I took a hiatus from blogging for a few months for a few reasons. As I mentioned in my previous post I had 8 students in my class to start with and while two have left this continues to be quite a trying year not only professionally but also personally.
I had the amazing opportunity, thanks to my school and my district, to attend the Cue national conference in Palm Springs this past weekend. It's a convergence of educators who are sharing the amazing things they do in their classrooms so that we as educators become better together.
There were phenomenal keynote speakers: Taylor Mali, George Couros and Cathy Hunt. I went to a session by Brad Montague, the brains behind Kid President. Their stories hit on the reasons I became a teacher: I want to be the person I needed as a child so that my students can soar. One quote sticks in my mind: "What if I fall?" "But, my child, what if you soar?"
How do we get our students to soar? How do we get our colleagues to soar? During this conference that celebrated bringing technology into our classrooms as a tool to help our students grow, I kept thinking about one thing: we as educators need to grow our relationships through technology but we discourage our students from using their devices because it's a distraction from learning. What are we doing as teachers that discourages our students from learning? Why would they rather look at their phones than listen to us? George Couros both in his book The Innovator's Mindset and in his keynote speech asks Do you want to be a student in your classroom?
As this year has moved along, I see that there are many things I would have done differently. I put worksheets in Google classroom so I could be digitally boring, awesome! I also created frustration with my students. I want to change the way I teach my students in the last few months of the school year. I want promise them that they will be allowed to use their devices to learn. If I don't know something, how can we find the answer? If they'd rather be on their devices, what can I do differently to change the way I deliver content to engage them in this journey we're on together?Teaching and learning are not linear. We will make mistakes, we will fail. Learning is a messy disorganized process. It includes pencils, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, crayons, keyboards, 1 to 1 devices, grass, flowers, bugs, silliness, and most importantly of all the relationships I build with my students. Although I may have failed at a lesson, I have not failed to build relationships with my students. They trust me (most of the time) to guide them. I will continue to build on that while we finish this awesome adventure that was filled with laughter and chaos. I hope, at the end, that they learned something about themselves even if it was only: I believe in you and I hope you soar.
I had the amazing opportunity, thanks to my school and my district, to attend the Cue national conference in Palm Springs this past weekend. It's a convergence of educators who are sharing the amazing things they do in their classrooms so that we as educators become better together.
There were phenomenal keynote speakers: Taylor Mali, George Couros and Cathy Hunt. I went to a session by Brad Montague, the brains behind Kid President. Their stories hit on the reasons I became a teacher: I want to be the person I needed as a child so that my students can soar. One quote sticks in my mind: "What if I fall?" "But, my child, what if you soar?"
How do we get our students to soar? How do we get our colleagues to soar? During this conference that celebrated bringing technology into our classrooms as a tool to help our students grow, I kept thinking about one thing: we as educators need to grow our relationships through technology but we discourage our students from using their devices because it's a distraction from learning. What are we doing as teachers that discourages our students from learning? Why would they rather look at their phones than listen to us? George Couros both in his book The Innovator's Mindset and in his keynote speech asks Do you want to be a student in your classroom?
As this year has moved along, I see that there are many things I would have done differently. I put worksheets in Google classroom so I could be digitally boring, awesome! I also created frustration with my students. I want to change the way I teach my students in the last few months of the school year. I want promise them that they will be allowed to use their devices to learn. If I don't know something, how can we find the answer? If they'd rather be on their devices, what can I do differently to change the way I deliver content to engage them in this journey we're on together?Teaching and learning are not linear. We will make mistakes, we will fail. Learning is a messy disorganized process. It includes pencils, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, crayons, keyboards, 1 to 1 devices, grass, flowers, bugs, silliness, and most importantly of all the relationships I build with my students. Although I may have failed at a lesson, I have not failed to build relationships with my students. They trust me (most of the time) to guide them. I will continue to build on that while we finish this awesome adventure that was filled with laughter and chaos. I hope, at the end, that they learned something about themselves even if it was only: I believe in you and I hope you soar.