This time of year is always crazy; trying to get seniors graduated, keeping the learning with the juniors going till finals and working on ideas for next year. Lately, I have been working on a ton of stuff for next year. Twitter has been great in meeting other educators and getting ideas from them. Trouble is, I only have so many hours during the day. I am writing a world history e-text for my students to use for next year and this has been taking a lot of my time. The possibilities I can create with this (if done correctly) can be endless. Standard textbooks are typically a snooze-fest and really not helpful to students in connections to the real world or in just relaying the story to them. Texts tend to talk down to students and not energize or excite them. For me, I want it to be entertaining and yet, make it to where they get those "a-ha" moments.
Creating projects for next year has already begun as well. My World History classes just finished an Xtranormal and Livebinder project in our classes and are presenting them. They are no where near perfect (in terms of rubric and design) but the students did a great job in presenting content in their own unique style. There was so much that I learned, that I did not know about. When I learn from the kiddos, it makes it worth while for me. Another thing I want to do with the kiddos next year are digital portfolios. Students should have a sense of pride in what they create and have a place where they can not only demonstrate their learning, but show off what they did.
Starting this blog and keeping up with Google+ is something else I am spending time on to keep growing as an educator. It's strange putting my thoughts down on this page, but I have always believed that reflection equals growth. Hopefully other teachers will read this and maybe collaborate and share ideas with me. I want to keep moving forward as a person and a teacher. Can't go forward standing still! Have a great day!
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