Teaching Philosophy

Why do I want to be a teacher?

That is a very good question. I first realized I wanted to be a teacher in High School because of the difference my teachers have made in my life. I want the chance to do this for other people. I want to make a difference in the world. I want my class room to be a safe place for students who feel like they don't fit in, or don't have a good home life. I also want my classroom to be a hub of discover, a place where learning is fun. I want to help create good citizens and prepare students that can think critically. I also love seeing the excitement in students eyes when they worked really hard and finally figured out the answer to a problem.

This poem by Taylor Mali sums up me feelings about teaching.



What is my teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is that a teacher needs to be passionate about learning and teaching. If teachers lose the love of learning and stop being a life-long learning they also lose the ability to successfully teach students. I feel like if I am passionate my students will see that and feel the same way.

What are my plans for teaching?

My major is elementary education with a endorsement in mid-level math and a minor in school library. My plans were to be a school librarian but I also love being in a classroom. I am keeping my options open and trying to learn as much as I can to help me in these three areas.

Three Teaching Blogs

The first blog that I would recommend is http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/. This blog has a bunch of teaching ideas, rants, and technology hints.

The second is, http://www.sciencefix.com/. Science is not my best subject and this blog offers so many hands on activities for teaching science.

The last is, http://fifthgradeteacher-ld.blogspot.com/. This blog is tips, and ideas from a 5th grade teacher who has been in the business awhile.

In Conclusion

Since I started this blog I have explored many web technologies. It is important, both as a teacher and a librarian, for me to stay up to date on these technologies. I want to be one of those teachers that can utilize internet tools instead of one of those teachers that can't even turn on a computer.  I have really learned a lot from the tools that I have used. I also have come up with some good ideas about how to integrate these technologies. For example, I want have my students make tag clouds (you can make these at wordle) for their favorite books and hang them In my library. I also want to use skype to have my class talk to authors that are in other states. There are so many resources on the internet and it doesn't take that much time to become familiar enough with them to use them in a class room. I highly recommend that you too take the time to experiment with some of the resources that I have listed in this blog so you can too become Web 2.0 literate.

Podcast

I listened to a podcast by The Nerdy Librarians. The Nerdy Librarians is a husband and wife team that have created this series. I was listening to episode 5 and it was about social media. Despite being recorded in August 2012 the episode had a lot of good ideas on implementing social media in the library. They especially condoned the use of twitter. Despite my earlier ranting on my dislike of twitter I recently discovered a new use for it. One of my coworkers follows news agencies like New York Times and Salt Lake Tribune on twitter. When she wakes up in the morning the first thing she does is flip through twitter and she becomes informed on the currents events. I think that this is a pretty good idea.

Here is a word cloud for Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I love these books!

Online Digital Library

Brewster Kahle believes that, "We really need to put the best we have to offer within reach of our children.if we don't do that, we're going to get the generation we deserve." He believes that this can be achieved through the, "Universal access of all knowledge." To achieve this he is leading the movement to put all published works into on online library that is available to everybody. According to him putting all the works in the library of congress online would only cost about as much as a house. He also had this amazing idea of book mobiles where you can go choose one of the online books and print it. This cost about $3 per book or 1 cent a page. The main problem with this is copyright. This is where amazon comes in. If the library has all the out of print and out of copy right books then amazon has the books still in copyright at least all the books are still online.

Twitter

As many of you know twitter is a social networking site where you can instantly update your family and friends on your life in 140 characters or less. Personally despite the fact that I do have a twitter I have never been able to jump on the bandwagon for my twitter. I dont understand why you would want to be constantly updating the world on your every movement. Those who agree with me might find this comic funny.

However I can appreciate the potential twitter has for getting information to a lot of people instantly. For example If you are having an activity at your library and want to get the word out to your students a simple tweet in the twittersphere could have more of an impact then having signs in your library for a month. 

