Kickin it with T: Adventures with Technology

Productivity as an educator is one of the most important things you need to be. Personally, I would like to get a routine going in the start of my teaching career to make things easier in the future than to continue to work hard my whole teaching career. When achieving productivity in the classroom you want to make sure that your students interests are kept while also incorporating high order thinking. After taking this class there are a few productivity tools that I could see myself using in my classroom such as: Reminding Tools - to help me remind myself of test days or important dates and to also help me remind my students and their parents of the homework that is due along with important dates (tests, field trips, permission slip deadlines, picture day, ect). With these tools it also holds the students accountable because they cannot use the excuse of "I did not know what the homework was so I did not do it". This gives multiple ways to communicate these important ...

The process of blended learning as of now does not have a definite definition. But blended learning is combining computer based learning, problem base learning and in class learning together. Like you do with a smoothie, you place all the ingredients you want in a blender and you mix it up to create something totally new! Or when you mix different colors together to create a new color!  Computer based learning + problem base learning + in class learning = BLENDED LEARNING  With blended learning, a portion of the traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by web based learning (computer and technology). Before taking this Instructional Technology course I really had no idea what Blending Learning even was, I thought it was just an online class day. But something that surprised me about Blending Learning is that it has no real technical definition because it is still in the early stages of creation. Although I am still a little confused about Blen...

Assessment . The evaluation or estimation of the ability of someone. To me assessment just means a way to check someone's understanding of a concept or lesson. When it comes to assessment, I think that it should be done at the very end of a topic learned such as a test or a culminating activity and also should as be done after every lesson as well to gage how well of an understanding your class has by using items such as exit tickets . When it comes to grading I do not think that the every day assessments should be graded but at the end of the topic covered there should be some kind of grade pinned to it. My impression on the tool EduCanon is that I really like that you can see where the students fell and which problems students struggled with. And my impression on the tool PealDeck is that I enjoyed that you can see answers and read them but you cannot see who said it. This can be both a positive and a negative. This is a positive because students feel comfortable stating ...

With the year 2018 slowing approaching, students working in single rows and seated in a desk should start to become obsolete and schools should start to incorporate better learning spaces for their students. Classrooms need to be better learning spaces to accommodate for the variety of learners. For example, for the hands on learners who learn better with movement the classroom needs to be big enough to allow that movement to occur. Or for the visual learner there needs to be plenty of writing space for students to see their work. In order to provide such learning spaces educators need to take these things into consideration : Learning spaces should be comfortable Lighting affects your mood Allow different seating patterns Have playful spaces  Technology accessibility Example of play spaces  Having a good learning space encourages better learning. By allowing students to move furniture, sit wherever during reading and move around cre...

This past lesson was about copyrighting and what role teachers play with this. With technology being more readily available, teachers are face with more problems because images and music are at the click of a button. As an educator, our responsibility is to understand these licenses along with other details as well such as: Understanding the different types of Creative Commons   Understanding the importance of the potential consequences that someone could face if this law is violated Being aware of what constitutes as fair use If you are not sure if it constitutes as a fair use there are tools that can be used as well to help you decide. Along with understanding these terms ourselves we must be able to teach our students these as well such as, the major key concepts (copyright, public domain, fair use and creative commons). Along with that educators should also teach students: What are the copy right rules What are the different Creative Commons How to follow thes...

I don't have a catchy title for this week's blog...sorry. BUT if you did read my bland title today's blog theme is all about Ebooks! Ebooks are just electronical versions on of printed books that can be read on the computer or any other electronic device. Ebooks in the classroom should be used in younger grades, intervention classes, or as an option for students who do not read as well or as quick as their peers.  According the the article E-Books and TPACK:   What Teachers Need to Know About Ebooks ,  Ebooks have the traditional conventions of print books such as having a title, pages and chapters but they also have pictures and hotspots that provide navigation mechanisms for the reader such as: animations, sounds, videos, and read aloud functions. Perfect for students who struggle with reading. I think that these would be great to assign to students who also struggle with bring things back or loosing items that they are given. In the school that I am tutoring...

For the most part, digital citizenship for me, reflects both my personal and professional life equally. I would never post or say anything online that I would not do in person. With that being said, I have never (purposefully) posted anything to hurt someone's feelings because I know how it feels and do not want anyone else to feel that way. If I have posted anything embarrassing of one of my friends, they have never asked me to take it down and if they have I would have no problem doing it. There have been plenty of pictures from high school that my friends have tagged me in that I have asked for them to take down, not because I was doing anything bad, but the picture was just plain embarrassing! (usually me dancing at a dance or being silly). As an adult and now looking back at it I can laugh and think to myself "why was I so weird" or "why did my friends hangout with me!?" Although my picture that I am tagged in are just harmless fun like dancing or ...

This week's lesson was all about TPACK and before taking this class I never knew what TPACK was. TPACK stands for Technology, Pedagogy , and Content Knowledge and is an educational framework to design classroom instruction. A visual aid of what I am referring to is located below. In education, classrooms have always included the content and pedagogy in lessons but with technology becoming popular, classroom lessons should be starting to incorporate technology more into them as well. But before adding that piece of technology into your lesson there are some questions that you should consider such as: Is this the best technology to prepare students with for the modern world? Will this help students think and learn more deeply? How will this technology empower student to control their own learning? Have you considered the content and pedagogy before the technology was picked? How does this technology align with your school? When it comes to incorporating technology...

This lesson weeks lesson was called open. networked, participatory. But in this blog I focused more on being open . Personally, I am not a very open person, my business is my business and those that I want to know I will share it with. But, when it come to having a productive classroom environment I think that you have to be open not just personally about your life and experiences but open to new ideas , open to criticism , advice and other opinions.   When it comes to building an open learning environment and classroom I think the biggest thing that you need is having connection . Connection can come in a few different forms such as social media or face-to-face conversation but really it's all about getting to know one another and establishing a  comfort around each other. You cannot build a network or learning community without being open and comfortable with sharing. When it comes to the classroom setting this would be called a ' no closed door ' classroom beca...

When it comes to sharing, I think that sharing your work is an amazing thing to do. Why wouldn't you want to pass along your tricks of the trade to create an awesome school environment nation wide! But it's understandable that some teachers might just want to keep their ideas to themselves because they do not realize what amazing talent they hold ☹. Coming from a fairly new educator I love and appreciate any piece of advise I can get, whether it be through the internet like Twitter, Instagram, or my favorite Pinterest or just through word of mouth. Why have just one impressive, well structured classroom when you can share your work and help other teachers (new and old) also have better learning environments for their students.  Teachers should talk to each other and share their work of not just about the positive warm fuzzies that are working in their classrooms but also the not so wonderful experiences becau...

Hi everyone, my name is Tanjenae. This is my first semester in the graduate program and I am getting my Master’s as a Mild/Moderate Intervention Specialist. For one of my classes we were instructed to create a blog. Our first blog entry had to introduce ourselves to the blogging world and talk about our social media experience. So here we go! When it comes to social media, I can say that I do not have much experience. I do have a Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but I rarely use my Twitter (mainly because I do not see the difference between it and Facebook) and I only have an Instagram so people would stop asking me why I did not have one. Overall, I use my Facebook the most to check in on people, see how everyone is doing who moved away, and to remember birthdays. When asked the question “how do you represent yourself in the world of social media” my response is simple, I don’t. I am not one to post things about myself or really anything because I do not like postin...