When doing some introductory reading about the facilitators of Cohort 21, I noted how Justin had expressed frustration with his previous Professional Development sessions. I took this to mean that he was underwhelmed with the offerings which had been available at the time.

Today, however, I felt overwhelmed.

From dictionary.com, one meaning of "overwhelm" is to load, heap, treat, or address with an overpowering or excessive amount of anything. The excessive amount of anything I experienced was great ideas. Overwhelming, - certainly! I did suggest that Garth either add an extra 4 hours to my day or offer to board my 3-year-old daughter so that I could even begin to delve into some of the discussion.

After having taught in the public system and then a private elementary school, I feel that I have now entered a time warp where:

Technology available to me as a French teacher in an independent school

+ Recent changes to the FSL curriculum

= Rocket launch in my teaching trajectory.

A quick review of my day:

Design thinking: I felt I had accomplished so much already by 10:30 a.m. Much more than I would've on any regular Saturday (although laundry marathons and meal planning/preparation are vital as well!) I solidified some goals that I had for oral French production integrated in a natural and meaningful manner at the beginning of every class. Details will be revealed once I try this.

Twitter: So far my favourite tool. Highly addictive. Even moreso now that I've joined this group.

Diigo: Wow - I could get lost in this. So many great articles. How did I ever teach effectively before this? (Did I?...fodder for another post...)

GoogleHangouts: Well...I'm still getting the hang of this. Pun intended.

Blogging: My first attempt here. (Can anyone tell me if I should source my images the way I did? Or how about if I can change the font size? Or how I'm even supposed to end this post...?)