However, one person really opened my eyes to a new ideas of education. Edward Bernetich, BMS principal, was and is a visionary of what education can be. He focused on building solid relationships with all stakeholders. This is the foundation for an good educator. Ed also had a way with his staff, he presented new and exciting ideas about education and fostered and environment for risk-taking. He encouraged, nurtured, and inspired me to try new and unique things. For this I am forever grateful. I am sure his values, comments and ideas will be embedded in my postings on this blog.
Ed hired me to try something out. His vision was one laptop for every child at Beachwood Middle School: I would run the test program. I was given a classroom with a wireless lab of 25 mac books that could be used at any time and for any reason. My job, sounds simple, was to figure out how to use them in the social studies classroom. This was not an easy task. No books and few websites talked about what to do with that much power in your room. I was on my own, but supported, to try new things and see where it led. The first year was very difficult. My first task was to build a webpage and develop webquests to work from--both things I had done before. Time was the issue, one 3 year old and a newborn on the way (Oct of that year) and living in a region/city that was all new to my wife and me. However, over the year I began to find new and interesting ways to use technology to engage kids in content and teach them at a higher level, I believe. I will use this site to explain some of those experiences and provide insight in how computers are used today in my room and at BMS. What is happening at BMS is good and worth others hearing about.
The posts that following will not be in any order, but just posts of how my students have been doing things over the last 8 years. I hope someone finds this information useful to what is happening in their classroom.