You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if Your Classroom or School is Going BYOD or 1:1

Our school has started down the yellow brick road toward BYOD.  We have found some interesting resources along the way and are working to have engaging training with our staff and convincing conversations with our parents.  We started with a flipped classroom model and sent information in the form of a Google Presentation to our staff before a whole staff vote about whether or not we should go BYOD.  This helped our staff to have time to review resources, think about pros and cons and to be ready to ask questions and finally to vote!  It is important to use professional development and meeting times to model good instruction and transformative practices.  Have you thought about flipping your professional development or faculty meetings?  

We created a student use agreement and had district IT and the Legal department finalize it.  We want to have parents and students take ownership of the security and set up of their devices to make sure that they stay up-to-date and ready for school.  Liability, insurance and security issues are addressed in this agreement.  We voted as a staff and the majority voted to move forward.  We are now working to design professional development and convince our parents that this is the best move for our kids.  We sent out a survey asking for information from our parents.   Our next steps involve informing out parents and then presenting at a PTA meeting.  We are going to flip our presentation to PTA by sending out this presentation before the meeting and then demonstrating a lesson at the PTA meeting using devices that parents bring to the meeting.  One of the most convincing stories about how BYOD looks in and transforms a classroom comes from my home state of Idaho.  CBS showed a documentary entitled TEACH that included a class in Kuna, Idaho that received a grant to convert the classroom to a BYOD and work with KHAN Academy.  The teacher was reluctant but as the year went on, she realized that this model transformed her teaching.  She was worried about being replaced but found that this teaching style is how teaching should look.  Take a look at her story.  

BYOD in Idaho