Reflections: 2016

Friday, November 25, 2016

Blog Post 19: Using video for teaching and learning

I have found that many people use the words me, myself, and I incorrectly. Since my final project will be about writing, I found the video by Emma Bryce to be helpful. http://ed.ted.com/on/oeD7OPyS#watch

I think that Ted-Ed can be so helpful for teachers and students. I love learning about all of these Web Tools. I find myself going to videos quite a few times when I need to look up something I have a question about. Teaching students to use the tools at their fingertips is an important aspect of their learning. Teachers in all grade levels can create lessons on Ted-Ed. I specifically thought of third grade and fourth grade writing lessons and fifth grade science lessons.

Writing really begins at the same time as reading. Students’ reading and writing levels should be the same, but unfortunately, a lot of us fail to keep the writing levels the same as reading due to the daunting task of teaching reading. If we teach writing simultaneously, teaching reading will not be as difficult. I thought that a Ted-Ed lesson on commonly misspelled words such as when to use their, there, and they’re can be created in order to help students remember. I think that videos are a great way to get the students’ attention because a teacher can repeat herself a million times and the students still do not remember but a video may be what will help them to remember the rules of when to use the words correctly. Using these lessons in third grade and incorporating more writing in the lower grades will help our students be better writers.

For fourth grade writers, Ted-Ed can be used for all kinds of writing references. There was a video on great introductions that could help fourth grade writers to hook the readers’ attention. There were a number of literature videos that can be used throughout the writing process to help support writing lessons that the teachers may be providing. The video lesson I shared was one that a fourth grade teacher can use.

I thought about using Ted-Ed for a fifth grade Science lesson as well. Fifth graders will be taking their STAAR Science test and lessons on states of matter to moon phases to food webs can be found on the videos. Engaging the students with one of these videos or following up a lesson with a video lesson will only help to solidify what a teacher is teaching her students with the media that students prefer.

The use of Ted-Ed lessons will help students to enjoy the learning process in any of the content areas.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

Google Photos can be used in many ways in teaching and learning. Students can use pictures to illustrate their writing, create a story, and even make inferences. These are only a few ideas but there are countless more.

I thought about having students illustrate their compositions in order to have them be more interested in writing. Unfortunately, a lot of students do not care about writing too much. Consequently, they do not score well when they are assessed in writing. I think that if they are able to illustrate their narrative compositions that would get them excited about writing. Expository compositions can also be illustrated using Google Photos which will cause more enthusiasm among students. Students spend so much time on social media that they are not too interested in writing if it is not accompanied by images. Google Photos would solve that problem.

Another way that Google Photos can be used is to accompany a story. Once a year our students are asked to write a story for a writing contest. I think that using photos to go along with their story will create more interest among the students. I am not sure that the photos will be admissible in the contest, but the students can use them to present to the class. I enjoyed creating my short story using the photos that I am sure that students of all ages would do the same.

Students do not test well on inferences and pictures are great to use when it come to inferences. To introduce pictures for inferencing, the teacher can first share photos whole group and ask the students what they think the person in the photos are feeling and justify their answers using the clues in the pictures. When the students become pretty good at this whole group the teacher can then place them in a literacy station to have students answer inferencing questions based on the photos. The students that continue to struggle may need to work in a small group with the teacher guiding them. The teacher may also upload photos in Edmodo to create an assignment where students can make inferences based on the photos.

I thought that using Google Photos was going to take me quite a while to search and find pictures, but locating the photos was actually easy and quick. Using the photos for learning and teaching will definitely make learning and teaching more interesting.

Blog post 17: Google photos assignment

One day I step out into my backyard and see a rabbit off in the distance. I wondered what it was doing in my yard and how it got there. While I was still pondering this situation my dog starts running over in the direction of the rabbit. I called out to her to stop, but she was determined to get to the rabbit. I was afraid that the rabbit was bigger than my dog and could end up hurting her. I started chasing my dog when I realized that my dog had reached the rabbit. I held my breath expecting to see fur flying and painful animal cries. Instead, I see my dog and the rabbit rub noses and begin to play together. The rabbit stayed for a while and then left. My dog went out each time searching for her new friend and became sad when her friend did not return. Her sadness continued until I decided to get her a bunny of her own for Easter. Now the two are the best of friends and play together everyday.

https://goo.gl/photos/Ma2nScVfVTyh35Th7

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Blog 16: Self-directed Learning using Feedly

The article “Do’s and Don’ts for Teaching English-Language Learners “ by Larry Ferlazzo gives teachers many strategies to use to help ELLs. These strategies include considering the rate in which teachers speak and allowing ELLs sufficient wait time because they are thinking in more than one language. It includes suggesting about modeling, checking for understanding, and giving instructions. All of the recommendations were extremely helpful for teachers that have not had a lot of experience with ELLs.

