Modelling a Mindset: An essential element of technology literacy

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't - you're right." ~ Henry Ford

Technology provides new opportunities for teaching and learning that were previously not possible and are just downright 'cool'. I love exploring possibilities and seeing how my students might utilise new technologies to enhance their learning. I've come to realise however that my own enthusiasm can, at times, be a double-edged sword.

Image: Ideas, Forte Comunicacio by Magnoroi on Deviant Art 
CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0

In my previous blog post I was thinking about what it means to be technologically literate. One of my big 'take aways' was the notion that we must have a growth mindset, one that embraces design thinking where testing, failing and perseverance are critical components of learning and achieving the goals we set for ourselves. I believe that it is important to model this mindset for our students, ensuring that the learning environment we foster encourages this type of exploration and problem solving. I believe this, I say it, I want it, but in the harsh light of day, do I really do it.

I came to this rather startling realisation at about two in the morning one school night as I was learning how to use a new virtual space that I wanted to use with a particular class. Earlier that day, during a collaborative planning session, a teaching team was discussing how students might hold an art exhibit as a part of the summative assessment for an inquiry into how we express ourselves. Of course, I piped up and thought out loud, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a virtual exhibit for the students to share their digital creations as well? We could also film or photograph their other pieces (dance, music, paintings, sculptures, etc) and share them in this space so family and friends in other places could view their work!" Very keen to see what might be available and how it might work, I set about my explorations as soon as I got home from work. When I finally looked up and saw the time, I had to seriously ask myself, why am I doing this?

Image: No Frustration by SFoerster on Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0

Time. In a traditional classroom time can be quite rigid - you may have a 40 minute class once or twice a week. Perhaps you are fortunate to find yourself in a more flexible environment that allows for the 'dropping of a timetable' occasionally, or even in a school that embraces flexible block scheduling. As a single subject teacher I often feel I do not have enough time to spend with all of the classes. I was so concerned that my students would not have time to prepare a virtual gallery that I solved the problem myself. I spent hours trying to figure it out so my students wouldn't have any difficulty sharing their work. While I may have modelled design thinking in solving this problem, there was no one there to see it. But worse than that, I feel I have robbed my students of an authentic opportunity to tackle a real problem, one that was important and open to being solved in a variety of creative ways.

So often I hear teachers say things like, 'I'd like to use technology, but so often it doesn't work and I end up wasting a whole lesson. We just don't have that kind of time.' Or, during a lesson when something doesn't work, throwing up their hands in frustration and abandoning the lesson. I've balked at this in the past, becoming frustrated myself with the attitude of helplessness that is being demonstrated, often in front of students. And yet, when I look in the mirror, I've just done the same thing myself. While I might have a growth mindset when it comes to integrating technology in teaching and learning, I don't think I am doing a very good job in sharing this with others. Or more importantly, talking about why it is such a critical element of being a technologically literate person.

Image by Wesley Fryer on Moving at the Speed of Creativity CC-BY-2.0

If we want students to be creative and critical thinkers, capable of solving complex and challenging problems, we need to actually provide them opportunities to do this. We need to shift our perspective when things do not work as we had planned and seize these moments as opportunities for learning - real learning, not only for ourselves, but for our students. The next time I feel compelled to solve a technology 'problem' I am going to stop myself and hand it over to the students.

At the end of the day, it is true we might not cover all of the material we intended to with our students, but we need to value what they will learn instead. I'm quite confident that the content of the lesson I had planned is not nearly as important to my students as having them understand they are capable problem solvers and with perseverance can solve the challenges they encounter. It's those times when the technology doesn't work that you have the greatest opportunity for learning. Yes, it was super cool to have our art displayed in a virtual gallery, but at what cost.

Technology Integration: Are we speaking the same language?

"The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs." John Dewey, 1933

I have had the great privilege this past week to meet with an amazing group of educators to discuss how we might best plan for seamless integration of technology in the IB programmes. At first glance this appears a straight-forward task, and among a group of like-minded educators it might be, but we quickly learned that there are still some obstacles that stand in our way.

