New Position - How Will I Integrate Technology?

Unfortunately as with many districts, mine has eliminated my position as a K-8 Technology Teacher and Coach. Fortunately, I had the foresight to see that this was coming and returned to school to get my 1-8 Teaching License. My school was therefore able to move me into a middle school social studies position for next year. I am very excited about this opportunity for growth. I am also apprehensive because now it is time to "put my money where my mouth is" and incorporate technology into my class the way I have been demonstrating to our teachers.

How will I do this? First, a little background information on our school. We are going into our 4th year as a 1:1 school from 5th-8th grade. Our 6th (soon-to-be-7th) graders have Chromebooks, and if all goes well, next year's 6th graders will also, allowing for 1:1 in the 4th grade as well. This is awesome, when technology works. Our middle school students are starting to get tired of being required to use the technology that is not as fast as they would like, nor as reliable. Thus said, I am not going to require they use it 100% of the time. Instead, I plan on giving them lots of choices, including paper and pencil. 

My goal for myself is to use the technology for teaching, all the neat Web 2.0 sites and other websites I have been collecting. My soon-to-be-developed website will have all my resources that we use in class so that students can see examples of how I use technology with the hopes that they may want to try some of them out when given the choice. During class group work, I have some activities like backchanneling that will require technology, while others will not. The menu of choices I offer them will not require a particular product, but will give them the choice of how they want to demonstrate their learning. The key here is I am motivated to use technology, find it intriguing and want to challenge myself to use it. If the kids feel likewise fine, otherwise it will be their choice.