Into the Lion's Den, Welcome to the District, Ms. Bauknecht

Howdy.


I'm Cassie Bauknecht. I teach science at South High School. This is my 2nd year with the district and 2.5th year as a teacher. I've taught Special Ed Chemistry, Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Medical Interventions. 

2 years ago in mid-August, I got hired with Waukesha School District. I upended myself from my Madison residency and moved to Waukesha in the blink of an eye to officially start my full-time career. I had 2 brand new classes along with a 3rd that I was familiar with. I was new to Ipads, new to Apple, and never had taught at a 1-to-1 school before. 



I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING. 


With the bustle of the new school year, I was tossed into the lion's den and told "good luck!" in all senses, technology included. It took me a few months before I even touched my own Ipad, knew what BB9 stood for, or climbed off of the ground, which felt like I was experiencing at least a 7 on the Richter scale daily anyway with all the newness of my life, onto the SAMR ladder.

In cliff notes, my tech journey has looked like this:



1. Stare nervously at my tech collecting dust, worrying about how to even start.
2. Join the Vanguard team because someone at some point in time told me to join some sort of professional group.
3. Go to Google Summit.
4. Stare nervously at all my notes from the Summit, worrying about how to even start.
5. START! Google Apps for Education was my clarity.

Since my actual inception into the tech world, I've become an advocate revolving around the philosophy that technology is an integral part of our current world and we need to learn how to use it for good, not evil. 

Leading me into today. I am 2 months into my Model Technology Classroom journey, 1 presentation at Waukesha One in the books, and while I still stare nervously at the idea of learning about the vast amount of tech out in the world today, I am excited to start advocating for tech use in the classroom!