I'm fortunate to have a mentor who says the things that are tough to hear, the things I most need to hear to become a more effective speaker, writer, and educator.
An innovator and a visionary, she experiences paradigm shifts and then plans strategies to essentially revolutionize my educational approaches and practices. She notices what isn't working and creates solutions. She notices what's working well and figures out how to take that to next level.
Usually her targets are archaic educational practices that are going unquestioned, accepted as the way things are done.
The backstory of my projector diet begins in June when my mentor popped her head in my door, looked around, and asked, "How attached are you to this space?" Just the fact that she was calling my assigned classroom a "space" let me know this was going to be big.
"Not at all. Why? What are you thinking?"
She wondered if I might want to go mobile with my classes next year and experiment with the ability to work out of various locations.
"Sign me up!"
The super supportive administrative team embraced the idea, brainstormed possibilities, and implemented the details.
It's the third week of school and I'm loving the simplicity brought about by internet access and the fun of working out of different rooms.
Like last year, when I first went paperless, everything my students' parents used to buy and my students used to carry around is online: docs, folders, binders, texts, highlighters, dictionaries, variety of writing implements, notecards and flashcards, etc. That list could go on and on!
Since the only need my students and I have is the internet, we can work out of any space - a science room, a tech lab, the auditorium, a gym, a hallway even. Actually, we don't even necessarily have to be together in one place at one time...but that's a whole other article.
Anyhow, what an education and a pleasure to see up close the set ups and procedures my colleagues have in place! My students and I have sampled a small variety of rooms thus far and my new roommates have been welcoming, accommodating, and interested in my students' mobility options.
I wanted to make things as seamless as possible in the rooms my classes used. I realized the potential to cut into another teacher's class time if on back to back periods, we each needed to log on/off the classroom workstation hooked to the projector. Well that is simply unacceptable, with each teacher needing to make full use of each class period.
Neat solutions presented themselves immediately - a projector input splitter, a mini ultra portable projector to connect to any device, and the potential for wireless projection.
After giving projection options more thought, my tech mentor had ideas to share....
She started with something along the lines of that she was disappointed in us and that we were better than this. I've learned that with her, the heavier the opening constructive criticism, the bigger and better the idea or plan she has for me. So this is going to be good if she is "disappointed" in us!
She questioned why I was relying on a projector with all the tech tools available to me and my students. Further, she pointed out that acting like I needed to stand front and center and reference something on a single surface was perpetuating a model of education that was very 1800's.
Oh she's had another paradigm shift!
Immediately I saw the light. She was so right!
And she was already full of specific ideas: How about incorporating more Nearpod? How about a daily interactive agenda with links that could be posted on Google Classroom each day?
She pointed out what a powerful, empowering, and useful resource it would be to make the daily agendas an ongoing doc where any student could reference any resource from any day of the year (and of course- anywhere, anytime, and from any device). Everything could be linked there- every assignment, survey, class discussion, text, video excerpt, quiz, form, exit ticket, everything! With YouTube access for students, there is no need to try to watch videos as a class again. Now each student can pause, rewind, replay, fast forward as needed, in addition to selecting the perfect lighting and sound levels.
This conversation took place mid-day. I changed stream immediately, adjusting my plans to enable going projector-less in my afternoon classes.
I agreed to go as projector-less as possible going forward.
Even so, I voiced a few erroneous exceptions...
"What about Kahoot!?" I asked. "My students love to Kahoot! I have to project for that."
"Check out Quizizz. It has all the info on the student devices."
"Ok, but what about open house?"
"You can Nearpod your presentation onto Chromebooks or iPads, and parents can even choose to join on their own devices."
She has all the answers!
Thus my projector diet has begun...
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