Today we were visited by 6 educators from across the state who traveled to Austin to be a part of the first ever iLeap Academy presented by the Ed Tech Department in EISD. Our visitors consisted of Principals, Ed Techs, and Teachers. They came to Austin for a variety of reasons. Some are embarking on a 1:1 initiative and wanted to see what such a pilot looks like 3 years in. Some were looking for organizational and managerial strategies to use with these devices. Some were wondering how to build teacher leaders in the field of technology on their own campuses. We spent a couple of hours together and it was a rewarding experience for all of us. 

We met our visitors as they checked in and went immediately to Elisse Newey's class. Elisse's students were in the midst of completing a Social Studies documentary project and students were engaged in a variety of tasks that they were working on with their groups of 4 or 5. Some were working in Popplet, some in Evernote and some in iMovie. We had ample opportunities to visit with students as they worked and they were more than happy to answer any and all of our questions. They shared information about the app they were using and proudly showed off their work to anyone who stopped by their area of the classroom. Elisse moved through the room conferring with individual students along the way. It was a great way to kick off the day. 

We went from Elisse's room to the Mustang Room for a 45 minute debriefing session. I was joined for this session by Kelly Van Meter, our Instructional Partner, Jodie Villemaire, Principal, and Lesley Ryan, Assistant Principal. We had a great discussion based not just on what we had just see, but on questions that our visitors brought to the table. Kelly spoke about the value of peer mentoring in building teacher leaders across a campus. We closed by overviewing this Thinglink that I put together showcasing teachers on our campus speaking about an app that they had implemented in their classroom. 

Then we moved on to Drew Watson's room. In contrast to the group work that was happening in Elisse's room, Drew's students were working in a whole group on a Writer's Workshop lesson on poetry. Drew read the students a poem and then used Today's Meet to gather student's noticings. Drew had several students explain their noticings and then he modeled the writing of his own original poem about an orange. Next, students s were sent to their seats to compose their own poem about a pretzel. Drew took pictures of the strongest examples and put them on Instagram for parents to view. 

The activities in these two classrooms complemented each other beautifully. As one of our visitors said, in spite of the differences in the structure of the classrooms, in each of them you could sense a climate of trust and respect. 

Here are a few pictures form our day. Thanks so very much to Elisse and Drew for letting us into their classrooms and sharing their expertise with us. 

One of the most wonderful things about having 1:1 iPads on our campus is the ease of use that this initiative provides for classroom teachers. Things are not quite as easy for our Special Area teachers. Having students show up with iPads seems like a simple thing, but in reality it is anything but. Often times, Special Area classes are preceded by or followed by recess and/or lunch. Not an insurmountable issue, but enough of a roadblock that it could easily dissuade a teacher from taking that extra planning step. 

The EE Special Area teachers, however, made it a priority and all 6 of them are now successfully integrating iPads into their curriculum. Here are some of the things they are doing with them. 

1. Our Art teachers, Caitlin Maher and Erin McElroy are using the iPads for research and they are also having the third and fourth graders record their projects from start to finish using the time lapse setting on the iPad camera. Once their project is complete- students pull the clips into iMovie and edit/add text/music to complete the documentation of their projects.


2. Our Music teachers, Pat Karaguleff and Tracey Aycock, are busy with GarageBand. I was in Mrs. Karaguleff's class last week and students were taking music that they had written and creating a GarageBand version of it. 


3. Our P.E. teachers, Jeannette Michael and Stephen Presley, are having students use their iPads to video themselves practicing various skills and then using the recordings for self and peer assessments. Student also will use their iPads to record their fitness scores when they do the Fitnessgram tests later this year. 


Wow. How lucky are our students to have such dedicated teachers? Here are a few pictures from Mrs. Karaguleff's class.