Wednesday, January 11, 2017

#EdublogsClub Week 2: My Classroom



Moving meant packing up, cleaning out, and organizing. It wasn’t something I was looking forward to after being in a regular classroom for 19 years and collecting anything and everything I may need to enhance the learning taking place in my classroom.  However, I found that moving was great- I cleaned, purged, and downsized!  

All of my teaching years before this one have been spent in a regular, self-contained classroom where every possible space was filled with paper, pencils, books, supplies, students, etc.!  This year is different.  I moved to a new position where I am managing and teaching in a computer lab.  The lab was freshly transformed from a classroom to a computer lab this summer. Because I was not going to teach a regular classroom, I left a lot of the “stuff” that filled my old classroom behind for the teacher who took my place.  That has made my new space much less cluttered.

One good thing about creating this new space was that I was able to give input into how it would be set up.  We had to be creative with our layout because of needing to use available plugs.  Having all of the computers face the same direction helps so that I can stand in the back of the room and see the screen of everyone’s computer at the same time.  We also wanted the kids to be able to see the existing Smart Board that is hung in the front of the room.  Thirty-two computers fit comfortably in the new space, leaving a small area in the front where I can have a group of kids gather on the floor, if needed. Last year, I created an inexpensive “stand-up” desk using some old boxes.  It makes it much easier to use the computer with the projector when needed, and encourages a good bit of healthy standing during the day.

Because I didn’t have as much junk to fill the shelves, I opted to add some color and some fun to my back shelves. Colored cubes from the dollar store and several technology-related pictures fill the back shelves.  I also brought my classroom pet, a parakeet, to my new space.  




Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Edublogs Inspiration:Starting Again



Starting Again: After writing a few school-related blogs and not finding the time to put good effort into writing, I put the blog on the back-burner. I feel like I can write, but I don't have the natural, creative talent that I see in many blogs I follow.  In December, I received an email from Edublogs inspiring educators to take up blogging and offering a weekly prompt to get us typing.  I love a good challenge, saw this as an opportunity to grow myself professionally, and promptly signed up to be part of the #EdublogsClub.  The #Edublogsclub is a year-long weekly series where educators will blog together. Here is how it works- every Tuesday you get an email with a blog prompt. After writing to this prompt, we are encouraged to share our writing.  (Want to join the club? Click here.)

Week One: My Blog Story: I began blogging about 10 years ago when my first daughter was only a few years old as a way to share her experiences with family near and far. I kept this up for a while... until baby #2 arrived. Suddenly I was short on time and blogging fell to the wayside. I tried to restart a few years ago, but never found the time to keep it up.  Last year, I began a blog to chronicle some education highs, not only to share them with fellow educators, but also to keep a log of activities I wanted to use from year to year. Again, I found that time was short and I didn't do a good job of writing regularly. This year, I have found myself in a new role at school. I shifted from a self-contained classroom teacher to the whole school technology teacher.  I began blogging again to journal about my new adventures after 20 years in a regular classroom. I started strong, but didn't keep up the writing when life got busy! So, I guess I'm not an experienced veteran, but also not a new blogger! 

I do find time to read many blogs. Although I read them often, I can't list them because I'm subscribed to email notifications and often just read them when I get an email with the blog's summary.  I not only read blogs related to education, but also blogs with family life topics.

My goal for the #EdublogsClub are to  use this platform to regularly reflect on my teaching practices.  I have found over my years of teaching that reflecting on teaching is one of the best ways to improve it. I often don't spend enough time thinking about the good and bad points of a lesson unless I force myself to sit and think about it (like I have to do when I blog!) My biggest fear is that I'm not a super-star writer, so my writing will not have the character and charm that I often see in popular educators' blogs.  I also worry that with time being short, I won't have time to edit my writing to make it flow better.  However, I know that if we don't stretch ourselves, we may never learn our strengths. So, here I am, blogging.