Being Open to Change...

Last week I worked with three teachers as part of our Innovative Learning Design Grant.  Although there is only three days left of classes before winter break and all teachers are extremely tired from working so hard up, there is still excitement in the air.  

I started this day getting the necessary material for making movies in French.  I had already worked with Aaron for about an hour previously with training in IMovie.  At the start of the day we gathered up the necessary equipment for him: 4 digital cameras, extra batteries, cable to download the video and 2 laptops that had IMovie on them.  He was willing to experiment with his class with a different manner of assessing what his students learned.  That's what makes this research so wonderful, having teachers willing to take a chance.

The next teacher was introduced to Livebinder.  She had all her material already organized in paper format and did not see a need to convert the material to a Livebinder, but what was so fantastic was the initiative to try something new.

Shelley created an account, copied someone else's binder to her section to edit, began a new binder to experiment with and expressed the desire to continue to explore this new tools and perhaps use it in another one of her classes.  We then look at some other technology that she was interested in and in the end this was a very gratifying and rewarding experience for me.

The third teacher was the most passionate teacher yet.  Katie came into our school to work in a portable.  Her department heads asked for a LCD projector for her and a computer and in the end she received both items as well as a new document reader that takes pictures of what you project as well as, with a click of a button, you can make an swf video to add to your web site.  After going through the process of learning how to hook up all this equipment together, then learning the new software, the passion did not diminish, instead it strengthen.  Katie has expressed the wish to take her computer, the LCD projector and the document reader home over the holidays so she can experiment with these new resources, and become a stronger teacher with these means.  That’s passion that can ignite most students. 


Thank you for this experiences my fellow colleagues.