The first, and in my view the most critical, is developing a shared understanding of what technology integration means. Too often when we (teachers, students, administrators, parents) discuss this term we are thinking about devices, apps or the implementation of a 1:1 programme. Focusing on how to use things moves us away from the conversation we should be having, that is to say, how will we best support and enhance learning? Living in 2015, this conversation will of course embrace a range of technologies, including digital technologies, for this is the world in which we live. As educators, seeking to provide relevant and challenging learning experiences for all of our students, how can we possibly discuss learning without considering our context? Moving toward a shared vision will allow us to define technological literacy¹ rather than being bogged down in the current confusion of technology integration and implementation issues. In other words, this shared understanding will allow us to consider how to best foster technology literacy within in our curriculum - the written, taught and assessed.

If we agree that technology literacy is integral to a contemporary education, then we must also establish a shared understanding of what this actually means in practice. During the course of our discussions this week it is clear that there are some critical elements that need to be in place to enable schools to move forward.

The first of these essential elements is a mindset to engender technology literacy. Why are some people more naturally comfortable when confronting issues arising from technology in education? Carol Dweck's work on mindsets may explain why this is so. As educators we need to foster a growth mindset not only in our students, but in ourselves as well. It is crucial that we model the types of behaviours that will enable learners to try new things, take risks and think creatively as well as critically. Successful learners understand that when things don't work, they have made a discovery that will bring them closer to solving a problem. They seek feedback and are reflective, appreciating that the good ideas and successes of others' can inform their own work. With a growth mindset, learners are focused on how to solve problems and select tools to support and enhance their thinking. If the tools are inadequate or do not serve this purpose, learners develop a certain agility, an ability to reflect on their learning and select a different tool. It's all about the learning - not the technology.

Image: Everyone's Connected by Satish Krishnamurthy 

on Flickr CC-BY-2.0

Another element that we must acknowledge is that there are a set of competencies that learners must have in order to be considered technologically literate. Many of the transdisciplinary skills we identified during our meeting are already a part of our IB programmes, but their connection to supporting technological literacy is not always made explicit. We would all agree that the ability to think creatively, critically and reflectively are essential to learning, but it is important to take this further and provide learners opportunities to develop systems thinking and design thinking. Communicative skills are also an integral part of learning, but we need to expand upon our notion of self-expression, form and audience when considering the possibilities provided by technology. There are also many new skills that contemporary learners must develop, from managing online relationships and networking, to self-regulation and intercultural competence. Of course, research skills must also adapt to the readily available large data sets that students now have at their fingertips. Learners today must develop information processing strategies to enable them to evaluate, manage and use this information responsibly and effectively. Contemporary learners need to be discerning, curating content as well as contributing to the growth of ideas.

Finally, we can plan for the development of conceptual understandings that will foster technology literacy. Too often, technology integration becomes an add-on in curriculum planning, seen as a tool to help students understand the central idea of a unit. When we think of technology literacy conceptually, there is a shift, a need to bring these ideas into the initial planning stages. As PYP educators we plan backward, by design. We identify what we want our students to know, understand, be able to do, and which attitudes we hope they will demonstrate. We then think about how we might know what students have learned, what evidence will we be able to see. It is only when this is in place that we begin to plan for learning provocations and engagements, as well as accompanying formative assessments. Unfortunately, technology integration tends to happen only in this third stage which reinforces the notion of technology as simply a tool. If we consider technology literacy in the first stage of planning, we are empowered to seamlessly infuse the development of the mindset and competencies needed to become a technology literate person.

Having the opportunity to clarify my thinking in the company of other IB educators has been a great experience. I didn't fully appreciate the complexity of the task - the need for a paradigm shift (again!). Educators can no longer wait to see what will happen as policy makers and curriculum developers discuss technology integration issues. We have waited so long that the term no longer has any significant meaning. We must act now to develop relevant educational practices for the sake of our students - and teachers.

