I don't even know where to start. I started all this a year ago but never really sat down to write it all down. I just went with the tide and here I am now. Now armed with a Weebly site that I use to store all that I share online. Now armed with fearlessness when I take a whole class out to internet-land. Now armed with much more knowledge than I thought I could hold - while keeping everything else inside living and moving. |
I mean, I still love the English language. I still love teaching the language and all its intricacies to my students. I still love facilitating learning in class. I still love watching my students grow and flourish. I still love being in a classroom armed with a whiteboard and a whiteboard marker with a stack of papers and some slides for my artillery. But I also love that my students have Dictionary.com to call on when words begin to be a bit tough for them; or mschie.weebly.com when they forget their notes and need to review them; or, even the whole triple-w land to go to when we're all faced with questions.
I love answering my students' questions with an "I don't know, let's check together!" and all bring our their gadgets and we all do learn together. I love learning with my kids. It's one of the best experiences in the world: watching a whole room come to life with students armed and ready to learn.
And so, this year, I'm going to try and document the journey. I'm going to challenge myself and try to record all that I learn - except that this year, I won't be learning with only my students, I'll be learning with other teachers in school as well. And that makes it real exciting.
Ok. So to record, let me start with what I developed or used last year:
1. a Weebly site: mschie.weebly.com
2. Storybird.com
3. an unofficial BYOD program for all my classes
4. a very enthusiastic group of 10- to 13-year-olds
5. a slow-growing app site: nhteachtech.tumblr.com
6. a MacBook Pro
7. a Samsung Ativ PC Pro
8. a Samsung Note 8
I love answering my students' questions with an "I don't know, let's check together!" and all bring our their gadgets and we all do learn together. I love learning with my kids. It's one of the best experiences in the world: watching a whole room come to life with students armed and ready to learn.
And so, this year, I'm going to try and document the journey. I'm going to challenge myself and try to record all that I learn - except that this year, I won't be learning with only my students, I'll be learning with other teachers in school as well. And that makes it real exciting.
Ok. So to record, let me start with what I developed or used last year:
1. a Weebly site: mschie.weebly.com
2. Storybird.com
3. an unofficial BYOD program for all my classes
4. a very enthusiastic group of 10- to 13-year-olds
5. a slow-growing app site: nhteachtech.tumblr.com
6. a MacBook Pro
7. a Samsung Ativ PC Pro
8. a Samsung Note 8
What I have so far this year (it goes without saying that I'm using all these):
1. All of the above
2. Evernote.com for students' portfolios (ALL), composition submissions (12- and 13-year-olds), and for Integrated Project Work (IPW) brainstorming and collaboration tool for 10- to 12-year-olds
3. ClassDojo to record class behaviour
4. a school-wide Weebly site for the English Department: nhjsenglish.weebly.com
1. All of the above
2. Evernote.com for students' portfolios (ALL), composition submissions (12- and 13-year-olds), and for Integrated Project Work (IPW) brainstorming and collaboration tool for 10- to 12-year-olds
3. ClassDojo to record class behaviour
4. a school-wide Weebly site for the English Department: nhjsenglish.weebly.com
What I'm looking into using as well but don't really have or haven't really developed yet:
1. Studyblue
2. iPad 2
3. Evernote's team players: Penultimate, Peek and Skitch
4. Facebook Page (?)
Oh, and ofcourse, anything else that I might find. In that case I will record it here as well.
Now, as I am off on some short break (Idul Fitri here in Jakarta), I will try and go through what I did or used last year so everyone is up to speed once it's time to go back to school. Then, it might be easier to see the map and know the lay of the land and the route in the journey ahead.
1. Studyblue
2. iPad 2
3. Evernote's team players: Penultimate, Peek and Skitch
4. Facebook Page (?)
Oh, and ofcourse, anything else that I might find. In that case I will record it here as well.
Now, as I am off on some short break (Idul Fitri here in Jakarta), I will try and go through what I did or used last year so everyone is up to speed once it's time to go back to school. Then, it might be easier to see the map and know the lay of the land and the route in the journey ahead.