For me, 2017 was filled with exhaustion, curiosity, new adventures, and a redesigned flow and atmosphere in our classroom. It all began just under a year ago when some colleagues and I were able to attend our first EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in Las Vegas as our school explored various ways to integrate technology into our classrooms. Our minds were racing as we left an action-packed weekend eager to share the resources that our school’s Chromebooks had been patiently holding onto for months. I am so grateful for the perfect storm that brewed in the months to come, combining Donnie Piercey's concept of “Fun Theory” from his keynote speech with the delicate balance of integrating technology to transform our learning at a deeper level. From that point forward, I looked at every morning as a challenge to answer a question from Donnie’s keynote--"Are students running to or from your classroom?”
For the following weeks, I spent hours bouncing ideas off of colleagues as we tried to answer this challenge on a daily basis. Summer break, however, found me teaching summer school an ocean away from my colleagues, and I found myself searching for answers on Twitter through an awesome PLN. Over time, I felt more comfortable transitioning from an observer to a participant in Twitter chats, and even simply as a medium to help share some of the awesome ideas that were happening all over the world!
As I reflect on my personal growth this past year, I am confident that providing a window into my classroom via Twitter helped to hold me accountable to trying new things and making sure that I was constantly trying to produce an experience that I was proud to share with our students, families, and PLN. I’ve learned so much perusing the Twitterverse over the past year, but I’d like to take it another step further! This blog ironically started with a #OneNewThing post but hadn’t had anything posted since. My resolution to kick off the #BestYearYet is simple--One blog post, once a week, for one year. At the very minimum, I’ll have a portfolio of my thoughts that have accumulated over time, but in the meantime, I hope that it can be a place to exchange new ideas, challenge each other’s thinking, and continue to provide an experience that our students deserve!
"Every year can be the best of your teaching career, if you constantly improve." --@rushtonh #SomethingSpecialEDU #BestYearYet pic.twitter.com/homu7gIWeE— Tyler Yamamoto (@tyamo8) September 4, 2017
I am by no means an expert in the field, but excited to learn, connect, and refine some of the following topics throughout the year to continue the #BestYearYet!
- Character Education
- Flexible Seating
- Technology Integration
- 21st Century Learning Skills
- BreakoutEDU
- Coding
- Seesaw
- Flipgrid
- Pear Deck
- Growth Mindset
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