I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the responsibility that our students have demonstrated since our 1:1 Chromebook deployment. While I was excited for the teaching and learning components of the 1:1, I was nervous about the logistics and responsibility of the students. However, after this full week of using them, the students have surpassed my expectations.
One of the many benefits of 1:1 is supporting a more personalized and differentiated learning environment for our students. In addition, we were also thrilled to be able to enact Daniel Pink's latest research from his new book When which outlines peak performance time for analytical tasks, such as test taking. To be fair and consistent, it would be best for all of our students to be able to test in the morning--the best time (for the majority) to perform at their best on tests. We could never do this without all students having a device. I must say that I was worried about students not bringing devices, or not bringing them charged, but students have not only brought them, they have been managing having them and taking care of them all week.
We are so grateful to have this opportunity for our students. The devices have not replaced the type of learning we do at the middle school, but they are definitely supporting and transforming the learning. Since this was a week of two reduced schedules due to testing, and as an outcome, class time being lost--in some classes more than others, the devices allowed students to work on a variety of activities to stay on task or keep from getting too far behind.
I really look forward to seeing how we, our school, teachers, and students, continue to benefit from this opportunity. I also am appreciative of the patience, hard work, and responsibility of all involved. I want to give a special shout out to our technology department, media center, and office staff for handling so many of the logistics which helped with our first year of deployment.
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