As I look back on my year I can't believe how much has changed for me. Here is my attempt to recap the journey I have taken professionally in the 2011-2012 school year.
• joined Twitter in July 2011 and now follow over 750 people, have over 775 following me, and have tweeted over 5,500 times not including my direct messaging (tons!)
• started this professional blog as a way to document and share some of my learning
• took part in many twitter educational chats including but not limited to #1stchat, #kinderchat, #edchat, #elemchat #gtchat, #storyappchat, #D5chat
• set up a class blog which ended up with 199 posts, 253 comments, and over 22,000 hits
• set up individual blogs for my grade one students who have now written over 750 posts and received over 1,600 comments
• completely changed my writing program to allow my students more choice with their writing and in the process created genuinely motivated writers
• completely changed my reading program to allow my students more choice with their reading and in the process created genuinely motivated readers
• changed my word work program to all my students more choice with their word work and in the process created self motivated learners
• dropped my traditional "calendar" routines and replaced it with math chat
• used the Mind Up, Fun Friends, and Fin's Friends social emotional programs to better meet my students social emotional needs
• learned and used many web 2.0 tools
• utilized technology to better meet the individual needs of my students, and to connect my class with the world
• set up a class twitter, youtube, and closed class facebook account
• was selected to a part of a special district literacy learning lab utilizing technology with early primary students
• helped write a successful Innovative Learning Design grant application
• created many videos and slide shows
• had my class Skype and Face Time with students in Illinois, Ontario. and Saskatchewan
• Skyped, Google Hung Out, and Face Time'd with teachers in Hong Kong, Illinois, Ontario (several), Saskatchewan, and Florida
• had my class read and comment on class blogs from around the world
• read and commented on many professional blogs from around the world
• participated in three global projects - Quad Blogging, Flat Classroom : Building Bridges K-2 Pilot Project April-May, and Bean Wiki with my class
• attended EdCampDelta, EdCampSurrey, and EdCampKinder in Las Vegas
• visited three schools and had several teachers both from my district and another district visit my classroom to learn and share
• met and connected with several Surrey School District teachers, administrators, and school district leaders ( I am far more known around the district this year than I have in any other time in my career)
• presented professional development workshops for my staff and my school district
• asked to present professional development workshops at three more schools at the beginning of the new school year, as well as for the Surrey Primary Teachers association
• wrote posts on Twitter, Tablet Computer Apps, and Digital Literacy for the International Reading Association
• sparked the use of KidBlog as a blogging platform for students in my school district, and beyond
• participated in webinars
• attended two workshops at Apple Canada Institute
• attended Surrey's Digital Dinner series
• attended two BC Primary teacher's conventions
• attended workshops led by Alec Couros, George Couros, Adrienne Gear (Reading Power), Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (Cafe), and Lilian Katz (Reggio)
• have read (or in the middle of reading) Mind Set by Carol Dweck, Drive by Daniel Pink, No More "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson, Personal Learning Networks by Richardson and Mancabelli, Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller, Catching Reader's Before They Fall by Johnson and Keir,In Pictures and In Words by Ray, Writing Power by Adrienne Gear, Reading Power by Adrienne Gear, Reading Power Non Fiction by Adrienne Gear, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, The Daily 5 and The Cafe by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Lindsay and Davis, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, Teaching with Tools Kids Really Use by Susan Brooks-Young, Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart and Church and Morrison, Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway, One to One The Art of Conferring with Young Writers by Calkins and Hartman and White, The Passion-Driven Classroom by Maiers and Sandvold, Play by Lisa Murphy and the list continues...
• successfully completed 20 years of teaching and still love it as much, if not more than ever before
A special thank you to my #1stchat, #kinderchat, #sd36learn, #bclearns, #bced, and #elemchat friends. Without you I wonder how much of this would ever have happened. An extra special thank you to Elisa Carlson (Director of Instruction, Surrey School District) for believing in me. Elisa will never really know how powerful that has been for me and I can't thank her enough. And yes, of course, I need to thank Tia Henriksen, mother of one of my grade one students this year, former vice principal of mine, and friend because it was she who coaxed me into giving twitter a try.
