I thought that with the start of a new job last September that I would also start to blog. Well, it was a good plan... I should give Dale Shareski some credit for getting me going again. I watched his video about sharing yesterday and was easily convinced about the possible benefits of blogging. I immediately wanted to re-start my blog and started to record some notes about what I would like to include in this blog. A few hours later, while pouring over edu-blogs, I learned about ds106 (Jim Groom's open online digital storytelling course) and really want to take part! Since this requires that I have a blog to post to, it's a perfect kick-start! Thanks to those of you who already blog for getting me to begin (again).
photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono (freedigitalphotos.net)
Loving PE!
In the past 3 months I have become accustomed to my role as an ICT and PE teacher. I have to admit I have enjoyed teaching PE much more than I anticipated! I always thought that it would be fine but it has been great to see the students in such a different light. We are lucky enough to have 60min of PE every day so I feel like I get a chance to really get know the students. However, I do miss the constant connection with a small group of students and, though I hate to admit, it really is much easier than the role of classroom teacher. Or maybe it just feels that way because I work with such a collaborative group of colleagues and really love the two subjects I focus on.
Tech Continues to Be Fascinating
The students are always keen and have done a myriad of things from simply reading or practicing math skills online to creating comics that illustrate digestion, movies that describe Canada and presentations that describe and illustrate modern uses for ancient artifatcts. I hope that I will eventually get organized enough to post some of their work here. In the upcoming term, I am looking forward to helping them connect with students at other schools and utilizing some web 2.0 tools.
Most interesting has been the varied responses of teachers to having someone (me) as a dedicated Information and Communication Technology Teacher. Some really want me to plan and execute a tech curriculum and don't really care what I do. Others are very involved with the planning and don't want to do anything unless it is directly related to what they are doing in class. Since I strongly agree with the latter and wish that I had the same title as my high school counterpart (Technology Integrator), it makes planning with those who have different beliefs about the role of technology and scheduled ICT classes quite a challenge. My goal is to find ways to work on this in the new year!
So, welcome (back) to my blog. Hope you enjoy what goes on here and that I "see" you again.
Lara
