Final Reflection:

I would like to start this post off with a thought---This year has moved so rapidly that at times I find myself not being able to keep up with everything! But, as I sit and reflect---it has been a fantastic year! I have a wonderful family, an unbelievable job, students I adore, a masters program I value (great instruction and fellow peers I have learned so much from). I truly have been blessed with a great life!

Writing out a game plan was truly a great experience: I plan on having my students write one after the holiday's and I will continue to write my own game plan for school and for life! I think a lot can be learned from this type of reflection. If you think about it--that is what a Game Plan really is.

My Game Plan for my masters was to continue my education and to bring more creativity and technology into my classroom. I received my books and CD's for my National Certification in the mail last week. I am in a group of six others who are working towards this goal. I will receive my Master's in May and I am hoping to take a couple more classes in the summer! On January 15th I will be giving a training to 25 teachers from around the state of Montana on RDA "Representative Democracy in America" I will be using all kinds of new technology that I learned from my master's program through Walden University.

I owe my students a lot--as well as my own two children, because of them I am becoming a life-long learner and a better person and teacher. I have promised myself that I will strive every week to make my classroom a more creative and digital climate! I have also promised myself that I will take time to relax, and enjoy all the wonderful people in my life, who have made me the person I am today. Merry Christmas to all!

Tammy Hurley a teacher in the 21st century!

NETS Standards "How do they Compare?"

When you look at the NETS standards for teachers and students, they are very similar. The student standards have six goals and the teacher standard has five goals. When you break them down, the teacher is trying to develop their skills and then tries to develop the students skills. Since I am a digital immigrant and as learned in an earlier class, usually my students are teaching me after I introduce a new piece of technology. With the students set of standards, I feel that all students can accomplish them quit easily. As we know they are digital natives, and students think differently than they did a few years ago.

At present time, I am introducing many new concepts to my middle school students----blogging, voice threads, photo story, cps units, podcasting, wiki's, and so on. Once I show them something, they catch on immediately. I believe that in a couple years all the students will have already used these techniques before they have me as a teacher. Therefore, I will really have to grow as a professional, and keep working hard to learn to be tech savvy. It is my fear that I will not be able to keep up with all my students, once they start learning these skills in younger grades. At the moment my students are fascinated by my class and excited to be learning all this new technology. In a couple years that might not be the case!

One area that I have been working hard on this year is Digital citizenship. As a teacher it is our job to be role models in this area and to really focus on safe internet practice. Digital citizenship is number 4 on the teachers standards and #5 on the students standards. On the students standards they have #6 as Technology Operations and Concepts--I feel this should also be on the teachers standards. My students do not have a problem in this area, because they are not afraid to break the machine or take risks. On the other hand--I get real nervous in this area, and I doubt myself. This is an area I need to grow in!

After Christmas--I plan on having my students write a game plan, and then have them blog about their game plan every other week. I am hoping this will keep them on track, and have them really start thinking about themselves as productive students.

Life Long Learner

Ever since I was in the third grade I wanted to be a teacher. Mr. Swanson, put that spark in me--he had us mentoring the first graders. It was the best! What I never realized at that age or in high school, or in college even--was how I would always be taking classes and learning to stay on top of my profession. I think I need to go back to all my teachers that inspired me and tell them how much I appreciate all of the hard work they put in. With that said, I start my National Certification on January 3rd--the packet is being mailed to me. I have a mentor for this, and I am in a group of five teachers who have also applied.

At our weekly staff meeting, our principal announced to all the other teachers that three teachers will be training our staff after the holiday's on some of the technology we are using in our rooms. I am one of the teachers--this was the first I had heard of it. My principal knew I would be ok with it. So I talked with the other two teachers who will be giving the training and we decided to start a blog between teachers in our district. Also we are going to make technology notebooks for everyone.

In the classroom, I am meeting myself coming and going. I have so many things I want to do, and so little time. I have to become better at managing time. I have been working hard towards my goal of facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity. I have many on-line collaboration projects going on. My 7th graders just finished photo stories and my 8th graders are working on wiki's. I have also applied for a couple grants, to buy some more technology for my room. The principal did tell me, that she ordered me a classroom set of headphones with mic., I only had four of them before.

Evaluating my Game Plan---week 5

If it was not for this masters program, I would be striking out, at the technology game. These classes have pushed me to work harder at accomplishing my goals in the classroom. In the past couple of years I worked with the smartboard, CPS units, video taping, and virtual trips. Since I have been taking these classes, I feel like I need to ask all my former students back, so I can get a second chance at teaching them.

Today I spent an hour researching eportfolio's for my classes. I have not used these in my classes before and I feel they would be a great addition. After researching I contacted the tech person in our district, and asked her to lend me a hand with accomplishing this task. I also found a senior in college who is currently attending college in Mexico for a semester. We set up a time that my students will skype her twice a week. The plan is for my students to learn about the culture of Mexico from her.

Last week when I posted I felt I might have to put off getting my National Certification---I have decided I need to move forward with this and not put it off! As I mentioned in an early post I have a great support group and mentors for this process, so therefore I need to go forward with my goals.

Tonight I worked on creating a new lesson with PBL-- I am going to try and post a problem in five different centers. I will put my students into groups of four or five, and they will work on a problem for fifteen minutes than I will have them rotate and continue working on the next problem where the last group left off. I love learning centers and I have done PBL lessons before--I am going to try and combine the two and see what happens.

I have a lot to learn! I just need someone to extend the day from 24 hours to 32 hours, this way I would get 8 hours of sleep and twenty four hours to accomplish all my daily jobs. I am going to really focus on the eportfolio's this week and figuring out how to do a PBL learning center.

My current needs are what is best for my students. I need to stay focused on making them my main priority--this will increase my profesional development and my creativity in the classroom.