Saturday, July 12, 2014

New Blog Design...

I've been playing with the new blog design for most of the afternoon. Now that it is up, I feel that I need to give some credit to resources that helped me customize my Blogger template.

Knowledge of how to customize a blog:
Mrs. Fultz Corner  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpKuk5M4w5E
Ashton Swank  http://youtu.be/HvUtLI5BbS4

Book Shelf:
http://www.shelfari.com/

IMAGES:
PicMonkey
http://www.picmonkey.com/

Cup of Coffee in the logo:
By Filip Nohe (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons  http://commons.wikimedia.org/






Thursday, July 3, 2014

Interesting finds of the Morning...

50 Questions to Help Students Think about Their Thinking

This article is filled with amazing questions to help students take their thinking to the next level. The questions are organized into categories and would be super easy to use as formative assessments to get students to explain their thinking and learning.

Trends in Educational Technology 2015

Nice easy to follow list of the current buzz with educational technology. I was glad to see that I"m up on most of the current trends. This list gave me a few cool things to investigate.

SAMR and TPACK: Using technology with a focus on learning

Interesting article written after attending and ISTE presentation. It really ties 2 of the big trends in educational technology together and helps the understanding of the SAMR method.

30 Incredible Ways Technology Will Change Education By 2028

Open my eyes to the future. I love the direction that is hypothesized, but know that teachers will have to make the jump to keep up with the times. Exciting for students. 

Start, Stop, Continue

So while getting back into blogging, I ran across this Start, Stop, Continue post over at Teaching Statistics . Here goes my rendition of the strategy:

3 things to Start:
1. Blogging again- Getting the ideas out there is a valuable part of self reflection and sharing what I have to offer.

2. My BYOD journey- I got to attend the training sessions for the pilot 1/2 year of BYOD in my district last year. I couldn't be our building's official BYOD teacher because of an issue with school politics, but this fall they are adding over 100 teachers to the BYOD program. I'm very excited to continue the journey and grow as a professional facilitating lessons using higher level technology.

3. Adjunct Professor at a local university- My ultimate goal is to have the privilege of teaching students that want to be teachers. I am being given the honor of teaching the technology methods courses at the university that I earned my undergraduate degree at. I am beyond excited to get to work with the professors that I learned so much from and to be sharing educational technology.

3 things to Stop:
1. Self doubt- I really have to focus on putting myself out there and going for what I want to achieve. I do have something valuable to contribute.

2. Volunteering for so many things- I have been on tons of committees for years at my school. I'm at the point in my life that I want to explore other things and get involved more socially. I will learn to say, "NO."

3. Wasting moments- Life is short and things happen all the time. Moments are precious.

3 things to Continue:
1. Using twitter for personal PD. I love all of the things that I am learning and finding through watching the twitter feeds. I have found that it is far easier to follow the hashtags using tweetdeck than trying to keep up in my home feed.

2. Focusing on the positive. Through a lot of self-reflections, I've learned that I have to make a conscious choice to let the negative comments by others slide. I have to associate myself with the positive people and influences.

3. Focusing on what is important- It is amazing what you miss when you try to focus on it all. All of the brilliance and things that I could have spent doing with Ella or the time wasted worrying or thinking about the things that I can't control. It is time to continue the growth of realizing that I need to give it up.

New BLOG design Coming...

A new BLOG design is in the works. Name change happened this morning. I"m jumping back in and going to update it a little at a time. Stay tuned for changes...


Currently and I"m baaaack...

So, I"ve taken too much time off of blogging. My goal is to get back in the habit of publishing my thoughts and learning.

Currently...

Thanks as always to Farley for the currently as a source of reflection.


LISTENING: I"m sitting here for the last day that I"m subbing for summer school. SWEET job, because I got a nice 3 week break and then 6 days subbing in the computer class for one of my colleagues who became the principal for the last 6 days. I"ve learned code.org and scratch for teaching problem solving and coding skills. I"ve gotten a lot of work done for the courses that I am adjuncting at a local university in the fall. Coolmathgames is the site of choice today for kids. They are pretty self sufficient as long as I monitor conversations.

LOVING: Learning something new while I've been subbing. Coding sites, twitter feeds, ISTE posts, I"ve had the time to work and reignite the passion that I have for educational technology.

THINKING: Last school year was a rough year. I left feeling uneffective and completely BURNT OUT. It was the worst end in my 11 year career. I had a tough class and needed SUMMER to regroup. I've spent my first 3 weeks off relaxing and taking it easy. Tinkering with technology and planning fun things for next year. I entered summer knowing that I have to reignite my passion for what I do so that I am ready to enter school in the fall and form relationships with new students.

WANTING: STARBUCKS is my weakness. I started my morning with a Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte. If it didn't have a Weight Watchers Points Plus value of 4 points, I would really consider a second this morning. It was worth every drop.

NEEDING: A break to recharge and remember how much I love my job. To get back on the treadmill and start being active. Running is my sanity and I mentally notice when I haven't made the choice to run. Time to sleep. I"m not used to getting up at 5:15 to be at school. 6 days of subbing in the summer is taking its tole on my sleep patterns. I welcome tomorrow morning sleeping in as late as I can.

4th PLANS: The desire for relaxation. Thinking, dreaming, creating new ways that I can engage the mind of 6th graders in science and ancient civilizations. Hoping that I can instill some desire to research and be independent thinkers and learners. Tomorrow is about family and fun (after sleeping in late).