A Short Reflection on My Tango with Technology

I'm so proud of my little teacher's confidence, as he figures out the time. This was intended to be an assessment showing mastery. Even so, I (and others) have derived much enjoyment from this video. Showing understanding of time and the clock wasn't nearly as exciting, before we learned how to makeTouchCasts! Students love to teach! Writing wasn't as engaging, especially for students with disabilities, prior to digital books, various apps, such as ChatterPixKids and digital story boards.

After reading a blog posted by Dr. Laurie Friedrich, I've been reflecting on the fact that my accountability partners became my students, rather than colleagues. It took months before other teachers began asking, "How did you do that?" "Did the students create that?"

At the beginning of this journey, I was excited; trying to share with everyone around me. Quickly, I learned there were no listeners. So, my students and I ventured into the world of app smashing and chrome-books with only the support of my beloved 880J and our encouraging, Dr. Friedrich. Soon, I began to hear from parents. I began to share more with parents, via Seesaw. It's been a blast! It's crazy to think that this tango into tech wouldn't last without peers to hold me accountable! It has become just another facet of my obsession with teaching.

On a twitter chat last night, there were several comments about technology taking over pedagogy. Well, we are teachers, knowledgable about pedagogy, we know how to incorporate technology into our lesson planning and assessment. OK, I'll admit, there are educators who only think of games, when we talk tech. But, they are just where they are right now. We all start somewhere.

"What will I do if technology is no longer as motivating for my students?" I don't see it happening. My lessons were engaging before, so we will manage. My students and I will continue to be creative in how we use tech to learn and to show our learning.

The personalization opportunities with technology 
take individualization to a whole new level!

PowToon, TechEDGE, GetEPIC and Twitter Chats!

Flipped Classroom? Maybe not yet...

I truly hope this is easier next time, but here is the link to the corny PowToon video I made for my writers and readers!

Seriously Folks. It took me a day to make this and it's a template!

I was agonizing over what my first screencast topic should be! I went with prepositional phrases, because they are tested heavily in Unit 2, and every year they are a struggle. Furthermore, my students need all the help they can get with forming complete sentences.

The thing I wanted to do most was incorporate quizzes and videos, but that didn't happen this time. I have lots to learn and it should be an exciting process! The thing I thought most bizarre, was the fact that you are expected to do the voiceover first! So, you write a script, record it, then make the slides.

That was just too backwards for me so I had to go through quite the process to complete my PowToon. I made the slides first. The animation is a tedious process which took me forever, yet it did get easier throughout. Once my slides were complete, I then had to record the movie on the iPad as it played on the computer. This is because you cannot do the voiceover while watching the video. :/ So, the voice over recorded is based on the video that was taken on a different device. It certainly worked better than doing it blind, but it isn't a perfect match at all times.

The second thing that freaked me out was the fact that you have to record the entire voiceover in one shot! Oh my! Recording each slide or while viewing the video would have been so much easier. Maybe this is why it is not one of the tools recommended in class?? Silly me. Not sure why this one appealed to me. I think I would try it again. Once you put in the work, it's there to use repeatedly.

EPIC!

My students love EPIC! When they get their own devices, I will be able to log them in and with their four-digit code, they will be able to access their books of preference at any time. Nice! I love how students get to choose books that they are interested it. I will be learning more about this during the coming months. Love that it's free for teachers.

Twitterbug in Twitterverse!

I've participated in several Twitter chats the past couple weeks. They are fast-paced and can be fun, if you love the topic. As a technology newbie, I just listened and learned during the #edtech chat, but on the #SpEdChat and #nebedchat, I felt I had something to add to the conversations. People are friendly and enthusiastic. They encourage participation. It seems like a great way to connect with like-minded professionals, who are also obsessed with teaching and education.

TechEDGE Conference tomorrow!

No doubt about it. It will be information overload, but I'm looking forward to it. I want to more about Google Everything, Epic and online Storyboards. I'm exhausted, so I should check out the break-out sessions and charge my devices.

Edit 10/18/15: At the TechEDGE conference, my co-worker, Molly Barnett, was the one I learned the most from! Her introductions of Nearpod and Blendspace were perfect! I wish I could have gone to another session that was taught by one of my classmates, but it didn't work out.

Getting More Comfortable

This week was all about getting more comfortable using the technology available in the school building, experiencing a twitter chat, and trying out Story Bird, which was recommended by a colleague. The classroom teachers that I co-teach with are always in charge of the projector, smart board, apple TV, and iPad mini. Unfortunately, support staff in our building does not have any of these cool tools. That results in a feeling of appearing slightly less competent when we teach in the general education room. I will take some of the blame, since I know they are used to these things, I let them do it all. That is why a teacher's absence was a blessing in disguise. I discovered that I am perfectly capable of managing the technology, even in her absence. I still used my personal iPad, since I don't know where she keeps the mini and I'm comfy with mine. Anyway, I managed to show the class a video, using the Apple TV and projector, and model the graphic organizer using the document camera with no problem. I'm growing up!

I participated in a Twitter chat, #nebedchat on Wednesday night. At first, it seemed random. Then I realized that I had to click "all tweets" in order to follow the entire conversation. After that, I enjoyed it. It was fast paced and fun! The moderators (not sure what they are actually called) posed a question (Q1, etc...) The answers are labeled by the participants (A1, etc...) so that everyone knows what they are responding to. I would do this again!

Story Bird will require more tinkering. I added a student to my class, but he has had to work on his book in my account, since we can't get his log-in to work. Once we work out this glitch, I will add other writers. It is awesome, because the illustrations trigger their imaginations, much like a good writing prompt. My student who struggles to write a sentence, has written a paragraph for each picture! THAT is worth a little extra time to figure out.

More Technology on the Way!

We learned yesterday, that our district will be providing 3-5th graders with their own Chromebooks, midyear. Also coming soon is text to speech as an accommodation for students with disabilities. I have used free text to speech applications, but they do not sound very natural. Hopefully this will be an improvement.

It was another exciting week in special education!