2013...a year of change...

So if 2012 was a year of excitement and rejuvenation...2013 will be even better. Both on a personal and professional level. But this blog isn't about the personal stuff...more about the "professional"! This post is about the goals that I will be striving for in 2013.

My goals for 2013 are and these are in no particular order:

• Establish a class blog
• Secret project this one for various reasons...I'll elaborate on this further when I can. Think along the lines of students discovering what's happening in the world around them and writing about it.
• Establish and support a student ICT technical support program
• This one is happening at my school, where we have just begun the implementation of a 1:1 notebook program. The plan is to have a small student tech group where they support their teachers and peers, in the use of ICT in their classrooms.
• Organise myself better
• Planning of lessons, balancing my personal and professional life more effectively - the plan is to do more work at school during regular hours and less at home. Also, with more time on my hands, means more time for experimenting with ICT and other things.
  
  That's completely reasonable right?
• Support my students better with the use of ICT
• Through experimentation and improved organisation, I'm hoping that I can introduce more innovative teaching methods for my students so as to improve their learning experience. I plan on using new and existing Web 2.0 tools to do this. Let's see how this goes...
• Write blog posts on a more regular basis
• I don't think 14 posts in 6 months was good enough even though now looking at it, its around one every 2 weeks, which really isn't so bad. Let's see how we go though as this year already seems to be rocketing by...and the year seemingly more full on. I have no idea how I coped in my first year...but we all notice these things...apparently a sign of getting older I'm told.
• Present more 
• Last year with the encouragement of some colleagues, I presented at my school on a Professional Development day, and then followed up with a presentation at #TMGeelong. While they were nerve wracking experiences, I decided late last year that in 2013 I would "hit the conference circuit" as one of my colleagues had worded it. So for the time being, I'm presenting at #ICTEV13 in May, and I'm sure a TeachMeet or two will be another avenue.
  
  Professional Development days are also something I'll be doing at school...my school offers internal PD days for staff to run and others to sign up for. They called for some new blood and I thought why not. While not the newest technology, I'll be offering PD in the way of Google applications, such as Drive and Sites.

So that's me in 2013...or so I hope. They're lofty expectations and goals however I don't think that they're unachievable. I think a couple of quotes would be fitting here

I look to the future because that is where I am going to spend the rest of my life.

George Burns

It always seems impossible until it's done

Nelson Mandela

So until next time...May the Tech Be With You

Jimmy V