EdTechTeacher iPad Summit Boston 2015

Are you wrestling with these questions - now what? What can we do with these devices? How do you encourage staff to innovate? How do you reflect? How do we make sure we are not just using ‘expensive pieces of paper’? How do you proceed? We will walk participants through our process of answering this essential question - ‘How Can We Curate the Progression of Student Learning and Growth?’

This session is aimed towards both building-based secondary-level educators, administrators, and district administrators who are exploring or are involved in the implementation of a mobile learning initiative. Through the voice of administrators, teachers and students, participants will experience first hand how Blake Middle School engaged students and educators in the transformation from a computer lab/wireless cart model to the 1:1 environment.

By following four core principles, students and educators from Blake Middle School have brought an
engaging student-centered model to fruition:
- Program Development (evolution from 1:1 pilot to full-scale 6th-8th grade initiative)
- Classroom Implementation (Student/Teacher demonstrations across curricula demonstrating the applications of the program)
- Professional Development Structure (ETT, common planning, internal structures, appropriate staffing)
- Reflection/Evaluation Systems (determinants of success, systems for continual feedback, student/teacher reflections)

Participants will walk away with a framework to help address these questions, highlighting our approach to thematic professional development, a culture of collaboration, student creativity, policies and procedures, purposeful learning, and digital citizenry. Areas of specific focus include…student recognition and feedback, standards-based grading, project-based learning, student-led conferences, district determined measures, and student-generated portfolios.

We will exhibit our methods of transparency and communication with the parents and greater community, philosophy of mistakes, and professional development model. The lessons we learned, and approach we took as a team to enhance the learning for our students, will hopefully help with sharing our approach, successes, mistakes, and process of growth.