---

1 There are a number of organisations working to develop a definition of technology literacy as a concept much wider than digital literacy. The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association first stressed the importance of technological literacy in 2000 stating:

"In order to be a technologically literate citizen, a person should understand what technology is, how it works, how it shapes society and in turn how society shapes it. Moreover, a technologically literate person has some abilities to “do” technology that enables them to use their inventiveness to design and build things and to solve practical problems that are technological in nature. A characteristic of a technologically literate person is that they are comfortable with and objective about the use of technology, neither scared of it nor infatuated with it. Technological literacy is much more that just knowledge about computers and their application. It involves a vision where every person has a degree of knowledge about the nature, behavior, power and consequences of many aspects of technology from a real world perspective."

More recently, The National Academy of Engineering has worked to develop the conceptualisation of technological literacy and view it as a continuum of understanding the 'designed world' that are a domain of humans' existence. They have identified three interdependent and inseparable dimensions to technological literacy: knowledge, capabilities, and critical thinking and decision making.^↩

Works Cited
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. "Why Backward Is Best." Backward Design (n.d.): n. pag. Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation. Web.

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. "Technologically Literate Citizens." ITEA's Technology for All Americans Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy, National Academy of Engineering, and National Research Council. "Defining Technological Literacy." Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy. Ed. Elsa Gamire and Greg Pearson. Washington, DC: National Academies, 2006. 29-40. Print.

Whoo Hoo! Now the real learning begins!

"The journey is the reward."

~ Chinese Proverb

I've been exploring the world of quest-based learning through 3D Game Lab for the past few weeks and I cannot remember a time when I have felt so driven to learn and energised by what I am discovering. This type of buzz - the excitement of mastering new skills and striving to unlock the next quest, is exactly what I hope to provide for students.

Having teachers participate in this quest-based learning platform before being able to design their own quests for students is an excellent idea. By becoming a true learner myself, I now have a greater appreciation of the student experience in such an environment and I believe this is critical when designing curriculum. The tasks and reflections that were a part of the initial teacher training have prepared me to tackle the writing of my first quest ~ something that seemed rather overwhelming when I first began.

This is a short and sweet post - I want to get back to the game and begin designing my students' first quest!

Changes, Challenges & reCharging

"The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I'm in the middle of a battlefield."  

~Amanda Palmer

Not writing a post on my blog has been haunting me for months. The longer I waited, the more daunting the task became. I had many legitimate reasons for not writing: looking for a new job, finding one and then preparing a family for a move to a new country, moving, settling into a new role, new school, new home, new country. But it's been 8 months! I'm officially settled (and so is my family). No more excuses or long winded explanations ~ I'm going to eat my biggest frog.

Since moving into my new role as a Technology for Learning Coordinator at an international school in Switzerland, I've been feeling too overwhelmed to contribute my thoughts about anything. A 'virtual colleague' in my PLN, @DwyerTeacher wrote the blog post, A Sea of Ideas and it seemed to echo my thoughts. Having to define and explain what is important to me as I build new relationships with new colleagues - well it has simply been exhausting. Where do you start?

Then a couple of things happened this week to bring me back - the Hour of Code and a global classroom project. While these are two very different ways to integrate technology into primary education, both are at the heart of what I think is important to learning - they allow for student driven inquiry, they are flexible in order to meet students' individual needs and both endeavours are highly engaging.

And so I must thank my students for their enthusiasm during our first Hour of Code session. They were an inspiration and I had just as much fun as they did trying to solve the problems. This type of student engagement and the possibilities provided by technology to transform of education are the reason I keep learning and pushing my own little envelopes.

Finally I must thank a person I've only just met through our new collaborative global project. After reading her blog I have been inspired to get back on track and start reflecting on my own learning. Blog posts do not have to be essays or position papers. It's okay to be brief and write what you are thinking.

I am leaving the 'battlefield' of not being good enough and beginning to feel creatively energised once again. It feels good to be back.

photo credit: Lawrence Whittemore via photopin cc

Learning in a Digital World

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."

~ John Dewey

There is no denying the impact technology is having on our schools and they way we approach inquiry. Working in a 1:1 laptop environment with my Grade 6 students has made this a mandatory conversation for our school; how are our technology initiatives affecting student learning? And so, I asked my students, how has their access to technology helped them with their own learning. We created a Google Doc to share our ideas and the following article is the result of this collaboration.

  

We use our computers and access to the Internet to do many different things at school and at home. Technology helps us develop our skills in communication and collaboration; provides information for our investigations and research; has tools that let us show our ideas in creative ways – we use technology every day.

