Thoughts & Feelings Of A Mom/Wife/Student/Teacher

My many roles and how those translate into who I am

[wonderingwithwilde-blog]

Edcampokc

This morning I drive to EdCampOKC at DelCity High School all the way from El Reno, OK. I was so excited! I have heard so many great things about it from my professors at the University of Oklahoma. I arrive 15 minutes usually because as always if I am not early I feel like I’m late. I walk in and swear I am the second person to sign in right behind Andrea Melvin. I was excited and nervous all at the same time.

I sit with Andrea, who at the time I did not even know. We start to chat and boom the flood gates of networking open. The next thing I know Dr. Theresa Cullen is in the building along with Anne Beck and many colleagues of mine. I get star struck as I see Scott Haselwood arrive and I begin to vomit at the mouth about blogging and gamification. Revolutionary concepts for me and my career.

The first session I attended was breakoutedu. I had no idea what that was but Dr. Cullen suggested it. I walk in the class and meet Vanessa Perez and hear her explain this amazing tool for teaching in the class. I’m in shock when I realize the man sitting in my row is none other than @BlueCerealEdu himself! I’ve seen so many of these people in #oklaed chats!

The second session I attended was “What principals want in teachers”. Dr. Cullen created and led this session. I was so happy to hear what principals, senior teachers, administrators had to say. They all offered up many words of advice. I appreciated every word. I even made a google doc of their tips so I can refer to it when I interview.

I made some awesome connections at EdCampOKC. The only regrets I have are that I didn’t buy a shirt, it ended too soon and I didn't get everyone's twitter handle! I am so excited for my career in education and I truly cannot wait to soak up all the knowledge I can.

[wonderingwithwilde-blog]

Gamification

Today I attended a professional development workshop featuring Scott Haselwood. It was titled gamification. For a mom/student/wife this word was not in my vocabulary. Quite frankly I assumed this would be something about gaming which I’m not into. So I attend and learned some pretty cool things about gamification.

First I figured out that you don’t have to know anything about gaming to understand what gamification is and to implement it in your classroom.

Second I learned that basically it’s taking the platform and format of a game and applying it to different aspects of your class. Example being that each lesson is now a level. Every level has objectives not assignments. You don’t have tests you have battles or “big boss” fights as Haselwood calls it.

Third I learned that while this could take time to wrap my head around it directly coincides with basic teaching principles such as NOT teaching just to the middle. This gamification allows students to work at their own pace. Better yet they have the opportunity to truly master a key component before leveling up. This helps eliminate misconceptions.

This new concept brings up a lot of questions for me. What are some good ways to stay organized when you have every student at a different level? What are some rewards, badges, bonuses to implement? What are some tech tools I can use with this strategy of teaching?

This has given me inspiration. THIS is the type of classroom I want! I don’t want my students to sit quietly in rows and scribble on paper quietly while they go through the motions of their day to day monotony. I want them to take charge, challenge themselves, be thoroughly engaged, know it’s ok to fail because without failure we wouldn’t have learning. After this workshop I have been curious to find answers to my questions. I’ve done a preliminary search for apps by searching “gamification”. I will be looking for more tools on this brilliant concept.

[wonderingwithwilde-blog]

Being flexible as a mom

So it's Dr. Seuss week and my daughter has been doing fun activities all week. Most of them are fun and easy to do. Crazy socks, hat day, etc. Well this morning low and behold it was dress as your favorite Seuss character. We had zero idea or plan on what she was going to dress as but I knew she was going to want to dress up. So this morning she wakes up and decides to be Cat in the Hat himself. So being the awesome flexible mom I am... I grab my daughter's crayons, paper and her tiny purple scissors. I whip out my expertise and create the infamous cat tummy and big bow and I make a big striped hat. Some duct tape and paper shreds later I have her all ready to go. I think back on how much I have grown as a mom. I went out of my way at 6am to make her dreams come true. She didn't have to beg me or do anything, I just wanted to. I just hope she knows that I will always be her lady behind the scenes to make her dreams come true.