What a year it has been. What have you accomplished this year? I'd love to hear.
Next up, goals for the 2012-2013 school year.
Showing posts with label Aviva Dunsiger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aviva Dunsiger. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Small Steps Can Take You To Great Places
I've never been one to make resolutions. I've always thought if there is something in my life that I'm not happy about I need to find a way to fix or change it. I don't have to wait for the calendar to switch over to a new year to make a change. For me change happens as soon as I recognize that change has to be made.
This school year I have been making a lot of changes. I started the 2011/12 school year with quite a different mind set than I've had in the past. For one thing I spent the summer of 2011 not training for an Ironman which left me with a lot of spare time. I spent a lot of that time learning from others through Twitter. I read educators blog posts, and started making connections with other like minded educators. I began to develop my Personal Learning Network (PLN). While I've spent many of my previous summers swimming, biking, and running ridiculous distances this past summer I spent it learning. By the time term one began in early September I was determined to better integrate technology into my classroom. I took small steps, but those small steps have taken me to great places. Here is a recap of my growth term one:
• I created my first class blog and kept it updated with regular posts all term long
• I learned several different Web 2.0 tools and tried to use them with my teaching
• I participated in a weekly Grade One twitter chat
• I helped present technology tools to my staff at two professional development days
• I made myself available to help answer my colleagues technology questions
• I visited several other primary class blogs and was particularly inspired by what I learned from Leanne Kolenberg and Jackie Nelson's blogs in Adelaide, South Australia
• I attended the BC Primary Conference
• I attended the first three of five "Engaging the Digital Learner" technology dinner series evenings put on by my school district
• I was inspired by two fellow Canadians Aviva Dunsiger (Ontario) and Kathy Cassidy (Saskatchewan) as well as several other educators from around the world
• I introduced my students to their individual blogs and was amazed by how powerful they are
• I got to know my technology helping teacher, Orwell Kowalyshyn and utilized his knowledge
• I got to know my district's Director of Instruction, Elisa Carlson and shared my journey with her
• My professional blog link was added to a list of teachers and administrators blogging in my district
• I wrote an article for an international reading organization which will be published later this month
• I got invited to join a local high school for iPad training at the Apple Training Centre
This school year I have been making a lot of changes. I started the 2011/12 school year with quite a different mind set than I've had in the past. For one thing I spent the summer of 2011 not training for an Ironman which left me with a lot of spare time. I spent a lot of that time learning from others through Twitter. I read educators blog posts, and started making connections with other like minded educators. I began to develop my Personal Learning Network (PLN). While I've spent many of my previous summers swimming, biking, and running ridiculous distances this past summer I spent it learning. By the time term one began in early September I was determined to better integrate technology into my classroom. I took small steps, but those small steps have taken me to great places. Here is a recap of my growth term one:
• I created my first class blog and kept it updated with regular posts all term long
• I learned several different Web 2.0 tools and tried to use them with my teaching
• I participated in a weekly Grade One twitter chat
• I helped present technology tools to my staff at two professional development days
• I made myself available to help answer my colleagues technology questions
• I visited several other primary class blogs and was particularly inspired by what I learned from Leanne Kolenberg and Jackie Nelson's blogs in Adelaide, South Australia
• I attended the BC Primary Conference
• I attended the first three of five "Engaging the Digital Learner" technology dinner series evenings put on by my school district
• I was inspired by two fellow Canadians Aviva Dunsiger (Ontario) and Kathy Cassidy (Saskatchewan) as well as several other educators from around the world
• I introduced my students to their individual blogs and was amazed by how powerful they are
• I read (or almost finished reading) five professional books including Drive by Daniel Pink, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Kedekind, and No More "I'm Done" Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades by Jennifer Jacobson.
