Final Reflection

During this summer session of EdTech543 I learned a lot about social media and how to use it for professional development and integrating it with students. The biggest takeaway from this course was using Twitter and being involved in Twitter Chats using TweetChat and TweetDeck. Although I have used Twitter in the past for other courses, I felt like during this course I immersed myself into the Twitter world and plan on continuing my connections on Twitter. I also enjoyed using Facebook for this course because I use Facebook for my personal life daily. It made the submissions much easier and I'm more comfortable using it. I would like to look more into using Facebook for a classroom account. Our school uses it for school-wide purposes, but not individual classrooms. I plan to implement more instruction on digital footprints with my students this year, and showing them the projects fellow classmates created. It's so important for students, young and old, to realize how important it is to monitor their digital footprint.

Using this blog for EdTech543 made it easy to collect everything and share on Facebook. I thought my posts was detailed and thorough for each assignment. I would propose a grade of 75/75 for my final blog grade.

I am sad to end the course, but excited to fit in a few weeks of summer before heading back to the classroom as a teacher.

Social Media Policies

Attached is a list of policies for my classroom regarding the use of social media.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jJAdlmCdBLGgJAC3Ns5pBHGgeRqyZs20eZcegR6gA1M/pub

Schools and Social Media

Courtneycalhoun11During my research for social media and how school/educators are implementing, I began to have a difficult time finding elementary classrooms showcasing their ideas. Then as I read tips and ways to implement, many articles stressed the importance of privacy for young students. So, I was unable to find multiple ways of elementary students using social media but I did come across many ways middle school and high school students could use social media. In my classroom I set up a Google site to showcase weekly happenings in the classroom and my Star Student each week. I made sure the link was only accessible by those whom I shared it with. I never received feedback from parents, or knew if parents were looking at it but the excitement the students got when they got to type up their post for the week was enough for me to continue growing the site. I found many examples of Twitter being used in the classroom and Instagram. According to many websites, Facebook is so five years ago. Who would have thought! Instagram and Snapchat are the most widely used apps, or so says my 17 year old nephew. My favorite example of social media being used in the classroom was Instagram used for homework. Years ago being a high school student, I would LOVE to receive this type of homework assignment. No lengthly essay responses, just a picture of my interpretation of a line in a story. What a great way to get students thinking, expressing themselves and using social media in a safe way. I also thought the Instagram Class Reporter was a great idea for intermediate elementary students. This is a great way for students to have a "job," be excited about capturing learning and using social media in a safe way. This is something I feel could be incorporated in my third grade classroom, whether we use Instagram, Facebook, Google sites, or Twitter it would be a great addition to my classroom.Researching this topic made me excited for the upcoming school year, and I gained multiple ideas on how to get my students using social media under my supervision and in a safe way. It will help get the parents involved, and ensure them that their students are safe and smart on the Internet. 

#wyoedchat Twitter chat

This evening I participated in a Twitter chat called #wyoedchat. I decided to participate in a chat with educators in Wyoming to gain insight from teachers outside of Idaho. Our conversation focused on STEM and STEAM. The 'A' referring to arts. The conversation was pretty interactive and a majority of my back and forth conversations was regarding girls getting involved in STEM. A few participants gave great ideas such as role models, mentors and getting connected with the community. I think it's important that females feel comfortable in a male dominated career path, and school is a great equal opportunity place to do this. I enjoyed talking with these Twitter participants and felt that I contributed more in this chat than any other.

Professional Learning Environment

For my PLE I decided to put myself in the middle and choose the four platforms that I use the most often; Facebook, Blogger, Google+ and LinkedIn. I also color coded those I use for personal and professional use in orange, and those for professional use only in blue. In creating my PLE, I learned that many of the platforms I use interact with each other on a daily basis. My personal Facebook account is linked to my Pinterest and Instagram accounts. So when I post something on Instagram, it will also post on Facebook. And the same for Pinterest and Twitter. In my professional accounts, I choose not to interlock them as much so my followers aren't spammed with the same information. I will just create a duplicate post in the event that I have different followers on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Blogger is something I started using last summer during an EdTech course. I enjoy using it for professional use in my classroom, along with creating personal posts regarding my family and the many adventures we have. Grandparents LOVE to follow my personal account. Google+ is something I use within the school district I work in. I don't feel as comfortable using it, as I do Facebook but I do connect with others and use it to communicate from time to time. And finally LinkedIn is my newest addition and something I'm not 100% confident using quite yet so I did not form any connections to this platform except to myself. I look forward to developing my knowledge in LinkedIn and reaping the benefits that it will provide.

