Week 5 The Connected Educator Reflection

It has been 15 years since I've read a textbook for a college course!  Juggling the reading requirements took a little to get used to.  

I was particularly fascinated by the organization of the chapters.   Two portions of the text resonated with me.  First, I liked  the suggested activities.  It is the first time that I was able to connect with people who were reading the same book as I.    It was this connection to other people that really impressed me.  Whether it was through Facebook posts, examining blogs, or seeing project based learning ideas it was powerful to see the work of others.   Another intriguing portion of each chapter was the "Think About It" section.  I really like that it provided an opportunity for reflection which teachers know is so valuable for learning. 


The one tool that I have become an avid fan of is the Diigo account for social bookmarking.   It has solved a few of the issues I had with organizing websites and bookmarking in my favorites.    The idea of tagging websites and other things I find on the internet is new to me.  Trying to figure out a tagging system and creating lists need to be better developed but I can honestly say I've used it everyday and have been able to retrieve data rather quickly.  I'd like to introduce Diigo to the staff at school.  I think they would find it to be helpful too.  I've shown Diigo to the Pastor's wife from church as well.  The other day in class I introduced it to a small group of students and hope to be able to use it for an upcoming project.  

Chapter 2 was my least favorite chapter so far.  While certainly I understand the reasoning behind the need for providing data, research, and introducing new terms, it just was a dry chapter.  I wanted action.

Chapter 3 was better.  I enjoyed learning about the ways to construct knowledge as well as investigating the problem based learning websites.  While I would really like to have more project based work in the classroom, it looks like I will need time to plan and organize them.  (The planning looks very intense.)  So needless to say I may have to plan that out this summer when I have more free time.   

Wordle.net and Vimeo.com were also interesting to me.  I've decided to have students write a summary about something we've studied in social studies.  Then they can cut their summaries into Wordle and print them out.  I can always have them turn in both the summary and the Wordle, but I think it will create motivation and engagement to complete the summary. 

I recently changed positions at my current school and have come to realize that collegiality is difficult to achieve, as the book points out clearly.  Perhaps I will be able to change some opinions and foster an environment of problem solving, not complaining.  At least I recognize that if I cannot get what I need from my colleagues I know how to find a blog and search out professional learning networks.  

Blogging has been a challenge for me.  Writing is not a strength of mine, nor something I enjoy.  However, I do like to read and enjoyed reading posts.  I found the RSS feeds and Feedly to be rather easy to use, once I become familiar with each.  

It is my hope that this journey will continue and that I can sustain this work and continue to be reflective in my practices.  

(PS...I am so happy...I learned how to capture a screen shot, turn it into a JPEG, and insert it into the blog!)