Utopia or My educational philosophy

My schools vision statement is “When students walk across the stage at their graduation from Martinsville High School and descend the ramp on the other side, they are prepared to chase their dreams.”

Education has a job to help students achieve their dreams, dreams that are realized and also dreams to come.  If a student wants to go to college then that student will need the tools to be successful at that level.  If a student wants to be a welder or a stay at home mom those jobs all have skill sets that are necessary to be successful.  My goal as a teacher has less to do with my curriculum and more to do with my students learning how to be self sufficient, empowered, adults that can think critically. 
I believe my role as a teacher is to prepare my students for the next step in life, whether that be real world, college or just the next class up.  I also believe that my job is to encourage critical thinking. I am not Watson (jeopardy computer), I don’t have all of the answers, I want my students to try and figure things out on their own and ask questions when they don’t understand.  I want to show my students different ways of thinking about a problem or situation; allow them to discover other points of view.  I am more of a facilitator that a teacher. This is a role I can be more passionate about than being a walking, breathing encyclopedia.
Technology plays a great role in society today. Students need to know how to be digitally responsible citizens. Allowing them to explore all of the enriching sources that technology has to offer is one way I can contribute to their success in the future. Offering students choice in how they show what they have learned is one way I can integrate technology and allow my students freedom to express themselves in different ways.
One of my favorite quotes that I use now as my own professional vision statement is from Josef Albers, a professor of art and education, “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” If the only thing that my students remember from class is that they learned how to think critically I would consider it a job well done.

Let the Good Times Roll: Technology Integration 101

As the title of my blog indicates I think of myself as a dedicated life long learner. I am most excited to learn more about "flipping" my classroom and how to integrate technology in meaningful ways for different levels of students.  I'm looking forward to sharing best practices and learning from the successes and the mistakes of others during the course.

I would not consider myself an expert really in anything when it comes to technology but I am an expert in how to avoid a crisis when technology fails!  This is not meant to be a negative statement, I still continue to try and integrate technology as often as I can. (Some call it perseverance others might call it stubborn!)  I feel like "baby steps" are my strength. I'm focusing now on how I can work technology in at the basics of the SAMR model starting with labs and activities. I have a few web based activities that have worked out well and one project on evolution using a program called Photo Story (see "Tools") that needs some fine tuning.

I am always looking for best practices on how to manage a classroom using 1:1 program, how to integrate a flipped classroom, how to keep kids engaged, how to spend less time grading and more time interacting with students and planning or creating lessons...my list is endless!

Last year my school corporation decided not to pursue 1:1 programs due to funding.  We do not have a grant writer for our district so it would be up to teachers and principals to do this.  The recent buzz is that we are going to implement 1:1 and our principals have been visiting schools around the state who have 1:1 programs that are successful. Anything that I can bring back to my school that will help make this process a success is much needed.

I sometimes get overwhelmed by all the "stuff" that we teachers are expected to do to make learning fun and engaging but at the same time relevant and challenging. It seems like an uphill battle...