Thing 1

After a few hiccups in creating a blog and a few laughs while making my avatar, Tackling Technology is officially up and running. Time to dive in headfirst... I am writing this first blog post with a lot of mixed feelings and hesitations.  Will I make a fool of myself?  Will I post some horrible spelling/grammar mistakes and not realize it until it has been read around the world (yah, I'm known to exaggerate things slightly)?  Or will this turn out to be a fun "adventure" that I will look back at later and be proud of what I've accomplished.  I guess only time will tell.  But for now, I'm jumping into this blogging craze and hoping for the best!

After reviewing the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners tutorial, I found that I have mastered some areas, and need to work on others.  Having a Goal in Mind (Habit 1) is probably the aspect that comes the easiest to me.  I would label myself a very goal orientated individual.  I am constantly looking to the future and making lists of what I want to accomplish.  I love lists!  Be it my daily to-do list, or the list of 100 items on my Bucket List, I love the feeling of setting goals for myself, achieving those goals and then altering my list to portray my new life goals.  Every year around the New Year, I sit down and commit my goals to writing.  I refuse to call these resolutions.  But they are my list of goals that I want to accomplish or at least make substantial progress towards accomplishing within the year.  This year, one of my goals was to earn a Masters Degree.  And here I am.  Use Technology to Your Advantage (Habit 6) would probably be the habit that I struggle with the most.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not an idiot when it comes to technology, but I'm not a pro either.  I like to stay within my "bubble" of what I use technology for, and I rarely seek out new technological advantages until they become mainstream and virtually everyone is using them. 

Through this process of working with Web 2.0 tools,  my goal is to learn more about what new technology is available while focusing on how I can utilize technology in the classroom to expand the learning opportunities for my students.  When  I was a student, technology in the classroom consisted of a teacher wheeling the TV/VCR cart into the classroom, struggling to get it to work for half the class while my classmates and I grew restless in our seats.  Or who can forget the dreaded projector shows and the sound of that reel of tape spinning while a distorted voice narrated a jumpy picture?  Well those days are now long gone!  Although I sometimes shy away from technology, it is obviously here to stay and it is time for me to learn more about how I can use it to benefit myself and my students!  With that being said, I guess it's time for me to alter my list of goals for the year to reflect "tackling technology."