#etmooc #etmchat Anniversary

From Susan Spellman-Cann we continue the gift of #ETMOOC and will enjoy an anniversary event complete with chats and Google Hangouts. Join the Post ETMOOC community and the #etmchat .

What is ETMOOC… Here is Susan Spellman-Cann‘s explanation in HaikuDeck


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
My HaikuDeck is One Slide about the effect of #ETMOOC

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

 

After ETMOOC, I reflected on the experience in a blog post –  Unfinal Reflection, because it truly has been the gift that keeps on giving.

This is my post — revised and updated for today’s anniversary. Revisions are bold and blue.

How do you plan on staying connected to the people and the ideas?

This unfinal post for #etmooc reviews the path I now take with others to continue the journey: #etmooc continues to drop it’s pebble of ideas into the ocean of possibilities, creating ripples of overlapping connections forever spreading and growing.

My own questions and final thoughts:

  • Given the access, technology, resources, and requirements available to me, how can I create a classroom world reflective of what my students need in the future that is theirs?
  • How do I need to adapt my pedagogy to create that classroom?
    • Of course I’m torn between what it seems students need and the reality of our school district’s focus on test success.
    • As I can, technology provides us with reflection and collaboration tools. It helps one class teach another. For instance my sixth grade students created cyber-safety and Google Apps lessons for grade five students. They also, while learning figurative language themselves are creating a resource for other students in our school by collaborating on a Google presentation.
    • In all our online work, we strive to leave positive footprints, practicing our digital footprints.
    • In one class, we are learning with Mozilla on how to code. Our first project was Six Word Memoirs. Code is the language of the future, and we’re beginning to learn to translate! It was a riot: “Change size of text on line 20,” one student would call out, then hop up to guide another students. The puzzle of code unravelled.
    • More and more I learn to share with students the overall goal of our requirements, and students choose the project and details that they require to learn: personalized learning
    • This is not easy to accomplish: the requirements of school’s today are not reflective of the reality of interactions, composition, and collaboration practiced by successful workers and thinkers.
    • Today, I work with a new crew of teacher bloggers who are blogging with their students; we are creating a community for our students to collaborate through blogs: #teach2blog twubs and Google Plus Community
  • How will like-minded teachers connect and collaborate to create connected spaces for themselves and with their students?
  • How will I, as a middle school teacher of language arts, connect with others to ponder these questions, create a space to act on them, and discover together ways to improve education in our own worlds.
    • As a result of #etmooc, not only have a Connect in the Middle Wiki for middle level educators, but several of us have joined in several different communities:
    • Ben Wilkoff started the Open Spokes Fellowship as a result of conversation in #etmooc. He invited a group of teachers who will weekly vlog on topics about education, forming a neighborhood of differences in order to discuss common ground and forge a future that benefits the students we teach. We are raising our voices from separate whispers to a chorus we hope will be heard, shared, discussed, and acted upon by others who likewise wish to move forward in this education transformation.  Thanks to Ben’s leadership and the amazing educators within this group, we continue to vlog!  We also have a Google Plus Reflective Vlog CommunityCheck them out.
    • The Connect in the Middle Wiki for middle level educators did not work out as planned; that’s how life works. Sometimes things take off and sometimes they don’t. For this wiki, the educators moved to their[ our ] passions: GeniusHour Wiki by Gallit, Joy, and Denise. Be sure to check it out.

I thank #etmooc for providing connections to inspiring people, whom I thank here:

 

I so enjoyed the recorded session with the participants of Jesse Strommel’s DigiWriting #etmooc, A Flurry of Cursors.

Some of us began an Adventure story. ( @mrsdkrebs)

During one session, Darren Kuropatwa asked participants to record and share 5 seconds of video with him viaDropitTOme and then compiled them into this “Beauty” short video. He invited others to Popcorn it !  Here is mine after an inspirational video remix by Rhonda Jessen.

A few of us gathered videos into which I popped this for the group: Where do you learn?

I thank Alec Couros for the #etmooc that reconnected me with Ben Wilkoff who created a Professional Learning Neighborhood in the Open Spokes Fellowship. Please stop by now and then, #etmooc’ers!

 

#etmooc lives on because:

 

 

So although everything has not grown, in everything that was started, we learned, and we shared with our next connections and projects. I’m so thankful for  Susan Spellman-Cann and Rhonda Jesson for keeping us connected. I can’t keep up with you two!
Thanks again  #ETMOOC and #etmchat! It’s all about: Connecting, Collaborating and Sharing  and Celebrating  !

If you didn’t participate in #ETMOOC, please join #etmchat and Post ETMOOC Community to engage with encouraging and creative people!

 

 

4 Comments

on “#etmooc #etmchat Anniversary
4 Comments on “#etmooc #etmchat Anniversary
  1. What a great post Sheri, I loved reading about everything you have done since Etmooc. I am so thankful that I have gotten to know you through Etmooc and PostEtmooc, I learn so much from my interactions with you and from reading about your experiences with your students.
    I am looking forward to the Twitter chat next week, and to our future collaborations.
    Rhonda

    • Hi Rhonda, I so appreciate your kind words, and am also thankful for the Etmooc / PostEtmooc experience. You and Susan are inspiring! Thanks for organizing the Anniversary Celebrations, and I am sorry I missed the hangouts on 1/21. However, my family is home safe and I can watch the recording I hope! See you in postetmooc chats and hangouts as we continue to connect and learn from each other. Sheri

  2. I think the key to unlocking your post for me is the idea of remembrance linked to action. Here are just a few of the items I highlighted as ‘ways to act’ that inspire me to do so:

    helps one class teach another
    reflection and collaboration
    creating a resource for other students
    leave positive footprints
    Six Word Memoirs.
    The puzzle of code unravelled.
    personalized learning
    #teach2blog twubs
    Google Plus Community
    #etmooc,
    Post-Etmooc Blog Readers and #etmchat
    Reflective Vlogging and Open Spokes Fellowship
    Mozilla Webmakers
    Reflective Vlog Community. Check them out. The Connect in the Middle Wik
    GeniusHour Wiki by Gallit, Joy, and Denise.
    DropitTOme

    Of course, it is all too much if I imagine I have to look into and act upon it all. I think I just have to draw inspiration and just one action from this–for now. I think I choose the attitude of ‘leaving positive footprints’ as my initial lesson here. It is part of the teacher Hippocratic Oath except we can’t stop with just doing no harm. We must leave positive breadcrumbs for an inverse Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. Thanks for eliciting that wierd allusion in my imagination.

    • Thanks, Terry. I like that “…leave positive breadcrumbs for an inverse Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.” I think that’s what we’re all trying to do — tie ideas together leaving a trail of positive interpretations, connections, and interactions. Thanks for your insights, as always. Sheri

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