I found that this article took me back to previous experiences I have had myself. The closing of the article was an “aha” moment for me. It stated that students should not be forbidden to speak their native language because they will not feel like they are in a safe environment to take risks where it would be acceptable to make mistakes. That explains a lot about me because I was an ELL student when I first started school. When I started attending school we were not allowed to speak Spanish especially in my first grade class. Now I understand why I rarely speak out in my classes or public places. The experiences I had personally helped me to be more sensitive to ELLs in my classroom.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski

Another article that is interesting is “New Teachers: Inspire Your Students to Write, Write, Write” by Rebecca Alber. This article brings up the fact that if students feel too much pressure to write grammatically correct on the first draft then they are freezing up when it comes to writing, and they are definitely not enjoying writing.

The article suggests having students write without worrying about being grammatically correct. One way that this can be done is to provide the students with prompts that allow them to share their opinions and what they know. Another important point brought up was to have the students share their writing and not just have them put their writing away when writing time is over. Giving them options to choose from as far as the audience and structure of their writing. When it comes to grading, Alber recommends giving a credit grade instead of correcting the paper. Students can choose a piece of writing to write formally for the teacher to grade.

When I first started teaching fourth grade I was not fond of writing. Once I started writing alongside my students to walk them through the formal writing process I found it to be therapeutic for my students and myself. All of my students and I bonded because we got to know a lot about each other. I was surprised to find that a lot of these nine and ten year old babies have already lived a difficult lifetime that writing helped them to adjust to their difficult lives.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teachers-inspiring-your-students-write-write-write-rebecca-alber

Friday, November 11, 2016

Post 15 Using LiveBinders for teaching and learning

I think that using LiveBinders for teachers and students is a great idea. I have been working with new teachers that have found that teaching is not as easy as they thought it was going to be. LiveBinders can help them to collect great teaching ideas that they can easily access without losing or misplacing papers with information they would like to refer to later. LiveBinders can also help students become better organized when they are working on projects.

During this time of the school year is when teachers start to feel tired and stressed. New teachers have shared with me that they are struggling with classroom management. I do not think it is only new teachers that struggle with this because every year teachers end up with a new group that may require different techniques and strategies. LiveBinders is a good place for teachers to collect important information they come across. Too many times we read something online and then we forget where it was when we want to go back to refer to it. LiveBinders allow teachers to store information that we may want to save to use later in the school year as well.

I think that LiveBinders is beneficial for students as well. One way that fourth grade students can use it is to collect and organize information when they are working on a project. In Social Studies fourth grade students study Native American tribes. One project they could do is to create a final product that includes the type of shelter, clothing, food, traditions and area they lived in. LiveBinders will help students collect pictures and information for each area that they would be held responsible for including in their project. The tabs and subtabs would help them stay organized and will also prevent them from losing their information.

Another way that LiveBinders can be used in all grade levels is for portfolios. Each student can keep their portfolios private and can upload their own videos and/or pictures from the school year. They can have a subtab for each content area and upload research papers, compositions, projects, and experiments they have completed throughout the school year. The portfolio can help the students monitor their own learning and progress throughout the year.

LiveBinders seemed a little intimidating when I first started reading about them, but they turned out to be easy to use.

Here is the link to my LiveBinder http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2114389

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Post 14, Final lesson ideas

I am thinking that for my final product I would like to focus on fourth grade writing. I would like the focus of the lesson to be on expository writing. I want my lesson to be on expository writing because fourth grade students this year will be tested on expository writing on the STAAR test.

The learning goals for this lesson will begin by analyzing the prompt and identifying the purpose for writing. The analyzation of the prompt will help students know whether they will be writing an expository versus a narrative composition. Students tend to get confused on the determination of the purpose of responding to the prompt. My lesson will help them to narrow in on certain words that will help them to determine whether they will be writing an expository or narrative prompt. The students will be provided with graphic organizers that will help them to write a well-organized composition.

