My growth in this course

Professional Growth as a Result of this Course

While I have taken a few online courses for my master's degree, this course was the first one with modules you could "check off" as you completed them. I enjoyed that aspect and like the concept. I think for students who are easily overwhelmed it's a great tool and I may use it if or when I have students work on projects.

As a professional I have grown in my knowledge of technology tools. I have learned how to use many 2.0 tools as well as the different categories of tools such as which ones are apps, which ones are web-based, which ones are best for graphic organizing, and which are best for time lines and such.

I have come away with some specific tools that I want to implement in the next two months after we receive our laptops. And with the RUP project I've come away with a way to share my knowledge within my building and within the corporation.

My plan is to continue fine-tuning my skills with approximately nine specific tools and roll one out each month of the school year by doing mini-lessons with my students and screen casts for our staff.

The footprints I've left

After recently googling my name, I've found I'm leaving a pretty clean digital footprint. I was surprised to find the first thing that appears is my Pinterest images of cakes I've made. And having attended much professional technology development this summer, my Pinterest finds are followed by Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. My school system background is easy to pick out as well as I appear in board meeting minutes from when I requested a leave of absence to get my teaching credentials and more recently from when my husband won a contest sponsored by Rush Limbaugh which resulted in a $15,000 donation to our school!

As an educator a good way to leave a positive footprint, first and foremost, is to watch what you post on personal social media. Then, to develop your professional footprint, you may want to join sites that are of interest to your profession. For instance, GoodReads comes up when you google my name--and that's good because I'm a librarian.

I think the best way to ensure that our students leave a good digital footprint is to share the experiences of those who didn't and the consequences that came about. Additionally, within our school systems, there should be a plan for implementing digital citizenship lessons via home room teachers, a librarian, a language arts class, or a technology class or something. We should never assume someone else has already addressed it.

Curating Resources

Susie spent hours collecting and curating resources for her upcoming unit on cells. She is able to successfully use much of what she has found when implementing her plans.


The following year, when it is time to begin the unit on cells again, Susie forgets about the resources she curated. She essentially starts from scratch, performing the task of searching, saving, and sorting once again.


Create a plan or provide suggestions for ways to make your curated resources a regular part of your planning.


When reading the above scenario, my first thought was "Shame on Susie for not keeping her lesson plans" which I assume would have had her curated resources. My second thought was Susie was perhaps a first year teacher and therefore forgot, or didn't know, to save her plans. My third thought was that, like many teachers, Susie got shifted from one grade level or subject to a different one, but it appears she is still teaching the unit on cells again, so scratch that third thought!

But, alas, the problem remains that Susie has probably learned her lesson and is likely quite frustrated each time she sits down to plan. Therefore, she needs a long-term plan that considers what to curate and where to curate it.

First: If she doesn't already have one she needs to invest in a large capacity flash drive and save all her plans on it. BETTER STILL--she needs to learn about Cloud storage and utilize something like iCloud or SkyDrive. By utilizing Cloud storage, she won't have to worry about disappearing or laundered flash drives!

Second: She needs to think about how she wants to curate resources. Does she want a central spot for ALL her resources? Does she want to curate resources in each lesson plan? Does she want to curate sources for each unit? These are all things to consider as each person has unique preferences. 

There are numerous ways to store resources whether it be on hardware like a flash drive or external drive or online in any numerous ways of Cloud storage. After familiarizing herself with her options she should pick one and stick with it. Nothing is more frustrating than having too many different storage spots and forgetting what is stored where!

 Although there are many great options, my recommendation would be to store websites and links on Symbaloo or delicious.com by bookmarking them and to store other resources like worksheets, notes, screenshots, etc. on OneNote--my personal favorite so far.

Regardless of her personal preferences, there are too many great options available to have an excuse for not curating the sources she worked so diligently to obtain in the first place!

Applying Business Principles to Education

Daniel Pink's motivational speech brought to light two important factors that could be beneficial in the classroom:

• Extrinsic motivators crush creativity.

• Intrinsic motivation is achieved through autonomy.

The first thing that struck me was the "candle task" and how people become fixed on function. When our creativity is stemmed and we are focused on a task we tend to think very narrow-mindedly because we are focused on achieving the outcome of the task. When our creativity is stifled, we fail to see the varied ways that a task can be achieved. Thus, many people in the study only saw the box as a container for the thumbtacks. Its other uses never occurred to them.

The other studies he showed highlighted the idea that rewards crush our creativity as well as the quality of work in many instances. External rewards narrow our focus to being first, or best, or quickest, or biggest, etc. So instead of doing creative, quality work that could result in multiple ways of approaching problems, we lose focus entirely.

However, I did note that Pink mentioned that management is good for compliance (which can be necessary in the classroom) and rewards are good for sharpening basic mechanical skills. So perhaps we as teachers need to consider how and when  and for what tasks we should/should not use rewards.

Pink went on to highlight the importance of autonomy. Given choice in time, task, team, and technique, people are more likely to be and remain engaged. Because of this and the need for students to become real-world problem solvers it is important not to stifle creativity.

