Standard+5

__** Enhancing Core Teaching Skills with Technology ** __

#5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
=== Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. Teachers: ===


 * participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning
 * exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others
 * evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning
 * contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community

My artifacts demonstrating this standard (What?)
//1.// I watched the video, [|"Learning Without Borders: Students Connect with Their Peers Worldwide."] As I watch and review some of these activites of other schools and other students throughout the country, I am quite envious. Not only of the teachers, but more so of the students. I wish I would have had the opportunities that these students have had. I wish my children will have these opportunities. They are just so....cool. The one statement that sticks with me is what the one teacher said in this video, "It is just cool to be smart at our school." That is something that definetly lacks at Port Allegany High School. The video itself catalogues activities that a charter school takes part in in San Antonio, TX. This charter school utilizes its proximity to Mexico to attempt to make some of its learning global. They have a model UN that all students participate in at some point in their high school year and they utilize technology and collaboration. Three more comments, this school help prepare students for the 21st C. The school also would be one that I would want to send my children to. Finally, after viewing a role play activity, it made me decide that I have not done a role play activity in awhile in my classes...so I am going to plan for one in a week or two.

2. Following is a reflection of project-based learning in my classroom.

I have learned a lot over the pass year and a half about project-based learning. It is a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around. I just know I do not do anything that is what they describe. I really like to do projects with my students, but they are always the assessment at the end of the a unit. For example, two of my seventh grade classes wrote skits for a short story they read and then filmed them. It was a fun project that utilized technology, but it was not a learning based project... I see that students would really learn a lot from a project that they were trying to learn from...the downside...I just wouldn't know where to begin as a teacher. Also, the students would really need to be independent. I know that they would need some basics before we began - students always do need to start with the basics. I think with independent reading I could start using project based learning. I could have the students share information about books using Web 2.0 tools like glogs and prezis. Students could also collaborate using a wiki or even gaggle email and email glogs. I have no idea what I would do...or what I could do at this time. I am sure that there is something I could do with my Young Adult Literature class. With technology, I always like to start small and then go from there.

3. Here is my social bookmarking teaching web site list.

[|Teaching Websites]

4. This is a link to my Searching Document.

5. For my innovative project, my tenth grade students are going to create a poetry glog that they are going to update all year long. They are going to write poetry, using the various literary devices required by the state of PA for PSSAs, and embed their glog on a wiki. That wiki will be a collaborative wiki with a group of fourth graders in Susquenida school district. They will also create poetry glogs and embed them on the wiki. Then, using the discussion tab on the wiki page, the students will respond to each other's glogs.

My Reflection on meeting this standard (So What?)
//These artifacts represent my continued self motivation to become a better educator. Not only that, taking this class shows that I am continuing to engage in professional growth.//

My Future Learning Goals related to this standard (Now What?)
//As a professional, I think it is important to continue my education and my growth. I am going to continue to try to learn as much as I can and take these kinds of classes that force me to research and look into the work that I am doing.//