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The extent to the technology I learned on was overhead projectors and maybe a research project. I didn/t have internet in my home until senior year of high school
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As a senior, I bought a laptop computer. I had started online classes at the local community college and needed the access. I loved using blackboard at Richland. I feel this event is why I enjoy using Canvas so much for my classes. I still have and use that HP laptop. I call it the old dinosaur.
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Throughout my college experience learning about science and teaching, my exposure to technology was so lacking. We maybe used blackboard for a class or had to create a PowerPoint presentation. The only exception was my animal physiology course. We used a different piece of medical tech each week for lab running experiments on lab rats or ourselves.
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In the fall of 2013, I began my teaching career at Pekin Community High School. The quote pictured is a very accurate reflection of my first year of teaching. I had never used tech to learn. I had never had teachers who used tech to teach. Therefore, neither did I.
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Unlike Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory sitcom, I accepted change very quickly in my teaching style. A lot of step went into that but, during my second year of teaching, I became much more inquiry based. That has continued to be the trend to this day in which I hold a traditional lecture maybe 2 times a month.
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Our administration forced my hand into developing my technology prowess. It was announced that our students would be 1 to 1 come fall of 2018. We had 2.5 years to plan, develop, and brainstorm how to implement the chromebooks to enhance our classes.
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We were encouraged in our professional development to explore and share out tech tools. In our department, each person tried to find one tool to bring to the group. The first tool I tried and found value in was PearDeck. I still use PearDeck for formative assessment purposes. Highly recommend.
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The next tool I learned to use was SeaSaw. This tool was used by our Zoology teacher to do dissections. Essentially, it works like a class Facebook page. Students can upload and edit pictures and videos. It works great for dissection. The student takes a photo of their specimen and labels and uploads. I give my students a numbered list to label with. Their image will be labeled with 1, 2,3, 4 etc. so they can quiz themselves later on as a study technique.
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This was the big event. I really started studying how creativity plays a role in student learning. Recently, classes like this have exposed me to a plethora of resources to utilize. The amount of time it takes is immense to sit down, find a tool, figure out how to use, and then design lessons to implement it. Being in a program like this was crucial.
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This is less of a tech tool and more of school essential. Everyone one of our students are on GoGuardian. Teachers can view students screens when they are in your class. You can close tabs, take screenshots, send messages, and monitor what is going on. School wide, our technology professional can see any google search for inappropriate material, self harm methods, etc. to talk with students about.
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Year one of using Canvas as an online learning platform was a lot of time and effort. It was rough I won't lie. However, my classes are organized by unit with all of my past materials. It has made my life much easier this year. I no longer search for files or plan the sequence of my units or make copies. It has opened me up to spend a lot more time editing units with new lessons. I love it.
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This is the class that exposed me to the tools out there to use for creation and curation (the big two I focused on in the class). During the class, I designed lessons to have my students use: Pinterest
Storyboardthat
Bubbl.us
Sutori (I like timetoast better now)
Flipgrid
Screencastify
Thinglink
And I made my first podcasts. -
I am excited for my first virtual reality headset to come in next week. I am piloting the Oculus Go. If the educational value is substantial, I will be moving forward with trying to order a class set for our science department. It looks incredible.
