Meeting the Mark Grant

For this grant I had to meet with our school administration, our cluster technology coordinator, Title One Coordinator, Assistant Principal, and Executive Principal. I also spoke to a few of my fifth grade parents to see how receptive they would be to the “Learning Nook” idea. It was a shift for them to buy in all the way on the fact that students could use areas outside the classroom to learn without direct instruction. What I had to impress on them was the ability for their students to have a more personalized education with the use of mobile technologies and “Learning Nooks”.

I think that the parts that were most challenging were collaborating with so many people. I had to meet numerous times with the company that was going to install the televisions on the logistics of how to install them. I had to disseminate the information to my assistant principal, principal, Title 1 coordinator, and our technology coordinator. It was very difficult to get them all in the same room because of scheduling conflicts. It was a great deal of preparation and discussion. When you only have 5 minutes to discuss a lot of information, you really have to be concise and get the important details rather than beating around the bush about anything.

One positive that this grant offered was that mainly the upkeep of the technology that would be implemented would fall underneath the umbrella of services that are already provided through our district. This means that after the initial installation of the products, that no extra money would need to be used for the maintenance of the hardware or software.

Since this was a district grant, I felt a little more at ease with it being my first attempt at grant writing. It was an eye-opening experience.

You can find the document at :

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1yc87FNp487D58p4oM14WKM0zKAXms31Gs9tyf6IfyhI

I am very sorry if it is messed up. I transferred the Word document into a Google Doc to get it to be visible.

NearPod Tech Time

Hey!

For my Tech Time Demonstration, I had a few students in my classroom help me with showing you how to use NearPod. NearPod is an iPad application that allows for students to interact with the lesson. Students are able to read a document placed inside a PDF file. Then, the instructor can add in any kind of question that they want to get the correct responses. I have shown 3 different responses in my demonstration: written response, polling, and a multiple choice quiz. The instructor immediately gets the answers on their iPad to see who understands the material or simply who is following the lesson that is being presented. I think that this is a great way to have an interactive and engaging lesson with any age level of children. The students do not have control over their iPad once they sign it, so it is nearly impossible for them to get off task once they have signed into the lesson.

To create a Nearpod presentation, simply go to www.nearpod.com and sign in.

I asked four students to demonstrate how the interactive portions of the app worked and I also had another student videoing the project. Then, I decided to let them help edit the video, so I am terribly sorry if it was a little shaky.


I hope you enjoy this little clip. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Dustin White

TCAP Day is here! We start our TCAP Testing tomorrow with the Reading and Language Arts Test. I know that all of my students are fully ready to do their best! On the upside, when TCAP is over, we get to do a ton of fun projects!

TCAP Countdown Week:

Well, here we are so close to TCAP. I am holding a Saturday school tutoring for students out of my classroom who wanted to come. This is the 5th week that I have held a Saturday School tutoring class, and I have averaged 11 students each time. I cannot tell you how excited I am that over half of my class has chosen to give up a Saturday morning to come and prepare for the TCAP Test.

THEY ARE THE BEST!!!

Goodlettsville @ City Tournament

My school, Goodlettsville Middle School, is competing in the city wrestling tournament today! We started with seven boys in the tournament and are continuing on as the day progresses. Here is a shot of one of our boys getting ready to wrestle!