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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Today's adventure led us to Rancho Cucamonga High School, where we were shown around campus by Dr. Kelsen and Mr. Helper. Seeing every site and how they operate has been one of the perks of the job. It was evident from the moment we stepped on campus that Dr. Kelsen and her administrative staff have a solid understanding of their teachers and the needs of the school. One of the observations that was clear right away was the instruction at Rancho Cucamonga. When we walked into classrooms, heads didn't spin and class didn't stop. The students were engaged, the teachers were interacting, and there was real learning going on. While it was tough to walk in during precious class time, meeting the teachers of RCHS was positive and powerful. Many Cougars are using technology to impact student learning, and many of them have embraced the iPad that the district has distributed in the past few weeks. Mr. Derksen is rolling along with Doceri and has inquired about how to take the iPad to a whole other level. It will be fun to work with him and the math department as time goes on. Mrs. Cronin is doing an outstanding job of communicating with her students via Remind101, a free online service that allows teachers to text their students without needing their information or handing out teacher contacts. If you haven't checked out Remind101, it's about time to get onboard! If you have a smartphone (or an iPad), you can also text your class from your device using the free app. Now that's pretty exciting. Another teacher doing solid work in her room was Mrs. George-Ross. As we showed up unannounced in her room full of AP students, she was using the iPad to navigate her presentation to the class. While we were introducing ourselves, Mrs. George-Ross gave us a brief summary of how she's been using her iPad for instruction, including calendar breakdowns for her students, presentations, and Doceri. We are really excited to see the products that Mrs. George-Ross facilitates from her room. At the end of the day, we are here to support the teachers at their comfort level. Everyone we have met at every school we've visited has been welcoming and responsive to the role of the technology coach. It is our job to ensure and encourage teachers to continue doing great things in their classroom instruction, day-to-day planning, and support of their students. If we can help in any way, please feel free to contact us by email or through Twitter.
Thank you and have a great day! 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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