Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

Today is the last day of my EDLD 5303 class, so at some point over the next week, my e-Portfolio will be reviewed and graded. So for the next week or so, I really shouldn't make any updates. Except now I really want to make updates. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been part of a team building and collaborating on a internal website for my district, one that has tutorials and resources for teachers during our time of at-home learning. Even though I have experience with web design, I haven't really done it in a team setting. I learned a lot about design and one of the cool things I learned about is flat icons. According to Iconion , Flat icons are part of flat design, "which is a minimalistic design approach that put emphasis on usability. This kind of interface focuses on open space, bright colors and flat graphics or illustrations."  Flat icons are "clean and have crisp edges again with a flat two- dimensional graphic layout". I had heard the t...

One of the readings for my EDLD 5303 class is a site about Reflection for Learning .  I have found it to be a very useful site, one that I could refer to a lot when sharing ideas about e-portfolios. For example, the site has suggestions and examples of reflection with students, including sentence stems and bridging questions  to get students thinking, which I think is really useful. The author of Reflection of Learning references a book called "The Portfolio as a Learning Strategy" (Porter and Cleland, 1995), and includes this quote - "... in the power of reflection that helped us move beyond seeing about portfolio as a mere alternative to traditional assessment to appreciating its value as a learning strategy.  In this capacity, portfolios become vehicles for reflection in which learners examine where they have been, where they are now, how they got there, and where they need to go next." (p.34) This really got me thinking - is a portfolio a product? A strategy...

Regular professional development does not always reach everyone. Sometimes it covers material the learner already knows; other times it goes to fast and is too advanced; and may not even be applicable in the learner's classroom. When this happens to you, how can you learn and grow as an educator on your own? Reading:  There are several books that can help teachers learn new engagement or management strategies.  Here is my Amazon book list .  Some of the books, like Shift This , have weekly chats on Twitter (sign up for the #ShiftThis Remind to get notifications about the chat) Podcasts:  There are lots of educational podcasts that are available, based on what you want to learn.  I suggest checking out Google Teacher Tribe , Sustainable Teaching , The 10 Minute Teacher , and Kids Deserve It .  Conference Handouts:  After conferences, a lot of presenters will share their work, either on their personal website or on the conference website. ...

My youngest daughter is addicted to YouTube videos.  Usually she watches Minecraft videos or silly cat videos.  But last night she wanted to show me something she found. We sat down and she told me to search "ted ed riddles". I know about Ted Talks,  but this was something new to me.  She shared three of them with me. These are awesome! We paused them so I could attempt to solve them before we watched the solution.   I can see using them as warm-ups in my math classes or as an activity in my intervention class.  There are even more videos by Ted-Ed  that you can create lessons with.  This just shows you can learn something from somewhere you least expect it!