Field Experience and PLN Day

                       

Today was such a great day!   I went and shadowed the Media Specialist at the Middle School.  It was so neat to work with middle grade students.  I have always worked with primary students K-2, so working with teenagers was quite a change.  The library was quieter than at my school.  Although I noticed 13 year old were just as silly as 6 year olds.  While shadowing Mrs. Merrick, she showed me how they use Destiny at their school. She showed me around the library ( all the nooks and crannies)  She showed me the budget for 2011, and how she worked around it.  SHe said her funding has got lower and lower over the last 7 years.  Here is a link to our budget that Mrs. Merrick shared with me.  It was quite eye opening.http://pikecountytimes.com/2011SchoolBudget.pdf 

During Lunch, I hung out in the computer lab, while I was there- I made my PLN something that I can be proud of.  I added my favorite feeds.  I love Ilearntechnology from Kelly Tenkely.  She has been part of my PLN on Twitter since I joined a few years back.  I also like Kevin Jarrett.  I learn so many things from these 2 educators.  Although Twitter is blocked from school- I use it ALL the time.  It has made me a better educator.  Another social tool I added to my PLN was Pinterest.  WOW!!  Pinterest has given me a creative side to teaching that I never knew I had!  I get so inspired to create things for my students every single time I click within Pinterest.  Our Kindergarten teachers are going to create a Kindergarten boards in Pinterest and share that account among themselves.  What a SUPER way to collaborate!!  You should see the Kindergarten hall- Pinterest has made it look a lot more creative than it did last year!  I think Social Tools are great for education's future.  I just wonder when everyone will jump on the bandwagon!

Catching Up!



According to the Practicum Portfolio checklist for February 20th, I am on schedule.  I only have a few things left to embed.  Then, I can start with some more of the checklist items.  I have been working hard on the portfolio the past few weeks trying to make sure everything is in order. I was a little confused on where to embed all my key assessments, but I finally got everything figured out.  HOORAY!!   For valentines this week I showed my class http://www.thisissand.com/  They were so excited- it was a great Valentines present for me to give them.  During the time they were playing on the sand, I spent that time catching up with my class blog reading task.  The class has all read "The Mitten", and I made a display board for our school about the author.  The class made Wordles about the story and we printed them and took them home.  Above you can see a picture of a class working on their wordles.  Wordle is such an excellent Web 2.0 tool to show what you have learned about a story.  The students particularly like it because they can write words instead of sentences.  It seems students are always looking for shortcuts in the world of education- so technology makes it easy to learn, show, and assess!  Between the class blog and our wordle projects our reading unit has been lots of FUN!   I am working on a rubric to grade my students motivation, effort, and work on the reading enrichment unit.  So far, everyones motivation is through the roof- technology does that to students!  I love being an educator in today's time.  Taking my students to the 21st century is an awesome experience.