TechChef » 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back to my preservice days and even my first year of teaching… with no curriculum, no mentor, no scope and sequence, an outdated textbook, and very little knowledge of what actual classroom management techniques looked like in practice.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…

Truly there are no right or wrong answers. I am looking to collect feedback and insight from a wide variety of teachers and classrooms (e.g. 1:1, BYOD, and not 1:1). There are no required questions (with the exception of basic information) as I am sure certain topics will prompt some of you to respond over others. Any and all thoughtful feedback is much app-reciated:

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:

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:

And Stay tuned this week for “Wicked-Good Wednesday – 3 Ideas Worth Stealing” …

TechChef Presents: Where will Lisa Johnson be sharing her app-thusiasm next?

Technology in Elementary Education Conference (College Station): Keynoting
TIC 2014 in June (Iowa): Keynoting
iPadpalooza 2014 in June (Austin)
SDE Power Up! 2014 in July (Vegas)
ETT Summit 2014 in July (Chicago)
ETT Summer iPad Workshops in August (Austin)
Miami Device 2014 in November (Miami)
Learning Forward 2014 (Nashville)

1:1 Deployment and Interested in 1:1 Deployment or PD strategies and implementation? Looking for a dynamic presenter or interactive workshop? Contact TechChef4u (lisa.johnson@techchef4u.com) for parent presentations, hands-on workshops, keynotes, and much more! Read testimonials about TechChef presentations.

TechChef Techucation Gazette: Sign up to receive future issues of the monthly e-Newsletter: There are many more learning app-ortunities and professional development toolkits to come. If you don’t want to miss a morsel of this techucation feast, sign up today.