Whew! Time has gone by too quickly!

With all good intentions, I set out the summer full of ideas and ready to implement all of the new things I learned when I attended the Shift and DALLA conferences.  Then, I took a 9000 mile trip across the United States and of course, overwhelmed with new sites and ideas.  Since then I have been in recovery and unable to get back on track with Twitter, Google, Badger, Blogging, etc.  Needless to say, I learned so many things during the conference, I just need to immerse myself once more and get back into the swing of things.

During the conferences, there were so many new ideas, and energetic people who demonstrated various levels of experience and excitement about the ongoing tidal wave of new technology and applications.  I find myself looking, shopping literally for the perfect fit for my classroom and students.  The computers have been on hiatus during for most of the summer because of some negative behavior while I was vacation, but we will be starting up again in the next week.

So far, I have developed my own grade tracking Google Sheets program and have shared that with the other teachers in my PLC.  For me, my classroom is a revolving door and it is difficult to track my students work, credits, and grades across the year accurately.  By using Google Sheets, I am able to give each student their own grade sheet, and even if they come in for a week in the fall, then return at the end of semester, I am still able to keep an accurate count of their credits, as well as the assignments they finished.  Sharing the document is easy as well, allowing other teachers who may have the same student to see what the student has completed.

What does it mean to you to be an educator in the digital age?

Time again to blog away...Today's topic is, "What does it mean to me to be an educator in the digital age?"  As a teacher who is almost 60, I feel like I am peddling as fast as I can to stay up with all the technology. I realize my students are being bombarded with the same opportunities I am and if I am going to be considered as a credible educator by my students, I am going to have to acquire and maintain new technological skills. My students' interests involve technology, therefore it only makes sense for me to involve technology in teaching required subject matter through a medium they enjoy using.  I need to be savvy about wrapping common core standards within applications, allowing my students to be creative and interactive. This is the challenge.

I don't need to know it all...my students will teach me.  That's the fabulous part of teaching in the digital age.  I know my students are engaged when they stop what they are doing and share some new facts about something they are researching.  Or they get excited about the Google slide presentation they completed and are willing to share with the class.  

I know that if I was a student today, (and I guess I am still a student, just an older one), I would be excited to learn and use as many applications as I could.  There are so many opportunities and outlets for young people today!  I grew up in an age of manual typewriters and slide rules!  Thank goodness for advancements in technology.

Check out the ISTE Standards
For Teachers:  https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
For Students: https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf

Less than two months and school will be out. It is hurry, hurry time as we teachers try to squeeze the most out of our students before their energy wanes and the desire for vacation overwhelms them.  I too desire for summer, but as a responsible adult I need to focus!  And I remind myself frequently....FOCUS.

Good news comes at the end of the year also. Students pass their Exit Exams after struggling multiple times.  The joy they feel is almost as tremendous as the joy I feel!  It is such a spectacular feat for some of my students who are only one step away from giving up and wanting to drop out.  But something tells them to push on and they receive the benefits of their perseverance.  

I really enjoy the rush of the end of school.  Two months will fly by and before I know it I will be starting a new school year with summer school.  It starts the next day after the last day. I know its crazy but I really love the work I do and I enjoy helping my students surpass their own expectations.  Most of them do! 

My class is almost finished, but that doesn't mean I will not quit blogging.  I'm not sure how often I will do it, but it has been beneficial to me to review my thoughts on my teaching experience as well as consider what my students need to be digital citizens.  Overall this course has help me try new applications which I would have hesitated trying just because I wouldn't know how to apply it.  At first it seemed like a lot of work, but then it got easier as I felt more comfortable and got into a routine.  Most of the teachers in the class taught  younger ages in traditional classrooms and often times it was hard to relate.  Yet teaching is teaching and many of the skills they discussed about classroom procedures and organization were a good reminder for me.  Many of the teachers were young and very innovative, they totally have embraced technology and it was great to hear their perspectives about learning centers and teaching their students with technology.

Where I teach, there are limitations which I have expressed many times, but I would like to improve and incorporate more technology continuously.  I will always need to monitor very strictly to ensure the safety of my students, but there are so many different applications my students can learn and apply to their school work.  It is all a matter of me gaining the experience and being able to apply that experience in order for my students to be engaged within and utilize the same technology.

