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!