I plan on using Google Docs and Edmodo throughout the lesson. Google Docs will allow the students to work on their composition while sharing it with me, and perhaps some of their classmates. I am not completely sure about that yet. I will provide certain resources for the students on Edmodo that I feel are critical for them to have to facilitate the writing process. I can also use Edmodo to help me check the students’ understanding of the lesson as we progress. Since writing is a process, my lesson will take more than one day. Using Edmodo to create quizzes on something I have taught will help me know what I need to reteach before I go on to another part of my lesson. I also like the fact that the quizzes will allow me to be collecting grades during the course of the writing process.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Week 11, Post 13 Helping a teacher use wikis

There were quite a few problems in the scenario about Jane and her class. One of the problems was that in one group only one person was writing while another problem in another group was that students were writing paragraphs independent of their group. More problems existed in another group that worried about the aesthetics but not content. Yet another problem was that one group was copying information from websites, and the final problem was that one group was embedding pictures and videos not related to the research questions.

I would prioritize the problems in this order: the problem of copying information, then the one where only one student in the group was doing the work, the next problem would be the group that had a great looking wiki without focusing on the content and the problem of least importance was the one with pictures and videos not related to the research questions.

The solutions in order of priority would be to provide students lessons on how to cite sources, provide a rubric, and the importance of visual aids in research. I think that teaching students how to cite sources and the importance of doing so would prevent problems for them in the future related to plagiarism. Plagiarism is stealing the hard work from the creator. Such an act brings about consequences such as expulsion or suspension of an academic institution or being sued by the originator of the piece of writing that was stolen. The earlier in life students are taught about plagiarism and how to properly cite sources the better.

Jane obviously did not provide a rubric that would have prevented many of the problems that she is encountering. The final project has not been turned in so it is not too late for a rubric. The rubric should carefully spell out what the role of the group members would be that would enable them to collaboratively create an outstanding wiki. The rubric would have to outline the responsibility of percentage of work required of each group member. I think that many of us have experienced the frustration of having to carry the weight of an assignment that should be a group assignment but we end up doing all by ourselves. That experience only brings about resentment and dread from the person doing the majority of the work. It is not fair to the student doing all the work, and as a teacher, do you give the rest of the students in the group a failing grade? Distributing a rubric allows Jane to set the expectations. Another thing she could do is have conferences with the students and their parents about the students not doing their share of the work that will ultimately cause them to get a failing grade. She could also provide support to the students that are not sure what or how to do something on their wiki. Some of the students not contributing to the project may not be doing anything because they do not know what to do.

Addressing the students who had pictures and videos not related to the research question is not as difficult to address. They obviously know how incorporate these features so teaching them how to focus in on their research question will not be as difficult. Lessons on how to address the research question and focus on that topic will help the students incorporate pictures and videos that address their research question.

Working with technology in the classroom is a process. The links below will help when incorporating technology into the classroom.

http://www.gpb.org/blogs/education-matters/2015/10/28/edtech-tip-working-wikispaces-classroom

http://www.techforteachers.net/wikis-in-the-classroom.html

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/using-wikis-in-the-classroom.shtml

Friday, October 28, 2016

Week 10: Using Twitter for Teaching and Learning

Learning from Hashtags

I chose the hashtag #edleaders because I am part of the leadership team at my campus. My two administrators and I are new to this campus so we are learning about the culture on our campus. Since I am new to the leadership role as instructional coach and I am also interested in becoming a principal someday, the article by Tom Waters “Leadership That Questions” caught my attention. Waters writes about how most of us do not like to be told what to do and yet it is a principal’s job to clearly communicate the vision and goals. He states that a principal can share these through questioning. He does not believe that a strong leadership should be about disseminating information, but rather about learning from questioning. During the questioning, a leader should make sure to be an active listener. He offers questions that the leadership team can pose and share. The purpose is to learn about the culture of the school. This article reminded me of what a former principal of mine used to say. He would always tells us that it is extremely important that as an educator and principal you have to make sure that you continue to be a lifetime learner. I understand how important that is as a teacher because you can learn more about the content you teach, but you also learn from your students. The students I seemed to learn the most from were the most challenging ones. I tried to see what I had to do to engage them and keep them focused, and of course, I learned patience from them. As a school leader, I can see how the teachers will become my students, and I will continue my learning and growing partly from them. Not only will I learn from them, but also from my new experiences and on the job training.

