Welcome! Thanks for joining me on this journey of discovery, learning, and application. This loosely woven plan originated with my own personal (and somewhat desperate) desire to prepare myself for the new 1:1 classroom that I'll be teaching next year. Innovative changes in the classroom both excite and terrify me. These emotions drove me to seek out experts in professional fields I felt I could learn from. As I began my initial exploration into these uncharted waters, something became clear: if students benefit from collaboration with their peers, wouldn't this also be true for me. Thus, here you are. Honestly, other than some basic idea of what I hope we can accomplish, I have no idea what I'm doing. I imagine this must be what it feels like to students in a blended classroom where they have control, they determine the collective goals, they learn through experimentation, and, most importantly, they feel encouraged to take risks knowing they'll have the support of the group.
Here's the initial plan. Feel free to make suggestions as we go along. I hope that we all can share the roles of learners and facilitators as we make our journey.
First, I've suggested some titles that I believe will benefit us in the areas of school culture, leadership, assessment, blended learning, and classroom application. I don't think these titles are by any means the only books we can choose from, but I do believe we need to keep our scope narrow enough so that when we get together to discuss what we've read, we haven't spread ourselves too thin. If you have a title that you plan to read, share it with the group. I know I've purchased all of the books presented here. While it may be ambitious, my plan is to read them all before returning to school in July.
Next, for our meeting dates, trying to schedule dates that will work for everyone will be impossible, so I hope we can take advantage of technology to keep us connected. I'm going to create a Facebook private group that those of us on FB can use as a communication source throughout our reading journey. I'll also ask that those of us comfortable with the blog post/comment format use this blog as yet another means of communicating on a regular basis. I'd like to invite those who can join me to come to my home on Tuesday, June 23 and Tuesday, July 26 at 6:00 for our first and last "real" face-to-face meetings. These will be casual evenings, so come as you are with nothing but your thoughts on what you've read. At our first meeting, we'll share what we chose as our book then break into some small discussion sessions before coming together at the end for a large-group discussion. At this first meeting, we'll discuss the second session which I'd like to conduct as a Twitter chat. Those on Twitter will have a bit of an advantage. Those not on Twitter who might want to set up an account, we'll be able to do this then. Those not interested in Twitter can determine a meeting place for the second session, and I'll meet with you folks to bridge the live/twitter divide. ;)
Finally, thanks for joining me on this journey. As I mentioned at the start, I'm not sure about many of the details of this "trip," but I'm confident that we all will celebrate upon arriving at our destination: for I believe that professional growth will always mean we are better prepared to meet the needs of all our students. I know that's my goal, and I'm sure it's yours as well.
