Ed Tech in Our Classrooms

I've always thought that technology is a great way for students to get engaged. I remember in Elementary School and Middle School many of my teachers would create a slide show review in the form of a Jeopardy Game. They utilized links and interactive power points to engage students.  As I got into high school, more teachers opted for Kahoot. Because most students had a smart phone, students were able to play without having to rent out the school's Chromebooks or iPads. Kahoot is great for the teacher as well, I remember in one of my classes, a student asked our teacher how long it took them to create their Kahoot review, the teacher said that Kahoots are available from other instructors so they were able to find one similar to what they needed, save it and then tweak it to tailor it to their class specifically. 

I watched the video about blended learning (flipping your classroom), and I have to say that I believe that flipping the classroom is one of the most effective ways of teaching students. Based on my own experience, it worked very well. My Organic Chemistry course was a flipped course. The professor would post a video of her teaching the upcoming lesson on Canvas before class for us to do as homework. During class, she would review the lesson and answer any questions we may have, then give us a packet of questions to work on as smaller groups in class. I felt like I learned a lot more by practicing the problems in class. This was the second time I had to take the class to improve my grade, and I was able to bump my grade up one whole letter. The professor was able to spend more individual time with the students. She was able to observe our work more closely and be fully available to answer questions. I was not someone who liked to ask questions in front of the whole class. However, this...

Not exactly a technology story, but a fun one. Saline High School has a Connecting Club in which students with special needs can become friends with students from all over the high school. Today they had the grand opening of an area for socializing and games. Sponsored by our Foundation for Saline Area Schools, the place looks great. They have turned a shadowy corner of the school into a bright place. 

 This simple activity (removing the background off a selfie then posting it in a shared space (Google Drawing)) makes me smile. I love seeing my students.

When Facebook had just started coming around we ended up using it once for a history project. We had to create a Facebook page for a historical figure. This really ended up being a nightmare. Not every parent would allow their student to use the site (I can't really blame them considering we were in 6th grade), the teacher couldn't really help direct us around the site because it was too new and she herself was unfamiliar with it. It ended up being a way for us kids to talk our parents into letting us have Facebook. We all ended up turning them into our own personal profiles after the assignment was turned in.  We didn't really learn anything from it other than how to use Facebook, which we were technically too young to really be using at the time (because this was when Facebook had age restrictions). Overall it was just a disaster of a lesson. It would've been better if there was a kid-friendly way to do it. If there had been a Facebook for kids then I think it would...

For the last few months, I have been watching with great interest one of the coolest tools ever built as it settled into an odd orbit around one million miles from the Earth. As the James Webb Space Telescope unfolded on itself and cooled down, each week has brought new scientific terms and concepts to classrooms around the country. In a month, the first full-color images will be released and new conversations will start up again. I can hardly wait.