Bring Your Own Device Day One

I refrained from titling today's post "We Survived BYOD Day One" largely because there was nothing to survive. The servers did not crash, kids did not "test the waters" beyond having to be told once to put away their devices during an assembly-- no grumbling, back-talking or rolled eyes... every student appeared to understand that they were being given a unique privilege. The global issues of this experiment seemed to be a success.

Locally, my classroom delivery of instruction with the inclusion of devices sharpened over the day. If you ran into me after first or second period class today, I would have seemed harried and hagard. I was completely out of my comfort zone. Fortunately, I have third period planning and that "down time" gave me an opportunity to revisit my lesson, and figure out why I was uncomfortable. I usually enjoy workshop mode but it felt disjointed and the flow was "off."

We were in the library, which meant that everyone had the opportunity to use technology, whether they BYOD or not. I set up students with online exercises and resources on three web sources and suggested a fourth. What was "off" about periods one and two were more my issue than the students. The students seemed to react to the whole situation as if it was just a normal day.

My delivery felt out of balance because I am used to using print sources: textbooks and worksheets. Normally. I could monitor the progress of students copying notes off the board, then direct them to their textbook, then direct them to a handout, then direct them to applying the print resource to a draft. With students on smartphones, laptops, and tablets, they were all over the map in terms of directions. I could not as easily guide students through their activities for the day.

My solution? I borrowed the librarian, Mrs. Herring's, whiteboard. I proceeded to write out everything we were doing for the day. When students arrived, I walked them through the twelve things they had to do for the day, showed them where to find the sites on the overhead screen and fielded questions before we begin. Then I let them go. Suddenly the chaos was managed chaos again, and I was able to relax and observe, assess, respond, and clarify. Maybe it won't be that hard to be a 21st Century teacher after all?

What did we do today? I posted my crazy word of the day, root word of the day, word of the day, and thought for today on my school web page. (http://www.sesdweb.net/Page/3841) Just like in class, students had to write these things in their notebooks. Those who had tablets and laptops of their own were encouraged to rip the information from my page and save it in an English 8 folder. I posted a list of homophones I did not want students to continue to confuse anymore on edmodo.com. Students opened the posting and saved it on their device, or they printed it out, their choice.

For formative assessment, students were asked to tell me: what a subject and a verb were, what the difference was between singular and plural was, and what compound meant on http://wallwisher.com/wall/byod11062012. I posted their grammar work directions on edmodo, and created a drop box for them to send their answers to me paperlessly on edmodo. We were talking about how to make subjects and verbs to agree with compound subjects.

Lastly, I posted writing pitfalls for students to avoid on their final drafts that are due on Thursday. When I relaxed, I saw what I had read in Dina Spangenberger's master thesis about teaching 21st century learners. They were relaxed and seemed to feel truly at home, for the first time. I asked a few how they felt about today's crazy class and their answers were a variation of the same theme: finally.

BYOD Day One. We didn't survive. We succeeded.