Collaboration Time!

Rather than make a resolution I was not going to keep, I decided to choose a word that would permeate my personal life and educational endeavors. My 2016 word…

Connect

I am pleased to say that I have been very diligent in focusing my efforts in this area. During the first 8 days of 2016 I have:

• participated in new chats on Twitter
• grown my PLN by following new people from various fields
• collaborated with two of my colleagues on two different projects

Yesterday was an amazing day of collaboration at IMS.  My morning began with a great conversation with Jody Green (@peerlessgreen), our Tech Coach.  I needed additional support with resources for our 6th grade Project Based Learning (PBL).  Jody provided numerous resources, and helped me focus on the crafting of the various lessons.   We discussed multiples ways I could share the lessons with the team of teachers. After discussing the options, we decided that lessons will be created using various media. With multiple options, each teacher could choose the lesson format that will meet the needs of their students.

The afternoon was spent working with Brenda Valencia (@mrsvalencia201) and her class of 6th graders. Both of our classes are working on creating websites and blogs.  Since her class began the journey first, her students taught my students how to customize a website. It was wonderful to see the students in charge of their learning.

My students love having control over their site, and I love seeing each student’s personality in their creation.

I am thrilled to be collaborating with both Jody and Brenda this year!  I understand the importance of working with others, and want to extend collaborative efforts to other members on my grade level team. Brenda posted this quote on Twitter recently, and it is perfect…

Yesterday was a great day to learn something new!

2016: My One Word

As 2015 came to an end, everyone on social media began to focus on resolutions for the coming year. Personally, I don’t make resolutions. Why? I never keep them. Sad, but true.  After participating in #lhcsdchat I realized that I wasn’t alone.  Many of my colleagues were in the same boat. We vowed to set personal and professional goals and to hold each other accountable.

Although I am opposed to resolutions, I did start thinking about my goals for 2016. Reinvent. Explore. Grow. Collaborate. I realized that these are all possible, yet in isolation difficult to obtain. Then it hit me: #myoneword:

CONNECT

The last half of 2015 was focused on making changes. Changes in both my personal life and in my professional life. It was at this time that  I truly embraced Twitter as a means to grow as an educator. Prior to June I didn’t realize its value. Now it has become an invaluable resource.

Twitter has become a part of my classroom life this year. My 6th grade students and I have a class Twitter account so we can share our learning. Although it is still in its beginning stage, you can follow us @imsknights210 and using #tbhhonored (language arts) and #210scholars (math). The hashtags were chosen by my students since my goal for this year is to have a student-driven classroom.

My focus for 2016 is to Connect.

Connect with other educators and grow my PLN through Twitter and Voxer.

Connect with educators in my district and at my site.

Connect with family and friends.

2016 will no doubt bring many opportunities to learn something new…