Amanda and I met at the end of August to finalize curriculum plans and to to test out the projector and eBeam. She had mapped out the unit in a concept map created in Inspiration, and we referred to it as a guide as she walked me through how she aligned the lessons with our UD planning. It was very cool - the map is fairly complicated (huge, actually!), but we moved back and forth between diagram and outline views whenever I got lost. Amanda's really taken off with Inspiration and although her students won't have it on thier own iBooks, it'll be a really useful instructional tool.
The first day of school was September 4, and by the end of the week I had received eBeam whiteboard images. The first practice runs were underway and, once tech integrator gets the iBooks into students' hands, things will really start cooking!
Last night was Gray-New Gloucester Middle School's Open House, and Amanda used it as an opportunity to tell parents about the project and to inform them about how the integrated technology will help both them and thier kids. (And I used it as an opportunity to distribute photo release forms so that we can catch kids in action throughout the unit.) I sat in the back and didn't say a peep - didn't have to because she did such a great job describing UD and explaining and demonstrating the technology. The project and eBeam were running throughout the presentation, and Amanda referred them to the need to get on Studywiz once they get their accounts - homework and online lessons from class will soon be posted! Amanda also introduced parents to blogs and podcasts, and reassured them that all online activities will be password-protected.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention that the snowball mic arrived the other day - podcasts, podcasts, podcasts.
So...away we go! The most immediate next step is to test out kids' reactions to a video with both closed captions and audio description turned on....stay tuned for my next post!
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