Link: http://http://teamtomwaters.blogspot.com/2016/07/leadership-that-questions.html

Ideas for Using Twitter for teaching and learning

The first idea that came to my mind was to have fourth through sixth grade students use Twitter to write a good summary using only 140 characters. Students in fourth through sixth grade struggle when it comes to summarization on the STAAR test. Having them select their words carefully to provide a summary of what they have read is not an easy task, but it will be one that makes them think. After everyone shares their summary with each other using the same hashtag, then the students will have to select the best summary out of all of the ones that were shared on Twitter. This assignment would be aligned to the STAAR test because they are asked to select the best summary out of four options. Another idea for using Twitter would be to have third through sixth grade students post a statement in which they would persuade their classmates to read a book they had read and enjoyed. The purpose of this post would be to encourage students to read for enjoyment. Too often our students are reading because they are assigned reading for homework and not because they want to read. Perhaps, if their classmates recommend a book, they will be more interested in reading. Yet another idea for fourth grade could be to provide the students with a simple sentence and have them elaborate and provide “vivid” words to create a better sentence on their Twitter account. This assignment could be given after a mini-lesson on word choice. We encourage students to “retire” the more commonly used words such as happy and sad in order for the writer to provide a reader an expressive and thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Week 9: Post 11 Using Edmodo for teaching and learning

Edmodo is a useful tool for teachers and students. I like how easy teachers can post videos or images for students to use as a reference. For students, I think that Edmodo makes their school life easier and more interesting because of the use of technology. I would have third grade and up use Edmodo. My nephew had shared how much he loved Edmodo last year. He is a music teacher and he says that he likes how easy it is to upload a quiz and have the grades done. He also likes to scan the music pieces onto Edmodo versus handing out copies. He said that when he used to hand out copies his students were constantly losing them, so now he assigns the music pieces for students to use off of their Chromebooks directly. I did ask him about the students that might not have Wi-Fi access at home, and he said that his campus allows students to go into the computer lab after school to print off assignments or work on assignments there on campus. My nephew says that he also likes to upload videos of pieces of music or musicians he wants to share with his students in order for them to view before going into class. I am so glad to see that fine arts teachers can benefit from Edmodo. I think that fifth grade teachers could use Edmodo to have their students work through the scientific method while the students are conducting their science projects for a science fair. Most fifth grade students have to work on a science project because they have to take the Science STAAR and using Edmodo will make the learning process much more enjoyable. The teachers can upload videos and resources that will help walk the students through the different steps of the scientific process. For example, first they can receive help learning ways to select their topic and choose a title and develop a question and hypotheses. A deadline assignment can be set to turn those in on Edmodo. A week or two later the teacher can assign turning in the list of materials that the students will use. Then a few days later assign the procedures and so on. Each assignment will have the support of resources. Another way that I thought Edmodo could be used is to provide an engage assignment before beginning a unit of study. I would recommend this type of assignment for third and upper grade students because my district provides Chromebooks to those grades. Assigning a poll to take, a discussion among the students or a video to watch is a good engaging lesson to prepare them or entice them into the new unit of study. Having the students watch the video or take the poll can provide the teacher with a participation grade. Group Code: 5ndzk3

