Welcome
April 27, 2020
For my last and final blog post, I found an article about collecting students feedback. They give different examples of 17 different tools that can be used to gather student feedback. Feedback is essential in the classroom for students and teachers. It helps students frame the train of thought when they are learning a new concept. It also allows for teachers to gage the students on where they stand.
- Google forms
- Plickers
- Kahoot
- Socrative
- Gosoapbox
- Quizalize
- Formative
- Poll Everywhere
- Micropoll
- Zoho survey
- Survey Money
- Typeform
- Survey Nuts
- Survey Planet
- Free Online Surveys
- eSurvey Creator
- Pollmaker
The article breaks down how the first 7 resources are listed as education focused tools. The last 10 are general survey and poll creation tools. Each has its place. They are an easy way to add to your class with little effort.
April 19, 2020
This week I wanted to look at a resource that would impact my science classroom. I was thinking about different things in the room that we already have available to where I wasn’t adding in a new toy of distraction. I was like what is something that could possibly be added to the ATLO system. At first, I was curious about maybe getting the promethean technology on the board so I could present my curriculum in a meaningful way to our specific student population. I wasn’t sure if that was possible. Then I stumbled upon interactive e- books through the National Science Teaching Association. They are called NSTA eBooks+. The website even tries to help you find funding for your school. The interactive E-books have simulations, animations, videos, graphics/photographs, popups, drag and drops, glossary, and formative/summative assessment. I already have the chromebooks in my room. I would like to have something like virtual labs or interactive anything that is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. Maybe alto has something like this or they could add it to the system. In a perfect world, interactive labs or interactive eBooks would be great to have in the classroom. The standards are pushing towards STEM. The T in STEM stands for technology. Putting these eBooks on our system would impact my student’s achievement by allowing them to practice science skills that will help them in their standardized testing. It gives direct feedback so they can monitor their knowledge. The lab simulations would allow them trial and error. Sometimes I struggle to find paper- based lab items. This resource would help bridge the gap a little more.
https://www.nsta.org/ebooks/Professional/
April 12, 2020
This week I looked at an online resource to help in distance learning that is interactive technology. I looked at kahoot. The article that I linked down below shows how kahoot supports distance learning!
- Pre- made Kahoots!
- Self- Paced Challenges
- Video Confrence a Live Kahoot!
- Student Created
- Collaborate with Other Teachers!
These are all great ways to use interactive tech in the situation we are living in today! Not to mention if anything were to ever happen again, we would be able to easily transfer these resources over.
March 30, 2020
Another week of blogging again. This time, New Orleans is full throttle corona’d. It’s scary because I’m still attending work. I think I might be 1/10 teachers still working. Actually, my facility has so many positive cases of corona, I get paranoid about getting it myself. On my way to work I just start panicking. It could be worse.
This week I chose an article about how technology can enhance human connection in the classroom. That’s crazy because my parents used to always say that people always dealing with tech have no people skills. This article talks about how the flipped classroom style of teaching is how to enhances human connection via technology. It does this by being interactive, the personalization that tech allows, tech frees up time in the classroom for group activities, and it levels the playing field. The biggest point is that a teacher must blend her craft with technology to make our tiny humans the most prepared they can be for this forever evolving world.
March 17, 2020
Another week of blogging. Well. My work is still open. This week, I chose an article about empowering self directed learning! I would love to learn how to motivate student and not have to prompt them as much or redirect them. In today’s world, teachers are relied too heavily on for being the soul vector of education. What happens when a teacher is not there? I guess no one learns! This article talks about that exact thing. The author talks about how education is achievement focused on achievement and is insufficient in developing curiosity which is essential in the 21st century. The internet is a wealth of tools to teach students just that. There are journals, podcasts, tutorials, how to guides, and question and answer forums. Let them teach themselves something. Let them inquire other resources to figure it out. The teacher is not the only source of information!
https://elearningindustry.com/empowering-self-directed-learning#.Xksa1DkUtkQ.twitter
March 2, 2020
As my work weeks starts, another work week is slowly beginning. Little by little the Corona Virus makes its way this way. The article that I found was about differentiating instruction through technology. It gives a list of 30 sites. I explored a few and this is what I found.
- Actively Learn: allows the reader to make notes and annotations, and allows for multiple students to do it on one document.
- Edpuzzle: used for the flipped classroom technique. It is also used for posing questions to students as they watch a video to aid in assessment and comprehension.
