I have been having an experience as many of my Cohort 21 members. Although my blog has been somewhat neglected it is not from a lack of technology in my classroom- in fact it is due to the overwhelming amount of work I have been doing; much of which has been adding technology to my classrooms.
As if somehow knowing that I needed a personalized action plan, our school has recently launched a new website. Alongside this website, teachers have also been given a portal where they can upload any resources, create online quizzes and discussions, maintain a classroom calendar etc.
This portal has become magical to me as I am entering a unit that is FULL of original ideas, homework and assignments (therefore, creating a lot of paper). Instead, I can simply upload the work and the students can have access to it at all times. Moreover, I have uploaded rubrics, as well, so that if they happen to lose theirs or do not have it at home while working on a project they can simply log on via their portal to see find what they are missing.
In addition, I wanted to change something in both my grade nine and ten classes. For the nines, my plan is to conclude the year with an independent novel study. What I didn’t want was for them to simply complete content questions but instead to engage in the book and discuss it (in french) among one another. In order to accomplish this, my plan is to create (when I have a spare minute of course!) reading response prompts and have the students log into their portals to answer. Once everyone has answered the students will have to reply/comment on their peers’ responses creating a thread of discussion.
As for my grade ten course, they will be doing a research project on the Phantom of the Opera as well as Paris and its tourism industry. Being given time in our computer lab and in the library my intention is to introduce Diigo into their lives. I know many of them will find this a very useful tool and they will be excited for the introduction to something new on the web!
Christine, while you are uploading course/lesson materials to a portal on the new website, would this be common practice amongst your peers? How close are we, I wonder, to the paperless classroom, where comments such as your last blog – “Miss I forgot my Textbook” will be a thing of the past in our schools?
Hi Jan,
As of right now the plan is for the entire staff to begin using the portal. Most are currently using our e-chalkboard where we have been able to post all homework, assignments etc. That will be gone and the portals will replace it. As you can imagine, this will be a big shift for many staff and will require professional development in order to get everyone set up. I would love a paperless classroom! What a treat to not have to photocopy and to have instant access to all necessary resources. I do feel that this is a definite step in the right direction!
Christine,
Great to hear that your school portal is opening up new opportunities. Awesome! What is the platform? For your grade 9 plan will the posting of response responses be transparent for all to see? Will students be able to read and comment on each other? One question to think about is how will you keep the conversation going? How can you scaffold the questions you pose so they can build on the last ones.
For the Grade 10 Diigo plan I am curious to know more about the research they will need to be doing. Do you want all students to have an account and tag resources so they can all benefit from them? Similar to what we do with the Cohort21 group? If so , happy to help you set it up.
Hi Justin,
Honestly, I have yet decided exactly how the responses will work. Of the top of my head right now- I would like for all responses to be transparent as I do feel that it creates more of a discussion and allows everyone a chance to see what their peers think. The idea is for the students to comment on others posts to keep the discussion going. I hope that by being actively involved in the online discussion that I can add some thought provoking questions and comments in order to keep it going. There will be a response for every chapter in the book so it is more like nine mini-discussions as opposed to one big one.
For the grade 10s I hope to have them research both history and tourism in Paris as they are creating a sort of travel company to go along with our Phantom of the Opera unit. They will be in groups so it is absolutely the plan to create a group with accounts for each student. They will then tag resources to share with one another!