Reflection Post

·         What did you learn about yourself as a writer? One of the biggest things that I have learned about myself as a writer is that if I make the time to write, I can really come up with some great things. I also learnt that writing in a community makes writing so much more fun and writing with those with the same purpose as you make it really worthwhile.

·         What did you learn about digital writing? I learned that digital writing is every effective especially when you are a teacher because it is an easy way for teacher to really see what does and doesn’t work in their classrooms. This also presents opportunity for improvement that base how the experiences of other teachers. I have also learned that this is a way to make resources more accessible to both teachers and students.  

·         What lessons can you take to classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction? I think one of the biggest things that I will take to my classroom is writing with all the teacher in my community because it is such an easy way for us to stay informed about things that really work. I think this is a great way for us to appeal to the 21^st century students. It makes learning more fun and welcoming.  

·         Challenges? The biggest challenges that I have faced was posting every week at on a timely basis.

·         Successes? The success is that I was actually able to complete every blog and I found many very usefully resources that I plan on using in my classroom.

Post #3

The author talks about the importance on Learning in Community and the Conversation of Colleagues. So basically as teachers we need to make sure that we have great relationships with the other teachers in our learning communities so that learning can be more purposeful. We need to create a collegial community of discourse that promotes "good talk about good teaching." Not only that but it allows us to stay on the same page especially when we have multiple teachers in a community who have the same students but it also makes planning and executing lessons easier.  Getting feedback on what does and doesn’t work is also a very beneficial factor so that students are getting the best deal in the classroom. In the past teachers have always been able to do what they want once they close their doors. According to the author the decision to resist feeling divided, to teach from the heart, can result in change. To teach from the heart is to heed the calling of the soul, for connection and community.

Strategies

1.      PLC’s are important part of  learning communities 

Professional Book Response 2

What was learned:

I further chapters, the author talks about The Hidden Wholeness: Paradox in Teaching and Learning. At which point he discuss the fact that the nature of the human self is paradoxical: for every gift or strength we possess, there is a corresponding weakness or liability so there is a good balance that can be seen this way. He also speaks about the fact that we as teachers need to embrace opposites and appreciate paradoxes. There are a few that he say that should be applied in out teaching and learning spaces are the space should be bounded and open, the space should be hospitable and "charged", and the space should welcome both silence and speech. He goes on to talk about the fact that community is very important in the classroom and the fact that to teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced as well as truth being the eternal conversation about things that matter, conducted with passion and discipline.

Golden line:

Our task is to create enough safe spaces and trusting relationships within the academic workplace–hedged about by appropriate structural protections–that more of us will be able to tell the truth about our own struggles and joys as teachers in ways that befriend the soul and give it room to grow.

        Questions:

Is it more important to have a community in your class, or with the school community as a whole?

How should a teacher begin to explain to their students that they are trying to build a certain community in the classroom? Do you address it with the class at all? Does it just happen with practice?

How do you as a teacher figure out the king of community you would like to create in your classroom?

Strategies for creating community in classroom

1. Make Learning Relevant

2. Create a Classroom Code of Conduct

3. Teach Positive Actions

4. Instill Intrinsic Motivation

THE HEART OF A TEACHER Identity and Integrity in Teaching By PARKER J. PALMER Post #1

My Take away

 Few of the things that I learned from Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life is, if we want to grow as teachers, we must learn to talk to each other about our inner lives, our own identity and integrity. We must also be able to Identity lies in the intersection of the diverse forces that make up a life, while integrity lies in relating to those forces in ways that bring us wholeness and life. One of my favorite things that I learnt from the book is that Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique. The author also talks about the Culture of Fear: Education and the Disconnected Life and how knowing is a human way of seeking relationships, to have encounters and exchanges that will alter us.

 Golden line: 

“But in every story I have heard, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work” (pg.2).

Questions:

What happens when there is that one student you really cat connects with?

How does a new teacher begin to build community in the classroom from the first day?

How do we as teachers put out identity in the way that we approach our classroom without being too open?

 Strategies:  

Make sure students feel like they can approach you because it makes for a more welcoming learning environment. 

Open Post

Repeat Offender 

I looked down at my wrist at the rose gold watch that had been given to me as a Christmas gift, and as I walked down a very still hallway the only thing I could hear was the echo of my size 11 heels clacking against the tile floor along in the ticking of my watch. Tick-tick-tick. The closer I got to the door of the testing room the more it registered that I was about to take the General Knowledge test for the fourth time and this was my last chance. As my eyes wondered to the floor, they began to dance from tile to tile as if in search for some revolutionary test taking wisdom. The closer to the door I got, the faster my heart beats grew and the sweatier my palms got. It was imperative that I pass this test otherwise, I wouldn’t be accepted into the college of education and I would be restricted from taking the Education courses necessary for me to graduate. This test had the ability to alter my plans at the University of Central Florida. It hit me that my two years at UCF could become three. Tick-tick-tick.

TECH # 2

TECH #1

Amplifying Instruction

1.      People around the world are taking their education out of school and home,  library, internet cafes and work places, where is the can decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and how they want to learn. These stories challenge our traditional model of Education and as teachers; we are really forced to see ourselves for what really are as teacher. Superhuman! Like those building the plain in Airplane, we are building futures in educating the next generation. New technologies are transforming every aspect of work: reading and interacting with the web; writing memos and sending emails; computing with spreadsheets and statistical analysis programs; analyzing problems  with data visualization tools; creating social networking sites; marketing with digital video tools; and making presentations with PowerPoint. Reading, writing, calculating, and thinking are what education is all about.

2.      I am a resident because many of these sites are things that I have not only used in my personal life, but in the classroom as well. Chances are that your students are growing up in a world completely different from the one you grew up in. Technology, lifestyles, economics, and many other factors have created a different world than when you were in school. Students at this level are still curious, imaginative, enthusiastic, and talkative. The classroom environment tends to be very lively. However, as a first-year teacher, you may be surprised to learn that students are not as you remember yourself as a middle school student. Today’s students seem less motivated to learn and more interested in other things such as listening to music, going to the mall, or playing video games. You can capitalize on your students’ energy and enthusiasm by making connections between what you teach in the classroom and your students’ everyday lives.

3.      Skype is a great site to use, with students for activities such as Skype an Author. In using this tool, we are able to connect  students to the world. The Skype an Author Network provides a way for teachers or librarians k-12 to connect authors, young readers, and books through virtual visits. Students can video chat with authors while they are reading books written by the author. Slide share is a great way for students/teachers to share their ideas as well as feed off others ideas to build on their own. I LOVEEEEE SCHOOLTUBE!!!!! This site simply gives students the opportunity to learn and show their school pride at the same time and technology is also being used.

4.      I think attending professional conferences is a great idea, but as for online one thing that I have noticed is that teachers build these communities so that they can assist each other by sharing some of the things that work and others that may not. This gives teachers a chance to network and suggest thing that can be done to make a certain situation or lesson better.

5.      One of the resources that I can really relate to is Animoto. I have been using this for years now and I always enjoy telling a story with a song and a few pictures. This is absolutely a great tool for teachers.

6.      What I noticed is that teachers are using tools in their classrooms that the students are already familiar with and things that they already use on a daily basis. Not only that, but there is a very large variation throughout being that students/teachers interests may be different.

7.      It gives teachers the technological resources to apply to each level that will suffice. All the words have been replaced by a technological area that may illustrate that certain point.

8.      I have used many of the video sites such as youtube and teacher tube and the two tins here that are absolutely must use for me are the Blooms chart and school tube. I am absolutely blown away by some of the resources that were presented today and I really appreciate them being in one place together.