Now I find myself falling farther into negativity with this discussion on 1:1 initiatives. I’ve read articles, blogs, and studies and watched some terrific interviews and the end result is we are doing it wrong here at my school district.
These are, of course, my opinions. But I have searched through board minutes and emails, policy handouts and curricula, anything I can find to try and verify whether I’m the one missing the obvious – and I don’t think so. In our district tech journey so far I don’t believe decisions have been made by teams of the interested parties, I don’t feel that clear goals were defined or procedures put in place to meet goals.
Here’s a brief overview of what is happening, at least on the elementary level.
For the 2013-14 school year, a handful of teachers were chosen to pilot an iPad program. They were given 6 iPads for their classrooms and 1 teacher iPad. There were a couple of days of training and some informal online sharing networks were established. The elementary schools also received a cart of 15 iPads to be shared among the 350-450 students in their buildings. 2014-2015 brought a few more teachers into the program. I was lucky to be part of that and received 6 iPad minis and 1 regular for teacher use. The carts in the schools were outfitted with an additional 15 iPads and – the piece de resistance – the original pilot teachers had the 5 desktop computers removed from their classrooms for year 2 of their program. There was no definitive discussion about this – the teachers showed up in September and the desktops were gone. It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that this wasn’t working well. We all know there are some areas where tablets are a great tool of choice and some where you just need a keyboard and computing power. After the teachers voiced their issues, they were given 2 keyboards to use with their 6 iPads. This year, those teachers still do not have desktops back in their rooms. The school district claims they don’t have any more and are not spending money on computers at this point. I truly feel that the lack of planning, discussion and follow-up send a clear message about the underlying philosophy of technology integration in the district.
One more point – I almost cried when I heard mention of a planning committee of 65 people to look at a 1:1 initiative in this interview. I just applied for a spot on a strategic planning committee – 6-8 people (2 of them teachers) will be selected to work on a committee to address all 4 of these areas - Student Growth and Achievement, Staff Professional Development and Growth, Pupil Services, and Educational Technology.
10 focus areas were identified. 5 committees are being formed with six to eight members on each. The committees are supposed to include community members, administrators, teachers and perhaps high school students. This particular committee seems to include some of the most critical areas in strategic planning. Am I overreacting or does it seem ludicrous to lump all of these areas together and then choose a small handful of people to gather information and discuss options?
It’s hard to think positively about my little area when the big picture grows increasingly dismal.