Teaching From Here

Reflecting on my time at Edmond Memorial and the exciting changes in my future, I wanted to update my blog to reflect what I am wanting to do as a teacher.  I have a lot of passion for teaching, my colleagues and my students.  But at this point in my career, I want to have an impact on those who will be having an impact on our students.  I want to help the next generation of educators be the most brilliant teachers, to help them reach students in most amazing ways.

So the direction of this blog is going to shift just a little bit, to create a place to share ideas and thoughts and collaborate about being great educators.  I have picked up so many excellent ideas from fellow teachers who blog and tweet and share what they do.  I would love to put a space together where this interaction happens daily, but in a more localized area of the internet.  I want to share more about teaching and using educational technology, now not just for math teachers, but for all teachers.  I want to reach teachers no matter what subject area or grade.  I would love for teachers to participate and share their thoughts – so we can get a look across the spectrum of K-12 education.

Over the next few years I am taking a bold step – way out of my comfort zone and am going to earn a PhD in Educational Technology.  A lot of what I write about will be centered around educational technology – but there will also be posts related to education in general.  Your thoughts and feedback will help me get better and will also benefit those who read.  I started a Facebook Community to help collaboration between teachers all over – click this link: Teaching From Here.  Please follow me on Twitter, my handle has been updated as well: TeachFromHere, you can even link up with me on Google+.  Lets make this dialogue the beginning of something epic!

During this phase of life, I will have the opportunity to teach some of our future educator colleagues and allowing them to see the power of collaboration first hand is something that will be beneficial for them.  They can learn from you, these students need to know that teaching never quite goes off like you plan it.  I am a believer in the messy road to learning – it is very seldom linear.  Learning is a road that will take us around many curves, switch-backs, turn-abouts, dead ends, interstates, back roads, u-turns, you name it.

So, if you are reading this, try out something that you see, but if you read and read and read, then you need to contribute.  Don’t just consume – put yourself out there, take a risk and get the reward.  Tell your story.  Tell why things worked and how you tweaked them.  Give your experiences to others so that we can also grow as teachers.

We teach from our hearts, we teach in our communities, we teach the world.  We Teach From Here.