Library Blogs

Personal development is essential to becoming a successful librarian or teacher. There are many blogs and sources online to aid in the search for knowledge. A blog that I find very useful for school librarians is http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/. This blog is dedicated to book reviews. What I find very helpful is that they specify what level (ie. Pre-K, K-3,...) the book is for. Then they rate if the book as essential, advisable, optional, not recommended, or public only for the level. Another blog I find helpful is http://futura.edublogs.org/. It contains web 2.0 teaching strategies and lists of helpful technology for the library. These are just a few examples of the breadth of information out there for personal development.

Technorati

Tachnorati is a blog search website. It catalogs and organizes millions of blogs. You can search through the blog directory that is organized into different subject categories or you can search blogs and posts for key words. Unfortunately the blog directory didn't have subject categories for education or books. But you can search the blogs and post for those words. It also has a top 100 list. I would definitely keep this website in my belt as a resource.

Diigo

Diigo is an online bookmarking social network. If you are like me your first thoughts were, "What is an online bookmarking social network?" and "Why would I need that?" I was rather sceptical at first then I watched a video explaining what Diigo is. Diigo is an extension that you add to your web browser. It allows to to bookmark pages and then highlight and make notes right on a webpage. It then saves your notes so that next time you access the page the notes are still there. Now we are at the social networking part, besides the ability to save those notes you can also share the notes with other people that have Diigo. If you have a group of students working on a research project they can all start out doing initial research and taking notes. They can then share all those notes without having to write anything on paper or email or anything. I decided that I needed to play around with it a little. Diigo is an amazing way to collaborate. I used it to find pages that were tagged education. I found tons of websites that are resources for educators. I am definitely sold on using Diigo. Besides making it easier for my students to share their research I think that it also could be used to share reviews on popular books. Here is the website if you are interested in checking it out www.diigo.com.

Logan Area Search Engine

This is a search engine that connects the different libraries in the Logan Utah area.

Keep Calm and Read

Skype :)

I would like to say that skype is an online program that I absolutely love! It is a free program that allows you to video chat with people that are around the world. When my dad spent time in India that is how we were able to communicate with him. The only trouble was the almost 12 hour time difference.
Skype is especially incredible for teachers and librarians. You could hire an author that lives in New York to speak to students in Utah and the students would be able to ask questions about how the author came up with their ideas, or what the writing process is like. Skype is a wonderful program.

Wedding

to be loved, a photo by bababananapudding on Flickr.

I recently got married. This is a photo from our wedding. I added the quote. It explains so well how I feel about my husband :)

Library warning poster

Library warning poster, a photo by Phil Bradley on Flickr.

I love this picture. Libraries are a wonderful place to go if you want to broaden your horizons. If you want learn something new!

7½ Habits of Highly Effective Lifelong Learners

           I recently read 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Lifelong Learners by Lori Reed. The article is all about how to become "highly effective lifelong learners". I would like to point out it is not just lifelong learners but "highly effective lifelong learners". This makes me ask myself the question "Why would I want to be a highly effective lifelong learner?"
           I think the answer to this question is simple, If we were not constantly learning where would we be? I think that unless we are learning we halt in a mediocre path, repeating the same day over again. Going nowhere! We also fail to keep up with the people around us. Say you are a computer programer who went into the game in the 1980's. The skills you learned in the 80's have no (not much) relationship to the skills that you need to know now, 30 years later. This story is a real story. My dad started working in the 80's but he has been a lifelong learner, and that is the only reason he has been successful.
           We need to remember that lifelong learning habits are important to us in our lives. If you take the time to read 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Lifelong Learners think about the habits you are successful on and the ones that you are not. For me the habit I am most successful at is also what gets me into trouble. Im really good at Habit 7 1/2, Play! Unfortunately for me if something doesn't, or ceases to be fun, by becoming hard. I am likely to do the opposite of what Habit 3 (view problems as challenges) and give up.
           I encourage you today to take problems as challenges and not give up. Whether this is learning to knitting a scarf or completing a college degree, this habit will make you more successful as a lifelong learner.

Thats it for today,
Thanks for reading!