Thursday, December 1, 2011

What did you learn today?

It's the end of the day. The bells rings and students are talking, walking and getting ready to head home. The school day is over and it's time to grab belongings, books and make the final stop at their lockers. Many have basketball or wrestling practice and few are staying for the after school program. A hand full of students have jobs and will be heading off to work. The rest are making a run for the bus or filing out of the building on their way to the parking lot. In the hallway I begin asking, "What did you learn today?". It was fun to see the expression on their face when I caught them off guard. Many students were very excited to share and I was impressed by the answers I received.

To often as an administrator I get caught up in managing the building and do not interact with the students about their learning. I did not plan to question the students today. It just happened. Sometimes the best lessons are impromptu conversations. Today's conversation was about learning and I may have learned the most!

As I continued to question students I also learned that a significant group of our kids are using Google docs to collaboratively complete presentations about water pollution. I have been discussing Google apps for education with a lot of people and plan to make the transition soon. Currently our students use their personal Google accounts to complete assigned tasks. In our Personal Finance class students are creating their own video advertisements about identity theft using flip cameras and iMovie. During Anatomy this morning our kids explored a web quest about mad, mad Dr. Dendrite. And, I also learned that our Music Tech class is desperately waiting for Garage Band to be downloaded to the iPod Touch cart. I learned that our kids expect to use technology but I'm pretty sure I knew that all along!

What did you learn today?

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