1:1 Reflections of a Fifth Grade Teacher

Last year I asked Craig Lubbers, a fifth grade teacher at Chattanooga Christian School, if he would share his thoughts on our first year's 1:1 implementation. Quite honestly I'm thankful that he waited until this year to share, I appreciate and resonate with his thoughts...

My continuous journey of 1:1 Implementation by Craig Lubbers:

Two years ago, my school made a decision to go 1:1 in 5th grade and to fall in line with our Middle School and High school.  While I was very excited when I heard the news, I have to admit that I also felt a bit nervous.  As a 5th grade teacher I would describe myself as someone who embraces technology and sees the benefits of its use in the classroom and who can also see how it can be used to help enhance the educational and learning experience for our students.  While I see myself as someone who embraces technology, I also would describe myself as someone who has not “fully” implemented it “yet”.  Why is this the case?  I feel like it is mostly because of three reasons.  One, change can be both challenging and difficult at times.  Two, becoming a grade level and school that is 1:1 is a process and it takes time.  Lastly, I believe that one must come to a point where they understand fully, completely experience it, and observe the benefits of 1:1 in order to fully embrace it.  I would like to explain each of these three points further, while offering both insight and encouragement.

As educators, we are constantly experiencing change in our profession.  Some of the change we experience can be perceived as unnecessary which causes us to be reluctant to it. In reality,much of the change we are introduced to is extremely beneficial and allows us as teachers to enhance, strengthen, and expand our craft as teachers so that we can best serve our students.  As teachers, we often encourage our students to think outside the box, to take risks, to dig deeper, to try new and different things, and to think about what they do and how it affects their learning.  As an educator, shouldn’t I be the model and example of what it means to be a lifelong learner.  Our world is changing.  Things all around us are changing that should influence, affect, and change our teaching methods including; culture, best practices, curriculum, and yes – technology.  Our students are changing and the ways that they learn, interact, receive information, and experience things are changing as well.  We do not have to change everything - all the time, but we should be constantlyself-reflecting and asking ourselves, “What changes can be made that will help enhance the learning process and meet the needs of my students?”  We all will continue to go through change in our life and the growing pains we experience willhurt, but keeping in mind that the end result is where we observe students reaching their full potential, experiencing learning at a higher level, are fully engaged in the learning process, and grow into becoming individuals who have reached their full potential. Going 1:1 has had a couple of growing pains, but over time it continues to provide new and exciting ways for students to be engaged, receive knowledge and information, create and manipulate things to remember what they have learned, as well as experience creative ways of expressing themselves and what they have learned!

Becoming a grade level that is 1:1 is a process and it will take time.  I have not fully implemented 1:1 to the level and degree that I would like.  Yes, and this is the start of my second year.  Many of the methods, routines, and procedures that I implement in my classroom also have taken time.  I often use the example of my daughter and her learning to ride her bike to help illustrate the learning process.   Three years ago, my daughter came to the point where she mastered training wheels.  It was now time to take the training wheels off!  As a teacher, I knew that she first needed some guided instruction before independent practice, so I decided to hold the back of her seat and run behind her as she experienced peddling and balance without the training wheels.  Needless to say, this worked very well for my oldest child as he caught on almost instantaneously, but this was not working for my daughter.  Holding on to the back seat, offered a feeling that was different from riding solo.  The result was that every time that I would let go, she would swerve off to the side of the road and fall.  After several attempts and scrapes, my daughter was ready to quit and go back to the comfort/support wheels.  I reminded her of the time that she didn’t think she would ever be able to ride the bike with training wheels.  We decided to keep going.  After a few more attempts and scrapes she eventually caught on.  It was not easy, at times very uncomfortable, and it didn’t go the way she anticipated.  So often, when things don’t go smoothly or if there are pumps in the road then it is much easier to punt, throw it out, and move on to trying something new.  Yes, there is a time and place for punting, but I believe that the true rewards and accomplishments in life require some sweat, some tears, some feelings of uncomfortableness, a few scrapes, and overcoming defeat in order to persevere and come out on the other end achieving what you set out to accomplish.  My daughter can now ride her bike as well as the average 8 year old, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t still fall at times.  Recently, she had a terrible accident that I observed and thought was going to end up in the ER.  Instead, she got up, wiped off her tears, and kept riding.  I was amazed and it was a lesson for me as a teacher.  Full implementation of 1:1, just like anything of significant value or of minor and major accomplishment, will take time, is a process, and will require refining, adapting, reflecting, questioning, tweaking, and maybe even some tears.  There will also be times when I think “I’ve got this” and the next day I “fall”.  My advice and encouragement is to stick with it, learn from past experiences, take risks in the present, and look to the future and be ready for glitches and further changes.  It is a process and it takes time, but it is one that I have just begun to reap the benefits of and observe tremendous growth with my students.  There will be more bumps in the road as I strive for “Full” implementation, but I know it will be worth it in the end!

