One of my goals for this year, and for the future if I am not successful this year, is to be accepted into the Google Teacher Academy. The next academy has not been posted yet but I have already started working on my application. The key component of the application is a 1 minute video about 1 of the 3 topics; classroom innovation, positive change in my community, and motivation and learning.
I am choosing to work on the innovation topic as the main subject of my video. I could just as easily do motivation and learning since they are so very closely connected in my mind. I spend a lot of my time researching ways to innovate in the classroom and developing new ways to create a better learning environment. Part of that research has led me to focus on passion as a way to motivate the learner, the passion of the teacher or the passion of the student.
The tough thing has been trying to decide how the video will look. My message will be easier to come up with than the actual format of the video. I strongly believe, and have written about, how we need to keep going forward with education and find new and better ways to meet our students where they are at. We can not rely on methods that were in use 100 years ago if we truly want to work with our students today and help them prepare for their future. My exact words will probably change a few times before the final edit but the main message has been in my head for a long time. The tricky part is to make sure that the video portrays the ideas and thoughts that have been a big part of my growth as an educator.
The reason that I set this as a high priority goal was that I feel it will allow me to reach a wider audience while connecting with others who will help me become better. I consider myself a connected educator but I want to increase those connections as I feel that being connected can greatly help me improve. As I improve myself, I can better help those teachers I work with and hopefully in turn create better learning environments and experiences for our students.
I am thinking I will create a rough copy and post it online to get feedback from others. That is one way that I can learn and grow in this process. Which is something that we should always be doing, connecting with others to help us grow and learn.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Reflection from Tech PD Day
We had a successful technology integration professional development day the other day at Ames High. To read more about the setup for the day, check out my blog post about PD on the Inside.
One very interesting observation that I made today as I was walking through the hallway was the increase in the use, and effective use at that, of technology during what is the first day of a new semester. Many teachers have new students and classes and were apparently ready to use the technology day 1 with them to get started on the learning adventure. This is a stark contrast to the first day of school for this year and shows a great trend.
After the day was over there was a Google Form that teachers got to fill out to provide feedback on the day. Overall we had a very high number of responses from the staff, it is almost always impossible to get 100% but I felt the number that we did get was enough to draw some conclusions from the data. Overall our numbers showed high satisfaction with the effectiveness of the professional development day and there were few, if any, negative comments. Many comments were about how they enjoyed the format of the day and how we should have more of these. It was a great time for the High School teachers to share what they are doing with other High School teachers and our Middle School teachers who will hopefully be 1:1 in the fall. This was not designed to be a one time fix but it is a great continuation on our technology PD path. There are things that we know we need to do, which were also reflected in some comments, such as having teachers share more often with each other on what is working and what isn't working. While I had tried to create something to facilitate this earlier this year, we are still looking for an effective way to do this.
The numbers are great to look at, teachers were able to use a 1-5 ranking system to provide some feedback, but it was the comments that I always find most interesting. I even created a word cloud to help analyze all of the comments. Of course one word that popped up the most when looking at needs was "time". That is something that we always hear and probably always will but it is also the hardest thing for anyone but the top administrators to give. The easiest way that teachers can get more time is, of course, by having fewer classes to teach or at least fewer students. This becomes a difficult thing to do these days as our class sizes approach 30 and our teachers teach 6 different sections a day in an 8 period school day. We can get some extra time by using technology to make things more efficient, but in the end that is not something that I can directly help.
I will be looking over the other comments and analyzing them in order to help me develop an action plan for the rest of the school year. There are still things that we can change and implement to improve things at our school but we also have to make sure that we stick to our main goal of improving instruction and the learning environment for students. Luckily my position allows me to meet with teachers when they have needs so that we can quickly address them.
