Monday, December 5, 2011

An Incredible Opportunity

I'm in shock.  Really.  I have been given an opportunity that I never ever expected and I'm still in shock that it has actually happened.

This evening I was given the opportunity to join a local high school during their training on ipads at the local apple training centre.  This wasn't an opportunity open to anyone, and certainly not someone like me, a grade one teacher at a completely different school.  From the moment I was asked a couple of weeks ago I haven't stop thinking about it.

This summer, after discovering twitter, I set some goals for myself.  I wanted to move my teaching into the 21st century and I wanted to use technology to get there.  At first I was completely over whelmed with twitter, but with time and patience it all made sense to me.  I found a way to make it work for me and along the way I "met" some incredible educators.

One person that I met is Elisa Carlson.  Elisa is Director of Instruction with my school district.  She has a lot to do with the technology in our district and is providing educational opportunities to many.  She is breaking new ground as she attempts to take our district into the 21st century.  It's no easy task with close to 70,000 students and many administrators and teachers.  Elisa has been  closely following what I have been trying to do with  my grade one class this year and she liked what she saw.  It was Elisa who made this opportunity happen and I can't thank her enough.

Another important person I met is Orwell Kowalyshyn.  He is one of our district helping teachers, and he has done a lot to help me.  Orwell has answered many of my tech questions.  He has helped me arrange   the district loaner set of ipods and ipads into my school.  He has given me a lot of his time - and with a district the size of ours, I know that it was probably above and beyond what is expected in his role.

So why is this opportunity so special?  Not only did I receive excellent training from Bryan Hughes but I also received my very own Ipad 2 to use with my class this year.  I feel like I'm bouncing off the walls I'm so excited.  Already I've come up with a few ways that we will be using it in my class tomorrow! It isn't so much the tool that I was given, it's all the amazing learning that we will be able to do with it.  Teaching my students is still my number one priority, but with this new toy, the teaching (and learning) just got a whole lot more fun.

To Elisa and Orwell, and the staff at F.H. High School I am very thankful for this opportunity that I've been given.

2 comments:

  1. What a great experience! It sounds like you are on the learning journey and keen to get into the teaching with a wonderful tool. So true what you say about the fact that it's all about the learning! Have a great time, go wild and enjoy every second!

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  2. Thanks for the comment Kimberly. Today was day one with the iPad 2 and it was a total hit. Children used it to write, read, and do math with. There is so much more for us to learn and thankfully we have six and a half more months to do it.

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