When making this I learned that I do have a pretty definite divide between what I use personally and what I use professionally. Although some platforms do have two separate accounts I try to keep my family life off of my professional accounts and vice versa. I also noticed that the more connections I had between platforms, the more comfortable I was using them. Facebook and Blogger are my top two platforms that my comfort level is fairly high. Google+ and LinkedIn, I don't feel as confident and therefore don't have as many platforms to connect with it.

Peer Reflections
In looking through other peer's PLE's I noticed that many of us share multiple platforms but are not connected outside of Boise State University. When viewing Megan Apgar's I saw that we shared many of the same social media connections and also had more examples in that particular areas. She had a few platforms that I am not familiar with such as Evernote. I plan on conducting more research to see if this is something I'd like to add to my PLE. I also noticed common similarities between my PLE and Amanda Hensely's in the sense that Facebook and Twitter are the most used platforms by both of us. In her PLE she noted two different blogging platforms, Blogger and Wordpress, where I only use one. Kimmy Davis and I shared many platforms and felt most comfortable using Facebook. I thought her explanation of juggling these platforms can be tricky and staying relevant is a challenge. Brian Betteridge had the connections all centered around himself as the consumer and we shared many platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It's nice to see a male using Pinterest, there are so many great ideas. It didn't seem like Brian favored one more than any others so that was something we did not share in our PLE. I thought Amy Pierce's use of the collecting, reflecting, connecting and publishing model was a great idea. I saw that we both used quite a few of the same platforms, and how we connected some platforms were similar, such as Facebook and Twitter. I thought she did a nice job of using some platforms for more than one section. Many social media outlets can serve many purposes. And lastly, looking at Joanne Matibag's PLE I saw her connections to social media also linking with her personal life. I know that many of my accounts include pictures and memories from my personal account, it makes it easier to use the platform. She has many platforms on her PLE that I don't have any experience with such as Meet Up and ACDA Website. I need to conduct more research to see what these entail.

LinkedIn

I decided to revamp my LinkedIn membership and join education groups for Module 5 assignment. When browsing groups I focused on education, parenting and educational technology groups. Here are the groups I joined.

The information posted by the group members was helpful and I found some resources that I saved for later use when school starts. I really enjoyed being able to browse and comment on things that interested me. The following images show my participation in each group.

#TeacherFriends Twitter chat

This evening I participated in a VERY fast paced Twitter chat #TeacherFriends. There were so many friendly, nice and helpful participants it was almost overwhelming. The topic of discussion was guided math in the classroom. Everyone had amazing ideas, and the variety of grade levels was nice because some information was relevant and some was a bit too young. Participants were giving suggestions of games for students to play, ways to organize the guided math worksheets and even songs that students can dance to, to memorize their facts! Seesaw was an app that was brought up by multiple users. I have heard of it in another EdTech course and decided to check it out after the chat. I would like to research the app more, because it sounds like a perfect place for my students to keep their online work. This was by far my favorite Twitter chat. I would recommend this to anyone wanting new ideas and interactions with some very friendly teachers.

Specialized Lotteries... More Diversity

This afternoon I participated in a webinar talking about using specialized lotteries to create diversity in schools. It was very interesting to hear the different types of choice schools that are around the country. Being able to identify a few here in Boise, Idaho made it easier for me to understand. I thought the discussion was very thorough and I enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker describe Brooklyn Prospect. When describing Brooklyn Prospect, it sounds as though they are still in a development phase and working toward a more solidified environment. The statistics for free and reduced lunches were very volatile for a school in their developing years. One statistic that stood out to me at the very beginning was the racial isolation (pictured below). When I was considering the school I teach at, these statistics are pretty close to what we see as well. The one piece that concerned me during this webinar are the ELL students. Choice schools want a more diverse population, however are they prepared to provide services to the ELL students and their families? In the school I teach at, we have an abundance of services that ELL students and their families receive on a daily basis. If a choice school is attempting to service all students (low SES, high SES, ELL etc) they will need specialists and people who are able to provide what these kids need.