Even after most people had left for the day, my work on professional development was not over. I finished the day by taking part in a Google Hangout with some teachers from Byron, MN as well as other teachers/tech integrationists from Minnesota. (Jen Hegna was in charge for the day and wrote up a great reflection on her blog.) The topic was the "EdCamp" style PD that was done at Byron the other day. I have written before about my love for the EdCamp experience, an unconference that allows for greater collaboration and ownership of the learning. This is an idea that I would love to help implement at my district but it is one that may not be well received by all. There are a number of districts who are implementing this as the model for their full or half day PD days and are seeing very positive results. The key to this style of PD is that the teachers are the experts and they share with other teachers, there are no handouts, no lectures but instead we get a collaborative learning environment. Teachers get the choice of creating their own sessions and choosing the topics that directly influence them or interest them. This is something that I feel we should implement at our district in the future.
The key is to use what we learned from yesterday in order to influence what we do next. For teachers I hope this means they have discovered new ways to help their students learn in the classroom and beyond. The key to knowing if your PD was truly successful is by seeing changes in instruction that is continued well past the initial PD day. I am very happy to see some teachers already trying new things and hope they continue. For me, this means using the comments and observations from yesterday to influence what I do to assist teachers for the rest of the year and for next year. There are things I can change to better meet the needs of our teachers but there are also things that I, alone, can not impact but maybe I can help change. The goal is to always be better than we were without forgetting those steps we had to take to get there.
Overall, for my first time helping to implement a full day of professional development for teachers I would say it was a success. I learned a lot about being on the other side of PD and can't wait for our next time to do this. I love learning and will always jump at the instance to help others learn. That is why I got into teaching in the first place and why I will be in teaching for a long, long time.
One very interesting observation that I made today as I was walking through the hallway was the increase in the use, and effective use at that, of technology during what is the first day of a new semester. Many teachers have new students and classes and were apparently ready to use the technology day 1 with them to get started on the learning adventure. This is a stark contrast to the first day of school for this year and shows a great trend.
After the day was over there was a Google Form that teachers got to fill out to provide feedback on the day. Overall we had a very high number of responses from the staff, it is almost always impossible to get 100% but I felt the number that we did get was enough to draw some conclusions from the data. Overall our numbers showed high satisfaction with the effectiveness of the professional development day and there were few, if any, negative comments. Many comments were about how they enjoyed the format of the day and how we should have more of these. It was a great time for the High School teachers to share what they are doing with other High School teachers and our Middle School teachers who will hopefully be 1:1 in the fall. This was not designed to be a one time fix but it is a great continuation on our technology PD path. There are things that we know we need to do, which were also reflected in some comments, such as having teachers share more often with each other on what is working and what isn't working. While I had tried to create something to facilitate this earlier this year, we are still looking for an effective way to do this.
The numbers are great to look at, teachers were able to use a 1-5 ranking system to provide some feedback, but it was the comments that I always find most interesting. I even created a word cloud to help analyze all of the comments. Of course one word that popped up the most when looking at needs was "time". That is something that we always hear and probably always will but it is also the hardest thing for anyone but the top administrators to give. The easiest way that teachers can get more time is, of course, by having fewer classes to teach or at least fewer students. This becomes a difficult thing to do these days as our class sizes approach 30 and our teachers teach 6 different sections a day in an 8 period school day. We can get some extra time by using technology to make things more efficient, but in the end that is not something that I can directly help.
I will be looking over the other comments and analyzing them in order to help me develop an action plan for the rest of the school year. There are still things that we can change and implement to improve things at our school but we also have to make sure that we stick to our main goal of improving instruction and the learning environment for students. Luckily my position allows me to meet with teachers when they have needs so that we can quickly address them.
Even after most people had left for the day, my work on professional development was not over. I finished the day by taking part in a Google Hangout with some teachers from Byron, MN as well as other teachers/tech integrationists from Minnesota. (Jen Hegna was in charge for the day and wrote up a great reflection on her blog.) The topic was the "EdCamp" style PD that was done at Byron the other day. I have written before about my love for the EdCamp experience, an unconference that allows for greater collaboration and ownership of the learning. This is an idea that I would love to help implement at my district but it is one that may not be well received by all. There are a number of districts who are implementing this as the model for their full or half day PD days and are seeing very positive results. The key to this style of PD is that the teachers are the experts and they share with other teachers, there are no handouts, no lectures but instead we get a collaborative learning environment. Teachers get the choice of creating their own sessions and choosing the topics that directly influence them or interest them. This is something that I feel we should implement at our district in the future.
