Week 1 What I learned: This week, I focused on trying to locate groups on Twitter that relate to areas of interest for me in education and technology. Since I haven't used Twitter in years, that took a little bit of time to get acclimated again. However, I did find several groups related to social studies instruction as well as educational technologies since Minecraft EDU, which I love to try to utilize in my classroom.
Among my classmates, I spent a lot of time looking over the twitter feeds of the music teachers in the group! To be honest, I am not sure I have ever taken any grad classes with music teachers before, so it was certainly interesting to see their views on technology and how to use it in their classrooms. I loved the utilization of SoundCloud for music students, as well as questioning what other types of music we could utilize in schools that don't fit into those traditional Band/Chorus/Orchestra molds. All great ideas!
Week 1, Find 5: Alright, one more Minecraft EDU find (since I can't resist!). Earlier this month was the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, an event that has been largely ignored in U.S. history texts for our country for most of the last 100 years. An educator built a simulated world of Tulsa's "Black Wallstreet" so students are able to see what it looked like and why it mattered that such a place of African-American prosperity was destroyed by a racist mob. By allowing students to see it through Minecraft, we are able to transport them back in time through the use of technology!
Week 1, Find 4: Another area I would like to explore throughout this class is how one of my favorite pieces of technology can aid learning: Minecraft EDU! Most of my colleagues know that I am a huge Minecraft fan in my personal life, but it also has a wide-range of uses in the classroom. Since I am moving to eighth grade next year and I will need to be teaching some financial literacy standards to my students, I love ideas such as this one: creating a simulated economy in Minecraft where students can buy and sell things. It helps them experience an economy firsthand, and making it virtual can keep students engaged and make for less work for teachers while still being effective!
Week 1, Find 3: When I began looking for other educators to follow I found a teacher named Felipe Izquierdo. On his account he listed a number of principles for 21st century educators, and I found a lot that I agreed with. Specifically, using game-based learning, being problem-focused, and being interest-based are all things I have seen my own students respond to. I think as we try to reintegrate many students back into traditional classroom environments for this coming year, we have to remember that ideas like these can lead to higher student engagement and motivation in the classroom.
Week 1 Find 2: The second group I joined this week was the NCSS Tech Community, the tech branch of the National Council for Social Studies. They were also hosting a series of questions related to pandemic teaching and allowing teachers to respond. The question that really stood out to me was related to why some school districts did not embrace change, even during pandemic teaching. For me, I thought the answer was related to some teachers being resistant to change; we all know those collogues who have been doing the same thing for 15, 20, 25 years and do not want to do anything different. That can certainly be an issue.
Week 1 Find 1: The first group I joined was The SSChat Network. It is a twitter group run by 6 mods that focuses on Social Studies education and hosting chats related to Social Studies. The first tweet I looked at was an archive on a chat related to lessons learned from teaching through the Covid year, especially on the usage of technology. Obviously, a chat that all of us can find something in common with!
Week 1 What I learned: This week, I focused on trying to locate groups on Twitter that relate to areas of interest for me in education and technology. Since I haven't used Twitter in years, that took a little bit of time to get acclimated again. However, I did find several groups related to social studies instruction as well as educational technologies since Minecraft EDU, which I love to try to utilize in my classroom.
Among my classmates, I spent a lot of time looking over the twitter feeds of the music teachers in the group! To be honest, I am not sure I have ever taken any grad classes with music teachers before, so it was certainly interesting to see their views on technology and how to use it in their classrooms. I loved the utilization of SoundCloud for music students, as well as questioning what other types of music we could utilize in schools that don't fit into those traditional Band/Chorus/Orchestra molds. All great ideas!
Week 1, Find 5: Alright, one more Minecraft EDU find (since I can't resist!). Earlier this month was the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, an event that has been largely ignored in U.S. history texts for our country for most of the last 100 years. An educator built a simulated world of Tulsa's "Black Wallstreet" so students are able to see what it looked like and why it mattered that such a place of African-American prosperity was destroyed by a racist mob. By allowing students to see it through Minecraft, we are able to transport them back in time through the use of technology!
Week 1, Find 4: Another area I would like to explore throughout this class is how one of my favorite pieces of technology can aid learning: Minecraft EDU! Most of my colleagues know that I am a huge Minecraft fan in my personal life, but it also has a wide-range of uses in the classroom. Since I am moving to eighth grade next year and I will need to be teaching some financial literacy standards to my students, I love ideas such as this one: creating a simulated economy in Minecraft where students can buy and sell things. It helps them experience an economy firsthand, and making it virtual can keep students engaged and make for less work for teachers while still being effective!
Week 1, Find 3: When I began looking for other educators to follow I found a teacher named Felipe Izquierdo. On his account he listed a number of principles for 21st century educators, and I found a lot that I agreed with. Specifically, using game-based learning, being problem-focused, and being interest-based are all things I have seen my own students respond to. I think as we try to reintegrate many students back into traditional classroom environments for this coming year, we have to remember that ideas like these can lead to higher student engagement and motivation in the classroom.
Week 1 Find 2: The second group I joined this week was the NCSS Tech Community, the tech branch of the National Council for Social Studies. They were also hosting a series of questions related to pandemic teaching and allowing teachers to respond. The question that really stood out to me was related to why some school districts did not embrace change, even during pandemic teaching. For me, I thought the answer was related to some teachers being resistant to change; we all know those collogues who have been doing the same thing for 15, 20, 25 years and do not want to do anything different. That can certainly be an issue.
Week 1 Find 1: The first group I joined was The SSChat Network. It is a twitter group run by 6 mods that focuses on Social Studies education and hosting chats related to Social Studies. The first tweet I looked at was an archive on a chat related to lessons learned from teaching through the Covid year, especially on the usage of technology. Obviously, a chat that all of us can find something in common with!