So this year was definitely the first year in a while that I was legitimately stoked for the first week of school. (“Excited” wasn’t quite getting the job done there, so I had to bump it up a notch…) Scared out of my mind of course, but super stoked. The kids and parents had already been prepped, thanks to our pre-first-day-of-school parent meetings. Being able to have face-to-face conversations with the parents about the program was by far the best way to start the year off on the right foot. It allowed them to see how much time and effort we were investing into their children’s education and how much we believed it was going to positively affect their learning environment. They asked relevant questions and were looking forward to their children being able to have this opportunity. It was important that they were made aware (in person) that this was going to be a much greater responsibility than their child had ever been given before, and that there were going to be consequences for violating our policies. There was no resistance at all regarding the Student/Parent Agreements that needed to be signed, so we were good to go!
I was undecided about which day I should actually put the iPads into the kids’ hands. I knew that it definitely wasn’t going to be Day 1, and they were disappointed (surprise!), but understood. There are just so many things to go over on the first day! Standard classroom procedures, you know the drill… Really engaging stuff. I had already planned to use a SMART Notebook file to organize my weekly schedule, and it helped to keep me on track (and not sprint ahead!).
On the second day (the BIG DAY), we started off with a class meeting and discussed several points: the perceptions that others will have about this program and appropriate ways to respond to questions they might have, how their choices outside of the classroom will be an indication of how responsible they are capable of being inside the classroom, and things they were either looking forward to or worried about as we started up our new adventure. It was really amazing to have our Assistant Principal join our meeting (crossed legs on the floor and everything!) because they were able to hear his perspective on our thoughts as well. This was definitely the most important part of our day, and I was relieved that they were all willing to participate and share their thoughts with the rest of their classmates. After going through the document of guidelines and policies point by point, it was time to introduce our digital citizenship elements. This document (which is excerpted from Chapter 2 of Digital Citizenship in Schools, Second Edition by Mike Ribble) was the guide I used to set up the lessons I created for each element. It includes the definition of each element along with an explanation, and also provides appropriate and inappropriate uses. Such a great resource!
Then (FINALLY), it was time to meet the iPads!
iPad 101 – Lesson 1: Buttons and Screens
Basic “I do, We do, You do” strategy here. I went through the information on the SMART Board (taken from the iPad User Guide), showed them each part and corresponding function on my iPad, then had them explain to me what each part did before sending them back to their seats. By this time, they were basically exploding from the anticipation of it all! They knew that they were expected to leave the iPad flat on the table in front of them for today, and they definitely did not want to lose their first chance to use it. The directions that I wanted them to follow were displayed on the board, and so as I handed out each device, they could work at their own pace to figure everything out. (Turning on the iPad, checking out the apps/links on the Home screen, swiping to the second screen to find “folders” of apps, and accessing the school’s website from the link located in the Dock.) Their reactions (especially from the ones that had never used a device like this before) were priceless. I could also tell right away that there were several students that were extremely familiar with this type of technology!
At this point, I realized that we were probably going to be able to move a bit faster (and I wanted them ALL to be able to go home and tell their parents that they learned something brand new), so I decided to show them how to add a link to their Home screen that we were planning to use almost every day, TypingWeb.com. (TypingWeb is a free web resource that tracks student progress through a variety of typing lessons.) It was only the first day using the iPads, and the students had all successfully created a bookmark link, renamed it, and moved it to their Home screens. I was excited, they were excited… It was a good day. : )
I know that it will not be this easy every day. Since that second day, we have run into a few “bumps” as expected, and I plan to chat about those very soon! They don’t discourage me, and I’m training the kids not to be discouraged either! It’s all a part of our process and each step gets a little better. Here is a post on Edudemic written by Tom Daccord and Justin Reich of EdTechTeacher that I’ve recently read, “Failure is Mandatory: Creating a Culture of Innovation”… It helps on those days when things are going wrong.
Coming up, I’ll be posting more about our digital citizenship lessons, and of course more iPad 101 lessons! Setting up the bluetooth keyboards was an experience… : )
: ) Brandi