Calling Our Teachers! Let's Get Our Learning On Too!

I love weeks like this last one.  Those weeks and days that are full of a-ha's, surprises, and moments where you just can't stop smiling.  

Last week I give credit to the amazing teachers I work with at Van Meter for these moments. 

Over the last week the 4th and 5th grade teachers have been coming to the library and inviting me into their classrooms to collaborate, co-teach, and hold little mini workshops for our students.  

With the 1:1 iPad initiative rolling out last week with our 4th and 5th graders, the teachers are excited for their students (and themselves) to learn the in's and out's of iPads...things like how to add widgets to the home screen (like the Symbaloo one for instance); accessing our eBooks in MackinVIA and audiobooks in Tales2Go; how to use a couple apps like ThingLink and Skitch; creating citations using EasyBib online and app; blogging with the KidBlog app; responding to daily groups within the Edmodo app; and much more.  

On Thursday during library, I went to their classroom to teach the 4th graders all about Tales2Go and how to use it on the iPads.  

Their teacher was in the room for the entire time and she was excited about what they were learning. She had lots of new questions about MackinVIA and the eBooks.....and we made sure the poster for Tale2Go was up in their classroom.  

When I left their room I ran into one of the other 4th grade teachers and she had questions about Edmodo and using it in the morning for an opening writing activity each day.  We talked about what this would look like using the Edmodo app and managing it with the app on her phone.  

I am not only excited about all of the learning that our students are doing already....I just LOVE all the learning our teachers are doing in the first week of school.

On the way back to the library I stopped by my principals, Jen Sigrist, office to tell her how excited I was. I asked if I could have a little time during our after school staff meeting to talk about a few of these things with all of our elementary staff.  I told her about all of the collaboration and learning that has been taking place during the day and after school...She was just as excited as I was!

Jen said, "You know what....Why don't you put together a schedule of workshops we can offer after school for our teachers?  You can talk with the teachers about it in the meeting after school." 

YES! That was it!  I went back to the library and quickly put together a schedule of workshops using Smore that I would share in the meeting and with all of the teachers within our K-12 district.  You can also view the Smore here....Let's Get Our Learning On!
                
On Thursday and Friday I had so many teachers tell me how excited they were that we were going to have these workshops.  We will have elementary and secondary teachers come which will be fun.

I have also reached out to the companies that we will be learning about....Mackin Educational Resources, Tales2Go, Symbaloo, and more.....And they will be joining us through Google Hangout to teach us too.

I love being a teacher....not just to teach our young people but also to learn and connect with my colleagues and friends to make a difference in our school community and throughout education.

It is going to be so much fun to come together and "Get Our Learning On" this year!  I can't wait to see where this will take us.