YuperStar

why the name YuperStar and where I am going with this blog because you’re not going to read it if I don’t offer you something useful here pretty soon….ok,ok, lezmesplain.It’s simple. A glorified tracking system, basically, but I think of it as a kind of game, with teachers listed across the top and technologies available to them listed down the side (exactly the same as the categories you see listed on the right side of this blog). I know how busy teacher’s are, so I’ve been trying to think of reasonable goals that they can commit to that leave them feeling MOTIVATED rather than OVERWHELMED. This is what I’m thinking. At the beginning of the year (probably not this year), at the first faculty meeting, we’ll split up into three groups, maybe by language (there are about 30 in the department: ~6 French teachers, ~8 Spanish Teachers, 3 German teachers, and 2 Chinese teachers). I’ll ask them to skim through all of the technologies and identify two that they are willing to try out over the course of this year. The only stipulation will be that they cover as many distinct technologies as they can between their group members. That way, they aren’t all learning the same thing. By spreading it out, the hope is that someone in their small group will have some practical knowledge about each technology by the end of the year.So once each teacher has identified which two technologies it’ll be, we’ll put an empty circle in that spot on the grid.The object of the game is to accumulate as many points (dots) as possible….

Blue dot = Beginning. “I’ve watched someone use this technology before and I’m starting to use it myself to solve a problem or complete a task. I’m not thinking yet about how to apply this to education; I’m just learning how it works.” SHOW ME HOW IT WORKS.

Green dot = Getting there. “I’m starting to think about how I might integrate this in the classroom and I’ve even tried a few things, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it hasn’t worked so well, but I’m willing to try again, a little differently. I’m figuring out how this can really work for me, my students, and my curriculum.” COACH ME. ENCOURAGE ME.

Yellow dot = yeah baby, I’m a YuperStar! “I’ve used this technology enough that I don’t need anyone there to help me. I can handle it on my own. I’ve refined exactly how this technology can work for me in the classroom and come up with a duplicatable project that is effective and may even save me time in the future.” APPLAUSE. CHOCOLATE. AWE.

Red dot = Ridiculously Brilliant and Ready to Train. I am now better than the tech coordinator and can train someone else on the technology using variety of integration strategies. I will use these posts to share what I have learned works best when training teachers on different technologies. I CAN TEACH YOU HOW. I CAN TEACH YOU HOW TO TEACH.

SO. The goal for the year could be for each teacher to accumulate one yellow dot by the end of the year. The thing that’s nice about this program is that we don’t all have to be perfect with the technology to accumulate dots (or chocolate). Each small effort is rewarded, as it should be! I’m guessing that a typical learning curve will probably go something like blue dot, blue dot, green, green, green, green, green, YuperStar yellow!… and then maybe red, if they get so good at it, that other teachers will want to learn from their experience.Diane says this department likes chocolate. So maybe for this first year, we’ll just give out chocolate each time a teacher does anything tech-related and not worry about the colors. The colors are for me — an easy way to organize my training materials.But long term, I can see this kind of scheme going in a very productive direction. Imagine next summer, getting together for three days and learning from each other what works and what doesn’t. A of ridiculous amount of red dots…and tons of chocolate…in 3 days. That would be way cool.Oh, and I almost forgot the notebooks. There will be three notebooks on my desk, in beginner’s blue, getting-there-green, and YuperStar yellow. The Blue Notebook will have sheet protectors with a bunch of one-sheet wonders from this blog and other sources. Teachers will grab the sheets of interest, meet with me for assistance during walk-in hours, and ask questions, until they feel brave enough to start integrating.The green notebook will contain integrating sheets, also from the blog and other resources. When teachers try or create an activity, they’ll simply write a short note about what worked and what didn’t, and then drop it on my desk, in order to get their chocolate dot. I will be the all-powerful dot-meister. Then I will take all of this collective wisdom from the notebooks and keep updating the blog based on what works.The Yellow notebook will have PLAN B sheets for each teacher, just in case technology ever goes down in the lab. It will also have a record of tried-and-true activities with all the details spelled out, so that other teachers can try them too….ok, so we’ll see if this kind of thing flies. If not, that’s okay. I’ve got plenty of paper airplanes up my sleeve.