Teaching: Always a Student
When I became a teacher I knew that I would also be a forever student, meaning to be an effective educator you need to be a lifelong learner, keeping up with the newest technologies to incorporate into lessons, going to multiple and various professional developments to adapt your craft, continuing to adjust your management style to the needs and students in your classroom, and updating your strategies to the newest and most successful ones for reteaching and enriching student skills. Now that I am nearing the end of my Master’s Degree, with a specialization in Literacy, some may say that I am finished with classes forever, but that is not the case. It will be my priority to continue to reach out for professional development, collaborate with mentors, and continue to revisit all of the blogs and research I have encountered through my time with Michigan State University. Ending this program is not the end of my time as a student. I now know there are numerous media resources, mentors, and team members to collaborate with to ensure that I am updated with technology tools or apps to implement into the classroom for enrichment practice, data from online assessments to steer the instruction within the classroom, working as a leader, improving my organizational skills, and keeping my mind fresh and creative.
I will use technical knowledge within my classroom to enhance each of my subject lesson units. There are various websites I use to engage students and have them interact with technology to increase their participation and knowledge of the subject. It is imperative that educators are resourceful and knowledgeable of different technical resources to update the curriculum. I ensure there are these enrichment opportunities for all subjects, especially Social Studies and Science. For example, I collaborated with a colleague living in Australia and used this vimeo to enhance a quick lesson when my second graders learned about Australia, the culture, climate, and people. I also found that using todaysmeet.com is an excellent resource for enhancing a Social Studies lesson. I use it to build on background knowledge and allow the students to each share their thoughts or opinions on our essential question of the week, Todaysmeet gives everyone a voice and enables discussions and enhances the classroom. Studyjams is also a resource I use within Science and Math, and it embeds art and music to enrich and engage my students on many common core standards. Lastly, the most impressive technical tool I’ve found would be Plicker. Plickers are tools that any teacher can use to collect formative assessment data without the need for student devices. You simply use your phone or Ipad and the teach the students how to use their paper plickers to answer the multiple choice questions. It gives instant data so you can assess whether or not you need to move on, or reteach! All of these technical tools are important in the classroom because it gives me the data I need to differentiate. I will continue to use these tools consistently, as well as search for more in the time to come!
As I near graduation from Michigan State University’s Masters program, I have ensured that I will continue to improve myself and my craft as I have joined the technology team and the mentor program. The technology team practices with the newest apps, blogs, and classroom technical devices and helps teachers within the building implement them into their classrooms. The mentor program at my school serves the new faculty and staff, acclimating them to the rigor and climate of the building. I believe this will aid in improving my creativity, as many new teachers have just graduated and come into the field with the newest technology pieces and fresh ideas. I will also be collaborating with mentor teachers who have seen their strategies be effective in their students scores and work.
Within grade level meetings my colleagues and I are always looking for resources to update and engage students on the objective of the day, which reflects my personal goal of creativity. We use Teachers Pay Teachers, Instagram , and Pinterest to find ways to decorate the classroom, search for daily hands on activities, create meaningful visual aids for our bulletin boards, and adjust the lesson to be more meaningful to our students based on their level and interests. One resource that I am looking forward to discover within the classroom this year would be a tool called Educreations. Within this new Ipad App students can record and illustrate a video. I plan on using this to assess them based on their performance. It will be used primarily with vocabulary and math. The students will create a movie where they illustrate how to solve the math problem, or explain the vocabulary word. This can be saved and revisited once a unit is over, to ensure they made growth on that particular problem.
As I said before, when I became a teacher I knew I was also becoming a forever student. My education and professional goals will never end, and I don’t want them to! My students deserve the most up to date teacher with fresh ideas and new technologies, no matter how long ago I graduated!
I will use technical knowledge within my classroom to enhance each of my subject lesson units. There are various websites I use to engage students and have them interact with technology to increase their participation and knowledge of the subject. It is imperative that educators are resourceful and knowledgeable of different technical resources to update the curriculum. I ensure there are these enrichment opportunities for all subjects, especially Social Studies and Science. For example, I collaborated with a colleague living in Australia and used this vimeo to enhance a quick lesson when my second graders learned about Australia, the culture, climate, and people. I also found that using todaysmeet.com is an excellent resource for enhancing a Social Studies lesson. I use it to build on background knowledge and allow the students to each share their thoughts or opinions on our essential question of the week, Todaysmeet gives everyone a voice and enables discussions and enhances the classroom. Studyjams is also a resource I use within Science and Math, and it embeds art and music to enrich and engage my students on many common core standards. Lastly, the most impressive technical tool I’ve found would be Plicker. Plickers are tools that any teacher can use to collect formative assessment data without the need for student devices. You simply use your phone or Ipad and the teach the students how to use their paper plickers to answer the multiple choice questions. It gives instant data so you can assess whether or not you need to move on, or reteach! All of these technical tools are important in the classroom because it gives me the data I need to differentiate. I will continue to use these tools consistently, as well as search for more in the time to come!
As I near graduation from Michigan State University’s Masters program, I have ensured that I will continue to improve myself and my craft as I have joined the technology team and the mentor program. The technology team practices with the newest apps, blogs, and classroom technical devices and helps teachers within the building implement them into their classrooms. The mentor program at my school serves the new faculty and staff, acclimating them to the rigor and climate of the building. I believe this will aid in improving my creativity, as many new teachers have just graduated and come into the field with the newest technology pieces and fresh ideas. I will also be collaborating with mentor teachers who have seen their strategies be effective in their students scores and work.
Within grade level meetings my colleagues and I are always looking for resources to update and engage students on the objective of the day, which reflects my personal goal of creativity. We use Teachers Pay Teachers, Instagram , and Pinterest to find ways to decorate the classroom, search for daily hands on activities, create meaningful visual aids for our bulletin boards, and adjust the lesson to be more meaningful to our students based on their level and interests. One resource that I am looking forward to discover within the classroom this year would be a tool called Educreations. Within this new Ipad App students can record and illustrate a video. I plan on using this to assess them based on their performance. It will be used primarily with vocabulary and math. The students will create a movie where they illustrate how to solve the math problem, or explain the vocabulary word. This can be saved and revisited once a unit is over, to ensure they made growth on that particular problem.
As I said before, when I became a teacher I knew I was also becoming a forever student. My education and professional goals will never end, and I don’t want them to! My students deserve the most up to date teacher with fresh ideas and new technologies, no matter how long ago I graduated!