- IXL: is a personalized learning platform. It tracks students understanding and growth. You can see where students are weak and give extra practice on those problems.
- Socrates: Students can work on this at home and at school. The tech is finds out what students don’t know and adjusts to aid them on bridge that gap.
https://www.techlearning.com/features/15-sites-for-differentiated-instruction
February 24, 2020
As each week passes, I feel a little better about posting. I think I’m getting the hang of each post. This week, when I was combing through “The Twitter”, I stumbled upon an article explores technology that aids in helping visually impaired students. It talks about screen readers. These convert text into audio. It even goes on to talk about paperless braille and how this tech uses small pins underneath a flexible mat. All of these forms of technology aid in your classroom to make it easier for your students learning. Its the perfect interactive technology for those students who are visually impaired as well as those students who are auditory learners. It can even be used for students who can’t read well like in my prison setting.
I could use the screen reader in my classroom with my student who struggles to read, but is so very gifted in science. One challenge that the screen reader would face is that all students would want it because they thought it was a toy. When something like this is brought in, all students want to touch and explore it.
February 10, 2010
Another week, another blog entry. This week I found an article detailing how to infuse digital literacy throughout the curriculum. As I began to read, I realized that technology has developed exponentially in my lifetime and is only going to keep growing. Integrating digital literacy into daily routines is necessary because as an employee, the students will need digital literacy skills countless times throughout the day. It focuses on how to fit it into your daily classroom activities because so many teachers feel like they don’t have time. It gives a few easy ways to fit it in that will benefit them. The article shares that students must practice how to evaluate the authenticity of content to find information. This is an inquiry related skill that can be used daily. It talks about engaging in online forms of communication. Email, texting, etc are digital literacy skills. The article also mentions making projects is another way to incorporate tech.
An educational technology tool is ClassDojo. This tool is a digital classroom community. Teachers, students, and parents may all communicate and see work. It is phenomenal in terms of bridging that communication gap. A teacher could use it as a digital portfolio to showcase the students progression through the year. A downside is that it digitizes the students work into a public domain. So making sure that nothing incredibly personal should always be taken into acount.
February 3, 2020
So this is blog post 2. This time got a little easier. My voice in my head was able to find an article that was interesting. This article talks about bringing augumented reality and virtual reality to the classroom. The article talks about how students can escape the classroom and immerse themselves into any learning experience. I think that the best part of this technology is that what student wouldn’t be interested when it gets their body involved. This would go over so well in a science class.
Another educational technology tool that I enjoy is the Remind tool. It is a direct way to keep in contact with the student’s caretakers. I remember teaching 6th grade science one year. I had my students do a mousetrap car project. I could send reminders out in one click of a button. It instantly communicated with over 30 parents. One drawback is that some parents don’t have consistent access to the internet for one reason or another.
January 28, 2020
I’m not so sure how to begin a blog. I personally struggle with social platforms because I overthink what I would write down for the world to see. I always keep it concise and brief with whatever I do decide to share with the world.
As my first blog post. I combed through twitter for hours trying to find the perfect article. I read dozens, but none seemed to fit the what I thought it was looking for. Suddenly, I realized that it was due yesterday. So I read an article that dealt with STEM because it is something I am familiar with.
The article follows a Grade 3 Robotics Unit. The article is broken down by weeks. Week 1 the students were guided in an inquiry experience where they learned how to navigate the software. Week 2, the students learned how to operate and program sensors. They also collaborated on their personal struggles and showed what they learned.
This article was great because it shows you something that is extremely beneficial to the students. It weaves multiple disciplines into one hands on activity, there is a tangible end product, instant feedback and troubleshooting procedure, and gets them to thinking and collaborating. STEM projects should be incorporated into every classroom no matter the discipline.
https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-great-stem-race/?sf216894730=1
One educational technology tool that I like is quizlet. Quizlet is something that I can use in my setting of students the most. I don’t have a working board or internet access in my classroom. So I am able to utilize quizlet even in the stone age. There is major respect in a technology tool that can do that. There are hands on games and I can make their flashcards into the memory matching game myself when I print them out. I implement Quizlet early into a unit. It familiarizes my students with the language because most have not been to school in years when they come to my school. I will do speed games for practice. Someone visited our district once and talked down on word walls. So this is my hidden word wall! It also is a space filler when the students are held over. One challenge with Quizlet is that it is rote memorization.
Miss Caldwell's Biology Classroom 