To help you bring more technology to class!
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Adam Vedomske Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author |
About the Author
I have found that I play two roles in this journey we call life. One is the teacher, a Gandalf type of individual. I have served in the humblest places this world has, and helped share a knowledge that I feel is important to us. I have been a leader and helped those in need. I am a mentor, an older brother, a best friend, and a guide. When I am like Gandalf I help and I give what others need.
The other role I find myself playing is that of the student, or a seeker. Someone who is on a journey, a Frodo type of individual. My journey has been long and I have the callouses to prove it. I’ve worked in construction, manufacturing, and even selling. I’ve translated foreign tongues and been lost in foreign lands. I’ve seen humanity at it’s lowest and it’s highest. I’ve helped the poor and I’ve been the needy. Like Frodo, I have journeyed the land, coast-to-coast 13 times. I went from job to job thinking that I had found the one, knowing really that I hadn’t. Once at Virginia Commonwealth University I even started on the path to education. But, I left it and said that that was not for me. I found that nothing satisfied me like I knew it would. One day, after settling down and planting some roots with my wonderful wife we decided to start a family. It was then and only then that I embraced and heeded the calling, leading me here.
The technology part of me has always come naturally. I would help my dad back in the 90’s with his computer. I was always found taking everything electronic apart. I am wired that way. It just makes sense.
Someone I emulate is Fred Rogers. He talks about discipline and he says, “as its root word “disciple” suggests, discipline is a teaching-learning kind of relationship, which depends more on intimacy and trust than on authority. Disciplining includes comfort, care, and nurture. It includes praise for achievement, and it most certainly includes examples, from which young children learn so much.” I believe in being a disciple.
The other role I find myself playing is that of the student, or a seeker. Someone who is on a journey, a Frodo type of individual. My journey has been long and I have the callouses to prove it. I’ve worked in construction, manufacturing, and even selling. I’ve translated foreign tongues and been lost in foreign lands. I’ve seen humanity at it’s lowest and it’s highest. I’ve helped the poor and I’ve been the needy. Like Frodo, I have journeyed the land, coast-to-coast 13 times. I went from job to job thinking that I had found the one, knowing really that I hadn’t. Once at Virginia Commonwealth University I even started on the path to education. But, I left it and said that that was not for me. I found that nothing satisfied me like I knew it would. One day, after settling down and planting some roots with my wonderful wife we decided to start a family. It was then and only then that I embraced and heeded the calling, leading me here.
The technology part of me has always come naturally. I would help my dad back in the 90’s with his computer. I was always found taking everything electronic apart. I am wired that way. It just makes sense.
Someone I emulate is Fred Rogers. He talks about discipline and he says, “as its root word “disciple” suggests, discipline is a teaching-learning kind of relationship, which depends more on intimacy and trust than on authority. Disciplining includes comfort, care, and nurture. It includes praise for achievement, and it most certainly includes examples, from which young children learn so much.” I believe in being a disciple.
Reflections
Elsewhere on this site, I explain about TPACK and how technology is infused into one's teaching. I feel it only fair that I talk of my journey with TPACK. So in the beginning, I started with training wheels. No, really I did. I was in the summer of my first year of teaching. My technological knowledge game was strong, I’ve always looked at things and tried to keep myself technologically efficient. My content knowledge was there but had not been really used since I graduated with a B.A. in 2008. My formal pedagogical knowledge was lacking. I had no real experience in the classroom. I only had what I knew from my time spent as a missionary in Brazil some 15 years earlier. So, this is how I started down the path on my “Big Wheeler.”
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Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
After about a year in this program and another year under my professional teaching belt. I feel that I have come a long way. I have been exposed to things that I could never have done had I not have been in the program. I have honed my technological knowledge and made it into a tool that I hope this site can help others. I have attended every PD I can and with that and the theory, and research that has taken place in the last year I have traded in my “Big Wheeler” for an actual Trike with ape hangers and I’m not talking about one of those backwards Can Am ones.
I am not a teacher because someone shamed me into doing it. So, I am not going to teach like I was. The more I think about why I decided to teach and pursue this program, the more I feel I was chosen to fulfill this calling. I am a teacher because I chose to take on the responsibility of educating others. Come what may! I am called to the greatest calling. I believe in being kind, loving and I am willing to change what I need to change to improve my students' success. This all comes full circle back to respect. I respect myself and I respect my students.
I am not a teacher because someone shamed me into doing it. So, I am not going to teach like I was. The more I think about why I decided to teach and pursue this program, the more I feel I was chosen to fulfill this calling. I am a teacher because I chose to take on the responsibility of educating others. Come what may! I am called to the greatest calling. I believe in being kind, loving and I am willing to change what I need to change to improve my students' success. This all comes full circle back to respect. I respect myself and I respect my students.
Click on the DeLorean to go to my blog.