Today I Traveled Around the World in 45 Minutes

ISTE, Day 1

ISTE Denver, 2016

Woohoo! Once every few years I gather with my tribe to learn, share, grow, connect and geek out at The International Society for Technology in Education Conference. A few goals I have established for myself for this conference include:

1. To connect face-to-face with 5 new educators that I can work with on global projects this upcoming school year.
2. Gather at least 3 new global resources to incorporate into our Units of Inquiry.

My first night, Sunday night, offered a great poster session on global projects and collaboration. Perfect!

After just a few short hours I have already connected with a like-minded educator from Australia. Bonus points, as she also teaches 2nd grade (or Year 2). I have also gathered a number of resources that I would like to pursue including

• MyHero.com, a project designed to help kids celebrate the best in others. This project resource fits nicely into our Unit of Inquiry into influential people. My students create PSA's using Green Screen tech on an influential person they research. We might be able to submit our projects to MyHero.com.
• KivaU.org, an organization designed to support financial literacy education and impact a small business startup. This organization aligns not only with our Unit of Inquiry into financial resources, but supports my classroom economy system.

I am looking forward to exploring these resources. Watch for updates on how I incorporated these resources into my classroom!

A New Blog for New Learning (2nd attempt)

All the Blogs

Throughout the last 5 years I have attempted to develop several blogs to accomplish several things. I had a personal PLN blog that I did not pay much attention to-I was more interested in reading others thoughts than posting my own insights. I had several "sandbox" blogs for playing and learning. I had two classroom blogs that actually went fairly well for the first half of each of those school years, and I have had a very successful blog, Thunder and Lighting run by my two teaching assistants

My teaching Assistant
Thunder T. Bear on assignment.

(classrooms bears) that document their learning in our community for one of our Units of Inquiry.This blog is a huge hit both with my kids and our families.

Like so many of us, I get brilliant ideas, implement them well, and then run out of time, energy, or ideas to follow through long-term. I love the idea of a blog for my personal learning and sharing of knowledge, but I also love the idea of maintaining a blog for my students and their families, especially as I continue to grow as an educator that flattens the walls and opens the world up to my little digital natives. Both perspectives of learning are very different, but very important for me to reflect upon. I went down this same path with my twitter account (@crosbyscoolcats). I finally resolved myself to one single twitter account that would cover both my classroom connections and my personal growth as an educator. It seems to be working for me, so I toyed around with the idea of creating a blog that also accomplished both tasks. I decided it would not work.

After much contemplation, I decided to move ahead with two connected blogs, this one, Lovin' the Learnin' with Mrs. Crosby and my class blog, Lovin' the Learnin' with the Cool Cats.

Now what?

I received some excellent advice from a presenter at ISTE 2011. Set three major goals for yourself each year, no more or you will overwhelm yourself (the little ones are just part of your job, they don't count). I have lived by these rules for the last 4 years and it really helps me focus my priorities. Her advice:
The first goal, you will have fantastic success at.

Like Super Joe, I will keep
working towards my goals!

The second, you will make headway and be pleased with what you have done, but will want to do more.
The third, you will most likely have little growth, but that's ok! Celebrate what you have done with goal 1 and 2 and try again next year.

So that is how I am preceding for the 2014 - 2015 school year. These goals will go on my board above my desk to help keep me focused.
Goal #1 Implement digital portfolios using students Google Drive accounts
Goal #2 Maintain both of my Lovin' the Learnin' blogs
Goal #3 Become a Google Certified Teacher

(FYI-digital portfolios have been that elusive 3rd goal on my list since 2011. I have toyed with many options, but have yet to find success. Cross your fingers for me as I explore some wonderful options using Google I learned about at ISTE 2014.)