Teacher Inservice Day

Opening day is almost here.  I, along with the other 8th grade teachers, spent the better half of the morning and afternoon getting our rooms ready for tomorrow's "opening ceremonies".  I am particularly excited about this year more than others, for this year offers many new things in Room 104:

• All new handheld wireless student responders
• Interactive whiteboard
• Interactive wireless tablet
• New interactive online classroom management system called Moodle
• New seating arrangement thanks to the smaller class sizes
• New online subscription to http://www.pbworks.com/
• New online subscription to http://www.voicethread.com/
• Continued online subscription to http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
• Continued online subscription to http://www.brainpop.com/

All this, plus the 7th & 8th grade will be sharing a new mobile computer lab with 20 wireless Dell notebooks.  I spent most of my summer developing and writing an online curriculum through Wilkes University, and it exposed me to a great deal of amazing online content.  I also spent a week at Bucknell University as a technology instructor to over 100 of the best teachers in the state at the Keystone Technology Summit.
My feeling is that today's students are 21st Century learners, a term I will use quite frequently.  It means that they learn differently from how you and I did 20-30 years ago.  They have the ability to access information instantly, and that's what they expect.  They want to be creative and express themselves, including online.  They are great communicators, ESPECIALLY online.  We, as teachers, need to embrace this enthusiasm that their generation has for technology and use it to develop them both academically and socially.
I am looking forward to a great year, and I can't wait for tomorrow to get here.

PS- Go PHILLIES!!!