Learning From My Students

Ok I know that we do this--learn from our students--but it because very real for me last night. I ran into one of my former students who added me as a friend on Facebook. We were talking about where previous students were now at and what they were doing.

I did not start Facebook until this July and since then I have had several former students send me friend requests. They let me know what they are doing and where they are at. It is a joy to touch base with them again.

I know that this sounds crazy but seeing my student last night reminded me that I go with them once they leave my classroom. They remember how I teach them and how I treated them.

Another thing that I remembered as we were walking and talking was that I frequently ask questions of former students. One is a recruiter for a college and I ask him questions when present students are interested in attending. One former student has completed art work for me. Another student has been a mentor for some of my students.

So I am still learning from my students. Taking the knowledge that they have gained and hopefully adding it to my present classroom. I hope that as long as I am teaching that I continue to learn from my students both past and present.

Additional note--for the first time I have a deaf student and downloaded an ap on my iPhone to learn basic sign language. Before the semester is over I hope to be able to a least say a few basic things to him in sign language. The learning continues.

First Day

It is the first day of the 2009-10 school year. I am excited to get started but nervous. I am always nervous the first day--as bad as the kids. I have high expectations of what my students will be able to accomplish and I am looking forward to what they will develop. Expect great things of your students and great things will happen!

Juggling

As I sat in training today I learned so much from other teachers who use different aspects of the Globaloria program. I loved the things Bill and Jim are doing with their blogs. Ingrida's plan for the first week was great and will be very helpful to us as we start our new classes. The presentations let me see the different ways that teams can work together and complete a project.

Globaloria is a program in which you juggle different web tools. As we continue in this process it is amazing to watch all of us learn to juggle then increase the number and speed of the items we can juggle. We juggle our learning with the learning of the students and hope we don't drop everything else in the process.

Soon

School is going to be starting soon so my brain is starting the--what am I going to do this year. I am teaching a new class--Digital Imaging II. So many things to do to get ready. All my classes will use wikis so I need to set those up. We have new CSOs so I need to get copies of all of those and post to the wiki. I need to plan the projects that each course are going to complete and plan instruction accordingly. We are using a new grading software package and I missed the training so I need to learn how to use it. I ran out of time at the end of the year so I need to "clean" up the computers and remove the old files and install new software. We are upgrading to Adobe CS4--Yeah. Let me know what else you think I need to think about before school starts.

Learning

I am working for the WVCPD this week. It is interesting because I am working but learning at the same time. No matter what I still have tons to learn and being here causes me to do that. This week is Infusing Technology and I learned about ePals which I am going to use this school year. I am improving my Audicity, Photoshop and Premier skills. There are tons of other things that I am learning. I feel good. WVCPD and Globaloria are two organizations that are pushing for appropriate computer usage be included in classroom instruction. It is exciting for me to be part of it.

Applying What I Learn

At our last training Rachel had us look for blog sites to follow and add them to our own blog to make it easier to follow. Today when I looked at those blogs I discovered something that will be fun for my students and define. http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2626 discusses the uses of Wordle. I had never heard of it but I think it is so cool. Check it out and see what you think. Does it have a place in your classroom?

Tinkering

I can say I tinker all the time. I teach a lot of different software programs in my class which include Adobe Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Elements, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, MovieMaker, iMovie, GarageBand. In addition I have my grades online, do online lesson plan software, all my classes are on a wiki, and I am blogging just to name a few of the things. I have to tinker all the time to figure out how to do certain things in certain programs. I just go in and start clicking options and try things. If it is not what I want I hit the undo button. I have learned alot of what I know but doing this. I hope I never stop tinkering because when I do I have stopped learning.