Blog Journal #8- diigo, Powerpoint & Teacher Professional Development

Happy Tuesday! We recently completed our last GICA with Diigo so, I'd like to discuss Diigo one last time. Before this class, I had not known about or been exposed to Diigo. Now, I would say I am well-versed with it. The new skills I have learned from Diigo are screenshotting a PDF, adding a sticky note to a PDF and posting an annotation in the group. I could use this application as a teacher in many ways. I could use it to read personal material I enjoy and leave notes on my favorite parts. I could also use to for coworkers when we have a meeting using an online document.

The next thing I'd like to discuss is how we can use Power Point in the classroom, specifically with Bloom's Taxonomy. The levels of this are remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Power Point can be used to help students learn that are each of these levels. For example, let's pretend we are teaching a class about adding numbers. Students that are trying to remember and understand addition can use images in a Power Point to stimulate their memory and comprehension of addition. For student trying to apply addition, we could use a slide with "2 + 2" for them to give the answer. To analyze and evaluate, we can put a wrong answer and have the student write in why this is incorrect. Finally, a student could create their own slide with an original addition problem.

Lastly, just like we've learned about Diigo and Power Point, teachers must learn and keep up with all technologies for their own professional benefit. This helps them create good lesson plans, educate their students and innovate new technologies. A website that helps to do this is Twitter. Twitter is a social media platform we have used in class! It can be used for this purpose because it specifically focuses on what is trending, as shown in the picture below.

Link: Twitter 

ILP #2- PLN

Hello! Today is a special blog about my ILP #2. For my second ILP, I was expected to join a PLN, or a personal learning network. I joined a Facebook Group to do this. The group was for elementary school teachers and was comprised of educators from all different backgrounds. In the VoiceThread linked below, I analyze how this group could be considered a PLN. Enjoy!

https://voicethread.com/share/13764185/

Blog Journal #7- Twitter, Web Design and Adaptive/Assistive Technology

Welcome back! Today I'd like to discuss a few different things, starting with Twitter. The Twitter account I made for this class is the first active Twitter account I've had. So far, I have found it to be interesting, especially the way it helps you interact with others. I have learned how to maintain a professional presence on social media from the different things I have posted on Twitter. I have also found it to be beneficial when you want to keep up with current news, trends and stories. The only issues I've had with Twitter is wanting to see an archive on my page of things I have posted, retweeted and commented.

Another thing we have been working on is learning how to design a web page. We specifically did this for our "Assignment #3- Web Design". For this assignment, we had to create a web page for our "classroom" using the platform "Weebly". Before this assignment, I had little to no knowledge about how to create a web page. Some skills I gained from this web design are inserting hyperlinks, copying and inserting embed codes, formatting and choosing a theme for the website. However, Weebly was sometimes hard to work with and could be improved. I can improve my web design skills for the future by continuously practicing web design. This will greatly help me create an actual classroom website when I become a teacher. A link to and screenshot of my web design is posted below.


Finally, it is my pleasure to talk about adaptive and assistive technologies. These technologies support learners, especially those with disabilities. These assist learners by almost filling in the gaps that are missing either because of impairment or challenge with the material. An example of an assistive technology that could fill in the gap would be a spelling check tool helping a student to correct grammar if they do not understand it by themselves. A younger family member of mine has a disability. An example of an assistive technology they use is different apps on their iPad to help them practice things they learned at school. A challenge I could say I might have with these types of technologies is having access to them for my own students. Unfortunately, sometimes teachers don't have access to everything they need to accommodate their students due to money, policy and administartion.

Thanks for reading!



http://msmccabessecondgrade.weebly.com/