Meeting The Standards
Standard 4
c. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information
The first blogging that I participated in occurred back during the WOU Summer Institute of 2011. During one of Dr. Bucy's courses we maintained a daily blog post throughout the ten-day course. Following that experience, I blogged a little on my own and for a few other course requirements.
A year later, during Summer 2012, I was informed that my classroom would be receiving a complete set of student iPads. As a 1:1 pilot classroom in our school district, I kept record of how I integrated this new technology into my classroom by blogging at, Technology Integration for Math Engagment.
That was the beginning of many months of developing an online PLN where I connected with over one hundred fellow math bloggers and more than a thousand math teachers on twitter. The growth and professional development that I received through social interactions during the 2012-2013 school year was uncomparable to any professional development provided elsewhere.
During the most active months of my math blogging experience, there were over 500 subscribers interested in the technology integration content that I was discussing and sharing with fellow colleagues. The content itself derived from many personal examples and tools that were being put to use in my classroom. Thus, during the time I found my blog to be a great tool to promote tools that I found to be effective learning aides.
Standard 5
a, b, c, d.
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.
This standard is covered in a similar fashion to what has been described above. I would add that through the connections made on twitter, I was completely immersed in the process of continually developing and improving my professional practice based off of the feedback and work of other math teachers and technology teachers.
Additionally, with two middle schools in our school district, I found out pretty quickly that the math teachers from the other school were following my work and what I posted on the blog. This enabled them to have the opportunity to use professional development time to observe my classroom in action. The 1:1 integration of iPads in my math class served as an opportunity for me to step up as a leader and guide to those teachers within my school district, as well as many others across the country/world who were trying similar teaching methods and integrating technology on a daily basis.