It's been my subtle mission of sorts to really get away from saying, '21st Century Classroom' and '21st Century Teaching.' We're almost to 2015 and the amount of change around education continues to be accelerated, shouldn't we simply be striving for 'relevant' classrooms?
I see 'relevant' classroom teaching/learning everyday as I visit my teachers @jseroadrunners but yesterday was a golden moment. A Principal colleague of mine was over for a visit and we were walking around chatting, checking out Writers Workshop, Number Talks and of course talking about technology integration!
We walked in to @JenniferDeWeerd room and it was absolutely controlled chaos going on! There was a buzz in the air with Jennifer 'facilitating' probably 5-6 different activities all at once. We're 1:1 with laptops in 5th grade which is essential to a relevant classroom, allowing students to be working on multiple platforms in a flexible learning environment.
- Jennifer had students taking math assessments with our new online math book from Pearson.
- Others were working in Google Docs (see Tweet below) on various projects.
- One student had zero technology in front of him and was reading a book, they're also participating in the #40bookchallenge this year and he was reading away!
- #geniushour projects are coming up as well and I saw students brainstorming different ideas.
Must haves.....
- Teachers MUST be mobile! We prefer MacBook Airs which is essential to being a 'facilitator' and not always simply 'teaching' your class!
- Kids must be 1:1, if you're not, write a @donorschoose grant, Chromebooks are affordable.
- Principals - Model for your teachers what you want to see, and PLEASE give them flexibility and freedom, it's imperative!
- Tweet tweet tweet and tweet some more. All our teachers (see handles here) at John Swett Elementary Tweet which has been pivotal in our sharing/learning/facilitating and risk taking culture!
From our feed yesterday - @jseroadrunners facilitator in chief!
From our feed yesterday- @jseroadrunners amazing student workflow!
A 'relevant' classroom is a busy classroom, with that buzz of learning/facilitating/collaborating going on, what does your classroom look/sound like?
No comments:
Post a Comment