Here is a Glogster that I made to represent some of the things I learned...check it out...

http://amckellar222.edu.glogster.com/technology-glog/

As far as the ISTE Standards, I think my strongest areas are the first and second standards: 1) Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, and 2) design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. I am working on the third and fifth standards: 3) Model digital age work and learning, and 5) Engage in professional growth and leadership.  I definitely follow the guidelines for promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility by monitoring my students' work carefully. The school district firewall prevents my students from e-mailing or receiving e-mail from outside sources and they can't access social networks such as Facebook. I constantly need to remind myself to remind students about citing sources. It is so easy to just copy a picture or use ideas that some one posted on the internet.  I no longer allow my student to work through assignments on the computer without processing their ideas first on a piece of paper. I want them to synthesize information rather than cut and paste from the internet.  It all takes time.

Finally, I am a life-long learner and I will continue this work. It might look differently than it does now, but I find it a challenge and I am always up for a challenge.

After a week hiatus, I am now faced with the project of thinking about creating an ideal learning space in my classroom that utilizes technology and collaborative learning. Unfortunately I am limited technologically and collaborative learning isn't a safe practice inside juvenile hall....so I will have to think about an ideal classroom separate from my current teaching assignment.  In addition I am required to utilize the notetaking method of sketch notetaking which will be a real challenge for me. I am a methodical notetaker, very linear, what a surprise.  I like my notes to be organized, but I will try my best.

First let me think about what elements I would need in an ideal classroom.  First off, I would use tables instead of desks, where groups of two to four students can sit with each other in order to collaborate.  Secondly, I would have a work table that includes markers, art supplies, colored paper, utensils needed to create and organize student work. Technologically, the classroom would have notebooks and WiFi where students are able to take computers to their work area to collaborate with each other.  Students would also be able to access the Smartboard easily and work on it as a group. A color and a black and white printer will be available for printing student work. Walls would have meaningful posters related to topics covered in class, a word wall that constantly changes according to topics covered, and a timeline that represents the time period covered during history.

Here is my first attempt at note sketching...

This week I will address how do my interactions with students, teachers, supervisors or parents make use of Communications & Collaboration? What is most surprising to me in these interactions? Most of the time, I e-mail constantly or text using my phone. I prefer people to text or e-mail me because I am not always available by phone and I rarely check my voicemail. Texting and e-mail is a 24 hour, seven-days-a-week and I can answer them at 10 at night or 6 in the morning without waking anyone up. It is really convenient. I communicate with my students mostly by direct interaction. I give them assignments on the computer which they share with me and I write back comments. I would probably say this occurs about 10% during class time. Some of my students use independent study programs where I e-mail comments to them after I grade their work. I collaborate with other teachers through our PLC in meetings. I also share almost all of my documents with other teachers through Google. While my PLC work together on shared themes in math, english and history we do not necessarily share the same methodology of teaching the curriculum. I have incorporated most of my lessons through Google and they use other ways.

I'm not really surprised by the interactions I have. I teach in an isolated classroom away from a school. Besides working in my PLC, I do not have much contact with other teachers, supervisors or parents. While I can contact parents to discuss school related issues, I am apprehensive to deal with parents whose children are incarcerated. I would prefer to talk to them face-to-face, but there is not much opportunity for this to occur.

The second thing I need to address is which modalities, strategies and tools do I use most often and which modalities could I use more often in collaboration and communication. As stated before, I e-mail and text when I have time to respond to another's communication. In the mornings, before school starts, I fill out attendance in a google sheet that I share with the Edops secretary but this is still more asynchronous than synchronous. I rarely communicate synchronously unless I am in a situation such as a class where I am given an assignment and need to answer the assignment within a specific time period.

The opposite is true with collaboration. I think that I am much more synchronous in collaboration efforts, mostly because the collaborations I am involved are structured and have a time table. Occasionally they can be asynchronous as I run into people in person or online where we discuss a shared issues.  

Can I be more collaborative and communicative in different ways than I already am? I'm sure I can. I usually change the way I do things when something isn't working or I have the opportunity to see or learn a new way that I find to be beneficial.  Sometimes, it may not be my ideas to make the changes, but I will need to go with it becuase it is the new way of doing things.

This Will Revolutionize Education

Mostly I have been blogging because of a class requirement, but in this instance, I would like to share a video I showed my students today. We watch this gentlemen quite frequently for science class, but occasionally he covers other topics such as this one. I think he made some valid points and my students like what he had to say as well. Check him out.