Name: Amber Henrey (Website, CUE breakout session site, @ahenrey)
Organization: Mountain Vista Elementary, Fillmore Unified School District
Current title: 4th Grade Teacher, Data Manager, and Technology Lead
Selected accolade: Gold Coast CUE 2011 Break Out Session Presenter

 
What is your key to personal growth as an educator?

Teaching is not a competition against your peers or other schools. Open your doors, share your ideas, ask for help, but most importantly be willing to learn. There is a wealth of ideas to be gained from building a PLN. Look to the Internet and social media for inspiration. It’s hard to remain passionate about teaching when you keep your ideas to yourself. By collaborating your passion, your excitement for teaching increases because you have the energy and support of those you surround yourself with.

What skill(s) do you feel are most important for today’s students to explore in academic settings (tech or non-tech related)?

The most important thing a student can gain from their education is the ability to think critically.  It is a great shift from “I’ll do what I am told,” to “I’ll do what I think.” As educators we sometimes fear getting students to that point, but it is critical if we are to have a democratic society of thinkers.

I do not feel that technology is the only way students can gain critical thinking skills, however tech gives us access to a plethora of tools that can aid a student and teacher in practicing critical thinking skills.

Children can interact with technology however they want to. That in itself is a great power that lends to critical thinking. Technology opens metaphorical doors to places and people that students would otherwise not have access to.  Through the Internet students can access articles to ponder, opinions to consider, and ideas they didn’t even know existed.

The knowledge and perspective I have gained through social media and online articles has opened my own ideals to new possibilities. I used to make fun of people “tweeting” and now I look to Twitter as a springboard of new ideology. I have hashed out many of my perspectives via Twitter and in doing so, in debating with the likes of Lisa Neilson and Joe Bower, I have altered my education pedagogy. I probably never would have joined Twitter if it weren’t for Professor Jim Pinkard at APU.

How is data collection and analysis best used to support student learning? What types of data collection do you find most useful from a teaching perspective?

Data in some places is a foul word and in others the mantra. Data can tell you your strengths and weaknesses in measurable areas. At the same time it only can tell you the statistics and not the reasons why.

When I first learned the powerful ways that data can guide instruction, I was hooked. For so long, especially teaching first grade, my measures of success were based on observation. Many of my students’ learning gaps were missed because they were decent workers that seemed to understand what we were learning in the moment. But when data informed me otherwise it was like a slap of reality.

When I moved into teaching 4th grade, I depended on data to tell me if I was being an effective teacher because I didn’t know the curriculum like the back of my hand like my peers. I couldn’t just rely on the motivation of students to tell me. (more…)

Name: Errin Gregory (@erringreg | Just a Thought blog)
Organization: Gold Trail School District (#74) in British Columbia, Canada
Current title: Grade 4/5 Elementary Connected Classrooms Teacher
Selected accolades: Virtual Schools Conference 2011 presenter, BCTF New Teachers Conference presenter

What skill(s) do you feel are most important for today’s students to explore in academic settings (tech or non-tech related)?

It’s important for students to be able to explore topics that are of interest to them. Let’s make things relevant, at a personal level, so they can understand why they’re spending time learning about it.

Visual literacy and visual arts are vitally important. What is a culture or a society without art, without that appreciation for information communicated through imagery? We are bombarded everyday with advertisements, websites, logos, photographs – children need to learn how to read and how to communicate with images.

Digital citizenship involves a set of skills that are crucial learning for children. In the past, citizenship involved being a responsible and dutiful person at a local, national and global level. Now, with the online spaces in which people apply for jobs, conduct business, socialize and much more, there is a component of digital citizenship which in a way, transgresses or blends local, national and global responsibilities.

• Students need to be literate with technology.
• Students should learn to behave appropriately and productively online.
• Students should understand the meaning and impact of a digital footprint and be able to have the skills to build a positive digital footprint to prepare for their future.
• Students should have critical awareness so that they are able to evaluate information found online.
• Students need to have skills concerning the reusing and remixing of online content (copyright, creative commons, etc.).
• Students need to be aware of what growing up in a world with the internet and the world wide web means in their lives.

Feed readers: video embedded. View Errin in action at The Connected Classroom.

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