• I arranged for my school district's loaner set of iPods and shared them with my staff• I got to know my technology helping teacher, Orwell Kowalyshyn and utilized his knowledge
• I got to know my district's Director of Instruction, Elisa Carlson and shared my journey with her
• My professional blog link was added to a list of teachers and administrators blogging in my district
• I wrote an article for an international reading organization which will be published later this month
• I got invited to join a local high school for iPad training at the Apple Training Centre
• I was given a district iPad to use with my class
• I loaded the district iPad with over 100 apps all geared towards helping my students with their learning
• I created story bird accounts for my students
• I had many professional discussions while running with two fantastic teachers at my school Megan Birdsall and Erica Segec
When I started this school year I had no idea that it would take me to where I am today. I was just taking small steps on my journey. If you are reading this blog post as someone new to Twitter, or new to getting involved in this global world of ours, my biggest piece of advice is to take it one small step at a time. Perhaps you can leave a comment on a blog that got you thinking, or retweet a tweet with a link to an article that inspired you. Each small step will lead you towards your greater place.
If you are experiencing a rapid growth year like I am I'd love to hear from you. What do you struggle with? How much support to do you have? Does having or not having support change your desire to grow? Obviously I'd love to hear from you.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Pushing Boundaries
As I started to leave a comment on one of Aviva Dunsinger's blogs I couldn't help but stop to think about how discovering twitter for educational purposes has really changed me as a teacher. Prior to twitter I was a hard working teaching who questioned things and looked for ways to make things better. But with the discovery of educational twitter and connecting with such incredible primary educators my questioning and desire to get better has exploded.
For example two weeks ago Aviva @grade1 posted on twitter that her 1/2 class was going to have a game of I Spy using the hash tag #Ispy2011. It was a way to get her students to write for an audience as they provided clues describing common objects around a classroom. Aviva invited the rest of the world to try to guess the answers, and write clues for her students to try to figure out. Seeing that on twitter finally prompted me to create a class twitter account @MsLsClass so that my class could play along. While Aviva had her students do this activity on their own as part of a literacy rotation, we did it as a group activity. My students loved trying to guess what was being posted. It was our very first twitter experience.
Aviva's activity made me think about what I was doing with my class and how I could integrate technology into it. Each year around Christmas time I have my students create secrets about Santa. I have a little paper form where we write and illustrate our secrets. We post them around the room and some years around our school so that others can read our secrets. Having just played I Spy with Aviva's students on twitter I decided to create the hash tag #santasec2011 to have my students share their secrets about Santa. I posted it on twitter and invited the world to join in with us. The world came, or at least a few other primary classes came. Twitter is a powerful tool and I look forward to getting my students more involved with it.
This past week I set up a closed facebook group for my class to help encourage more of my students' parents to be involved. The facebook group will not replace the classblog. It will only provide another avenue to the blog. I figured if my parents are regularly checking their facebook accounts for their day to day lives why not connect them on facebook and provide them with a direct link to our class blog every time it gets updated. So far I have three families in the group but the notice only did go out yesterday and we have just started school holidays.
In addition, with the iPad that I was given to use in my classroom, my use of technology integration continues to explode. In the two weeks that I've had the iPad it has constantly been in the hands of my students. As I said in another post we are using it to read, write, do math, create, explore, and discover. I even took it on our field trip and we practiced math facts as we waited for the performance to start. I have discovered wonderful apps that will help my students with their individual learning needs. For example I have one student that is a selective mute. I've down loaded Talking Tom as a way to get her to speak at school. Granted the speaking will be done in complete privacy but if I'm lucky the motivation of having the silly cat repeat her words may help her take that first step of talking at school. Right now she is giggling like crazy when others talk to and are repeated by Talking Tom. Then there's Dragon Dictation. I have another student with severe speech language issues and a severe learning disability. He will be using Dragon Dictation to practice speaking clearly. If he is successful with his speech he will be rewarded with personalized typed text that he can then use to write his journal entry.
My list of examples of change and growth because of inspiration or knowledge I've gained from twitter goes on and on. Just getting me to think like this has been 100% inspired but what I've learned and read on and via twitter. The connections I've made with like minded educators has introduced me to so many new things I would have never known about without it. It is pushing my boundaries far further than I every thought I'd want to go. It has made me realize that twenty years into the best profession in the world, I still have so much more to learn and discover. It has reminded me that need never be a dull moment in my career.
