"Tales from the Classroom" the Russell Nation edition

#ThisWeekinAVID #TechChampStyle

In thinking about what to write in our Tech Champs blog, I was stumped… NOT because I didn’t have anything to write about but because I had to decide WHAT to write about! There have been so many great opportunities to use the skills, concepts, apps, thought processes and such much more! I’ve been able to effectively integrate technology in my classroom, my PLCs, my Department Meetings, the trainings / professional development that I’ve led, with my parents AND with my peers. Having the practical application examples during our Bootcamp took these tools that could seem overwhelming to use to simplifying what could have been a more complicated and hard to implement practice. For example, a colleague and I were responsible for leading one of our campus’ Professional Development that would specifically provide information about the following items: on T-TESS, the Common Instructional Framework, PLCs and our campus’ “4 Big Rocks”.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we were to decimate quality information for this section of the PD in 45 minutes???

Initially, my colleague and I were a little freaked out...until I remembered some of the key practice sessions that we had during Bootcamp that dealt with taking BIG concepts and breaking them into bite sized pieces like our last lessons with friEDTechnology and with almost ALL of Tracey’s lessons with us. I brought up the idea of making a Google Sites that our campus could use and come back to after our trainings because at that point in the school year (the point where almost everything you hear sounds like the adults on Charlie Brown… “wah wah, wahh wahhh wahh, wah”) although you have attentive and truly willing participants, they are receiving loads and loads of important information all at one time. SO, that’s exactly what we did and not only were we able to get the information to them but we were also able to share ways that they could use all of the concepts that were presented during the training but that they could also use the actual delivery methods as well.

In wanting regular and consistent feedback from my scholars, Flipgrid is the new tool that I find myself using the most with a #ThisWeekinAVID posting. The Google Suite Apps, Nearpod, Bitmoji and Snapchat are also staples in my classroom while referring often to our “Shake Up Learning” book/website, friEDTechnology and other great educational tech integration Tweeters! I’m truly looking forward to seeing how my fellow #TechChamps are #caughtusingTechnology and to hearing about your practical day-to-day uses that have simplified yet maximized the way you approach instruction in all areas of your educational world!