I'm heading to the beach tonight, so I figured I would go ahead and post my thoughts for this week. If you are like me, you might equate everything in life to something you saw in a movie once. I grew up quoting movies. Well, a quote that has been resounding in my head is one from The Incredibles by Syndrome. (Spoilers coming!) Syndrome grew up wanting to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick. However, Mr. Incredible works alone. After being rejected by his childhood hero, Syndrome grows up with an immense disgust for supers destined for greatness. He decides to change his destiny. His dastardly plan is to create a way for anyone to be a superhero. He decides to market himself as a superhero by creating gadgets and gizmos to make up for what he is lacking as a super. He invests time and energy in trying to be what he is not. He's a big fake. And then he tells his endgame to Mr Incredible, as supervillians always do... "And when everyone's super, no one is."
This has been the quote in my mind for three weeks. We mandate things to be done in the classroom, a certain rigor to be taught, a certain resource to be used. How can we enable teachers to have the freedom to be super? Most of them already are. We need to share our successes and failures with others! But in a world that is driven by data and the Common Core, how do we make sure we still have individual chances to be super? I think part of the answer is differentiation for students as well as teachers. Teachers need the freedom and ability to know their students so that they can harness the power of individualized instruction for students. A good teacher knows each of their students. A good teacher accepts where each of their students are. It could be giving students freedom to complete an assessment in a non-traditional way. It could be creating a PD environment for teachers to access 24/7 in the comfort of their own home with their own families. The bottom line is we need to create an environment of welcoming learning in whatever capacity and form it may take. I highly recommend Adam Bellow's keynote from ISTE. Adam will encourage you to make learning real and relevant for your students. If what we are teaching our kids does not connect them with the outside world, then it isn't super. If how we teach our kids is based on how we learned it back in the day, it isn't super. If when we teach our kids only focuses on the school day, it isn't super. If who we talk to the ways we teach is only within our own building or city or state or country, it isn't super. If we are only reflecting to ourselves about how we teach, it isn't super. We are so willing to encourage our students to be super. Why can't administrators do the same for teachers? Here is my list of top five free tools that were talked about at #iste13 and ones I will try to implement next year with administrators and teachers.
1. Evernote - Any time anyone mentions Evernote, I'm always impressed with it! @web20classroom suggested having administrators purchased the unlimited data subscription to keep track of teacher evaluations. @lesliefisher had some great tips and tricks at the AETC conference in Birmingham, Alabama, about two weeks before ISTE. Evernote is definitely a tool I will try to use more next year. 2. Google Apps for Education (Google Drive, Google Drawing, Google Forms...) - I took notes from all the ISTE sessions in Google Drive and shared them with @chrisjenks back home in Tuscaloosa. While I was in a session, someone tweeted out their resources on Google Apps and the Common Core as well. Google Apps allow real-time collaboration. @alicekeeler and @CTuckerEnglish suggested using Google Drawing or Google Drive for collaborative graphic organizers. The possibilities are endless! 3. Google Hangouts - I was able to hold a virtual PD very easily with Google Hangout last year. Because it was a virtual meeting, teachers could attend the meeting from any location. Up to ten teachers were able to be in the hangout but I also broadcast the PD to YouTube, so anyone with the link could attend. I would check my e-mail and twitter feed for any questions. I have also used Google Hangouts to collaborate with coworkers on a project or answer a quick question or call back to the home office when I'm traveling. I'm beginning to think Google Hangouts is better than skype! 4. Twitter - In case you aren't on twitter, you should be! Twitter is such a great place to learn from others teachers and administrators from all over the world. Twitter is a great place to ask a question, to share something that worked, share something that didn't, and basically a 24/7 PD feed if you follow the right people. 5. Cyberwise.org - This is a new site I learned about to teach digital citizenship to parents and teachers. I already know about Common Sense Media, BrainPOP, and PlanetNutshell to teach digital citizenship to kids, but these resources are geared towards adults. I'm looking forward to using this with teachers and administrators. I was incredibly blessed to be sent to ISTE this year in San Antonio. ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education and one of the premier conference for edtech enthusiasts to attend. Their convention center was like three BJCCs. I felt like Joey from Friends in London - I had to get in my map multiple times to figure out where I was going. Next year, it will be in Atlanta! I did not think through arriving Friday, June 21 and returning Thursday, June 27 to return to work today. Thanks to lots of coffee and a gracious invitation to take today to digest the ISTE experience, I am still processing everything I learned. Here are the big three takeaways I had from ISTE.
