Since this is a "techy" blog, you are probably assuming this is going to be about tech resources such as My Big Campus,
Twitter, or a number of other helpful websites.
Many of us have been to some great conferences over the summer and
learned about some awesome and cool new tech tools to make our classes
better. I know I learned about some new
tools I’m incorporating this year. Those
are all resources that can add tremendous value to our classes and are very
useful but that’s not the direction I’m going with this one. Sometimes, it can be easy to get lost in
those resources and forget about some of the best resources available to
us…each other.
Last year, when we started doing instructional rounds, I
sat in on one of Dave Reese’s classes. I
had Dave for a teacher when I was in school and had worked with him in the
Social Studies department for several years but had never sat in on one of his
classes since becoming a teacher. I
learned so much in one class period about connecting with students. Sean Risse and I worked as team developing content for our social studies classes last year. From that collaboration, I got some great, new ideas to incorporate in my content for that class. A couple of years ago, I co-taught a class with Amy Rasche. From her, I
learned a lot about how to get students to look for deeper meaning when
reading texts and how to help them make connections. A lot of ideas
from that experience were applied to all my other classes.
This year already, I have learned from Josh Wilson how to
conduct a great activity with students, based on them taking a personality test. He let me come in a couple of class periods
last week to watch him conduct it and even came down to help me get it going in
my class. Now I have a new activity to
help students learn more about themselves, make connections, and build
relationships…perfect for my passion based learning class, STEAM. I worked with Gary Hanan, over the
summer, to have him teach me the computer aided drafting program, Inventor, and
went into his classroom this year to see how he teaches it. This is a tool I will be needing for one of
my new classes. These are just a few examples of how other teachers have made me a better teacher and there are many more. I
am thankful for these learning opportunities.
Fortunately for all of us, Perry Central is full of great people willing
to share ideas.
The point I'm trying to make is this, continue finding great websites to
increase engagement, connecting through Twitter, and using My Big Campus as a
platform to deliver content and assessments. Those are all wonderful tools that have transformed my classes and tools that I use on a regular basis.
They are valuable and necessary in today’s classroom but also keep in mind how much we can learn through brainstorming, conversations and watching others in action, even those outside our content areas or grade levels. In keeping with the theme for the year, “be
brave.” Try something new and then start
asking around because the resource you need might just be one door down the
hallway from you (or several doors down, or in a different building, you get
the point...somewhere on our campus!). I
know, for me, that has been the case. If
you think the eLearning team can be that resource, please let us know. As always, we are more than happy to help in
any way we can.
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