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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Envisioning the Future through TeachMeetNJ

Thursday I have the opportunity to present my experience with The Connected Learning MOOC through the National Writers Project - experienceing a Summer of Making at TeachMeetNJ an unconference of educators being held at Richard Stockton College, Galloway, New Jersey.



In the spirit of "making" I "made" a Prezi presentation that overviews the 6 Cycles of the MOOC.
The experience I had was so positive I wanted to share it with fellow educators.  The spirit of making is alive throughout the educational community, spreading to students around the world.

Friday, August 16, 2013

MAKING the summer away...

As I sit here posting in the middle of August, I find it hard to believe that the summer is almost gone.
So many projects came home from school the end of June, ready to be completed by Labor Day and the beginning of the new school year.  Those projects are still awaiting completion - I will assume that I will get down to true business within the next few days.  I know I have to in order to feel ready to take on the new school year.

I reflect back onto what was have accomplished:

  •  Successful trip to Nashville, TN with FCCLA - 3 Silver awards for my fabulous middle school students!
  • Another Extended School Year program with the amazing special needs students at Southern Regional.  A great student produced play on the importance of Decision Making - something we all need to practice daily.
  •  Participation and completion of the #clmooc - Making Learning Connected through the National Writing Project.  I had so many "Makes" I can't remember them all.  Currently planning on how I can integrate these into my curriculum - the students will love them, just hope there is enough time to complete them all in my short, quarterly courses.
  •  Packing, Moving and Unpacking of hundreds of boxes as we moved the parental unit into an amazing retirement community.  They are having fun, but I truly do not want to see another moving box for years!
  • Transcribing my Great-Great Grandmothers correspondence from 1899-1919.  I learned so much about her life, her dreams and fears, and the issues that were faced by women of that era.  Not much has changed!
  • Competed the braided rug - Shades of the Sea - that I began back in March.  This rug has been a calming project, as I watched it grow from strips of wool to a 5 ft x 4 ft rug.  It is estimated that a braided rug takes 8 hours for 1 ft of braiding to be accomplished - so my 20 sq ft rug represents 160 hours of work!




So as the summer comes to an end, I guess I MADE some headway.  Now on to finish those last few projects:

Lesson Plans
Moving daughter # 2
FCCLA planning for next year
Research for capstone
clean the "project cave"
etc, etc...





Monday, August 5, 2013

Connecting it all together

The summer has been full, sometime disjointed, but I think at this point I can begin to tie it all together.  The tools that I have learned are now becoming tools included in my lesson planning for the upcoming school year - hoping that I can pull off a year of connected learning where my students truly find the tools that will help them best meet their objectives.

Connected Learning

Using this infographic, look at what can be accomplished.  Get out of your comfort zone and try it!