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.