Social Presence and Personal Growth Week One

blog – http://teacherperry.blogspot.com/
RSS Reader – igoogle
Twitter – jamielperry19
Diigo - jamlperr
Skype - jamlperr


At this point I believe I have a personal presence, but not much of a professional presence. I keep my facebook extremely private and my 7th graders constantly tell them they can’t find me even though they know I’m on facebook. I do not use twitter very much at all. I have a blog that very few people are subscribed to. I haven’t felt much of an interest in publicising it. It’s a place where I write infrequent, often cryptic posts in a stream of consciousness fashion. I would not like to have only one presence online and look forward to creating my professional presence. I need a personal presence just like I need a personal life. I need breaks from my “professional” self to keep sane, online and otherwise. My personal presence would mostly be to keep in contact with family and friends, where I feel more comfortable discussing my family, vacations, travels and hobbies without the eyes of middle school students watching.


My expertise I have to share with the world . . . This is difficult for me to answer. I feel like there is always so much more to learn and considering myself an “expert” seems odd.
I am an expert at talking to children. I am an expert is engaging children in a lesson. I am an expert in retreating from my daily world. I am an expert in solitude. I am an expert in creatively teaching theatre. I am an expert in visualization and being in the moment. I am an expert nap taker.



I would like to connect with experts in mindfulness, linguistics, topics of world history, marathon training, depression, urban education, teaching theatre, surrealist authors, stream of consciousness, philosophy of education,

Week One:

1. Reflect on your teaching and educational technology learning experiences that preceded this program (undergrad, graduate, in-service, professional development, workshops, etc).
2. Reflect on this first week of classes and how it has changed any learning trajectories established in #1.
3. Create a personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the 2010 summer courses.
4. Lay the foundation for a personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the MAET program (years 2 & 3) and the next five years of your career.

1. I didn’t learn much technology during my undergrad or graduate courses. As a theatre major, most of my learning was action and performance or writing and directing. My professors did not incorporate much technology into their teaching. My graduate degree in education focused on high needs schools in urban environments, where we were concerned about how to teach without books or enough chairs in a classroom concentrating on the framework of poverty. I never expected technology in the classroom. It was not discussed. I gained a better understanding of incorporating technologies in the classroom through Lauren Cortesi (year 3), who lead several professional development workshops.

2. I feel like my head is spinning from trying to digest all of the information we have been presented with. I don’t want to miss anything. I don’t want to miss a link or an idea or a helpful post or a trick. I started this program saying, “I don’t like technology. I am insecure using it. I am better suited to teach students by drawing with a stick in the mud. Is that re-purposing-- using a stick-- was it “created” to spread trees leaves in order absorb as much sunlight as possible and I am now using it to draw in the mud, to teach my students? By this tangent I am demonstrating my learning trajectory. I am thinking about technology differently. Technoolgy is everywhere. It’s not just the internet and blogs. I am also realizing no one knows everything. I can be a better teacher if I become more skillful. I knew this masters would take me out of my comfort zone and I am. I want to go home and throw the computer some evenings, but then I sit there at night catching myself thinking about how I could use blogs or google docs in class. I wasn’t doing that last week ...

3. I want to investigate creativity because I love it, but is that “out of my comfort zone”? I’m not sure. I want to be the person fellow colleagues go to learn about technology. I want to be confident. I want to build a set of tools that I can bring back home. I want to be creative!!!!! I want to find a way to make this kinestetic. I need to move while learning. So, sitting here typing or tweeting is hard for me. How can my students move while using technology and not just moving to move desks and get into groups?

Year One Quick Plan: Year 1 LEARN A LOT, plan on how to use what I know with my students, plan on how to set an example for my colleagues, don’t be intimidated by what I don’t know. Ask for help. Network. Unplug when I need it. Research. Listen. Capture. Process.

4.
Year 2 LEARN MORE and continue to learn from my colleagues and concentrate on using technology as a tool for deeper, more meaningful learning, not just for technology’s sake. Connect. Collaborate. Ask. Observe. Try. Investigate. Discover. Pause. Relax. Refuel. Start again.
Year 3 Learn things that don’t even exist yet.
Plan for future learning because what we learn now will be obsolete fast as ....

AND INTO THE FUTURE ..... Never be afraid to try things with my students. If you aren’t prepared to fail you cannot be original. Think of Thomas Edison’s quote, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Keep in mind the spaghetti analogy from Leigh, you know a technology is ready when “it STICKS.” So, I need to keep throwing technological spaghetti, be CREATIVE, KEEP ENCOURAGING THE CREATIVITY OF MY STUDENTS, see what sticks . . and if I throw the spaghetti and I totally miss the wall, it’s OK. Try, try, try again.