Breaking Down... 2012 and 2013

So winter break is over. That is both a Yay and a Boo.

Boo...

Who doesn't want more time off?

Yay...

What a great opportunity to start fresh with your same students!

They really do go through a RESET over break. They come back and remember you as fun and nice and with a totally open mind about your class.

At least mine did (no complaints here) :) I came back to this amazing note from a student!



Plus I took a random personal day yesterday to hang out with my friend Grant who came to town from Colorado- HELLO BEACH TIME!



So, as a blog writer, I feel obliged to dissect my 2012 and go into my 2013 plans.

So here goes:

2012: Awesome year teaching. Finished out my second year with what I thought was the best group of students ever. I tried to really push myself - I became a DEN Star Educator and logged my first training session about how I use DE in my classroom, I became the Science Specialist for South Breeze Day Camp expanding my student experience to include students from three years old to rising freshman,  I was asked to give a district wide optional training on how to use one of our resources, Holt's ThinkCentral Science Fusion - that was the first district training I did and I was SO nervous and excited. It went pretty well. Then started our school year - I was offered a class set of iPads for my classroom - a pilot program and I am lucky enough to have 25 iPads in the room! My science coach and I applied for and received funding to go to the NSTA Regional Conference in Atlanta in November - an AMAZING learning experience. At the beginning of December I went to the Day of Discovery training put on by DE where I heard from Lodge McCammon about Flipping the Classroom. Wow!

2013 Goals:
-keep enjoying these great students! They are why I love my job and I have a wonderful group this year.

-keep working with programs like Edmodo to make my classroom more tech friendly to really utilize the awesome tools that the iPads are giving us

-Keep my DEN Start Status (already done! I started off the year giving two trainings during our back to school professional development day!)

-Get into and complete the FIZZ Flipped Classroom Institute online (half done! I got in, it starts on Sunday!)

-Flip my classroom (2013-2014 school year completely, partially for this year)

-Apply for the NSTA New Teacher Academy

-Really look over the Next Generation Science State Standards and get to know them

-Actually keep up this blog (unlike my other blog adventures) and my overall internet presence -like use my twitter for education stuff more (not just reading about the news, but adding my thoughts to it)

-I would like to have my students make a video with the iPads... this is proving rather difficult as the process to purchase apps hasn't been solidified yet and iMovie isn't already on the iPads

-Possibly attempt a gifted endorsement...

- Get an intern! (more on that later!)

-Look into ways to further my career

That's probably all for now (can there be more?) along with the usual stuff I've already done and want to keep doing (coaching, camp job, having a personal life...).

Bring it on 2013!!