The sweet smell of SUCCESS!!!!!

Success doesn't come to you…you go to it -Marva Collins

And that's just what we did! Thank goodness for the tons of snow that we got in the last two weeks. The days without students allowed time for me to tap into the greatest PLN in the world! With the help of Chris O'Neal (@onealchris) I was able to begin syncing our cart successfully with a PC. It's still very cumbersome...but at least we are able to sync apps to the iPod Touches.

The focus of this post isn't so much about the iLearn Project (but definitely check it out at our Wikispace), it's more about the power of the PLN. I have always appreciated the learning that is spawned from the various blogs I read and people that I follow on Twitter, however I truly experienced the magnitude of a PLN a few weeks ago. In the middle of my despair with the iLearn Project, I sent out an SOS Twitter to my network to see if anyone could help me. Not only was my SOS heard, I received a life raft and a ride back to shore! Information came via tweets, personal emails, and blogs to help me solve my syncing problem. I was overwhelmed (and so excited) to know that I have such a great resource out there to help me through any adventure that I take on to promote 21st Century Learning! I hope to repay the favor one day VERY soon!

So this post is not so much about what's going on in the classroom right now. It's a shout out to my PLN peeps and a big THANK YOU to you ALL!!!!!

3-2-1....BLAST OFF...or will it be CRASH and BURN!?!?!

"Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point where you have to throw yourself into the action & put your heart on the line." -Phil Jackson

The launching of the iPod Touches was exactly that...we threw ourselves into the action and put our hearts on the line! As usual, the students rose to the occasion and took it to the next level! Mrs. Stacey started with a guided discovery on how to use the iPod Touches. The students filled out K-W-L charts while identifying their understanding of iPod Touches and what they wanted to learn more about. The students were then assigned a specific app on which to become an expert. Then they shared out any/all information about that app and answered their classmates' questions. In the video linked below, you will see that the students were a little apprehensive on investigating their app. I am impressed with the language that Mrs. Stacey uses with her students. The video is approximately 9 minutes - but worth the watch!

iLearn Launch

Although the iLearn Launch was a success, we are in the middle of frustration right now with our Bretford Cart. We are having limited success with syncing our iPod Touches, we have to sync 1 at a time and currently only 7 out of 27 have successfully synced. This is causing our project momentum to slow down tremendously. Currently, we are relying on our PLN to help us out with these issues, as we are not getting much support from Bretford or Apple. If you have any suggestions to help promote our success, I would love to hear from you!

Our mental work is far from over...but we are ready to stay in the middle of the action! The question is, will we be able to?