Now I'm Retired

Living in Roatan, Honduras (a beautiful Caribbean Island that you should visit), I am in the process of getting settled, finishing the house and grounds with my husband, meeting new friends, and last, but not least, looking for ways to help with improving the education of islanders and applying my skills in a useful manner. I do have the privilege of serving on the Board of Education for NuNa Academy in French Caye.  It's a fairly new K-12, private school, and growing fast.  I also attend municipal meetings where the East End Mayor is looking for volunteers to improve education in Oakridge and perhaps start a Career and Technical School.

My dream is to find a fulfilling remote position with a large company utilizing my various skills in business, spreadsheets, computer applications and staff development.

Keep posted :)

Coding

Schools in my area are starting to think about "Coding" not just as extra curriculum but as a skill to enhance thinking skills.  Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES has a team of staff specialists ready to assist.  A "Coding - Learn Computer Programing" online course has been developed in Moodle to serve as a skeleton for the free online curriculum in Codecademy.  Apps have also been downloaded and promoted, such as "Hopscotch" and "Kodable" to encourage code thinking in the early grades.  Eventually a k-12 curriculum will be developed but presented as a series of lessons to integrate into other subject matter.

Flipping the Flipped Classroom

I recently saw a couple of presentations on flipping the classroom and have always been an advocate anyway.  Students really need help in the classroom and getting the instruction for homework and having the teacher available to do the "problems" can certainly assist with student improvement.

I am including here a link to an article about a teacher that flipped the classroom, then took the concept further.  She went with an inquiry-based, student-centered classroom.  So flipping became almost obsolete.  Very interesting. Let me know what you think.
 
http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/03/why-i-flip-flopped-flipped-classroom

Media Literacy and Research Skills

As a media specialist, I am often asked about teaching media literacy to students.  How can a student learn to discern a proper and legitimate source when researching a topic for a classroom project or "research paper"?  Students are now going to the Internet instead of the library...or going to the Internet through the library computers at school.  I want to share a link here to an online news magazine which introduces the new Google research feature for students.  Enjoy...

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/01/can-google-help-students-master-art-online-search

Flipping the Classroom

Having observed many traditional classrooms lately, I am more and more convinced that Flipping the Classroom is the way of the future.  Many districts are piloting this instructional technique and it will be interesting to see the results next year....will administrators ask more and more teachers to send video (via ipads and other devices) home with the students and require the worksheet and problem-solving to happen at school? 

It only makes sense that the teacher should be on hand to help solve the problems and assist with the homework instead of the other way around.  It's no wonder children struggle with homework when they don't have the instruction to refer to or the master teacher available.

Thoughts about New Teachers

Recently I have had the honor of supervising teacher candidates (student teachers) for Grand Canyon University. Being in the classroom again, even briefly, floods my mind with memories of the most difficult and challenging job there is.....teaching kids!

As I provided resources for these new teachers and collaborated on their evaluations, I realized anew the enormous responsibity that a teacher has. EVERY student must be valued the same and formative assessments must show progress for each child. I am privileged to assist these new teachers and rise up to my responsibility to inspire and motivate them to work with young people and administrators and other teachers on a daily basis.

Touch Screen Natives

It occurred to me that the Digital Natives generation is now replaced by the "Touch Screen" Generation. I witnessed a two year old using a touch screen - making the screen graphics bigger, then smaller.  This generation will grow up not having to right click and find the "zoom" to increase or decrease percentage size.  The Touch Screen Generation will not have a need for cameras - photos taken by their hand held devices will get better and better quality.  Email may even become a thing of the past as short 140 character posts in Twitter will replace long text.  Library books?  Who knows - for awhile parents will read traditional books to their kids, but in the long term, the touch screen on the e-reader will take over.