ILP 2 Design-Piktochart

https://create.piktochart.com/output/29633865-eme-2040-ilp-2

I created an Infographic using Piktochart. The intention of this is for it to be blown up and used as a classroom poster to display the science lab rules. Piktochart is similar to Canva, but I actually liked it better than Canva. It is a smaller website, so there aren't as many design choices, but for me it was easier to use. I couldn't figure out how to add pictures from the internet to Canva, but it was a breeze with Piktochart. I was able to personalize Piktochart, rather than just follow the template. That's why I like it more.

I could use surveys and other data collection to get feedback from my students about how effective my teaching methods are. The survey can include suggestions and other comments. It can also be anonymous to encourage everyone to be honest without any ramifications. Excel can be used to format the results in a way that is easy to read and compare. I think the most realistic way to use it would be in the way that we used it for the assignment. I could also use excel for my grade books if I think the school's system isn't helpful or effective.

I liked the blogs when we had to find another teacher's classroom website because everyone found a different teacher. It made it more personal because sometimes we are all talking about the same podcast or assignment. Occasional topics like this make it more interesting and personal.

I think it would be cool to learn about some grade book softwares, such as Canvas, Blackboard, Edline, etc. We've all seen them from student views but it would be interesting to see how it works for teachers. How similar are they to Excel? Can they do the average function and other things? I know I can achieve this once I am a teacher but I think it would be nice to know about it before hand.

The Flipped Classroom refers to the way that new material is taught to the classroom. In a flipped classroom, students learn the new material at home at their own pace. Then when they come to class, the teacher answers any questions they have and the teacher can highlight any additional information she thinks need to be highlighted. Afterwards the teacher can do a more interactive activity or discussion to support the material that the students already know.

https://www.nyu.edu/faculty/teaching-and-learning-resources/strategies-for-teaching-with-tech/flipped-classes/the-flipped-class-demystified.html

Before this podcast I didn't know about Open Education. After hearing the podcast and doing more research I think it is very cool! More Open Education classes can allow people who can't afford to go to college continue to learn. Just because you don't get credit from a college, you can still add it to your resume and life skills. Open Education is a form of education that has adapted to the increasing technological advances and I think it is going to become more and more popular.

https://sparcopen.org/open-education/

Through the PowerPoint assignments, I perfected some skills that I hadn't used in a while and I also learned some new skills. I learned about the Slide Master tool, and while I am still a little confused about it, but at least I know what it is (which I couldn't say 3 weeks ago). I learned about the animation tools in my middle school computer class but haven't really used them in while, so these assignments were a nice refresher. The only thing I didn't like about the assignments was that I thought they were very similar, so it was difficult to create 2 different presentations.

Adaptive technologies are used to help students with learning disabilities. Some examples are large print books, computers with voice output, keyboard modifications, etc. I remember someone in my third grade class who used to do a lot of typing on the computer with a special keyboard, looking back I realize he probably had a learning disability and using adaptive technology helped him to learn and retain the information being taught. If I have a student that requires adaptive technology in the classroom I would of course be willing to help and do whatever I need to do for that student, it's my job. However, it makes my job more difficult because I might have to alter my whole lesson plan to ensure that this one student also understands.

For Bloom's Taxonomy, I think PowerPoint is very useful. For the first level of Remember, you can simply list facts and events from your lecture in a PowerPoint that the students need to memorize for a test. Understand can be used in a similar way to Remember, but the information in the PowerPoint would need to be more detailed. For Apply you can create an assignment where students need to present a PowerPoint to the class. Students can take what they learned from your presentation/lectures and apply them to their own presentation, that way you can see what they have learned previously and it also reinforces the lecture. Don't have them create their own PowerPoint because that is a higher level in Bloom's Taxonomy. For Analyze, you can use PowerPoint to display different pictures/political cartoons, and have the students analyze them; or you can compare and contrast two countries' governments using PowerPoint. For Evaluate, you can create a mock trial and require each team to create a basic PowerPoint to defend their position. For Create, you can do something similar to evaluate, but to make it more advanced you can make the group size smaller and require more PowerPoint elements.

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=865

This article is from ISTE, which is a website that we've talked about in class. It is a great teaching resource. They posted the top 11 education technologies to watch/use. They do this every year so you can stay up to date.

My experience with Twitter is limited to the requirements for class. I do not have a personal Twitter account because I still don't really understand how to use it/what the purpose is; therefore, I don't really like it. For the purposes of this class I have learned a lot of information about our state. I follow the Florida Board of Education's twitter account. They post about a teacher of the week or county of the week, so I know about more local events from places where I don't live. I would consider that a benefit of using Twitter. My only issue is remembering to post on a weekly basis because I do not use regularly.

I learned a lot of new skills from the Web Page Design Assignment. Before this assignment I had never made a webpage before, so I would say that everything is a new skill. It took a little bit of time to learn the mechanics of the weebly but once I figured out the basics it was pretty easy to use. I can improve upon this next time by just making a better site. Now that I know how everything works I can experiment with more advanced skills. This assignment will definitely be helpful in my future career because most teachers are required to have a class website, so weebly might be the website that I actually use in the future. I will post a link to my website in the discussion board tonight :)

Diigo is a tool similar to Weebly. Prior to this class, I had never heard of Diigo. Having the ability to annotate articles without printing them out is pretty helpful and ecologically friendly. This tool can be used in high school English or Social Studies classes. If there is a research paper, students can use Diigo on their own or if there is a group research project they can use it together and share their information/annotations. I can use Diigo in my professional career if I decide to get a PhD. and need a bajillion resources to write my dissertation.

ILP 1-Design-Canva

https://www.canva.com/design/DACwgFaw5ho/0GGtlzOqXotW8u0T6FraXg/view?utm_content=DACwgFaw5ho&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton


I used Canva to create a report card for a student. I found it to be very easy to use. Canva created the template and I was able to go in and fill out the information to make it personal to my student. Canva has lots of fun templates for all your needs, such as resumes, lesson plans, newsletters, report cards, etc. I like using these report cards better than the official school ones because these are more colorful and exciting. They don't make report cards seem like such a dreaded thing.

I found a teacher website for Leon High School. The teacher's name is Christine Beam. She is a Culinary Arts teacher. Her page includes a welcome screen, a biography page about her, a class calendar, a recipe page, a notes page, and then pages dedicated to specific classes.
https://www.leonschools.net/Page/22042

I envision myself using a website similar to Mrs. Beam. She included notes from the textbook and lecture; however, I'm not sure if I am going to do that. I feel like if I do that for a history class, it isn't very professional and my students won't pay attention in class. However, Mrs. Beam and I are going to teach different subjects. Having notes online makes more sense for a culinary class than for a history class. I like Mrs. Beam calendar and she has a remind group for each class which I have experience with already. I know I am going to use those tools too. The trick with Remind is remaining professional. Even though it is a texting app, I am the teacher and need to be professional even when talking to students. I shouldn't use slang. I think Remind makes notifications more efficient.

One of the technologies in the Sandbox that I will definitely use is a SmartBoard or Promethean board. Those two boards are becoming standard in classrooms nation-wide. I used them in high school so I expect to use them in my teaching career. I also really liked the Virtual Reality but don't think there is a strong educational purpose for it, especially when there is only 1 VR and 22+ students.