i DO see teaching now!

This is the end.

Beautiful friend,

This is the end.

Can you picture what will be?

So limitless and free?

This is the end....

In the immortal words of The Doors.............Another year has come and gone, yet this time I am now (apparently) equipped to shape young minds....hmmm a scary thought considering only a few weeks ago I was a still a student myself! (and yes i am aware the song is about letting go of a lover, just go with me here on this!!!)

Honestly I actually cant believe I survived the year and looking back I'm not sure I should have! There have been moments of joy, pain, procrastination and alienation...particularly with ICT. Well I can say I've come a long way from the young bright eyed and bushy tailed girl in my first post, I'm now a tech savvy super woman who can project, connect, protect and subject anything thrown at her.

"Ok but seriously." as my gorgeous year 8 girls continuously said to me....what have I learnt and what do I hope to learn in the future? Well I've learnt that anything i think is cool or hip in the way of music/videos/youtube clips/twitter etc isn't. Full stop. I have learnt that these kids know a HELL of a lot more than I do, so if ever I am in need of IT support, I probably wont bother calling anyone, I'll just ask my class.

I've learnt to always be prepared and have a plan B when it comes to ICT as things don't always go to plan! (see my earlier post re: projectors failing!).

I've learnt that ICT is my friend and can aid me in ways I never thought possible.  

"Intranet, wikis and blogs oh my!" Exclaimed Dorothy, Tinman, Lion and Scarecrow.

I've learnt to always take my laptop charger with me....apparently laptops need to be charged. As do Iphones, Ipods and portable CD players.....

I've learnt that ICT is a wonderful classroom management tool! Any year level loves a video or something to listen to, no matter what the subject.

And I've learnt that if I don't use ICT in my classroom and continue to work at keeping up with the times, myself and my teaching will be left behind. Because without ever changing an evolving we don't learn anything new, therefore we cannot expect our students to want to learn anything new from us. And isn't that what this whole teaching caper is about? The kids have to learn something from us.....and the sneaky DVD we use when were just really having a bad day and want to sit down for 75 minutes :P

Just kidding! Sort of........LOL ;)