Thoughts on Monday

First Day Thoughts:
Honestly, I am feeling overwhelmed and confused.   I enjoy structure and knowing exactly what is expected of me.  Not really knowing where this class may lead is difficult for me. There is a lot to reflect on and try to make sense of after today.
Starting the school year in a new role this fall, I am unfamiliar with the students, their interests, and the program.  So I am trying to decide if I should study something that will benefit me or them.  But what will benefit them?  I will be working with students on the Autism Spectrum and students with severe learning disabilities.  One thought was to look into ways to promote and support independence in the students.  Many of them have one-on-one assistants.  Right now I am very unsure of which direction to go in, though, I think that either direction will have some benefits for me and the students.

Twitter:
I wasn't really sure about how I would use Twitter and how it would benefit me.  I spent some time this afternoon exploring it and found many links to some great articles.  Is there a way to filter what people (that I follow) post?

100 Languages:
I remember our principal telling us once that when students enter kindergarten they are naturally curious but as they continue through the grades that curiosity decreases.  I have had the pleasure of working kindergarten for the past three years and have seen that natural curiosity in action.  I can definitely see how it would decrease over time and how if there was a focus on the "100 languages" we may be able to continue to foster a child's curiosity.

Dan Meyer:
I enjoyed the Dan Meyer video and found it to be engaging (and perplexing).  I looked up the Rich Eisen and Julio Jones video so I could see what happened when Julio was shown running at half speed.  Dan had a way of making you think and trying to figure things out.  We have so many tools and resources now that can be used to help us discover the answers to our questions.  Whether we want to answer those questions was a key point in Dan's presentation.  The language he used was also important and something that can be easily incorporated in the daily happenings in class (for example, "today we are going to ask about..." rather than "today we are going to learn about..").  I want to do what Dan is doing - create intrinsic learners.  Students are taking ownership of their learning and are motivated to continue to learn.  His philosophy makes sense and it doesn't seem like it would take that much time to incorporate his strategies in my own classroom to make learning perplexing.  Though he is a math teacher I think that much of what he discussed could be carried over to other subject areas.