Today I taught students how to write emails . . . And they were surprisingly receptive! In my AVID elective course we are working on soft skills that will help them prepare for life beyond school. Being on time and professional etiquette were a few topics that we started off with and that lead to emails. Mentioning that email was not going away anytime soon in addition to being the main form of contact with teachers outside of school hours had them hooked. There isn’t a typing or computer class that exists for our students anymore, so where are they supposed to consistently learn these things? This all goes back to my teaching philosophy point that technology still needs to be taught and it was nice that the students thought so too :]

I feel like I’ve done pretty well with keeping up with the technological advances that come along and incorporating them into the classroom if it has the right fit. One thing that I have never been interested/comfortable with has been video production and film editing. With new video apps like Tik Tok, video production has been on the rise in terms of interests and ease. We are wrapping up a unit on the horror genre and other than an essay, students have the chance to pick another project, one of which is filming and editing a book trailer based on the short story they read. I was able to offer examples from previous students and a pretty basic overview of platforms to use. Other than that they seem to be self sufficient! This is the first time I have allowed students to have an opportunity like this in fear of not being able to help them. I now know that they are able to help themselves in addition to needing to remember that there are colleagues who are familiar with these programs who would be happy to help. Out of my comfort zone as an educator, but it really worked out in my favor this time!

As I start to move forward in drafting my teachology philosophy statement I thought it would be important to create a list of my top ten common go to sites that I actively use in my classroom. This I think will be helpful in the sense of narrowing down what I really use the devices for in terms of types of apps/sites. After each site I’ll classify what it’s used for! I would love to have additions to the list or ideas of possible apps and sites that offer new ways of providing collaborative elements!

Gimkit – Interactive Game, syncs with Quizlet

Quizlet – Vocabulary Review

No Red Ink – Grammar Practice

Google Suite (Classroom & Drive) – Platform for information dispersal

Remind – Contact with Parents and homework reminders

GoGuardian – Technology management platform, watching what is on student’s screens

E-Hallpass – Digital pass system

StoryboardThat – Comic Strip

Padlet – Bulletin Board Collaboration

ArcGIS – Digital Interactive Maps

After reading through the last Yoda’s corner post, about the implementation of blogs as a means of collecting and reflecting, I spent some time thinking about the forms and mediums in which I ask my students to write. I was not happy with the conclusions I came to . . . The writing I have asked for has been purely academic. For the past few years I have been teaching 11th/12th grade elective courses where my goal was to ensure that the students going on to college would be ready. It was five paragraph essays and structure outlines and analysis at every turn. This year I have switched to 8th grade and realize perhaps there is room at all levels to incorporate a little less academic writing. My concern is how I shape the view of writing in the minds of my students. I haven’t had the room in my personal schedule to reflect and explore (except other than now 🙂 as much as I should have. I am the person who can really foster and develop this kind of writing in my students. Sometimes you just need to write for the sake of writing and see where it goes. There is a love and appreciation that can be developed but only when given the opportunity to give it a try.