I spent most of my summer gleaning information from twitter, webinars, blogs, google+, facebook, and face-to-face conversations. At the beginning of August, I created a blueprint for my classes, mapping out the where, when, and hows.
Now, it all comes together. This week, I've been focusing on google accounts. My school does not use Google Apps for Education, but my students do use many google apps. To make this easy (ha!) I set up a google account for each student to use while in my class. I give them a password and link the accounts to my google account so I can monitor and address issues as needed. It's not a perfect system, but it works. It takes massive amounts of time to set up. Breaks are a must.
My plan for this year: PBL. I have a lot to learn and a lot to explore in the next few months as I start to implement PBL in more of my classes. I've used PBL on a smaller scale for the past two years - it's time to expand.
While my mind is mostly focused on curriculum, I'm also thinking about my classroom setup. Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to swap out desks for tables. This year, I will continue with the tables, but I'm desperately searching Craigslist to see if I can change my long tables for round tables. Round tables would allow me to move easily around my classroom, and check in with table groups. I would love to do something like this.
My plan for the walls is much like the design in my GTA video:
I'm currently working on adding wood grain to butcher paper to make the railings and parts of the cabin. Here's where I got that idea.
It may be crunch time, but I still have two and a half weeks to enjoy sleeping in (which, really, is the best part about summer)!
