My first Twitter Chat

So, as with started to use Twitter again, this whole Twitter just was making me nervous and I kept putting it off. I logged on and decided to join the 3:00 pm #edumatch chat and see what it was all about. I have to say it was a very pleasant experience. Very much like a chatroom discussion or even a discussion board. Fortunately, the Twitter chat was better.

I had read the previous assignments and teacher’s posting about Twitter and decided to use TweetDeck to make the Twitter chat experience better. I was lead to the chat via the Google link that was posted in under this week’s Twitter Chats and Hashtags document and joined my session. It definitely made the process easier to view and participate in. I had one window with the TweetDeck open and as recommended by Alice Keeler on her article, I opened one column for the hashtag and another for the moderator. On another browser I had my Twitter window open. This made the switching back and forth super easy for me. I saw the participants, moderator and my Twitter account all at once without having to move pages.

Participating really help close the gap I was having in regards to using Twitter. Chapter 3 of What Connected Educators do Differently goes into detail about embracing the Three Cs and it was very prevalent in this exercise. Having the limited 140 characters makes communicating with a purpose a must. There wasn’t room for me to add unnecessary information. I quickly picked up on the acceptable lingo others were using (Ts=teachers, Ss=students, ppl=people). Small details such as that kept all the answers short and simple.

Reading Alice’s article also helped because I was able to connect the dots to what she gave as advice and what I was doing/tweeting. She recommended logging in early and being ready. I jumped right in with my responses and giving feedback to others in the conversation. I even came across a current classmate joining in on the fun. This could be a fantastic way to have a “silent conversation” as an activity in class. I felt like the discussion was normal. The moderator posted the “Qs” and I responded with the “As”. I noticed how it threw off the flow when some responded without referencing which question they were answering.

To end this, the best takeaway I had from this was what Whitaker writes in chapter 3. Collaboration with passion is integral to successful teams. While answering the questions, every bit of feedback was positive. I saw when people liked my tweets and it gave me encouragement to tweetchat more. And when the moderator retweeted one of mine, it was as if a teacher thanked me in the classroom. This same activity can be used in the classroom. Looking around at more hashtags, the connections to other professionals can go on forever.

Using Labels and Curating Tools

Link to my site and the curation tool.

Link to my blog using labels.  It is on the right hand column above my Twitter feed.  Or on my website on the Blog tab in the same location.

This assignment ending up being very helpful.  The curation tool I used is Clipix.  It is a version of Pinterest pretty much.  I see it as a more professional option you can say.  That is just my opinion.  The idea is the same in that you find sites or images you like, you take a picture of the site or a link and load it to a clipboard which it organized however you like.  The pros in using a curating tool for a website is that it lets you update your clipboard whenever you like which reflects on the link you have shared or have posted on your personal site.  It is great for researching and a "dump all" when you just want to quickly organize links to come back to at a later time.

Using Clipix along with the labeling tool on my blog will definitely help users get to the information they want to more efficiently.  I did not even think about that when I originally started my blog and just added a few labels and I can see the advantage to it immediately.  I will have to dedicate more time to creating and adjusting labels as time goes on, but it just takes about 30 seconds to add a new label to an existing post.

Tutorial Link for Embedding Blogger

<iframe
allowtransparency="true" scrolling="yes" frameborder="0" width="960" height="1280"
src="http://emansedtech.blogspot.com/" style="margin: -80px 0 0 -195px;"
>
Eman's EdTech Corner
</iframe>

PowToon Tutorial

Here are tutorial parts 1 and 2 of my Recycling Lesson that I created using PowToon.  PowToon is a great tool for creating fun animated videos.  It gives the creator great customization and animation options.

To Sphero or not to Sphero...

After spending a class getting my feet wet into the large pool of technology related literacies, I have decided to share my thoughts on a nice gadget that will be making its way to my school.  My summer school director decided to have me put on a tech related summer session (which I am super psyched about) and together we decided that the best way to introduce coding and programming to students would be through the Sphero SPRK+.

