Blogs for the Parents? I'll Pass...

The final topic of my online course talks about how to expand your blog and use it as a tool for communicating with parents and students.  Unfortunately, I'm not very welcoming to this idea.  For one, if I start doing this there will be some expectation to post regular updates with good information for parents to read.  I say parents, because I definitely don't think 2nd graders would ever want to read my blog!  Sometimes I'm just too busy and wouldn't want to post on my blog (which still isn't really growing on me, by the way).  Then I feel like the blog could be seen as a negative by parents.  Even though it's optional, I'm afraid some parents would see it as me not doing my job if I didn't keep it updated regularly with quality information.  This article was shared with me to explain the benefits.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/stenhouse/classroom-communication-social-media-tips.shtml

I especially don't like the part about using Facebook as a communication tool.  I am friends with a few of my classroom parents, but I see things going south if I created a Facebook group to communicate with all parents on.  Some parents can just be downright nasty, even stooping as low as making threats to other students, and I think giving them the ability to post comments on there could just end badly.  Some people just have no filter and find it hard to differentiate between private/public matters.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the majority of my parents, but it just takes one stinker to ruin it for everybody.  I would also be afraid that if I discussed any type of classroom activities, some parents might take it the wrong way and feel that I'm criticizing their children.  I think for now I'll stick with good old-fashioned communication and personal emails for now.

Technology: Friend:) or Foe:(?

My latest online course topic has made me come to the realization that I'm not doing enough to teach my kids about digital citizenship!  Lucky for me they haven't all received their own devices yet, so there's still time!  Better late than never, right?  I've already started finding online, kid-friendly resources to share with them about digital citizenship, such as this cute little video here: http://www.abcya.com/cyber_five_internet_safety.htm  ABCYa always has such good games for my second graders.
It's been recommended that I reflect on my own digital footprint. This article scares me a little: http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-916-Getting-Ahead-Will-Your-Social-Networking-Profile-Get-You-Hired-or-Fired/ I don't see a problem with employers looking prospective candidates up online, but what scares me is that so many people have the same name as me or people could unknowingly post things online involving my name.  This is the exact reason I have to approve it when someone tries to tag me in something on Facebook.  Even my own sisters are guilty of tagging me in photos that I don't wanting floating around on the internet, because they purposely try to catch me at the most embarrassing times.  One good thing I have going for me is that I hate alcohol, so I don't have to ever worry about someone snapping a photo of me having a drink and it ending up online. I couldn't imagine if one of my students found a picture of me like that.  I would feel like I let them down and be so embarrassed since I should be a good role model.  Technology can be a destructive tool, but it also has so many benefits. When I Google my name not too much comes up, and that's how I'd like to keep it!  The less my name comes up online, the better, in my opinion.  Unless of course it's for like the "greatest teacher ever" award or something lol!  Even then, I wouldn't want my photo with it!  I will be sure to educate my students about the importance of keeping a positive digital footprint, but I honestly prefer to have a nonexistent one for now.  I have a Facebook account to keep in touch with people, but I'm a little leery of posting too much on it.  There are so many people in this world that use technology for evil, so I at least want to make it a little harder for them.  After thinking about the comment I made earlier about not drinking, I've realized it really doesn't matter because someone could easily Photoshop a picture of me holding anything imaginable... And that is why I often say technology can be the devil!

