It was a cold and rainy day on the campus of Ontario High School. Clouds loomed and winds pushed their way onto campus, ready to bring this mysterious thing called "winter" to Southern California. However, the weather was no match for the staff of OHS. Unfazed by the downpour and the howling wind, they carried out their lessons and showed off their tech skills like it was a sunny summer afternoon. Wiping raindrops from their brow, they met with us to introduce themselves and show us a few tricks of their own. Our first learning moment of the day came when Mrs. Biden showed us an app called Inspire Pro that, at first glance, looks like any other painting app on the iPad. Why even bother? Well, it gets pretty cool, pretty quick. With the paid version of Inspire Pro, you can play back the path that it took to reach your final image. In an art class, this could be a game-changer! Imagine showing your students a drawing. Then, imagine showing them every single step that it took to get to the final product. In our core classes, this is easy to do. There is a clear and distinct process. In art, it's nearly impossible to show every brush stroke. Thank you for sharing this, Mrs. Biden! While we only had a chance to meet about 60% of the teachers on campus, the conversations that we had were meaningful and worthwhile. Chats about how to use Doceri, when we can be expecting to mirror our iPads (it's coming... be on the lookout for some news in the near future), how to find apps, and so much more. It is clear that Mr. Wilborn has created a positive culture that encourages the integration of new tools on his campus. In Mrs. Lawless' class, we had the chance to work with her on getting her iTunes music onto her desktop for a class presentation. She was so happy that we might just get a request to come back and hang out with her some more. Mr. Hunter is already a rockstar with the tech in his classroom and it was clear when I walked in his room to see an iPad, laptop, and two computer screens all being used to plan the next day's lesson. Like many other teachers at OHS, he is seeing the parallels of Doceri with the iPad and the InterWrite Pads with the desktop. This should be a seamless transition as we get more comfortable with the iPad in our hands. The win of the day, at least in the reaction, had to be Ms. Correa. Maybe it's something as small as being able to use your computer, but teachers get excited when things work. After commenting about how she couldn't use her new computer to show her lessons, we worked some magic and got it all set up. Let's just say that it's a good thing there was room to do "the happy dance". No progress can be made unless a group of people are willing to make it happen. As instructional coaches of technology, our role is as strong as the requests for support. At Ontario High School, we learned that teachers are eager to ask questions, eager to try new things, and anxious to transform instruction. Thank you to Mr. Wilborn, Mr. Cho, Mr. Rook, and the amazing staff of Ontario High School. If you would like to request us to come to your site and chat about technology, feel free to let us know here, email us, or find us on Twitter.
John
1 Comment
2/6/2014 11:39:49 am
Wow! You are clearly busy! How awesome that your teachers are so receptive and open to sharing.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories
All
|