Teaching 2.0

Nov 7 What new learning has inspired you in your career?

In 1989, after five years of teaching, I took a 14-year break, during which I lived out my Wendy fantasy:  

"Oh, really next I think I'll have
     Gay windows all about,
     With roses peeping in, you know,
     And babies peeping out."  --J.M. Barrie

In truth, I spent untold mothering hours at the computer, writing, while my benignly neglected babies smeared the windows with their sticky faces, and weeds choked out any rose bushes.  

But at that computer I learned word-processing, and it transformed my writing process. When I 

returned to the classroom in 2003 (the year MySpace, Skype, and the iTunes store came to be), I could not imagine asking students to compose without the capabilities to move text around, cut and paste, delete and un-do.  

Tech was happening, and as a new (again) teacher, I was poised to become a scout on the frontier. With the support of a generous, visionary IT, I embraced the role with stunning naïveté. I do believe my greatest assets in learning tech have been my tolerance for unprecedented levels of confusion and the speed at which I forgive and forget my mistakes.

The experimenting mindset required to trailblaze tech filters into other aspects teaching as well. My classroom is increasingly student-centered and student-directed, which inspires a new verse to my song: 

"Oh, really next I think I'll have
     Computers all about,
     With students owning what they learn,
     And me just hanging out."

My sweet babies, ages 3-12, 1997.