Tech-Knowlege-y?

GRADE 8! Yes, adolescents, puberty, hormones raging and peers being the utmost important part of these kids lives. I am determined to interrupt this. Well, add another element into their already complex lives and introduce (hopefully) a world of education where technology dominates. I am hoping this will be the leverage I need to keep them motivated to learn and to help me become as tech savvy as they are.Wait...introduce technology. I have to remember who I am talking about. They have already accepted technology into their lives, it is a part of their lives. I guess my role than will be to show them how this can be applied to their learning. Speaking of learning,  I have much to learn about this age group and I look forward to taking a peek into their individual personalities as I feel this is just as important as the curriculum I teach. But that is another topic for another post.

Upwards and onwards. Every spare second I have gotten for the last month, I have been learning. I think back to my university days when learning about problem solving and the philosophy of being stuck. I think about Mason and his theory that you have to become stuck and work your way through the problem to learn. Well, I guess I am somewhere on that continuum. I have been learning about so many different ways to incorportate technology in the classroom that my mind is spinning. I tell myself to slow down and remind myself that taking on too much at once time is worse than not doing anything at all. Theoretically, I think I will choose two or three things to learn and to implement in my classroom in September, but in learning these two or three only, I stumble onto something else that is equally or maybe better than what I was learning.

So, basically I am no further ahead than my last post. I have been using my time for reading about and learning about different websites and applications for the classroom. I have brushed up on my knowledge of Problem and Project Based Learning. Actually, it is this topic that has me consumed for the last week. For the last 3 years I have tried to implement a PBL environment. I have come far with it, but not quite where I want to be. Again, this is yet another topic for a future post. However, I will say that I have been trying to find a way to use PBL with technology and how to incorporate what I am learning into this type of learning environment. This makes sense to me as I try to create authentic learning experiences with my projects, I must then incorporate the technology. As it is this technology that makes sense to the students. Does it then become the medium to learning or the means? Or both? Hmmm....

Tech-KNOWLEDGE-y - yup, it is how we learn. It is a way of learning and it continues to freak me out a little. I am trying so hard to keep up with it. I can not imagine how "more experienced" teachers are feeling. I will prevail. I have to now start getting my head around the "what" I am going to teach because the "how" is through technology. So should I focus on the what and then figure out the how, or choose the how and then pick out the curriculum I can cover with that? Ohhh....Mason would be proud!

Elaina

New Learning

Well, summer is here. Many teachers are probably thinking about anything BUT the upcoming school year. They are probably enjoying the time where their brains can relax. Not me. I have decided that I need change and this change finds me at a new school in the Fall teaching a whole new regime of subjects and a whole new regime of students. I have been too comfortable with my elementary teaching assignments of the past and know each and every year who my students are and what their learning styles will be. Not this year. New school, new students, new curriculum, and new challenges! I love it.

Grade 8 is going to now be my home for a while. I am nervous but excited at the same time. Motivating these adolescents is the one challenge I know I will face. But I think I may have it covered...technology!! I have committed myself this summer to learning as much as I can about at least 5 different ways I can use technology in my Grade 8 math and Ela class to motivate these students. I have no idea who these students are, or their interests or their learning styles, but that is the fun part.

So here is what I have been thinking...podcasts, blogging, socrative, digital storytelling, and twitter. I have been learning about using Socrative in the classroom and I really like the response of the kids when they use it. It is easy and gives immediate feedback. Twitter is my best friend and now I have to figure a way to bring it into my classroom. I have some ideas, but need to do more research. Blogging is something I have done in the past, but I need to change how and why I get students to blog. It became a chore and kids were not intrinsically motivated to blog. They did it because I told them to. I want blogging to become something kids want to do, for them to use it as a means of communication with me and their peers and not something that will be assessed. Digital storytelling is fun, and I will continue to use it, but I am looking for something now that is more than that. I have Grade 8 students now and I want to see how they will use their interests and abilities to bring digital storytelling to a whole new lever. Podcasts is my weakest link. This is where I need to focus my time. I think I need to read more and then do it. I need to create my own podcast to get a feel for how to actually do it.

So there you have it...my summer mapped out. Oh, and I will have some fun. Maybe I can create a podcast about boating...hmmm...the possibilities!!

I'm excited!