What a year this has been! Getting my PRT done was the biggest challenge, as even after 4 years of full time teaching, I didn’t have enough proof to submit for my full registration. I have finally submitted my full registration application along with all my work. The 3D printing has been an exciting yet daunting challenge, as i have had students creating models in Blender, Google Sketch Up and TinkerCad.com; in some cases the models printed just fine, but others, a few issues. Still learning my way around it. Moving to Google was another biggie; making use of the apps to the best was an interesting one. The students have started to work collaboratively on docs and I can address issues alongside too!
The time of year has come start planning for next year. So my first challenge is to create folders and manage the documents for next year in Google Drive. I think being organised is vital (unsaid rule i guess) especially in these times when we have so many documents, web links, shortcuts, etc. which we constantly use in teaching. Just a couple of weeks ago, I joined Twitter and added Edutopia and Edudemic on my favourites list and since then, I have been swamped with awesome links about teaching techniques (mainly used in the States ). Its really hard to keep track of them, unless I read and maybe bookmark them to a “favourites” / folder of a browser.
ULearn 2013 was Awesome! There was so much i learnt there! especially with implementation of technology in the classroom. Knowledge of e-learning models(SAMR) was the interesting part as just providing an iPad to a student and saying, “we are a BYOD school” will not do any good! Appropriate(and safe) use of technology, especially in breaking down the learning steps is key to e-learning and the SAMR model provides a strong base for the same.
My next goal is to create a simple template in google sites for PRT’s to maintain their documents and blog towards their full registration. It will also be helpful for fully registered teachers to keep track of their work, and use it for their appraisal. Appraisal in teaching is interesting as there is no incentive to do it, especially monetary benefits. So to make it easy, accessible and yet reflective and useful was the reason for me to create this template. Will post a link here once I am finished.