It has been such a great honor to be a part of this wonderful organization.  This whole experience has been full of reflection, personal and professional growth.  I don’t want this fellowship to be the end of the road as far as growth and opportunities in my area of teaching.

From my head being so full of wonderful new technology ideas to being involved in political discussions about what is going on with the current direction of education/educators in our state and nation.  I don’t feel like this journey is over since I still have so many things I want to accomplish from things I learned at the Professional Development Institutes.  As all of the speakers shared information about their classrooms and teaching ideas, I was always thinking of how I could adapt the information to make it work in my classroom of students with severe disabilities.

As our last professional development ended, I agree with other Kenan Fellows who said that it doesn’t feel like we are done meeting.  After listening to the politicians speak, I feel that our role as Kenan Fellows/Leaders includes speaking up for the direction of education in our state.  We are perfect candidates to share our education vision with those in Raleigh and Washington.  I hope we have an opportunity to meet again and share our ideas with those who need to hear.

Thank you to all of the Kenan staff for making this entire process such a memorable one!!

As some districts ban the use of social media in and out of classrooms, and others encourage its use, how do you explain such polar viewpoints?

Things that are common now would have been banned 20-30 years ago. Our society has become so open to adult language and things that are inappropriate in nature.  Just this morning, I heard a credit card commercial with Samuel Jackson using profanity. Many commercials already have suggestive themes. Our children are exposed to so much more now at a younger age.

When we think of protecting our students from certain topics especially in elementary school, it can be a tough job due to the fact that the internet has so many questionable sites.  With technology becoming such an integral part of our everyday lives, we also on the other hand cannot keep our children from learning things through the internet.

Some counties that limit the websites offered make it very difficult for students to learn about some topics that are behind a blanketed block on sites. As a teacher, it can be very frustrating when you want you students to grow in their knowledge of things they can explore through the internet.

There needs to be a happy medium in their exposure at school. We need to be proactive in guarding what websites the students are accessing. Obviously with many of the examples we have learned through the Kenan workshops, technology and the social media can be a great thing.

I am in the process right now of creating webinars for parents to learn some of the same techniques we use in the classroom for our students with severe disabilities.  We learned so many examples of teachers using the internet for flipping their classrooms. I wanted to be able to reach my parents through versions of social media to help us all be on the same page with helping their children.

With our young people being so computer literate and involved in social media, we have no choice but to figure out how to make it all work in a safe and respectable manner.  If we want to reach our students in their world, we have to find a happy medium of how to make it work while not losing the focus of what’s important and appropriate.