Last year, and in 2007, I invited readers to share their thoughts for an annual January 1st post where people shared what they learned during the previous twelve months.
Many people responded, and I’m doing it again this year.
Feel free to write one-to-three things you feel you’ve learned this year in the comments section of this post. I’m not going to give a specific restriction on their length, but please try to keep them short. Please submit them by December 28th. I’ll leave them in moderation until I include them in a January 1st post.
Also, please include a short sentence you’d like me to use to describe you.
Great idea Larry!
One of the things I’ve learnt is the value of collaboration. I’ve only been teaching for 3 years and have always been happy to share my ideas with others, and ask for help when I need it. Unfortunately, many teachers do not like to share their resources, units, lesson plans, etc. Someone at school asked me earlier this year to check out what twitter for educators was all about so that I could share it with our staff, and I have learnt so much in that short 6 months. Collaborating, learning, sharing, reading, and communicating with other people that are in the EXACT same position as me has taught me not only that there are others like me, but also that there is a wealth of information out there as long as you are prepared to look for it.
Another thing I’ve learnt in 2009 is that as a teacher you really need to find the time to separate your work life from your home life, otherwise they can interlink too much. With the popularity of things like smart phones and other technologies, people are using tech much more often. It is much easier now to do more work while you’re not at work, but it’s important to limit that so the work area or the personal area of your life don’t suffer.
I guess something you can write to describe me is that I’m a high school science teacher from Australia who loves reading, sharing, learning and helping others.
Thanks,
Sarah Korlaki.
Hi,
I’d like to thank for this great opportunity.I’m an EFL teacher and I’ve been teaching for 20 years. I really love my job very much because it’s not just teaching, it’s also learning new things constantly.
I’ve learned loads of things this year. I’m new to everything but I’ll try to list the most important ones.
1. Web 2.0 tools, now I feel more confident using them and trying to integrate them to my teaching.
2. Twitter which enabled me to meet wonderful educators (Now I have my own PLN, a real privilege) and led me to the links which I’d never reached by searching.
3. Using skype in the class. I’d never thought practising English with real people would be easy and comfortable.
I learned to use Facebook about one year ago. Ove the last two months I have become active on Twitter, posted all my documents on Delicious, and used Google Wave, Google Docs, Skype for educational purposes. My next goal is to start a blog on my website. (Judie Haynes, creator of everythingESL.net, taught ESL in an elementary school for 28 years and is now providing professional development to school districts around the U.S.)
I learned that amazingly rich conversations can happen in 140 characters and that there are many people eager to learn with me about how to make the learning that happens in each classroom richer for every student. It is not about technology for its own sake, but it is about discovering which tools will enhance the growth of the students. It is also about building into the classroom the collaboration that is so much a part of the 2.0 world.
Thanks, Larry, for all that you do to make so much of this all happen!
Hadley