Wrapping it up

   

     This is the last week of my class, The Connected Educator, and again I learned something I had never thought of before. How many times have you copy and pasted an image from the internet onto a newsletter or worksheet? I couldn't tell you the number of times that I have used an image from the internet and I have never thought twice about whether I should check the copyright of the picture or attributed ownership to the designer. Most people probably assume that if an image in on the internet then the owner must want people to use it how they wish, right? Wrong. There are too many ins and outs to copyrighting to post here, but if interested, you should check out Obtaining Copyright Permission to Use Digital and Online Content in order to know how to legally use an image or content. There is also a website called Creative Commons that can help you search images to use and the tags that identify the owners wished for their images. You can also add your own images onto Creative Commons for others to use online. Teaching students the importance of attribution of ownership of internet content is very important in this digital day and age- we as teachers should teach through example.

     As I stated about, this is my last week working in The Connected Educator. I am not sure I can put into words all that I will take away from this class. I have learned so many great tools to help me stay organized as a teacher, as well as use technology with my students. If I were to pick the most useful tool I have been introduced to, I would have to say it is Adobe Spark. I haven't had many times where I have created a post, page or video to use in my class, but I think the uses of Adobe Spark are endless. When I was assigned to make a video using Adobe Spark I thought, "How would I do it? How hard would this be?" Then I worked on it and now think I could make a video for my students at the start of each week to set our classroom goals and map out what we will learn. It is not only easy, but also fun.

     If you take anything away from this blog- I hope it is to try new things. I never would have come in contact with the sites we learned about and the people I have connected with, without this class. I will continue to use the tools (located in the sidebar) to streamline my productivity, grow my PLN, and communicate with those around me. My hope is that you will too.

Be careful with that #hashtag

     This week in The Connected Educator, we discussed the use of social media in classrooms. Since my students are in 1st grade, there really isn't a place for them to use social media, but I have thought of using it with their parents. The content of this week's class has me thinking about whether there are more pros or cons to social media. In the past, I have used Remind with my parents. Remind is an app that teachers can use to text parents without giving out their personal numbers. To me, this app is vastly different than using Twitter or Facebook. The difference I see is that Twitter and Facebook are much more public and teachers use both to share their personal views. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I am not sure that in today's climate that is such a good thing. I think if a teacher is going to use social media, they must first acquaint themselves with the dangers involved. Here is an article that does just that. 

     While working through this week, I also had another chance to use Adobe Spark. While I am not normally technically inclined, I was able to make a video about the pros and cons of social media for kids. This was out of my comfort zone, but I found it easy and fun. I also was able to learn a lot about those social media dangers and apply that learning to my video. Whether we use social media in our classrooms or not, it is our responsibility to do so with care. There are so many dangers for students on the internet, we must make it our mission to teach them to use it with responsibility, as we must ourselves.

     This week, I have added all of the wonderful sites I have learned about while working my through this course. You can find them along the side of this site.
   

Help! Organize this....

This week in The Connected Educator was all about timesaving and organizational tools found on the internet. As I have stated before in this blog, I felt like I had a good understanding of tools out there to help me in my classroom prior to this class- but this week as been eye-opening. First off, I learned about Flippity Flippity is a website that uses Google Sheets to create games for your students. This picture just shows a few of the many types of games you can choose from.

I made a Memory Game for compound words- first they have to read the words and them decide if they go together. It might be helpful to provide a list of words available, but this game would be perfect for Reading Stations and easily maintained and changed as needed. Here is the link to the game I made. It's so easy, if I can do it, anyone can.

This week we also looked at online resources for teachers. I love looking at TeachersPayTeachers for activities, but there are so many other websites out there to use. My favorite new site is Better Lesson. This site lets you find common core lessons for your grade level in Math, ELA and Science. Even better, the lessons are organized based on specific standards.  To me, this is huge! I can't wait to use Better Lesson in my class next year.

In the picture, you can see that there are 17 lessons for 1st grade's ELA standard R.F.1.2.

I will be the first to admit- I stink at organizing! What I excel at is making piles- everywhere. Every year I have the best intentions to get myself organized, and this year will be no different- seriously! This week I was introduced to the blog, Happy Teacher, Happy Kids. From one post, I have learned so many new tools that help with organization that are easy to follow and doesn't require a lot of upkeep (this is my kryptonite).  Many of these suggestions will take a bit of work to start, but that's it. Here is a great checklist to see if you are an organized teacher, and what you can do if you are like me.

Have you tried Google?

This week I was introduced to the amazing features of Google Forms and Google Drawings. While I have been using Google Drive for many years, I have never explored the other features offered. Since I teach 1st grade and many of my students can't read independently, I don't use digital forms with my students, however, it would be so helpful to use with parents. For an assignment I used Google Forms to create a digital questionnaire for parents or guardians of incoming students. Prior to this class, I would have been afraid to attempt something along these lines, but it was SO easy and user-friendly. I anticipate using Google Forms in the future for many things. Here is a tutorial I found on Youtube that will teach you the basics of Google Forms.

