As you can see in my biography, I have been teaching for ten years.  All of those ten years have been spent in lower elementary.  Teaching is not an easy task, it takes a lot of passion.  I have spent a lot of time trying to find innovative ways to keep my students engaged in the learning process.  Technology has been the most effective, but also made them think in new ways.  I recently was given the opportunity to pilot 1:1 iPads in my classroom.  This opportunity really opened my eyes.  My students who were six years old, were doing amazing things that I never thought possible.  This opportunity opened my eyes, and made me dream a little.  I could change and encourage others to try.  This brought on the dream of wanting to be an instructional technologist.  To really become an innovator in my district, I needed to pursue a master’s degree.   This made me uncomfortable, but needed to happen.  I decided to earn my degree with Lamar University in the Digital Learning and Leading program.  This program is already making me think outside of the box.  I have enjoyed it immensely.

I am currently finishing my last week in the first course 5302 Concepts of Educational Technology.  This course started off with learning about the Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck.  My eyes were opened.  I had never heard of any of this before, but it all made sense.  After reading the book, we were to create a growth mindset plan.  This was our first assignment, and it made me nervous.  I wanted to do well!  This was my first experience with the COVA approach.  We were allowed to choose what we wanted to use, how we wanted it to look, and what we included.  This was nerve racking.  I honestly had no idea where to start.  I finally made myself just sit down and do it.  Check out my growth mindset here.

Next, we were to create a learning manifesto.  We were given choice again.  We could create a video or a blog.  I decided to create a video.  She did request we try to use voice over.  I was very uncomfortable with the idea of recording my voice, and recording it for five minutes.  I decided to use the web tool Powtoons.  I was surprised at how easy it was to create a video with this tool.  I had so many choices to pick from for each slide.  Each slide had some form of animation which makes it more enjoyable for an audience.  It took me an entire day to create, and I had some audio issues along the way.  I now know I need to invest in a microphone.  Check out my Learning Manifesto here.

Finally we had to join several learning networks and create an eportfolio.  I think the learning networks probably was my favorite assignment.  I see so much power in joining educators with similar interests as you and discussing tips and tricks with one another.  I won’t elaborate since I have an entire post on this assignment.  You can check that out here.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this class, and can’t wait to share more of my learning here!