Am I Alone On This One?

The end of the year brings a lot of feelings. I am excited to know that the alarm will not wake me for almost two months and I am stressed by completing report cards and wrapping up all of my paperwork. I have 'pain' because the last thing I want to do is clean out my classroom and I am saddened that my students are moving on. I have another feeling that I thought was a strange one. A feeling that I have not shared with many, the feeling of failure. I thought I was alone here, but earlier this week I read a post by Mark Ahlness (and the follow up comments) and I felt a little better. I am not really alone.

Each year as I complete my students report cards I start thinking to myself, "you definitely did not do a good enough job teaching this," or, "you really could have spent more time on that," or even worse,"you really didn't do enough for this student." The more I think about these feelings, though, the more I think that this is healthy, in a strange sort of way. The desire to improve on the past is a good quality to possess.

In fact, it is kind of exciting looking for ways to make myself a better teacher. The hope of a relatively open summer to read, learn and improve, and knowing that the 'boards will be clean' in the fall seems to make it better. The pile of teaching books and files in my closet is exciting, when just a month ago it would have been dreadful and daunting. I really find the fact that feeling failure leads to hope so interesting.

Now I am just left with trying to figure out where to start...

Pie in the Sky

This post was originally a comment on Avenue4Learning as a response to a Top 5 Wish List post. Through her requests, the author seems to be a middle/high school teacher. It is interesting to see how her list and my list compare. Here's the original comment. Feel free to leave me your list and we can compare.

Here's a wish list... from an elementary teacher.

1- More parents interest- My students used classblogmeister for much of this past school year. I sent multiple e-mails (and hard copies in backpacks) asking them to read and comment on their student's work. I did not get much of a response at all. I do not think parents understand that their comments (especially if they go beyond 'nice blog') really drive the students motivation and care for writing.

2- A class set of iPods (I could settle for 5 if I had to). Being an elementary teacher, one of my goals is to get my students excited about reading. Among many other uses the iPods would be an excellent way to share read alouds. The kids could listen to professionally recorded books, books read my myself, or (probably the most powerful) books read by their peers.

3- A set of laptops for my room. I don't need one per student, but a few in addition to the two desktops in my room would allow my students who really are into publishing their thoughts the opportunity to do so more frequently.

4- More opportunities to connect with classrooms, experts, etc. through Skype. My class made friends with class 500 miles away this year through blogs and a few Skype calls. It was an awesome, powerful experience. It would be so cool to connect with scientists when kids have great science questions or to an author that the class is reading.

5- More opportunities to investigate new tools to use in the classroom. I was lucky to be chosen to be part of a Technology Vision Team (TVT) this year. We had 4 days of release time and during that time we experimented with 'right now' tools (wikis, blogs, etc.) and 'someday tools' (video gaming and Second Life). This was a great experience because I was able to sit on a team with about 15 excellent teachers, at all levels, and bounce ideas around. I'd have to stay up all night by myself for a month to equal the amount of learning in only 1 day of working with the TVT. (On a side note: I was asked to participate in 08-09's TVT.)

Yeah, I may need to find a few pennies in the parking lot to make these all happen, but you never know if you do not shoot for the moon!

WOW!

Like I said in the beginning, there's going to be some randomness to this blog. I hope this post does not make my blog lose credibility in it's purpose, but the new Coldplay is simply fantastic. I can't peel my ears away from the speakers. Take a close listen to Cemeteries of London and Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love. Amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy.

The Future for Tessa Rae

Tonight, as I rocked my daughter of two weeks to sleep I couldn't help but think: What is school going to be like for my little girl?

I've only been at this for 4+ years and I am already light years ahead of where I was in the beginning.
My first year I don't think I went home without overhead marker covering my hands or colored chalk all over my back. Only one year later was I playing with SMART Notebook using only a projector. A year later I was lucky enough to get a SMART Board mounted in my classroom. This year was the year of web 2.0, classblogmeister, wikis, podcasting, skype, connecting with classrooms outside of our building...

If I have gone from the dinosaur ages to where I am now, what will be the state of education in 2018 when my little Tessa is entering the fourth grade? Will she 'go' to school? Will there be books? Pencils? I can't even begin to imagine.

Ok, I'm A Rookie

So I've been reading all of the educational technology stars blogs for some time. You know who I am talking about, David Warlick, Will Richardson, Brian Crosby ... I'm just a newbie compared to them. I've only been teaching for 4+ years now and this is my first year experimenting with web 2.0 technologies. That said, I've been hooked on technology from the start. I feel behind the times and ahead of the curve all at the same time, if that makes any sense.

I've been thinking about expressing my thoughts through a blog and have been encouraged to do so by a few colleagues that I respect greatly. To this point I thought I had nothing to say, nothing too profound to add to the ongoing conversations going on out there in 2.0 space so I felt that reading and commenting here and there was enough. With the end of school quickly approaching I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could add something. Something of relevance. So here it is... linked.woodster.

I can not promise anything consistent here. I thought, for the longest time, that a blog needed to have a consistent platform, topic, format, or stance. I still am not sure about this, but this blog certainly won't. I am sure I'll write about the big picture, reflect on events from school days, talk about things that worked (and didn't work), and ask questions, with the focus being on technology in education. Elementary education specifically.

An important person in my life once told me, "Don't be the salt if you are really the pepper." Well, here we go... I am an elementary education teacher with lots of thoughts. Now it is time to share them.