Road Blocks = Name of the game this week...

This picture is a wonderful image that captures my feelings of this past week. I have tried to complete many tasks in my academic, professional and personal life; however, I've found that I continuously come up against some type of challenge, or road block. While I have had the thought of surrendering on several occasions, I have not given up and continue to work around, over, or through each of the obstacles!

Now, as I prepare for a new week, I understand that I must set a reasonable and realistic timeline of the expectations I will accomplish. My main focus this week will be to get a strong understanding and game plan to work on my UDUTU teaching module for E-learning. In addition to this module, I will also work on creating a youtube video that will demonstrate how a teacher can use the SMARTtable that I have in my classroom. While this is not a task currently on my contract, it is my hope that the video will be a success and will ultimately become 10 points toward my overall 100 point goal in Instructional Tech for the 21st century. Currently, I think these two tasks are enough to tackle during this already stressful week! Wish me luck! =)

Side note: I recently spoke to two teachers who teach in the upper grades at my school. They were explaining to me that their standards expect them to incorporate technology into their everyday teaching and expect the students to use technology too; however, they are uncertain as to how to do this. To help them understand the endless possibilities of how tech can be used in the classroom, I provided them with this website"Technology in the Classroom"that would be a starting point for them. From here, I will spend time with them before and after school explaining various tools that they can begin to use on a daily basis!

Hurricane Sandy changed alot...

I haven't recently updated my blog because of all that's been going on with Sandy. Preparing for her was nerve racking...sitting through the howling winds and pour rain was nerve racking....and waiting on word of destruction was the worst. Although my house and my parents house were not damaged, my aunts house in East Point and her house in Sea Isle were and my cousins house in Sea Isle sustained up to 5 feet of water in the garage(luckily the living quarters were spared). All in all, Sandy was a paralyzing storm from top to bottom of our state. Even for those not directly hit, their lives were still changed in some form.

From this point on:

Now that life, for me, is beginning to get back to normal, I am excited to continue with my journey in my two MAIT courses. My next goal: Complete my interactive story with my students. I also plan on changing my contract so that I can do a standards comparison. Although I am not 100% sure which standards I will compare, I become interested in this project when I saw Shannon's. So we shall see where this idea takes me!


While Sandy was devastating in my ways, I believe that it was yet again, another reminder that you never know what lies ahead in the road of life. I have faced so many situations in the past few years that have truly reminded me to live each day to the fullest as if it's your last!

Inspired by my students!

     This week was truly an eye opening experience in my classroom. It's always a struggle for me to turn power over to my students in order to let them be accountable for their own learning; however, this week my students took control on their own in various areas and did a tremendous job! It began on Tuesday in the computer room when 3 of my students were able to walk around the room and log off the computers after their classmates were done. This may seem like a rather simple task, however, it usually takes me an extra 5 minutes to do on my own and another 10 minutes to teach students how to do it. Another example of student use of technology came when they were able to record themselves using the headset and microphone in order to help make our class interactive book! I am so impressed with their interest for technology and their ability to take charge of their experiences! 

     Sidenote: Throughout the week, while looking for ideas for classroom activities, I came across this link on Technology tools called, "Technology Tools - Tools you can use." I found many useful tools and ideas through this site that I'm excited to try and use! Hope you can use it too! 

Contract Points as of 10-22-12:

IT History Exhibit: 25 

Wimba Worksheet: 5

Interactive Online Games: 10 

Prezi Time Capsule: 10 

Prezi Toolbox: 10 
ToolTime: Littlebirdtales 6 points

Total: 60 points

Update on contract...

It's been a crazy hectic week in Kindergarten...so it's been a slow week in the IT area. I did spend alot of time working on the history project that I am collaborating on with Dawn and Kim. We are doing a great job and working very hard...can't wait to present next week!!

I have begun to update my resource toolbox (annotated bibliography). This seems like it is going to be a great tool so hopefully I can keep it up to date!

My students and I have started to write a book together about the joy of our bucket filling classroom to create a storybook online! We will work together to use Littlebirdtales.com to create our final copy of our story! Stay tuned.... =)

Lots to do but so many great things....very exciting!! =)

Progress on contract...

I returned to my epals account only to find several spam emails in my mailbox. I was completely disappointed because I believed this website was going to be a safe way for my kids and I to communicate with other schools globally. While I am unconfident about allowing my students to interact on their own, I am excited to use the various activies that have been created to use worldwide! I have begun my log and summaries of our journey through epals and hope to have a complete report by November 12th.

In addition to beginning my epals project, I also strated my toolbox project and my article on the challenges of BYOD. I am disappointed that I was unable to completely finish these projects, but they became more complex than I expected and I need to spend more time to complete them efficiently. I know, after this week, that I must get in gear, get moving faster and quit procrastinating, to complete these projects!!!

Still have so much to learn..

After last weeks 21st century class, I began to feel even more anxious about all the tasks I will need to accomplish during my two courses this semester. My goal for this week is to create a contract for 21st century, that will allow me to discover new programs and devices that I can use to enhance my creative thinking and teaching. The biggest thing that pops into my head, is to discover how to use my SMARTtable that I currently have in my classroom. In addition to learning to use it, I would also love to create a video tutorial that would help other teachers in my school learn how to use it as well. In addition to these tasks, I am also interested in creating a resource toolbox with all the tools I have currently used and hope to use in the future. One of the resources I plan on adding will be ProProfs. I had the chance, last week, to create a quiz, with my classmate Kim, with questions for our other classmates to answer regarding our syllabus.  It was an easy to use(once we learned how) program that I could definitely see myself using in the future. 

Once I finalize my contract,  I will be adding many links to my blog that hopefully others will find useful as well. So check back and please use whatever you find useful! =) 

Back at it!

Well it's been about 6 months since the last time I blogged. I really need to start keeping up with this blog so I can keep all my thoughts in order for this program! During this semester, I will be taking 2 courses. I will take INTC5001 Instructional Tech and 21st Century Learning on Monday nights and INTC5560 eLearning in the Workplace on Wednesday nights. While I know this is a lot to take on (in addition to teaching my 17 five-year-olds all day) I am very excited!


Goal this semester: create products, in both courses, that I can use to enhance my experiences both as a teacher and a student.

Fears this semester: Do I have time, during the school day, to utilize the programs I discover?? Are my kids going to be capable of using the programs/equipment on their own? Or will I need to spend lots of time directing them?

With these fears I began to research various sites and discovered I am not the only teacher in the world who has the same exact concerns. I was very excited to find a true testimony from Denyell Suomi, a Kindergarten teacher. Through this article, "Technology and Kindergarten: Is It Possible?," she expresses all of my same fears; however, she also celebrates all of the wonderful successes her five and six year olds experience in the school year. From this article, I gained confidence and now know that it is definitely possible to achieve my goals this year.....and so it begins!!