It is now the evening of the 7th day before work, and I am getting myself prepared for a full day of professional development tomorrow. My school is currently a lighthouse school for a new digital initiative in Baltimore County. It is called S.T.A.T., Students & Teachers Accessing Tomorrow:
“A fundamental shift in teaching and learning to meet Baltimore County Public Schools’ (BCPS) Theory of Action: To equip every student with the critical 21st century skills needed to be globally competitive, BCPS must ensure that every school has an equitable, effective digital learning environment. All students will have access to a digital learning device and personalized, blended, interactive curriculum.”
There are 7 middle schools in the county who have been chosen to join 10 elementary schools in implementing an instructional digital conversion. Starting in the 2015-2016 school year, 6th graders will each have their own HP Revolve, which will aid in the use of integrating technology to create more diverse learning environments. Our classrooms and curriculum will also need digital conversions, which we have been preparing since the beginning of last year. Tomorrow will be our second professional development this summer in order to help in this transition.
Personally I am super excited about this opportunity, and so my list for today will be…
The 7 things that instructional digital conversion has me excited about…
- Advocating for and receiving Adobe Creative Cloud in order to have advanced software available for my students to create art, and for my yearbook club to edit photos. (fingers crossed)
- Students using their devices to create eportfolios of their work in my class.
- Students using their devices to connect their art portfolios cross-curricularly for total arts integration.
- Social Media aspects of communication and collaboration with people all over the world!
- Having resources at their fingertips (literally). Students used to have to go to the computer lab to find images and ideas for their art…now they can look up what they want and need on their device then turn around and instantly apply it directly to their art.
- A new classroom environment!
- Learning new things about technology from my students
I really am fortunate to be on this journey with my school… and I am excited to see all that we can do from here on out.
Inspiring creativity, curiosity and caring citizenship…GO STAGS!
<3
You must be logged in to post a comment.