Horizon Report part 2: Teacher Blogs

   Teachers, like me, who are new to using technology as a teaching and learning tool could benefit from the knowledge of those who have gone before us.  I find comfort and inspiration from learning from others who have tried and tested out things before me.  I do that with a lot of things.  As a culinary teacher I love to cook and I'm pretty good at it.  I can take recipes and do some alterations to it and come up with something new.  But I'm not really good at coming up with a brand new idea all on my own.   I approach teaching in much the same manner.  I don't usually come up with a brand new idea on my own but I do look for ways other teachers have been successful and look to alter to meet my curriculum or style of teaching.

   As I attempt to convert to a flipped classroom approach, or at least incorporate some flipped classroom ideas, I am going to start following some blogs of teachers who have successfully implemented technology into their class.  In searching for blogs I found some that pertain particular close to my curriculum area.  Culinary Arts is a division of Career and Technical Education so we have a lot of concentration on career preparation.  I also found a couple that would be good for any content area teacher because of their technology content.  The blogs I will start following are:

·        Northwest AEA:

blogsite:  http://www.nwaea.k12.ia.us/en/connections_blogs_forums_resources/instructional_technology_blog/

·        Northwest AEA: http://www.nwaea.k12.ia.us/en/connections_blogs_forums_resources/career_and_technical_education_blog/

·        ADVANCE CTE:  http://blog.careertech.org/

·        The Flipped Learning Blog:  http://flglobal.org/blog/

·        Flipped Learning with Jon Bergmann:   http://www.jonbergmann.com/blog/

·        Free Technology for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

   Gamingspace is an educational gaming space that has developed games that help students learn many 21st century skills as they solve real world problems.  It is more than just using games systems to teach.  The scenarios are intentionally developed for students to learn content as they solve real world problems while progressing through the game.

   In his article "Ten Ways to Use Discussion Forums to Promote Digital Citizenship and Academics" Gorman gives direction in how to use discussion boards in the classroom.  One his suggestions was to use the board for more than just answering questions in order to tap into higher order thinking.  I think this is a great idea.  Students need to know how to apply knowledge not just regurgitate information.  With that in mind when planning activities using these discussion boards, as a teacher, I need to be very intentional providing opportunities for students to challenge themselves in their responses.