Huggins Happenings

Question 1:

Which habits may be most challenging for you?

I feel that Habit 7, teach/mentor others will be the most challenging for me.  I guess it really goes back to Habit 4, having confidence in yourself  that makes Habit 7 difficult for me.  I feel that I know a decent amount about technology and am excited about learning more, but as I get older and young, new teachers come into our school, I feel that they will me much more equipped to teach about technology in the classroom than me.

Question 2:

Which habit will be the easiest or resonate the most for you?

Habit 6, use technology to your advantage is the habit that excites me most.  I was so excited to get a SmartBoard in my classroom and have had so much fun exploring all of the things I can do with it.  I love having the internet at my fingertips.  There are so many wonderful websites with great ideas from other teachers.  I plan on organizing and using many of these ideas in my classroom.

Question 3:

Which habit do you think will be the most important?

The most important, and most challenging habit for me will be Habit 2, accept responsibility for your own learning.  I sure all teacher feel the same pressure that I do – too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it.  This course is both exciting and important for me, but finding the time to do it and putting it as a priority in my day is difficult.  In the end, I know it will make my day more efficient and make me a better, more current teacher.

As I watched the Web 2.0 video, I was captivated.  When I was in college, one of my roommates had a word processor with one of those printers that printed papers with the strips of holes on the side that you had to tear off.  We thought we were so cool and so lucky that we didn’t have to go somewhere to type up our papers.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around how fast technology is changing now.  I’ve been out of college for 13 years and now I feel like I’m so “uncool”.  My kids can run circles around me.  My daughter taught herself how to use her ipod in about 5 minutes when she was only 7 year old.  Part of me is so excited about this new age of technology and all of the benefits is offers, but it’s scary as well.  As a mom, I want to protect my children from all of the strange people in this world, but when I see how much more my kids know about technology than me, it feels like a losing battle.  As a teacher, however, I’m thrilled to be able to take advantages of all of the tools at my fingertips and use them in my classroom.  This is my first year back to teaching since having children over 8 years ago and everything has changed.  My hope is to continue my pursuit as a lifelong learner of technology so that it can have a positive impact on my teaching and my family.