I was perusing the Assignments feature in MBC, toying with the idea of possibly adding in a poll for my students to complete.  They are in the first phase of their Ethical Issues discussion assignment and tonight the initial post is due by 9PM.  I figured that the traffic would be high today so maybe a poll would be a good thing to put in there.  But…I don’t want my students to be off-task seeing that the initial post is due tonight AND they should be working on the benchmark review since the district benchmark is tomorrow.  I don’t need to get them distracted.  I’ll post a poll tomorrow while they are testing.  =)

Back to MBC’s poll feature…I didn’t realize that we could add multiple choice, multiple answer, short answer, essay, and even accept attached work within the Assignments page.  What a great tool!  I just gave a short PD introducing MBC about a month ago and this would be a great follow-up!  I just wish that we had more free time at work because I think that teachers want to learn how to use the tech tools we have, but they simply don’t have time between meetings, interventions, and tutoring.  Every single day, there is something going on that keeps the teachers on campus till well after 3PM.

But I’m going to experiment and explore the Assignment feature with my students because if I can figure out how to use this, I might be able to offer more of a blended program for my students next year.  Every year, no make that every semester (I teach a semester course), the number of students who have a smart phone or access to the Internet at home increases.  It may not be by much, but it’s pretty significant considering that we are a Title I school.  =)  If teachers are creative enough…they can integrate technology projects for students to complete outside of the school day.  It can be done…because I’ve been doing it for several years now.  And with each new update for the various tech tools and websites that we use, I’m finding that we’re able to do so much more which makes the planning and the learning more fluid and exciting.  =)  Technology rocks!

Today I received wonderful news… my CTAP grant application was funded!  All I ever wanted was some type of technology tool that was solely mine so that my kids could use them every single day.  With the generous $3000 grant, I’ll be able to purchase at least five iPad minis which will supplement the SMART phones that some of my students already have.

The ideas are swirling around my head about all of the things that I can do with my kids next year.    Oh the places, we’ll go.  The things that we’ll do.  The knowledge that will be shared.  Love it!  =)

Our school has chosen to use staff meeting time for collaboration.  Staff meetings are pretty short at my school, roughly 20-30 minutes.  So, I figured, why not offer a mini-PD on a tech tool?

I approached my principal with my idea and she loved it.  She brought it up at the first faculty meeting of the month.  There seemed to be a little bit of interest, but I couldn’t tell if teachers were really interested in losing valuable collaboration time with their departments to attend a short PD on a technology tool.

I sent out an email two days prior asking teachers to RSVP so that I knew how many to expect.  Truthfully?  I thought I would get maybe five teachers who were interested.  Then the emails started rolling in.  I even had several teachers who stopped me in the lounge or hallway telling me that they were planning to come but hadn’t emailed me yet. My count was 10 teachers, which is pretty good for a staff of 25.

Wednesday morning, teachers started filing into my room starting at 7:40.  Before I knew it, I had approximately 16 teachers sitting in my room waiting to learn about My Big Campus.  I was more than pleasantly surprised, I was shocked!  I used to conduct workshops for the entire district and I would get maybe 10 teachers…from the whole district!  And here at my school of 25 teachers, a little more than half were in attendance.

What does this mean?  It means that teachers want to learn about the various technology tools that are available.  My district is behind the times in terms of technology PD.  We no longer have a technology director or even an instructional technology department.  It was eliminated over a year and a half ago.  Schools have been left to their own devices.  And because I love technology, I figured why not share that knowledge with the teachers on my campus?  I mean, even if only five teachers attended, I would have been happy to share the benefits of integrating My Big Campus into the curriculum.  But to share that with half the staff was pretty neat.

Too bad that 25 minutes went by so fast.  I wish that we had an hour.  Maybe next time. =)