What to start with this year? So many choices...

So, my new partner and I got together at her house a few days ago to discuss our classroom management plans and iPad apps we were going to incorporate in the first nine weeks of school. I have heard many times and by many teachers, "Only incorporate one program or app at a time. Don't add or introduce another until you and the students are comfortable with that one." This is so hard when we want to incorporate all and now. It's like being a kid in a candy store.

Our decision was to start by using Class Dojo as our classroom management plan and develop our criteria through the PBIS program that we have at school. We can fine tune it as we go along. Next, is to introduce Tap It. We would both love to put forth a little extra effort now and not have to grade as much later. Has anyone used these two apps? Do you have any suggestions? Is it worth going ahead and buying the full version of Tap It? Is there another app that would do the same job or not cost as much?

The joys of being app, happy! Beth Anne Woody

Model, Model, Model...

Modeling...

So, this is my initial post on a blog that I've created after attending an eLearning Education conference for the past two days. During this conference, we learned about apps, blogs, webpages, 1:1 initiatives, data, fusion, snagit, and all sorts of other things that seem like a complete foreign language to me. On the last day, in the last seminar, an important phrase was given to me by Nicholas Provenzano from The Nerdy Teacher. "Model, model, model...If you can't do it, how can you expect your students to?" or something along that line.

We have spent the entire last 2 days trying to cram as much information that we can into our brains in order to implement a 1:1 initiative (1 device for each student) or going to a project-based learning environment in our classroom. How can we learn what each of these programs do? How can we use them in our classrooms? How fast do you want to implement them? How do we get started? Which is the easiest program or app to use? Can I remember what I learned or even what the name of that app was that I want to do this or that? I am either scared to death to do anything or I want to try everything.

So back to The Nerdy Teacher, he said to start small. So, I created a google account. Baby step. I found the Blogger page. I created a profile. I picked a template. Now, I am typing this post. In a moment, I am going to preview it and see how it all looks. (PS. I am a Math and Science teacher and not Language Arts. Please forgive me.) If it isn't that horrible, I am going to publish it. Then, it's time to smile at myself. I took that first step and maybe even a few more. It's not about who reads it. It isn't even about publishing it. It's about making that first baby step into blogging and hopefully gaining the knowledge to teach my quirky class kiddos to take that small step forward themselves.

Welcome to my Quirky Classroom! Beth Anne Woody