Reflecting on the Year

It is time to close out another year. As I look back I see some great things we did with our iPads this year. I see that we need to work on building our thoughts about how we are going to use them in the classroom. I saw some great things in writing, reading, and language.

Using Google Docs to produce writing and build language skills was great. Reading on our McGraw-Hill app was good. I wish it was a little easier to download books. I also wish it was faster downloading the books. We used iBooks to read texts that we created. There are many texts I want to build in iBooks Author to publish for students to use.

I like to fact that we can upload pictures, files, movies, and other items, into Google Drive. Having that 30GB for each student has been fabulous to keep whatever students need access to. They can access the files anywhere.

We underused the Explain Everything App this year. I want to use it more as a white board to show work in math and for putting together assessments of what students learned. In language I want students to use it more for fluency. This year we had the students take pictures of a book page and read it while they recorded themselves. EE kept the time so they could go back through to mark what words they missed. It also gives them the ability to listen to themselves again and hear themselves as they read.

McGraw-Hill has an app for our Math program that works ok. It is not as friendly as I wish, but I hope they will make it easier for students to use. It is a bit finicky to use at times.

Next year we will be adding Schoology to our list if apps for students. Incorporating a student management program will be interesting. We have tried to make assignments as student independent as possible. It had not worked as well as we thought this year, but we learned what we shouldn't do. More management as a teacher is needed. I have always hated grading papers, but have enjoyed reading student stories, discussing ideas, and interacting with them during math. I hope Schoology will help students be able to pick assignments and projects easier. Management should be easier next year. We are heading to the @schoology conference in Denver this summer. I am expecting to learn how to set up the individual lessons for each student and how to manage them. I want it to be easy, but I also know that it will take work on my part. I want it to be easy for students to access and use.

Reflection is a major part of teaching. We should reflect as often as possible. I love taking a few minutes every summer and reading my blog to see what mistakes I have made over the years and what I learned. Revisiting them keeps all the ideas I forgot to remember, fresh in my mind.