At this point in the school year, almost every teacher within Chaffey Joint Union High School District has their iPad and has begun using it to impact instruction. We are excited to be going around to classrooms and seeing the ways that teachers are engaging their students with a multitude of new ideas. What we've suspected all along is that the iPad would impact the classroom, but it has been much more than that. See, once teachers get comfortable with the technology, they start asking about what else we can do to improve instruction.
Rancho Cucamonga High School has been using technology for quite some time, so it was fun to hang out with Mr. Hansen to see how he and his department have been using the recently updated computer labs to impact instruction. With Desmos, an online graphing calculator (oh yeah, it's free!), his students were able to manipulate points and functions to represent desired quadratic functions. If you are interested, the handouts for the days are below: Desmos Face Matching Quadratic Functions Getting the chance to see this in action was a whole lot of fun! Kids were completely engaged and interested in why their graph wasn't perfectly matching up, all while their neighbor's was. There was a lot of rich conversation that ensued and, lo and behold, academic vocabulary was being used to discern between each of the functions in question. As a teacher, this was a dream scenario - kids debating over which function was correct using academic vocabulary and manipulating a graph... WOW! If you haven't had the chance to mess around with Desmos for all of your graphing needs, we encourage you to do so. We have yet to find its limits of integration and support. Oh, and speaking of support, their Twitter handle is phenomenal for seeking advice or extending the project to another level. Try it out, reach out, and see what happens! Sure, we are updating technology all around the district, and everyone is excited about the changes that are happening. However, it means nothing if we continue to go about business as usual. Mr. Hansen and the RCHS math team are just a small sample of the work being done around the district to seamlessly integrate technology into their current lesson plans. Mr. Luebbers at Montclair High School has completely redefined what a high school history classroom could look like with multiple screens, insanely interactive classes, and a true passion for teaching his students. Ms. Ramos has her students doing backflips with technology, using Thinglink, Google Docs, InstaGrok, and so much more to enhance the learning experience in history. If you have a story of how you are using (or have used) technology to redefine what your classroom looks like, we would love to hear about it and come to see you in action. Please let us know by emailing us, commenting below, or sending us a message on Twitter. We look forward to finding out how you're making a difference in the lives of your students! John
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We have all had "that teacher", the one who can reach down deep and come up with something great that will inspire us beyond what we thought we were capable of. While meeting the staff at Los Osos High School, and at all sites within CJUHSD, we have had the opportunity to see many of those people. Meeting Mr. Rich Morales, however, was a treat in and of itself. He introduced himself very humbly, then proceeded to show up the amazing things that he is doing with an iPad (and technology, in general) in his classroom. I had the pleasure of sitting in on first period today in Mr. Morales' class. You know first period, the one that starts slowly, kids forgetting pencils, paper, etc.? Not in Mr. Morales' room. As soon as the bell rang, the Grizzlies of LOHS were locked in and ready to go. He was discussing previous work assigned, which was to find a news article about something happening around the world and prepare to translate it. After checking for completion, he began the discussion. It wasn't a projection of information; rather, it was a conversation with the students about the current events and how they could be described. Next up was a little support from the ol' YouTube database. This was a video created by students that Mr. Morales had found while trying to find ways to enhance his instruction: You see, Mr. Morales has been using technology to enhance instruction long before we had the new computers, and much further back than when we rolled out iPads. Technology is nothing new to him and is certainly nothing new to his instructional practices. Proof of this came when we were meeting for the first time and he was telling us about how he had created music videos for content that would be easier for his students to study. We've all seen the student-created videos (like the one above) and they have some value in a classroom. However, hearing the material from the instructor has its benefits. Using Doceri, iMovie, and a whole lot of patience and innovation, Mr. Morales has put together a rap video to help his students with some of the particular elements of Spanish. WARNING: This is pretty awesome. WARNING 2: This is pretty advanced! The final portion of the class, Mr. Morales was using Doceri on his iPad to show parts of Fukushima, the area that was destroyed by a devastating tsunami, flooding, and a myriad of other problems in 2011. Finding images to bring meaning to the conversation was crucial and necessary, as the students who were in the room gained steam with each image that was on the screen. Before ending class, students shared out the Spanish version of their news story that related to Fukushima and class concluded.
Thank you to Mr. Morales for allowing an open door into his classroom of creativity and thank you to all teachers who are pushing the limits of technology and instruction in their classrooms. If you would like to identify someone (even yourself) for the Teacher Spotlight in CJUHSD, please let us know. We are trying to showcase as many great teachers as we can! John |
AuthorsDemi, John Stevens, John Corrow, and Paula are excited to visit classrooms and meet with teachers to see some of the awesome things that are going on within CJUHSD. Archives
February 2016
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