February 19, 2010 by David Russell.

I have been paying a fair amount of attention to the ideas, successes, and failures that surround 1 to 1 (1:1).  I want to write this blog in order to open it as a discussion point for those involved in this grant program.  The guiding questions for this discussion would be:  What would your students be able to do if each kid had access to a computing device throughout the day?  How do you think this type of school environment or philosophy would impact student achievement?

So here are a few of my initial comments regarding some of these issues.  I attended a conference work session that discussed the idea of a true 1:1 scenario with every kid having a fully functional laptop and that any other device would not be acceptable.  I am not convinced.  I feel that the idea that every kid needs a full blown laptop with a slew of locally loaded applications is short sighted to the needs of the students in balance with the costs associated.  For instance, perhaps the bulk of high school kids need access to a device they can take notes on, write papers, and (most importantly) access the internet.  The idea that the students can do the vast bulk of their work through the use of cloud computing is not new and is gaining momentum.  We want the students to be publishing, collaborating, and archiving their work so the use of the web and some of the great service out there is essential.  Text book publishers are coming along slowly and but other than that what do we need for the kids?  My point is, we have so many resources and tools at our fingertips so lets put it at the kids fingertips on a regular basis.  Close the gap between haves and have-nots.  What are your thoughts?

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January 1, 2010 by David Russell.

I have been having a great deal of fun working on the new and improved curriculum for Web Design II.  The goal for this curriculum is to form an experience for students that gives them a better understanding of the latest trends of Web Design, how to work cooperatively and collaboratively with others, and an authentic project to learn from.  They will be able to use the the projects they produce for portfolio examples and to guide potential career/post secondary choices.  Ryan Smiley is my partner in crime on this re-write so I am hoping that the collaboration between the two of us will bleed through to the students.  As we move forward, I will be working through the E2T2 grant to assist me with the evolution of the structure of this class.  If anyone has a few minutes, please take a look and give me feedback.  Here is the link to the class wiki where all the activities and student collaboration will be organized through.  Please keep in mind that it is a work in progress and the primary reason behind using a wiki for the project is so that it can be open to change by students and other teachers.  It may grow to encompass Web Design 1 and other classes at EVHS.

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September 9, 2009 by David Russell.

As I prepare for the upcoming school year and make the most of the extended summer, assessment is one of the first things I try to nail down.  Yesterday and today we have been analyzing student data from various tests with the most notable being CSAP and Edison Benchmark testing.  These two tests are quite interesting for both teachers and especially students to think about.  For students, if you watched the president’s speech yesterday I hope that you took it to heart and look forward to using school time and these assessments as opportunities to prove yourself.  For teachers, these tests represent a very crucial tool that so much resource is poured into and I feel that if 100% of our teachers took the time to truly reflect on what the results tell us, it would be powerful.  From all the Language Arts/English, Science, and Math teachers to the P.E., Fine Arts, Industrial Technology, and other “specials”, we need to all bring our focus to student achievement.

Teachers can do this.  Look at the strengths and weaknesses and focus on individual students(not percents) in our classes and look at what we do well then replicate it with all students.  The Benchmark testing has great potential due to being a formative assessment .  We will be able to use the results from each administration of the test to adjust instruction each month to fit the needs of our students.  All teachers should be looking at this formative data each month for each of their students.  This does not have to take a ton of time and should be viewed as a part of the lesson planning process.  An exciting development is the planned use of an ACT aligned Benchmark assessment.  The statistics I have seen showing how improvement on Benchmark testing translates into improved achievement on CSAP and ACT renews my enthusiasm for the use of all these assessments.

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