Going From 1:1 To Not 1:1 … Temporarily Even Is Tough … More Thoughts
We have 30 laptops charged and ready that are still not on the school district network after 15 weeks of school ... should be put on soon ... fingers crossed! For the last 3 years my class has been a 1:1 laptop class ... but for various reasons we are not right now...
School Change Is Important … As Long As They Don’t Really Change!
SchoolChange Originally uploaded by BCrosby I made this poster from a photo I took at a turn of the century school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, using "Motivator" on FD's Flickr Toys. http://bighugelabs.com/ Click on the photo to see it in larger format. The...
Blessed, Motivated, Challenged
I've written several posts about the process of getting back to 1:1 after having to "retire" the 9 year old iBooks my class had been using. Very unexpectedly my school district decided to replace the ones that our new wireless system rendered moot even though they...
Reason #23 for being part of a PLN
Professional Learning Networks are all the rage with ... um ... people that are part of professional learning networks (PLN's). Why? So Monday I'm attempting a "Pre - Skype" - Skype with Maryjo Chmielewski's class in Wisconsin to make sure that our Skype conference...
Not there yet, but another step closer
We have had 30 laptops now for over a week, but they still haven't been put on "the network" because they need to be tagged (inventory control) by the school district 1st, and only then can I make an appointment with IT to come out to put them on the network and...
Thanksgiving lesson ideas
I'm teaching 4th grade this year and so I can't spend much time teaching about Thanksgiving. At least not as much as I did 2 years ago when I last taught 5th grade. 5th grade studies American history and so it is a natural year to teach the whole story in-depth....
Repost: Can You Hear Me? – Can You Hear Me Now?
I was recently asked about this post from 2007 about our editing phones, and thought it was time to repost it now: Teaching my students to be CAREFUL proofreaders is always a struggle. Most of my students are second language learners so they already struggle with...
Getting Closer
So we are already a quarter of the way through the school year and we are still waiting for laptops to arrive and IT to get them online. Not a great start if you are supposed to be a 1:1 classroom on the one hand, but we are ecstatic that it is even going to happen at...
As many as 1,000 parents, teachers unleash frustration at Palm Beach County School Board meeting
Was originally made aware of this by teacher Lee Kolbert over Twitter. She was monitoring the meeting and sending out numerous updates. From the Palm Beach Post: As many as 1,000 parents, teachers unleash frustration at Palm Beach County School Board meeting By LAURA...
To IWB, Or Not IWB? That Is The Question
This is one of those posts that started out as a comment on someone else's blog. Namely Wes Fryer's post: "No, just having IWB's does not make learning engaging" (IWB = Interactive Whiteboard) ActivBoard, Smartboard, Mimio, TeamBoard, Starboard, and others. Here is my...