Bri Dunckley's ITEC Blog

I n last week's blog post I mentioned one of my students speaking at graduation about how setting goals often times hinders our greatest success. Goals should be milestones, not end points. The true "goal" in life is to never stop setting goals and to never stop learning. This week's readings mirrored those exact themes as well. In Eduardo Briceno's TEDTalk, he dissects the difference between a "fixed mind" and a "growth mind." He explains how those who have "growth minds" constantly question, "How can I learn?" Learning is an ongoing journey and, as my student stated at graduation, "...as soon as we consider ourselves smart, our desire to learn begins to fade." In my Week 1 goals, I mentioned wanting to develop a PLN in order to further expand my own knowledge and help my teachers feel more knowledgable when I return in the fall. Taking on a completely new position next year, I know I will have setbacks, hurdles, ...

Last night, I watched my stellar seniors walk across the stage of North Point Community Church and accept their diplomas. Apart from the bright smiles, silly dance moves, and hilarious Salutatorian jokes, one other part stood out in my mind as I drove home. After the Valedictorian gives their speech, a chosen student (nominated by teachers and faculty) delivers a final speech to "send students on their way." This speech stuck with me because the young man delivering the speech had a message for his classmates: never stop learning. He said, "The minute you think you're smart, that is the minute you stop learning." He challenged students to grow, evolve, and never stop questioning life's graces; be open-minded and don't accept everything as an opportunity for argument, but instead an opportunity to learn. And finally, in a strong and confident voice he gave students an unexpected piece of advice, he said, "Stop setting goals for yourself." Shocke...

I vividly remember getting my first iPhone. I went to the Verizon store with my mom the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college and I convinced her that the Blackberry was outdated and the iPhone would give me the opportunity to "research stuff in class when my laptop died." It worked--I was a proud iPhone owner and the world was at my fingertips. At first, my searches were academic based; every now and then I would use my phone to search up the score of a football game or the address of the closest Pizza Hut, but I had to be contentious of my data since I shared a cell phone plan with my mom, dad, and two greedy [older] brothers. The only app I had on my phone was a game of sorts along with my school email; it was not until my senior year in college Twitter and Instagram became popular (I honestly feel so lucky that I did not go to high school or college during the days of constant social media, SnapChat, Instagram, and Twitter). According to the article, ...

After reviewing the four resources offered in Module #1, I found several commonalities between them; however, the biggest commonality involved the adaptation of the 21st century learner and classroom. At some point, in each resource, the author explained the importance of evolving our classroom for our current technology absorbed students. I particularly enjoyed the breakdown of the differences between digital literacy and digital fluency in The Daily Literacy article. One of my goals for this course was to come out at the end with more confidence and critical thinking skills when it involves technology and resources on the web. Furthermore, one key skill I want to be able to teach my teachers next year is about how to differentiate between fact and fiction on the web--this article helped hone in on the importance of this task. Perhaps it was the way I was clicking around on the resources, but I thought the Daily Literacy article as a great follow-up to the engaging and visually appe...

I recently accepted a new position at my school (for the 2017-2018 school year) as the Instructional Technology Coach. My principal spoke with me about his vision for the position and informed me that he wanted to see more critical thinking skills being applied to classrooms, not only with students, but teachers too. One main goal I have for this course is to develop those critical thinking skills in order to bring them back to my school in the fall. Along with that, I would like to be able to learn a set of skills in order to coach my teachers on ethical and efficient use of the web and Internet. A common fear among our teachers is that the information they are receiving off the web is inaccurate; therefore, I am hoping this class will guide me through the proper strategies needing to be be used in order to coach my teachers on web accuracy. Additionally, I hope to build and create a superior set of resources on a designated PLN. Currently, I have certain resources, but they are all...