Strive to Be Tomorrow....Today

   As a teacher, I am always striving to do my best every year.  Each year brings on new challenges and adventures that we all are faced with in the teaching world.  I try to be the best teacher I can be for the learners I have and the best staff member I can be for the staff that I am working with.
   I have always taught by myself, until last year when I had a teaching partner.  When working alone, it's a whole different world.  I rely on PLN's and outside resources for ideas.  Blogs & twitters have been my saving grace at times and I have appreciated all that I have taken away from some great teachers in the states that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet or learn from.  It's a different perspective when you are the only one in your grade level and you don't have ideas to bounce off anyone.
   The staff you work with also reflects on your attitude and being the best person you can be.  I work with a small staff.  At times, it's great and other times it's not so great.  Right now, the attitude is not the best in the building, so being the best I can be is hard, but I have to put on that smile for my students and do the best for them.  Every year, I think it's going to be different and try to be positive with the staff but I will admit, there are times when it's hard and you just take one day at a time.
   Attitude is everything in teaching!  You have to want to be there for the kids and to make a difference.  I love teaching and look forward to every year being the best I can be and making different changes in my classroom and in my teaching to make the year better then the last!

Give and Take...and Some Give More

   I could say that I am a giver.  I like to give advice, share ideas and give my time to fellow educators in helping them solve problems or just helping them with ideas.  Never will I say that I want something back in return for something I have given, but it's nice to hear that you were the resource that helped them out.  The one thing that I don't think about when I "give and take" is to share it out to connected educators.
    Tweeting is not my thing and I'm trying to be better at it, but I do need to work on sharing out to those connected educators.  That's how I started the whole blogging thing a few years ago.  Someone tweeted about how this Kindergarten teacher did an activity and wanted to share it out for someone else to try.  One thing lead to another and I'm using a lot of her ideas and activities to this day in my classroom.  Do I think about sharing that out to others...No!  I need to be better about it and it's going to take time to get used to going that next step and "give" it to others.

Embracing the Three C's: Communication, Collaboration, and Community

  I have tried many different ways of communicating out to my classroom parents throughout the years.  I have done the blogging thing and I had also created a website.  Both demanded time and work but I was able to share with the families of what their child was up to at school.  As I was preparing for this new school year, I thought about what do parents have access to in their hands that would be easier for me to manage.  Facebook came to mind. Everybody has a Facebook account, right?  I took that leap and created a private page that about half of my parents belong too.  I'm finding it A LOT easier to maintain and keep up.  I almost wish all my parents were on there, but not everybody does Facebook.  Posting pictures, our newsletter and upcoming events seem to get the parents attention and again, it's right in the palms of their hands. So right now, I'm sticking with Facebook until and I find something better.

   This school year, my principal expressed interest in getting a Twitter account for our school building.  She doesn't use it much herself, so it's going to have to be something we need to get used too. We are just wondering if most of our families would follow us.  We are a low income school but as we talked, the majority of or parents have smart phones, so it may not be a concern.  We will give it a try and I'm going to check out the hashtag website.  I'm going to make it my goal that Bertha Barber goes live for the next school year and the world is going to know what the #bbbobcats are doing!

  I'm trying to get better with all this technology.  There's only so much a teacher can do! ;)

Learn What you want, When you want and How you want!

   I love learning new things that I can do to improve my students learning and to also improve my teaching!  There are so many things out there where you can get those resources and Twitter is one of those!
   Twitter was where I first discovered the "blogging" world.  It changed my teaching a few years ago.  I was blog stalking like crazy and was getting lots of great ideas/resources.  I would like to get back into Twitter and start following some more Kindergarten teachers and I'm going to find a new search tool, #hashtags!
   #hashtags are a new found thing that people are going crazy with! At first, I thought there were only certain things you could #hashtag, but I was WRONG! There is a #hashtag for just about anything and I'm anxious to search different #hashtags to see where it leads me and to what I can learn out there.  #prettyexcited
   Back when I first was introduced to Twitter, I started following #kinderchat and found I learned a lot from many Kindergarten teachers.  So I wanted to extend my learning by participating in a #kinderchat that was held on Monday evenings.  I participated in about 4-6 of them.  The topics were given ahead of time and we were able to comment about the topic or reply to others tweets.  It was interesting and I learned a lot about Kindergarten in other states.  I would like to see if the #kinderchat is still going on and jump back onto seeing what is going on.  I might just learn something that I was needing!
   Many times I hear about #educamps but I have never participated in one.  They sound interesting and I would like to see if one would come close to our neck of the woods, about attending and seeing what they are all about.
   I'm getting back to learning what I want, when I want and how I want too!  It's just going to take time getting back to what I was used to and finding the time to do it!

Jodi
  

Investing in a Learning Network

   A few years ago, I was introduced to Twitter and the whole social media world.  I was floored by what I could learn and find out just by following a few people, most of them being educators.  From Twitter, I got into following other Kindergarten teachers' blogs and I even participated in the Monday night #kinderchat.  It was amazing all the adventures I was being lead to and I was learning a lot!  I was investing in my learning network!  
   But then some personal changes came into play and I went away from "stalking" twitter and some of the people I follow.  Technology seemed to take a holt!  At first, I didn't miss it because I was experiencing a new adventure in my personal life but I was lacking that "investment" in my professional life.  I have been out of the loop and so much has changed and I feel like I'm riding a bicycle for the first time again. 
   Life has now settled down and I am wanting to get back into investing in my learning network so I can grow professionally and personally.  The book, What Connected Educators Do Differently, just opened my eyes to why investing my time in a learning network is so important and I am going to get back on this network adventure and see where it leads me. I can't wait to read what @ToddWhitaker, @Jeff_Zoul and @casa_jimmy have in store for us.  Here goes nothing and watch out,  I might start following you.  :)

Jodi

Welcome to my Blog

Well, I'm getting back on the blog band wagon.  I'm going to warn all of you right now that I don't know how much I'll be posting on here.  With all the different media outlets out their, one has to pick and choose which one works the best for them.  Here goes nothing...