Instructional Technology Update March 24th-28th 2014 Andover High School Andover, Ma Daniel Downs

On Monday of this week I was able to speak with the English Department about the acquisition of District Google Accounts for their department. Their adoption of these tools will enable them to embrace the collaborative tools like shared documents,spreadsheets,forms and drawing tools. Several of the teachers are already using Google to do collaborative work with Google Documents and also using the Drive feature to back up existing documents.

On Wednesday I worked with Jorge Allen on the development of the website for the distrcit world languages department. We decided to go with the blogger platform so that district links and releases could be shared easilly and to improve department communication. Jorge has been collecting resources to share out through this platform.

Here is the link to check it out!!!!

Click Here

On Thursday I had the opportunity to visit the UTeach Program at UMass Lowell with the TSTT(Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers) students from Andover High School. During this day students met with the UTeach Programs Director about how the program at UMass Lowell helps prepare students for teaching in a variety of classrooms and also the licensing needs of teachers in Massachusetts.

This was a great opportunity to visit the UMass Lowell Campus and become acquainted with this great program which really helps assist students who want to become teachers learn not only what skills they will need in the classroom but also what licensure requirements will be necessary.

Andover Innovation Lab/Help Desk Presents At "Today's Students,Tomorrow's Teachers"(TSTT) Conference - Wheelock College Boston,Ma

Right before Christmas break(12/20/13) I had the opportunity to discuss with some future teachers the application of Project based Learning with Technology to some motivated young high school students who are interested in becoming educators at the TSTTT(Today's Students Tomorrow's Teachers) conference at Wheelock College in Boston. Today's Students,Tomorrows Teachers is a non-profit organization whose mission is:

"To recruit, mentor, and train culturally diverse and economically challenged students from high school through college and place them as effective teachers and committed leaders who strengthen schools and communities."

(TSTT Website)

Wheelock College TSTT Conference

Myself (Dan Downs) and the Help Desk Intern Zach Griffin, Digital Learning Specialist Barbara Murray,Director of Digital Learning Joanne Najarian and 3 female students from Andover High School traveled down to the conference together and spent and an engaging afternoon together collaborating with the students and presenting to them a variety of teaching strategies and perspectives on working in education.

My Presnetation(Link In Text)

The conference at Wheelock  provided an opportunity for this high school students to engage in meaningful dialogue about what it means to be a teacher with educators. My presentation was focused on showing them the benefits of a PBL curriculum using technology and how projects engage students on a different level and enable students to acquire a range of leadership, technology and collaboration skills as they complete projects(My Presentation Link). The girls also had an opportunity to learn about how to use Wikispaces (Presentation of Zach Griffin,IT Intern) and ask critical questions about what the process of becoming a teacher really is. 

The conference was a great opportunity to engage the students with the benefits of the teaching profession and answer their questions. I hope that the girls that I met during my presentation follow through on their goal of going into education and can help influence the lives of other youth. The experience included a variety of media presentations on the importance of 21st century skills for students and the chance for students to interact with educators outside of the classroom.

For more information about this program check out their website: 

http://www.tstt.org/