Take Aways

I took so much away from this course, I don't have time to list it all.  What I came away most with was the desire to do more.  I want to change the way I teach, collaborate, and learn.  I really want to use My Big Campus more and share that with my peers.  I feel that we still have a long way to go, but I know that even  baby steps are possible.   

As technology coordinator, I feel that I need to show my colleagues how easy it is to use technology.   It seems difficult and scary, but once you have experienced all that is out there, the excitement of thinking and teaching out-of-the-box will fuel your fire.  I also see the need to get our school to 1:1 computers!  I am more determined to have that discussion and keep having it, until we complete the task.

I am excited to build my PLN and help others develop their own.  I am thrilled with the new tools and online learning communities that I have learned about.  I will be taking the next course, with the goal of making 2013-2014 my most successful and exciting for myself and my students!!

Thanks Five Star!!

Using Facebook and Twitter in the classroom

The great debate!  To facebook/twitter or not!!  I personally let my oldest daughter sign up for a facebook when she was 12, I think.  I had her password and checked it frequently.  She was my facebook friend and I had other family memebers checking on her as well.  We had a few incidents where her friends were using language we did not approve of and strangers wanting to be her friend.  Now, I have an 11 year old and she wants a facebook and I have not let her have one.  After experiencing what I did with my oldest, I decided she should wait until she was 13 or starting high school. 

Now, as a teacher, I teach second grade so of course we don't even consider that for them.  We have sixth graders who have netbooks and use online learning this year.  I still would not recommend facebook or twitter for them either.  I feel there are other social media products, like wikispaces, that are made for the purpose of collaborating and communicating in school. 

Even with wikispaces, we had students changing other's work or bullying online.  The difference is I could monitor them very easily and handle the inappropriate situations.  I don't feel that facebook and twitter were setup for school use, at least not elementary or middle school.

I would say in high school it would be fine, but there would be rules like allowing the teacher to be friends and see posts.  The normal monitoring.  I also think the parents should have a say in whether they want their child to have those accounts. 

Online Course Tools

This online class is really opening my eyes to the teacher I want to be!!  I am so excited to use TED-Ed to begin flipping the way I present mini-lessons, as well as Voki and Animoto.  I am also excited to create new assessments that are more true to real life expectations of students, using Socrative or ThatQuiz.  I would like to be better at using my google account and become more familiar with new programs (new to me) like, Edmodo and Moodle.  I want to let my students collaborate more with programs like Wikispaces and edublog.

My biggest struggle is going to be taking my time to implement and teach these new programs.  I will have to pace myself and make sure it is fully understood before teaching something new.  There is so much I want to share with my colleagues and students!!

What I will take from this course

This online course has made me look at the way I currently use technology in my classroom.  I have realized that I can be doing so much more!  It also makes me really want to have one-to-one computers/tablets in my room so I can do more and do it more often! 

I think I will be able to use some of the tools I have learned about.  I also think that I will look in to how to let my second graders use technology to learn more collaboratively.  It is going to be difficult for me to use online assessments and to let my second graders use the exploratory method.  They are so limited on their knowledge and right now they only want to use technology to play the games they are familiar with and play at home.  I have to be okay with them playing and teach them that you can play and learn at the same time.

I also find it difficult in the second grade finding safe ways for them to explore and not see inappropriate things.  They are so immature as this age and love to share the wrong types of information! 

I am excited and nervous at the same time about what the future holds!