Post 7: Professional Learning Network

Before starting this course I intermittently used professional learning networks to quickly find lesson ideas and resources. Since discussing PLNs in class I have expanded my horizon from Pinterest and Teacher Pay Teacher to Twitter and Digg.

Digg I admittedly used far less than Twitter. When we first signed up for our Digg account I selected 3 different teacher blogs to follow. The information ranged from “How to make parents love you” to “fluency that is not teacher directed.” One of the blogs however went cold until literally today! Her last post previous to todays was in August. This was one of my reservations about using an RSS feed, I was not sure if the people I initially chose to follow were worth following. I noticed that this particular blog had gone cold but as a teacher I don’t have time to continually search for new blogs or teachers to follow.   

This is where Twitter was able to fill the void of less desirable RSS features and in my opinion become the superior PLN. Twitter is convenient, easy to use, constantly being updated, plus I can get quick responses from teachers across the globe on how to teach a certain topic. I was really struggling to find an alternate way to teach long division so I put a question out with the hashtag #mathchat and #edutech and got a response within the hour. Twitter is easy to search not only for news (which came in handy this political season) and sports (also can now watch live games via twitter), but also for specific teaching topics like 4th grade missions, long division, and writing prompts. I can get my personal news, social networking, and teacher resources all in one place!

Questions:

Q1: Do I see myself using PLNs after this class is over?

A1: As a teacher I can see the benefits of having a PLN that you like using on hand. For me this will continue to be Twitter. I have found it extremely convenient and easy to use. The great thing is that students can use it too! While my students are a little young for their own accounts I have brought twitter into the classroom in other ways like using tweets as tickets to leave and creating faux accounts for historians and tweeting from their perspective.

Q2: Do teachers need a variety of PLNs or should they just use one?

A2: I think it is extremely important for teachers to use as many resources as they can because there are so many options out there. Yes I have my favorites (twitter, tpt, and pinterest) but I am always keeping my eyes and ears open for new resources to tap into. Just like my students, we all learn in different ways. I say use what works best for you but keep an open mind when something new comes along. Being a teacher means being a lifelong learner. Don’t stick with the same boring lessons when you can easily tap into your PLN to find new ideas.   

Journal 6: Self Reflection

I began teaching 4 years ago and quickly realized that as a teacher having your own website is not a requirement but it is encouraged. Even though I considered myself a tech enthusiast I had no idea how to code my own site; so of course I searched online for a free hosting site that would basically build a website for me. Weebly has been wonderful for quickly building and hosting my website for free. However, there are limits to customization and other layout design (which I now know comes from a cascading style sheet). Fast-forward to today and you can imagine my excitement when I realized I would be taking a web design class in my very first quarter of my masters program! 

GED 512 has been a wonderfully frustrating and enlightening experience thus far.  It has truly made me appreciate the ease of use and design of the websites that I frequent on a daily basis. It has also brought light to the once foreign language of HTML and CSS coding. It amazes me that I can look at a site’s code now and actually understand what the various HTML tags mean and what CSS markups are controlling the appearance of the page

I was able to put my new skills to use just this past week when my colleagues and I were trying to customize a prebuild online math test. We did not like the wording of the question or the multiple choice answers so I was able to go in, look at the HTML code, and change it to fit our needs in a matter of minutes. I felt so accomplished! Lol This same feeling came to me after I completed exercises 6.1-6.7. Although it took a few attempts to correctly link all of the pages together, I found this exercise to be the most rewarding because I know I will be using this skill in my future classroom sites/assignments.

On the other hand the most challenging assignment for me has definitely been linking all of the book assignments to book.html and moving them to the remote server. I have definitely learned the importance of naming files as well as keeping my files organized in a meaningful way so I don’t feel the compulsion to go back and reorganize them again later (I am sure you can imagine my frustration when finding all of my links broken after moving one file).

Overall it has been a rewarding experience thus far and I am looking forward to learning more in the upcoming weeks.

Questions:

Q1: Do you really need to know how to code?

A1: Having a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS coding is an invaluable skill that will come in handy when working in/with technology. I try to teach this to my students by using Hour of Code since so many of their future career opportunities will probably deal in part with using technology. Research shows that there will be 1,000,000 more computer science jobs than students by 2020.

Q2: Will I continue to use hosting platforms for my websites?

A2: I think I will, at least for now, due to the ease of use. Because I am still learning HTML and CSS markups it takes me a considerable amount of time to code a single webpage.  

Journal 5: Try Twitter

I have had a teacher twitter account for years. One of the reasons I actually created my account was so that I could participate in group tweets about conferences that I was attending. It allows me to stay up to date with my favorite presenters and get great ideas on topics I teach. I love following @DoInkTweets and @annkozma723. She always has great ways to use green screen in the classroom and inspired me to change my boring old 4th grade mission reports into fun animated green screen projects. Twitter also allows me to stay up to date with what other teachers and administrators in my district are doing and how they are innovating in their classrooms. While I love to use twitter for my personal professional development I do not use it in my classroom due to the age of my students (4th grade). I can see this being an extremely valuable tool in high school and even middle school as seen in the video “Twitter in the Class.” After looking the list of 35 interesting ways to use twitter I think I would like to adapt some of the ideas into an offline version so students are exposed to social media tools without having their own accounts. I think they would really enjoy creating tweets for historical figures we are studying! I was also thinking about using tweets as “tickets to recess” or “one thing you learned today.”