Friday, October 14, 2016

The article “Helping Troubled Students, One Relationship at a Time” by David Bulley validated my belief that there needs to be a trust relationship between teacher and student. Bulley wrote about the results of a survey that was given to students in a new school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The survey consisted of questions such as specifying how many teachers the students trusted, how many staff or teachers they felt they could go ask for help, and how many they felt they had a strong relationship with. Sadly, the results showed that 20% of the students trusted no one. The goal after the survey was to have every student establish a relationship with a staff or teacher. The teachers chose one student to get to know well through specific questions. The questions were specific to building trust. Some suggestions that were offered when developing questions to help build relationships with students were simple. Basically, you have to be a good listener, talk about the present, share things about yourself, and share food because that shows caring and thoughtfulness. The results were positive ones because teachers had less behavior issues, and students were not skipping class. I have found that the little bit of extra time that I spend getting to know our more challenging students will pay off in the end. They will trust you and work hard for you when they know you care and value them as a person. http://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-troubled-students-through-relationships-david-bulley Another article that sparked my interest was “Suspending Students from School: Does it Work?” I have always thought that a lot of the students that get in trouble are the ones that do not like to attend school. That means that they know that if they do something wrong their punishment of suspension does not seem so severe since they would rather not go to school. This article by Adam Gutierrez points out that students who are suspended double their chances of being retained which many times leads to the students dropping out. Gutierrez also adds that not only does the suspended student suffer consequences from suspension but so do the parents and other students. The parents have a loss of income if they have to stay home to look after the suspended student, and studies show that students who attend schools with a high percentage of suspensions do not score well in reading and math. Teachers are affected as well to the point that 12 % of them leave the profession because of discipline issues. The solution in the article is to put off suspensions and use positive interventions to improve the culture of schools. http://www.edudemic.com/suspending-students/

Week 8: Blog Post 9

Please view my Prezi presentation:

Friday, October 7, 2016

Week 7: Using Google Drive for teaching and learning

Using Google Drive is a great tool in education. Teachers had already been using it to help a grade level of teachers all collaborate in creating their lesson plans. The instructional coaches use it as a means of sharing and uploading files. Students also use it for different assignments.

One way Google Drive can be used is in fourth grade. Students in fourth grade do a lot of writing due to the STAAR Writing test. Editing and revising are part of the writing process. I found out that a campus has their students download their compositions on Google Documents then their classmates and teacher can help them with the editing and revising as a live document on Google Drive. Any changes can be color coded to allow the author the opportunity to decide if he or she wants to make the changes that were recommended. I like how Google Drive provides a new twist to the writing process.

Another project that I thought fourth graders could do with the Google Slides is a Social Studies project. The fourth grade students need to know about the European explorers and their accomplishments in the settlement of Texas. The students could be assigned one explorer as a project where students have to present a slide show on the explorers’ routes in Texas, their challenges, accomplishments and what they are known for. The live document allows all students to contribute using their own Chrome books to do the research and enter their information. The students will be able to add pictures and maps to their research that will make their presentation more interesting. Each group could then present their final product to their classmates which allows the students to learn from each other.

Something else that first graders can do is to create a problem of the day in math. The students can use Google Drawings to pick shapes to create their own word problem. The students can even add color to their shapes. I will be supporting our technology teacher on Monday with first graders as we guide them through the entire lesson. The following week they will be expected to create their own problem of the day using what they will learn Monday. Of course, our technology teacher and I will be providing support as needed. I know that they will be excited and proud of what they will create. I am glad that I learned more about Google Drive so that I can better support the students and our technology teacher.

Here is the link to the survey I created using Google Forms

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRTlfIdUxLjk0KDVIqTEYfrdMrAioUanWev9N-tdHcWjOjng/viewform

Friday, September 30, 2016

Week 6: Using Pinterest for teaching and learning

I had already signed on to Pinterest before this week’s assignment. I love to spend free time on Pinterest to look for great ideas shared by other teachers. I had not created my own board before so that was definitely new to me. I liked some of the ideas on how teachers can use Pinterest with their students.

One of the ideas I liked for lower grade teachers was from Sarah Muthler’s article called “The Educator’s Guide to Pinterest” on how teachers could create a board that provides pins to students with informative text from the Internet without the fear of having them get into inappropriate websites. Muthler also shared how teachers can create book lists on Pinterest to help students find the right book for them. I like how the board will limit the websites that the students can view.

Madeleine Cummings wrote about the popularity of Pinterest among teachers in her article “There’s a Big Hole in How Teachers Build Skills, and Pinterest is Helping to Fill It.” I know that from personal experience I wish that I would have had Pinterest way back when I first started teaching. New teachers now have the opportunity to look up good ideas to decorate their classrooms. A new teacher at my campus had adorable sitting crates and matching decorations in her classroom, and she quickly shared that she got all the decorating ideas from Pinterest. Cummings also mentioned that Pinterest helps teachers with lesson planning and getting ideas for projects and assignments which is important for a new teacher when he or she is lesson planning. Not only does Pinterest have decorative ideas but also good activities and lesson plans for teachers.

