I wanted to share three great posts I have come across recently:
1) Stickr-Create Sticky Notes on Any Website by R Byrne. I love this post! It is so easy to forget the content of websites or the great ideas of others as soon as we navigate away from a site (or are forced to reboot)! Mr. Byrne does a great job of showcasing a neat tool without an overly wordy explanation, leaving it up to us to decide how we might use this exciting resource.
2)A great post about School Choice by Lori Lolz! I am a whole hearted believer in school choice and feel strongly that we have to focus on innovation, not stagnation and tradition (that word choice was for you, mom). I am proud that I have spent my career helping to grow young and amazing schools!! Are we perfect yet? No, but we are trying to get there, which is more than I can say for some of the dusty B&M schools who keep doing the same things they did 10, 20 and 30 years ago! Lori's post is about National School Choice Week, which is a great time to raise awareness of all of the schooling options out there.
Speaking of choice, look at all of the choices people in my area have. Each red dot represents a school. I wonder if COVA has a fuzzy red haze that curtains the state, sense we are lucky enough to educate an incredibly diverse population!
3) I also love the leadership post written by Stephanie Hoaglund. Leadership is an incredible resource that can truly make or break a school. Teachers, administration, students, parents, (and many more) must be leaders in order to create a successful future for students!!! I also appreciate the timely mention of one of our most powerful leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. Here in Northern Colorado, we are smarting after a Greeley District 6 Board member made heinous remarks about this hero of our nation. I appreciated Ms. Hoaglund's bringing my focus back from anger at a poor leader, to the highest respect for an amazing leader and person.
Showing posts with label 30daychallenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 30daychallenge. Show all posts
Friday, January 14, 2011
Passions and an idea (of course)
My passion is change and growth! Whether that be in my classroom or in my "regular" life, things are always changing, and hopefully, improving.
I often try new recipes for our family. And by often, I mean 5-7 days a week! My husband questions the logic of my ever changing quest for culinary perfection, but has resigned himself to being a new recipe guinea pig. I find some good ones though, and they do get made over and over. However, if the recipe is just OK, never again does it cross our lips!
In my classroom I often tweak small things with the overall goal of making my teaching better, more clear and more effective. I change how I format an announcement or I change what I put into them. I am frequently evaluating what my students tend to access more often, and attempt to put less energy into things that they rarely use so that I have more time and energy to focus on effectively using the things that they tend to use more often (while still encouraging them to use all of the tools that are available to them)!
This week, I have formally begun posting language objectives in my synchronous classroom sessions and creating/using supports surrounding those. We just went through an ELL training with our district, and it struck me: MANY of our students are missing so much academic language for so many reasons! Time to get on the boat and teach them what they need when it comes to language!
Now, this doesn't mean that I haven't been teaching language before now, of course I have! However, I intend to make explicit language instruction a more central theme both in synchronous and asynchronous portions of my instruction.
This is just one change I have made this year. Will it be revolutionary on its own, no. However, when all of the little changes add up over the year, I hope that my students will reap the rich rewards!!!
This post inspired by day 2 of 30 days to kick start your blogging by edublogs.
I often try new recipes for our family. And by often, I mean 5-7 days a week! My husband questions the logic of my ever changing quest for culinary perfection, but has resigned himself to being a new recipe guinea pig. I find some good ones though, and they do get made over and over. However, if the recipe is just OK, never again does it cross our lips!
In my classroom I often tweak small things with the overall goal of making my teaching better, more clear and more effective. I change how I format an announcement or I change what I put into them. I am frequently evaluating what my students tend to access more often, and attempt to put less energy into things that they rarely use so that I have more time and energy to focus on effectively using the things that they tend to use more often (while still encouraging them to use all of the tools that are available to them)!
This week, I have formally begun posting language objectives in my synchronous classroom sessions and creating/using supports surrounding those. We just went through an ELL training with our district, and it struck me: MANY of our students are missing so much academic language for so many reasons! Time to get on the boat and teach them what they need when it comes to language!
Now, this doesn't mean that I haven't been teaching language before now, of course I have! However, I intend to make explicit language instruction a more central theme both in synchronous and asynchronous portions of my instruction.
This is just one change I have made this year. Will it be revolutionary on its own, no. However, when all of the little changes add up over the year, I hope that my students will reap the rich rewards!!!
This post inspired by day 2 of 30 days to kick start your blogging by edublogs.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Teacher Challenge’s 30 Days to Kick Starting your Blogging-why??
Why am I participating in the 30 Days to Kick Starting your Blogging Teacher Challenge? I will give you a list:
1) To form a new habit of consistently blogging my thoughts, tips and ideas.
2) To create a rich resource for my students to extend and enrich their learning.
3) To extend my PLN.
4) To continue in my quest to be a life-long learner.
5) Because sometimes I get caught up in the daily grind of life and forget to push my own boundaries/challenge my "way of doing things."
6) To encourage other staff members to blog!
7) To help debunk the myth that the Internet is something to be feared.
8) To compete with my buddy K-Pod! ;)
9) To find other amazing blogs and bloggers to help keep my professional fires burning.
10) To always keep my focus on my students, their learning, and their futures.
Watch over the next 30 days to hopefully see a transformation in this blog!! :)
1) To form a new habit of consistently blogging my thoughts, tips and ideas.
2) To create a rich resource for my students to extend and enrich their learning.
3) To extend my PLN.
4) To continue in my quest to be a life-long learner.
5) Because sometimes I get caught up in the daily grind of life and forget to push my own boundaries/challenge my "way of doing things."
6) To encourage other staff members to blog!
7) To help debunk the myth that the Internet is something to be feared.
8) To compete with my buddy K-Pod! ;)
9) To find other amazing blogs and bloggers to help keep my professional fires burning.
10) To always keep my focus on my students, their learning, and their futures.
Watch over the next 30 days to hopefully see a transformation in this blog!! :)
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