Category: Risk Taking

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LETS DO THIS!

I sit snuggled up under the blankets, coffee cup in one hand, one finger peck typing a post with the other.  This is my last day. This is my last day of summer.

My summers have changed over the years from the one before kids supplied with endless me time and no schedule to follow to the exhausting ones when my daughters were young to the ones now full of activity, play and jam packed memories.

My summers as an educator have been equally as different.  Some have been spent full of creating, making new lessons, building new units, others have been quiet with little time spent on anything school, still others have been spent packed full of summer projects and working with peers on projects.

None of those summers have been quite like this one.

I had no goals going into this summer, no projects to work on, no summer projects to work on, no extra meetings to attend and yet as I look back on my summer, never before have I collected, soaked up, +Evernote ‘d, pinned, talked to other educators, collaborated and learned SO MUCH!

From…

Information flowed in on +Twitter and +Google+  supplying me with links, pictures, ideas, news and resources to

Pinterest decorated my screen with resources, activities and strategies to

+Google+  Communities offered me an opportunity to share what I had learned with others and see what others were trying to

+Google Hangouts  Hangouts transported me to a world of online education as I watched, participated, shared, was inspired and learned from the +The EdReach Network  to

I even went to +Edmodocon  in my pajamas. I listened to amazing teachers share their tools, techniques, strategies, ideas via live video and tweeted ideas I liked, how they inspired me and “talked” to teachers from around the country about it …

As I head back into the classroom I am more inspired and filled then ever before.

I am inspired to take more risks, push more limits, bring even more awesomeness out of my students and share even more about what students can do with technology.  I am filled with ideas, eager to try them as they dangle and wait teasing me….try me, try me.

I am just so excited that I am filled with an energy and eagerness that I just can’t help but stand up from my seat, make a fist, pump it and shout from the top of my lung…”Lets Do This!!!!”

My “Lets Do This” List for 2013-2014
(ideas, strategies, tools I can wait to try)
  • Use +Subtext  to differentiate and improve accessibility 
  • Use +Flipboard  to make projects, to collect, share and organize information 
  • Improve my students use of +Edmodo
  • Create an +Edmodo group to share classroom going ons with parents that ALL parents are a member of
  • Make +SymbalooEDU our classroom app
  • Use +SymbalooEDU  to organize information (videos) to share with students
  • Utilize some of the new apps in +Edmodo  to optimize it as a tool for us
  • Add to my library of Portable Lessons
  • Improve my student communication with +Google Hangouts 
  • Hold 3-4 “Technology for Parents” Sessions this school year
  • Pair up with 1-2 staff members this year: show them the awesomeness of some of these tools, help them see how they can use them in their classrooms and work with them to implement them in their classrooms
  • Develop/Find consistent tool that is available for daily drill and practice of basic skills my students need consistent practice  
  • Implement 20% Time (Genius Hour) in my Language Arts class
  • Continue to be an almost completely paperless classroom
  • Increase and improve communication with the teaching assistants I work with through simple to use, efficient technology (not sure what that is yet?!)
What are we waiting for!  
Bring it 2013 School Year…

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Dear Jen

Dear Jen,
A year ago I was a passionate special educator who even after fourteen years still found incredible joy in working with students with significant disabilities, recognizing their strengths, tapping into them as learners and empowering them to over come their weakness and be amazing students.  Still, with all this passion and the successes I was having in the classroom, there was a part of me that was left feeling empty.  It was an emptiness I did not even know existed until this year.

As you know this whole blogging is nothing new to me.  In fact, for the last three years I have blogged anonymously as a mom, a wife, a sister and a friend.  I have learned about the power of words.  I have been warmed by the amazingness of the connections that can be made through sharing words. I have been blown away by the incredible power of social media and the connections it offers. Most of all I have learned the power of my voice.  My experiences in that space filled me, enriched my life and brought priceless amazingness to me … and yet these experiences never entered my classroom.

Then it happened… 

 In November you encouraged me to submit to present at the Illinois ICE conference.  I remember thinking, who the heck is going to be interested in what I am doing in the classroom?  What I am doing is not more interesting then all the other fantastic educators out there?  You were persistant, encouraging and gave me the bravery I needed to submit my idea.

In December I decided it was time for me to start this blog.  Not a blog as Carrie mom and wife.  Start a blog as Carrie Special Education teacher.  Not a private blog for only my parents and students, a blog for everyone to see.  A blog that would be a hub of resources for my students. A place I would use to share lessons I was doing in the classroom, new ideas I was trying and things I was learning about.  You listened to me as ideas brewed inside of me. You smiled and celebrated with me when I told you about the idea.  You supported and cheered me on when I was ready to hit the publish button.  

In February after a fantastically inspiring, energizing Illinois ICE conference I told you I wanted to my classroom to be a 1:1 iPad classroom.  Without hesitation you took my idea and went to work looking for resources and creating a proposal for me.  By March I had enough iPads to pilot being a 1:1 iPad classroom.

March came around and several classes in our building were piloting collaborative learning desks.  I thought…Those would be great for my classroom.  We are constantly collaborative. I want to pilot those desks too.  You encouraged me to ask administration if my class could pilot them too.

April brought emails from our district technology department.  Opportunities to be trained to use an iPad mini and an open call for teachers who want to present at our district technology academy.  I completed the form and  submitted it.  Fingers crossed that I would be chosen to try the iPad mini.  I filled out the presenters form for not just one session but two.

A year ago fear owned a part of me.  Fear kept me asking.  Fear began to limit my creativity.  Fear keep me from sharing.  Fear left part of me empty.  Fear of kept me from using a skill that was a huge part of my life away from the classroom, a part that I am incredibly passionate about.

Jen, you brought energy, a joy, a giddiness, a passion for technology and all of its fantasticness into my life.  You suddenly lit inside of me something I only shared with others outside, away from my classroom.  You were patient as you filled me with information, new tools, new ideas.  You listened to me as ideas brewed inside of me. You smiled, giggled and celebrated with me when I tried new ideas in my classroom and they began to work.  Then you waited, listened and supported me when I was ready to take my fears throw them aside and begin to share more.

I can not begin to thank you for what you have given me.  By giving me this you have not just given me a gift, you have given my classroom and my students all of this and so much more.  You have opened a whole new part of me that was tucked away.  I am a risk taker, an adventurer, a jump into the deep end without a life preserver, try new things…kind of a teacher. You have given my students the same teacher they have always had and so much more. Now they have a teacher who is also a global learner: learning from the world and not just from training sessions, my school or district, a global teacher: who doesn’t just teach them but all shares her lessons with others, a risk taker: who is willing to try new things, fail or succeed and then try again.

For all these things and just so very much more…



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