Mindful Monday…Collecting Reflections

In preparing for a keynote this month to elementary preservice and inservice teachers at Texas A&M, I felt some self-reflection was warranted. I thought back to my preservice days and even my first year of teaching… with no curriculum, no mentor, no scope and sequence, an outdated textbook, and very little knowledge of what actual classroom management techniques looked like in practice. It truly was a sink or swim time and I found I dog-paddled in the deep end for some time.

While the technology, as you can plainly see, has evolved…

… and my hair and tan has dissipated somewhat, I still venture to pose the question…

“Are our preservice teachers any better prepared and equipped to handle the challenges of instruction, pedagogy, and technology integration in today’s classrooms?”

Though every institution and teacher is very different, I wonder if we as a collective whole of seasoned educators could sprinkle in a bit of wisdom and personal insight to better prepare these teachers for the limitless potential and critical challenges the 21st Century classroom holds.

Cathy Yenca did just that with her Message to 21st Century Pre-Service Middle School Math Teachers.

While I bring my own insight to the desk, technology allows for collecting an even broader perspective:

“The smartest person in the room is the room itself: the network that joins the people and ideas in the room, and connects to those outside of it…” – David Weinberger

So, what if the room was my global PLN? Imagine the insight and lessons that could be collected and shared…

And because the TechChef doesn’t leave a blog without sharing a tasty morsel of integration delight… here are few ideas for using Google Forms with your students:

• Creating Google Quizzes for Primary
• Teacher Report Card Using Google Forms
• Innovative Ideas for Using Google Forms
• How To Use Google Forms for Data Collection and Behavior Modification

This last one was so Heck-Awesome both visually as well as with resources that I felt it necessary to also embed below:

TechChef4u Alliteration Alliance: Check out the other topics in the Ed Tech alliteration portfolio:

• MAGNIFICENT MONDAY: A MOTLEY OF SOCIAL POSTERS FOR LIFELONG LEARNERS
• MARVELOUS MONDAY: A MOTLEY OF APP CHALLENGES 4 ALL
• THOUGHT LEADERSHIP TUESDAY: SURVIVING THE DIGITAL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
• TOTALLY TECHUCATION TUESDAY
• TOTALLY TERRIFIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP THURSDAY
• TOTALLY TERRIFIC INTEGRATION AND CELEBRATION THURSDAY
• FREEBIE FRIDAY: 50+ EDITABLE IPAD GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AND PROJECT TEMPLATES

FREEBIES and GOODIES OH MY!

TechChef4u now offers a Doc Locker full of freebies and goodies that can be used in the classroom. Lots of resources and templates can be found in the Creatively Productive Digital Downloads Doc Locker. Just sign up using the form below and you will receive an email shortly with a secret link to the site and password to nab your freebies.