As I continue to experience 1:1 in my own classroom and begin to understand its value more, I am starting to realize more the significance that it has and how it can impact student learning.  I am realizing more the implications that it has and can have on the learning process.  I am realizing how much more I have to learn and continue to be reminded of how much more that I can be doing.  While I have completely supported 1:1 from the beginning, I have not fully understood what the end-result can and could look like.  I understand it more today as I have observed student learning over the last year, participated in some training, and continue to try new and different things in my classroom.  I also have the privilege of teaching my son this year.  This too, has already helped me see 1:1 in a different light.  In just a short time span of a week, I have been able to witness and observe my 5th grade son participate with 1:1 and learn what it means to be a digital citizen and how that relates to him being a more prepared and equipped leaner and person, be introduced to new programs such as his Google Drive, be motivated to be more organized and responsible as he set up his calendar and folders in his Drive, and then practice using “Show Me”, “Notability”, and “Google Slides”.   A quote from my sonduring the week was, “Wow, we are doing so much with Technology this year. I didn’t realize there was so much I could do on my device.”  The amazing thing is that we have only scratched the surface.  I know this will only be the beginning of what I hope to offer my son and the 5th grade students this year.  This year, it will be my goal to refine how I have used technology in my classroom in the past, to go out of my comfort zone and take risks by trying to do new things, to expand what I currently use and do on a regular bases, to use an app that I have never seen or used before, and to do a better job of sharing with others my experiences and what I have learned.   As an educator and life-long learner, I plan to stick with the process, to be ok when something takes more time than I would like, to be ok with feeling “uncomfortable” and knowing that it is probably the start of learning something new, to remember to push past those times of feeling paralyzed, and to being ok with not knowing something and ok to ask questions.  I am motivated to learn and grow as an educator in the area of 1:1.  I am comforted in knowing that I have an amazing staff, administration, and technology support team that will support me along the way.  The many faces of the precious students that I teach remind me of the calling, responsibility, and privilege that I have to offer my best and to help them reach their full potential.  I am excited about what I am going to learn this year and where the journey of 1:1 implementation will take me! 

iOS 10 Bites early adopters of iPads

iOS 10 will change the landscape of education technology dramatically. Many schools like my own jumped on the iPad bandwagon early. Because of that, I have 3 carts of iPads in my elementary school that are iPad 2s and 3s. The next operating system update from Apple will not support these iPads.

What does this mean? The iPad won't become a brick but as apps adapt to the newer iOS updates these iPads will not be able to do that. In my elementary school that will mean the usefulness of the device diminishes as the apps we have found to be useful in the classroom stop responding. It is my guess that they will always be a connection through the browser and therefore are not completely unusable. But as an instructional technologist that is worked hard to find solutions for my teachers to integrate technology well this is a discouraging fact. We have not budgeted to replace the iPads currently and therefore I am a wee bit nervous about what type of issues we will have this coming school year. As anyone who works in Ed Tech knows, if technology is cumbersome it is often laid to the side and I completely understand why.

In our upper school we are in a BYOT environment with over 90% of our students choosing to bring iPads thus far. Because we  became a BYOT required school when the iPad 2 hit the market, many of our parents are going to be faced with the same dilemma. Their children will have devices that are quirky and the teachers of these children will also become frustrated.

I don't blame Apple. All technology is pretty much obsolete as it rolls off the assembly line. The iOS 10 updates bring about some amazing new things. It just so happens the iPads that many schools have won't support those things due to the fact they are older models. The question becomes how do schools respond to this? As I look at options chromebooks are looking better and better due to their price point. I love the flexibility that a tablet gives to students regarding creativity and ease of annotation. I wish that the option of touchscreen laptops were more affordable than they are currently. I do believe we are just a few years out from that being an option. But the question remains what's my best solution for next year?

The Problem with Checklists

I'm guilty. I just opened up my iPad case and 5 different lists of "things to do" fell out of it. We all need a source for organization and for me, writing it on a note ingrains it in my head, but that isn't the type of checklist I am talking about in this blog. I am talking about "integration checklists." IF we say "you have to use this, this, and this in your classroom" we are doing two things:

1. Stiffling the creativity of teachers that look beyond the things they have been taught.
2. Placing criteria for tech use into a checklist of "done this" which never leads to "tech inteGREATion." 

