Cool for the Summer - Web 2.0

One of the discussion board questions this week really got me thinking about my students. I work with elementary schoolers and it is so funny to watch them with technology. They are so much more advanced with it than I was and I grew up with a computer at my house -- shout out to the family desktop that was in our dining room! I find it funny to watch them with technology, though, because they usually just know what to do when they get to a website. Some of them already know how to get to the website, without my help. And others are somewhat clueless, but it still usually only takes me one time to explain something before they have it. And now they all have their own devices. Our district purchased Chromebooks for every student when we had a digital option during COVID.  So now, we have the added task of making sure that they are being monitored not only in real life, but also online as well. We have the job of creating good citizens in their real life community and also in their d...

My sister in law is a pharmacist and I always joke with her that if she tells me about her patients then I'll tell her about my students, ya know the whole HIPAA vs. FERPA thing. Obviously, we're always joking and we don't share actual information, just random crazy things that happen in our respective days.  But, all jokes aside, it made me really think about FERPA and how it really regulates what we do with information we have about our students. I know that I never  want to violate my students rights or put their personal information out for everyone, in anyway. So I usually think about it like this, " Would I want someone to see this if it were my information?"    Just because kids don't have a strong social media presence doesn't mean that they don't need to be protected from it. We hear in PD all the time that information on our students is constantly trying to be stolen (which is WILD to me). Teaching these days comes with the added task of not ...

While I love Pinterest, I have found myself moving away from using it as a resource for teaching. These days I find myself migrating to Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Social media use within classrooms is growing as the years go on and I think that it’s important for teachers to utilize tools that are out there, within reason. Making sure that the tools are appropriate for the age group is so important. I wouldn’t expect my elementary school-aged kids to do the same thing with social media as I would high school-aged kids. As mentioned in the reading this week, Pinterest has become a place for linking to outside sites, like TeachersPayTeachers (TPT). TPT is a great place to find resources and I think that it has usurped Pinterest for the landing place that teachers go to find inspiration. Using it as a social media tool is interesting though because you have the ability to follow your favorite creators on there and you can leave comments on the products that you purchase. This very mu...

I think that as time goes on, classroom learning is becoming more and more informal. Teachers are constantly challenged to make lessons more exciting and more interactive. This is so students will stay engaged and learn, instead of tuning us out. This is both exciting and daunting at the same time.  It's exciting because it gives us teachers the ability to reinvent what we have been doing and it allows us to see what works and doesn't within the realm of our classroom. Old lessons can be refreshed and reworked to fit the needs of current students. Every teacher has, at some point I'm sure, found a lesson done in a previous year and reworked it for the current class that they have. It's something that I think can be so rewarding to do, especially if it works to the benefit of your class.  However, informal learning can be daunting because there is this constant pressure to be fun and exciting for every lesson. Making lessons, or remaking them, can be exhausting for some ...

I think that the tools this week are interesting.  On one hand, you've got Slack which takes me back to AIM days because you can set away messages, mark yourself as away, and silence notifications (although I know we all miss the open door sound from our AIM days!!). I like Slack because it's alternative to email and Twitter. It's less formal than email and more private than Twitter and it's instant, like texting. It gives the opportunity for connection, no matter where you are or what device you're working with. I love that you can react to messages and send gifs and videos, just like texting. I would like to think that if AIM were still around, we would have those capabilities too 😂 On the other hand, you've got Trello, which gives me very strong Padlet vibes. I like that you can create your own threads, comment on others, react to them, etc. It feels like a great way to discuss topics that are presented and have more interaction than just a formal discussion...

This detox came at the perfect time. With all that is going on in the world, I think that we could all use a break. All of the news coming from the Supreme Court kind of hit all at once, and it was hard to be on the internet without falling into the pit of despair.  Nevertheless, she persisted. I stayed off of Twitter and Instagram for the most part. It was hard, but I knew that scrolling through everything wouldn't help me. It was helpful that this week was one that was different for me. Our school district had a big conference on Tuesday and Wednesday for the new Florida standards. We are switching curriculums as well, so we had to be trained on that too. It was a welcome distraction from the outside world.  I had some FOMO, but it wasn't as terrible as I expected. I read more, which has been a goal for me this summer and that was so nice. I really wanted to take a trip to the beach but the rain has been putting a damper on that. I planned for the new school year a bit. I...

I think that there are some trade-offs to using social medias in a learning context. You see how learners will interact with each other outside of the traditional learning environment and you see how they learn outside of the traditional learning environment. This is huge for upper grade levels, like high school, and for higher education, like undergrad and grad students. Learning doesn't just have to be something that fits nicely into the classroom anymore. There are so many tools out there that allow for learning and it should take some pressure off of the teacher.  However, I think that the other trade-off is, for students who are elementary and middle school age, they don't get these opportunities because those platforms aren't the most appropriate for them to learn. They are still developing into their own types of learners and far be it from us to force another way of learning onto them.  I think that social media has a time and a place to be used in the classroom. Ma...