5 Resolutions for a 21st Century Learning Environment

It’s that time of year again, when we are making New Year’s Resolutions.  One of my resolutions is to blog more consistently!  I looked up (actually I googled) the word resolution and Google defines resolution as: a firm decision to do or not do something.  I’d like to invite you while you are in your “resolution planning” to consider making some resolutions for creating a 21^st century learning environment.  As a former debate coach, our debate resolutions began with the word resolved so I am wording them that way as a way to .

1. Resolved: learn one new tool for assessing your students. How many times have you said you don’t have enough time?  One way to give yourself more time in the new year is to let technology help you assess your students.  With most response systems or web applications for mobile devices you can create the key and the tool will give the grade based on each individual student’s response.  So you don’t have to grade each individual paper.  Talk about a timesaver!  There are several tools available to help you assess your students, but I always like to remind teachers to start where they are and use what they have.  If your campus has clickers, use those, if you have ipads use an app like Socrative. You can even go web-based and use tools like InfuseLearning.   Use the tool that best fits the needs of you and your students.
2. Resolved: learn one new tool for managing your files. With so many of us working from different computers and devices around the clock, it is imperative to have a place where you can still access, store, and edit those files.  You may have even heard someone mention “cloud” storage- that means they have stored files in a location out in the internet heavens!  It gives you lots of freedom and flexibility with your files.  You can even share them with others to share the workload.  Some of my personal favorites are Google Drive, my Edmodo library and Microsoft OneNote. 
3. Resolved: learn one new tool for creating products. Are your students still creating poster boards and traditional essays?  We are teaching the YouTube, Instagram, and Vine generation! Our students want to create and share with authentic audiences.  There are so many tools to help them do that right on your computers like: Animoto, iMovie or MovieMaker for videos, Audacity for podcasts and radio shows.  If your campus has Adobe products, there’s a suite of creative tools right at your fingertips!  
4. Resolved: learn one new tool for collaborating. Who works alone these days?  Not really anyone.  We all work with others and that’s the way learning should be.  According to the Principles of Learning, “learning is a social act”!   By far, one of my favorite tools for collaborating in the classroom is Padlet.  It’s a web application that allows you and your students to share written responses, documents, images and links.  The padlet wall can be shared publicly or privately and you can customize it to fit your needs.  If your campus has iPads, you may be interested in an app called Baiboard.  Just recently, I visited with a middle school science teacher who used Baiboard during the semester exam review.  Her students reviewed exam questions with another science teacher on her campus.  One student liked it so much he told her, “this is more intense than dodge ball”!
5.  Resolved: learn one new tool for enhancing instruction – How can you take your teaching to the next level?  I want you to really think about that.  Are you currently giving students access to content around the clock?  Are you providing a variety of content resources: videos, written communication, and graphics to support their different learning styles and needs?  Are you reaching them where they are?  There are a number of applications that we use in the district to help you enhance your instruction.  One of the real gamechangers (in that it can really change the way you teach and your students learn) is Edmodo.  Some teachers are using Edmodo to help them flip their classroom, others are using the apps in Edmodo like Blendspace to diversify instructional content, and some are using it as a great platform for BYOD lessons and activities.  The major question to ask is, “How can Edmodo help me?”

When it comes to integrating technology in the classroom, I know it can be a little daunting and overwhelming.  So I like to encourage myself and others with the great words of Arthur Ashe, “Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can.”  Let’s make 2014 the year we learn something new that will help us reach and teach each of our students.  Pick one of these areas and focus on just that one tool for a month.  Once you’ve mastered it you can keep going and growing!

 

What are your instructional resolutions?  How can technology help you do it? 

A Blogging Challenge:

I love communicating! When one person asked me if I was an English teacher because I knew how to give the phonetic spelling of my name, I said no I am a communicator. Whether it’s speaking, writing, blogging, tweeting, training, or teaching I love to communicate it is perhaps the reason I majored in Speech Communication.  It is also the reason I love twitter and the outstanding people I’ve met on Twitter like Summer Len Diamond (@Sumlendia).

Here is how it works:

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

My nominating blogger:

My nominating Blogger is Summer Len Diamond.  I met her on a #smartee Twitter Chat and she was so positive and dare I say “sunny” that I found myself chatting with her most of that time.  I am honored that she nominated me to be a part of this “blogortunity” because I have failed to blog on a consistent basis.  My hope is that this will jumpstart a new blog that focuses on professional development and ways those of us who serve in this role will inspire and impact the learning environment one teacher at a time.

