At EdCamp KS in Dodge City this summer, I won a copy of Matt Miller's book Ditch That Textbook. Little did I know that my good friends Dyane and Micah would be teaching an online course over this exact book! So, here I am working through their online course, Ditch That Textbook, in an effort to increase my graduate credits. Each week we have been challenged to explore and respond to various thoughts and ideas presented in Matt's book. I feel like this week was a curve ball as Dyane posted our weekly challenge...Create a project addressing the question, "Why be a connected educator?" When I first started thinking about this question my mind instantly went in the direction of how one becomes a connected educator and where I'm lacking as a connected educator, so I had to put on the brakes and back-track my thinking to the actual question of why someone would want to be a connected educator.
As I think about the reasoning behind being a connected educator, I'm drawn back to my first teaching job. I was fresh out of college taking a high school English position at a school that serviced the juvenile correctional facility just outside of town. Most of the students were boys ranging from age 13 to 21. There was no textbook, no curriculum, and no scope and sequence. I had to figure out what the students needed most in the area of their English education. Wow! What a task for a young twenty-something novice teacher! I felt like I had been shipwrecked on an island with limited resources and told to survive - Oh, and don't forget to take care of these kids too. Sure there were other teachers at the school, but they had their own content and classes to worry about. Sadly, there was no Twitter, Facebook or even Pinterest to help me out. I truly felt on my own. This is probably the first key reason for an individual to become a connected educator. Even though you may work in a building with other colleagues, you still might feel like you are on your own island just trying to survive. Being a connected educator is like throwing a line out to someone else on their island and drawing you both together so you are not alone.
Once you start connecting with other educators, you open a treasure trove full of new ideas and resources. You also gain inspiration and encouragement that helps you carry on throughout the school year. As you continue to connect and develop relationships with other educators, you become more open about sharing yourself with others - your thoughts, ideas, resources, and encouragement. You may even find yourself in a new situation which allows you to collaborate with another teacher not even in your school district. In Matt's chapter entitled Be a Connected Educator, he relates meeting and collaborating with his friend and colleague Paula. They happened to connect through Twitter and ended up collaborating on a presentation that they presented together at an educational technology conference. As I was reading his story, I was drawn into my own collaboration experience. I had transitioned from teaching English to being the high school librarian at the same school and again found myself needing to connect with educators in the library field. I made two connections through an awesome online library challenge called 23 Things Kansas. It was geared to helping school librarians learn about and embrace technology. Through this experience, I met Gwen Bartlett and Heather Braum. We decide to collaborate on a presentation for the Kansas Libary and School Librarian conference. Like Matt's experience, we had never met in person, but we were able to connect online through our common interests and passions as educators.
While I love the idea of connecting for the sake of exchanging ideas and collaborating with other educators, I think one of the most surprising reasons to become a connected educator is to challenge your mindset and perspective. That's right, it's important to be connected educator so other's can push your buttons, in a positive way, though. When we stay isolated on our island, we stop growing. We have nothing challenging our thoughts and ideas. That is not to say that our thoughts and ideas are wrong, but they can become dated, stagnant and ineffective. I have always considered myself open-minded when it comes to new ideas and trends in education. When I first heard someone mention project-based learning (PBL), I thought, "Yes! Finally, there is someone else who sees the value in projects over exams." Then I learned what PBL really looked like in the classroom and I had to take a step back to re-evaluate. Had I not been a connected educator, I might not have even heard about PBL or what it really meant. I also wouldn't have been challenged to evaluate my thoughts and opinions on project-based learning. Recently, my challenge area has come in the form of the schools where students choose what they are going to learn. It seems to be a spin-off of the Genius Hour concept. If I were not a connected educator, not only would my knowledge and understanding be limited, but I wouldn't be challenged to think more about what these types of schools have to offer students. I would solely be thinking about how schools like this are hurting students because they are not gaining an educational foundation in reading, writing, and math. Does it mean that I will always agree with these challenging ideas and thoughts? No, but it is good for me to be challenged so I can grow as an educator.
What about you? Are you a connected educator or is it time to kick yourself off the island?
Educators are using Tackk in a wide variety of ways in the classroom. From daily announcements to
creating digital portfolios, the possibilities are endless. The ability to comment publically and privately allows for collaboration between teachers, students, or even with other classes.
