Collaborating with Ms. Hughes

Working with Kathy Hughes has been an honor this year! Although I am her "mentor" I have learned so much from working with her. Thank you Kathy! I am impressed with Kathy's positive attitude, sense of adventure and willingness to try new things and stick with it until she fulfills the goals she sets for herself. Her students are lucky to have her.

Our final collaboration project went well for my class. I had my students work with a partner to publish two poems that they wrote. They chose one to type on their glogster and another to record and put their audio file on the glogster. We used ipods and italks to create digital voice memos. It was easy to download them to Glogster for the students to use. They also included the avitar images they created on http://www.buildyourwildself.com/. We saved those as pictures and downloaded them to glogster.

Check out our poetry glogs on our classroom blog.

Lesson Plan

Cross posted at: http://principianteglobal.blogspot.com/

Bringing Yourself Into the Classroom

Wow...Is it really October? What happened to August and September? I feel like the last two months have passed by as quickly as a hummingbird in flight. Now that the school year is off to a crazy and lovely start and my students are getting used to me and I am getting used to them, I feel ready for the real learning and fun to launch into the next level!

I believe all teachers bring themselves into the classroom. I know I do. I share the things I love and enjoy with my students! I love reading, writing, poetry, and filmmaking! I love when my students ask questions about the world around them in critical ways, and I love allowing them the freedom and structure to answer those questions, or at least attempt to. I hope to bring my interest in technology into my classroom much more, starting NOW!

As a Global Learner in Adams County School District 14, I am given many resources and the support I need to teach my students with technology and to allow them to learn through technology. I feel very lucky to have that opportunity. I also feel that I have been so busy with the start of the school year so I haven't taken extra time and effort to utilize technology in my classroom as much as I would have liked, to take advantage of that opportunity.

As I write this blog post, I am writing to reaffirm my commitment to 21st Century Learning and to being a Global Learner. I am writing to remind myself that it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but I need to take small steps as I grow in my comfort level in teaching with technology. As I try out teaching with technology in new ways with my students it is scary and exciting. But the more I do it, the easier it will be. Overtime my students and I will be able to do more as we learn about 21st Century Learning tools together.

My Mind is Full of Technology!

I have completed five days of Global Learner professional development training. My mind feels like a lettuce spinner that is in full spin. I am somewhat exhausted after learning about so many technology tools that have amazing capabilities. Under my exhausted layer there is a thicker layer of excitement. I am changed. The way I think about education has changed. Have you ever had an experience that has lefted your way of thinking about something completely different?