Taking Stock

Just feel the need to reflect on where I am exactly on this journey of mine…

I’m definitely using technology more in my daily (professional) life. More for my own learning at the moment, rather than actually with the students, but I know I have come a long way in just a few months. I am reading more professional articles now than I probably ever have done in my career. Most of the credit for that can go to social media. I never dreamed that ‘places’ Twitter and the like could actually help improve my teaching.  

Going off on a tangent here, but need to write it down as it has just popped into my head:

I remember listening to a talk last year about students and technology. The main (perhaps only) part of the presenter’s talk that I remember was when she said that to students of today, the WWW is a PLACE they go. Just like going to the supermarket. How do we keep students safe online? Something to ponder over.

OK, back on track…

Every day I:

1. use Twitterdeck. I scan all the feeds and then click on the links that catch my attention. I’m learning a lot ‘about things’ this way, but I need to actually DO them, to fully understand.

2. check my Feedly page. Again a quick scan of all the blogs that have been updated, with a longer look at posts that seem interesting.

Every week I:

1. use Diigo. Probably ALMOST every day, but not quite. I have grown to LOVE Diigo! It is a fabulous way of bookmarking sites, for myself or to share with others. The best thing is that it is all ‘in the clouds’ and if anything goes wrong with my computer I don’t lose all the bookmarks.

2. watch my son on the iPad! He would do this every day of I let him. It is truly an amazing tool. I only ever have to give him an instruction for an app once and he has it. His favourite app at the moment is Santa’s Village – he is building homes for elves and making toys for Santa! He is also getting very fast at MonkeyMath and he loves getting creative with PuppetPals (MY favourite!) and drawing pictures in Glow Paint. Does he love using it? You bet. Does it actually enhance learning? Jury is still out on that one. But I will certainly be trying apps out on him first before I decide to take them into the classroom!

Now and again I:

1. look at Edmodo

2. use issuu ( I LOVE it! – I just don’t get enough time to write things to publish there!)

3. go to TeacherTube

4. update my Dropbox

What’s next?

1. iPads coming into my classroom next week (watch this space!). I have a small army of parent volunteers coming into my lessons with their iPads. I’ve even created my very first Google form – a questionnaire that I will ask all parents, teachers and classroom assistants to complete once the lessons have finished.

2. Presenting the workshop at school to interested staff on 5th December (gulp). It’s going to be VERY good for me… I keep reading about learning through teaching (again, watch this space – I am about to find out!).

3. I am planning to teach myself how to use Animoto and Voicethread over the Christmas holiday.

4. SUNY course starting in January – Certificate in Educational Technologies – seriously, I can’t wait.

5. Keep on learning!

6. Oh, and also somehow find some BALANCE. While all this is really VERY interesting to me, it has rather taken over all my ‘spare’ time. I come home from work and spend time with my son. He goes to bed, I do school work. When I finish that work, I Twitter/Feedly/Diigo etc etc… it has been MONTHS since I actually sat down to read a novel. I think I have watched TV twice in the last two months. My sleeping hours have decreased! My head is ready to explode yet somehow it is craving even more!!!

#Reflecting