I believe that opportunities, experiences, and exposure can all contribute to a student reaching his or her fullest potential; as an educator, I am reminded of this every day. As I walked into an appointment after school one day this week, one of my third grade students texted me and said, “Hey, Ms. Sheri. I would like to work on the graphic design I started in class. I remember that I need to be signed into Google, but should I open a new tab to bring up the Canva website you showed us in class? I remember needing to click on the tab that tells me to sign in with my Google account. This should work on my computer at home, right? I do not have a Chromebook like we used in class. Thanks so much! (Insert happy face emoji here.)” After reading it, I just sat there in awe and thought about how advanced our world is today; I began teaching nine years ago and never would have guessed an eight-year-old would be texting me an elaborate question concerning graphic design and Google accounts at any point in my career. Different students (and people) excel in different areas and disciplines; as an educator, it’s up to me to recognize the needs of my students, their potential, and ways to get them there (even if it means I have to learn along with them). Exposure and presenting opportunities to students most definitely helps increase student growth and potential. In an effort to do just that, I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with Internet tools as well as learning new ones to use. I am excited to learn more about blogs and blogging, virtual worlds, and content management systems and learning spaces.
Web 2.0 Tools
Web 2.0 tools are constantly changing; therefore, the way we teach should improve as well. This year all of the students in our school system were given email addresses; I never knew how monumental student email addresses would be for me. Email, alone, has made my students more independent, increased their communication skills with both adults and peers, encouraged responsibility for their own learning, and created lifelong learners who are aware of the ever-changing world that surrounds them. Google Educational apps have also made a huge impact on my students as learners. I am amazed to see the impact Google Classroom and Drive has on the students in my classroom, as illustrated in an assignment to increase public speaking skills. Prior to students reciting speeches they had written and memorized for a history project, I decided to introduce them to Google Forms. They each created a form asking others specific questions that addressed their skills in public speaking and shared with others to take through Google Classroom. As each student got up to say his or her speech, all of the other students were checking for eye contact, fidgeting, articulation, volume, and speed. After all students said their speeches, they reviewed their responses and had adult-like conversations about the pie charts and bar graphs that displayed their strengths and areas in which to improve. As I walked around the room to observe and listen, I thought about how much my teaching has changed this year alone and how teaching, education, and student learning is forever changing and how blessed I am to be a part of it. I also believe that some tools are geared toward specific learning interests and abilities, and it’s up to us as educators to match students and tools together to differentiate for the needs of our students. My initial thoughts of Web 2.0 would have never taken me where I am today, which is much of the beauty of the entire concept of these types of learning tools for our students. Simply stated by Gutierrez (2013, as cited in Solomon and Schrum, 2014) about today’s student-centered classroom, “ I’m not sure what this type of classroom this is called, but I do know that it is a much better environment for students to learn and grow in than it used to be” (p. 24).
In my experience as a 21st-century teacher, I think differentiation is essential to embed within the walls of any classroom. Web 2.0 tools are easily and readily available for all learners; there are endless tools to reach and support all learners, regardless of abilities or learning needs. With these instruments available to teachers, we are able to differentiate learning, create environments of exploration, tutor students based on their strengths and deficits, flip the classroom, utilize project-based and technology rich classrooms, and make learning fun (Gutierrez, 2013 as cited in Solomon and Schrum, 2014, p. 22-23). Students are also able to access help from home through communication with teachers through email or chats, learn from how-to videos, or simply search for the answer for which they are looking.
Blogging Evaluations
Blogging with students is a new concept to me, but an exciting one that I’m ready to explore. As it promotes collaboration, communication, the displaying of student work, and proof of learning, it’s a vital tool that I believe could be used in classrooms of all age levels. For evaluating student blog posts, I found http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/ as a great source. Because I am starting from scratch for student evaluations of blogs, I found the first one I opened the most interesting and helpful. The direct link to the PDF attachment from the website is https://timhorgan.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/blogging-rubric.pdf . This sample rubric gave me a great place to start and opened ideas to evaluating for post frequency as well as community involvement in the blogging world. The second resource I found as helpful is http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/05/a-wonderful-blogging-rubric-for.html. This rubric is an example that reminded me of the importance of layout and graphic design elements. Prior to seeing either rubric, I did feel ideas and content as well as grammar would definitely be on my chart.
