The 21st Century Student

Picture taken by Rachel using her iPad.

Tonight I want to dedicate my post to one of my students because today she made my day special. Most of all she made me proud to be her teacher. For over a year, I have spent my time being an advocate for 21st century education and I often times hear jokes about technology and questions on why changes should be made in the classroom. My answer tonight is for students like my student, Rachel, the 21st century student.

At the beginning of the year, I had hopes for my class to blog, but with the adjustment of going from a traditional classroom to a 21st century classroom many of the students were not quite ready to blog with all the other changes they were experiencing at the time. Recently, on her own, Rachel started mentioning her blog. Curious, I asked her about it and she said it wasn't a real blog, but an area on a computer where she was typing about her day. I knew at this moment she was ready to learn to keep her own blog, the one I had hoped the students would have started at the beginning of the year. So, just yesterday, we worked on setting up a blog for her using edublogs and this morning she came in ready to write or you might say type.

When Rachel walked in this morning, she had one thing on her mind. I had assigned a tessallation project using StoMo and iMovie on the iPad and she had hers complete. She couldn't wait to show me! When she played her video I was amazed! So much, that I shared her video at lunch with the other teachers and sent it to my principal who was home sick today. As soon as we came in from lunch and recess today, Rachel was on her blog writing, not because I asked her to, but because she wanted to. What was she writing about? Her project, what else would she write about today?

When her blog was complete, she was excited for me to read it, and had hopes the world would see it, too! After receiving special permission from her mother to have her video project online, Rachel was so excited that she jumped and yelled "I AM SO FAMOUS!" You see Rachel is proud of her work, and like many other children in the 21st century she wants a chance to share it with the world and for the world to watch, read, and listen.

So, tonight I ask that if you are reading my blog, go visit Rachel's blog and post a positive comment and make Rachel the FAMOUS person she already is! Because this child is just one of many children who need a classroom that engages them using 21st century methods.

(Please note, my student uses a pseudonym to help protect her identity and all comments on her blog are monitored by me. All negative comments will be removed.)

How I became a 1:1 iPad classroom?

This question was recently tweeted to me and unfortunately with twitter's 140 character limit, it makes it hard to answer the question fully. So, tonight I just wanted to explain how this happened for me.

A year and a half ago, my school began the Race for Education. For those of you who have read some of my other blog posts, you have heard me mention this before. I apologize if the information seems repetitive. Well, to encourage teachers to participate, we were told that 100% of the money we raise could go towards our classroom. That year, I made it a mission to bring in some new technology in the classroom. I raised around $800 my first year and purchased an iPad using that money and put the rest of the money towards buying a new table for classroom to replace a broken computer desk. So, this is originally how the iPad entered the classroom.

This past school, I started the first half of the year with just one iPad. And honestly, it was amazing seeing what just one iPad could do in the classroom. The PTOwas seeing some of the things that were going on in my classroom and decided that with our two big fundraisers, an annual auction and the Race for Education, they could afford to fund a class set of iPads. I was asked if I would be willing to take on this mission and like most teachers reading this blog, I said yes. So, half way through the school year I became a 1:1 iPad classroom. Along with purchasing a class set of iPads for my Fourth Grade class, every teacher was given an iPad to use in their classroom as well.

This upcoming school year, my school has purchased another class set of iPads for the Fifth Grade. We hope to continue purchasing another class set every school year, but again we are only able to afford to do this because of our fundraising.

QR Code Job Chart

It seems like just yesterday, I was finishing out last school year and now I'm already preparing to go back to work and teach a new group of students. I am really looking forward to a new school year, I have a lot of new things to do with the students and can't wait to see how they like them. One new thing that I have added to my class this year is a QR job chart.

So, here is how the QR Job Chart works. If you look in the bottom left of the picture you will see a piece of orange. That is actually an orange envelope that I have attached to the wall. At the end of the day, all QR codes are placed in the envelope. This year, students will have a new classroom job everyday, instead of keeping it for a week. When students come into the classroom, they will take turns getting a QR Code out of the envelope and then placing it on their number. I attached velcro to the back of the codes and on the calendar, that I have turned into my job chart. Students will then take out their iPad and prepare to scan for their job.

There are a number of free QR Code Reader Apps that are free for the iPad, the one viewed in this photo is Qrafter. As you can see it is easy to use for students and gives a quick scan, but will not create QR codes unless purchasing the Pro Pack. However, if you do want students to make their own QR Codes on the iPad, you can get a free app called Easy QR. Both apps are available on my students iPads for them to use. 

Once the student scans the QR Code, it will show the student what their job is for the day. 

So, I know many of you are probably wondering how I will know who is doing what job for the day because it seems like I would spend a lot of wasted time trying scan all the QR codes to figure this out. So, with this job chart, I created the job "Job Manager." This person is responsible for scanning all the codes with their iPad and using a google form (with one of the extra classroom iPads) will just check off which students have what job. I will then be able to access the form as an excel sheet and quickly be able to keep track throughout the day. However, it is up to the Job Manager to make sure all jobs are completed by the end of the day. 

Have questions? Use this QR Code to email me, post a comment below, or follow me on twitter @21educator.