Today I took a one-day "sabbatical" from my duties at Chase Street Elementary and spent the day at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School here in Clarke County. An interesting sidenote is that I taught at BHL for five years when I first moved to Athens. The school has changed dramatically. Over the past two years, the building has been renovated. Even though the exterior looked the same, the interior was completely new. This includes the media center which is run by Ms. Shonda Foster. The media center no longer looked like just a library as I had remembered. Now, besides having books, there is a maker space, a study section, and an open classroom. Within the library, there are movable pieces of furniture allowing for flexible learning spaces. Despite these more modern elements, I was surprised by what I didn't see, computers or technology for students to access. This became more of a shock when I learned that there was not a computer lab in the building. For the record, there was one during my time teaching at the school 10 years ago.
I spent my time with Ms. Foster talking about technology between seeing every 6th grade ELA class throughout the day. I spent time talking to the SST (Student Support Teacher) about her role in the building. Most schools have an SST and their job is to assist in managing the student devices as technology issues arise. Clarke County began a one-to-one initiative about five years ago under the former superintendent who placed an importance on technology.
It is evident that Ms. Foster loves her job and is passionate about what she does. I left BHL with a smile on my face knowing how fortunate these students are to have such an amazing role model, teacher, and resource at their disposal.
February 8, 2019 - 3 hrs.
Today I got to see first hand how our Instructional Technology Specialist teaches lessons. Today's observation took place at Whit Davis Elementary School here in Clarke County. Over the week, the students in third grade have been learning about gorilla habitats. Their assignment was to create a habitat using paper, cardboard, natural elements such as leaves and sticks, etc. They also were required to complete a worksheet that outlined the key elements. Today was their day to present. After each group presented their habitat, Mr. Siegmund led the students through slides on Pear Deck. Each student logged into Pear Deck and answered 5 responses on the habitat presented. They included, "Will this be a safe habitat for gorillas?", "Will this habitat be healthy for gorillas?", and "Will gorilla be happy in this habitat?" Once all the students responded to a question, Mr. Siegmund had students share which elements they believe supported their selection. The last slide required the students to finish the statement, "I liked ...." in a text box. This gave the students the opportunity to reflect on the unique elements of the habitat created. These responses were projected onto the board and Mr. Siegmund randomly highlighted responses. However, he was constantly reminding students to provide specific details by drawing attention to those responses that provided supporting evidence. This was repeated after each presentation. The students became more efficient with answering the questions and they improved their written responses as more presentations occurred. Mr. Siegmund's use of technology to engage students and strengthen their understanding of habitats was fantastic.
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| Gorilla Habitat |
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