The How and Why of BYOD

I have been researching BYOD to learn about the movement, the impact on schools, how issues are being addressed, and the future implications. There are potentially negative effects but many of the school districts that are using BYOD found that as long as you are well planned in your implementation the results are generally positive. BYOD has so many benefits for students. Please watch my VoiceThread to learn about what BYOD has to offer.

How can VoiceThread help your classroom?

VoiceThread, a Web 2.0 tool, is a great tool for collaboration in the classroom. In VoiceThread you can upload different types of media including documents, images, pictures, videos, and audio files that will be used as a center for conversation. VoiceThread would be beneficial to use with students in grades K-12. A free version is available as well as versions for a single educator, school license, or district license.

There are many uses for VoiceThread in the classroom. In a foreign language classroom a teacher could post a picture and the students could practice speaking in the foreign language about the picture. It could also be used to put pictures of various vocabulary words and the students could practice speaking the various words. In an English classroom students could use various forms of media along with the features of VoiceThread to create an engaging book report. In history, a teacher could post a speech by a famous person and the students could comment on connections between the speech and the time in history. A physical education teacher could post a video clip where there was a violation in a game and the students could have a conversation about the violation. These are just a few uses of VoiceThread that I came up with but there are endless possibilities with all that it has to offer. If you choose the link Ideas for Using VoiceThread on the website http://voicethread.com/ you will see some additional examples of how to create lessons using this Web 2.0 tool.

Here is a link to a VoiceThread I created to use with my algebra students that are working toward the following standard:

• CCSS.Math.Content.HSF-IF.B.4 For a function that models a relationship between two quantities, interpret key features of graphs and tables in terms of the quantities, and sketch graphs showing key features given a verbal description of the relationship. Key features include: intercepts; intervals where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.

If you are interested in creating your own VoiceThread please view the screencast I created, Using VoiceThread in Your Classroom!

Classroom blogs…..why?

This post is because I had already reviewed the blog below before I decided to do my seocnd post on teacher blogs. I still wanted to share my review on this classroom blog.

As a high school math teacher I have never considered the idea of blogging and prior to the course I am taking had never looked at a blog other than a local news blog. I must say I am very impressed and I have to incorporate blogging into my classroom. These teachers are amazing and clearly their students love blogging!

One of the classroom blogs I visited was 4KJ@Leopold, an elementary classroom blog. Miss Kelly Jordan is a fourth grade teacher at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia and blogging is a major part of her classroom. The blog immediately caught my attention because I loved the yellow background and the pictures across the top. She just recently had a contest for August, titled Family Blogging Month. Miss Jordan stresses the importance of family involvement by saying, “it makes everything we do at school more meaningful and special.” This is true, how awesome is it that family members are getting to read about what is going on in school and sharing their thoughts, asking questions, and participating in the learning. She made up a code for each family member so that the students could keep a log of who was commenting on their behalf. Her recent post on September 2nd announced the winner, Jessica. Congrats to Jessica! Miss Jordan’s blog had over 120 comments from family and friends of the students during the month of August, what a great way for the families to get involved. The hope is that this involvement will continue. Miss Jordan also recently made a post, what do you like to read? I was interested in viewing this post because I wanted to view the comments that people had left. I was so happy to find that parents and other family members and friends had contributed with comments about their favorite childhood books. When the students see that their family members loved a particular author or book they are more likely to want to read the book.

Miss Jordan’s blog has several tabs at the top of the page and one that I was interested in was global projects. Global projects are projects the students work on with their blogging buddies around the world. One project Miss Jordan’s class did was called the monster project and was completed with Mr. Avery’s sixth grade students in Massachusetts. A student in Miss Jordan’s class was paired up with a student in Mr. Avery’s class and they each had to draw a picture of a monster. They then wrote a detailed description of their monster which they shared with their partner. Their partner had to use their description and try to draw their monster. At the end they compared their drawings and learned how important it is to be very descriptive in their writing. I was very excited to read about the project and wished that when I was in fourth grade I had Miss Jordan.

Teacher Blogs…what are they and what can they do for us?

I was interested in finding out what teacher blogs were about. Why would a teacher want to create a blog? Why is it beneficial? I was amazed by some of the teacher blogs I found and realized there is so much to learn from them.

One of the first blogs I looked at was the World History Teachers Blog. At first glance I wasn’t as excited about the blog as I had been about some of the librarian’s blogs I visited. It wasn’t as colorful and attractive. World History Teachers Blog is written by several high school history teachers and is for “those who teach world history and want to find online content as well as technology that you can use in the classroom.” As I began scanning through some of the posts, I was interested in a post titled “How to Start Your Students on the Flipped Experience.” I didn’t have any idea what the flipped experience was so I decided to take a look at the video. Wow! I think it sounds like a great idea. I am ready to try it but what about the students that don’t have internet access? The teacher says to come see him if you don’t have internet access and he can put the videos on a thumb drive. What if the students don’t have a computer to view the thumb drive? I love the idea but wonder how it works for those students without computer access at home.

Another link that I enjoyed looking at was, “Great Overview of the Syria Crisis.” I am a little ashamed to say that I am not great on keeping up with the news so I knew that there was something going on in Syria but I didn’t really know what. As an educator I should at least have an overview of what is happening in the event that the students ask a question or want to discuss a topic. This page gave me the brief overview I was looking for and now I feel more informed.

“VoiceThread, Blackboard Blogs, & Discussion Boards” is a great blog post to give teachers some technology options in their classroom. Many teachers are hesitant to use technology because it takes time to learn about the technology and develop a great lesson using it. The purpose of the post is to encourage collaboration in the classroom and what a great way to do it. This blog is a great resource for educators and is a must see for all teachers in all subject areas.

As a math teacher I wanted to visit a math teacher’s blog and one I liked was “Math Teacher Mambo.” The blog is by Shireen, a high school math teacher of seventeen years in Texas. The first post that really caught my attention was “First Day Homework.” Every year at the beginning of the year I look for a different way to start off the year. Most recently I have been having students write a letter to the teacher but when I saw this post I fell in love with the idea. Students love twitter so the first part where they give their background as a tweet will draw them in. When I saw this I had already passed my first day of the school year but I will keep it in mind for next year.

“How Do You Not Know That?” is another great post. Many of the issues Shireen mentions bother me, but one of them really bothers me on a daily basis. Students can’t read an analog clock so if they need to write a pass to leave the classroom they always leave the time portion blank. When I question them about it they say they can’t read the clock. This is due to the digital age but I think it is sad, I still remember doing worksheets in the elementary years where there were pictures of clocks and we had to tell the time. I guess that has gone by the wayside. Posts like this are nice for other teachers to read because it makes you realize that your concerns are the concerns of other teachers all over the country. It is refreshing to know that you are not the only one. “When am I Ever Going to Use This?” is another post that is something I encounter frequently. Students are always asking when they are going to use a particular concept and I am happy to see that Shireen responds to the question in a way that is very similar to how I respond. The blog also gives lesson ideas that weren’t helpful to me because I don’t teach those courses but they would be great resources for teachers of those subjects.

After viewing several high school teacher blogs I wanted to view the blog of an elementary school teacher so I found the blog “4 The Love of Teaching”. As soon as I went to the blog I loved it, it was colorful and screamed elementary school teacher. This blog is by Lana, a fifth grade teacher. Since we just finished our second week with students I decided to take a look at her post, “2nd Week Down.” Lana starts off with, “Does anyone else feel like they are just surviving?!” My thoughts exactly! The post mentioned that her class is doing interactive notebooks in all subject areas and she showed examples of the notebooks and what they had done this week. Although I don’t teach elementary school it was nice to see what they are doing in a fifth grade math classroom as well as other areas. I love how Lana concluded her post with a blurb about something other than teaching; she shared her love for fall.

A post titled, “Carolina Bloggers Meetup” made me realize that blogging is a professional community. These teachers share and discuss their ideas. I checked out the blogs of some of the participants in the meetup to see what I could find and I just loved looking at their blogs. One that was very cheerful was “Fun in Second Grade” by Diane. I loved her post “Work Days, Open House.” She shares the same thought as many teachers that work day means meeting day for many of us. I loved looking at the pictures of her classroom; it is always nice to see what other people do. I got so caught up in looking through all of the blogs that Lana has linked on her site that before I knew it hours had gone by.

In looking at all of the teacher blogs it made me realize that blogging is a great form of professional development. Often we sit through professional development sessions and don’t get much from them but I gained a lot from the hours that I spent reading blogs by other teachers. I loved learning about flipped classrooms, the uses of VoiceThread in the class, and more. Blogs allow teachers to get professional development on what they are interested in and get great lesson ideas, decorating ideas, and more. As Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide mention in their post “Brain of the Blogger” on the Eide Nuerolearning Blog, “blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.” An advantage to blogging is that “bloggers have solitary time to plan their posts, but they can also receive rapid feedback on their ideas.”

I want to start blogging and connect with others in the field so that we can learn from each other. I would like to connect teachers in my school, county, and beyond. I think there are great things going on within the walls of the school that teachers aren’t aware of, wouldn’t it be great to be connected via blogging so that we can see what is happening around us. My school is so large that in four years I still don’t know the names of all of the staff members. I would love to be able to see what they are doing in their classroom though. Making staff aware of what they can gain from blogging is essential. I would like to share teacher blogs with other teachers by using my own blog. Regular posts will review blogs in other subject areas so that teachers can see what is out there. If I can get teachers interested in reading a blog then hopefully they will be inclined to start their own blog. I look forward to continued blogging now that I have seen the many benefits.

Librarian blogs, what do they offer?

As I have been browsing various blogs over the past week and a half, I can’t help but think that I have been missing out. I have seen so many great ideas that I feel like I will now be spending a lot of my time reading blogs so that I don’t miss out. In my quest to become a librarian I decided to visit some blogs by librarians, hoping to get some great ideas.

My first stop was the blog of the Mighty Little Librarian, Tiffany Whitehead. Her blog is such an inspiration for all librarians. Her posts include a recent road trip with her BFF, Alaina where they attended ISTE13, visited museums, caverns, and more. There are pictures of all of their adventures, along with a narrative. Reading about the ISTE conference made me want to be there, it is something I will have to experience in the future. Her blog contains many resources for librarians, including her recent pondering of self-checkout with comments and suggestions by other librarians. One of my favorite posts was about the Spring Book Challenge, I loved how she reflected on the January/February Book Challenge in the post and made changes accordingly to better meet the needs of her school. I think my favorite post from her site is, “Who is your book crush?” This idea would make such a great Valentine’s Day display and I think girls would really get into the idea. I definitely want to do it when I have a school library one day. I will continue to read this inspiring blog for ideas for my career as a school librarian. Another great idea for librarians is to follow the Mighty Little Librarian on twitter.

The next blog I visited was the Bulldog Readers Blog. The many pictures of children reading really sucked me in when I visited this blog. I love seeing the many places the students would have their picture taken with a book. Airborne in a Kayak is definitely one of my favorite pictures on the blog. Mrs. Hembree uses the blog to share her ideas, book reviews, and more. She even has a QR code on her page that you can scan to view book trailers made by her students. The book trailers look like a very exciting and engaging project, one I would love to try one day. This blog is not only for librarians but for students, teachers, and parents as well. It contains book reviews written by students, like this one on Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. I can only imagine how excited students would be to see their book review posted online. As you read Mrs. Hembree’s blog you can feel her love of reading and the excitement of the students through the many photos their families have submitted.

