I’ve spent way too much time thinking up a title Another excellent Edublogs.org weblog

Mind-boggling, overwhelming, this technology, this “one” as the presenter called it, is happening so fast. I’m not sure my brain can process it all. Maybe I need a computer to help me. It sounds like computers will be a lot smarter than me very soon, if they aren’t already. I’m not sure what the implications of this all-knowing, all-seeing machine are. I guess more than anything, the presenter’s talk made me uneasy. I am a person who likes to know what to expect. With technology things are changing so rapidly. One can never know what to expect, or what will happen next. Once I feel like I have finally learned a new piece of technology something else comes along.  This of course is overwhelming, but it is also exciting.  The possibilities for teaching with technology are practically endless. 

Just found a really cool video on the Global Education site that Sara gave us for this week’s assignment.  It is a video of a guy named Matt dancing in various locations around the world.  I believe it is called “Where in the World is Matt?”  It would be very fun to show to my Spanish classes to get them interested in world travel.  Also, the video portrays Matt dancing with locals in many locations throughout the world.  It is really quite inspirational to see people from so many different places dancing with pure joy. 
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My PLN is definitely developing and will continue to in the future.  I am no longer a caterpillar, I am now a butterfly.  I refuse to go back to the cocoon of traditional education.  I have made the choice to spread my proverbial wings and fly into the realm of technology.  When I’m in the classroom, I now think of how I could use technology to better teach a lesson or make a point.  I am using wikis, visual flashcards, online games, avatars;  and the list goes on.  My personal learning network continues to grow as well.  Just today, I consulted on a project with another teacher using google docs.  We finished the project in half the time it would have taken before we had this technolgy.  I am currently planning on collaborating with a teacher from a Spanish-speaking country, to get our classes communicating online in eachothers’ language.  The list of possibilites is endless.

Good teaching is all about collaboration.  I got thinking about this when I was reading an article about teachers collaborating via a blog to help eachother become better teachers of writing.  It is so important to have other teachers to collaborate with.  It is wonderful when we have excellent folks to collaborate with in our own school, but why not reach out and collaborate with successful teachers from around the globe?  There are so many ideas out there that we can get from one another.  I am constantly learning new things from other teachers and quite often, my best teachers have been my students.  I just this week got a tip from a student about a website that he thought would be fun for our class to try.  Free Rice.com is a site that you can go to to develop language skills by playing a vocabulary game.  While you are learning, you are also donating rice to those in need throught the world.  For each correct answer you get, 10 grains of rice are donated through a United Nations food program.  We played this game in my classroom on Friday, and the students loved it!  Without collaborating with my students, I would have missed this wonderful activity.

I loved how Sir Ken Robinson talked about “being educated out of creativity”.  We as schools constantly check to see what a student doesn’t know.  We correct papers, construct rubrics, assign re-writes and in turn stifle creativity.  Maybe some of this is necessary, but it creates a tone of negativism in schools.  Why is school structured this way?  How can it be changed?  How do we create great teachers like Bill Gates suggests?  There  is so much to do in reforming schools that it seems overwhelming.  But then I am reminded by Bill Strickland of the importance of one teaching moment, of one teacher that can make a difference, and all doesn’t seem lost.  We can’t give up hope.  What we do does make a difference.  If we don’t like what we’re doing in the classroom, we have the power to change it.  Nobody is forcing us to teach the way that we do.  We live and teach in a free country and have the ability to pretty much do what we want in the classroom.  We just need to take the time to figure out what works, and take the steps to make it happen. 

I found it really interesting that many of my classmates wrote about similar “favorite”  technology tools.  Delicious was mentioned in a number of the blogs that I read. Athena and Emily  both discuss it in their blogs.   I like Delicious too, but for some reason I often forget to use it.  I guess it’s just something you need to get accustomed to.  It really is an awesome tool for teacher collaboration.  Google Docs was also mentioned quite a bit.  I, like Katie, love Google Docs.  If I taught English, I would use this frequently.  As it stands with my Spanish classes, I haven’t found a really useful application for it.  I’m sure I will soon.  One tool that I’m not sure that I like is Twitter.  I agree with Chris when he says he’s not sure if it’s really an educational tool, or a social networking tool.  I’m not sure how useful this would be in an educational setting. 

I have avatar fever.  When we last met in class I discovered voki and learned how to make an avatar.  Since class I have made it an extra credit assignment for my students to create their own Spanish speaking avatar and send it to me.  I have received quite a few so far and am really enjoying them.  I think that this has been a lot of fun for my students too.  It allows them to have fun creating, while they review what we have been learning. 

Here’s my cool jing screencast!

1. We will never stop learning.  Education is a continual process.
2. School should be fun, because learning is fun.
3. I learned how to teach from my best and worst teachers.
4. I must account for all the different learners and learning styles in my classroom.
5. It’s ok to play games in class.
6. Take time to listen to your students and get to know them as people.
7. Decorate your classroom and make it inviting.
8. It is important to make connections with shy students.
9. It is also important to make connections with students who hate school!
10. I still sing and read to my high school students, even if they’re too cool to admit that they like it. 
11. We should encourage our students to travel and learn about other cultures.
12. Never be afraid to change your plan in the middle of a lesson.
13. Technology is not something we should fear.  It is an invaluable tool for learning.
14. Don’t do the same thing the entire hour.  It is boring for the student.  I like to do 3-5 different activities each class period.
15. Teachers should continue going to school ourselves.  We should model life-long learning.
16. Our students don’t care what we know as much as knowing that we care.
17. Improvement is as important as excellence.
18. I still get nervous on the first day of school, just like my students.
19. All classrooms should have windows!
20. Teachers need to have more time for professional development, especially in the area of technology.
21. Students like it when you post their work.  Even high school students like to be appreciated.
22. Students should have more ownership over what they do in school.
23. I really think schools could be amazing if each classroom had two teachers.  Obviously this is a huge dream, but imagine the possibilities.
24. I wish we could take field trips with our students on a regular basis.
25. Teachers have one of the most amazing and important occupations in the world.  No two days are alike!