Professional Development in Technology Integration

I chose to follow Kelly Tenkely, who, I learned, has started her own school and also created the Learning Genome Project. After watching some videos about her school and about her project it is clear that she is an educator that is all about the students. The Learning Genome Project is actually a “hub” that will allow teachers to personalize for each and everyone of their students. I watched her entire video about this project and it sounds incredibly interesting, but it sounds like the actual program is still in the works. I am definitely interested to see how it turns out for teachers and students. I think it could be a very powerful tool, but like many things I think I might sound good in theory, but very hard to actually initiate. On top of everything she has going on it surprises me that she even has time to post on her blog, but I’m glad she does. Although some of the apps and websites that she posts are gear more toward younger students, I still found them interesting and helpful in many ways. It was helpful because she still chose apps that focused on different learning styles and multiple intelligences, and just by demonstrating that she gave me ideas of how I can integrate apps and websites into the classroom. What I like most about her blog entries is that she not only gives you a description of the app or website, but also how you can integrate it into your classroom. I also really enjoyed how she took current movies, and social media and related it back to education, or to her students’ lives. For example, she took some of her students to Big Hero 6 and then was able to write about what the movie taught her about education. The best part was that one of her students actually recognized it, too. However, not all of her posts were about app or websites she also talks a lot about what she is doing in her school. In one post she discusses how every year they sit down and create learning profiles for each student. After following Kelly for a little while now I am truly inspired by what she is doing, and she is somebody that I definitely plan to keep following.