The key is to use what we learned from yesterday in order to influence what we do next. For teachers I hope this means they have discovered new ways to help their students learn in the classroom and beyond. The key to knowing if your PD was truly successful is by seeing changes in instruction that is continued well past the initial PD day. I am very happy to see some teachers already trying new things and hope they continue. For me, this means using the comments and observations from yesterday to influence what I do to assist teachers for the rest of the year and for next year. There are things I can change to better meet the needs of our teachers but there are also things that I, alone, can not impact but maybe I can help change. The goal is to always be better than we were without forgetting those steps we had to take to get there.
Overall, for my first time helping to implement a full day of professional development for teachers I would say it was a success. I learned a lot about being on the other side of PD and can't wait for our next time to do this. I love learning and will always jump at the instance to help others learn. That is why I got into teaching in the first place and why I will be in teaching for a long, long time.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
PD from the Inside
Next week my school will be having a full day of professional development centered on technology integration. We will have 4 periods of sessions before lunch and 1 after before people are given a couple hours to collaborate and use what they have learned. Our main goal is that teachers walk away from this PD with something changed in their classrooms and ready to try out.
This will be my first full day PD that I have been an active part of the planning process. In my role, as technology integration specialist, I get to help teachers in a smaller setting on a day to day basis. I occasionally get to hold some meetings with our core subject departments but those only cover a small topic and provide a springboard to more interactions in the future. This will be a day where all of our high school and middle school teachers come together and hopefully come away learning something that will positively impact their classroom.
I feel that we are doing a good job of modeling effective uses of technology for this PD day. We have a Google Site setup as a landing spot that contains the links to the schedule, which is hosted on http://sched.org/ and is available on all devices including smarthphones, as well as a session ready on https://todaysmeet.com/ so that there can be a set backchannel for the day. We will hopefully be able to use the comments and the chat to either change for next time or to set up resources that are needed by teachers. We also have decided to use the #acsd hashtag for the day and are hoping that the Albion College Swimming and Diving groups aren't tweeting as much as they are the only ones who seem to be using that hashtag currently. I have also highly recommended to people to not use paper handouts as there is no need since we have the technology available to use more than a piece of paper to help others. I never understand it when I go to education technology conferences and see so many handouts or other pieces of paper being used when we have these great digital tools available that create better opportunities for learning.
As we have been working on this day, I have thought about all of those PD days that I have attended and how effective they were. The most effective ones for me always allowed for choices and time to practice or create. That was something we definitely wanted for our full day so that people had options to learn what they wanted and then to actually do something with that learning. The worst PD I have attended consisted of a forced topic that took the whole day with no time to collaborate or create. I will never be a part of that if I can help it, I do not feel it is effective and that it only detracts from the learning experience.
One thing that I am still thinking about is the chance that an unconference part of the day being effective for our district. I wrote a blog post earlier this year about my reflections from EdCamp DSM and how I did not think it would be totally effective if not all teachers feel that desire to learn and grow. There is always a concern that having a time like that will just allow some to either sit around without being productive or just give them a time to complain and not add anything but only take away. I know that the Prairie District is trying it and I am hoping it is a success as I would love having EdCamp style PD someday in Ames. Hopefully someday soon.
This will be my first full day PD that I have been an active part of the planning process. In my role, as technology integration specialist, I get to help teachers in a smaller setting on a day to day basis. I occasionally get to hold some meetings with our core subject departments but those only cover a small topic and provide a springboard to more interactions in the future. This will be a day where all of our high school and middle school teachers come together and hopefully come away learning something that will positively impact their classroom.
I feel that we are doing a good job of modeling effective uses of technology for this PD day. We have a Google Site setup as a landing spot that contains the links to the schedule, which is hosted on http://sched.org/ and is available on all devices including smarthphones, as well as a session ready on https://todaysmeet.com/ so that there can be a set backchannel for the day. We will hopefully be able to use the comments and the chat to either change for next time or to set up resources that are needed by teachers. We also have decided to use the #acsd hashtag for the day and are hoping that the Albion College Swimming and Diving groups aren't tweeting as much as they are the only ones who seem to be using that hashtag currently. I have also highly recommended to people to not use paper handouts as there is no need since we have the technology available to use more than a piece of paper to help others. I never understand it when I go to education technology conferences and see so many handouts or other pieces of paper being used when we have these great digital tools available that create better opportunities for learning.