Using Google Drive to Organize Your Teaching Resources

This scenario was posted in my online course. "Susie spent hours collecting and curating resources for her upcoming unit on cells. She is able to successfully use much of what she has found when implementing her plans.The following year, when it is time to begin the unit on cells again, Susie forgets about the resources she curated. She essentially starts from scratch, performing the task of searching, saving, and sorting once again."  This sounds like the story of my life every year since I have started teaching!  I hate myself for not saving things from year to year.  I always think back on things I've done in the past and wish I would've saved them.  Well this year I am trying to get better about this.  Especially since the module I'm currently working through in my online course focuses on curating digital resources.  I've been challenged to create a plan with ways to make my curated resources a regular part of my planning.  I have already professed my love for Symbaloo in a previous blog post, but I cannot stress enough how great it is for keeping resources organized and handy!  I have found that it is best to use it for more generalized things, like links to the main page of a site.  I have found other ways to curate resources that I will use to teach specific units.  If I find a specific page within a site that I can use to teach a certain topic, I will save it differently than I do the main page.  I started using Google Drive this year.  At first I hated it, because I hate change and I'm so comfortable using Microsoft Word.  Well I've figured out I can still upload things I've created in Word to my Drive, so now it suits me just fine.  I love the collaboration aspect of it because now I have created a Google Spreadsheet that is shared with the teachers in my grade level.  Every time we find a digital resource we can just quickly copy and paste the link onto the tab for the appropriate week.  We decided to sort our reading resources into units and weeks.  For example, if we find an awesome video about similes to show in unit 4 week 2, we could just paste the link under 4.2 and a quick description to serve as a reminder of what it is.  We do the same thing for Math, only we sort the tabs by unit topics.  So if we find a resource for teaching time, we just paste it under the "Time" tab.  Now we don't have to worry about losing things anymore because they'll still be there ready to use next year! Now the worst thing that could happen is finding broken links when we try to use them next time. :( I hate when that happens!  In summary, I've learned curating resources is the way to go!  Don't be like me and think "I'll probably find something better the next year to use so I won't save this."  Sometimes newer isn't always better, and sometimes you don't have time to find anything better the next year!  I feel like next year will be my easiest year yet because I'm finally getting organized and saving things...in places where I can find them!

Guilty of Too Many Paper/Pencil Tests? I am!

I keep hearing the term "authentic assessment" popping up lately both in my Math standards training and in my online course.  I admittedly don't do enough with authentic assessment and it's an area I plan to work on.  I've been asked if I believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area.  I do, in fact, feel like it is possible in all subject areas, but some lend themselves to this more easily than others.  I think that authentic performance tasks are an important part of assessing a child, but I think they must be weaved in with traditional testing methods as well.  I think students at every grade level can partially demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment, but they must also prove that they can perform on a traditional paper and pencil test. My online course discusses whether it is practical to ask teachers to include authentic assessments in their plans since we live in a world of high stakes testing.  I feel that it is practical and I will go one step further and say that I think administrators should welcome and even insist on teachers weave these activities into their planning.  Authentic assessments do seem to be more daunting and time consuming, but the students will love us for creating them!  I think giving students a chance to participate in authentic performance tasks helps to prepare them for the real world much more than a paper/pencil task.  In a perfect world, our success in school, college, and life wouldn't be determined by scores on written tests.  Unfortunately, the world continues to head in this direction so we must continue to give standardized testing-type assessments beginning at an early age to prepare students to show their "knowledge" on paper. If you're looking for some tips on incorporating more authentic assessments into your classroom, check out this Edutopia article: http://www.edutopia.org/10-assessment-tips-for-class In my opinion tip #5 "Ensure Rigor" is one of the most important things to remember.  Just because you're creating a memorable, authentic task for the students doesn't mean it is just for fun.  It should still be standards-based to correctly reflect what the students learned and of course encourage critical thinking skills.

Symbaloo Seriously Rocks!

I learned about Symbaloo last year, but I dismissed it as a useful tool at first.  At the time, I thought it would only be beneficial to my students and I was told that they couldn't access my Symbaloo without using my login.  Well all of that was completely wrong!  I have always been anti-bookmarking because I would forget what I had bookmarked and absolutely never go back and revisit them!  I hated that they were just in a long list with no pictures.  I soon learned that Symbaloo is like bookmarking for rockstars! I started using it every day as a time saver to access websites that I frequently use.  I also love it because it's a constant visual reminder and I find myself using online resources I would have otherwise used once and forgotten about!  Now I keep going back to those good resources and finding more things to enhance my teaching and I love it!  I thought SYmbaloo was pretty easy and straightforward, but I've realized there's a lot more things it's capable of that I didn't know about.  Another educator shared this amazing Symbaloo webmix with me.   Even if you've been using Symbaloo for awhile, I'd almost guarantee you'll find something new in these tutorials: http://tutorials.symbaloo.com/home/mix/tuesdaytutorial  One thing I love, for example, is the color coding abilities!  I haven't had time to play with this much yet, but I've started sorting my tiles by color.  For instance, I can make all the games having to do with telling time in red, then I can just tell my kids to choose only from the red tiles when I'm teaching the time unit in Math.  It's much easier than saying only click on the ones that say this or that.  The simpler you can be with young kids, the better!  I hope others are seeing the usefulness of Symbaloo like I have!