Lessons in Character Education Webinar

I participated in a "Lesson's in Character Education: Interview with Medal of Honor Recipient Leroy Petry Webinar." Leroy Petry received the Medal of Honor after serving multiple tours in Afghanistan and he shared a personal story of a instance that ended with his hand being severed. It was truly inspirational to hear this story and sacrifice that he gave his country. I enjoyed listening to his story and how important he felt that his participation in the military was not a sacrifice but a privilege. Many questions came in during the webinar and some were centered around low-income children wanting to join the military and what he thought was important about becoming a member of the military. He spoke about his mentors being teachers and leaders in the military. He felt that it was extremely important that children learn how to stand up for something and be a part of something bigger. I couldn't agree more. Many of my students spoke about wanting to join the military when they were older. Many times we talked about what was expected and how decisions they were making wouldn't be acceptable in the military. Great webinar hosted by edWeb.

Metacognition Webinar

I participated in a metacognition webinar and gained some very insightful information. The presenters spoke about students thinking about thinking and really understanding "how" to be a learner instead of just "what" they are learning. The two speakers; Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers, showed their extensive research of the human brain and it was fascinating to hear their findings on students using metacognition. They gave great examples of how to show students that they are thinking about thinking. My favorite is asking students "What was the best thing that happened today?" It gets students thinking about their day, what they learned and how they interacted with others. I would recommend this webinar to anyone who wants to learn new strategies in helping students think about their learning. It's so important that they know how and why they like to learn.

Dual Language Learners Webinar

This morning I participated in a webinar hosted by Dr. Jennifer J. Chen, it was called "Diverse Strategies for Communicating with Dual Language Learners." I wanted to participate in this webinar specifically because I will be co-teaching this year and wanted to find more ways to teach my ELD students. Co-teaching is when the ELD teacher comes into the general education classroom and teaches with the gen. ed teacher. The original model consists of the ELD students being pulled out of their regular classroom and attending a small group with all ELD students. With co-teaching, they are able to stay with their classmates and receive the same instruction as everyone else, with guided support from the ELD teacher. I enjoyed listening to Dr. Chen's tips and noticed that my school implements a lot of them already. Visuals was something Dr. Chen touched on quite a bit. I think it's extremely important to have visuals in the classroom for all students to see, but especially the ELD students. One thing I strongly agree with that she suggested was pairing a student who is unfamiliar with English with another student who speaks the same home language. It alleviates some of the stress the student may feel, and allows them to communicate with you through another peer. One thing I learned from this webinar is responding to students that have not been able to successfully connect all parts of a sentence when speaking to someone. Dr. Chen used the example of "I play." She suggested recognizing what the student is attempting to say and respond with: "Oh, you would like to play with those blocks. Let's say 'I would like to play with those blocks.'" I always wondered if I was making the student feel uncomfortable by correcting them, but according to Dr. Chen it is important for their language acquisition to hear it spoken correctly. I enjoyed listening to Dr. Chen's webinar and hope to catch another one soon.

#edchat

I participated in a Twitter chat called #edchat. They meet twice a day and don't use an organized format like the previous chats I've participated in. Many people use the #edchat so the chat was flooded with spam, and it was pretty difficult to follow. The topic we discussed was if content should be the sole drive of instruction, or if students need something more/different. Many people agreed that content shouldn't be the only engaging factor because many students don't see the purpose in content unless it's relevant to their lives. We talked about integrating more technology for engagement purposes, and getting parents involved with "how" students learn instead of "what" they learn. In my experience many parents want to know when their student is going to learn A,B and C. Instead of knowing how their child likes to learn or what motivates their child to succeed. I gathered some good information from the chat, but with it being so disorganized I don't think I will participate in another #edchat. Below are some screenshots of my chat.

Twitter Chat #iteachchamps

I participated in a GoNoodle Twitter chat last night. It was pretty quick but it connected me with a lot of educators around the country. We only had 5 questions that were more demographics and inquiring about conferences over the summer. Since we have a new puppy and I have a whole new team, I won't be attending any conferences but it sounded like a lot of people will be traveling to attend some GoNoodle conferences.
If you've never tried GoNoodle with your students, research it this summer and give it a try. My students LOVE GoNoodle and cheer every time we have a GoNoodle brain break. One thing I got out of the Twitter chat (my first one) was getting information from other teachers. We were discussing the value of Instagram and how important it is to have a professional page. I gained a few new IG handles to follow this summer from the other contributors. Here are a few snapshots of my Twitter chat. There is another GoNoodle Twitter chat on July 10th 6pm MST #iteachchamps