As noted in my chart, I will evaluate students on their ideas and content, quality of writing and grammar, their involvement in the blogging community, text layout and graphic design, and post frequency. I’ll explain to students this rubric will apply when writing on their blogs as well as responding to others on their blogs (with the possible exception of scoring graphic design or text layout in their responses to others only). I think evaluating students on a weekly basis is a good start; however, I will tweak the frequency of evaluations once I delve deeper into student blogging.
Web 2.0 Tools
Web 2.0 tools are constantly changing; therefore, the way we teach should improve as well. This year all of the students in our school system were given email addresses; I never knew how monumental student email addresses would be for me. Email, alone, has made my students more independent, increased their communication skills with both adults and peers, encouraged responsibility for their own learning, and created lifelong learners who are aware of the ever-changing world that surrounds them. Google Educational apps have also made a huge impact on my students as learners. I am amazed to see the impact Google Classroom and Drive has on the students in my classroom, as illustrated in an assignment to increase public speaking skills. Prior to students reciting speeches they had written and memorized for a history project, I decided to introduce them to Google Forms. They each created a form asking others specific questions that addressed their skills in public speaking and shared with others to take through Google Classroom. As each student got up to say his or her speech, all of the other students were checking for eye contact, fidgeting, articulation, volume, and speed. After all students said their speeches, they reviewed their responses and had adult-like conversations about the pie charts and bar graphs that displayed their strengths and areas in which to improve. As I walked around the room to observe and listen, I thought about how much my teaching has changed this year alone and how teaching, education, and student learning is forever changing and how blessed I am to be a part of it. I also believe that some tools are geared toward specific learning interests and abilities, and it’s up to us as educators to match students and tools together to differentiate for the needs of our students. My initial thoughts of Web 2.0 would have never taken me where I am today, which is much of the beauty of the entire concept of these types of learning tools for our students. Simply stated by Gutierrez (2013, as cited in Solomon and Schrum, 2014) about today’s student-centered classroom, “ I’m not sure what this type of classroom this is called, but I do know that it is a much better environment for students to learn and grow in than it used to be” (p. 24).
In my experience as a 21st-century teacher, I think differentiation is essential to embed within the walls of any classroom. Web 2.0 tools are easily and readily available for all learners; there are endless tools to reach and support all learners, regardless of abilities or learning needs. With these instruments available to teachers, we are able to differentiate learning, create environments of exploration, tutor students based on their strengths and deficits, flip the classroom, utilize project-based and technology rich classrooms, and make learning fun (Gutierrez, 2013 as cited in Solomon and Schrum, 2014, p. 22-23). Students are also able to access help from home through communication with teachers through email or chats, learn from how-to videos, or simply search for the answer for which they are looking.
Blogging Evaluations
Blogging with students is a new concept to me, but an exciting one that I’m ready to explore. As it promotes collaboration, communication, the displaying of student work, and proof of learning, it’s a vital tool that I believe could be used in classrooms of all age levels. For evaluating student blog posts, I found http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/ as a great source. Because I am starting from scratch for student evaluations of blogs, I found the first one I opened the most interesting and helpful. The direct link to the PDF attachment from the website is https://timhorgan.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/blogging-rubric.pdf . This sample rubric gave me a great place to start and opened ideas to evaluating for post frequency as well as community involvement in the blogging world. The second resource I found as helpful is http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/05/a-wonderful-blogging-rubric-for.html. This rubric is an example that reminded me of the importance of layout and graphic design elements. Prior to seeing either rubric, I did feel ideas and content as well as grammar would definitely be on my chart.
As noted in my chart, I will evaluate students on their ideas and content, quality of writing and grammar, their involvement in the blogging community, text layout and graphic design, and post frequency. I’ll explain to students this rubric will apply when writing on their blogs as well as responding to others on their blogs (with the possible exception of scoring graphic design or text layout in their responses to others only). I think evaluating students on a weekly basis is a good start; however, I will tweak the frequency of evaluations once I delve deeper into student blogging.