m.i.

With multiple intelligences surveys I am almost always finding results where I am in the middle or have scored evenly with 2 intelligences. They are visual and logical. I often think about how I learn best when I am teaching and try to incorporate the other intelligences by using a variety of methods.

Ideas and Reflections

I started thinking about the beginning of the year. Here are my initial thoughts: the first few days, I will spend introducing the kids to the course, various ice breakers, going over the summer packet and testing on it (2nd day), setting up blogs, and finally starting material. Every year I want to spend more time on getting to know you games and activities and setting the tone. I hope to incorporate these more this year.

I'm planning on having the students set up blogs the first week and make a post. I also plan on using Moodle, but I'm just not quite sure yet. I like the idea of seeing everyone's post and responding easily - a little easier than using Google Reader for the kids.

I'm iffy about Moodle because I'm not sure that I'll keep up with it. I don't want to overdo it either with blog accounts and using Moodle. I guess I'll just go with it for now and see how it goes. I want to start making a journal of blog entries for throughout the year for each course. That is my plan for the next few weeks (2 weeks to go!)

Moodle? Blogs? Wikis? studyWiz? Ning?

I don't know what to use this year!! I have the opportunity to try out MOODLE AND /OR STUDY WIZ. Last year, I used blogs and wikis on their own, and this year I was thinking of using ning.

Some pros and cons - but I would like to hear what you use and suggestions.
Moodle - can't get into it. Not user friendly, overwhelming, like the idea of everything in one place, with calendars, documents, links, everything
Study Wiz - seems more user friendly, have never used before, imports classes for me
Blogs and wikis- worked well but available to the world
NING - was going to try out this year, don't know much about it, but like the discussion feature.

What am I looking for? A place where students can comment on each other's discussions.
Bonus: a place to store documents & lessons.

What do you think?

Understanding by Design

I've done some planning this summer for my courses for next year. One thing that I did was to make a list of the topics within each course that I will teach. I made a table for each one with 3 columns: pre-assessment, project idea, extension (for DI). I hope that this will give me ideas through the unit ahead of time. I would also like to add another column of essential questions or enduring understandings. I need the time in the summer to do this and I think once I make that time before the year, it will help me (and ultimately the students) throughout the year.

Reflections

Here is a great site with reflections: http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/reflect/index.cfm, I pasted from the site below.

General Reflections on Education

What are we doing here? The following sets of questions can help you articulate your philosophy of education. When you are done, you can save your responses to the notepad in your backpack, e-mail them, print them, or share your thoughts with other teachers.

• What is education and who is it for?
• Who am I teaching?
• What should we be teaching?
• Why teach?
• Who teaches?

Classroom Reflections

The following sets of questions can help you think about the atmosphere and design of your classroom.

• How do I want students to interact in my classroom?
• In what ways is it important for students to interact with the community in which they live?
• What resources should be available to my students?
• How can I use the wall space in my classroom to further active learning?

Self-Assessment Reflections

The following sets of questions can help you think about your work this week and this year ... What have you learned this week? What have you taught this week? How are you doing in your work? The questions posed in this section are designed to provide you with some space in which you can consider your own professional development.

• What was the most important thing I tried to teach my students this week?
• What is/are the most important thing(s) my students will learn from me this year?
• What did I learn from my students this week?
• What was I thinking?

Some reflections:
I teach because I want to make a difference in students' lives - not just with curriculum, but by inspiring them. I am teaching a variety of students, from different backgrounds and of different levels. I want students to feel comfortable and excited coming to class everyday (good luck with that!).

Tech mentor - year 1

Last year, I was in a group with a tech mentor, with 3 other mentees. During the school year, we took 3 days where we worked on some integration of technology into the curriculum with the help of the tech mentor, and by supporting and helping each other. It was great collaboration and I was able to get alot done and great things came out of the day.

This year, I'll be a tech mentor. I feel that I already share and collaborate really well with the math department, and I will continue this, and I also am looking forward to working with a small group of teachers to assist them in learning new things that they can use in their classroom, and sharing together. I always learn from these sessions and find them very rewarding. I would like to make time to help my colleagues with any questions and share things that they may not know.

Are you a tech mentor in your building? What kind of things do you do?

HIGH SCHOOL FIRST WEEK

High school teachers: What do you do in the first week of school? Last year, I did an ice breaker and had the kids get started on setting up their blogs. They did a biography on their blog and got to know their classmates. I'm interested in what you do in your classroom, so that I can get some ideas for next year.