As we have been working on this day, I have thought about all of those PD days that I have attended and how effective they were. The most effective ones for me always allowed for choices and time to practice or create. That was something we definitely wanted for our full day so that people had options to learn what they wanted and then to actually do something with that learning. The worst PD I have attended consisted of a forced topic that took the whole day with no time to collaborate or create. I will never be a part of that if I can help it, I do not feel it is effective and that it only detracts from the learning experience.
One thing that I am still thinking about is the chance that an unconference part of the day being effective for our district. I wrote a blog post earlier this year about my reflections from EdCamp DSM and how I did not think it would be totally effective if not all teachers feel that desire to learn and grow. There is always a concern that having a time like that will just allow some to either sit around without being productive or just give them a time to complain and not add anything but only take away. I know that the Prairie District is trying it and I am hoping it is a success as I would love having EdCamp style PD someday in Ames. Hopefully someday soon.
Monday, January 13, 2014
The Classroom Should be "Bigger on the Inside"
For Christmas my wife got me some stuff for my office at school, a bobble-head Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" and a Lego TARDIS.
First let me state clearly, I know that I am a nerd and I am proud of it. I have a degree in Physics and my top hobby can be listed as technology, which is cheaper than golf lately. The only shelf in my office holds my collection of my best fossils and rocks.
Having the TARDIS next to my desk got me thinking about how this can relate to our classroom. (My mind tends to do this many times during a day, trying to relate teaching to something else so that I can further discuss or explore some idea.)
For those of you who do not know about the TARDIS, it is the time and space traveling ship of the Doctor, from Doctor Who. Just last year I started watching it and got hooked immediately. The TARDIS may look like a small police box but it is a lot bigger on the inside, something that almost everyone says the first time they enter it.
Now lets connect this to our classroom, which is usually surrounded by 4 walls and limited by the location it is in. I have had 5 different classrooms in my 10 years of being a teacher and they all were different sizes and even shapes. Some were big while others were small with a, very poorly placed, curved wall. Proper technology integration into the classroom allows us to operate as if we were not constrained by the walls of our classroom. We can allow our students to connect with others around the world, digitally visit places that are as different from their current location as can be, simulate the solar system and even the universe all while sitting at their desk or table.
Even when I had a small, curved wall classroom in central Iowa, I never felt like we only had to exist in that room. Using Google Earth we were able to visit and explore all of the volcanoes and regions we were discussing. We could see what others are currently experiencing or experienced in the past through video sites like YouTube. We could view things as they were now or even in the past, and sometimes using simulations we could see what the future will look like. We could even measure earthquakes that were happening thousands of miles away. We could travel along the ocean floor, see where the rovers have been on Mars and simulate the night sky during the day so that we could better study the sky. We could post questions to experts from around the world and get feedback before the next class period using Twitter or we could even create our own materials and have them shared with people around the globe.
We could even try to bring the past into the present. I have read about how many teachers have had their students create Facebook or Twitter accounts for people who lived in the past and had them posting as they would today. They had to critically think about the topic and content before creating something new to represent what they were learning. You can do this without technology but there are so many more opportunities and ways in which you can do it with technology while increasing the effectiveness and engagement.
We have to view technology as our own TARDIS, a way to move beyond the limitations set forth by the 4 walls in a specific location and have a learning environment that is truly "bigger on the inside".
First let me state clearly, I know that I am a nerd and I am proud of it. I have a degree in Physics and my top hobby can be listed as technology, which is cheaper than golf lately. The only shelf in my office holds my collection of my best fossils and rocks.
Having the TARDIS next to my desk got me thinking about how this can relate to our classroom. (My mind tends to do this many times during a day, trying to relate teaching to something else so that I can further discuss or explore some idea.)
