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Happy New Year BirdsWhoops, I seem to have fallen behind in my blogging with the advent of the holidays.  It seemed like everything started to get hectic around Thanksgiving and didn’t let up until after Christmas.  Hopefully with the holidays behind us, I can get back in the swing of updating more often.

2012 was a pretty good year all around.  I attended a lot of great conferences and workshops, and started presenting at a few as well.  My goals for 2013 include doing even more presenting as well as increasing my knowledge of iPads in education.  I’m off to a good start with the presenting part – starting next Wednesday I’ll be leading weekly technology workshops for my district.  I’m extremely excited about this, and I hope my coworkers are, too!

I am also working with the planning team to put together EdCamp STEAM.  STEM teaching (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) has become very prevalent, and we hope to find ways to integrate the arts into these areas to provide a more rounded curriculum.  It’s going to be very exciting.

One of my pilot projects this year has really started to take off.  I began a student tech squad program for my 6th graders in the fall where students could study for and take tests in various tech areas to become a ‘Minion’.  The kids have been doing a great job on the tests, and my first batch of Minions is now helping out in both the computer lab and the regular classrooms.  Here’s hoping it continues to do well!