Introduction

This post is the introductory reflection on the Leading Edge Digital Educator program.

Check out my introductory Voki here: goo.gl/kZf0C5

Goals to accomplish this summer:

1. Design an engaging STEM curriculum for K-5 students
I will be a STEM teacher to all elementary classes next year and need to come up with a plan for providing meaningful lessons to them in bi-weekly, 45 minute blocks. I would like to coordinate my topics with the units they are covering in science, but I also want them to be able to experience the engineering design process and explore a makerspace. I also have a 3D printer to use and must figure out the logistics of getting as many students as possible to use it and learn from it. My number one goal overall, is for all students to learn from their mistakes and to think about what they can do to improve the world around them.
ITSE 1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity

2. Investigate transforming my classroom into a Blended Learning environment
My classroom next year will be the former library, which has been converted into a makerspace. Due to poor acoustics in the room and a large but not projection sized monitor, direct instruction will be a futile endeavour. I really would like to learn more about letting the students progress at their own pace and providing resources for them as they make their own discoveries. The ideal place to be would be to fully embrace ITSE 2a about letting the students manage their own learning and setting their own goals, but I need to start the year with some guidelines and expectations.
ITSE 2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments

3. Build my own website to communicate my professional activities with the online community
I just joined Twitter in March (@knechtstem) and can see that growing into that network is the next place I can advance professionally. Looking at the other people who are big on Twitter, the vast majority have websites that contain the content that the are tweeting about. Rather than just tweeting the random picture or tidbit, I would like to have my lessons and my tutorials available to back me up and to give more credibility to my voice in the discussions.
ITSE 5. Engage in professional growth and leadership

To do research in order to achieve these things, I already completed my first task of the summer which was to organize my hundreds of Chrome bookmarks into Diigo. Forcing myself to go through and tag all of my bookmarks led to quite a few new discoveries and I found many sites that I will definitely be utilizing in the future. I hope to be able to share my links and outliners through my future website as well.

For support over the summer, I’ll be looking to my digital resources, via Twitter, Google+, and otherwise.

Finally, my goal for the rest of the summer is to not miss any other deadlines for this class. It appears my Canvas notifications were not set up in the way I thought they were.