Learning continues

This month I conducted a new class in PODetc entitled "Focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math): Instructional Technology Strategies for Science and Math." I also decided to participate as a student in three other PODetc courses occurring concurrently but taught by other teachers. I also am a full time teacher and department chair in science so how I survived is a minor miracle!!! But that is not what I want to address here. The courses I participated in were:

• Survey of Emerging Technologies taught by Theresa Stanley
• Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom taught by Connie Jaeger
• Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems taught by PODetc founder and CEO, Tammy Stephens

First, I have to say that I am lucky to be working with such knowledgeable and versatile instructors. They make the courses interactive and meaningful for all students coming in at all levels and experiences. It was really a great opportunity for me to participate in the discussions and activities both with the other students and with the instructors where my role this time was a student.

While I have of course reviewed all of our PODetc courses and have regularly lurked in the background to keep current with our offerings, participating as a student was a great learning experience. Among the four courses we built blogs, wikis, nings, delicious networks, diigo lists, interactive lesson plans, collaborative rubrics, Intel lessons emphasizing critical thinking, collaborative concept maps and more. Not only did we build them but we put them to work and found applications to each of jobs outside of the course. Instructors helped me stretch my use of these valuable tools and guided me in linking them together for ease of access and application. In our discussion groups we addressed the challenges of teaching students in this age of technology when our backgrounds, budgets, audiences, and resources span the gamut of possible combinations and complexities. We evaluated samples of each others work and each found growth and improvement through the feedback we received.

I cannot emphasize how valuable this month has been to me in terms of really fine-tuning and motivating my own skills as an educator!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our fabulous instructor and students!!!

Learning in the 21st Century

In my current STEM course we are talking about "21st Century Skills" and STEM skills for our students. Recently we started a discussion forum on what those are and began to discuss "agility and adaptability." One student gave us a good reminder that brought back memories of some of my experiences over the last 20+ years of teaching. The post was as follows:

"This has to start with us as teachers. As a teacher I don't teach the same way every year. I am constantly trying new things and the students (most of them) enjoy trying something different. I think this is good to role model adaptability and the agility to switch how something is done when you see it is not working. Changing methods of teaching is good role modeling and will make the students more likely to open their minds to be more agile and adaptable.
Students need to be encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones. As teachers we meet annually and evaluate what, how and why we teach concepts and core curriculum to our students. Changes are made to include technology as it changes, update concepts and methods."

I clearly remember days as a young teacher when I was told not to dare try anything different than the other teachers as that would just upset everyone. I even got hired once for my innovative ideas and then told not to use them!!! At one district, I was told after an interview with the superintendent that he would love to hire me but I would raise the bar too high for the other teachers and they would not be comfortable with change. WOW - this is education????

As teachers we have to change to keep up and be willing to learn as we go more than perhaps any other career. It is incumbent upon us to look at our teaching on a daily basis to see what we can do better. Go to conferences on brain research or read the literature to see what we know about how children learn. This career can be so exciting and invigorating if we put the effort into making it so!!!

Classes still open for enrollment in December - visit http://podetc.com

• Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom starting November 30
• Technology Literacy 101: Foundations in Collaborative Tools starting December 7
• Technology Literacy 103: Utilizing Social Networking Tools in a Leadership Capacity starting December 7