I truly enjoyed Module 5’s discussion entitled Telling Your School’s Story. I was able to systematically think about what my district is doing to create an online presence, which helped develop some ideas on how to improve our social media use. Reading about what other districts and schools are doing was so helpful! I think that, as teachers, we love learning from each other and this was another chance to do just that. I read about so many great ideas that I would never have come up with on my own.
I think this was the most useful discussion of the whole course for me. My school and district has been using Facebook and Twitter more and more over the past two years and having some ideas in mind on how to improve family relations and community reach will make it easier to approach my principal. I want to help build the connection between home and school for my community; social media may just be a way to do that!
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The Hiring Process was one of my favorite assignments in this course. At the time it was due, I was interviewing for a new position at my school; the timeliness of the assignment was impeccable! It gave me a chance to think through possible interview questions ahead of time for an authentic audience.
This assignment was also useful because it forced me to think like an administrator. I have no intention of ever becoming an administrator but seeing things from their point of view is often helpful and fosters understanding. It was challenging to me to come up with interview questions. I generally just want people to tell me about themselves and don’t want to put anyone on the spot. (I don’t think I make a very good interviewer because of this.) I was much more comfortable answering the interview questions that my classmates developed since I have been on that end of the conversation many, many times. Ultimately, this assignment helped prepare me for real-life interviews but also gave me a little insight into the interviewer side of things. One of our options for discussion this week was to share what we learned at ISTE18. I am so happy that was able to attend all four days and present a playground session! I learned much more about some things I already knew of, new tools and methods, and many new people from around the country.
I think my biggest take-away is that using Twitter is just about essential if you want to stay current on trends, new releases and updates, and what other teachers and administrators are doing in their schools. I have used Twitter on and off for two years as a place to share our classroom with parents, but I started using Class Dojo for that more and now use Twitter as my “professional place”. Without Twitter, I would have been lost and would not have learned as much about ISTE and at ISTE18. I was also so excited to meet some people in person that I follow on Twitter and that follow me back – we both felt like celebrities! One of my favorite sessions was about genius hour. Andi McNair was the speaker; she shared many resources that we can use to get genius hour up and running smoothly. Here is a link to her website with some of those resources: http://www.andimcnair.com/genius-hour.html I really love the 6P’s that she discussed (link on her website). The possible steps of working through a genius hour project are all there with ideas on what tools students can use to make it happen. My other favorite session was by Michael Hernandez called From Analog to Digital: How to Write for an Online Audience. He was an engaging and entertaining speaker, and he shared so many ideas on how we can give our students authentic audiences to make their writing more meaningful. A big part of the discussion was using social media to teach reading and writing, both as a way to teach digital citizenship and as a way to build writing skills. Here is the link to Michael’s resources from the presentation: http://bit.ly/2MKhluv |
AuthorI'm Stacy! 5th grade teacher. Wife. Mom. Coach. Flipgrid enthusiast. RAKtivist. Potterhead. Whovian. |