Our Blogs

Our blogs are a great sharing tool for us when we need to show our learning. We regularly use them to share our experiences. Just like the “Bahrain Blogger” shares his experience of being in a civil war, being bloggers lets us show others what life is like at our school. We can upload media files to express our feelings or show our presentations. There are cool widgets that we can insert into pages or posts. We can also learn from each other by giving and receiving feedback on blog posts. I think that the blog is a great way of connecting to other people all over the world.

We also have a class blog that shares information about what we are doing at school. There are reminders on this blog about important events and our parents can visit to see what we are doing. Our teacher also puts links and videos on the blog that are connected to our units of inquiry. We can also download things we need like rubrics, letters and tasks. I can also find the links to other blogs, such as other students, teachers and schools, as well as favourite websites.

Google Docs/ PiratePad

Google Docs is a very helpful tool when you are working in a group. It is an online collaborative site that allows you to work online with other people typing at the same time. I use Google Docs almost every time I am working on a group project. Sometimes, I even use Google Docs when I am working alone so that I can access my project or information from anywhere. In Google Docs you can edit a project when other people are working on it at the same time. You can also make a spreadsheet, a survey, a presentation, a scrapbook and many more other useful items. The chat allows you to communicate with other people, even if you are not in the same place. It also auto saves so when you type it will save for you making sure that no work is lost. You can also access a Doc by a link, and you don’t have to be shared with it to change it. The owner of the document can limit the functions of other people, such as make them view only, or comment only. The owner can also change who the owner is. On a Google Doc, you can change the visibility so that it is public. Then other people can answer any questions you might put on the Doc. Google Docs is useful for collaboration, gathering information, and group work.

PiratePad is similar to Google Docs, but has several other features. On Google Docs, if you are signed into Google, you are stuck with your login name. If you are not signed in, and you have accessed the Doc by a link, then your name is ‘Anonymous User’ and then a number. With PiratePad, you can change your name as much as you want. There is no ‘owner’ on PiratePad, you need a link to view and edit, and you are not allowed to change someone’s status. The only problem with that is that the document is public. Another cool feature of PiratePad is that you can replay the entire development of a document. Everything that is typed, chatted, or changed is recorded and can be viewed like a recording.

Mathletics

Mathletics is an online learning tool that allows students from all over the world to compete against each other on their basic facts such as addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Besides that, it also provides online lessons and you can work on math problems and tasks that teachers assign to students. I like that we don’t all have to do the same tasks and if we get stuck there are tutorials that we can watch. We use Mathletics to practice and it was fun to take part in the World Math Day challenge.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website where students and teachers can login and either watch the educational videos or practice math skills in the practice section. It is a great online practice tool that can help you understand a math skill. For example if you are stuck on probability, there is a video where it would help you out then you can go to the practice page for that skill. There is even a ‘scratch pad’ so you can use drawing tools to help figure out the answer. Teachers can connect to their students’ accounts to check on their students’ skills and use of time on the website. There are also achievements to boost morale, and skills must be sometimes reviewed. The downside is that unlike Mathletics, coaches cannot assign skills for students to work on, and there is currently only math practice, although there are videos about other things, even science. Students are able to set goals for themselves, track their own progress, ask and answer questions about videos, and finish challenges. The best part about it is, Khan Academy is probably the best free teacher and motivator around!

YouTube / Vimeo

I love using Youtube or Vimeo because it allows you to share your videos and pictures with the whole world for free. You can control who sees your videos, too. Everyone can watch if you publish something and make it public, but you can also have videos that are private or unlisted. If you want to share something with your friends you don’t have to send a big file and they can watch it anywhere there is an Internet connection. I find it really interesting when someone from a far away country comments on my videos and these provide feedback for my Youtube channel. I also make lots of friends on Youtube – we subscribe to each others’ channels and can share our videos. When I have free time on the computer, Youtube is the site I go to most! Personally, I feel that it is a great site no matter if it is for education or for entertainment. I like to surf the web and see if there are any interesting videos to watch, sometimes this is for school to help me understand something, sometimes it might be to find a solution to a problem I am having in a video game and sometimes it’s just for fun. Youtube is basically a online school, but we have to be careful because some tutorials may not be accurate and some videos may not be appropriate, so it’s always good to double check their sources.

