Today was an exciting event!  I hosted a site visit for some school districts interested in 1:1 and eChalk.   Participating in the visit were our eChalk sales executive, our client manager, and the CEO of eChalk.  I truly enjoyed sharing our story with both the visitors and with our special guests.  eChalk has played such an important role in facilitating our 1:1 environment and it was wonderful for them to see it first hand.

The day was filled with great conversation about student engagement, 1:1 learning, curriculum, common core standards, and the future of education.

Site Visit

Today I helped host a site visit for 2 districts - one from Oak Park and one from Iowa.  I had the privilege of escorting a group to visit classes at Heritage.  They were incredibly impressed with Charlie, of course!

Charlie speaking with visitors

It was exciting to listen to their comments about our district....here are a few

• "Surprised to see how engaged students are"
• "Technology is being use to amplify teaching" (from Charlie)
• "Engagement allows for differentiation"
• "Students are learning tech skills at the same time as content"
• "Students want to share their learning"
• "Learning is continual when kids take device home"

Some teachers came to answer questions as well.....Al spoke about giving kids choices in projects (and that he didn't need to be an expert in using the applications!), Kerry spoke about finding the instructional balance as a new teacher, and Megan spoke about how technology has given some kids a "voice" that they didn't have before.

Rollout Support....

Spent the last few days helping schools rollout their 1:1 devices....everything from labeling laptops, to counting iPads in cards, to threading charger cords into carts.  There is still so much to do, but the iCoaches have provided great support to schools and teachers to make sure everything is in place.

Looking back on this, everything is relatively organized considering there are 4,000 devices!  The whole process is complicated by the fact that the devices were purchased at so many different times and in so many different ways.  Some schools have a simple system while other schools have different devices in each grade level, complicating things.  Some schools have a lot of spare devices, but others don't even have enough for their current student population, let alone ones to use in cases of repairs.

While there really isn't a good way to go about making it all work perfectly at this point, I think the system we have in place is pretty good!  Ideally it would be perfect, but for now, as long as the devices are in the hands of students, everything will work out okay!

First Day of the Year!

What an exciting day!  We are kicking off our first year as a 100% 1:1 district.  So much work has gone into making this day a reality.  Between our administration, our tech department, and the iCoaches, we somehow pulled it off.

Next step - do my best to support these teachers so the can be the best they can be.