For those of you who do not know about the TARDIS, it is the time and space traveling ship of the Doctor, from Doctor Who. Just last year I started watching it and got hooked immediately. The TARDIS may look like a small police box but it is a lot bigger on the inside, something that almost everyone says the first time they enter it.
Now lets connect this to our classroom, which is usually surrounded by 4 walls and limited by the location it is in. I have had 5 different classrooms in my 10 years of being a teacher and they all were different sizes and even shapes. Some were big while others were small with a, very poorly placed, curved wall. Proper technology integration into the classroom allows us to operate as if we were not constrained by the walls of our classroom. We can allow our students to connect with others around the world, digitally visit places that are as different from their current location as can be, simulate the solar system and even the universe all while sitting at their desk or table.
Even when I had a small, curved wall classroom in central Iowa, I never felt like we only had to exist in that room. Using Google Earth we were able to visit and explore all of the volcanoes and regions we were discussing. We could see what others are currently experiencing or experienced in the past through video sites like YouTube. We could view things as they were now or even in the past, and sometimes using simulations we could see what the future will look like. We could even measure earthquakes that were happening thousands of miles away. We could travel along the ocean floor, see where the rovers have been on Mars and simulate the night sky during the day so that we could better study the sky. We could post questions to experts from around the world and get feedback before the next class period using Twitter or we could even create our own materials and have them shared with people around the globe.
We could even try to bring the past into the present. I have read about how many teachers have had their students create Facebook or Twitter accounts for people who lived in the past and had them posting as they would today. They had to critically think about the topic and content before creating something new to represent what they were learning. You can do this without technology but there are so many more opportunities and ways in which you can do it with technology while increasing the effectiveness and engagement.
We have to view technology as our own TARDIS, a way to move beyond the limitations set forth by the 4 walls in a specific location and have a learning environment that is truly "bigger on the inside".
Friday, January 10, 2014
My First Semester as a Tech Integrationist
Next Friday ends the first semester for me at Ames High as the Tech Integrationist. It definitely has been an interesting semester and there are a lot of differences between being a classroom teacher and more of a technology coach.
First let me state that I am accustomed to change and my teaching career has been full of changes. I changed my classes and students 3 weeks into my first year as a teacher, a teacher had to retire early, and I have taught 12 different classes in 3 districts with 6 different principals. I am used to change and expect it, if things stay the same for tool long it makes me feel like something is wrong.
The biggest change has to be that I start my day in an office or a meeting and not with students. It is hard not to miss the classes with students and all of the joys that one gets from seeing students understanding and learning. Most of my work now does not bring me always into contact with students so it becomes harder to always see the student effects of my work. I know I am affecting teachers and I hope that is affecting the students but that is not always evident. That type of feedback was important to help me modify what I did day to day, now I have to look for other types of feedback to make sure that I am being effective and that I change what is not working.
This was also the first semester for my school as a 1:1 school. We had a bit of technical issues in the first couple of months with our wireless system that made it difficult for many classes to make use of the computers. We opted to not use Microsoft Office and instead focus on Google Apps and LibreOffice. There is a learning curve to leaving Office behind but not as big as it once was. Many businesses and colleges are leaving Office and moving either towards Google Apps or some open source solution. We had a noticeable lack of technology available to everyone before and now we have laptops with each student. This has created many opportunities for trying new things and learning about how to better change instruction to meet the needs of our students as they are today and not as they were in the past.
I have met with many teachers to go over lesson ideas and to help them learn how to either use a new tool or how to change activities and lessons to better meet the needs of the students. I have created a website that has many tech tips and ideas to share with teachers and others. I even created a separate page specifically for our students based on the needs expressed to me by teachers or by students themselves. I get to spend some time in classrooms, not as much as I would like but I see that happening more as we go into the second semester. I have helped some teachers get onto Twitter and experience the benefits of being connected while showing others the same benefits and hoping they will take advantage of that in the future. I have met with our core departments to discuss evaluating their own tech use and how we can change in the future.