My views on this have changed over the years. In year one of having 3 iPad carts in the elementary school, the "requirements" were two projects based on current units of study with the technology coach. I'll be honest, I think the idea had massive value in that first year to push some teachers out of their comfort zone with a bit of handholding or to support teachers excited about the thought of technology but nervous about implementing alone. Year 2- the same "requirements" were there but I also saw an influx of teachers wanting to implement technology in their "centers"- blended learning began! We are at year 3 now and we started the year with the same "projects" requirement but for a few grades mandatory implementation of tech-based math instruction has also been added. Now that there is a comfortability for most of the teachers the struggle is "we want more iPad time and more iPads." I find myself researching for them more than ever before because they are thinking outside the box at "what if" ideas. I rarely have to twist arms or remind them of the "requirements."

Where am I now in what things should look like in the future? I think we are ready to move to expectations based on standards. Currently I see myself perusing the ISTE standards for teachers and students. I see next year perhaps looking differently with what can be seen as a bit more freedom for creativity. Next year, perhaps, we will base requirements on standards with concrete examples from the tech coach on ways to meet those standards. 

It has been exciting to see teachers wanting more iPads and iPad time for their classroom. It's been exciting to see the revelation of what technology can accomplish in the elementary classroom as well. Not everyone is "all in" and that is alright but some of our teachers are all up in the R of SAMR. 

I'm thankful for transformational classrooms that I have gotten to be a part of the planning of implementation. I'm thankful for teachers that are owning implementation. And I am thankful for the hesitant ones that make me dig deep and force me to prove the worth- it's always good to be reminded why you do what you do and what you believe in. I believe in technology coaching collaboration, using technology to support learning, and seeing technology used for consumption, curation, connection, and creation on a regular basis that makes some students super excited about learning.

Teaching Beyond Our Fears Of Technology And Finding The Balance Within

I've never met a person that didn't fear something. Some of us fear spiders. Some fear heights. Some fear extra pounds. Some fear change. Most of us fear something about the unknown. As an instructional technologist I see teachers fearing the technology itself. I'm baffled by it quite honestly but I have learned to be a listener and to try to assuage their fears by good support and good analogies.

I have two teen daughters, one that has been driving for 3 years now and one in the permit stage of driving with adult supervision. On a regular basis when they walk out the door to get behind the wheel of a car, I say a little prayer. In their friend groups 94-98% of their peers get their license to drive and have access to drive around the ages of 16-17. It did not cross my mind to not let them have this privilege, responsibility, and what I see as a necessity in life. Most parents are on the same mind track as myself I believe- it's just part of growing up.

We, as parents, don't really overanalyze the fact that driving a car means taking risks like that child has never taken before, because if we did- we would wrap them in bubble wrap and duct-tape and place them in a rubber room to protect them. I'm not saying we don't worry and lament over the fact that "J speeds" and "K doesn't use her side mirrors like she should." I'm not saying that when the phone rings from an unknown number or from your child when you know they should be driving you don't do a "mini freak out." What I am saying is that we don't dwell on the fact that for the first time ever, they have control over their path of their day. We don't dwell on the fact that not only are they taking risks with their own lives but the lives of others as well. We don't dwell on the fact that they are in control of (plus or minus) 4,000 pounds of technology that will go 100 mph and their frontal lobes aren't fully developed. (Ok, maybe we are thinking about it more now than we ever have since you are seeing it in written form).

But the truth of the matter is, we don't let our fears rule us. We dig deep into the "balance scales of life" and we come to the realization that what the ability to drive allows exceeds the potential negatives of not allowing that child to function with this important skill.

I see the use of mobile technology in the classroom in much the same light. There are pitfalls- poor digital citizenship skills, distraction, inability to ascertain when it is appropriate to utilize tech and when it is not- but much like driving a car, it will be a lifelong skill needed for today's and tomorrow's students. We, as teachers, much like parents of new driving teens, have to put on our discerning "balance scales of life" and meet those needs with our students.

Just like we wouldn't throw the keys to a car for a solo trip to a 16 year old that has never driven, we have a responsibility to hand-hold our students in discerning good technology usage. When teachers say, "NO, I don't want it in my classroom" they are limiting potential- for their learning environment and for that student individually. We must reach beyond our fears, hesitantly if need be, and embrace change and technology so our students can be future ready.