The List
- OUT: The teacher-centered model of instruction, also known as IRE. "I" stands for teacher initiation, "R" stands for response, and "E" stands for evaluation. This reminds me of the promoted model when I first started teaching, the 5E's. Don't ask me what the 5 E's are...I never had much of a clue. Anyway, IRE includes all the boring stuff that we had to endure when we were kids, such as lectures. Boooooo.
- IN: Students take charge of their own learning. The teacher's role becomes more of a facilitator. When done correctly, students will be the ones doing most of the initiation, and asking questions of each other. Some ways to encourage this in the classroom are through student-led conferences, project-based learning, backchannelling, and flipped/blended learning. Woot woot! Que bien!
- OUT: Traditional professional development. Let me be crystal clear...it is our job as educators to be life-long learners; however, we don't like lectures any more than our students.
- IN: Hacked PD. We live in the Information Age. With access to the Internet, people can educate themselves on nearly ANYTHING, for little or no money. There are tons of tutorials on YouTube and many other sites, on all topics under the sun. Many MOOCs will give you free access to university classes. In addition, #edcamps are a great way to "vote with your feet," for the topics that you find important. And, speaking of voting...
- OUT: Teaching in isolation. Let me paraphrase an idea from George Courous's keynote at #edcampnj: the room is smarter than the individual. Think about it...collectively, we have so much more knowledge than each individual. It's a given, since the individual is part of the room...yeah, it took me far too long to pull out that bit of logic lol. Long story short, you can only get so far teaching in isolation.
- IN: Collaborative teaching. Teamwork makes the dream work. A big step to teaching in collaboration is to establish a PLN (Personalized Learning Network). Sounds fancy, doesn't it? Lol. Basically, a PLN is a group of like-minded people with whom you grow, personally and/or professionally. Keep in touch with interesting people that you meet at conferences. Participate in some edchats on Twitter. Don't waste any opportunities...the people that you meet are great resources. Trust me!
- OUT: Email. Oooooh...this one may be controversial lol. We can agree to disagree, but I rarely, if ever, go to my email anymore. Truth be told, I would miss most of my messages, if I didn't have them routed to my cell phone. AOL...Yahoo...sorry, old buddies. Instead, I'm using a lot more...
- IN: Social Networking. See Exhibits A and B. This is pretty much where I live:
- OUT: Killing trees. Gone are the days of dittos and other print-outs. Well, they're not totally gone, but if you go through a ream of paper per week, you, my friend, are not hip. The paperless classroom is where it's at!
- IN: 3D Printers/Augmented Reality. These concepts don't have very much in common, but I combined them to show the contrast between the old and the new-school ways of teaching (pun intended). I haven't tried 3D printers yet, but I heard that they are doing some amazing things. Augmented reality refers to using devices to access additional information that is not visible otherwise. I like to think of it as "Terminator technology." I want to get Google Glass in 2014...hopefully it will hit the market this year!
- OUT: ACLB aka "All Children Left Behind," aka "No Child Left Behind." Thank God. Now I know what you guys *think* I'm going to say, but I haven't made my mind up about Common Core. Instead:
- IN: Gamification. Extra, extra, read all about it!
- OUT: Microsoft Office. Oooh, more controversy lol. I'm sure Bill Gates won't be too happy about being unlucky #13. Sorry, Bill!
- IN: Google Drive. Almost all of the functionality of Microsoft Office, but without all of the pesky versions. Also, many more perks, such as cloud storage, revision history, and collaboration. Did I mention, it's FREE?
Honorable Mentions
- IN: Teaching students to become consumers AND producers of digital content. Three words for you..."Hour of Code." Enough said.
- OUT: Bad "Twettiquette." Ok, this is more of a pet peeve of mine. I tend to follow most people who follow me, unless a) I can't understand the language they tweet, b) their content is questionable, or c) they seem like a spam account. I wasn't always so open. At first, I wanted my account to be totally dedicated to #edtech, so I never take it personally if someone decides that I'm not his or her cup of tea. However, these three things in particular make me see red.
- Direct messaging if you're not following me back. Um, I can't respond unless you follow back.
- Those stupid TrueTwit validations. What is the point?
- Mentioning me, saying "thanks for the follow." Then, not following back. What is that supposed to mean? Just don't say anything at all.
I also get peeved when educators preach collaboration on social media, yet don't practice it...but I digress.
- IN: Protecting yo'self...foo!: Be aware of the scams and schemes out there, so that you don't fall for the traps. Ah, the art of digital self-defense...
Wrapping it Up
So, what do you think? Agree or disagree? Chime in below with a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Happy 2014...wheeeeee!!!Related articles
- Branding da Teechur (sarahdateechur.wordpress.com)
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