Post date: Feb 23, 2015 2:41:21 AM
Cycle 1 of my Action Research is nearing completion. I conducted a second Tech Munch which was again filled with excellent discussion and sharing of technologies used by teachers. The teachers came prepared with examples and were very comfortable discussing what is happening in their classrooms. They have also been sharing some of their needs which has helped me determine my next moves in my role as Technology Coach. There are two groups participating in the Tech Munch - the first group contains mostly sixth grade teachers and the second group is mostly eighth grade teachers. These two groups are different in the tools they have access to. The first group includes several members of the iRead group who get iPads in their classroom in return for committing to attend monthly iRead meetings and participating in their collaborative group project. I have found that these iRead teachers are the tech savvy teachers throughout campus (as discussed in my Literature Review) and are experimenting and trying many different kinds of apps with their students. The discussions in this group are more geared toward ios devices. The second group of teachers are mostly non-iRead teachers. They are just breaking into the online tool we have for students to submit assignments electronically as well as participate in discussions and blogging. Each meeting of the Tech Munch group has been productive and resulted in excellent action items for future activities and explorations in technology.
My next step with this group will be to survey them about the CoP and what they need out of future meetings as well as what they want to do with an online collaborative tool (for the teachers to share asynchronously as needed)..