We received our test Sphero's and have had a day to play with them and the drag and drop programming is very straight forward.  I love the fact that students can write programming as well.  There is also a "free style" method that lets users control the sphere like you would an RC car.  I will still be doing test runs of the programming, so far, it is fun.

Using the device also helped me narrow down the activities I will doing with my 20 students during my 3 week summer session.  Since it is a group that is above the average GPA, I am trying to incorporate socialization activities along with some creative technology activities.  Once I am a bit more satisfied with the lesson plan I will be implementing I will share here, along with pictures and videos.

7.4 Integration of Digital Skills and Tools

Exploring Web Literacy in the Digital Age

I have decided to incorporate and explore a classroom blog as a means of exploring web literacy.  The inspiration for this came from the article in this weeks lesson:  Creating a class blog:  A strategy that can promote collaboration, motivation and improvement in literacy by Dr. Hani Morgan.  

I realized that it is actually an easy way to incorporate all aspects of Connecting through participating on the web.  With the use of a classroom blog or even individual student blogs students accomplish:

Sharing - Students can create a blog that can be viewed all over the web.
Collaborating - Through a classroom blog, collaborating becomes key to a successful blog.
Community Participation - The focus on the blog can highly impact a community.  Focusing a class blog on              helping the homeless connects the class collaboration to the community it surrounds.
Privacy - All blogs sites have key privacy settings that can control who reads and comments on blogs.                    Privacy is learned through a better understanding of digital citizenship.
Open Practices - Open practices allows students to explore the methods that work well for them.  Even                though the blogs have basic templates, the customization aspects of each individual site allow for                    students to openly create something their own.



Helpful inks:

Starting a new blog:
https://startbloggingonline.com/get-started-classroom-blogging/
Existing classroom blog:
http://missgiraffesclass.blogspot.com/2016/10/25-chatty-class-classroom-management.html

6.3 Exploring Media Literacy in the Digital Age

A Family History Tale 
Grades:  6th-8th

The idea for my lesson plan came from the PBS website:  http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2015/11/media-literacy-and-documentaries/ . 

The purpose of creating this family documentary style video is to allow students a wider range of creativity versus a standard family tree written report.  The documentary will give students time to spend interviewing family and capture genuine reactions to the history of their own family members.  Students will be given time on computers to edit film they take via various devices of their choice.  They can use traditional video camera, tablets, iPhone/smartphone or a combination.  Software will allow them "jazz" up their documentary with various post production items like credits and music.

Items needed:

Any one or combination:  smartphone, table or video camera
Desktop/Laptop with video editing software
Outline and "script" of their documentary

The following resources have great tips and advice on creating a lesson plan involving a documentary style video:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/behindthelens/lesson-plan-4/
http://www.pbs.org/pov/behindthelens/lesson-plan-1/

8.1 Discussion: Tech Leadership - Taking Action Part III

Of the practices mentioned by Kouzes & Posner I chose the action of being a great learner.  Chapter 12 discusses the idea that the best leaders are the best learners.  I have seen and already put this into action in my years of retail work.  I was taught to never think you know too much.   There is always room to learn and by doing so, I have been able to help inspire and lead my peers.

The other action I will focus on is to be humble.  When I have peers or students who are helping with a project or task, I will make it a point to recognize their participation.  If my peers help me learn something new or correct something I thought was correct, it will serve as a humbling experience.  It is not done in spite, but to help me.

These are the types of actions I wish to impart on the students I interact with as well.  These actions go a long way to make an individual stronger and better at leading.  Not only in school and work, but also in life as one comes across new obstacles.