Think "fantasy football for social studies, literacy standards, and world news. Great way to get students engaged in learning!
ePals
ePals is an ideal way to collaborate with other classrooms around the world. You can set-up communication through Skype or emails between students. Teachers can search for a class to connect with by age range, language and regions.
Canva is a tool that makes design simple for everyone. Canva gives you everything you need to easily turn ideas into stunning designs. Create designs for Web or print: blog graphics, presentations,
Facebook covers, flyers, posters, invitations and so much more.
This blog post focuses on completing Word Work on the iPad with elementary students. Thanks to Kayla Long for sharing this link!
Science Experiments For Kids | The Quirkles
Quirkles is the Science/reading book series that comes with 2 experiments to do at the end. They can be taught in any order so teachers could read the book or books that go along with the letters while they introduce them. Thanks to Renae Hukill for sharing this resource.
"Classrooms can Skype with a Yellowstone National Park ranger to learn more about geology (geysers, hot springs, volcanoes), ecology (fire; wildlife--bears, bison, elk, wolves, and more), or cultural history (Native American, world's 1st national park, tourism). Students can interview a park ranger or try to guess which park the ranger works in."
Ten Reflective Questions to Ask at the End of Class
Provides
some basic observations about reflection along with 10 reflective
prompt questions you can use with your students or for yourself. Great
questions for wrapping up the day, a project or a lesson.
5 Free Tools for Creating Whiteboard Videos
These
whiteboard video creation tools are great for those exploring or
working with the Flipped Classroom. They are also a great way to create
concept videos to share with parents and students as homework helpers.
Tool recommendations from FreeTech4Teachers.
Google Tools for Science & Math
Includes Chrome Extensions, Google Doc Add-ons, Graphing & Calculators, and Google Drive Apps connected to Science and Math
Last summer, I came upon a new tool called Google Keep. I liked it better than stickies because I could access them on any computer, but the features were limited and I couldn't access them on my Apple devices. Just this week I discovered that Google Keep has an Apple app and I've been taking a fresh look at this tool. Here's what I like about this tool:
1. It's free! Who doesn't love free resources?
2. It's tied to your Google account. You know what that means? No additional username and password to remember! Because we are a GAFE district, students can also use this tool for reminders, notes and checklists. This becomes the perfect digital agenda for students.
3. Color!!!! I'm all for using a variety of color! Google Keep allows you to change the color of your notes. I like to use this as a means of organizing my notes. For example, red notes relate to my website, green ones are informational reminders, and teal notes relate to the Intel Courses. Students could use different colors for different classes to help them stay organized.
4. You can change notes from a regular note to a checklist with one click. This is great for projects or daily to-dos, especially for those of us who like to see what we've accomplished and what is left to complete.
5. You can add reminders on your notes by clicking the reminder icon (finger with a string tied on it). Customize your desired date and time on your reminder and you are all set to receive notification reminders. No more missed deadlines!
6. With a simple drag & drop action, you can rearrange your notes and put them in any order that works for you.
7. You can search and filter your notes by words, color, sharing, lists, images, and more.
8. You can add images and websites to your notes. This would be great for collecting images and websites for a specific lesson, unit or project. You could also take a photo at a workshop of a key slide or information being presented and add it to a note. Students could take a photo of the work for the week if their teacher posts it in the classroom. This feature would also help students keep track of online photo locations for images they use on a class project.
9. You can share notes with other people by clicking on the share icon. They will receive an email message with a link to the note. This would be great for sharing project responsibilities or sending out assignments to students.
10. There is an app! Android users have always had a Google Keep app option for their devices, but until recently Apple users had to just use the Chrome web browser on their devices. Now you can see you notes and receive notifications on the go by installing GoKeep. App Drawbacks - too many ads and no search or filter option! Hopefully that will be an upcoming update. There is an alternative app option called TurboNote for Google Keep. You still have ads at the bottom of the screen, but they are not popping up over the top of your notes.
Some additional tidbits:
You can download the Google Keep app onto your computer from the Chrome Web Store.
There is a Google Keep extension - Category Tabs for Google Keep - that allows you to assign specific categories to your note colors. However, there are some glitches with filtering the colors.
This app runs offline!
Check out this video for a quick visual tour of this tool!