iMovie

One fun way to do a summative assessment or task is to make a movie. Quite often our tasks involve making trailers or interviews and showing them to the class. When we go on fieldtrips we also film and take photos of things around us. Students and teachers can use this educational tool for sharing presentations, books and their learning of something. Using iMovie we can easily piece together movies, adding music, special effects and the photos and films we have taken. The application includes a camera to capture your film, special effects, sound effects and themes, such as newscasts or scrapbooks. iMovie is simple and easy to use and it has great editing tools which helps your video to be more exciting. We use iMovie a lot so we all know how to use it and have fun with it.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is an online audio website, where instead of videos, like Youtube you can put up sounds. Sounds may include original songs, written or composed, they can also be covers of songs that have already been made, they can also be a clip of you playing an instrument, you name it. The presentation of these sounds is really cool because there is a wavelength feature so you can see what is loud, and quiet. The accounts are completely free and come with approximately two hours of audio time. If you upgrade to their paid version, there is an unlimited amount of time. You can comment on a specific section of the song, or just make an overall comment. It helps people to become recognized in the art world. For example, I started an account for fun a month ago, and now there is already over 700 plays of my songs! It is a really good interface because I can get feedback from musicians halfway around the world! Also, similar to Twitter, you can follow people and they can follow you.

Student-led Conference Series

Our class participated in an on-line student led conference series this with schools from Australia and Romania. Using a virtual classroom called Blackboard Collaborate we took turns sharing presentations we had made with each other. Our subject could be about anything we wanted - my presentation was about Minecraft. I think this was an amazing project!

Skype

Skype is a free way to video call people around the world and is something that you can use to interact with different schools and communities. It is simple to use so you can easily communicate with others. Skype has a chat function that is student friendly. We have used Skype to chat with other schools across the world, and right now team members for the PYP Exhibition can create Skype conferences to chat with each other after school. There are some drawbacks. Sometimes people say things they wouldn’t say if they were face to face and then cyber-bullying could become a problem. Also, some people stay on Skype too long chatting to friends. You have to be principled and use Skype responsibly.

Global Hello Project

The Global Hello Project is an online website where a variety of schools connect with each other and share what life is like in their school and country. Each school has their own page to add links, videos, and pictures in order for visitors to about each other. Our class is part of the Global Hello Project and added a video to our page.

Twitter

Twitter is a great place to send out short updates of what is happening for us right now. We can quickly and easily share an update or an event that’s going. Other people can even reply to your tweet or retweet you and share your tweet on their own page. I like using Twitter because it is a great way to connect with other people in your class or even songwriters, director and singers! Twitter enables us to contact people in our exhibition group and even our own families! You can use an @ to talk to someone specific and a # (hash-tag) to tweet about an event. We are currently using twitter for our exhibition as we don’t have a lot of time to write a blog post. A great way we used Twitter was when we wrote what our top 3 choices were for the Exhibition. Then we had a neat little hash-tag called #cdnispypx12 and when we searched on the Twitter page, all the results which had that hash-tag came out.

WallWisher/CorkBoard.Me (online bulletin board)

Online bulletin boards are a very useful tool, when you want to share your ideas or thoughts you can just start writing into it. It is not possible to get confused about who wrote what because each person uses their own sticky and the sticky asks for your name before you write anything. There is an unlimited amount of stickies you can out on the board and you can pile them up if you want to. Since you have your own sticky if someone uses a new line it will not move your words. WallWisher and CorkboardMe can also be used by a large amount of people, once our whole grade used it to write down ideas for a project. While the whole grade was using the corkboard the online bulletins did not lag or have any problems. Unfortunately sometimes the online bulletin board sticky has a word limit and that can be annoying.

Coding

Applescript editor is a fun tool that is pre-installed on our computers. From this we can learn to code different types of dialog boxes, and make our computers ‘talk’! Learning how to code is actually a skill that will be useful later on in our lives, which are heavily influenced by technology.