7.1 Discussion: Tech Leadership - Taking Action Part II

1.      Educate, educate, and educate yourself and your constituents.

2.      Find a balance between people's skills and the challenges associated with their work.

The first action I can implement in my daily routine at work is:  educate, educate, and educate yourself and your constituents.  I truly believe this action works for peers and students alike. In order to better myself in my role, it is important that I contribute to seek out new knowledge and new methods to share and implement technology. This is definitely a role in which one cannot become comfortable and relaxed, by doing, you begin to fall behind in all the latest information, techniques and methods. In regards to helping students, teachers and other staff must make it a priority to continue to push them and encourage the learning process.  As mentioned in our text by Kouzes & Posner, "People can't do what they don't know how to do."  In other words, people don't know what they do not know.  One of my previous managers used to tell me that all the time and made perfect sense then and continues to. Our staff and students do not know what they are missing out on if we do not present them with new ideas or activities in which they can push their own abilities.

This leads me to the second action that I can implement at my work site:  Find a balance between people's skills and the challenges associated with their work.  This one made an impact on me while reading because t is something we are already implementing.  For the month of March, our school decided to step away from the 3 or 4 weekly meetings for all staff and decided to used each of the 5 weeks to help individual grade levels. The meetings will take place in the following groups: K & 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 4th & 5th, 6th and finally 7th & 8th.  We feel that this will have more of an impact on the teachers on multiple levels. One level will focus on what they already know and how to continue that positive technology related behaviors.  Many of the teachers already know different skill and we did not want to put the advanced teachers through and entry level Google Classroom Training.  The second level will impact what they would like to know or what they would like to incorporate into their classroom/lesson plan.  By taking this approach, it allows the teachers to perform their own brainstorming and prevents the technology team from giving them a ready-made assignment.

6.1 Discussion: Prof. Dev't at your School

Professional development at my school currently consists of bi-weekly meetings in which teachers share with their peers items that they bring up during the meeting.  The other topics discussed are geared towards issues/concerns that I see and hear on a daily basis.  For some of the lower grades it involves use of Google Classroom, while in upper grade it may involve the use of certain templates and importing them into various programs.

One change we will be trying in March is every week our tech. team will meet with 1 or 2 grade levels and review their lesson plans.  Having them send them to us prior to the meeting will allow us to help build a "tech" oriented activity for them to incorporate into their classroom.  The goal is to eventually have them creating their own activities based on those that we present them.

4.1 Discussion: Tech Leadership - Taking Action

Model the Way – Ch. 3 Set the Example

By being open to my peers and even students, I can model the behavior of setting an example.  As teachers or administration, we must learn from everybody.  Being open to feedback from peers and students, is an important quality a leader must have.  This is my first role at a school, as tech coordinator, I am expected to know everything.  When other staff gives me suggestions, I am open to it because they provide me with an important point of view I have not experienced.

Inspire a Vision – Ch. 5 Enlist Others

The way in which I will inspire a vision for my co-workers, as well as the students I interact with, is by doing what I say I will do and doing what I am asking of my peers and the students.  Today at my school site we had a tech skill development meeting.  Our tech teams ants to bring all staff to the same level, in order to do so we have to start at the bottom.  A few teachers have not had the pleasure of incorporating Google Classroom into their classes and we taught them how to set up a class and how to set up a Google Hangout.  The staff wanted to learn something new and asked, so I helped the experienced teachers assist those less knowledgeable.

Part of our responsibility is to mean what we say.  As the tech coordinator, when I say, “Come to me with any and all questions”, I have to be open to them all.  By enlisted in the more experienced staff, those less knowledgeable were more receptive because they got to see in action by other teachers.

Challenge the Process – Ch. 7 Experiment and Take Risks

Once again, experimenting and taking risks, is something that will be put into practice at my school site.  We all have teachers who are stuck in their ways.  I have a few and by being open to talking to them about what their lesson plans include and suggesting ways in which we can incorporate technology, I can help them take risks.  Also, by providing support to the teachers who are taking those risks already, I can help those risks and experiments be more successful.