During my student teaching, after a unit study of Julius Caesar I assigned my students a final comprehensive project. They formed their own groups (or worked alone--their choice) and had to choose three different themes from the play and demonstrate their learning. They could use any means of expression from poetry, skits, songs, posters, slide shows and mock newspapers to digital storytelling, scrapbooks, and comic strips.

Students did self and group-evaluations during the process of finalizing their projects and also evaluated other groups' projects. During the last week, they presented their summation of the three themes their group chose.

In turn, I asked for individual evaluations of the project I had assigned--what they did/did not like, etc. For the most part there were three or four main answers:

• I loved that we got to choose what we wanted to do and how to do it.
• I would have rather taken a test.
• We needed more time in class.
• It was confusing at first and it would have been better if you had showed us examples first.

While they did take tests after each Act/Scene in the play, by far, what they did/did not learn about the major themes in the play clearly showed in their final projects.

In my role as a media specialist I'm not sure how to incorporate more autonomy than my students already have. They choose whichever books appeal to them for individual reading. However, as I lead some professional development next year I think with each tool I introduce (such as Symbaloo for example) I will include something like "10 Ways to Use Symbaloo in the Classroom." I think by doing so my teachers will be more apt to use the tools than if I only showed them how I plan to use it in my room.

TIM Matrix

This is a difficult area for me to do a self-assessment as I am not currently in the classroom, since I am serving as the media specialist. Ideally, I would like to see my position include the aspect of being a tech-trainer/PD resource person for my building.

Having said that, I will rate myself based on my introduction of the library's Destiny Quest circulation system and its user features that allow students to place holds, request friends, recommend books, request titles for purchase, rate and review books, and read summaries when deciding on a book to read.

      In the active area, I would rate myself in the adaptation column and even bordering on the infusion column. There are eight computers in the library that are primarily used to take Accelerated Reader tests. Additionally, I have set up a computer dedicated to the use of Destiny Quest. Since they have had instruction on how to access and utilize all the features of Destiny Quest, students are independently using the tools. Destiny is the only tool whereby they can access the library's collection, however, once they access it, they have a choice of which features and tools they want to use such as searching, placing holds, recommending books for purchase, etc. These features are the reason I would rate closer to the infusion column. Students can choose what they want to do, but the tool to do so is limited.
     In the collaborative area I would rate myself as being at the adoption level. Again, because I'm not in a teaching position this self-rating is limited to what I have use of in the library. Students are able to collaborate in the form of making book recommendations to friends through the social media feature of Destiny called MyQuest. I could easily move up the scale with this feature by allowing unmoderated comments. However, not wishing to have to monitor the countless, irrelevant conversations (such as "How come you don't talk to me?") I have disabled the feature that allows students to make comments online to each other. This was an area I discussed with the principal since there is the potential for bullying if I don't pre-approve all comments and having to approve every comment could be a time-consuming non-productive part of my day!
      In the constructive area I'd rate myself as in the adoption phase as well. I've done a few mini-lessons on using reliable, accurate useful websites for research. However, students are directed to use the Destiny resources for online website searches. This too could border on adaptation since they really do have choice on which sites to use. However, they are limited to the desktop computers so there is not a lot of choice as to the tools they use for research.
     In the authentic area I'd have to rate myself as entry level since most of what they do in the library is strictly for educational purposes and research related or, more commonly, for personal reading pleasure.
     In the goal-directed area I'll make a stretch and say that I am almost to the adoption phase since students are able to monitor what they've read and what they'd like to read by creating bookshelves online using Destiny "MyShelf" features.

     Reasonably, by the end of this grading period I don't see myself progressing. The lab is booked for end-of-year assessment and I have to conduct an inventory as well. Next year will be different as I'll be in a classroom and all of our students will be getting laptops.
     In order to make the growth happen I'm planning to integrate some of the tools introduced in this course as well as many of the ones provided by the textbook that we've just adopted. I may use Symbaloo as a homepage for my classroom thus making it simpler for students to access different sites I may use in the classroom.

Reflection week two

How could you adapt or change one of your current class/course policies to reflect a moving mindset? Is this a change you are willing to make? Why or Why not?

I'm not currently in the classroom and I am stumped with this week's post. I do not understand the concept of "moving mindset." If it was in this week's materials then I missed it somehow.

I am looking to incorporate many new things into my class next year when I make the shift from being the librarian to being a language arts teacher. Unlike this week's article, I will not be doing away with homework. However, I will be making a point to only assign useful, relevant homework, and only when necessary.

Rubric Analysis

Overall I feel that I fell in the exceptional or effective part of the rubric for most areas except for the collaboration piece. I did not ask open ended or thought-provoking questions, nor any questions at all for that matter.

Specifically the qualities that fell into exceptional or effective were that in my post, I gave the example of the AASL standards which have been my personal experience, and in my feedback to a classmate with a different set of standards I cited specific ISTE standards that I felt were relevant to her current position.

I need to work on asking questions to further discussion.