Well, it's been a big month for us. We have moved back to the East Coast from Okinawa, Japan, have been lucky enough to have a mini vacay in Hawaii along the way, visited with both sets of parents, took a week long vacation in the Outer Banks with my sisters and some of our best friends, moved to South Carolina, bought a house (we close today), and I am extremely thankful that I was able to get a job here as well, teaching 6th grade math and science! Whew, that's a list. I am thrilled with all of the new developments in our lives, and I am absolutely beyond excited about my new position.
While I love teaching math, I really have missed teaching science the past few years, so I am happy to have that opportunity again. When I interviewed for this position, I just felt like this school would be such an amazing fit for me, and would challenge me to become a better teacher. It is a 1:1 iPad school, and has managed to become almost completely paperless. They are also working on moving towards an entirely project based learning (PBL) approach where students are learning the material through authentic, cross-curricular projects. I am teamed with another teacher new to the school, and we are the only two person team (he will cover history and language arts).
My new principal is awesome (from what I can tell) - she was there when the school opened and is the one who said she wanted iPads. She also had a hand in every part of the school, including the tables and chairs that were ordered (no desks for us!). She truly believes that if public education does not change, then we will disappear - and that there are charter schools and private schools doing some really innovative things that we need to catch up with. There are a ton of other really great things going on here (like supplies being available on each hall for students to use for free for projects), but I'm sure ill hit on those in later posts. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with how awesome my new
job is. ;)
I probably won't being doing math notebooks again this year (little disappointed about that), but since the school is paperless - literally, the only thing on the supply list is earbuds - I will have to move in a different direction. I WILL be doing stations though and LOTS of projects. Stay tuned for more!
What do you think about 1:1 iPad programs?
~Brittany~
