8. June 2010 by MrBall.

Today at St. Peter we were discussing the metrits of Universal Design for Learning. The perception of UDL from Elementary - High school ranges from relief to fear.

Here is the overview of UDL-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Design_for_Learning

The elementary teachers saw the possibilities that exist when you stop labeling students with disabilities and start watching for their strengths. Leaning on their strengths for growth in learning and in growing other strengths will be easier than the up hill battle of ‘fixing’ their problems.

The high school teachers’ first fears were that UDL will move us away from successful PAT results. I guess they think that skill and drill practice has no place in gaining successful PAT results. I need to get to know some high school teachers better (my mom doesn’t count). I am always confused at their strong resistance to learn new things; like they expect their students to do.

I guess the best way to get them is to use their strengths to help them grow as teachers. So where do we start?

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4. June 2010 by MrBall.

Today was a rough day. We had very poor connections with the network and everyone is getting tired of using the netbooks that don’t have the Net. I had two little girls crying because it took 4 tries to login and they still had no working laptops at the end of it all.

The teachers are nearing their limit. They have had wireless and netbooks since March. Many of the teachers are experiencing the same thing. When teacher login with their students this is what they get…

An example of 20 students:

10 logged in right away

2 no network available

8 really slow to log in. Unable to get all their icons on the desktop but had them in the Start button. Many of these freze later on and were unable to access the internet or store files to the network.

If you know how important classroom management is, and how having half of your students off task can destroy a lesson, then you will understand the frustration of the teachers. It isn’t the kids fault. They are the very definition of patience and many are proactive about getting their PC up and running (yes Kindergarteners!). Most of the students are like this. I don’t think that it is because they are tech savvy. I think it is because of the school’s leadership focus. They follow the Steven Covey 7 Habits books.

So I would like to propose a toast to the brave staff and students in all our schools who clear the frustrating technology path so that their students can have more meaningful learning environments. It will happen but we need to learn from the mistakes so we can improve. Thank you!

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1. June 2010 by MrBall.

Some of the reasources we will be using are… MathTask.notebook These are taken from the Puddle Math Tasks book. I merged the tasks I could remember with websites to make them laptop/internet friendly.

ietherpad.com Group sharing

Edmodo.com Secure site for titter like sharing (with extra tools).

grabbabeast.com Fun monster building site.

and SpellingCity.com if we have extra time.

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1. June 2010 by MrBall.

The 1:1 netbook intro has been a rollercoaster ride. Staff and students understand the engaging power of all things on the internet that is 2.0. I have shown them ietherpad and Edmodo that can be used as collaboration tools. We have created things using Notebook Recorder and Audacity on the laptops, much to the delight of students. I did a demo with grade 1 students yesterday. It was so exciting to see how quickly and easily they logged in. One little girl was rubbing the side of her netbook saying “Come on little bud.” in an effort to get it going faster.  All are genuinely excited to have new outlets of expression.

There is a ‘but’, things aren’t as smooth as they should be. The seemless learning environment has not yet been achieved. The wireless connection is flakey. In a class of 25 students I can get 18 online right away. When I get five more another five students lose their connections. Student accounts aren’t syncing up so the things they create are often not saved.

On the bright side the admin and teaching team are on top of the whole thing. Students here are super patient and very polite when things aren’t working. They try to do their own trouble shooting and only call for help when they have exhausted all their options. The administrators are working with tech support constantly to fix things up.

Next year they are pairing with 2Learn.ca on a digital leadership program. This is a new wireless network/1:1 laptop school and they are quickly getting the barriers out of the way.  I am very excited about the future of this school and all the possibilities for the staff and students.

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