PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

My Professional Development Goals For This Summer

1. To strengthen my PLN through positive and meaningful dialect amongst those within the course and those that I meet through research and sharing from assignments.
2. To increase my effectiveness in integrating technology within my instructional practice
3. To develop an action plan for using a blended learning model within my class this year
4. To support the learning of my colleagues through sharing of resources and experiences
5. To further develop leadership skills through collaboration and mentoring 

Area of Focus

• I am most interested in learning more about the blended learning model and to create an action plan for implementing it into my classroom this Fall.  It is my goal this year, through crowdfunding, to create a near 1:1 scenario in my classroom.  While this goal may be lofty, I am a strong believer in "fortune favours the bold."  I believe that I have a growing pedagogical skill set and possess a deepening understanding of the specific content knowledge to effectively utilize this model.

What Has Inspired Me To Take This Learning Pathway

• When I became a teacher, my goal was to make the students want to learn.  I wanted them scream and yell with excitement, I wanted them to watch the clock for when we would start our inquiry, I wanted them forget the word work and see the learning as play, as fun.  Engagement would become my greatest tool for learning.  As a child I remember my brothers and I mimicking those same responses for the 22 minutes of Mister Roger's Neighbourhood.  So I thought about his formula, who he was and how it all worked together.  He created a community that you were a part of and he CARED about all of us.  In between teaching us how to draw or add, he gave feedback on why we mattered or how to treat others.  He wore costumes and sang and had makebelieve friends that created a world of the imagination.  He took the things and people we were most interested in as a kid and used them to teach us.   Any adult knows that students today are interested in technology.  I am here to further understand how I can use it to make them scream and yell with excitement, how to make them watch the clock for when we would start our online inquiry, I wanted them forget the word work and see the learning as play, as fun.    

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. -Fred Rogers