Portfolio of Jan Abernethy
DOMAIN FOUR: PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
4d Participating in a Professional Community
My most important professional community is the Discovery Educator Network, and they are the first people I go to when i really need help. There are hundreds of teachers I have met from the Discovery community over the past eight years, but there are truly about one hundred people in this community that I know personally. We talk on facebook or on twitter or ask each other questions on edmodo. I have met other professionals through edcamp, through twitter, and through Keystones, but the majority crossover to Discovery too. I am on the Leadership Council on the DEN and this year I became a Discovery Ambassador leader teaching other teachers in our district some of the more advanced uses of Discovery Education and introducing them to the most powerful part of Discovery...the networking aspect.
Through the Discovery Educator Network, I am able to learn about technology that is useful in the classroom through the trial and error of other teachers. Rather than wasting my own time on every new app, every new technique, or every new device that comes around, I can learn from others first what works and what doesn't. It has been an amazing time saver! The teachers I learn from are top notch, and they are devoted to their craft. I trust them, and they actually seem to trust me and think I have something to offer. I do my best to live up to their expectations. In reality I am in awe of what they know. My strengths lie in taking what they know and applying it in the classroom with the students. So many of the teachers in the DEN are technology integrators who teach teachers, so they don't often get to personally put their knowledge into action. I do my best to show them what that looks like, and our Greenville students do an amazing job showing them. If you watch the application video below, you will see what a group of fifth graders can do with very little direction, because they have been given the opportunity to have their own talk show for the school year. Having faith in students, and giving them opportunities to create and evaluate their own work and improve on it, makes for some very confident students. When you watch that video, you might be surprised to know that most of the students in the video were the shyest kids in fifth grade at the beginning of the year. Now it's hard to shut them up!!!! :-)
The Dauntless Dogs help Mrs. Abernethy with her Application for DENSI 2015. Watch the video to the right.
DENAPALOOZA HERSHEY
PRECONFERENCE FULL DAY OF DISCOVERY at the HERSHEY LODGE before the PETE and C Conference
I like to go to this conference every year, because I get the opportunity to connect with the people that I turn to online for help everyday. There is always a lot of laughing, learning and fun. Most importantly, the actual PETE and C conference is very expensive. The Discovery preconference is free for Discovery stars. I feel like I am getting the opportunity to learn from the best of the best for FREE and renewing connections that will be useful in the classroom all year long.