Honeymoon-ing

The energy that comes with the first day of school is amazing. The new class of freshman given a soft landing into high school being welcomed by students and staff. Taking time to give the Freshman a chance to navigate the building but also get initiated positively going through the gauntlet a tunnel of cheers, high fives, welcomes and great to meet you's. So the school year starts with a positive message and an emphasis on compassion, attitude, and leadership.

I decided to tie the school message into my opening lesson with a Math cipher found here.

The focus on PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) is something that we can foster to our daily class, how we conduct ourselves and interact with other people. It may be the singularly most important thing that teachers (a school community) can give to their students.

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Preparation for One to One.

The best part of my journey in tech integration is having the support in place and a dynamic, positive, and collaborative team put together. My mentor/coworker Mrs. Norton (her blog is here). Together we did a lot of the work necessary to make a One to One rollout of Chromebook devices for 1500 students. This was not without hiccups but as a coworker told me "in any other industry 90% or better is great." We did everything we could to help out on our end.


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Launching Activity for Classcraft Game

Every new school year it's my priority to get to know my students as soon as possible. Last year I had them write me a letter of introduction detailing their biographical information, their history with math class, and their hopes for the future. Breaking with that I pursued a crazy idea, crazy enough it might just work.

Using these resources I made: the character sheet, power point, and cover. The Book of Heroes, a binder which contains information shared by my students, their pictures (thanks to my wife for her adhesive roller) and then am using the book as a way to keep myself organized (grade sheets per class) and an in to be graded, and to be returned section. This provided a unique way to track the binding Hero Pacts signed by students when they agreed to play the Classcraft Game.