Who Owns the Learning? Ch. 5-6 #CyberPD

As I read Chapter 5 and 6, I felt more comfortable as an educator. There were not any views that were shaking me up and I was excited to reinforce so many ideas that I have been thinking about this summer.  On pg. 68 “..the world from one particular viewpoint.” Solidified my decision that I will be starting a class blog for Room 228 this year.  As I reflect on the chapters and the bigger picture of the book, I realize that I need to “break down the walls” to begin to help my students explore empathy. We have explored empathy through conversation mainly around our read aloud and other picture books, but I had not considered exploration through the Internet. In the introduction as Alan interviewed top executives, he found this trait to be one of the most important ones that they are looking for in hiring their employees. I believe it is never too early to begin to open the walls and explore different locations through skype, blog about our class activities, which allow for global comments and continue to grow professionally by continuing to grow through PLN including twitter and #5thchat.

Throughout the book, Alan suggests "that teachers have a hard time giving up control and not bringing all the answers to the table" p. 69.  I personally don’t feel that way about the integration of technology. My struggle is with integrating it so that it is part of the learning and not an add on like whip cream and cherries on a sundae.  I am shifting in my thinking primarily because of a conversation at our district’s tech house last week. Like I mentioned in earlier posts, I was focusing on being restricted by the number of digital tools in my class along with getting hung up on the best app.  After the conversations which went something like “don’t focus on the tool or the app, focus on the learning outcome and if it is Internet based any device will be able to access it.” Those words shifted my entire summer thinking on July 11 along with reading this book, I am positive that I will have more to write about this topic because I only have about a month to make some huge decisions. But one has already been made Room 228 will be blogging next year and breaking down the walls. Thanks to conversations with Mary Lee, Karen and Cathy.

Thanks to Laura for hosting this week on her blog: Ruminate and Invigorate along with Cathy (Reflect and Refine)  and Jill (My Primary Passion). Together the three of you really encouraged me to stretch my thinking and connecting with other colleagues is amazing. I am looking forward to the twitter chat #CyberPD.