Edwards_Meredith_SU2014

Me & My Crew in the Poconos Hi, everyone. My name is Meredith Edwards and I just finished my first year teaching 7th grade English Language Arts at a public middle school in Brooklyn. I came to NYC by way of South Carolina, where I attended college and spent most of my childhood. Three things I enjoy are going on trips with my students, listening to stories, and eating.

Though long a Luddite (I once denounced texting as communication for an attention deficit, intimacy-phobic generation), I am now an ardent fan of all things digital. But in spite of my self-proclaimed Ludditism, I never didn't use tech. I was a hardcore fan of computer programs like Reader Rabbit (literacy computer game), Minesweeper (before being told that the numbers on each tile stood for the number of surrounding mines, I used to click at random and wonder how anyone ever won), and Microsoft Paint. Looking back, I see that it wasn't technology in general that I resisted, but the kind of tech I thought of as encouraging "artificial" relationships between people: texting, Facebook, and Twitter being among the accused. Now I use all three, and more!

A relatively recent event related to my life as a tech user occurred in my classroom this year. I started letting my kids read on their cell phones and iPods. Why not encourage them to use the technology at their disposal to build their literacy? Students who have library accounts can read using the 3M Cloud Library and Overdrive Media apps. There's also a host of other apps that appeal to their interests, like WattPad and Marvel Comics. When I told my Teachers College coach about letting kids do this, he told me about this documentary he was in, which only made me feel smarter for having made this choice.

**ISTE Goals **

Familiarize myself with Skype in the Classroom, a technology that will allow me to facilitate collaboration between me and my students in a virtual environment, and document what I learned
 * I. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity **

Create a tool my students can use to assess their learning and progress
 * II. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments **

Write my beginning-of-year parent letter in a digital format that’s both informative and aesthetically pleasing
 * III. Model digital age work and learning **

Create a poster for my classroom that sums up our classroom policy on ethical use of digital information
 * IV. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility **

Discover 5 new resources (texts, blogs, reading activities) through following educators on Twitter
 * V. Engage in professional growth and leadership **

Access my final portfolio here