Welcome to my inaugural post. My name is Lara. I currently teach Kindergarten at a school that is transitioning to a STEM school of choice. I am a graduate of Washington State University, Go COUGS! I have been happily married for 3 years to my husband,Chris. My husband is an assistant coach for our local high school football team. We are both passionate sports fans (I am often referred to Hayden Panettiere's character in "Remember the Titans".) I am a huge Seattle Seahawks fan and support the Seattle Sounders. We recently bought our first home in August (right before school started, adventures!) I am learning a lot about what it takes to upkeep a house, thank you HGTV, for causing me to have crazy inspirations that only get half way done, lol.
My reasons for starting to blog are varied but mostly it's about continuing to build and expand my PLN/PLC (Professional Learning Network or Professional Learning Community). This last year our school focused on the Math and Technology portions of STEM. I was privileged last summer to attend the Google Apps for Education Edtech Summit in Palo Alto, CA. I have always loved using technology in the classroom (via Interactive Whiteboard, Youtube, and Classdojo), but this conference opened my eyes to all the potential there was with other technologies, especially via tablets. I learned a lot about how to use tablets to help enhance instruction, the ability to reach out and learn from teachers via social media, and different professional development implementation models. The conference and recent change to our school helped me to find and fuel my passion for technology. Upon my return I began working closely with our Technology leaders at our school to implement technology.
My journey with technology this last year has been one of a lot of ups and downs, but making lots of new professional friends and connections. I have great technological mentors at my school to help me learn and grow. I strongly believe this is such an important part for all innovators in any field. Creating this collaborative network is really quite easy. Creating accounts on social media networks such as Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest and/or Instagram, help you to be able to connect with educators throughout the world.
As I bring my memoir to a close, I want to give you all a heads up to some of the things you can look forward to reading about.
- Creating a PLN
- PLN's what are they and why are they important
- How I use technology in my classroom
- Fun things I do not technology related in my classroom/life
- What's new with technology at our school
Lara
