Beginning with BYOD

As a teacher entering the profession in the 21st century, integrating technology into my classroom has always been a priority of mine. When I was given the opportunity to participate in a districtwide Bring Your Own Device program 3 years ago, I jumped at the chance.  I quickly realized, however, that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  Even though I used technology every day to organize my personal life, I had little practical understanding of how to apply that to my classroom. I had many days where in four class periods, I accomplished absolutely nothing. In fact, many days I think I actually aided my students in the rarely practiced yet impressive art of unteaching. I left the building many days feeling frustrated and exhausted.  To put it frankly, it was quite terrifying. It was truly one of those learn as you go experiences, where you feel like you make a million mistakes before you can even take one hesistant step forward. Looking back, there are lots of things I would've told myself, and I'm hoping some of you can benefit from this retroactive advice!

1. Create and post routines, expectations, and procedures for using technology.

Duh. Of course setting routines, expectations, and procedures is important. It's the first thing we do to maintain management. But when I was in the excited frenzy of trying something brand new, I neglected to acknowledge that it needed to come with its own set of expectations. When my classroom had turned into Bedlam, I knew I needed to start over. Now, once my classroom is already running well, I spend time setting separate routines, procedures, and expectations specifically for using technology.  I start by asking my students to brainstorm how they envision using technology in our classroom, and what they think is important in order to keep our classroom running smoothly.  I like including students in this process to promote ownership and responsibility. I make a giant list of everything they come up with, and pool their ideas into a set of 5 simple, convenient, and visible expectations.

I also ask them to sign a social media contract, which is shaped by our school's core values of respect, responsibility, and honesty. 

As in all endeavors we take on as teachers, when students understand and agree to what's expected of them up front, it allows us to be proactive classroom managers, instead of forcing us to waste time and energy putting out fires all over the place.

2. Loosen your grip. You are now a facilitator.

I can't say this enough.  When you are incorporating BYOD into your classroom, it will get messy.  Like really messy. You'll have days where kids are unimaginably perplexed, and days where the app that worked perfectly last period is now not working for no solvable reason.  You'll have days where you will hear the same question asked enough times to make you want to rip your hair out. Just roll with it.  Thank your students for their patience, and stay calm. Remind them that you are all in this together, and we can learn from what went wrong today. Don't run to their rescue with step by step directions for each task. Don't answer the same question more than three times; direct them to a classmate for who has already received the answer. Otherwise, you will literally drive yourself insane. Ask them to problem solve and encourage them to try something before asking the inevitable question, "What do I click next??"

3. Teach and model technology etiquette.

You know when someone swears they are listening to you, and they nod their head giving the impression that they are listening, but at the same time scrolling through Facebook or checking their email? Then you discover, after blabbing on for quite some time, that that person has not truly processed one word of your hilarious story? That's similar to what happened in my classroom when I tried to give directions once students were fully engrossed by their devices. I think the most important expectation, and the one that takes the most practice, is that when anyone (student or teacher) is speaking to our class, hands are off our devices and eyes are on the speaker. It even takes practice for me, and I've had to train myself not to be playing around on my ipad while my students are asking me even the smallest questions.  By getting students in the habit of understanding there is a time and a place, we can help them to be respectful and responsible users of technology. We want them to be well versed in technology, while at the same time remembering how to respect and listen to one another.

4. Start small, and build slowly.

Don't try to incorporate BYOD in every facet of your teaching right out of the gate.  It will turn out a lot like learning to juggle by throwing 5 balls into the air at once.  It will fail miserably, and you might get hurt. Start by incorporating one app, and using it once or twice a week. When it's working really well, introduce something else. A great app to start with is Socrative, a response app that allows students to answer open ended questions and take quizzes using thier mobile devices.  It's very user friendly, and it works like a charm.

