There is an amazing amount of information out there. From Google to blogs to Pinterest and Facebook. In some ways it's just amazing. Anything and everything you've ever wanted to know about is out there, just a quick click away. In other ways... totally overwhelming! You can spend HOURS lost in the Internet. I was recently told I need to incorporate technology more into my lessons, not just using technology, but also having the students create with technology. Ok, can do. My mentor teacher does really cool projects. Unfortunately my mind has been a blank. Actually, not a total blank. I have one cool idea but I'm saving it for my solo week next month, as it will take a few days to complete. For single lessons though, involving cool uses of technology, there's nothing up there. So I spent the evening on the interwebs, trying to find inspiration. I found everything else, it seems, but no inspiration. Then I started to realize that the more I browsed, the less inspired I felt. Instead of being inspired, I'm just overwhelmed. There's so much out there!
Chris Jernstedt, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, spoke at UVEI a few weeks ago. When asked about note taking and how that helps or hinders learning, as part of his response he said that the novice takes copious notes because they don't know what to filter out, they don't know what is important and what is not. That has stuck with me and as I browsed the web tonight I realized that as a novice teacher I really don't know what to filter out either. Everything looks interesting, but not exactly what I need, and I can't easily scan things as I imagine a long-time teacher probably can.
Or maybe the fact that it's 11:30pm has something to do with it. Perhaps all this inspiration/overwhelmed-ness will percolate overnight and a great idea will come to me in the shower tomorrow! :)
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