Practice Makes Permanant

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I learned to ride a bike it took more than just jumping on the bike and taking off down the street.  I fell, I crashed, I got hurt, I got mad, BUT I got back up again and tried over and over until I had mastered the art of balancing and keeping my speed fast enough not to fall over. This isn't just true of learning to ride a bike,  every task we undertake as humans requires that we have a period of crashes and frustration.  We have to move beyond that and keep getting back on the bike if we ever truly want to feel the wind in our face as we glide effortlessly down the road.
All to often however, I have found that when it comes to technology I am not patient enough to last through the crashing and frustration  to see it through.  I open a new device, or try a new app and the first obstacle I come to, I want to quit.  I played Angry Birds for three days getting madder and madder that I couldn't get beyond the first level . I threw my phone down fuming that it was a STUPID game and then my youngest son Jack, 6 at the time, told me "Duh, you have to kill the pigs mom!".  After seeing all my peers in graduate school with the fancy new Mac computers, I bravely walked into the Apple store ready to throw down a large chunk of change to buy one. Only to turn around and walk back out again in less than 10 minutes with my money still safely in my purse.  I couldn't make it work the way they did.  Heck I couldn't figure out how to move between the programs.  I saved money not buying it, but what did I lose out on?
What we lose out on are all kinds of great experiences and programs that could make our life EASIER.  The issue isn't that they are hard, it is that we don't want to put in the effort.  I am amazed that children will sit in front a video game and play over and over again dying each time. Why keep going if you are losing? Why? Because each time you will learn a little something that gets you farther.
In my last post I told you I have a new position at work.  I work with some of the coolest people who know all the gadgets and apps and programs that could turn an ordinary classroom into an extraordinary classroom.  Every day they are finding new things that will make instruction richer and more meaningful.  I am awed at their expertise, and yet they say it is nothing.  I have decided to be more like them.  I am out of my cave and exploring.  I won't say that everything in technology is easy.  I am still crashing and from time to time get frustrated, but I am learning new things.  As I learn, practice and "explore" (this is what they call crashing) I find it is easier.  I now rely on programs and apps that 6 months ago I didn't know anything about. As educators we need to be willing to take the risks and try new things.  We can't ask our students to commit to learning if we have stopped.  Practice makes permanent. The more often we use an app or program the more we learn, the easier it is to maneuver, until like the bike it becomes second nature.  That is my charge for you today, go out "explore" something new, and if you crash, get back up and try again!
Until next time...

Out of the Cave

For those seasoned bloggers forgive me, for I know not what I am doing.   In the past year I have started a new career. I moved out of the classroom where I was queen of all things that dared enter into my domain, and have moved into the administrative side of education.  Yes, I am on the DARK SIDE now.  In my new role I found out rather quickly that while I was in fairly competent in my teaching skills, I had let the world zoom past my classroom without much notice at all.  In fact when I look back I should have noticed how dark and hollow my classroom had become.  I thought I was doing well having students collaborate with each other in the classroom; I had no idea it was possible to collaborate with students from around the world.  I was living under (or actually hiding beneath) a very LARGE rock. My fear of the unknown kept me, and sadly my students, from discovering what education could be.  

I am throwing the rock to the side and emerging from my cave.  This, my very first blog post, is the catalyst of my new view on education.  I will try new things! I will fail, but I will learn from those and rise up again to try more new things.  It is the point of education is it not, that we are to strive to constantly stretch our students boundaries, make them grow and learn so that they can see the world with a new perspective? From this moment on I will be a role model of  what education should be.  In future posts I will share  my experiences and relate the things I learn to lessons that you my wise apprentices (at least I hope to have some followers, maybe a handful) can learn from and bring into your own classrooms.  

I hope that all those who follow me, will find my journey useful. Until next time...