11 Random Facts About Me

1.  I am an off the charts extrovert.   No matter the personality test or profile assessment there is no mistaken that I am energized when I am with others!
2.  The one thing most people say about me upon meeting me or hearing me share in a presentation is how much enthusiasm I demonstrate!  That is because I love what I do and it just bubbles over into every presentation!
3. I sang and danced to Tina Turner’s famous hit, “Proud Mary” in a community theater production called Beehive.  I had lots of fun and my sister shared the stage with me so it felt like a family affair!
4. I am a fraternal twin! Growing up people used to say she looked like my dad and I looked like my mother.  It’s funny though as I look at pictures I see a lot of my dad in my facial expressions and my eyes. 
5. I can’t stand cats! I love dogs though! J
6. I recently turned 40 and on my birthday I cut off all of the remainder of my permed/relaxed hair and decided to “go natural”.  It’s been a learning process and it is teaching me a lot about how I see myself.  It hasn’t all been good either.  I can be my own worst critic.
7. I love coffee with my creamer!
8. I’m working on keeping the main thing the main thing and living in the present!  Sometimes I can chase my ambitions at the risk of spending quality time with my family.  (The truth will set me free, right?)
9. I miss working directly with students and walking through the halls where students called me by name and stopped to chat!
10. I took a cruise for the first time in 2011!  It was scary at first because all I could think about was the Titanic (I know that’s not the most positive but I’m just keeping it real!).  It didn’t’ make matters any better when my husband planned an ATV excursion for us in a “Mayan Jungle”.  I made it through, reluctantly and nervously.
11. I have aspirations of becoming a motivational speaker. J

Questions for Me

1.  Biggest challenge you see facing today’s educators? Old mindsets
2. If you could trade the grade level you teach for only a day, what grade would you choose (other than the one you currently teach or previously have taught) and why? 12th grade I taught some seniors but not exclusively seniors.  While they are eager to finish and be done, I find that group is so easy to prepare for their future.  As long as I made the content relevant, they were ready to learn and made my job easy!
3. Best technology integration your students enjoy the most? Edmodo.  It engages them with their greatest teachers – their peers. 
4. How many years have you been an educator? 15 years
5. What does your typical day look like as far as scheduling?  Report to work for training staff on technology like BYOD, send follow up email and resources to participants, issue credit for attending the course, meet with other specialists for district technology conference, prepare for student training or upcoming professional development.  Head home to pick up my 5 kiddos.
6. If you could take only one item on a trip for a week,what item would you take and why? iPhone.  It’s like my third arm or 11^th finger.  I can’t leave home without it.
7. Biggest love? My husband of thirteen years
8. What’s your favorite food/best place to eat? I love to eat at Olive Garden and Chili’s! I love their lunch specials!  At Olive Garden I love the Zuppe Toscana and salad but the Chicken Alfredo Calzone is becoming a fast favorite!  I the burgers, chicken tenders, southwestern egg rolls, and chili at Chili’s!
9. If you were an administrator, what is one thing you would want your teachers to know?  I believe in you.  (I believe in our role as educators to make a difference and I want them to know I support them as they grow and develop)
10. Why Twitter? The challenge with working on a campus is you don’t get to choose your colleagues, but when it comes to Twitter you can choose the professional educators you learn from and share with.  The possibilities for 21^st century learning, collaborating, and communicating are endless.
11. If you could live during any era, which era would you enjoy and why?  I would choose to live in this era.  This is an exciting time to live and learn!   If I can be frank, as an African-American there is no other time in our American history that I would choose to live.  I commend my ancestors and those in the challenging eras of our past like the Civil Rights movement, Great Depression, and slavery for their hard work, endurance, faith and hope for a life they couldn’t see but that I get to see.   

11 Bloggers

1.  Paul Solarz
2.  Kate Baker
3. Alison Anderson
4. Sam Patterson
5. Todd Nesloney
6. Marilyn Price-Mitchell
7. Ciro Viamontes
8. Dr. Tim Clark
9. Mark Joseph Blackman
10. Starr Sackstein
11. Julie Adams

Questions for the Bloggers

1.  When did you know you wanted to be an educator?
2. What has been your greatest moment as an educator?
3. How long have you been on Twitter?
4. Why Twitter?
5. What is the greatest professional development you have participated in? What made it so memorable?
6. Rank the following in order of importance: Content, Pedagogy,Technology and explain your answer?
7. Which holiday character is most like you and why? (i.e. Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, etc.)
8. If you could meet anyone from any era of time and any place who would it be? Why?
9. Which technology has been the “gamechanger” for the 21^st century?
10. Why do you blog?
11. If you could only have one technology in your classroom/professional development what would it be and why?