Our three district technology initiatives for the school year are: Google, Apple, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) at the high school.

The district continues to implement Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and the Apple Ecosystem throughout all buildings and grade levels. All students have access to Google Drive and students in grades three and up have access to e-mail. Teachers will continue to learn to use Google Tools for engaging students through collaboration, communication, and connecting classrooms.

The district is also moving forward with the Apple Ecosystem. Currently, there are 40 iPad Classrooms in the district iPad Academy. These teachers completed six days of Apple Foundations training and then applied to the iPad Academy. Each classroom is supported with one of the instructional technology specialists. They will continue to receive training on how to utilize the iPads for instruction. Each of our Middle Schools have iPad Air carts that teachers check out and students regularly use. Teachers will continue to learn how to utilize the tools on the Airs and their MacBooks to become power users for teaching and learning.

Our third district initiative is BYOD at the high schools. For the first time this fall, students can bring and use their own technology on the district network for instructional use. We will be working with a small group of teachers and the high schools to implement and grow our BYOD model.

This summer the tech team embarked on a book study journey. The team joined forces with friends from Florida to increase the potential for a powerful collaboration. While reading the book the team shared their thoughts, ideas and challenges on a Google Slides presentation.

“What Connected Educators Do Differently” by Todd Whitaker (@ToddWhitaker), Jimmy Casas (@casas_jimmy) and Jeffrey Zoul (@Jeff_Zoul) was highly discussed in Twitter chats by educators everyone. This book is very powerful by sharing the steps to becoming a connected educator and using social media to connect with peers from all over. Being a connected educator will enhance your personal learning experience and lead to new discoveries for you to use in your classroom, school or district. “What Connected Educators Do Differently” gives you step by step instructions on how to build your professional and personal learning network so that you can focus on what is important to you, when it is important to you.

Although we have been using Twitter for several years, this book has inspired us to leverage the power of Twitter so we can all benefit from these powerful, professional learning communities. As a result of our book study, we plan to have a monthly #tt4t chat and we want to encourage all of you to follow the district hashtag at #bpsne, share wonderful things you are doing in your classrooms, and grow your own personal learning networks. Connect with us at Ann @annfeldmann1, Jeanette @mrsjcarlson, and Jeff @jeffreybernadt.