A Few Things I Love About Teaching

This post corresponds to day # 4 of the +TeachThought 30-day blogging challenge, focused on reflective teaching through blogging.  Interested in joining the challenge?  It's not too late! 


Some people always knew they wanted to be a teacher...but that really wasn't me...

image:  http://thenounproject.com/term/school/10119/

You see, my mom was a teacher and is now a school counselor, and my dad is in IT, and I distinctly remember telling them both at some point in my childhood, "I never want to do what you do for a living".  I was convinced I wanted to find my own way and explore my own options.

After majoring in global studies and Spanish, I worked in the business world for a few years.  But, it just wasn't very fulfilling for me...so, I began volunteering with kids in my spare time, and before long, I realized that I was happiest when I was with the kids.  So, I decided to go back to school to get my teaching license and got a job as a paraprofessional in a school.  Once I completed my teaching license, I got a job as an ELL teacher.  This is now my sixth year of teaching, and my second year as a technology integration specialist at a STEM elementary school, and I love what I do!

Looking back, it's pretty funny to think that I told my parents that I never wanted to be a teacher or work in IT, since now I do a job that integrates both fields...I guess the joke's on me!

image: http://thenounproject.com/term/heart/219/

So, what do I love the most about teaching?

Three things...

• I love the energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, and passion that form an inextricable part of teaching and learning.  They're contagious, and they pass back and forth between teachers and students as new learning occurs and interests are ignited.  
• I'm a lifelong learner myself, and I love to be surrounded by and a part of continuous learning.
• Most of all, I love to step back and see what kids can create when given the chance. I'm constantly amazed, inspired, and energized by all of the awesome things kids can do.  
• For example, today a student of mine showed me that he created an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge animation on Scratch. It was awesome.

What do you love the most about teaching?

#mnedchat live via Twitter and HOA

Last night, we tried something new as a part of our normal, Twitter-based #mnedchat.  We wanted to draw on the idea that everyone is an expert and has expertise to share, and at the same time, add a new dimension to our chat.  So, we decided to host a Hangout on Air with a panel of local educators who were interested in / passionate about this week's topic: creative learning spaces.  The Twitter side of #mnedchat continued to serve as a space for conversation, sharing, and questioning, and in addition, also had the added layer of acting as a backchannel for the HOA.

A group of us worked together to come up with the chat's questions, put together a doc for inspiring resources on creative learning spaces, and collaborated on a vision for how the HOA and Twitter conversations would come together to make sure as many #mnedchat participants' voices as possible could be heard.

It was such an energizing event to be a part of!  Here are a few of my reflections after the fact...

• It was so fun to see, hear, and be a part of the interaction between the Twitter chat and the HOA. Shout outs/mentions, retweets, questions, answers, and conversations happened across both mediums, and made for an in-depth discussion of ideas around creative learning spaces.   
• I was glad the HOA panel was comprised of local educators who were passionate about the topic. I think it would have changed the tone if we would have featured a world-renowned expert instead.  I liked that it felt casual and that the panelists were regular #mnedchat participants with ideas to share.  I hope that this feeling 
• Next time, I would like to strike more of a balance between the HOA and the Twitter chat.  I was moderator of the HOA this time, and so found myself focusing a lot on the discussion there.  Next time, I would like to be better about tweeting out the ideas that really resonated with me during the chat so that I could have a quick reference of those ideas later.
• Another aspect I would do differently next time would be to pay better attention to the Q&A feature through HOA.  After the chat ended, I realized that there were three questions in our Q&A that I never brought up during the hangout.  The Q&A is such a cool feature, and it was exciting that people were using it to ask questions!  Next time, I will have that feature up within my hangout screen so I can more closely monitor it.

I'd like to give shout out to the group of amazing people who helped plan and facilitate #mnedchat last night: +Nicholas Christensen,  +Caleb Lee , +Kimberly Hurd Horst , +Brian Boothe , +Shaelynn Farnsworth .  A huge thank you, also, to all who participated in #mnedchat last night - thanks for all of the great ideas and conversation!  I feel so fortunate to have such an awesome PLN.

If you missed the event, feel free to check it out whenever you'd like:

Check out a summary of Tweets from #mnedchat via +Kimberly Hurd Horst 

Also, please feel free to add to our collaborative resource list on creative learning spaces:

We also created a Padlet for people to post ideas on how to transform a 'traditional' classroom space into a creative and innovative learning environment.  Check it out (and add your own ideas) here:

http://padlet.com/wall/mnedchat12814

Thanks again for tuning in, everyone!