Let's Get Flipped!

I've decided to use this blog to keep track of my journey through flipping my classroom and delving into the world of blended learning.

So far, I've read the FANTASTIC book by Catlin Tucker (@CTuckerEnglish) about Blended Learning and it has given me a great starting point for accessing Edmodo, Schoology, and Collaborize Classroom.




I plan on testing those three over the summer, hopefully to arrive at a decision on what to use in my classroom in September. I also have the option of using D2L, which our school board is beginning to implement in the fall.

This is an exciting time and I can't wait to see where this journey takes me.

What the TECH?

Going through the process of obtaining my Specialist in Integrating Information Technology in Education has been a real eye opener to how far we have come in the use of technology in education in the past 12 years.

When I began teaching in 2000 my school was using CD-ROMS as a resource for the students to conduct research in the library. 

Contacting parents or colleagues via email was considered risky - cause you never know what someone could do to change what you said in an email. 

And our computer lab was basically a word processing centre which sometimes was also used to play Math Circus.

Looking at all that is available to educators now is absolutely mind boggling!!! It is so exciting to be involved in education at a time when we are reshaping how the entire system should operate. I get that sense of change when I look at how teachers can adapt to integrate technology in their programs and get immediate, long-lasting results for themselves and for their students.







To ignore technology as an INTEGRATED part of every aspect of the curriculum is to be ignorant to the realities of the world our students are living in today. It is the equivalent of still learning by rote, drill & kill worksheets, and paper-pencil tests for every evaluation. It is the equivalent of averaging all work done in a term or a semester and arriving at a magic percentage which "represents" the work done all term long. 

In short, to not integrate technology into every aspect of the curriculum is to not be doing our job as teachers. 

I don't know about you, but I plan on doing my job.