Skip to main content

Blog #7

 

Ms. Garcia's K2 Classroom

The above link is the teacher website I visited to begin this blog post. On the main page was an introduction to Ms. Garcia with a picture of herself. Something interesting I found on the homepage was a hyperlink to the remote learning tab which shows technology’s prevalence in today’s classrooms. Below the introduction was a synopsis of the class description with all other information contained under individual tabs. A similarity I saw between this website and the website rubric for Assignment 3 was the inclusion of a resources tab. I can appreciate how these resources had their own dedicated page in addition to being hyperlinked throughout the website. I could access most of the information from the website except for Ms. Garcia’s Google Slide presentations. For each week, she included a function where access had to be requested. I think adding restricted access is an important thing to think about in terms of protecting self-made material.

In terms of technology tools, Kahoot is a review game I would use for vocabulary review or book review, assuming I’d be teaching English. I played Kahoot a lot throughout my primary education and it always got the whole class excited and engaged. More importantly, I always came away from the review games knowing exactly which concepts were a little fuzzy and it helped me prepare for tests and quizzes. Sometimes the best way to remember something is to first get it wrong. Even though it’s more of a game and not a traditional productivity tool, I see it as falling into this category because developing questions for the Kahoot in a parallel to writing a test is a great way to stay organized. I also have enjoyed using Miro because I think it’s an interactive way to hear from all students rather than just hearing from a few students that feel confident enough to raise their hands. Miro seems like a great way to gauge student understanding, and I could see it being helpful in deciding when to make revisions to a lesson plan, or when topics need to be explained again or in a different way. Finally, Evernote seems like a great way to note down these in-class adjustments and also a great way to keep notes in a consistent place that cannot get lost. I know I chose some productivity tools that weren’t from our Canvas site but in the spirit of organizing information and adjusting lesson plans I wanted to highlight these applications.

I learned a lot about generative AI during Assignment 2. I learned that generative AI could make efficient and adequate lesson plans which could be a huge time saver for teachers should it be used more consistently. However, I also learned the importance of evaluating said lesson plans in addition to AI prompting. Having a set criterion to evaluate the finished product is great at catching areas of improvement. I would argue that the most important function of teacher expertise occurs in the prompting of AI. Asking AI to edit out confusing sentences, alter instruction, or develop certain styles of assignments allow generative lesson plans to come to life. During Assignment 2, I learned that a “good” lesson plan showcases variety, prompts for student engagement, and challenges students while still adhering to state standards. While using a fully AI generated lesson plan bothers me a little, this assignment helped me to see that at the very least, AI is extremely helpful for brainstorming and activity suggestions. Overall, I enjoyed the Canvas group tool and it was cool to operate a Canvas page from a teacher’s view. I have a much stronger understanding of the work it takes for a Canvas page to be visually appealing and organization.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #1

"A  New Beginning " by  namestartswithj89  is licensed under  CC BY 2.0 . In this class, I hope to become more acclimated with various technologies that can be utilized in the classroom. Many of my friends have told me I should be a teacher, so I wanted to take this class in the case that I choose to be an educator one day. I especially want to learn more about Excel since it is not a platform I am particularly comfortable with. Overall, I am excited to play around with Canva and visualize what it may be like to be a teacher. Perhaps, I will gain more clarity about my future through this class.  In terms of experience with technology, I have always loved Canva. The templates are easy to use and having a Canva Pro account through FSU is an awesome resource to have. Additionally, I am familiar with MS Word and PowerPoint. However, I would not say I am an expert to I am excited to expand my skills on those platforms this semester. My personal learning network has n...
3 comments
Read more

Blog #8

  I enjoyed Assignment 3 a lot because I got the opportunity to experiment with the elements of CRAP for my website design using Weebly. The above QR goes to my website. To satisfy contrast I made the header a white bar with black text that reads “Ms. Solondz’s 4th Grade ELA." For the yellow background below the header, I used a white box with deep blue text so the writing would still stand out. Most of the informative pieces of the website are black text on an off-white gray background. For the element of repetition, I used consistent text fonts and sizes across my website. The images on the announcements page were similar sizes. I used the color blue to highlight the welcome on the homepage and the student review games on the resources tab. I used alignment most prominently on the Announcements page where I added spaces above the text so it would sit in the centerline of each correlating image. My examples of using the element of proximity can be seen in the added spacers betwee...
3 comments
Read more

Blog Post #2

For as long as I can remember, I have always used MS Word in both my secondary and post-secondary education. I feel as though many of my classmates prefer Google Docs, but I prefer MS Word. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that I was never familiarized with Google Docs. Both applications work similarly, so when I am asked to use Google Docs, it's not a difficult transition. However, I suppose I like to stick to MS Word unless otherwise asked.  The ITSE Standard that stood out to me the most was Analyst. This is because I think using data to inform decision to inform decisions and adjust approaches is an important skill. I think applying analytics shows elements of growth and flexibility that are important to teaching. I also believe that data has the opportunity to pull in some of the other ITSE standards through collaborative feedback and design improvement. In turn, allowing a teacher to begin a better citizen and leader of their classroom.  In terms of the label "dig...
Post a Comment
Read more