My First Steps

With careful consideration, I have decided on three manageable steps to begin with:

1. Join e learning communities - twitter, facebook, intel
2. Become familiar with one new tool and consider how it could be used in the class room - Microsoft One Note
3. Create a blog to record my personal journey and provide a space for self evaluation

Clearly, I have succesfuly started my blog. I look forward to creating new steps very soon.

What brings me here?

I am a primary trained teacher with experience across ages, schools and seas. Now settled mainly into a Year 7 class in Cambridge, New Zealand. I have always been allured by technology and try to use it where I can to motivate and amaze children. Of course, as we advance further into a digital world it becomes less easy to impress the little learners, unless I stay a step ahead!

So the mission begins...

So far, I have been an ambassador within my department for Moodle and Interactive whiteboards. Next year, I will add BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to the list, as our school implements 1:1 devices in certain year groups.

So the mission expands...

I recently began my journey of improvement with a quiet stroll through the World Wide Web, touring recommended schools, and visiting e learning meetings. But, the more I learn and the more I am exposed to, the LESS I feel I know. Ironic.

So the mission explodes....

My exploration only introduced me to unending and unnerving lists of websites, programmes, experts, apps, devices, theories, research, brands, advice and warnings. I was completely overstimulated and dragged in so many directions at once. Being an impatient, excitable learner, my first impulse was to try, try, try. So quickly my first lesson came: "You can not do it all and in trying you are achieving NOTHING but confusion.

So the mission needed breaking down...

In my stroll through the web I thankfully encountered a webinar presented by Vicki Davis http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.co.nz/ about flattening the walls of classrooms. The advice I most connected to was: Pick three goals. Oh the relief. Finally, a clear way to start and feel a sense of accomplishment that may encourage me to continue, rather than tag out at the first rest stop.

We have lift off....

Taking the plunge

I have embarked upon the vast journey of e learning with a massive, overarching goal: To improve my students learning through digital immersion.