With that in mind there are still several things I'd like to integrate into my teaching or classroom. This list is far from complete but it is a place for me to document what is spinning in my head these days.
I want to...
- use our big buddies to teach and help us learn how to use storybird (with hopes that my students will be motivated to use it on their own)
- show my class audioboo and use it to digitally document their oral reading and post it on our class and/or their individual student blogs
- revisit Voki as a tool for demonstrating our learning
- create QR codes for my classroom books stored by author providing direct links to the author's website to hear stories read by the author or to learn more about the author
- introduce Voice Thread, ShowMe, ScreenChomp, Explain Everything, Puppet Pals, Toontastic, Sock Puppets, Wordle, as a way of documenting and sharing our ideas with others
- get my students tweeting our class happenings independently
- *find ways to get more technology permanently into my classroom
- create a google doc list of apps I use for teaching and provide the link to other educators and to the parents of my students
- continue to expand my Personal Learning Network and find a way to stay on top of all the amazing information coming my way
- continue to share my learning with anyone who will listen, and provide support to others where ever I can
As I begin my well earned two week school holiday I will continue to ponder, discover, explore, and push my boundaries. I'm curious to know how your teaching has changed either because of your interaction with other like minded educators, or your experiences on twitter. I'd love for you to share too.
*Right now I have my school's one portable smart board and projection device in my classroom but I am only allowed to keep it for one term. That term has just ended and I am pretty bummed to know it will be gone (but happy to know that other like minded educators in my school will get the chance to use it). I will canvas my new administration for my own projection device to use with the ipad I've been given, but if I'm not successful there I will be looking at other avenues to get a permanent projection device into my classroom. Having to sign out the school's shared one will totally mess the spontaneity we've had with having the portable smart board in our class. Knowing that I'm about to loose it makes me realize how valuable it has been.
For example two weeks ago Aviva @grade1 posted on twitter that her 1/2 class was going to have a game of I Spy using the hash tag #Ispy2011. It was a way to get her students to write for an audience as they provided clues describing common objects around a classroom. Aviva invited the rest of the world to try to guess the answers, and write clues for her students to try to figure out. Seeing that on twitter finally prompted me to create a class twitter account @MsLsClass so that my class could play along. While Aviva had her students do this activity on their own as part of a literacy rotation, we did it as a group activity. My students loved trying to guess what was being posted. It was our very first twitter experience.
Aviva's activity made me think about what I was doing with my class and how I could integrate technology into it. Each year around Christmas time I have my students create secrets about Santa. I have a little paper form where we write and illustrate our secrets. We post them around the room and some years around our school so that others can read our secrets. Having just played I Spy with Aviva's students on twitter I decided to create the hash tag #santasec2011 to have my students share their secrets about Santa. I posted it on twitter and invited the world to join in with us. The world came, or at least a few other primary classes came. Twitter is a powerful tool and I look forward to getting my students more involved with it.
This past week I set up a closed facebook group for my class to help encourage more of my students' parents to be involved. The facebook group will not replace the classblog. It will only provide another avenue to the blog. I figured if my parents are regularly checking their facebook accounts for their day to day lives why not connect them on facebook and provide them with a direct link to our class blog every time it gets updated. So far I have three families in the group but the notice only did go out yesterday and we have just started school holidays.
In addition, with the iPad that I was given to use in my classroom, my use of technology integration continues to explode. In the two weeks that I've had the iPad it has constantly been in the hands of my students. As I said in another post we are using it to read, write, do math, create, explore, and discover. I even took it on our field trip and we practiced math facts as we waited for the performance to start. I have discovered wonderful apps that will help my students with their individual learning needs. For example I have one student that is a selective mute. I've down loaded Talking Tom as a way to get her to speak at school. Granted the speaking will be done in complete privacy but if I'm lucky the motivation of having the silly cat repeat her words may help her take that first step of talking at school. Right now she is giggling like crazy when others talk to and are repeated by Talking Tom. Then there's Dragon Dictation. I have another student with severe speech language issues and a severe learning disability. He will be using Dragon Dictation to practice speaking clearly. If he is successful with his speech he will be rewarded with personalized typed text that he can then use to write his journal entry.
