New year, New school, Same ideas

So, I have been gone from the blog for several months. What in the world have I been doing? Sometimes I ask myself that very question. This time I have an answer. I have moved to another school (in my same area) and I have a different role in this school. I am still the Tech Coordinator, but have a lot more technology to coordinate. It is a bigger school (almost 500 students) and they have about 200 computers. So, I remain busy trying to make sure that all my teachers are using technology to the best of their ability. I do miss my old school and staff, but lucky for me I still get to keep in touch with them often and Chris and I are still talking about all different aspects of teaching and tech.

Speaking of Chris and I, we were chosen to present at the annual FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) this January! We are excited. Our topic? Using a popular gaming system in your classroom. i.e. - The WII! If you are going to be in Orlando at the end of January for the conference, please come check us out! You can find out more information about the FETC by visiting the website - www.fetc.org

So, you may be wondering, with this presentation opportunity, are you going to be able to bring the Wii and your research into the new school? Well, wonder no more, the answer is yes! I was lucky enough to hook up with another teacher who is interested in the idea of using games to teach content in the classroom! Her name is Nicole and she is the math teacher for our 4th-6th grade classes. I was talking to her about some of the things that Chris and I had done in the previous school and I could see that she was interested. We brought the idea to administration and got our principal's blessing. With that vote of confidence Nicole and I started talking about how we can use the Wii in the classroom!

Problem 1, get a Wii!
But wait! As I was crawling around on the floor of one of our coaches/athletic director's office, following a Cat 5 cable, (a postition that any tech person is very familiar with) what did I come across? A brand new Wii! Still in the box! One of the parents had donated it to the coach for athletics (they use it with the Dance Dance games and other move oriented activities throughout the year - note to self make sure to add that game opportunity to list of uses for Wii in school). "Do you mind if we borrow the Wii to use in the classroom?" I asked. "Of course you can use it" she said! Problem 1 out of the way!

Problem 2, hook it up.

The classroom has a projector hanging from the roof, pointing to a interactive board. I was able to get a video/audio splitter and hook the Wii right into the feed going to the projector. The classroom has speakers so the audio goes into there. Bam! 77 inches of Wii goodness booming out of 100 watts of dolby power. Problem 2, in the bag!

Problem 3, what software will we use?
But wait! I still have the work that Chris and I did with our 5th graders when we started this whole thing 2 years ago! We will turn our focus back to Mathmatics and concentrate on programs that worked. We can use Wii Sports and Brain Age for starters. We can focus on subtraction, addition, averages, ratios and integers (both negative and positive). Nicole and I have also begun discussing using other software packages (more posts about those later) as we branch out in the class. Problem 3, piece of cake!

Problem 4 - which class will we use?

After some discussion, Nicole decided (and I agreed) that we would start with 4th grade and go from there. Because I have already worked with 5th graders I was excited to be moving to a different grade to see how things worked. We will have some issues with them not being as well versed in the standards such as conversion from yards to feet but that is the exciting part! Problem 4 - No Problem!

Problem 5 - when do we start?

As you will see, we have already started! I have been lax in my posting (insert many excuses here) of what we have been doing, but that will all change now! As of this posting we have already used the software 5 times, (4 times with 4th grade and 1 time with 6th grade), and had good results. I will work at getting my notes and thoughts posted here during this week for anyone that is interested. Nicole and I have already been planing ahead for other Math lessons and other software packages. All in all I couldn't be happier with the new information that we have been able to gather. Please keep watching for new posts and new ideas for using the Wii! I am sure that new problems will arise to keep us on our toes...

new book

I have just begun reading a new book - 10 Best Teaching Practices-How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and Standards Define Teaching Competencies written by Donna Walker Tileston. I found a reference to this book while reading the Jan 2010 issue of EdTech magazine. The EdTech article was just a one page article, but with a title like Technology Makes Learning Fun, it caught my attention.
Along with that I have to say that brain research in education has (somewhat) suddenly become an interest of mine. After coming from the FETC, where I saw a presentation on a new program from Tom Snyder Productions called Fastt Math; and the underlining research behind it, my interest has been piqued. The book (considered a textbook) is relatively short (102 pages) and has a particular point behind each chapter. As I read through them I will be making posts of anything that catches my attention.

Which Came First - tech or pedagogy?

Well, here it is-two posts in as many days. Exciting, I am going to do my best to keep this going. Time will tell!
I was going through my bag of conference info and found (what I think is) an interesting article in the FETC Show Journal (I couldn't find a digital copy of the journal) titled Which came first-The Technology or the Pedagogy? picture link
The article is about the conflict between the college of educations and the classrooms. The colleges say "We're doing a great job, but then students go out into schools and they don't have access to technology or don't see other teachers using technology so some of this prep goes to waste". The schools say "If colleges of education just better prepared new teachers in technology, we'd be all set, but they're not doing their job". Sound familiar? So which one is it, the chicken or the egg?
The story goes on to say that the plan can't be just using the technology, but it must be integrating it into the curriculum. Now there is a statement that has no conflict and no question! "To use technology well you have to know three things. You first have to know the content. It is hard to teach a subject if you don't know the subject! Second, you also need to know the pedagogy associated with that content - the best instructional strategies that will be effective. Finally you need to know the innovation or technology that you're going to then use." So, if the colleges are teaching these methods, and teaching them in this order, then isn't it up to us as teachers to make sure that we can integrate this pedagogy into the classroom and help our classroom students get the most out of all teaching practices?

New Year, New Post

Well, if you are reading this, you can see that I haven't been blogging lately (if you can call almost a year lately). As I begin writing I am thinking I guess working with this blog has become my New Year's Resolution for 2010.
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And since I didn't have one before now, I guess it all works out! Let's see how long this resolution stays active!

I just came back from the FETC in Orlando where I spent two days listening to different people talk about using technology in the classrooms. I was involved with this so much that I had very little time to walk through the exhibit hall and see what were the latest new tools! In upcoming posts I will put down my notes from the different presentations that I went to and my overall thoughts from the days. For me the conferences are both exciting and a little sad. I love that I get to learn new things and see all the cool stuff that is going on in the field of education, but I am sad to see how much I still have to learn! There are some really cool things going on in classrooms all over the place! Hopefully we can all learn together!