There are many challenges that we have yet to overcome but we are on a positive path. The success of our 1:1 is not dependent on one person but I know that I will hopefully play a big role. I have had experience at my previous school before and during the time it was a 1:1 and I hope to use what we learned from that experience to make the experience at Ames a better one. There is a lot we can learn from other districts but we have to remember that each district is different and we can not just copy what some other district did to become successful. We have to modify and adjust each idea and technique to best fit our students and our teachers. We will have success and we will have failures, but those failures are useful in that we can learn from them and improve.
I was asked the other day about what I envision Ames being like in a couple of years and I had no answer because I tend to focus on the present with only a small glance towards the future. I have never been one to have a master plan that stretches years into the future, at least a detailed one. I have hopes and wants for where we can go in the next few years but I am focused on the 2nd semester and making sure we have a positive momentum going into next year. The joy of teaching is that you never really know what the next day will bring but you prepare the best you can and enjoy the moments when they happen.
First let me state that I am accustomed to change and my teaching career has been full of changes. I changed my classes and students 3 weeks into my first year as a teacher, a teacher had to retire early, and I have taught 12 different classes in 3 districts with 6 different principals. I am used to change and expect it, if things stay the same for tool long it makes me feel like something is wrong.
The biggest change has to be that I start my day in an office or a meeting and not with students. It is hard not to miss the classes with students and all of the joys that one gets from seeing students understanding and learning. Most of my work now does not bring me always into contact with students so it becomes harder to always see the student effects of my work. I know I am affecting teachers and I hope that is affecting the students but that is not always evident. That type of feedback was important to help me modify what I did day to day, now I have to look for other types of feedback to make sure that I am being effective and that I change what is not working.
This was also the first semester for my school as a 1:1 school. We had a bit of technical issues in the first couple of months with our wireless system that made it difficult for many classes to make use of the computers. We opted to not use Microsoft Office and instead focus on Google Apps and LibreOffice. There is a learning curve to leaving Office behind but not as big as it once was. Many businesses and colleges are leaving Office and moving either towards Google Apps or some open source solution. We had a noticeable lack of technology available to everyone before and now we have laptops with each student. This has created many opportunities for trying new things and learning about how to better change instruction to meet the needs of our students as they are today and not as they were in the past.
I have met with many teachers to go over lesson ideas and to help them learn how to either use a new tool or how to change activities and lessons to better meet the needs of the students. I have created a website that has many tech tips and ideas to share with teachers and others. I even created a separate page specifically for our students based on the needs expressed to me by teachers or by students themselves. I get to spend some time in classrooms, not as much as I would like but I see that happening more as we go into the second semester. I have helped some teachers get onto Twitter and experience the benefits of being connected while showing others the same benefits and hoping they will take advantage of that in the future. I have met with our core departments to discuss evaluating their own tech use and how we can change in the future.
There are many challenges that we have yet to overcome but we are on a positive path. The success of our 1:1 is not dependent on one person but I know that I will hopefully play a big role. I have had experience at my previous school before and during the time it was a 1:1 and I hope to use what we learned from that experience to make the experience at Ames a better one. There is a lot we can learn from other districts but we have to remember that each district is different and we can not just copy what some other district did to become successful. We have to modify and adjust each idea and technique to best fit our students and our teachers. We will have success and we will have failures, but those failures are useful in that we can learn from them and improve.
I was asked the other day about what I envision Ames being like in a couple of years and I had no answer because I tend to focus on the present with only a small glance towards the future. I have never been one to have a master plan that stretches years into the future, at least a detailed one. I have hopes and wants for where we can go in the next few years but I am focused on the 2nd semester and making sure we have a positive momentum going into next year. The joy of teaching is that you never really know what the next day will bring but you prepare the best you can and enjoy the moments when they happen.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
11, 11, 11
Time for a fun blog post, not really geared towards education but one that is coming about thanks to connections made with other educators through social media. Mande was kind enough to tag me to forward this along as a blog assignment. Seeing as I am trying to focus on blog posts this year, I think it is ok to do one that is not as serious as the others. So here goes.
11 Random Facts about Me
11 Questions
1. What's your favorite book character? Why?
Tully Mars from A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffett, living the life that Jimmy sings about seems like fun.
2. If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Flying or teleporting, I would love to be able to get to places faster and without having to pay for gas or airline tickets.
