2. Four quadrants of the 1:1 classrooms

Four quadrants of the 1:1 classroom

This we believe (NMSA, 2010)
Students and teachers are engaged in active, purposeful learning. Active Learning

This week, Buncombe County Schools sponsored a 'Best Steam' conference for their teachers. Sessions led by technology facilitators from around the state, classroom teachers, and administrators within the district provided inspiration and logistics for rolling out their one-to-one initiative. In this district, during the first phase of implementation, teachers and administrators will participate in 30 hours of professional development.

Since I spent the past school year in a one-to-one school, I was able to share advice and strategies from math teachers I worked with. The title of the presentation was Four Quadrants of the One-to-One Initiative. Beginning our conversation with the importance of knowing our students, one of the goals for young adolescents includes: [students] 'use digital tools to explore, communicate, and collaborate with the world and learn from the rich and varied resources available' (NMSA, 2010, p. 11). Within the context of 'this we believe,' our focus over the past two days has been to focus onlearning ways to engaged in active, purposeful learning using digital tools.

My session was at the end of the day which allowed us to debrief and consider how to take the tools and information we learned and consider how to begin to develop a school culture that embraces technology. The following is an overview of each of the quadrants. For each quadrant we looked at the topic through the lens of teacher teams and through the lens of planning for instruction.

Discussion and communication. We talked about the importance of planning strategies, logistics, structures and expectations about how to use the equipment. We talked about how to use Professional Learning Communities and Team Meetings to troubleshoot and plan ways to communicate with children and their parents. We then talked about how to engage students in discussions such as electronic entry slips, blogs, and collaborative tasks. The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) provides eight research-based essential practices including: facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.

Exploration. The second topic we considered is engaging in our own exploration of tools and resources and then using those tools to help students actively engage in learning. By working in academic teams, we discussed choosing activities that have been purchased by the district and working together to allow our students to work with the tools to gain a deeper understanding of content. A major point of this section includes helping teachers realize the importance of the questions they ask once students have explored websites, data, and/or tools.

Creative Problem Solving. The third topic we examined is how to create meaningful products. Our own products as teachers must reflect opportunities for students to illustrate and create personalized learning. Student products, choices, and opportunities to engage in the community, wellness, and in some cases service learning, allow students to work individually and/ collaboratively to contribute to their community.

Assessment. The final quadrant to consider is assessment. Teachers and team mates discussed ways to assess their own learning as they develop technology protocol and skills. A second consideration within the topic of assessment examined tools and strategies for assessing student learning.

Each of these topics: discussion, exploration, problem solving, and assessment are hallmarks of planning. However, teachers need to go beyond planning for their students. Using these tools, teachers can develop their own professional development. I think joining together with colleagues at this conferences inspired us to brainstorm and advocate for one another. Now it is time to be more intentional about integrating technology and researching best practices with it. I for one am going to be more intentional about modeling and teaching my students how to use technology more. Thank you Buncombe County!