I feel really grateful that this was the class I chose to complete this summer. It has been so rewarding and I have been able to implement more of what I’ve learned here immediately into my classroom than I ever have before. It has helped remind me of why I became an educator, and specifically an online educator in the first place. This course has reinforced the fact that this is the way of the future and it’s so critically important to grow with and evolve with how our students learn and communicate. I have yet to hear back about my proposal for new lesson formats, directly working with more social media, but I am eager to receive feedback and put some of these ideas into use.

I have also really enjoyed the process of developing my own personal learning network and sharing my experiences with others both online and in my schoolhouse. I am excited to begin incorporating more ISD profiles into my network and see where this road leads!

I have to say it was really interesting to look back and reflect on the network I have started to build throughout this class. There are so many things that I will truly take with me and incorporate into regular practices. I was reminded right away how much I like to write, and how beneficial it is to collect my thoughts. I am also really beginning to see the benefits of sharing those thoughts and connecting with others in a way that I haven’t been able to do in a long time. Throughout this process, I have made a number of changes in my own classroom, and without necessarily realizing it, started to develop lessons that encourage my students to develop their own networks as well. As an online art teacher, there is a significant component missing in this format, the peer critique. I wrote a lot about the benefits of helping bridge this gap using social media, and now I realize that peer critique and connection is not just a necessary part of the artistic process, it is a necessary part in the creation and growth of anything. Challenges help us learn. They either help to get your wheels spinning in a different direction by considering another perspective or work to reinforce what we believe. Challenges don’t have to be attacks, but rather presentations of something else or suggesting a new way of going about something. Being reminded of this and being on the other side of a “critique” has been so refreshing. I see now that everything I am trying to incorporate into my classroom with my own learners, I need to aim to incorporate in my own learning process as well!

I have to say, when I first looked at the description for this week’s assignment, I was a little overwhelmed. Initially it seemed like a lot of work, but I could not have been more pleasantly surprised in how the process has gone.

When I first started to explore Pinterest in relation to my own learning, I immediately saw the value in the platform. The ease in which information is searched for and obtained. The pretty visuals that catch your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate these hacks and infographics into my classroom. Since we already have a class Instagram profile, I decided this was the perfect place to share and connect with learners. The response was amazing. Students were more interactive and eager to try to emulate photos that they found appealing. Now I am presenting them with an opportunity to gain even more control over their learning. The idea is that helping learners see that they can find their own resources and curate them in a way that feels accessible will help them engage in more meaningful learning.

The second part of the lesson involves choosing a resource to implement via creating a photograph. Students will then share that photograph on Instagram using a specific hashtag. This portion of the assignment serves to combat the lack of peer to peer engagement and critique on the online platform. What I hadn’t realized is the fact that this also works to help students naturally develop a professional learning network. I am really excited about this. Developing my own professional learning network has proven to be so much fun and it has taught me a great deal about using social media for more productive purposes. I hope that my own students can see this as well and will take advantage of this process and the re-imagined use of these already familiar platforms.

Does your head feel like it’s going to explode? Can you not find the right words for anything? Does it seem like parts of your world are crashing in? It sounds like you have a case of the retrograde’s!

I promise I am not a supper hippie or anything like that, but I do think anyone who has ever been in a brick and mortar classroom with children will not deny the power of the moon (and such). I cannot count how many times I looked around the my class and said, “Is it a full moon or something?!” and sure enough!

When mercury is in retrograde, technology goes wonky, words get jumbled, things just feel a little chaotic… Just what I needed at the end of the summer. Luckily, we’re on the tail end of it and I feel myself balancing out.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that one of the most immediate benefits of this program for me is being on the other side of the screen. I hold my students to high expectations… and I plan to continue doing so… but being a student working in a completely online format has been eye-opening. It has taught me how overwhelming things can be and how intimidating at times it is to email a professor or instructor. In some ways I feel like it has taken me a lot longer to connect with peers and teachers and feel safe asking questions and sharing thoughts. It’s easy for life to get in the way… to forget to complete every task… to get distracted with another open browser (thanks Amazon)… to run into tech issues (thanks Mercury)…but overall I do love the freedom. It’s important to end on that note. Focusing on the positive and the fact that sometimes I read my textbook on the beach while my kids boogie board. Often times I blog with a cup of coffee on my patio listening to the birds on a Sunday morning. We really are coming into a new age of teaching and learning and it’s exciting. Overwhelming and stressful, but exciting. Now if only Mercury would stay out of it…

Just a quick note to ensure that I always come back to this. I noticed frequently throughout this class how much more engagement is provoked when you end something with a question. In most cases, it’s been when I have been reading a tweet or a blog and I can’t help but find myself answering the question in my head. Then, when I think about how great my answer is, I want to share it 😉

I think I naturally started doing this in feedback with students. It has been amazing! Even when a student gets a high grade on an assignment, I find them responding to feedback far more frequently. Sometimes it’s with additional questions, sometimes with quick little notes about the photo… and sometimes it’s even travel tips (one of my favorite parts of my job is seeing awesome locations all over the state, and during the summer- all over the world!).

I want to make sure I keep this in mind moving forward. Connecting with students and keeping them engaged with their work is so important and I really feel like this has been a huge help!

Kahne and Bowyer’s article was really great… A little bit scary, but reaffirmed the importance of teaching this new generation of digital natives how to harness the power they have so accessible to them.

