I was honing my skills as a student this summer.  As I was taking in the information presented and shared from our various (and incredible) presenters, I noticed something about myself and my colleagues as students.  When we were watching multimedia presentations, we were most engaged and entertained by those videos that featured the students, the young people.  We are all in this profession because we enjoy our young students and the journey they travel as they learn.

I am going to apply that observation to my own videos for my Kenan Project.  I need to demonstrate something specific with those videos, but I believe that it will have the most impact if it can highlight how the students are working through those processes.  That is encouraging to me because 1) I am not fond of seeing myself on video and 2) I want the videos to be worth the time and effort (and “pain”).

Truly, the “something” borrowed from my PD this summer is a “something learned” for me and I’m excited to see the application of that new knowledge.

My mother-in-law loves Christmas.  She loves all the family traditions — the family foremost of all! She has four children and twelve grandchildren and she is one of four children herself!  She is always the first person awake on Christmas morning and she shared a special ritual with my husband, her youngest child.  With sparkling eyes she would give him a playful shake and chant, “Christmas is coming!  Christmas is coming!”  To this day, she calls sometime in December and sings out those same words.

I feel the same way about a new group of students!  I could very easily develop my own little song and dance: “Students are coming!  Students are coming!”  I have so many great tools to apply to our studies this year that will make our class time new and innovative for all of us!  I am probably most excited about Aurasma for the beginning of school.  It will be like magic as far as my students are concerned!!  But beyond the apps, I know that what I’ve learned about Data will impact my practice and my lessons will be so much tighter thanks to the new evaluation tool I’ve learned to use.

Hey!  Students are coming!  Students are coming!  I’m apped, schooled, and ready to apply!

Thanks knittingparadise.com for the dancing teacher!