Yoga Breathing and Developing A Set of Objectives for Your Program

Yoga breathing. Yes, yoga breathing, is the key to how I am making it through the trials and tribulations of implementing a one to one initiative. It is important to have a clear set of objectives for what you want to be able to accomplish with your technology tools...and stay focused on those objectives. As you will find out as you begin serious discussions about what equipment to purchase, what operating systems to run, what software and applications to include, how to distribute them, who to train on what... there is the potential for a lot of differing opinions and ideas. It is very easy to lose site of the fact that technology is a tool you are using to improve teaching and learning in your building. Yoga breathing is one way to take a step back and process all the information that you are wading through. It also is a way to lower your anger or frustration level before responding too quickly in a discussion.

So, here is a quick description of how to use yoga breathing to lower your stress levels. Sit up straight. Take a deep, slow breath in through your nose and focus on the breath as it travels all the way down to the base of your stomach. Slowly exhale, through your nose letting your mind follow the breath. Now focus on the issue at hand. Is it worth the argument or are there other battles to fight down the road. Can you see more clearly where your focus needs to be?

Another way to help you focus on what the main objectives for your one to one program are is to conduct a staff and student survey. Google Docs forms is one way to accomplish this. This application allows you to create surveys, publish them online, then analyze the results as a spreadsheet or series of graphs. I did a survey of my building staff about how they might use additional technology in their classrooms. I used the results to develop 5 guiding questions for our one to one intiative.

THE 5 GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR A ONE TO ONE INITIATIVE

• How can we use technology to assess student learning?
• How can we use technology to promote 21st Century skills (collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking)
• How can we use technology to support independent learning, cooperative learning and research?
• How can we use technology to support learning for all students including special needs and ESL students?
• How can we use technology to support standards based lessons that engage student learners and ensure that a rigorous curriculum is implemented in our classrooms?

Here are the responses I received from my staff in a report I shared with our Superintendent and the building principal. FHS GUIDING QUESTIONS

This information was not only useful for making some initial decisions about hardware and software, but it also served as the starting point for making decisions about staff professional development.

We worked with two technology coordinators, who are also consultants from Educational Collaborators ,to develop a 2 1/2 hour staff inservice about using technology to transform the way teachers teach, the way students learn and the way we assess mastery in our classrooms. We split the staff into two groups - teachers who would be working with Freshmen - and netbooks in their classrooms on a daily basis and teachers who would be working with the computer labs and rolling carts. By tailoring the sessions to the specific technology environment of the staff, we were able to share strategies for managing student computer use, locating content rich, engaging lesson materials and getting students to work collaboratively with each other and with their teacher.

To see some of the sites we shared as a staff, check out our Delicious bookmark page.

I am also using the guiding questions to start to make decisions about what should be on the student image for the netbooks. And that will be the topic of my next entry!