On January 10th, 2012, we were fortunate to have two great faculty presenters from our own Allendale Columbia School, Spanish teacher, Lindsey Brown and Physical Education teacher, Ray Istas. Both teachers stepped outside of their comfort zone to try some very different things using technology.

Lindsey Brown - She talked about using her web-site (designed in the style of a blog) to create a community across the three levels of Spanish she teaches.  She became interested in the way creating the “blog” entries has shaped her pedagogy. She has been able to capture and reflect on spontaneous teachable moments due to the forum of reporting.  In addition, she designed projects that require more synthesis and evaluation from the students, a direct result from the creative process of formulating the “blog.”  In the future, Lindsey is hoping to launch a REAL blog that allows for more student reaction and student comments.

Ray Istas - He presented an iPad App that he created for middle school P.E. class.  The presentation included the jump rope app itself and the steps he took in order to create the app.  He discussed the process of learning Xcode and Adobe Illustrator, submitting the app to Apple, and making the app functional. Currently, Ray’s Jump Rope app is still being developed and is not yet available in the Apple App Store.