We have a class website where I started a blog for keeping parents and coworkers, as well as my students, informed about and involved in what was going on in our classroom... BUT as I ventured into the commitment that I made this February to change my classroom via technology, I started to have needs that were more than what my old blog could support! I no longer wanted to just share the things my kids were doing, but I wanted something that I could keep in detail for myself, of the accomplishments that I, as a teacher was making, as well as the accomplishments that my students were making. When I compared the work that they are doing now to the paper analogy projects they made just a short time ago, I knew I wanted to document, exhibit, expose, record, and show the world the work that my students were doing!
For this reason, I decided to keep the old blog on our class website for the students to keep up and I will now be using Blogger to chronicle my students' (and my) adventures with technology! This will allow me to have more freedom within the blog, and to be a little more creative in order to showcase the amazing work that they are doing- I believe that what is happening in my classroom is big enough/important enough to have a blog of its own!
So, this year I found myself, more than any other year, scrounging for some secrect that would help me to captivate and truly engage my students, rather than teaching the same ol' lessons that I had been delivering year after year while my students sat there and stared at me (or the wall). Although there had been some changes and minor upgrades with my Activboard and some access to technology, I was becoming bored with teaching! So I knew my students were probably bored to tears! I knew teaching was my career and that I had a passion for it, so how could I be becoming bored with it? I knew something had to change...
The change started when my principal read a blog I had written about how I wanted to integrate more technology into my classroom and then she put me on the technology committee! Technology committee?! Well, I barely knew anything about technology, only had a small interest...but sure, I'd give it a go. My class became a participant in a Samsung Galaxy Tab2 pilot, sounded pretty cool, but was I really up for it? I was then presented with the opportunity to go to Austin to a technology convention and thought, "Well, I've never been to Austing before! Might as well..."
It was there and then that I was hooked and the plans to change my classroom started to come into view. The TCEA convention in Austin is where this all began, and specifically hearing Todd Nelsony speak, attending one of his webinars, and following him on Twitter has just solidified and heightened my desire to seek out the multitude of ideas and resources that are available out there from other educators around the world through technology. I have been inspired by many other technology invested teachers/bloggers out there who are now a part of my PLN (Personal Learning Network!) More or less, you can say I am obsessed, up for the challenge- and trying to feed an insatiable hunger for technology in my classroom, as I witness more and more each day how my students are changing because of the way we are learning...
Yay! I am so proud of all your work! Every time I read your posts or see how you've changed your students' lives, I get goose bumps! You are amazing! Your students are so lucky to have you, a 21st century teacher! Your students will always remember their 5th grade year at our school because of your dedication and committment to them!
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