Over the summer, I wrote about collaboration and its power to help us learn. One of the things I have noticed about our faculty laptop program is that the place where real innovation happens is when we have a group of fellows who have similar interests (department, grade level, etc.) have a clear goal and collaborate to achieve this goal. This year it’s most aparent in our K-3 faculty who have a weekly Tablet user workshop. This time is spent learning new software, sharing ideas, and discussing how to use them in class. These faculty are using their tablets as anecdotal recording devices so when it comes to giving students feedback and evaluation (which should be often - even at the lower school level), they have a running record. By collaborating on this project, they have revived a conversation about the importance of documentation and evaluation, a clear curricular goal. They are using Microsoft OneNote where they can post inages, text (typed or written), audio and video content.Â
A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate in Lesson Study with our Math Department. Lesson study is a method of teacher professional development, widely used in Japan, where faculty defne a learning goal, define the skills and content required before and after the lesson, design the lesson, observe the lessonbeing taught, collaborating on how to make the lesson better, and thenteach the lesson again to see the results.Â
As I sat through the first session last week, my mind jumped to the small groups of laptop teachers with whom I am working. I thought, “these small groups could tie in to a technology lesson and collaborate to design a lesson that has a curricular goal, but uses technology to enhance it.” By working as a group, many of the bases that one teacher would miss would be hit. There is also the support structure to allow faculty to do their lesson for the first time. Much as the K-3 table group had done.
In Lesson Study, the product is not the point. The learning along the way is the point. Just as we hope learning in the classroom will be (or at least I do). To come out with a well designed lesson at the end, but the core participants have gone through the process of thinking about teaching and learning in a very intense way, giving them insight into their own teaching and learning - and the teaching and learning of their students. Useful information that they can apply in the classroom the next day. Â
Activity leads to learning, and that is why writing is so powerful. I blog because when I think of ideas like these, writing helps to make connections and solidify them. I think the process of Lesson Study will influence my professional development for the rest of my life. Thanks to the Math Department for inviting me to participate.Â
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1 OneNote Extensibility & More.. : October/November Blogging Round Up // Nov 27, 2006 at 2:02 pm
[...] Here are the most recent blog posts that have been rounded up by Mike, our test manager.  ”[OneNote] seems so good that I am almost scared to use it!” October Blogger Round Up  ”Something that works beautifully: OneNote shared notebooks” “OneNote and blogs have a special relationship. Not only can you turn any entry in OneNote with a few mouse clicks into a blog post, but the OneNote team also communicates heavily via blogs with its users.” “i always wanted something close to what Tom Cruise’s character uses in “Minority Report-when he can move all the pieces of information just on the sheets of plastic, its a dynamic information system!!! ” A happy Connect customer: “W00t! The OneNote Team Fixed My Bug!” “I think OneNote 14 should…” “[OneNote] 2003 I never really found much use for, but 07 is “da bomb” in Internet Lingo” “Microsoft’s OneNote tool may be the perfect replacement for the pen and paper.” “I am an avid user on Microsoft OneNote, in my opinion one of the most valuable applications available.” An unhappy OneNote customer: “Am I the only one thinking of dropping the Tablet PC? ” Teachers using OneNote: “By collaborating on this project, they have revived a conversation about the importance of documentation and evaluation” From a blogger happy with OneNote’s Connect site: “Bug and issue tracking – Good job Microsoft”  ”Save time collecting information from the Web” November Blogging Round Up “Everyone that I know who uses OneNote is fanatical about it.” “For the longest time since the earliest days, developers and users alike had been keeping an eye out for the next killer app. OneNote 2007 will be.” “Now that I’ve used ON 2007 for the last several months (Beta), ON 2003 seems as bland as vanilla ice-cream.” From a Mac Blog! “I currently use Microsoft OneNote… and I’ve found killer app heaven.” “I used OneNote 2003 in the past and I thought it was cool but not cool like 2007.” Office 2007: “The superstar of this release is OneNote” “My initial reaction is “wow” Multiple good quotes from a new blog that LOVES OneNote 2007: “Look, don’t get me wrong here: Get OneNote 2007 the very minute it’s available to you.” “OneNote 2007: one business user’s observations on the killer app pearl of office 2007″ “I do know that OneNote 2007 may be a thousand times more the software that OneNote 2003 has ever been.” “I’ve pushed through more productivity during these past two weeks than I might have hoped to do during a whole month before I started using OneNote” “Get OneNote 2007 the very minute it hits the streets.” Feedback on the OneNote 2007 blogging experience “Newbie to Addict in One Day Flat, to Evangelist in One Day More” “Get OneNote for your laptops or computers. It kicks ass and I’ve been using it for a long time.” “A picture is worth a thousand words - especially in OneNote”  Thanks for blogging about OneNote, we are listening! [...]
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