1. It's about collaboration. My district is in the planning stages of a 1:1 Digital Transformation. And we transformers only have a few ideas of our own. With the help of twitter, I have been able to collaborate with other autobots like @kylepace, @jmakeyAP, @jennifer_hogan, @bryanphillips, and @jedipadmaster to get ideas on how to implement a Learning Management System (LMS), how to do fixed assets inventory, and how to roll out devices to students and teachers by providing vital professional development in those areas. If you're not on twitter, I highly recommend it. If you are on twitter and you only retweet or quote, I encourage you to become a part of the conversation. A lot can be said in 140 characters. Discovery and innovation come from conversation. Steven Johnson even spoke to this at ISTE. He contributed great ideas like the internet to a liquid network, a place where ideas can flow like the coffeehouses and tea salons of yesteryear. Twitter provides that to connect educators across counties, countries and continents.Thanks to @chrisjenks and @_clayr_, our district started a twitter chat this year with our own hashtag #TCStech. Twitter has been a big part of my educational career. I don't know what I would do without it! 2. It's about reflection. I have a reminder set on my calendar every week for Reflection/Blogging every Friday from 3:30-4:30pm. I kind of threw that out the window with managing fixed assets and the whirlwind that is the end of the school year. I am no good to provide other teachers with personal and professional development if I am not reflecting on my own. So, I vow to write a blog post on how it's going at least once a week. Maybe twice. Professional blogging will be a new spin for me. It'll be weird to not post recipes all the time but I look foward to learning this new skill. Not only is reflection important for me, but reflection is a huge part of the evaluation process. I'm hoping to cultivate more reflection with the teachers I work with next year. Another big ISTE takeaway - evaluating teachers is more about spurring them on in self-reflection rather than mandating use of technology. I want to create a comfortable space and time for teachers to reflect on their own pedagogy and best practices. 3. It's about learning. As a teacher who has left the classroom to transition into a tech coordinator position this year, I miss my students terribly. I miss the facilitating of French, the community environment of the classroom, and the "a-ha" moments when the students are able to finally communicate in the target language. Teaching teachers how to use tech is no different. Some of the best advice I've received this week from ISTE that I will put into practice is:
So those are three oreos out of the massive package that I will be snacking on these next five weeks before school starts. What are some things you have learned this summer that has affected your craft? Look at the brochure below for information on the professional development offered this summer exclusively by TCStech! Hope to see you there! Today was another great day at SCOLT/AAFLT/SEALLT! Here are some of the resources I received or shared with others.
Foreign Language Resources from Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools ACTFL's January edition of The Language Educator http://www.elanguageschool.net/ National Title VI Language Centers Resources So much information in a short amount of time! Here are some of the tools we have discussed so far in the workshop "Engage Your Students with Free Online Collaborative Tools". Get the slide presentation here.
Some of the tools discussed are listed below with the links. Oldies but goodies! School Tube Teacher Tube YouTube Edublog 10 Ways to Use Blogs in Your Classroom Edmodo Google Drive Google Forms Voicethread Skype Skype in the Classroom TinyChat Primary Pad PBworks Wiki Audacity GarageBand Kristy Britt's Dia de los Muertos pintrest board Nulu Ficly Wordle Prezi SurveyMonkey PollEverywhere Quizlet Anki - flashcard software Socrative Creative Commons Flickr National Language Resource Centers and their content and resources Loads of resources have been gleaned today from the internets. Here are just a bullet points as I put down my lappy and unplug for the night.
1. I have been trying to find a better blog platform for my professional site. I have decided to stick with weebly even though the network at school sometimes blocks it since it is hosted freely. 2. I have created three padlets for tomorrow's PD and I just remembered edcanvas. I think I can tweak so many presentations within an inch of their lives. I just need Tim Gunn to come and tell me I have no more minutes left on Project Runway. http://padlet.com/wall/l033iebrbn http://padlet.com/wall/yz57w4en2n http://padlet.com/wall/df219jrh2t 3. I have used the following sites to catalog my resources as much as possible in preparation for tomorrow's PD. Enjoy! http://www.scoop.it/t/edtech-1 http://www.scoop.it/t/mfltwitterati and our Edmodo page. |
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