Tech Bytes - January

This month's blog post is going to take a little different format and flavor from the previous Tech Bytes.

Our county has a fabulous, highly-esteemed program called Pinnacle Leaders Program. The program was begun to identify, nurture and develop teacher technology leaders. Pinnacle leaders are role models for the county, their schools, and colleagues.

Recently, our latest cohort group was tasked with sharing a "favorite thing." Their work includes all components of Tech Bytes from Be in the Know to Cool iPad apps. So without further ado, here are Pinnacle 22's Favorite Things (and my tech byte for January!).

Educational Beliefs of an Instructional Technology Facilitator

Back in January, I read a blog post by Justin Tarte that got me wondering about how my beliefs and my actions in my work align. I also challenged our Pinnacle Leaders to blog about their thoughts on this as well and since I issued the challenge for them, I thought it only right for me to blog as well. So here are my beliefs (in no particular order):

1. All students can learn.
I work with teachers now, sometimes as a group of teachers and other times working with their students in their classrooms. My role is a coach to help them learn and use technology in seamless ways in their classrooms. Every. single. teacher. can learn to use technology effectively. Just like with young learners, we need to find the learning modality that suits them and build confidence through success.

2. Learning should be relevant.
Teachers will not use information from professional development if it doesn't apply to them. Just like teachers in the classroom, we differentiate according to needs and where teachers are now.

3. Relationships play a huge role in student achievement.
Research indicates that the student - teacher relationship plays a huge role in student success. Same thing applies to coaching teachers. I strive to build a relationship based on trust and collegiality so I can really help my teachers be successful. It is my job to make them shine.

4. Students should be given lots of opportunities to create.
When I think back on my educational experiences, times that I spent creating things to showcase my learning is when I had the most fun and really learned the material. I remember memorizing all the bones in the human body, and today I can't name all of them. Technology today really gives our students and teachers a way to create that was never available before. I think we should tap into that!

5. Teaching is a difficult profession, but the most rewarding.
Today education bashing is the "in thing" to do. But I dare say that teaching is still rewarding and it is amazing to be apart of the aha moment, whether it is a young student or a teacher.

Blog Challenge: Day 11 Brain Break Ideas

Blog Challenge: Share ideas that your classroom uses for brain breaks and/or indoor recess.

In Gaston County Schools, we have a program called Pinnacle that provides the latest technology tools and best instructional practices as we outfit 21st century classrooms. We meet for several straight intense days during the summer for the professional development. To model best practices, we incorporate brain breaks throughout the day every day.

Sitting is the new smoking, so we want to spend a few minutes up and moving in some way every day and pull those teachers away from their screens for a while. According to medical expert Dr. James Levine, from one of our nation's leading research hospital (the Mayo Clinic), "Sitting all day long is literally killing us." His best advice to all people is to "break up the sitting time."

Eric Jensen defines the valuable role and connection between movement and learning. "Brain research confirms that physical activity -- moving, stretching, walking -- can actually enhance the learning process." In a nutshell, sit less, live longer, learn more.

Brain breaks only take 1 -2 minutes. They should consist of crossing the midline, movement, and brain challenges that are designed to refocus us. We found a great playlist on YouTube for brain breaks. I hope you can use some of these in your classroom! An example is included below.

Pinnacle Visits

There are things about my job that I love. You already know that I love to plan lessons and really look at curriculum and technology integration with teachers. The other thing I love about my job is the opportunity to work with our county's "Pinnacle Leaders."

What's a Pinnacle Leader you ask? It was a program started in the county by our Chief Technology Officer, Debbie Core. The premise is that teachers that really want to utilize technology with their students apply for the program. If accepted, these teachers receive technology to use in their classrooms as well as lots of professional development to help them along the way. Basically, these folks are our teacher leaders in the buildings showing the way in 21st century education. They may be called upon to help their peers with technology integration, deliver professional development in technology integration, or even be our guinea pigs to try new technology within our system.

For the past few days, I have been in nine of those classrooms ranging literally from Kindergarten to 8th grade, from a special needs class to an ESL class. The various personalities and technology comfort level of these teachers are very evident when watching them orchestrate learning using things such as student response systems, SMART Boards, laptops, desktops, and iPads. The excitement and the engagement of the students are almost palatable too. And when I hear someone say, "Kindergarten can't do those things with technology!" I know better and so do our Pinnacle leaders. 

Among my visits, I saw students researching and creating a visual representation of what they have learned, I saw students revisiting text and creating a presentation about the book, I saw students working collaboratively to create an eBook, and more.

These fifteen were charged with using their technology in student centered technology integrated centers. They are doing well, but with our changes in curriculum we can always use new ideas. So...if you had a minimum of five laptops or five iPads, a SMART Board, student response system, a couple of desktops, microphones, cameras, and a document camera, what would you have students doing in your classrooms?