#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.