Chromebook Pilot, Intro

Chromebook Pilot - An Introduction

I've abandoned some of the many things I've had on my ginormous to-do list. I've decided to focus strictly on SBG and creating self-contained lessons that students can complete at their own pace and I'm going to take my time. I envision doing these two things exclusively through the end of the year and, depending on how much work I get done this summer, possibly next year, too.

Why?

Two reasons.

First, I moved to a new state and am now teaching in beautiful western North Carolina! My new school began implementing the DeFour's PLC ideas last year. And what they are doing, producing "I Can" statements and looking to create common, formative assessments, meshes perfectly with SBG. In fact, I have come in with a lot of what they are trying to do already done, which allows us to get even more done!

Second, our district is thinking about going 1-to-1 next year and decided to have two teachers at each of the four high schools pilot classroom sets of Chromebooks. It was an application-based decision and I was lucky enough to be one of the two chosen for my school. We are a Google Apps for Education district and each student has their own account. This means that I can implement all of my ideas for flipping, but within the confines of the classroom. I should mention that the set stays in the classroom--every student didn't get one.

I am going to try to blog my experience going through the pilot as well as any ideas I have concerning SBG, though, at this point, I have been doing SBG for almost 3 years and have a good framework for what I'm doing.

Anyway, wish me luck.  I know this will be awesome down the road, I'm just hoping it's awesome for these kids. I saw something on FB or Twitter the other day that said something like, "I wish I could go back and apologize to all of the kids I taught earlier because I'm a much better teacher now.".  I echo that sentiment. In fact, on my cover letters, the last sentence is:

The day I stop trying to innovate in my classroom is the day I need to leave it.

Now, if I could just stop redoing everything every year...