Introduction

Professionally I do the following...
-Teach middle schoolers
-Teach middle school math, science, health, and physical education
-Work at an under resourced Catholic School in Northern Indiana
-Try to juggle having a family with leading education reform at my school

My goals for this blog are the following...
-Give myself and others a place to reflect on attempts to shift from teacher centered classrooms to learner centered classrooms.
-Provide a location for people to share ideas about transitioning to a more learner centered classroom environment.
-Provide a place to share struggles about transitioning.


Currently, our school has wireless internet but a student computer ratio of about 7 to 1. I have taught for 3 years and am looking for new ways to teach science and math that reflect what actual scientists and professionals do with science and math.

This summer, my goal is to create a plan for fully using the four computers in my classroom (for project based learning), while at the same time establishing procedures at the beginning of the year. I am nervous about managing student behavior with only four computers. This means not all students will be able to use the computers at the same time, therefore I picture a stations approach working the best.

However, ISTEP testing is in the fall and the spring this year. Therefore I am looking at ways to use student centered approaches to prepare for those tests.