Mind blown!

Life-long learners-it’s the goal of every teacher, every school and every district I’ve ever worked in… Technology is the key to motivating and inspiring students to become what we’ve always wanted them to become.  Although I’ve always thought of myself as a life-long learner, technology has created a new meaning of that term.  There is now so much to learn, we will never be able to take it all in.  HOWEVER:  we have some great teachers to help us tackle the world of technology-our students.  I witness my granddaughter, at the age of 18 months, tackling and learning how to operate an iPad and iPhone with ease.  She has NO FEAR of messing up.   That is an advantage in learning-an open mind without fear of messing things up.  It’s how I want to approach my life-long learning with technology. 

Students will eagerly embrace learning with technology.  They are more engaged, intrigued and involved when our lessons incorporate their world.  Their world is technology.  When I can present something new to them in the world of technology; their minds are blown!  So, I will make it my quest to continue to pursue technology to stay on the cutting edge. 

Coming up in January, my students will complete a research project on three colleges of their choice and look at future careers.  The assignment will be altered this year; the students will be working within Google Drive to access their work from school or home.  They’ll also use the Google Research to cite sources and build a works cited page with ease.  Google Book search will enable them to research multiple sources with no excuse of needing to go to the library or the book store – the resources are right at their fingertips!  The search tips will enable the students to find pertinent information quickly.  Technology is not only something to learn but a tool to enable us to learn better! 

My goal is to incorporate technology more, and to ask the students for their knowledge and expertise in this area.  If we are to be life-long learners and competent teachers – it is a must to continue to embrace technology. 

Here's a start-there are so many YouTube videos to get started. It's time for my students to begin investigate the things we've been delving into in our Master's Program!  

Twenty tips to get us started!

Pinterest Rocks! Say YES! to Social Media in your classroom!

I’ve been addicted to Pinterest for years now.  I can draw inspiration for art, teaching, and life from this one site that offers so much.  Before I discovered Pinterest, I was forever creating word documents in an attempt to keep great ideas in some format and then try to organize. TRY TO are the operate words of that sentence.  I needed the creators of Pinterest to give me a hand!  Now, I can tap into unlimited sources to teach any topic within the curriculum, find great gifts to create, garden with new ideas, find ways to refresh my closet-truly unlimited reasons to tap into this amazing website.  Get started with an email address and password.  It’s user friendly and you will get hooked immediately!  Join Pinterest!

Are you interested in social media in the classroom?  As for me-YES!!!!  Although there are a few disadvantages because students get distracted and can stumble across inappropriate content, the world is at the fingertips of our students if we can open our minds enough to allow them to explore and become engaged in connecting with the right people for the right reasons.  There are safe sites like Edmodo or Google Classroom to engage younger students in and hopefully allow them to expand to other social media sites as they mature.  This is an opportunity to provide rigorous, real-world, unpredictable problems for our students in a way that is very relevant to them.  There are some great articles to review if my opinion isn’t enough to persuade you.  Check out Pros and Cons of Social Media or The pros and cons of social media classrooms to read opinions of both the pros and the cons of social media in the classroom. 

Social media is the way kids and many adults function in today’s society.  It’s our responsibility as educators to teach the way students learn, not make them learn the way we teach.