Digital Immersion Year 2 part 1 (sounds like a Mel Brooke's Film!)

Well...1 week left and it's starting to have that smell in the air... I always get excited a this time of year.

As I get ready to start the 2nd year of Digital Immersion at Riverside, I think I have more questions than the first. Gary Horton (@ghorton) and I have pledge to go entirely paperless this semester for Sci 9 and Sci 10 DI. That is going to be hard...but I think liberating at the same time. Office Live is going to make this a lot easier with kids being able to see and edit Word documents online and we will still use SharePoint as our starting ground.

Beyond that, I plan on using Blogger, Wikispaces and Elluminate as my base applications for teaching the BC Science 9 curriculum.

My real worry comes around Summative assessment and good online testing tools. I am planing on using a bunch of collaborative tools for projects, etc... but I still need a good one on one test as part of the package. Anyone have an idea?

Going to start off with these videos...they are always good...

My goals for the upcoming year!

I don't think I have ever sat down and laid out my goals for the upcoming year. But there is a first time for everything! Okay, here goes!

1. Use more integrated resources in my everyday lessons
2. Do more labs
3. Do a better job communicating with parents...and not just the bad stuff. I want to call up a parent to say "your kid did a great job!"
4. Know more kids in my school.
5. Go to more school sports and support my students
6. Be passionate about more stuff

I can put a number besides #'s 1-5. How do I measure my passion though...maybe I should just say "have more fun". Not that having more fun isn't subjective as well :)

I'll keep this updated as the year goes :)

Elluminate - I was trepidacious but...

I have really enjoyed using Elluminate to communicate with kids. I found that the kids who never speak in class, talk over Elluminate channels. At COL summer school we have been using LearnNowBC's version 8, so I don't know much about version 10, but so far its been sweet! I am still a rookie btw and I haven't used all the interactive pieces...

Things I really like:

• Having a virtual community
• Being able to share with each other
• Using a slideshow allows you to keep a linear lesson (I tend to go off on tangents)
• The ability to open up discussion rooms

Things I wish/hope it will/does have in the newest version

• Secure Login for students - so we know who is who in the class
• Attendance tracker - with a tinme stamp to see who comes in and who leaves
• An activity monitor to see how much time they are working within a breakout room

I still need to get comfortable with students controlling the mic, chat and whiteboard but I think that will come with experience. I will use this for sure with my digital immersion class next semester and I have already attended a virtual conference (yeah yeah...get with the times, I know).

What I think makes a good admin.

I'm just a lowly teacher, but I have had my share of great administrators over the years. They all have a few things in common:

1. Understand the link between joy, teaching and learning
2. Let their staff take risks
3. Give support to all teachers even the ones who just need a pat on the back or a "great job"
4. Make a staff cohesive - they push innovators help those who need it
5. Make Professional Development (or we can just saying learning) central to every action
6. Make the hard descisions, which you might not agree with, but respect because they have put in the time
7. Communication (and they don't waste your time on unimportant things
8. All the small stuff that you don't see (good admin have systems)
9. Have the ability to predict and respond to issues in a timely manner
10. Have a sense of humour and keep an even keel
11. Is a school principal - go to plays, games, classes, treat all staff members as important school leaders
12. Is still a teacher - they lead study groups with their staff, teach classes, tutor kids (How many times have I seen my admin poke their head over a study carrel to help a student with a math problem)

For me, a great principal (or vice principal) will remove obstacles for teaching and learning. It's almost like Barrie Bennett's invisible discipline from "Classroom Management - a caring approach", you don't know that the structures are in place because everything just works.

-Jeremy (they call me Browner) Brown