Procrastination

Honestly I have a ton of things I should be doing. I need to finish my presentation for the Mobile Learning Symposium, lesson plans are only written for Monday, grades need to be put into the grade book and all of my home things. Nothing is motivating me to do these things. I know how my kids are starting to feel.

We start OAA testing this week. Thursday my students will take the Reading OAA. We will start the morning with yummy Panera Bagels thanks to our PTO and while the kids work I think I will show them Let It Go Testing Parody. These teachers did an amazing job of saying what I would to my middle school students. Goofy yes, but they expect it from my class and me. I started getting everything ready for Thursday. Huge bag of mints, canister of bubble gum, water bottles, erasers, just need to hit the dollar store for some cheap headphones/earbuds since they listen to the questions. I know the growth that they have made, I just hope that it translates to the testing situations.

I did my final observation for the year, I had my principal come in to watch the 6th grade iPad class present what they did for App Smashing. I saw some amazing work from them. I was overly nervous because we had been having some tech issues with the Apple TV (and this is a HIGH group of students (I'm used to the other end of the spectrum.) My principal remarked that he "never thought he would see kids combining apps, creating an imovie about it, then present and share all within one class period." I guess he liked it because he came back and did a walk through for 20 minutes a week later in that same class. The best part of all this won't come until next year. For the 2014-2015 school year I will teach 2 different 1:1 iPad classes. The incoming 6th graders and the 7th graders. My wheels are already turning for the 7th graders. I would love for them to create an app to solve a problem that we have within the district or building. In addition, they might have to create their own stylus that can be made with household materials and also functional to use on the iPad. Let me know if you have any other suggestions on what to do with the kiddos.

I wrote about sending challenges to my former students and I had one student take me up on the challenge. Here is the video she created iPad Class. She is a great young lady who really came out of her shell in the iPad class. I plan to continue posting challenges for the kids knowing that one student is continuing her education outside of my classroom and the school building.