Applescript is easy to learn and it helps you understand how your computer and software that you have works. Once you know how to use it you can use it is easy to make your computer do things by writing applications. We have made different ones including a security application that opens on login to make sure the owner is using the computer, and an application opener, that opens up different applications and asks you what you want to do with them.

Some of us like to use Xcode, which is more advanced than Applescript and lets you design your own apps. With Xcode you can create apps and post them on the app store for anyone to download.

We also go to a website called Code Academy, where we can learn to create Javascript. Applescript is slightly different from Javascript, and the two are not interchangeable. However, both serve basically the same purpose and both are quite fun to experiment with.

NoodleTools 

NoodleTools is an online website where you can organize a research project. You can cite your sources here and it will create a proper MLA bibliography. You can also add people to your project and work collaboratively, linking to your note cards and a Google Doc. You can share your project with your teachers and they can give you feedback using annotate.

I like using NoodleTools because it is an extremely helpful resource.

~ Collaboratively written by the 6C Cookies.

My Technology Story

"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time."
~ Chinese Proverb

Recently, while browsing through the happenings at ISTE, I came across a link to tell My Technology Story. Being interested in the ways in which technology are driving change in education I obviously clicked and was taken to a form with two questions:

• How has technology made you a more effective teacher or administrator?
• Based on your response to the above question, how has student learning improved as a result?

As I began to type my responses into the form I realized what great questions these were. With all the talk these days about 21^st century learning, being digital natives or digital immigrants, using web 2.0 or 3.0 tools I feel we are skirting around what needs to be at the heart of the discussion – how we use technology to improve student learning.

Below are my brief responses to the questions as I shared them on the ISTE form.

How has technology made you a more effective teacher or administrator?

Working in a 1:1 laptop environment with my Grade 6 class has enabled me to do so much more with differentiation. I am able to have students work on very different tasks - informed by need, learning style and interest - yet develop the same concepts, working toward a more in-depth understanding of our central ideas or enduring understandings.

Technology has also enabled me to become a more consistent and effective communicator with parents and the wider school community. Updates on our class blog keep parents informed about our events and activities. My professional blog (this one!) helps me better understand my own practice; reflecting and 'thinking out loud' help me to clarify my own understandings about teaching and learning.

Finally, building a PLN with access to blogs, wikis, organizations and social networks such as Twitter, keeps me connected to other educators. This is a vital part of my learning and I am now trying to share some of these ideas with my students. We are learning to use Twitter as a class, creating a list that allows all of the students and I to share thoughts, questions and ideas with each other.

How has student learning improved as a result?

I believe my students feel ownership over their learning. They have choices about what they will do and how they will show or share their learning with others. This became most evident during our recent student-ledlearning reviews when my students created their own agendas, planning how they would share their learning with their parents.

My students feel connected. They have multiple opportunities to learn with others in various ways: Skype conversations, presenting and participating in a student-led conference series via Blackboard Collaborate, blogging, tweeting – they have an authentic and global audience.

My students are skillful. They know how to locate relevant information and are learning how to evaluate the reliability of the source. They are writers. They not only maintain their own blogs, they read and comment on others’ blogs. They create amazing videos and tutorials to share, applying the processes once reserved for writing. They participate – joining and contributing in areas of personal interest. Many of my students have their own YouTubechannels and SoundCloud accounts where they share their compositions and ask others for feedback ~ which they receive!

Most importantly, I believe my students' learning has improved because they are aware of their learning; they are the directors of their learning. This has been made possible because of the technologies available to them and the access they now have to their own learning communities. As their guide and facilitator, they can contact me when they need help - this might be on a weekend or in the evening, but through Twitter, email, blog comments and Skype, we are no longer confined to the school day or the actual building.

What strikes me when I review My Technology Story responses is that it has little to do with technology. It is about empowering students to be actively involved in their learning. The conversation needs to be about how we develop spaces for learning, where students collaborate, question, challenge, create, participate.

These two questions are a great place to start this conversation.

