Thing 12: Final Reflections & What's Next?

It's very difficult to believe that another school year is close to ending - it seems like the year just began yet at times it has seemed to drag on forever.  Last year at this time I was very worried about moving to a new school with only a few teachers that I had worked with as well as a lot of worry about working with the primary grades since I had only worked with intermediate level students.  Although there were a lot of nerves in the beginning this has turned out to be a fantastic year if a bit crazy at times. 

Last year I really tried to focus on modules that would help me work with the younger kids in addition to gaining new ideas for the older kids.  My take away from last year was working on teaching digital citizenship and digital footprints in the fall with all classes.  I also learned about "kid friendly" search engines rather than having the kids search Google.  I had shared that with my former building and will be adding to the list with my current school even though I didn't study that this year I printed off the information.

This year I tried to focus more on areas that I really wanted to learn more about so that I could enhance what I do, the way I present it and getting the kids more engaged.  The first module I worked on was the Breakout.edu unit.  This was actually introduced in the fall by our SLS director and although I enjoyed the activity I really didn't see how I would be able to incorporate this into my lessons.  Boy was I wrong!  I was asked to work with a 3rd grade group of 9 students on extension activities and this particular group was tasked with the human body.  As I was brainstorming what to do I immediately thought of the the Breakout box.  I proposed it to the group and they were hooked.  Long story short we created one that some of the groups were able to open and others not.  Even though we created a cool one I really wanted to learn more about this and find ways to improve this for future groups.  The course introduced me to a couple of Breakout facebook pages that I have joined and am seeing a lot of really neat ideas.  I've talked to several of my teachers that have wanted to try it out and we share successes and failures and try to brainstorm for the next time. 

The Breakout is a really cool tool that the kids love doing once they got over the fascination with the different types of locks.  My student proctors were the worst culprits!   It was very interesting to watch the group dynamics because there was always one or two that tried to run the show and they were usually wrong.  The silent kids were right on target and this activity gave them a voice and a boost to their self confidence.  The groups that were successful were the ones that worked together once they figured out the dynamics of the members.  I'm doing another one on space next week and will be using some of the tools I learned about in the module.

I have to admit the Bitmoji module was just a really fun one that I had no idea how to use in my teaching but through the articles included I came up with a strategy as well as a cool avatar!  We are now a 1:1 chromebook school and next year I plan on using Google Classroom more with my assignments so if I'm organized enough I can look at their shared documents and place my avatar with helpful hints in their document to try and keep them more on track.  I really don't think some of them realize they are not doing what they were instructed to do.  I also liked the idea of printing them off as stickers to put on their written papers.  All the kids get so excited about stickers!

As I mentioned earlier, our school rolled out the chrome books at the end of the winter/early spring.  To be honest I really hadn't done much with them prior to being assigned my own so the kids and I are learning together.  I have a few savvy teachers that are guru's on them but as we are all busy they can't help/teach as often as we would all like.  I loved the module on Google because it really provided me with a beginning step on using Google Classroom which my focus. I learned a lot of interesting things and more importantly I've found information that I can share with my staff to help them transition into using this platform as well.  I shared the link to the entire module with them so that this summer they can work with at their own pace.  I received a lot of thanks today from them. 

Of course I had to explore other things on there as well and I am still focusing on ways to improve what I did with primary this year.  All of the kids are successfully using their chromebooks - they can log in, go to different things and bookmark pages.  I have also started doing more collaborative projects with the classes and want to incorporate more technology in the projects next year.  The Primarily Google site is fantastic!  I was so excited about so many of the project shown like the magazine cover and the text set pages that I just had to go in today and tell the teachers that I work so closely with.  One of my 5th grade teachers and I do a lot of projects with her class for Genius hour and she loved the idea of the magazine cover as a final product choice.  I have to admit that it is so rewarding to learn about these things and be able to connect with a teacher to use them with the students.

The other module I was excited to delve into was the one on the new national standards.  This year we have a new department head and in our initial meeting we discussed updating our current framework to reflect the new standards.  We had a very difficult time trying to decide where to begin so I went into the new "Thing" to see if it could provide me as well as my colleagues some guidance.  I was not disappointed because there were several articles that I printed off and shared with my department that really helped us focus on the task.  The article by Page Jenner was really helpful for me and my colleagues because it allowed us to look at what we were already doing, see where it fit in on the new standards and then forced us to visit the areas we were lacking.  I also really liked the technology article by Alice Mackey because I would really like to create something like this to put on my website so that everyone would see where the tools I teach fit in - that I'm not creating some busy work for the kids.  For me personally I will be exploring this in much more detail to make sure I am offering engaging lessons for the students that will help them in their future.

As you are aware I have participated in this course several times and each year I do I take away some really terrific ideas that I really try to put into my lessons the following year.  I mentioned in the beginning of the post that last year's modules really helped me become more comfortable working with the younger students and this year's lessons will certainly be tied into next years lessons and projects.  I have not personally reached out to other professionals outside of my district/county but it is something that I need to explore in the future.  The "Things" I focused on this year were intended to help me be better at my job and to be able to find ways to better utilize the tools I have to work with.  This is an exciting time to be in education and I am thrilled to be able to participate in this course to help myself and my building. 

One of the things I keep trying to work on is my time management skills so that I am not rushing at the end to complete the course by the deadline.  Each year I have great intentions but, then, life gets in the way and I'm back to pushing myself to finish.  I love the course and really appreciate all that you do to put this together because without this I would be in way over my head.  The "Things" are all really relevant and I enjoy being able to choose the modules that are of particular interest.  I have felt excited to be learning these tools and then being able to use them in class or just talk to teachers in conversation.  I feel that it has really helped me gain an equal place among the teaching staff and have found teachers coming to me with questions or ideas for new things.  This summer will be busy working on the Google stuff and the new standards but it will fun work.  I look forward to joining this again next year to see what other new and exciting topics you introduce us to!