Wednesday, December 19, 2018
GroupMe
GroupMe is a collaborative app on the Apple App Store and Google Play store that allows users to create groups and invite other people in order to communicate and share information. Upon installation, users are prompted to either create or join a group, where they are then led to a forum that everyone in the group has access to. Members can invite other people to the group. GroupMe is often used by students to collaborate for a school project or to study for an exam. GroupMe is extremely user friendly, completely free, and works over WiFi.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Slack
Slack is a program that serves as a hub for a group to collaborate through. If you are familiar with Discord, it is very similar to Discord, only without the focus on gaming. When you create a slack, you are prompted with different options; various text channels can be made, voice channels, and more are available through slack. I have used slack for school projects and it makes all of the organization extremely easy. Basically what happens is someone creates the slack, invites everyone to it, creates a separate space for each group in a group project, a place for general collaboration, and then people can access/make changes to the groups work. Overall, slack makes collaboration very easy
eHow
If you haven't heard about it yet, eHow is a website worth visiting. It has so much useful information that can all be accessed by hovering your pointer on the tab found at the top of the front page, labeled "Discover." Under this tab, you'll find sub-tabs labeled: Home Decor and Repair, Crafts, Food and Drink, Garden, Fashion and Beauty, and Holidays.
This is a great source that students could use to get ideas for class projects. For example, say an eighth grade student is taking a Life Skills class. In the class, there typically is a culinary component. The student could look up a fun, simple recipe on eHow. The student may decide to bake "Santa Hat Strawberry Cupcakes." A picture of these cupcakes is actually currently shown on the front page of eHow.
Say a seventh grade student is taking a craft or art class. The student may want to create something that connects with his or her English Language Arts class. On eHow, there is a page on "How to Illustrate a Poem." The website eHow is a great way to get students using technology to enhance their learning.
Visit eHow today!
A Semester in the Writing Center
Earlier this year I wrote about starting my work as a consultant in the UofM-Dearborn writing center. A writing consultant is available for students to make appointments for one-on-one sessions to work on some form of writing. My content area is science but I hoped this would be a useful experience regardless. So far it has been very valuable.
I had only logged a few hours when I made that post. My main takeaway at that time was that it would take time and effort to become a better teacher and writer. No duh, Mitch. What that meant is that I needed to focus on the little victories to see my progression. The climb to my goal would be done one step at a time and sometimes the steps would be backwards. I'd like to list for you the highlights of my victories, and defeats, from a semester in the writing center:
- In my Edd 469 class, Reading in the Content Area, we covered graphic organizers as a comprehension strategy for literacy. Many of my clients come in when trying to understand an assignment and brainstorm a way to write about the content. I immediately start to construct a concept map, informing the student about this process. It is always helpful for organizing our thinking and at the end of the session I ask the student if they'd like to take the concept map. They always do.
- One student had a particularly difficult time constructing a thesis statement. She understood the content well and had plenty of options to write about. She just needed to focus these concepts around one idea. Using my teacher instincts I told her to, while not looking at a book or word processor, give me a thesis statement in 6 words. No more. She laughed, said she hated me for doing that, and knew why I made her. Her statement was 8 words, but she had a thesis to leave with.
- Students feel really good when they come out of the writing center with a product, like the concept map. It can even be an 8 word sentence. That previous student had an hour long session and left with no writing except the concept map and 8 word thesis. She was thrilled.
- You'll get a student from time to time that doesn't want to be there. Most of these were offered extra credit in a course if they visit the writing center. One such student scrolled through his phone while I proofread his paper. I'm fine with it as long as he knows neither one of us will get as much out of the process if he isn't engaged. Also, it makes me think carefully about how I implement extra credit in my classroom.
- My writing has skyrocketed in quality. I also want to write more and have written a college football blog for months. I think critically about writing, music, film, or any other creative work. As I want every word and every sentence in my writing to have meaning and purpose, I want my speech, thought, actions, and ultimately teaching to live up to the same standard.
- We were visited by an adviser who helps students write personal statements for graduate school applications. Not to toot my own horn, but many of the techniques and concepts she recommended were ones that I routinely used. It felt good, like I was meant for teaching.
I've rambled on long enough. I could go on and on about what I've learned and how much I love to write. If you see me around, feel free to ask me about it. Be warned, though: I likely won't shut up.
I had only logged a few hours when I made that post. My main takeaway at that time was that it would take time and effort to become a better teacher and writer. No duh, Mitch. What that meant is that I needed to focus on the little victories to see my progression. The climb to my goal would be done one step at a time and sometimes the steps would be backwards. I'd like to list for you the highlights of my victories, and defeats, from a semester in the writing center:
- In my Edd 469 class, Reading in the Content Area, we covered graphic organizers as a comprehension strategy for literacy. Many of my clients come in when trying to understand an assignment and brainstorm a way to write about the content. I immediately start to construct a concept map, informing the student about this process. It is always helpful for organizing our thinking and at the end of the session I ask the student if they'd like to take the concept map. They always do.
- One student had a particularly difficult time constructing a thesis statement. She understood the content well and had plenty of options to write about. She just needed to focus these concepts around one idea. Using my teacher instincts I told her to, while not looking at a book or word processor, give me a thesis statement in 6 words. No more. She laughed, said she hated me for doing that, and knew why I made her. Her statement was 8 words, but she had a thesis to leave with.
- Students feel really good when they come out of the writing center with a product, like the concept map. It can even be an 8 word sentence. That previous student had an hour long session and left with no writing except the concept map and 8 word thesis. She was thrilled.
- You'll get a student from time to time that doesn't want to be there. Most of these were offered extra credit in a course if they visit the writing center. One such student scrolled through his phone while I proofread his paper. I'm fine with it as long as he knows neither one of us will get as much out of the process if he isn't engaged. Also, it makes me think carefully about how I implement extra credit in my classroom.
- My writing has skyrocketed in quality. I also want to write more and have written a college football blog for months. I think critically about writing, music, film, or any other creative work. As I want every word and every sentence in my writing to have meaning and purpose, I want my speech, thought, actions, and ultimately teaching to live up to the same standard.
- We were visited by an adviser who helps students write personal statements for graduate school applications. Not to toot my own horn, but many of the techniques and concepts she recommended were ones that I routinely used. It felt good, like I was meant for teaching.
I've rambled on long enough. I could go on and on about what I've learned and how much I love to write. If you see me around, feel free to ask me about it. Be warned, though: I likely won't shut up.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Minecraft: Education Edition
Teachers have view of the "world" and create a point of location for all the students to group in the game, If a student wanders off, teachers can relocate the student's avatar back to the meeting point. teachers can make different size display boards with learning objectives. Students can take pictures of their creations and add it to a portfolio to check out their progress. The website makes it easy for teachers to just download lesson plans and incorporate the website in their curriculum. If teachers do not want to use the already made lessons they can use it in their own creative way. For example: the code builder can be used in a programming class.
Minecraft Education Edition
I will leave a link for the original Minecraft website as well for those that are not familiar: Minecraft
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