A New Year ~ A Wealth of Possibilities

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

~ J. B. Priestley

There is something so exciting about the start of a new school year. The anticipation of meeting new students and new colleagues. Reuniting with friends and catching up on all that has transpired over the holidays. Pulling together all you have read, viewed and thought about over the break. Writing the first word on a clean page in a brand new day book. The first blog post. I love being a teacher!! In what other profession can you continually transform what you do and put your learning into practice immediately?

And yet, there is a a twinge of fear alongside the anticipation. What if I can't keep up? What if I forget and slip into my old comfort zone? How will I possibly balance it all - as a mother, teacher, wife, friend, colleague? There is always so much going on in education - trends, research, articles, blogs, websites, social networking, SOS marches, authentic assessment, problem based learning, inquiry, flipped classrooms, standards, outcomes - ahhhh! It can easily become overwhelming. I think it has become more important than ever to focus on what is personally important to you as an educator and filter the vast amounts of information that are tweeted into our lives 24/7. Find your own passion and you will be better prepared to help students uncover their own.

I have spent a good deal of my holiday trying to uncover my own passion, by paying attention to those ideas that spark the immediate 'of course!' or 'great idea!' reaction. This was a technique learned years ago while reading Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach - learning to pay attention to what speaks to us - not necessarily what we think it should be. After doing this for a few weeks I was able to see that the lines of thought I followed and the articles and posts I took the time to really read all shared the following characteristics.

It's all about the students and learning.

We all know this, we all say this, but we don't always act as if this is the case. At least, I know I don't. Pressures from schedules and expectations from others make it far too easy for me to slip into a mind set of "I need to get this done." rather than stopping and asking, "Is this really best for my students?" Thus one of my goals for the upcoming school year is to be an advocate for my students. When decisions are to be made regarding curriculum or events I will ask myself first - "How will this impact students? How will it affect their learning? Their voice?"

When I slip (as I know I will!) I intend to go back and revisit the following:
12 Most Important Things to Know About Kids Today, Angela Maiers
Authentic Enquiry Design Principles, from Learning Emergence
Wood, Chip. "Changing the pace of school: Slowing down the day to improve the quality of learning." Phi Delta Kappan. 01 Mar. 2002: 545. Retrieved with Proquest using eLibrary.

Building a professional learning network is crucial.

Finding a group of people who share your passions is an inspirational and motivating way to learn. They 'get' you - they understand your challenges because they've been there, too. I have always loved collaborating with colleagues, but like all teachers, finding the time to get together with educators from outside of my school to share ideas and experiences is difficult. Hello - Twitter! This simple micro-blogging programme has changed my life and the way I view professional learning networks. There are other social networking programmes, including the very latest - Google+, but it is Twitter that has shown me the power of an online PLN. This year I plan to turn to my network (both online and in person) whenever I discover something and want to share or when I hit a snag and need support.

Need convincing, check out these:
Twitter as a PLN, an article from What's New in the World
 23 Resources About Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), Teacher Reboot Camp

Technology is changing the how, why, what and where of education.

I love technology - I will happily and enthusiastically admit it. I love the 'cool' and 'wow' factors of something new and different - it's exciting! Yet...that is not why I believe technology is a vital element of education today. You simply cannot ignore the changes that technological advancements have brought about - our students live in a 'wired' world. If we continue to approach teaching and learning as we did in the past we are doing a disservice to our students, ourselves and ultimately, the future of our planet (okay - a little heavy for a back to school blog post!). Technology allows us to differentiate in ways that only a decade ago were impossible. Our students are now able to create and share with a global audience. They are able to collaborate with students from around the globe. Thus, another goal for this year is to remember the age we live in and act accordingly.

 

Flynn, William J. "FIVE TRENDS THAT ARE CHANGING THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE." Catalyst, The. 01 Apr. 2010: 29. Retrieved with Proquest using eLibrary.

What does this mean for the upcoming school year?

I stumbled across a wonderful description during my summer reading in a blog post by Shelley Wright discussing flipped classrooms. She described the classroom as a 'collaborative problem solving studio' for students ~ I love this idea. For me, it pulls all I am passionate about together - student learning, professional collaboration and technology. This year I will strive to create such a space with and for my students (as well as myself) to learn. If you have time, stop by @ 6C's Class Blog.