Final Thoughts...

     When I came into educational technology, I was nervous because I am not tech savy. I learned many useful tools that will benefit not only my experiences in the classroom, but the ways we learned to utilize technology will help to make my students' experience more rich and engaging. Before coming into this class, I felt strongly believed that I will be entering a twenty-first century classroom, where technology is first nature to students, rather than an acquired tool learned through experiences. It is important to be able to use technology in the classroom because it is relatable to students' experiences, abilities, and will make their content more rich, which will ultimately help them retain the information for a longer period of time.
     I learned how to incorporate social media, not only in the classroom, but in a way that will help my professional network in the future. I think that most vetern teachers have a negative image of social media, and wouldn't understand how it can benefit a teacher's abilities. I would like to help change the prospective of some teachers in incorporating social media. Most importantly, learning how to create a portfolio will benefit my career as I prepare to apply for a job!

Final Blog Entry 12/5

1. Which chat did you participate in?

• This evening I participated in #educoach.

2. Was there a theme to the chat?

• There was not a set theme to the chat; however, majority of the chat was focused on the importance of coaching - particuarily the relationship between administrators and the building teachers. I liked the discussion that was generated on this chat because it allowed teachers and administrators to share ideas about how to bridge the relationships between the two, which helps to make the teaching experience and coaching the most effective. 

3. What did you learn? Give specifics and cite examples.

• I learned that there are many different ways school districts will coach their staff. I also learned that not all teachers have the support and encouragement from their administrators that are needed in order to continue their education through their experiences, therefore, little improvement will be made. 

4. Did anyone post links that you found helpful? List one or two and explain why you found them useful? Use bitly to shorten and share.

• There were a few links, books, and quotes that I thought could be beneficial in understanding and improving educational coaching. Greg Miller is a elementary school principal that I began following, and he was an advocate for positive relations and communications between his administration staff and his teachers. He shared a variety of rubrics that his teachers use to evaluate their performance. Sometimes I think that teachers forget to step back and evaluate themselves unless they are being evaluated by others, and therefore, they may not reflect to improve.
• Another professional that I followed posted a link about the knowing vs. doing gap - bit.ly/VPaeCR. This link was beneficial because it explained how to bridge the gap between knowing and doing. I think this is something that will help myself as a new teacher; I have received all the proper instruction, but it is then a matter of actually teaching using those strategies so that students thrive and succeed. This is a nervous fear of mine as I begin to think about applying for a job, and having someone else's experiences to use is great! 
• Finally a message I found interesting was from Jessica Johnson (@PrincipalJ). She explained that those will teach better if the become a coach. It reminded me of the quote related to the notion that if you want to become skilled in a content material, teach it.