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Diving In




OK... I did it. After multiple "nudges" by friends, family, and colleagues, I have decided to take the plunge into blogging. I am nervous to say the least, but here I am. I guess I should begin with an introduction. My name is Cara Pavek. First and foremost, I am a wife and mother. My little girl is a super sassy six-year-old. She keeps my husband and I on our toes. I'm currently teaching first grade at Florida Atlantic University's lab school, A.D. Henderson University school. I am entering into my 18th year of teaching and find myself still trying to figure out what kind of teacher I want to be... this year. Yep. I am THAT teacher. You know - the one who is never content with the status quo. The one always trying new things. The one who would rather struggle and/or even fail sometimes rather than do the same thing year after year. I love what I do and over the last few years, I have found this new passion - using technology to increase student engagement and make learning visible. 

Did you catch those buzzwords? Technology. Student engagement. Visible Learning. There are so many buzzwords in education that it can be hard to know where our focus is. Sometimes it feels like there is a new buzzword every week. I wanted to have a place where I could share ways we can go beyond those infamous buzzwords. Yes, they are overused. Yes, they are occasionally used incorrectly. But these words are still important. Words like differentiation, pedagogy and innovation, these words make us better and can mean the difference in student progress. Not everything I will discuss here will be about buzzwords, but as teachers, we know it is never about buzzwords anyway. It is about love for our students and passion for teaching.

So that's it. I'm so glad that you stopped by. I can't wait to share some of the tech related things I do in my classroom and some of the projects I have done. I have some pretty incredible people to collaborate with. I hope to come back from time to time and hopefully learn something new. Learn new ways to get kids excited about learning, because after all, we do what we do to make kids LOVE to learn. 




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