Destination Digital

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for 

creating community and valuing teachers' writing. This is post 14 of 31 for 

the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Join us at Two Writing Teachers. 

We are going digital next year. This means that students and teachers at my school will each have their own district-issued device. We are going 1 to 1! I am on the team to support the shift, so I've been participating in monthly sessions to prepare for next year. As you can imagine, I am eager for the coming changes.

My classroom has been a bring your own device, blended and shared learning environment for several years. The move to 1 to 1 will streamline routines I have been practicing and it has also prompted me to revise and refine ways I engage kids in digital environments (more on that later).

This afternoon the team met to start making decisions. We talked Edmodo and Google Drive and committing to calendars and web-based tools. We decided on a naming convention for digital common boards (agendas),  lesson plans or unit files. Then we dug into the summer itinerary.

The group, led by our district vision, is planning to visit five fabulous ports of call during the Destination Digital Summer "Cruise." We are offering two, most expenses paid*, cruise dates: seven days in June and seven days in July. We will host parents and students the first week of August for device distribution and education sessions too.

There was a lot of energy around the table this afternoon as we committed to summer dates and cruise offerings. With good weather and wind, we will surely reach our year one destination of adoption as described on the TIMs matrix.

I'm hoping we plan a bon voyage, dance party on deck before we set sail!

*Teachers will be paid for the work they do during the seven day summer cruises. They can opt for one or even two cruise sessions as school.