Here we go.....

Greetings.  This is the first of many posts I will make on my venture into the wide and ever changing world of technology.   Don't get me wrong, I am not completely technologically illiterate.  I can navigate Facebook and Pinterest with the best of them, and I've got an assortment of apps on my phone that I find very useful.  I do know the basics of current technology, but for the most part I rarely use it for more than recreational and social purposes.  Though I am not particularly old (36), I have been called  "old school" when it comes to my use of technology.  I prefer to talk face to face and read books with real pages.  Given the option I might still choose to supplement class notes with an overhead projector and a felt tip marker.   Yet, here I am taking a course completely online, making my first twitter account, and blogging about it all.  Why?  Because this is 2016.  I am very aware of the fact that in today's world I MUST stay up to date and continue learn how to navigate world of technology to stay connected and relevant to my students and colleagues.  This is especially important if I am going to have any chance of  keeping track (even a little) of what my own children are up to (or will be in the more-near-than-I-care-to-admit future).   

I am a biology teacher by trade.  I graduated from Taylor University in 2002 and taught in IPS at Tech high school for 5 years.  I loved it!  I loved teaching, I loved science, and I loved the kids.  However I made the decision to stay home after my first child was born.  I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do this, but I also really missed the classroom. 
So, while my children were my first priority during this time, I was intentional about staying  involved in education.  In addition to taking a few classes and keeping my license active I have directed an SES tutoring program, volunteered in many classrooms, substitute taught, and currently I serve on the board of a local charter school and am participating in effort to create a community Innovation Network School in partnership with IPS school 15.   Now, 9 years and 3 kids later, my youngest is approaching kindergarten and I am eager to return to the classroom.  I know that the educational world I will be re-entering is in many ways very different from the one I left a decade ago, but I also know I still love teaching, I still love science, and I still love the kids.  To be honest I am actually excited to venture into some uncharted territory for me.  I know there is a wealth of knowledge and networking out there and I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. 

For this class I will be reading Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez.  I am very interested in learning how I can use technology in the classroom and at home to encourage creativity and critical thinking.   Critical thinking and inquiry have always been the foundation of my educational philosophy and I am always looking for ways to encourage that in my students.  I will also be reading Why School  by Will Richardson.  I was intrigued by this book's questions and feel that it will be of particular interest to my work in helping develop a community school on the Near Eastside.  I feel that we should constantly re-evaluate our approach to education and that is exactly what this books seems to attempt to do.  I am very interested to see what the author proposes. 

So, here we go.  I am ready for an adventurous summer and I am excited to see what I will learn and do.  Maybe I can even take my "old school" ideas and reinvent them for today's new school.  I am open to a world of possibilities.