Q: Can twitter be used in an offline capacity when students are too young to have their own accounts?

A: Absolutely! Students of all ages hear about or are exposed to social media; their parents and older siblings use it and they see it on TV. I believe teachers should utilize what students are interested in to engage them in what they are learning. By creating offline versions of twitter or Facebook students can gain the benefits of social media without the dangers that can come from such accounts.

Q: How can I keep up to date with all of the people and hashtags I follow?

A: I love using TweetDeck! This is an website or chrome extension you can use to “organize and build custom timelines, keep track of lists, searches, activity and more—all in one interface.” If you have more than one account you can manage them all with tweetdeck and you can even schedule tweets. I really enjoy using this dashboard app during conferences so I can see what sessions I should be going to, what people are saying about what they are learning, and all of the great ideas that are being exchanged.

Journal Post 4: Project Plan

• Site title - Richards' Room 20

• Developer - Ciara Richards

• Rational or focus - 
• Statement of Purpose: To create a one-stop location for students and parents to get information about my classroom rules, procedures, and regular goings on to not only use at back to school night but throughout the year as well. 
• Goal: The site will make it easy for students and parents to get information about my class. I am hopping that it will be the first stop when a questions should arise rather then immediately contacting me. 

• Main features outline - 
• welcome page with student and parent links
• getting to know you form
• easy to access pages for course information 

• Content - 

1. Welcome
2. Students 
• About Me Form
• Daily Schedule
• PE/Music
• Grading
• Homework
• AR Reading
• Awards
• Dress Code
• Upcoming Events 
• Online Resources 
• daily links
3. Parents
• Confidential Form 
• Daily Schedule
• PE/Music
• Curriculum 
• Grading 
• Homework
• AR reading
• Awards
• Dress Code
• Upcoming Events
• Field Trips
• permission slips
• volunteer forms
• School Wellness Policy
• Wish List/Donations
• Online Resources
• Educational Apps
• Contact Info

• Target audience - 
• Parents and students in my class. 

• Design considerations. 
• Easy navigation
• Accessibility from mobile and desktop
• Inviting, but not overwhelming
• Incorporate classroom theme - (easy to change if my classroom theme changes)
• Limiting factors - 
• Making sure parents can access it from phones without losing content
• Having the getting to know you forms only available when first going to the site
• parents only accessing the site at back to school night

Site Map:

Wire Frame:

Journal 3 Blog Post: Social Media

Journal 3 Blog Post: Social Media

Friesen, N. (2010). Education and the social Web: Connective learning and the commercial imperative. First Monday, 15(12). doi:10.5210/fm.v15i12.3149

Coffin, T., & Fournier, J. (2015). Social media in the learning setting: Opportunities and challenges. Retrieved from https://itconnect.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Social-Media-in-the-Learning-Setting.pdf

Reflection:

While reading, Commercial Concerns in the Social Web, I felt a little confused as to how this affects using social media in the classroom. Yes these web companies make their money from sending us advertisements that are tailored to our individual likes, but should that diminish these tools in the classroom?

The learner may not be “at the center of networks of knowledge and expertise,” but I have to disagree with Friesen and say that there is still potential for “leading to new forms of learning and education.” As a teacher I would use these differences in advertisements to teach a lesson on acceptance and inclusivity. Furthermore the advertisements could be used to teach digital citizenship. As Internet users we are constantly being watched; we have to be careful about what we do and say because it will always be there even if we delete it.

As stated in Social Media Concerns and Opportunities, “students and instructors alike worry that social media is a distraction in the learning environment.” As a 4th grade teacher I do worry about the Internet being a distraction but my worry does not surpass the opportunities I see for student achievement.

Knowing that my students get easily distracted I use Chrome extensions like Lights Out and Work Flow to aid their learning while using technology. Lights Out prevents my students from seeing the advertisements and related videos that pop up on the side of a YouTube video by blacking them out altogether. Work Flow gives them a set time to work (disables social media sites) than a set time to explore (all sites open). Knowing that they have a scheduled “free time” helps increase their productivity while working on the computer. As an educator I see the value of technology in the classroom so I try to make it as seamless as possible for my students to use.

Questions:

Q: Should we stop using social media to aid our instruction because it has advertisements?

A: No, students are surrounded by advertisements everywhere they go. If they come to be expected they will become less distracting. Furthermore, if we teach our students digital citizenship and explain why they are seeing these advertisements they can gain a greater understanding of this powerful tool.

Q: Could the challenges that teachers face with social media be prevented or changed to opportunities with PD training?

A: From experience in talking to my fellow teaching colleagues I do believe that many of the challenges that they have with technology could be changed into opportunities with support and training. So often I hear teachers say, “the district wants me to use this new tool but has not given me the time to learn it or provided training on how to implement it.” PD is so important in teaching as we are constantly trying new things to improve our pedagogy.