During this week of The Connected Educator we also utilized Google Drawings. I had never even heard of Google Drawings, so I tried to keep it simple. In my 1st grade class, we use many graphic organizers, especially when teaching story elements. My Google Drawings allowed for my students to record the Characters, Setting, Problem and Solution. I know that I barely scratched the surface of this great program. Here is a blog post from Ditch That Text Book about how great Google Drawings is and how to implement it in your teaching. 

One the blog front, I found this great post from The Nerdy Teacher about shifting to a project based learning model. I know that when my district proposed switching to a more PBL approach, I was overwhelmed to say the least. It was hard to give up what I thought was control. Check out the Project Pals site where you can find free lesson plans and resources. 

Learning Management Systems

     Well, this was another eye-opening week for me in regards to the technology available to educators. This work this week for The Connected Educator centered on Learning Management Systems, which I had never heard of before. A learning management system allow for educators to create an online connection with students and parents. The two sites I examined were Edmodo and Schoology. I explored Edmodo first. Right away I noticed how similar it was to Facebook in appearance and even some features. With Edmodo, teachers can create classes or groups. Classes are designed to provide various online activities where teachers can assign quizzes, tests, and homework. Groups can be created to communicate with parents. Students can earn badges as they complete work and allows for teachers to check for attendance. Schoology is almost identical to Emodo. The site also looks like Facebook in the way users can comment and like posts. Like Edmodo, educators can create Courses and Groups on Schoology depending on the type of interaction they're wanting.
     Both sites are free , to a point, to educators and offer a variety of features designed to help users grow professionally. You can look for lessons resources, as well as blogs- Schoology does categorize their blogs based on topic, which I found very helpful. Users can join groups and communicate with other educators to share ideas and experience. I found it difficult to decide which site I preferred over the other, as I expect many people would. Here is an article comparing the two sites, which might help people make a decision.
     We have finally made it summer vacation here in St. Joseph, Missouri. I am sure many parents and wondering how they can keep their kids on some kind of schedule, I know I am. As I thought about this, I remembered to check my Feedly account and sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for. Feedly is so great in that it alerts you to new content- see the picture below:

If you are interested in The First Grade Parade's post of summer chores and boredom, here the link to the post. I found some great ideas for chore charts as well as activity incentives. Have a great week and be sure to check out Edmodo and Schoology. I plan to use one of them to increase communication with parents next year.

Hello PLN

Wowza... My mind was completely blown this week. I always thought that I was technically "with it" but this week I learned how far from the truth that belief is. We were assigned to research an online bookmarking website called Diigo. I was so excited as I explored all Diigo has to offer. When I signed up, I was able to get a free account, although there are many account options available for a price. One of the best features of Diigo is that you can bookmark sites of interest and connect those sites with a descriptive tag. Diigo organizes all of your bookmarks with the various tags you assign. Another exciting feature is that you can highlight portions of text on the site you bookmark- for me this was huge. I tend to forget what I found important on a certain site, so being able to highlight what I want to remember helps immensely. Here is a video I found that will help you navigate your first experience with Diigo, the music is relaxing too!

I was also exposed to a new term for something I was casually doing on my own- creating a Personal Learning Network. Many times throughout the school year I will look for an online resource to enhance a certain lesson. These sites include Discovery Education, Facebook groups, and Goodreads. There are many other sites that connect you to people or professional development you are interested in, sites like Twitter, EdWeb, and EduTopia.

Bottom line- this week I learned that there are so many websites on the internet that will really help educators grow. The tricky part is weeding out the good 😀from the meh😕, and I believe that all the sites linked above are definitely the good.

Here we go...

     Hey, everyone! I am ready to share my very first blog post. This week I started my 2nd to last grad class, The Connected Educator. My mind is already boggled by how much I didn't know about the blogging world. I have followed blogs in the past, mostly fashion, cooking and home decor, but had never looked at blogs about the teaching profession- boy was I missing out. For one of our assignments, I found 4 blogs to follow and I am so excited to explore those blogs and look for others. I think these sites will add so much to my teaching. Many of the sites have free downloads, which I love, as well as ideas for implementing more technology into a classroom. As I continued working through this week's assignments, I found the usefulness of Feedly. This site organizes all the blogs you follow and alerts you when new content is added. For someone like me who can be easily distracted by my everyday tasks, it is comforting to know that I won't miss out on anything by forgetting to check my favorite blogs, Feedly does it for me. I know I will find it very useful. Finally, my favorite assignment this week was creating a post using AdobeSpark. I love to play around with templates, fonts and pictures. This site does all the hard work for you. I was able to choose my favorite quote, make it look fancy and add a picture of my favorite little people. I think my first graders would be able to use this site, with a little guidance, to create a graphic for an assignment. I love when I can implement technology into my classroom. Here's what I created: