Blog 12

For one of the educational leadership classes we had to set up a twitter account and respond to the professor through there, I had never used twitter before and I thought it was the hardest thing to do, especially since it doesn't allow you to write extensively. After I finished that class, I had never reopened it until now. 

After looking at the list of the hashtags I visited some of them but the one in particular that caught my attention was: 

#achievement gap- This subject has been of my interest since I became a teacher. According to an article that was mentioned posted only 31% of African Americans and 40% of Latinos were college ready compared to 85% of Whites. This is a huge gap comparing the minorities with the Whites.

The article that I read focused on expanding resources for the lower grades in order to start closing the achievement gap. Instead of investing the money in the upper grades, schools were going to expand the Foundations program to the lower grades, starting at kindergarten. According to the study, first grade teachers saw a big improvement from the previous years. Kids were more prepared and alert.

I am a true believer that in order to close the achievement gap we must start from the bottom. As a former kindergarten teacher, I find it very irritating how all the focus is just on the upper grades. Unfortunately no resources are given to us, yet students are supposed to excel. Once they reach 1^st grade, it is a cruel reality. Unfortunately, those 1^st grade teachers are responsible in closing the gap. Supposed though that they don’t have a “highly qualified” first grade teachers. What happens, those kids will move on to second grade with a gap. This can be ongoing, summing up to student dropout in high school. If we start from the beginning, this can be avoided.

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2016/10/26/report-reveals-yawning-achievement-gap-chapel-hill-carrboro-schools/

Section II

I would use twitter for the following things:

·      Parent communication- I would use this tool to send parents notifications of any events going on in my classroom and school. I liked this so we could post pictures of anything that is going on in the classroom. About two weeks ago, I had a walkthrough from my assistant principal and she enjoyed my classroom so much, we were on twitter! It was awesome. I would love for parents to feel like they are part of our classroom.

·      Parent polls: Once in a while, I believe it would be easy to poll parents about certain things; classroom experiences, improvements, negatives.

·      I would use twitter to ask my students questions on stories/books we have read. The question would be posted on twitter and they would have to reply with the hashtag given. What I like about doing this is that they have to really analyze what they are going to put since it only gives them such a short space to write. This could work for Middle School Reading/ Social Studies.

·      I liked the idea posed on the articles about having students make a presentation on flickr and tweeting it. Each student would be provided with a national hero and create a presentation for it. Again this would be for middle school grades.

Blog 11: Edmodo

I was in love with everything that Edmodo could do! It is a great and easy tool to use in the classroom. I would implement Edmodo in the following ways:

• 1.     In my classroom I usually contact with my parents by newsletter or an app called classdojo. I love using class dojo since I’m able to post pictures and videos of work or any activities my students are participating in. Unfortunately, rumor has it, class dojo will be banned from our district. According to rumors, if we use these kind of programs, we will be required to only use Edmodo. I could use Edmodo to post any special announcements or any reminders. I liked the fact that you are able to upload documents so I could upload the homework and my weekly newsletters. Unfortunately, at least one student does not turn in their homework per week because they lose their homework. If I can upload the document and any documents associated with the homework, parents will be able to download them and print them. I love this idea! This can work for any grade levels. For the lower grades it could be for parents, while the upper grades it could be for the students. Having this app, could also serve as documentation in favor of the teacher ( for those parents and students claiming nothing was ever told to them).
• 2.     I loved the fact that we could create snapshots based on the TEKS! This is a GREAT tool for teachers since everything is done, including the grading. Grading itself will alleviate the burden of time it takes to grade. Every Friday our 2^nd grade class has computer lab. Usually we use this time to do I-Station and Xtra Math. Now instead of doing Xtra Math, we will go into Edmodo and I will have students complete the Math and Language Arts snapchats. Most of my students will be familiar with how to maneuver the quiz, since it is similar to the multiple choice in Istation.

                I can also use Edmodo for our spelling tests. Every Friday we have spelling tests and    unfortunately some students are already getting bored of them. I can create an open ended quiz, take them to the lab, dictate, and have them type in the word. Again this will be graded, so that will take some time off. I’m super excited about having this resource that can actually help us!

• 3.      I would also use Edmodo to work collaborately with my grade level. We could use Edmodo as another tool of communication. I would like to use Edmodo by sharing lesson plans and resources we come across. Unfortunately, I always misplace any copies that are provided to me, so being able to have them electronically would alleviate some stress. Though all lesson plans are provided through email as well, they can get lost in all the mailboxes. I believe having a specific group in Edmodo for just lesson plans can help alleviate not finding them.

In one of our trainings we had gone over Edmodo. I taught kinder back then so honestly, I did not think I could ever use it so I did not pay much attention. Not only that, it was a brief 20 minute training on it. After watching the video though I was amazed at all the things it could do for us. This can definitely be a great tool for teacher

Blog 10:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/09/teachers-guide-to-using-blogs-in-class.html

This article emphasized the importance of having a blog for our classrooms. Having a blog for our classroom for student input is very beneficial to both teacher and students. Among the student benefits are:

• Improve students writing skills through posting and commenting
• Helps students have a voice 
• Promote the notion of independent and personalized learning
• Promote a spirit of collaboration among students
• Engage parents in the learning taking place in the classroom
• Connect with students from other schools and exchange with them learning experience

As for the teacher it serves as a uniting point between parents and them. The article provided some great websites to assist in creating your blog. The main website was blogger, which we used to create our own. Other websites were wordpress and edublog. 

The one that caught my attention was kidblog. This website will assist in creating blogs for individual students. As a teacher you set up the class and provide each student with their class code. Each student then is able to create their own blog. Parents and teachers will be able to connect with the students and monitor the blogs. This is a great tool teachers can use to have students post assignments and participate in any discussions. I might start implementing it in my classroom!

Feedly Article: Edutopia

http://www.edutopia.org/article/home-visits-powerful-family-engagement-tool-debbie-polhemus

I was particularly intrigued by this article because it hits home. This article was about how home visits can significantly change students. I believe that one of the key elements in having students succeed is parent involvement. Many times parents are afraid or are oblivious to any education their children receive. This article particularly talked about making home visits to families, in particular undocumented families. Towards the end of the home visit, school officials ask the family members about what they dream their child to be. If you were to ask me, I have big dreams for my son. He plays baseball and loves it. He also does ji jitsu and loves it as well (though it scares me to death when other kids are getting him). My dream for him is to be a famous baseball player or a famous ji jitsu fighter. He dreams of making it big and buying us a house and a brand new car. My dream is for my son to accomplish his dreams. In the article, the thing that the parent dreamed of their child, Lindy, is to be able to finish school and avoid deportation. Unfortunately, many times, as teachers, we don’t know our students well enough. We expect them to perform but we don’t know the situation at home. In Lindy’s case, how was she supposed to concentrate at school knowing her future was unclear. She had court dates and lawyers to worry about. Unfortunately, her father who was also undocumented was not able to go with her for fear of him being deported as well. No one knew Lindy’s situation before the home visit. After the home visit, accommodations were able to be put in place to ensure Lindy succeeded. The relationship with the family helped create a bond and assure them that they were cared for. Before the trial, Lindy opened up to the school officials and voiced her fear because she did not want to confront the situation by herself. Thankfully, school officials were able to get Lindy in contact with a local non profit organization that was able to accompany her on the court date. The article emphasizes how important developing a relationship with students and families can have a big impact on student success. Had school officials not done a home visit to Lindy’s family who knows what would have happened to her. She could have failed or have been deported without the help of the school officials. As educators, I believe our job does not end at 3:30 when the kids leave. If we really care for our students, or as I like to call them; our kids, we need to make the effort to reach out to families. We would be shocked at the situation some of our kids are being put through. If we try harder we can change this world, one student at a time. Students now are America’s future, we must ensure it is a successful one.

Blog 9- Powerpoint or Prezi? Which is better for teachers to use?

Baseball Mom Survey 

My world is surrounded with baseball since my son plays. We are always at the field for games or practices. The survey that I made was for a "baseball mom" shirt giveaway.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAyAMhKg-EUr1g5Y11TjIPR25WyRjvCjk_Fqr7fRa5_MxOWA/viewform

Blog Post 8

I had never used Google Drive until this semester for two of my graduate courses. We used it to work together on a powerpoint presentation and a research paper. Prior to this, we used the usual cut and paste to put all the parts of the paper together. It was awesome to be able to all work on the document together. As we read each person’s part we were able to edit it on the spot and not waste any time. This was a great help for group work, since due to our busy schedules, it was nearly impossible for us to meet. This was the only portion I knew about Google Drive. I had no idea how to share documents or any of its awesome features! My favorite part was definitely making a survey!

I will implement Google in my school the following ways:

1.     This lesson would be for 6^th grade social studies. Students will create a powerpoint on an inventor. They will research and cooperate to make a powerpoint presentation of 10 to 12 slides. Each student will research a different part and input all the information in the slides.

2.     Students will be use google forms to make a survey for math. They will be trained to add multiple choice, short, and long answers. Students will play the role of “teacher” and create their own tests using multiple choice, short, and long answers. They will create the test and provide me with the “key” to it. I believe students would be very engaged in making these tests. They will be able to retain more information since they will be the authors of them and have to answer them as well.

3.     This lesson could be implemented for the upper grades. Students will be put in groups of 3 and each given a story to read. Each person in the group will be in charge of answering one story element of the story (characters, setting, plot). They will create a 3 to 5 paper on the elements of the story. They will add pictures to this document. All of this would be done on the computer lab with each group sharing one google document and editing it simultaneously. I will have access to their groups so I could “jump” in at any time to monitor their work progress.

4.     One of the biggest pet peeves that we have when we do planning is having to fill out what we call week at a glance. We must break up the TEKS into weeks and type in the template what we do everyday of the 9 weeks. Breaking it down is not the hard part, inputting is! Since the master copy is done in only one computer we have to wait until the person in charge of the other subject (math, LA,SS) is done with the computer so we can use it. This takes up a long time. I would definitely use google drive so we can all be working on it at the same time. This will really help us move through the process quicker.

Overall, I loved Google Drive and all the features it entails. This is a very easy tool to use. As I progress in this class I realize how excellent using technology is. It definitely does make your life easier.