Hello internet audience!
Fourth Summer institute has officially ended for Golden Apple and yes, I am sad. However, I am also so rejuvenated for this upcoming school year! Belonging to such a fascinating organization has allowed me to open my mind to so many new and exciting ideas! I know that I am still young and will have energy for the next ten years, however, working in cohorts with Golden Apple gives me the spirit to continue that energy!
Working with these aspiring teachers reminds me of the idealism I had just two years ago! It is definitely something I needed to revisit after my first year of teaching.
Not only was I able to communicate with future colleagues, but I was able to attend more professional development courses to help my bag of teaching tricks grow.
Now as I am officially on Summer Break, I am thinking of different activities that I would like my students to experience.
One idea I learned from my time with Golden Apple was a website called Todaysmeet.
With this site, students can use their mobile devices or computers to help communicate with each other giving a chance for authentic discussion to travel throughout the room. Students understand this instantaneous way of communicating because it relates closest to Twitter and Instagram. Students are immediately drawn into communicating with their peers and have to be conscious of what they say because it goes public in the classroom after hitting enter.
The great thing about todaysmeet.com is that you as the facilitator can set the discussion to last as long as you need to for the class. Whether it is 10 minutes or the entire day, students will not be able to access what they had said after you have shut down their personal discussion. This makes it important for students to really think about the discussion they want to have while they have the time to do it.
Last year, I conducted a socratic seminar with the text, Robin Hood. My students were in the traditional two circles where the inside circle had to verbally answer questions that they had prepared for while the outside circle wrote their reactions to the discussion via paper and pen. HELLO!? This is the 21st century right? I know, rookie mistake, but I had to work with what I was given.
This year I am at a new school and I am so excited to have one-to-one access with MacBooks! I cannot wait to try the same assessment activity with Todays meet!
Now that my rant is completely finished about that website, I am going to try to update my blog every Monday. I feel this is when I am most refreshed and ready for the week. I look forward to sharing my second year with my new internet family! Thank you for reading!
-HK
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