METC 2013

https://twitter.com/METC_CSD

My district asked a few people to attend METC13 and I was one of the lucky few who got to attend! I was excited about this for two reasons: One, the sessions they were offering were things that I have learned about in the MET program and I am eager to see how others are putting these tools into action. Two, I finally get to create a screencast of a lesson for the sub to use while I am gone, which I got a message from my aid that the kids really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to hear their feedback tomorrow!

The conference was awesome! I've never seen so many technology savvy educators in one place! Coming from a building where I am ahead of the rest and it's like pulling teeth to get some of them on board, it was exciting to meet people who love technology and are excited about the possibilities it brings to the classroom. I chose sessions that I wanted to know more about or I wanted to see how other teachers were implementing it in their classrooms. There were a couple of sessions that I wanted to see more than one presentation. Most of the presenters had links to their presentations, so I'm sure I can find the ones I didn't attend.

I’ve been using my personal iPad in my classroom this year, so I was really interested in ways to use it more than just an extra electronic during centers. The first session I attended was “Appy Hour,” which my friend said was a perfect place for me to start, I think she may have misunderstood me (Ha ha). I have used a couple of the apps, but I love hearing about new educational apps to use with my students.

Another session that I attended and was able to walk away with things to use in m y classroom was “Motivated to Write.” The presenter gave us some ideas on how to go through the writing process through different graphic organizers and websites. One that I look forward to trying out is Cube Creator by readwritethink.com. The students choose a cube to use to write about something before they write or after they read and the program provides them with a template breaking the writing process into 6 parts. They can print and fold the cubes when they are finished. This will be a great differentiation tool for my guided reading groups.  

 

My favorite session was “Creative Movie Making with the iPad.” My class has been working on personal narratives and we are ready to make them into digital stories, so I was hoping to pick up some apps or programs to use. The presenter was great and had so many ideas that he uses with his 6^th grades, I wish the session would have been longer to learn more! There were so many cool ideas that he gave with us that I will have to create a new blog post to share.

 

Social Networking

www.teacherythoughts.wordpress.com

I joined Facebook to keep up with friends and family. I have educators in my friends list, but I don’t use them for networking. Used appropriately Facebook can be a great tool to use in the classroom for research and connections, much in the same way as Twitter. Here is an article by Edudemic on 100 Ways to Use Facebook In Your Classroom.  

www.educatorstechnology.com

I love Pinterest! Our district finally unlocked Pinterest so we could use it at school. It is a great resource for anything and everything you might need ideas for. I have used it a lot this year to get some new ideas for activities I do with my students. It is a great place to get inspiration. TeachThought posted an article on 37 Ways Teachers Can Use Pinterest In the Classroom.

Before taking this class I hadn’t really thought about using Facebook or Pinterest as a PLN. Now that I we have started learning about PLNs and the ways they can be used I see how social networks can be a great tool and how both Facebook and Pinterest can be used to build my PLN.

Networked Classroom

http://sharingchalk.ning.com/photo

The challenges of networking your classroom that the PLN book listed were: safety and ethical use, transparency, assessment, ownership and rights, and parents. Although these are legit disadvantages the advantages far outweigh them. The “thin walls [of the networked classroom] expand the classroom, and in the process deepen our understanding and practice of… critical thinking and problem solving.” (PLN p.60)

 “Some people find it overwhelming and wonder how to make time for it, but you just have to find your own groove with how you use it, and when you do, the connections add so much to your life.” (Shannon Miller, PLN p.70) Sometimes I find the transition of a networked classroom very overwhelming. I have so many ideas, but I don’t know where to start. I have integrated a lot of tools and resources that I have learned through the MET program into my classroom this year and I am sure as I get more familiar with them I will use them more often.  There is rumor that next year we are getting wireless in our buildings. I am hoping that this will help me to “find my own groove” and will help me to slowly transition my classroom with the opportunities to use more tools with my students.

If you didn’t follow the video link from the book for Brian Crosby it is worth the 15 minutes. What an inspiring teacher! I hope that someday I will have the resources and tools to be able to teach in a networked classroom like his. Brian’s student Celeste is a great example of how a networked classroom can be used to address the diverse needs of learners. Celeste was able to participate in 4^th grade without ever stepping foot into the room and jeopardizing her weakened immune system.

Twitter

I have had a Twitter account for about a year now, but I only use it to follow the sports at the high school I coach at and to follow a few friends who actually tweet and only because they asked me to. Other than that, I have never tweeted anything or participated in any chats. My cheerleaders often “#” things, but I didn’t really know what it was until watching the videos and reading about Twitter this week. I didn’t know much about Twitter and really only thought of it as a place where celebrities updated their statuses.

I didn’t realize there were so many uses for Twitter in education! The book, Web 2.0, gave some great suggestions for use in the classroom. Using it to collect real-world data (p. 40) is a great way to get the students involved in their learning in science, math, and social studies. A Tweetstory (p. 43) is great for using in language arts and lets the kids work on editing and story structure.  I look forward to using Twitter for my PLN and to learn all of the ways I can use it as an educator! 

I follow Free Technology for Teachers blog and came across 10 Teachers to Follow on Twitter. You can follow me @cathytate23

PLN Reflection

As I read through this week’s chapters I continue to think about the educational future of my students. Some of them, maybe a handful, at the age of 10 are disciplined enough and would be successful in an online learning environment. I know the book said that they are not disconnected from the world because of the online learning networks they are creating, but wouldn’t they miss out on those social cues and the interactions of their peers?

“… in an online environment fraught with so many potential distractions, how do we teach ourselves and our students to maintain a level of attention and focus that will allow them to learn deeply?” (PLN, p.26) I agree that learning networks are not a one-size-fits-all solution; majority of my kids have little to no self-discipline and have a difficult time keeping up even when I’m constantly reminding them and asking them to stay on task or to turn something in. These are the kids that I am worried about. Will we be able to teach them to use the attention strategies needed to be successful in an educational world that is constantly connected?  Don’t get me wrong, I am all about the BYOD in schools when used efficiently. It opens up so many opportunities for our students and allows us to bring so much of the outside world into our classrooms. I’m more worried about the “attention literacy” of these students.

Course Reflection

I am excited to start using the projects that we created in this class with my own students!

The digital story was one of my favorite projects that I have done so far with the MET program. It was a long process, but the end product was worth it.  I am planning on creating digital stories as a second quarter project with my students’ narrative essays.  They will be doing the same writing process that we used with this class to help develop their ideas and stories.

The infographic was a challenge for me. I wasn’t sure where to create it and I wanted to use something that my students would also have access to.  I felt like I needed more time, but it may have just been that I wasn’t familiar with it and wasn’t sure how or where to create it. My students started on their own infographics this week on Native Americas, so I am excited to walk them through the process and see how they turn out. I am having them do a rough draft of their infographic before they go to the computer to create it. (Here are the guidelines that I gave my 5^th graders. I will link the rubric if I get it done this week.)

Infographic

Wow, this project was a challenge for me! I often tell my students they are "thinking too hard" and this was a perfect example of that. I was not familiar with this type of information graph and had a hard time figuring out where to create it. In the end I decided to go with MS Word since I was familiar with the program. After I got started, it really wasn't as hard as I was making it. I chose to do my infographic on Native People of North America because that is what we are studying in social studies. I think this would be a great end of unit project for them to complete on a tribe or to have them use the infographic to compare two tribe.