Taking the Plunge into a New Age of Teaching

Our school is going to be under construction this year.  Our administration and many experienced staff members recommended not taking on too much change because the whole campus will be in upheaval. Though I have a tendency to get carried away with things, I could see the wisdom of their words and fully intended to follow their advice.

Then ISTE 12 happened.


A group of us from our small K-8 district attended, and I was very excited because it was my first ISTE.  EdTech is not new to me, or so I thought, having gotten a degree in it and attended many CUE conferences.  But what I discovered was a brave, new world, a vast array of ways that students can go deeper with their learning, expression and connection to the world.

I've discovered and explored in more depth:  new modes for classes to connect, flipped classrooms, flat classrooms, and multimedia tools--so many it boggles the mind and there are new ones every millisecond!

And when you've discovered a new world, how can you take one small part of it?

I have concluded that you can't.  The entire paradigm has shifted and so I've decided to

take the plunge! 

So, this year, I am taking a fresh approach to my lessons and classes.

New Structures for Class Communication  I have scrapped my old website and am constructing a new one, using Edmodo as my class hub.   We are also going to be using ClassDojo, and I'm going to use my existing wiki to a much greater degree.  In the past, my website has been a place where we share class photos and student projects, and I want to continue to do that.  I have also included pages that go into more depth with politics and media literacy, and so I do see a need to keep my website.  The difference will be that Edmodo will be where students view our class calendar, complete some of our assignments, and collaborate on projects on a more informal basis.

New Structures for Lesson Design  I knew that I would be adapting my lessons to incorporating stations or centers.  I had already committed to piloting a writing program which scores student writing, MyAccess.  My plan is to have some students write  in class, using the 5 desktop computers in my class and rotate to another station where I could conduct student writing conferences.  I will have two other stations where students will be engaged in vocabulary, language or peer-assessment activities.

This model also seems to push me in the direction of incorporating the flipped-teaching model.  I've been experimenting with using Screencast-o-matic to create a screencast for a scavenger hunt for students to become familiar with Edmodo.  On the way, I've been acquainted with tools such as Pow Toon and MentorMob.  Edmodo has also been a fantastic resource for developing my Professional Teacher Network.

New Possibilities for Global Collaboration  I'm currently reading Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, which has been an incredible resource and inspiration!  Co-author, Vicki Davis of Cool Cat Teacher Blog, led a workshop I attended at ISTE about Wikispaces.  I have had a wikispace for a couple of years, but have not used it much with my classes.  Now I'm excited to do a flat classroom project this year with my History classes, and perhaps my English classes as well.  I'm reading up on just how I'm going to attempt this!  However, I've already joined an Edmodo Group called World Wide Historians (group code qa6djo) in which teachers from around the U.S. and the world are going to add our students to discuss issues related to the world civilizations we'll study this year.

So, I consider this a journey and that is why I am calling this blog a travel journal.  My classroom has always had the slogan, Embarking on a Journey, and this year, my students and I will certainly be on a long and exciting one, together.