A new TLLP grant

My teaching partner in crime, Daniella, and I applied for another Teacher Learning and Leadership Program Grant for the 2013-2014 school year and our project was accepted.  Our project is called "Comics Aren't Just For Kids: Graphic Texts in the High School Classroom".  We are going to develop lessons and assessments centered around graphic texts, both paper and digital. 

The project is in its infancy but we are attending the kick off conference in May and are already looking at what graphic texts we will use.  I have a number of volunteers from my first semester Studies in Literature class who are helping us choose our texts.  They are called the "Dork Knights" (a hilarious play on the Holy Names Knights, the Dark Knight and our own "dorkiness").  Daniella is less dorky so I hope she will lend some much needed legitimacy to the project. We are also hoping to get a local comic book store involved.

One of the really exciting aspects of the project is the purchase of 25 iPad Mini's to use.  The TLLP team at the Ministry of Education suggested I look into the work of Dr. Ruben Puentedura and his SAMR model.  The SAMR model talks about the use of technology in the classroom.  I am looking forward to exploring his ideas and using technology as a way to redefine both our instruction through this project and also redefine our assessment and evaluation of the project using the iPads.

I have started to collect ideas for the technology aspect of the project on my TLLP Pinterest Page.

So, apply for a grant.  We have gotten 2 in the last 3 years and our first project, Equal is Not the Same: DI & the Middle Learner was a great learning experience. It is true that Teacher-Directed Professional Development is the way to go.

We will be using both a website and a blog to document our progress.

The Misplaced Metaphor

Who first started using the word "piece" in education?  Did some well known speaker use a puzzle metaphor and the puzzle part got lost?  Two years ago, I counted the number of times the word was used at a conference and it was in the triple digits.  It has found its way into just about every educator's speech.  I thought it would lose popularity but instead, it is gaining fast.

I really hate it.