This first year in our new building has had a multitude of firsts. One of these firsts that has been near and dear to me has been the BYOD program. Motivation and inspiration for this program started at the end of the 2012-2013 school year with a BYOD program that did not take off at all. I needed to reflect on why it did not take off and make a solid plan for what needed to be different for 2013-2014.
The first thing I did was to revisit the flow map that had been put together for the BYOD programs for CISD. Honestly, everything that I needed to plan was found right there. I also played the part of a thief in this planning stage and stole a lot of ideas from AV Cato. After plugging in dates for the parents meeting, monthly meetings with teachers, when the newsletter was going to go out, and when the whole program was going to be evaluated, I started to create the letters that needed to go out to the parents. Long story stated succinctly, I was bound and determined to be completely ready for this program to take off successfully.
There were three people who joined me in this endeavor - Mrs. Stapp from 3rd grade, Mrs. Harper from 4th grade, and Mr. James from 5th grade. These were the three teachers who were the BYOD teachers for their grade levels. Some of the problems we encountered this year were dealing with the many different platforms the students brought to us and getting everyone signed into our district network. After these problems were overcome many wonderful learning experiences took place.
One of the main things we are going to do this next school year is to have a day at the beginning of the year that is going to focus solely on teaching everyone how to sign on to the network. This will alleviate frustrations on teacher and student levels. The second thing we are going to do differently is add 2nd grade and find more teachers in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade who desire to be involved with BYOD program. We are looking forward to great things happening in the BYOD program at CE next year.