Next, the Teen Librarian Toolbox is a great resource for any librarian working with teens. The blog, created by Karen Jensen and written by four librarians has a wealth of information. As a future teen librarian I will definitely follow the blog. Aside from the home page of the blog there are sections on teen issues, reluctant readers, autism & libraries, and more. These sections are great resources for further information on those topics. A post titled, “STEM Girls: Books with girls rocking science and math” caught my attention as a current math teacher. This post reviewed multiple books where the book has a girl involved in science or math as a main character. What librarian wouldn’t want to have easy access to a list like this to make recommendations to students? When I become a librarian I want to be able to recommend the perfect book for a particular student and with resources such as this I will be better prepared to do so. In addition to book reviews and recommendations on a variety of topics, the blog also takes a look at key issues. In the post, “Geek is the New Black: Benefits of Electronic Gaming in the Library, a defense” the issue is investigated in detail. Additional resources are also provided with links to online resources. Another post on the blog that caught my attention was “Things I Didn’t Learn in Library School: Maintaining your sanity when you are in charge of ALL things.” This post addresses the many things that librarians are often expected to do and gives ways to reduce the stress of handling all of these things. Self-checkout stations are recommended along with recruiting anyone to help with shelving books and other such tasks. As a student in a library science program I was intrigued to hear about the idea of self-checkout both on this blog and on the blog of the Mighty Little Librarian. It is something I hadn’t considered or heard about yet in my program but it is nice to see some of the issues that I will experience as a librarian. The Teen Librarians Toolbox also has a Facebook page, Twitter page, a page on Pinterest, and more. What a wonderful way to follow a great resource and keep up to date with what is going on in the field!

Mrs. Reader Pants is another blog that caught my attention. This blog is run by a current middle school librarian who also opened two elementary school libraries and taught seventh grade language arts prior to that. Her blog is for book reviews, genrefication, and library ideas. Her blog is set up to appeal to parents, students, and librarians. If someone is looking for a book about aliens they can click on “aliens” and will be directed to all of the book reviews with that label. The newest addition to her blog is the top tens where students, parents, and librarians can find the “Top Ten Read Alouds” as well as the top ten in other categories. She also gives her criteria for a book to make the top ten lists. As a teacher studying to be a librarian I was very interested in the lesson ideas section of the blog. When looking through the lesson ideas I read the post, “Got ARCs? Start a Book Review Club.” I really thought the book review club was a great idea but I had no idea what ARCs were. After a little research I discovered that ARCs are advanced reader copies. I then found information on how to get ARCs on the blog “Small Review” which is run by a woman that currently works in a library. For someone that doesn’t have experience with a book review club the post by Mrs. Reader Pants is very helpful and includes everything from getting started to meeting with the groups.

After reading about ARCs I discovered that a benefit to maintaining a blog is the possibility of acquiring ARCs. Wouldn’t it be great to get these books and use them with a book review club? I love the idea! Aside from that there are many other benefits to blogging. As stated in the “Eide Neurolearning Blog Post: Brain of the Blogger” by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide “the best of blogs are rich in ideas and promote active exchange and critique.” This is what I noticed about all of the blogs I reviewed; people are reading them, commenting on them, and creating dialogue. This means that readers are not only getting the opinion of one person but they are potentially seeing the opinions of multiple readers and possibly experts in the field. As the blogger you also get to see how others feel about a particular topic. This is a great way to get feedback. As an aspiring librarian a post could be made with an idea I have and readers could comment possibly giving me ideas for improving my original idea.

I plan to continue to read the above blogs while also finding others that would benefit me as a librarian. I found so many ideas that will make me a better librarian. While visiting numerous blogs I made sure I checked out plenty of blogs by high school math teachers, since that is my current position. I found an abundance of useful information on those blogs as well. I would like to encourage other teachers in my building to take a look at blogs and what they have to offer and maybe even start blogging themselves. I can see myself promoting blogging as a librarian through emails to staff with links highlighting blogs to visit in each content area. Additionally, I could do a professional development session on the benefits of blogging where I give real examples of how blogs could be used in various content areas. I am very excited about blogging and all that it has to offer.

SLM 508 BNT

Hello everyone! I hope to use this blog to showcase what I learn in SLM 508 over the next eight weeks.