Reflection: My Reading Door

Today was the last day of school with students, so I took down my reading door. It was a nice walk down memory lane, briefly reliving each book as I looked at the cover. My goal with the door was to have book conversations with students, to get them excited about books and sharing what they read. It turned out to be a wonderful experience!

My reading door in August

My office is at the end of the 5th grade hallway, so not many classes passed by it each day. It still elicited many comments and conversations with students and staff alike. There were lots of excited whispers when students walked by and saw I put up World War Z on my Want to Read list. 

The entire fifth grade read Esperanza Rising. When I got my own copy I added it to my Currently Reading list and they just had to tell me about their favorite parts. My school participates in Battle of the Books and I decided I wanted to read those books to see what all the fuss was about. When one of the boys saw all 6 books on my Want to Read list he brought his personal copies of three of the titles so I could read them. I work with a group of nine students to broadcast our morning announcements. Several of those students are avid readers and recommended new series with such passion that I had to add them to my To Read list.

At the end of the school year

I had many wonderful conversations with staff members as well. The teacher across the hall from my office seemed to have similar tastes in books so we chatted often about a series we both enjoyed. I talked her in to finishing a series she had started, she lent me copies of another she thought I'd enjoy. We both talked about our love for certain books and how we couldn't put them down. I had some staff members email book recommendations to me. And of course the school librarian acted as my dealer, constantly feeding and encouraging my reading addiction.

Being public with my reading was a great motivator for me as well. I was excited to add new books to the lists on my door. If I took too long with a book or couldn't find the time, I would get worried that the students would think I wasn't reading anymore. I would make more time to read so I could finish the books!

Was my reading door successful? I would say yes! I was able to finish over 40 books, not counting all the picture books that I read. This was more reading than I've done in a very long time. The only thing I would change would be to move my office to a more central location so more students from different grade levels could be involved with the conversations.

The best thing about this whole experience? My Want to Read list now has over 120 books on it, more than half from recommendations from students, teachers, and my PLN! That should keep me busy this summer!

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Why I'm a Connected Educator

The U. S. Department of Education has declared October to be Connected Educator Month. Being a connected educator has changed me so much that I have decided to share my enthusiasm and encourage my co-workers to become connected as well. Through this post I hope to describe why I am a connected educator.

My life as a connected educator is relatively short. I first started following blogs last spring. Over the summer I took the plunge and created a Twitter account. In that short time frame, my whole outlook on education and my path as an educator has completely changed! I feel more empowered, more enthusiastic about what I can do. I feel like I'm a part of something much bigger. I feel connected!

I am the least creative or inventive educator. I can take an idea and tweak it to make it mine, but I cannot come up with the original thought. When I come up with an idea of something I want to do, I always reach out to find out if someone is already doing it. More often than not, they are doing it in a much better way than I could ever think of!

My journey to become a Connected Educator and developing a Personal Learning Network began when I started at a new school and was tasked with getting their new set of iPads into classrooms and in the hands of teachers and students. I hadn't used iPads in the classroom before so I had no idea where to begin to help teachers integrate them. So I did what I always do - I Googled it! 

I discovered many blogs by very creative teachers. They blogged about all the wonderful activities their students (even kindergarteners!) were doing with iPads and other educational technology. As I followed those blogs I realized I was missing out on the rest of the conversation. Those same educators were communicating with each other via Twitter as well.

I never had a favorable opinion of Twitter, viewing it as a waste of time. But I bit the bullet, created an account, and joined in the conversation. I've heard Twitter described as a firehose of information. I think that's an understatement! All the tweeting and retweeting has really provided me with a ton of practical information. Through blogs and Twitter, my PLN has changed my outlook on pretty much every aspect of my career.

So in the spirit of being connected and sharing, here is a list of why I'm glad to be a Connected Educator:

• Mystery Skype
• Mock Caldecott
• Global Read Aloud
• Currently Reading Log on my door
• What iPad apps to buy (Creative vs. One-Time)
• Classroom rules
• Homework policy
• Building relationships with students
• Behavior management
• Educational reform
• Standardized Testing
• Teacher Evaluations
• Edmodo

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My Goals for the New School Year

Our district is rolling out a new evaluation system for teachers this year. This new system requires principals and teachers to sit down at a one-on-one meeting to discuss professional goals for the teachers, including action steps to achieve those goals. Throughout the year the principal and teacher will meet periodically to discuss progress towards those goals. My one-on-one meeting is this week.

Prior to the meeting I am supposed to self-reflect and come up with a few goals. Since I am not in the classroom, I'm sure my goals will  look different than a general ed teacher's. While their's will be focused more towards improving their ability to increase student test scores, mine are geared towards helping teachers integrate technology more in their classrooms.

As I did the self-reflection of past years and thought about this year, I came up with these goals.

• PLN - This past summer I discovered how powerful a PLN can be. Blogs and Twitter are my new best friend! My goal is to utilize and expand my PLN, but I also want to share my excitement with the staff in my school and inspire them to create their own PLN.
• Global Connections - Through my PLN I discovered some great projects that I would like to do with classes this year. The Global Read Aloud, Mystery Skypes, Mock Caldecott, and student blogging are a few. I would like to help teachers make global connections through these projects or any others we come across.
• NETS-S and CCSS - The NETS-S are the national technology standards for students and the CCSS has technology embedded into them. Since I am a technology cheerleader I need to use those standards as the justification for whatever projects I encourage teachers to do.

I think these goals are very doable for me. I hope my principal sees my vision for myself and the technology at my school and supports me in achieving these goals. I will be checking back on this blog to report my progress and see if I'm successful!

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