As a reading coach, many times I have to share ideas for centers and lessons for different grade levels. Pinterest allows me to go in and look up activities for different grade levels plus now I know how I can create a board for each grade level and they can go in and look up all the activities that I have pinned for each grade level. The pins allow the teachers to narrow their search and not have to look through so many pins when they have so much to do. I think that allowing teachers to sell some of the activities that they have created on Pinterest is a great idea. Teachers are extremely underpaid for their hard work and should be compensated when they have a unique idea to share. Their products will benefit many students and teachers alike, and I think that they should receive some benefit themselves.
Link to my Pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com/srugarte/teaching/

Friday, September 23, 2016

Week 5: Using Evernote for teaching and learning

Evernote can be an extremely useful tool in the classroom. Students can use it when they need to collect a variety of information. The fact that they will be using technology will mean that they will be engaged from the beginning of any projects or lessons. I think that Evernote could be used for research, note taking, and reading for enjoyment.

I thought about using Evernote in a fourth grade classroom to help teach the Social Studies standards on the Regions of Texas. Some of our students that have not traveled to other parts of Texas have a hard time comprehending what certain land features are such as: an escarpment, prairie, or plateau. Using Evernote would be a great opportunity for them to look up these features and find the nearest location of each in order to help them learn more about each Region. Another plus would be that they could look up images of these land features in order for them to know what they look like versus having to see an illustration in a textbook. All of the information and images they collect could be stored in a notebook on Evernote called Geography of Texas. Another notebook that they could add would be Native Americans. In this notebook, they could collect the information on the Native American tribes that lived in each Region of Texas, and they could continue to take notes on a topic of study in Social Studies and have history come to life.

I thought about having students in grades third and up use Evernote for projects. I think that students would be more interested in pursuing and completing a science or math project if they are allowed to use technology to research ideas online. Any notes they would like to take or information they would collect could go into the notebooks they would create on Evernote. If they have to create an end product, they could collect diagrams and images that would help them to create their product. I think that their interest level would remain high throughout the completion of the project.

Allowing students in second grade and higher to search for topics of interest to them and collect information to read whenever they are given an opportunity is a great reading incentive. Providing students the opportunity to read after the completion of their work is common practice. Those students that do not like reading, however, find it difficult to stay on task. I think that allowing students to use Evernote to collect and sort their reading material will keep them engaged to where they will consider whatever time they are given for reading too short.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s561/nl/153116495/2ff87c05-3c31-4787-91f7-7eb7dd4f2310

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Week 4

Most students are not that interested or excited about writing a book report. Kim Blomqvist’s article in Teachthought.com entitled “Instead of A Book Report, My Students ‘Wrote’ A Video” caught my attention right away. She shares how her students were not that interested in writing book reports, so she began her search for a method of book report writing that would spark her students’ interests. She found it when she came across mysimpleshow.com. She still has the students write their book reports first, and then they may create their video.

The video is created using a four-step process. She has the students write an outline of their book report, and then they begin using the “Summarize literature and movies” template. The templates help the students in precise writing because they are provided word limits in the Draft and Write stages of creating the video. She mentioned how they enjoyed the Visualize step since they got to select illustrations according to their text. They were also provided with the option to upload and combine images. Once they had completed adding the images they moved on to the Finalize step that allowed them to choose a voiceover or use their own voice. They presented their final products to the class, and Blomqvist then had the students publish them on YouTube so that they could share the videos with others outside of their classroom.

I think that using mysimpleshow.com can make book report writing fun for students. I also think that maybe this tool could also be used to bring compositions to life especially for those students that are not that interested in writing.

Another article I enjoyed reading was “A Principal Plays Pokemon Go: Lessons Learned So Far” by John Robinson in the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com. In this article, Robinson shares how he was enticed to download the Pokemon Go app due to all the publicity about it and his curiosity to see if there was any educational value to it. He admits that he did not know anything about the game and learned as he went along in the game, and that took him out of his comfort zone. He has now gained knowledge of the Pokemon world and app, and adds that playing the game may be a time waster, but now relates to some of his former students that may have thought the same thing about the course he used to teach.

I respect him for learning a new popular game that most of his students are playing and sharing the discomfort he felt in the learning process. He ends the article by saying that he is not sure when he will ever use what he has learned. I think that the fact that he plays Pokemon Go is an advantage because that will allow him to connect to his students