A teacher's life is always busy, but it's no excuse to put things off. I need to force myself to get in the groove of writing at least one entry every other week or maybe once a week so as to create a new habit.
I do so many fun, techy lessons with my kiddos that it's a shame I don't share more. Well, it's about to stop! My dear friend, Sheila, will keep me on track, she's my biggest blogging/tech cheerleader and I want to make her proud.
Well then, let's catch up a bit...
You all know I went to spend a few days with Richard Byrne at his awesome Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp for Teachers (PET Camp). I just got the ok from my division head to head back to Maine to see him again, but this time for a Chromebook camp! Hands-down, he's got to be my favorite tech guru. I'm super stoked to go again. I can't wait to learn even more from him. You think you know all that you can do with Google tools and he wows you with a bunch more awesome things you had no idea existed. I'm going to be counting down the days!
Head back farther to November and I was fortunate to be chosen as a presenter at the Thinking and Learning with iPads conference in Raleigh, NC. I did a session titled "Comics in the Classroom". The idea was to share with others the many different web-tools and iPad apps that allow you to create comic strips.
My spin was that comics can be fun and useful as an alternative assessment tool. I use them in my classroom for language arts on a regular basis to see if the kiddos understand how to use different parts of speech in a real situation. Sure they can find the action verb on an action verb worksheet, but do they really know how to use one in a sentence or a short story? Yup, you can assess that with a comic strip! I'll share more ideas and some samples in an upcoming post. Just a little tease to keep you reading! Here's a little one from MakeBeliefsComix.com to honor all my creative teacher friends!
Demo Comic Strip
In about a week and a half I will be coordinating our campus wide professional development afternoon. It's a half day for the kiddos and then the other half is up to me. No pressure, right?
Well it's not as bad as it sounds. I went to an EdCamp in Balitimore, MD earlier this school year and was intrigued with the whole concept of an un-conference. It was truly fascinating to see that the entire conference was participant driven and lead. While I didn't take away a lot of info, the session topics were more focused toward public, big school, inner-city issues, since that was the majority of participants (I'm small, private school, more of a country setting teacher, therefore not too many things in common). Regardless, the whole idea of an un-conference held potential in my mind.
Flash forward to the middle of March, I'm home with my little guy and we're both sick. I'm reading my emails and see one from ISTE about hosting an EdCamp. I thought, "Hey! This would be a great thing for our school!" So drugged up on cough syrup and having NyQuil induced boldness, I sent an email to my division head. She sent it on to the rest of the leadership team, and now I'm the proud coordinator of our next PD day! Wow, how did that happen? I'll let you all know how it goes after I get through it on the 20th of this month. Keep me in your thoughts that afternoon and pray I don't have a nervous breakdown (or chew off what's left of my fingernail nubs).
I'll let you know how I organized the whole thing and what I might do differently next time. See, I'm already thinking about the next one and I haven't even lived through this one yet! Optimistic is the way to be!!
I think I've covered the big items in my techy teacher life. I've got to get to work writing my next few posts now that I'm rejuvenated!
Stay techy my friends! Steph
