Where Do I Belong?

     
In thinking about which Thinkfinity groups to join in preparation for my Multimedia Project, I was really thinking about a deeper question. Where do I belong in terms of my educational research and beliefs?

I have worn many hats in my short 10 years in education. I have been a substitute teacher. I have worked with Kindergartners and 1st graders. I spent three years teaching all subject areas to 3rd graders. I have been a Language Arts teacher to middle school students for 5 years now. I am also certified to teach Social Studies. I have worked with all age groups in gifted summer programs. I have also been a teacher educator in my school district, teaching professional development courses on using technology in the classroom. I am passionate about things as old world as Shakespeare, but also about things as new world as TED-talks and blogging. Sometimes I have a hard time narrowing down all of the things I want to do, but I did begin to see a trend developing across all of these interests : creativity, literacy and technology.

I recently listened to an amazing TED talk related to keeping creativity in the classroom and how important that is to our development as human beings and a society. Check it out :

Building a Better Classroom 

I noticed that I was really focusing myself, in teaching and in research, on the idea of integrating multimedia technologies and Social Media technologies into the literacy classroom to stimulate creativity. How can these new worlds of reading and writing inform our instruction of the language arts? What benefits can language arts teachers reap from using Web 2.0 tools? Are there disadvantages to these new technologies in the way they impact literacy skills? Or is it just a new kind of literacy that students will develop? How can we help teachers to navigate a world they did not grow up in, well enough to instruct their students? I have implemented a few projects with my students focused on these very ideas and am interested in taking it a step further as I look towards my dissertation.Our students are already showing their creativity using technology!

Here's a sample video that my students created, their own music video version of Call Me Maybe:

Therefore, thinking about our class project was really thinking about a lot more for me. I decided that the best groups to join would be the Reading and Language Arts group and Erica Boling's group on Integrating Technology into the K-12 Classroom.

The Reading and Language Arts group seems to be a place that really allows teachers of literacy to share ideas, and also to pose problems. Teachers in this group feel comfortable asking for help from other professionals who deal with the same struggles of trying to encourage students to read and write every day. I know that I will benefit from a place where I can pose my questions and be confident that the answers provided come from experienced teachers with a strong understanding of teaching literacy skills in the modern era. This group deals largely with the original content of my discipline.

Join the group here : Reading and Language Arts

The Integrating Technology group deals strongly with the new content and strategies of my discipline. In this group teachers of all age groups and subjects discuss the positives and the pitfalls of bring new technologies into the classroom. It is a great resource because it brings me out of my little bubble. I work in a district where students are pretty comfortable with technology, learn new skills quickly, and have parents that encourage their educations. It is enlightening to read problems and comments posted by teachers who are trying to integrate technology into other school districts. I think it will really help me, as I look towards my dissertation, narrow down the issues that need solving and the possible areas where research could be beneficial to teachers. And, of course, it is a great resource for ideas to use in my classroom!

  I hope that being part of these two communities will help to further focus my attentions on the unique issues plaguing language arts teachers who want to prepare their students for new literacies, while being stuck in curricula and state testing scenarios from the last century.  In order to use technology to help us move forward, teachers need all the support from each other that they can get!