For EDU 300, I'm required to locate, read and reflect on three education-related Twitter chats. I started by reading the archive of tweets from the Teacher Librarian chat held Mondays at 8pm #tlchat. The topic I chose was on advertising and displaying books. There were tons of great ideas. For example, I love the idea of asking parents and students to record book reviews and making these available in the library (you could use QR codes for this). Another interesting idea was to have local celebrities be guest readers and create posters. I like this because for very young children, local celebrities (e.g. the lady who rings up the groceries etc.) are more relevant than "real" celebrities. Next, I checked out a chat called #teacherwellness. I devote a lot of time to wellness in my personal life and I think wellness is so important. I know that many teachers quit within the first 4 years of their career due to burnout or other factors. So teacher wellness is a topic that I feel is important. I found these great actionable ideas for being more positive. I recently finished the book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg. She had the suggestion of writing down three things you believe you did well before bed to combat negativity. (Many of us may think about what we did not-so-well before drifting off!) I thought this might be a useful practice in the classroom - ask students to reflect on what they did well and felt proud of - not just requiring reflection when there is a problem! I see the "Happy Teacher Challenge" suggestions as being another great way to be more positive.
Finally, I checked out #MexEdChat because I'm interested in bilingual education, international education and have experience teaching ESL in a Spanish-speaking country. I was interested to learn about virtual fieldtrips! This is one to Antigua, Guatemala for Semana Santa (the largest Semana Santa celebration in Central/South America). This event I was fortunate enough to attend in person and it was a very beautiful event ... worth attending in person and virtually!
I have even more buy-in and motivation for high-fidelity implementation of Expeditionary Learning than I did before the class (and I had a lot of buy-in before!) I now understand better how technology can support the goals of Expeditionary Learning by allowing for real-world audience and purpose. I have a clearer picture on how to evaluate my own use of technology to make sure it is used according to what's best for learning and teaching, not just for its own sake.
I did my Genius Hour presentation on Expeditionary Learning.
I created a short quiz using Kahoot for my class on educational technology.
What worked?
How did interactions within your PLN (including the class) inform your thinking and design process?
In what other ways could this tool be used? How might you go higher on Bloom's? I'm very excited to try "Blind" Kahoot. getkahoot.com/blog/the-art-of-blind-kahoot-ing I think this model could help move away from remembering and understanding (or worse multiple choice guessing) and higher on Bloom's. I like the idea of introducing content in small doses after each question. I think this is the way many people learn - a little at a time - not big buckets of information all at once. Better yet, the new info can be elicited from students each time a question goes deeper allowing them to constantly reinforce and apply what they've learned to tackle new problems. I think Kahoot has a lot of potential for jigsaw activities - when one or two students have information about part of a topic. The time after answering can be used for these students to share their knowledge after suspense is built around the answer to the question. When students are sharing their knowledge with others, this lands higher on Bloom's than simple review (revision as the Brits say). As an aside, another use of Kahoot might be in an ESOL class, particularly because you can embed pictures. A first day activity is often "Find someone who ... (went to France this summer, has a bulldog etc. etc.") This is usually done with name tags. Students could guess which classmate fits which description and then the student in question could introduce themselves with the fun fact. This format might take some of the tedium and repetition out of "getting to know you" activities at the beginning of the year but still get the job done (students will know names of their classmates and some trivia about each other after the activity). I'm taking a class on educational technology at USM. Here is where I'm going to post reflections and learning related to this course.
Looking forward to learning more about this curriculum for tech club! |
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