Do Parents Think More Worksheets=More Learning?

As part of my online class I've been asked to evaluate one of my current teaching practices. After doing some serious thinking, I have decided that I might be using too many worksheets in my teaching. I have been integrating technology a lot more than I used to, but I still feel like I need to use several worksheets. I plan to make myself a promise to start small and at least cut out 1 worksheet that I would typically use each week and find a technology substitute. The main reservation I have about using a small amount of worksheets is that I'm afraid parents may disapprove. I know so many parents (including mine when I was a kid) ask to see their papers when their kids come home each day. I know this is often times because when they ask kids what they learned in school that day they reply, "I don't know." At least if they have worksheets to look at they know I taught them something! I just don't want parents to start thinking I'm hardly ever teaching anything because their kids aren't bringing home papers. By next year at this time all of my kids will have their own device to take home, so I'm predicting that my feelings about this will change by then. Parents will expect their children to be completion a large amount of work virtually at that point. Until then, I'll try to gradually wean myself off of worksheets and hope for the best...

Time flies, but I can be the pilot!

I remember in my graduation speech I said, "The early bird gets the worm," but I don't feel like I'm heeding my own advice anymore.  I feel like sometimes I've taken on too many things and it's hard to keep up with everything in life!  I took part in an online class to develop some new habits for time management. This is my reflection on what I learned about myself. I took the quiz "How Good is Your Time Management." I recommend taking it if you feel like you have any trouble at all managing your time. For me, it reaffirmed what I already knew was my main problem, procrastination! There were several resources that helped me find ways to better utilize my time. I enjoyed Michael Hooker’s video “Urgent VS Important” where he sorted tasks into Urgent & Important, Important But Not Urgent, Urgent But Not Important, and Not Urgent or Important. I basically already knew how my tasks fell into these categories, but he did make me realize some of the things I'm doing are not urgent or important and they're just a waste of my precious time! My main problem however was that since I knew some tasks weren't urgent, I would constantly skip over them and move on to other things. For example, I had a huge problem recently with not getting papers graded and returned promptly. I would write it down on my to-do list and just keep skipping over it, sometimes even for almost a week! My first idea was to start bringing them all home to grade at night. That didn't work out so well because I never accomplish much once I get home. I realized I needed a new plan because I work much better and I'm more productive at school. I decided to go back to my to-do list from before, except now I would not allow myself to skip over items. One of the resources in my class suggested that I “plant the seed” for a new habit by coming up with a trigger. I decided my trigger would be when I sit down at my desk each morning. I always typically arrive at work nearly an hour before my students, so I have a lot of time to get work done if I choose to. Sitting down each morning was my trigger to look at my to-do list. I told myself I had to look at the list before even turning the computer on. I would then only go to the computer if it was a requirement for the 1st thing on my list. I can honestly say I absolutely hate my new rule, but it's forcing me to be less of a procrastinator. I can now say that all of my grading is caught up currently. I'm just not sure I can make it a lasting habit because I feel like eventually there will be something urgent and important that can't wait so I'll skip over all of the other tasks on my list and be back to my old self again. Any ideas on what I can do instead of the mandatory list?

First Timer :)

I consider myself to be fairly tech-savvy, but this is my first official blog post ever!  For some reason I've never gotten into the whole blogging thing, but maybe this online class I'm taking will change my mind and help me to see what's so great about it!