THE
GREAT MAINE LAPTOP EXPERIMENT
Chris
Toy, Principal
Freeport (ME) Middle School
Maine is undertaking a bold experiment. The goal: Put Apple iBooks in the hands of every middle schooler across the state. In September, the first wave of 17,000 laptops were distributed to 7th-graders at 239 schools, including Freeport Middle School, where MiddleWeb diarist Chris Toy is principal. A strong proponent of Maine's Learning Technology Initiative, Chris will chronicle the laptop adventure for us.
Laptop
Diary #9
It's Time to Prepare Our 8th Grade Teachers
The MLTI continued to be the focus of media attention last week.
We received a call from Down East Magazine, a monthly publication with a wide readership both inside and outside of Maine. They sent a reporter and a photographer on separate days. The reporter was equally interested in the students' and the teachers' perspectives about the integration of technology in the curriculum.
I was impressed by the time the photographer took to ensure high quality images of the classrooms, the students, and what was on the computer screens. He arrived at around 9 a.m. with a carload of equipment. I had arranged for one of our 7th grade math teachers to work with him. I took the photographer to the room, introduced him to the teacher and left for a while. When I returned the room was darkened, reflective umbrellas were up around the room, and the laptop screens were glowing with fractal images.
Interestingly, the students seemed to be ignoring the photographer, more engrossed with the evolving images on their screens than the pictures being taken. Following a few wide angle shots of the classroom, the photographer worked more closely with three students, taking closeups and interviewing each one about what they were doing on their computers. The students did a great job. It will be interesting to see how the article comes out in next month's issue.
Getting our 8th grade teachers ready
Last week also marked another MLTI accomplishment in our school. As most of us know, after the planning and successful launching of a project, the important work, and often the hardest work, is managing and sustaining it. Even though the 7th grade teachers and students have done an outstanding job of implementing the MLTI, we need to remember that there is still a second year to be implemented.
As soon as I felt the 7th grade was on its way, I knew it was time to focus on the 8th grade. It is especially critical to provide professional development and support for the 8th grade teachers. Remember, the 7th graders will have had a whole year of integrating and learning with technology as they enter the 8th grade next September. Unless the 8th grade teachers are up and running with the iBooks and know how to integrate technology into the curriculum, the project will bog down until the teachers get up to speed.
Fortunately, though a special pricing program from our Apple representative, John Lunt and I were able to scrape up enough funding for six iBooks. The special price included the new operating system, wireless connectivity, three years of support, and a bundle of software.
It was great to arrive at the 8th grade team meeting last week and present the teachers with their iBooks and a short tutorial by John. They were so excited and appreciative. We then began to talk about how we could support the team throughout the rest of the year so they would be ready for next year's 8th graders.
Their excitement
and enthusiasm really made my week and reminded me of how it felt as a
teacher when my students were really engaged and wanted to learn.
