Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

As the third year of Project iAchieve begins, several new teachers will be joining the team. Prior to the start of school we were able to provide two full days of training for both the continuing and the new project teachers. The two day training covered management of the iPods and cart, syncing, procedures, oral reading fluency practice, and using many of the new apps that were added for the year. The teachers were also given new document cameras to use in their classrooms, as well as a new teacher iPod. Everyone is very excited about beginning a new year with the iPods and all of the great learning that will take place in their classrooms.

Project iAchieve is really expanding for the 12/13 school year! In  addition to the 24 iPod touch classrooms, we will have 10 flipped classrooms with an iPad for each student, and about 45 classrooms with an iPad Media Kit to use as an instructional tool. An iPad Media Kit includes an iPad, an Apple TV, and and HDMI projector. The Media Kit teachers will utilize a variety of apps, such as Educrations and QuickOffice Pro HD, as well as web based resources to present their lessons to students. These Media Kits will take the place of an Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom but will also allow the teacher to teach wirelessly. They can walk around the room to monitor and assist students while modeling and presenting information to students. The flipped classroom teachers will also have a Media Kit as part of their classroom technology. It is going to be exciting to watch how these creative and innovative teachers will use these tools in their classrooms.