MBC : Summer Learning!

Well it's official...It's SUMMERTIME!! Whoop Whoop!!

And for the first time in 5 years of teaching...and 5 years of being with my teacher husband... We have absolutely NOTHING to do! Neither of us is working on a Masters Degree, no wedding to plan, no extra programs being taken through school...NOTHING. This is going to be interesting :)

To start the summer, my wonderful hubby, Zack, was still in North Carolina finishing up their school year. (They got out on the 10th..followed by three workdays). Needless to say...I needed to find something to keep myself busy while being home alone. The great thing is Clover School District is offering a wide-range of courses and classes to help prepare teachers for the upcoming 1-to-1 iPad program that is being rolled out next school year. Sooo I found a class that I was super interested in and enrolled in it before Zack started his summer vacation also.

Clover is also encouraging teachers and students to use the My Big Campus platform as a means of communication and work submission throughout the upcoming school year. I enrolled for the "Basics" course. I have had a little interaction with the site...but never really gotten the chance to use it as a main source within my classroom. So, bright and early on my Summer day...I went to the high school and got myself ready for an exciting learning session...

 
To begin the session we went over all the wonderfull-ness that we were going to cover throughout our session. Needless to say it was ALOT! I was beyond excited. Having never really worked with the platform, I was really excited to see all of the different things that it was capable of. We started with a little tour of the actual website and program before learning how to make our own personalized profiles; Check Mine Out! Now, through my Math group and curriculum leader, Christie Reid, I had already taken care of this step and felt pretty comfortable!

After getting our profiles covered, we moved into understanding the various perks of My Big Campus. We looked into EduTalk (basically a Twitter on just My Big Campus), We looked at the Drive (basically a Google Drive on My Big Campus where you can hold documents, pictures, videos, etc.), We looked at the Calendar (and how you can share it with groups, attach activities, etc.), and We looked at the Library (where other teachers, educators, school-fanatics can put bundles together of lessons, activities, videos, and other wonderful goodness!).

Lastly for our morning session we looked into how to create Groups. This is where I went a little crazy. I have MAJOR ideas for using this platform within my classroom this year...Especially in the 1-to-1 iPad greatness! I made a few...understatement...groups. Teaching only Math next year (Whoop Whoop) I made a Pre-Algebra and Algebra group, then made a group for my Academy class, made a group of my 8-3 Team, and of course had a Math-Department group for our school and an 8th-Grade Math group for the district. Yeaa...This might get overwhelming ;)

                           

 

This was the overall jest of what was covered throughout our morning session. The instructor is leading several other classes throughout the summer covering Communication, SchoolWork, Library, and the Drive. I plan on covering these courses to as my husband does his "man-things" around the house and in the yard this summer. So of course....I'll keep you posted. I think this is going to be a great learning experience for both myself and my students. I think My Big Campus is really going to help organize and provide some structure for the communication between myself and my students; as well as, the use of iPads within the classroom!

So, until I enroll for my next course...I'll be cheering on #USMNT in their World Cup appearances! #USAUSAUSA

Until next time.... :)