Catch-up

This last week has left my cup mentally overflowing with intake from all directions.

First, last Saturday at Edcampphilly left me inspired and energized with web-based tools that will surely add to my bag of teacher's tricks. Teacher lead collaboration on a varied range of topics proved that professionals can independently lead professional development.

One of the student favorites so far was Flocabulary's week in rap. I have a feeling Carl might be given a run for his money on Fridays.

As the school year winds down I try to savor every moment with my students. Those moments when it seems like they have been mentally kidnapped by aliens, I remember that soon they will gone and our days together will be in the past tense. As Coach G says, let the little things slide and peace in the room will be a little easier. With hormones bouncing and summer excitement building, this is essential advice for survival. This is the time year when I overdose students on hands-on labs, project based learning and discussions to keep them moving forward. I include extra, brief breaks to socialize between topics because why fight it if giving in helps the day go by that much easier?

Once ISTE has passed and my summer course is complete I can settle in by the pool and enjoy some reading I've been waiting to conquer. Edutopia has posted their summer guide and I look forward to catching up with my committed sardine blogs. Of course this raced my mind to next summer when I will be done with classes. Instantly, I am filled with learning possibilities and ways to use the summer to develop myself professionally. But, before I get ahead of myself Edutopia is there to remind me that there is plenty of new things to learn and do this summer.

Enter my graduate course driven excitement for student management systems! Data collection and analysis just says "fun!" from the get-go, but it is a topic that I find very interesting because all arrows point to the efficient use of a teacher's time to better student learning programs.
New acronyms in my vocabulary are SIS, CIA and SMS....and let's not forget Data Warehouses. I also see this as another area where proper professional development is essential for school leadership to execute if their expectations of use are to be realistic for the classroom teachers.