We discussed crowdsourcing earlier in the class… separate from raising money for sick dogs… My biggest concern with crowdsourcing in a “location” or on a platform you choose is the potential concern that you are surrounded with only like-minded people. As we get older, we realize the importance of diversity, not just in terms of being PC, but being exposed to thoughts and opinions that conflict with your own. This is how true learning and growth occurs. It’s important to be faced with a bit of adversity when presenting something so you can really think it through and either modify your plan or opinion, or stand strong if those challenges serve to reinforce your beliefs. To help with this, it’s crucial to be actively engaged with a wide range of sources and populations, which often is not the case for how people use and interact with social media. So many of us tend to think of social media as a place for recreation. We don’t want to be challenged, while we are scrolling through memes in a dark corner of the house. Teenagers would rather put on a cat filter and talk in a silly voice than read about what’s happening in the world… and to be honest, there are a lot of days where I feel the same way… So how do we find balance?

This ties directly into the quote toward the end of the article, “These concerns highlight the need to understand whether and how digital engagement learning opportunities can promote broader and more equitable engagement among youth”. We know that we will see a shift in the future… we are already seeing it. Learners will soon be “forced” to use their phones for more productive activities in addition to those recreational ones, so how we take advantage of that?  For me, and the connection to art, it means finding a wide range of work to promote. It does not necessarily have to be politically driven (probably wouldn’t be able to get away with that) but I think the idea of showing students something new is a good start. It’s a much more simplified example, but I can’t count the number of times a student has come into my class with a specific aesthetic that they are determined to create an entire portfolio around. Upon seeing new work and exploring new artists, that often changes. It may not go from one extreme to the other… and that is not what I am looking for… but you can see growth and adaptations to their work, that helps make them a more well-rounded artist. Now it’s a matter of using this same philosophy to make them more well-rounded citizens to boot!

I love Instagram. I see it as an amazing platform to form connections and learn so much. There is so much immediate access to different cultures and people and I love how diverse my profile is. I try to make it a point to follow accounts that will challenge me and open my eyes to new things. I like seeing a rainbow of colors from all walks of life when I open up my little app.

That said, when I really reflect… I am a passive activist. Sure, following these accounts has opened my eyes. When I am talking to my day-to-day friends I try to bring in new perspectives and spread the word, but that screen makes it easy to think you are doing something, when you really aren’t. This also begs the question, that refers back a bit to my post earlier this week- is it required to use this power? Obviously, we don’t want anyone using these platforms for bad, which unfortunately happens all to often, but what about just not using them and staying neutral? Does that make you a bad person? I guess not, but it leaves room for improvement. I think it’s important to remember to get out and use this information and these connections as a tool to take steps forward. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to best being a more active role…

I am excited to be back to blogging. I am embraced the break but missed this as an outlet and place to collect my thoughts. I am hoping to pick back up this week with the habits I was hoping to create in regards to my early week initial thoughts as well we as my gratitude posts.

I completed a group assignment earlier this semester about social media in the classroom. The first thing I posted to our group was a graphic I found on Pinterest that I actually posted to our class page as well. It is a bold picture reminding this new age of technology users how much power they have at their fingertips… and asking how will they use it.

It is really interesting to consider younger activists. Watching the MSD students over the last year and a half has been devastating and inspiring, but it proves that we are in a new age. Now it is just a matter of figuring out how to facilitate more of this. How do we not only teach our students about responsible internet usage, but also how to harness the power and momentum they can so much accessibly create for growth. I am looking forward to this not only for selfish reasons to see how I may be able to become more active, but also to see how I can help guide my students and the kiddos in my life.

I think last week might have worked! I woke up this morning with a long list of to-do’s and have already been checking things off one by one. That reprieve was just what I needed. My schedule this week is a bit chaotic, but I am hoping to really set aside some time tonight to evaluate what’s been done and what needs to be done. I typically plan and organize my schedule a lot and I think the summer hours and sense of freedom have inhibited that. I still want to have those carefree nights with my kiddos, but I think I will be able to enjoy them more if I feel a bit more grounded in my work and school space.

Last week truly helped me to evaluate my priorities. Not only did I get to spend amazing time with my family, but I completed an interviewer with an instructional designer, Alannah, that I really connected with. I was feeling a bit burnt out and overwhelmed, but she really helped turned that around for me. Discussing the pro’s and con’s of working with different companies or on different projects was just what I needed to remind me why I am here. It can be so tempting to fall into a rut and remain comfortable, but I am ready to shake things up. I feel like I have a new pep in my step to finish out my summer classes strong and I am sure by the end of this year I will look back and be blown away by how far I’ve come and how much I’ve already learned.

I had every intention of making up blog points this week but for some reason I tanked. I was off of work and for some reason mentally, my brain shut down. I really did not put in any significant effort into my schoolwork and it’s been stressing out in the middle of the night all week. I was planning on using this week to get ahead but instead I took a huge break.

Yet I feel so fulfilled. This week I spent time with my best friend, celebrated my daughters birthday, snuggled with my husband under fireworks over the water, saw family from all over the state, went down a water slide with my sisters, went paddle boarding while my husband, son and brother fished from their canoe, went bowling with my mom, aunt, uncle and cousin… I could go on and on.

I was so focused on my personal life and I realize now that it is critically important to plan for that. I wish I had handled this week differently. I wish I had planned ahead just a bit better, but I think that I’ve learned a few valuable lessons this week that will alloow me to continue to strive for a work, school and life environment that is constantly evolving for the better.