My list of examples of change and growth because of inspiration or knowledge I've gained from twitter goes on and on. Just getting me to think like this has been 100% inspired but what I've learned and read on and via twitter. The connections I've made with like minded educators has introduced me to so many new things I would have never known about without it. It is pushing my boundaries far further than I every thought I'd want to go. It has made me realize that twenty years into the best profession in the world, I still have so much more to learn and discover. It has reminded me that need never be a dull moment in my career.
With that in mind there are still several things I'd like to integrate into my teaching or classroom. This list is far from complete but it is a place for me to document what is spinning in my head these days.
I want to...
- use our big buddies to teach and help us learn how to use storybird (with hopes that my students will be motivated to use it on their own)
- show my class audioboo and use it to digitally document their oral reading and post it on our class and/or their individual student blogs
- revisit Voki as a tool for demonstrating our learning
- create QR codes for my classroom books stored by author providing direct links to the author's website to hear stories read by the author or to learn more about the author
- introduce Voice Thread, ShowMe, ScreenChomp, Explain Everything, Puppet Pals, Toontastic, Sock Puppets, Wordle, as a way of documenting and sharing our ideas with others
- get my students tweeting our class happenings independently
- *find ways to get more technology permanently into my classroom
- create a google doc list of apps I use for teaching and provide the link to other educators and to the parents of my students
- continue to expand my Personal Learning Network and find a way to stay on top of all the amazing information coming my way
- continue to share my learning with anyone who will listen, and provide support to others where ever I can
As I begin my well earned two week school holiday I will continue to ponder, discover, explore, and push my boundaries. I'm curious to know how your teaching has changed either because of your interaction with other like minded educators, or your experiences on twitter. I'd love for you to share too.
*Right now I have my school's one portable smart board and projection device in my classroom but I am only allowed to keep it for one term. That term has just ended and I am pretty bummed to know it will be gone (but happy to know that other like minded educators in my school will get the chance to use it). I will canvas my new administration for my own projection device to use with the ipad I've been given, but if I'm not successful there I will be looking at other avenues to get a permanent projection device into my classroom. Having to sign out the school's shared one will totally mess the spontaneity we've had with having the portable smart board in our class. Knowing that I'm about to loose it makes me realize how valuable it has been.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Teaching A Comic Lesson I Learned on Twitter
This afternoon I showed my class a YouTube video of a student in Ontario, Canada teaching his former class how to draw a cartoon character. I've never met this student but I actively follow his previous teacher on Twitter. I think at first my class was a bit skeptical to be learning from a boy in a classroom across the country but they were just as curious to see what he had to share. The way the teacher filmed the video of her "young teacher" made us feel like we were sitting on the floor with her class too.
In the end it was probably one of the best directed drawing lessons we've done this year. They were so curious to see what he was going to do next. They remained on task at all times, and the language between one another was music to my ears. In the end each made their own special "peanut" person and they were all so proud of their final products.
This lesson is another big change for me. In the past I have rarely utilized YouTube with my students. I always thought it wasn't worth the time and it was too much of a hassle to set up. This lesson confirmed for me that I've got to use the resources available to me to their full potential. I will once again credit this change in my teaching to my new love, Twitter.
If you're curious to see what we did please check out our class blog post here.
In the end it was probably one of the best directed drawing lessons we've done this year. They were so curious to see what he was going to do next. They remained on task at all times, and the language between one another was music to my ears. In the end each made their own special "peanut" person and they were all so proud of their final products.
This lesson is another big change for me. In the past I have rarely utilized YouTube with my students. I always thought it wasn't worth the time and it was too much of a hassle to set up. This lesson confirmed for me that I've got to use the resources available to me to their full potential. I will once again credit this change in my teaching to my new love, Twitter.
If you're curious to see what we did please check out our class blog post here.
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