"You have a story to tell"

The most overwhelming days come in two different ways. They come when you least expect it and event after event comes up unexpectedly and you go home drained. They also come when you learn new idea after new idea and you come home drained. You can learn from both types of days. Today was one of them.

If you ever have the opportunity to listen to Kristin Ziemke (kristinziemke.com)

for any amount of time, you better take advantage. An hour is amazing and you leave excited, energized and eager to apply ideas immediately into your classroom and teaching! Try 6 hours with her! Yikes! Along with feeling excited, energized and eager, you might feel overwhelmed, drained and mentally exhausted! I, along with 30 of my colleagues am extremely lucky to be in this position after a day full of learning today!

Kristin is a public school teacher in Chicago and an author that travels to classrooms all over sharing her great ideas and success stories about using technology in your classroom. The learning she guides us through as educators is fun and entertaining and at the end of the day, you are surprised it has come already. Kristin reminds us to always think about the child and to use tools to empower our children at all levels. Have you tried Quickdraw.withgoogle.com? So fun! Go do it now! What a great way to engage kids to think and then to extend to writing or a discussion!

Kristin reminds us with research and data that students still do not create nearly enough in our ever-changing world. She empowers students in her class to make short videos about things they are learning and topics they are wondering about. She restructures her teaching time by making her own short videos to recap a mini lesson so kids can review it when necessary. I am reminded that we have think outside of the box on a daily basis in our rooms and ask ourselves, how can we engage and empower our students to own this learning?

One way to empower students is to build opportunities for explaining their thinking and wondering. Kristin guided us through an activity where we examined a photo and discussed what we saw, thought and wondered. This could be done as early as Kindergarten with a photo from a magazine or other publication. We can build on student learning as the lesson evolves and interests are peaked and explored. What a great way to engage students at all levels by starting with a photo.

I love days like this! Push me, challenge my thinking, make me question my beliefs. I want to become a better educator for my school, my faculty and my students. I cannot wait to learn more, read more and teach kids how to tell their own story through their work!