5. Learn and take advantage of social networking.

If I were asked to give one single piece of advice to any teacher at any point in their career, it would be to join Twitter.  You can create a Professional Learning Network made up of teachers from around the world. It's fantastic. It's like a daily mini dose of professional development.  It's a great place to share what you're working on in your classroom, and to experience what other teachers are working on in their's. As an added bonus, you can find out what Justin Timberlake ate for lunch, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Follow me @JennaleeA. I promise I won't share with you what I ate for lunch.

Other great social networking sites worth joining and exploring are:

-Pinterest (a virtual pinboard)

-Goodreads (Great for ELA teachers. Keep track of, review, and share books you're reading)

Although it's absolutely been a tumultuous journey, incorporating BYOD into my classroom has been incredibly valuable.  I love the idea that bringing devices into my classrom allows education to change and develop in the blink of an eye. Even more so, I love the idea that it allows me to instantaneously connect my students with the world around them. 

Starting Up Strong

Even though I am 5 years into my career as a teacher, and I've gone back to school on a yearly basis since kindergarten, the first day of school still carries that same nervous excitement I felt at 5 years old, standing in front of my house, waiting for the bus, wondering if Mrs. Minton would like me.  Only now, I find myself on the other side of the equation, and that nervous excitement is manifested in making sure my learning space is perfectly arranged, reading over my class lists, and trying to picture a fresh batch of seventh graders wandering into my classroom. 

It's obvious that those first days of school are imperative in terms of establishing routines and procedures and setting the overall tone of the classroom.  In years past, my focus has always been not only creating and practicing a procedure for just about everything, but also setting the tone by making sure my students knew that I was in charge.  My classroom door was adorned with only my name, room number and the class I taught.  When the students entered on the first day, I had the desks in rows alphabetically.  I read lists of rules, and tried my hardest not to smile. I had to make sure they knew that MY students need to follow MY rules in MY classroom. 

 

I have to admit, though I continued to start the year this way, it felt unnatural and unwelcoming. I found myself stumbling through the first days of school until I could get to that point in September where I could become my real teacher self.  So, I decided to try something different this year.  My teaching philosophy has evolved as I've learned more about being a middle school teacher, and my goal was to make sure my students' first days of school fit well with my mission of creating an inclusive and empathetic community of students. 

Door Deco

All year long, I change up what my door looks like.  It's one of my favorite features of my classroom. I wanted this to be a part of my identity as a teacher from the start. So, Instead of starting the year with my door displaying only my name, classroom number, and the subject I teach, I tried this... 

The Power of Pronouns

A pronoun can make all the difference in the world. I'm not just saying this because I'm an English teacher.  While looking over my class expectations document, I couldn't help but notice how many times I used the words: I, me, my, you, yours, etc.  From day one, I was already sending the message that it was me against them. The classroom was my classroom. You were responsible for bringing a pencil to class everyday.  In an environment where I was trying to encourage community, I felt like I was already tearing down the bridge I'd hope to build between students and teacher.  I wanted them to know that we are in this together, and that my responsibilites as a teacher are similar to theirs as students. I wanted them to know that this classroom belongs just as much (if not more) to them as it does to me. So, I infiltrated my expectations to send the message that we are on the same side, and we are working together to achieve success.  I changed the I's, my's, you's, and your's, to we's and ours. My expectations document used to open with classroom rules.  Now, the opening looks like this...

Starting as a Team

Teamwork is a huge a focal point in my classroom, and seating alphabetically by row on day 1 seemed counterproductive to establishing this important pillar of my philosophy of education. So, instead of standing in the front of the room explaining the different procedures and routines, to rows of students, I placed them in groups right away, and sent them on a scavenger hunt where they worked together exploring the classroom for answers to my questions. I've decided also to rename my daily objective to "Today's Team Goal", and to emphasize throughout class that we need to bring our individual best to the table to be collectively successful in achieving this goal.

Although this was experimental, I am really happy with the sense of unity and community that seems to already exist in my classroom seven days in. I hope that by constantly reinforcing that we are a team, and that we are all here to help each other achieve success.