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.

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

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/

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:

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