Happy New Year!!

  Hmm... Trying to collate and gel all the learning and ideas that I have experienced this summer is taking a bit of time. I read many powerful books that have challenged the way that I do business in my classroom. From Angela Maiers, A Passion Driven Classroom, The Book Whisperer by Donalynn Miller,  Teaching With Intention by Debbie Miller, The Connected Educator by Sheryl Nassbaum-Beach and Lani Hall to Cafe by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Through in a little, Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart and you have my summer of learning!! What a journey it has been. Although these titles and subjects differ they all had a common threads. Strategic teaching and student choice. Student choice has not always been easy for me but I found that last year I was ready to work and learn along side my students in a manner that I had never before done. It was liberating but it was challenging!

                                                                                      

 My goals for this year are to encourage risk taking, create a culture of wonder and inquiry and to make more global connections! There will be many firsts for us! We will be participating in our first #flatclass project-A Week in the Life, the Global Read Aloud, Dot Day, the Oreo Project, Crazy Crazes, Pass the Blog and Genius Hour!I am also looking forward to making connections with other classes through blogging!                                    
 I have spent the past two weeks preparing my classroom for the arrival of my students. I have changed to design of the room in order to promote more questioning, more student choice and more wonder! By creating more intimate work areas with less harsh lighting I am hoping to create an environment in which student feels comfortable, empowered and more willing to take risks.                                                                                      

   However, I think the most important change in the classroom is me. I have shifted my practice to allow for a more student centered environment, I am willing to learn along with my students, and to take risks myself. I begin this year with anticipation, excitement and a measure of fear! But that's OK, being uncomfortable makes it possible for me to relate to my students, to understand how they might feel during their learning journey.

I am looking forward to the challenges, rewards and excitement that this year will bring! Happy New Year Eve!

Letting go and trying.......

     So, I have been procrastinating about restarting, actually, REALLY beginning to blog all summer.
     This past year was a whirlwind of learning, chatting, experimenting and connecting. I think the most important thing that I did last year was to let go. Let go of all the things that I had done from year to year, let go of the need for approval from those around me, let go of knowing. I began to experiment with new ways of learning, new technologies, new ways of demonstrating learning, and began to just try. Try the iPad, try apps, try Twitter, try letting my students teach me, try being vulnerable.
     It was one of the most exciting and terrifying years I have ever had. Things were changing and at the end of each day I was exhilarated and exhausted, thinking WOW that was a busy day, maybe tomorrow will be more relaxing, but that tomorrow never came!
     We experimented with iPads, iPods, digital cameras, laptops. We blogged, we Skyped, we created, we recorded, we wondered, we played, we chatted. I read, went to work shops, followed Twitter and learned from so many. Yet actually writing about it all did not happen. I have never been a writer, never had a journal that actually had writing in it. I bought many, trying to inspire myself to put my thinking and reflections on paper. I had someone design my blog so that, maybe, I would want to write. Nope, didn't happen.
     I loved Pernille Ripp's blog post that said that maybe all teachers didn't read to write on a blog(woohoo, someone on my side!!), I sent her a thank you comment, I felt relieved! Phew! But guilty. I don't understand this guilt. Maybe, it is insecurity. All of these bloggers had important things to say, musings, wonderings and opinions. Maybe I was intimidated, why would folks want to read what I had to say, did I have anything to say? How could I possibly sound so eloquent, so knowledgeable, so confident?
     I have always been a learner and I have always reflected on my practice, I just never recorded my reflections/thinking. But, it has been in the last few days as I have been participating in the Connected Educator webinars that I have begun to find my voice. During the webinar with Chris Lehmann of SLA, I wrote a few words about the effects of connecting, and Chris asked me to elaborate. I actually spoke!! It was a first for me! It was a turning point for me! I don't think Chris realized just how empowered he made me feel. I made a comment and it made sense, it was in context and nobody thought it out of the ordinary(well, not that they mentioned anyway!) Today I participated in another webinar with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter-Hall. Once again I commented and connected with like minded educators and I came out of it feeling even more empowered.
     Tom Whitby's latest blog post, What's the Big Deal About Blogging?(you can find it here) called me out.
Here I was asking my students to blog, reflect and record their thinking but I wasn't. I wasn't setting a good example, I wasn't being transparent. So I am rising to the challenge. Challenging myself to record my thinking for me, as an act of reflection. Of course I will worry about how it will be interpreted by others but, I.... will ....do... it.....for..... me. As a means of sifting and making sense of this wonderful new learning journey that I have begun. I will be vulnerable, I will risk, I will write. I will try!

How did you feel when you first began to blog?
Who inspired you?