I’m Baaaaaack! Took break due to…..

…MENTAL EXHAUSTION! Instead of blogging, I’ve been hitting the pavement exercising both running and cycling. However, this summer I will work on a life balance and factor blog writing in the equation.

Now that testing and the 2013-14 academic school is finally over, I can do some reflection and planing for the next school year. Some summer projects I would like to work on:

• Integration of fitness and nutrition with current CCSS math curriculum (especially since it a part of the health literacy component of the 21st century framework )
• Delve into the hype of Rasberry Pi and make “heads or tails” of it
• Decide to either use my Edmodo, Moodle or iTunes-U with my classes.
• Work on a EdTech publication! It’s time to share with the world all of the useful knowledge in my head
• Either dye or pluck out all of the gray hair from my head due to stress (just kidding)

I am planning to attend to CMS Summer Institute (#CMSSI14) for two weeks. I am a little excited about this conference and of course I will share my excitement here. Enough of my rambling, let me get back to boxing up my classroom…

Pack rat powers, activate!

 

 

 

Who is Ethan Young?

The other day after a common planning session, one of my colleagues shared this video of a student. You may see him an an ordinary pupil, but he speaks for the millennial masses under the Common Core standards reform. With an open mind, please check out this video and share your thoughts.

21st Century Educator = Hyperconnected Educator?

As connected educator month closed in October, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts. At this time, an educator can get away with just using their email for communication and a land-line phone to contact parents and community partners. As the technical expectations of the 21st century educator expands, should one look into other avenues to demonstrate their worthiness to be deemed as distinguished.

Is it expected for a distinguished educator to be hyperconnected? I don’t believe it’s essential but an important element. To go beyond and impact classrooms outside of your own, having a PLC, usage of social media and vid/podcasts for communication with parents and the community, being a hyperconnected nerd may be a requirement to demonstrate the mastery of your craft.

 What does it mean to be hyperconnected? If you are reading this blog post from two laptops and/or your app on your phone at the same time, you are technically hyperconnected. Hyperconnectivity is just a buzzword for being overly connected to the Internet. Just like everything else, too much of anything is not good for anyone.

IMHO, keeping it simple with technology should be enough as an educator to meet the demands of being considered a 21st century educator. I know of a teacher (for the record, I am not mentioning any names) that fears technology. Are they still a 21st century educator? Yes, but they are cased in a 20th century mindset. This mindset will be the discussion of future posts.