Going into these two week courses, I was a bit skeptical that much knowledge could be imparted in such a short amount of time. Boy, was I wrong! There are so many wonderful things I have learned in these short two weeks that I plan to use moving forward. My enthusiasm is driving me to jump into too many things at once, so my goal is to slow down and focus on one or two things at a time so that I can learn to use and implement them well.
My first goal for next school year is to establish a classroom blog. I want to use this to develop two-way communication between myself and the families of my students. Fine-tuning the use of a blog in the classroom will help me to become comfortable with it so that I can continue this practice when I am a building administrator. It allows me to hit the ground running so that I can have a school-wide blog and establish connected communication with all of the stakeholders in my school (kids, parents, community, teachers, staff and beyond).
I'm also meeting with my principal in August to talk about using social media to connect with our community. We have a Twitter account currently, but it isn't being used. I am going to ask to take that over next year. I want to do some more research about using that tool effectively to connect stakeholders to my school and use it for positive public relations.
This year, iPads are also being rolled out to our 5th graders. While that doesn't impact my grade level, I would like to keep my finger on the pulse of how that goes. I plan to take part in some professional development about implementation of these devices as well. As I learn more, I would like to arrange some quality PD for my own staff surrounding ways to use the devices to connect our students to the world.
Beyond that, I want to grow a little more each year. As I become comfortable with one tool, I will add another and mess around with that. There are so many tools that I can see being useful in a variety of ways and I imagine more and more will come onto the scene as I make the shift to building leader.
I think that a classroom blog is a great idea to include all stakeholders in your class! It can provide everyone in your class with one resource where they can find the answers to a lot of their questions, and probably save you some headache along the way.
ReplyDeleteI also think that it's awesome that you are going to spearhead the social media movement at your school. I'm sure that your principal will be very appreciative of your knowledge and efforts to help in this endeavor.
Thanks, Seanna! I agree with you about the class blog. I also love that I can take photos of student work or things going on in my classroom and easily post them for parents to see. There are so any great opportunities and I'm excited to get started!
DeleteAwesome Ashley! I can appreciate your want to slow down when it seems that technology has a way of making things seem immediate and urgent. However, as we learned in class, we carry our message and determine the how the message is crafted. I need to remember that I had two weeks and 40+ hours of time to get this mental shift rolling. It will be interesting to see how we lean on each other as we learn the pitfalls and struggles implementing this in 15 minutes once a week (if we're lucky) and see what sticks.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ryan! I tend to be a person that puts too much on my plate and will work myself ragged being great at all of them. So, I want to really take my time with technology implementation so that I do it right!
DeleteMy goal is the classroom blog as well! Great minds...
ReplyDeleteI think you could bring a lot to the PD around 5th grade i-pad roll out. The positivity that you could build around the idea and the impact you could have with building a great network of teachers working with that technology to better engage students and further student learning.
Exactly my thoughts with the roll-out in 5th grade! I think it would be a great opportunity for me too, to be able to practice in the leadership role. And it would help me establish myself as a leader in our building before I take over in my internship the next year!
DeleteGreat job with this! It looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteIt sounds like you have some pretty phenomenal ideas as to how you can move forward with this new information. I'm sure you're going to make good use of it. Keep us posted on how things go!
ReplyDeleteI am eager to talk with my principal about using social media at our school too. As far as I know using social media in our district is just starting to gain traction and it is exciting to participate as developing digital leaders, good luck!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Ashley! I love your plan and look forward to hearing how successful you are in implementation. Keep in touch!
ReplyDelete