3. What's your favorite 'get to know someone new" question?
To steal from Gus on Psych, "so, did you hear about Pluto?"
4. Would you ever consider a job that required an out of country relocation?
Yes, but only if it was on a tropical island.
5. What did you think you'd be as an adult when you were 8?
Veterinarian, but then I found out that I prefer physics to the squishy parts of science.
6. Now, what's your dream job?
Pretty much what I am doing now, that or a fishing guide on a tropical island.
7. How long does it take you to get to work?
Less than 5 minutes, my shortest drive as a teacher ever. Longest was closer to 40 minutes each way.
8. What was your proudest moment thus far?
Too many to list that involve my son, every day he does something great.
9. What's your favorite thing to cook?
Most things on the grill or pulled pork in a slow cooker.
10. Android or iOS?
Was iOS only for the last 5 years or so but I am giving Android a try, I like the look and feel of iOS but love the widgets and customization in Android.
11. What's the last thing you said out loud?
What questions do you have? (just left a classroom where I was helping students with a project)
Now for the next part, I have to nominate 11 (we will see how many) people to continue this. They have to acknowledge the person who nominated them, write 11 random facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions provided and then send it on to 11 more people. Since I am not feeling that creative today, I am just going to push the 11 questions I got forward. Also, most of the people that I know who blog have already done this so I am just going to send this out to whoever wants to do it. Might not be a bad way to start blogging.
11 Random Facts about Me
- Born in Albert Lea, MN.
- I have a 3 year old son who is by far the best thing I have ever created.
- I have a wife who is a lawyer and tries to use her lawyer skills to win arguments.
- I started college as a civil engineering student but switched to physics and secondary education.
- Even though I did not come to Iowa till college, I have now lived in 4 different cities in Iowa and taught in 3.
- I am really enjoying my new position as a technology integrationist, lots of new challenges and it is helping me connect with a lot more awesome educators.
- I have worked with 6 different principals in my 10 years of being a teacher. 1 in Cedar Rapids, 3 at South Hamilton in 5 years and 2 here in Ames (I was at both the Middle School and High School last year).
- I have taught 10 different subjects in my 9 years in the classroom, 12 if you count each time I taught Physics in a different district since each had slightly different curriculums.
- I have won 1st place in a couple fishing tournaments and was a BASS Casting Kids champ for my region as a kid.
- I love technology, it is now my top hobby since I spend more time playing with it and less time golfing or fishing.
- I have missed the classroom and the students this year but I know that when I get back into the classroom, I will be a better teacher than before.
11 Questions
1. What's your favorite book character? Why?
Tully Mars from A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffett, living the life that Jimmy sings about seems like fun.
2. If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Flying or teleporting, I would love to be able to get to places faster and without having to pay for gas or airline tickets.
3. What's your favorite 'get to know someone new" question?
To steal from Gus on Psych, "so, did you hear about Pluto?"
4. Would you ever consider a job that required an out of country relocation?
Yes, but only if it was on a tropical island.
5. What did you think you'd be as an adult when you were 8?
Veterinarian, but then I found out that I prefer physics to the squishy parts of science.
6. Now, what's your dream job?
Pretty much what I am doing now, that or a fishing guide on a tropical island.
7. How long does it take you to get to work?
Less than 5 minutes, my shortest drive as a teacher ever. Longest was closer to 40 minutes each way.
8. What was your proudest moment thus far?
Too many to list that involve my son, every day he does something great.
9. What's your favorite thing to cook?
Most things on the grill or pulled pork in a slow cooker.
10. Android or iOS?
Was iOS only for the last 5 years or so but I am giving Android a try, I like the look and feel of iOS but love the widgets and customization in Android.
11. What's the last thing you said out loud?
What questions do you have? (just left a classroom where I was helping students with a project)
Now for the next part, I have to nominate 11 (we will see how many) people to continue this. They have to acknowledge the person who nominated them, write 11 random facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions provided and then send it on to 11 more people. Since I am not feeling that creative today, I am just going to push the 11 questions I got forward. Also, most of the people that I know who blog have already done this so I am just going to send this out to whoever wants to do it. Might not be a bad way to start blogging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)