Professional Development

I spent the past few days teaching others how to use their SMART Boards while a colleague led the discussions on how to integrate them into their curricula. HOW AMAZING! Watching people walk in with an "I can't do this" attitude and then see them leave with a "I can't wait to start playing with this stuff" attitude made my effort completely worthwhile.

YouTube and TeacherTube are currently in my sight as I search for some videos to use at the beginning of the year. Having run across some of my favorites - "Did You Know" by Karl Fisch and "Pay Attention" by jdst4 got me thinking about how I've come a very long way in the past few years. Yeah, I liked using videos and graphing calculators in class but now I like to also use other interactive tools like Qwizdom, SMARTboards, online research, techSteps, and my favorite tool, the PBL unit. Four years ago, I thought I was doing inquiry learning, now I realize that I wasn't, and still have a way to go to get there.

On this spectrum of 21st Century teaching, I'm pleased that I'm heading toward the "seamless integration" end and away from the no-integration end. My question for you: where are you?

Sunday GazetteMail article

http://sundaygazettemail.com/Life/201007240166?build=yes

We learn by our mistakes - one of my favorite things to tell students when they aren't successful at something. How is a student to know if she is right or wrong without someone telling her that answer. Sometimes it is a parent, sometimes it is a teacher, but most often, it is a friend who helps out and does the teaching. This is part of the reasoning behind the need for and use of collaborative learning in schools. Thanks Ms. Fuller for your article.

Hello world...

Hello world. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Humm.. I've heard that before.. It is true though. I feel more empowered to teach today than I ever have. With the emerging technologies, this digital immigrant is striving to stay on top of the game and to help others in their quest to improve what they do as well.

I spent three days this week developing an action plan for the upcoming year at the school where I begin teaching this fall. I've realize that while I think I know a lot, there is a lot that I don't know. So, I"m spending the few days I have off over the next week or so exploring all the software and websites that we were exposed to.

Collaborative learning has been a mainstay of my teaching style from Day 1, even though I didn't realize that was what I was doing until about Day 256834921345. Now, with Google Docs and wallwisher.com and a bunch of other programs, I can take my collaborative learning style a step further and do things that I had only imagined doing. I am excited!!!

Time to head off of here, church is in a bit.

Until next time, ciao.