Final Reflection

I am so happy I decided to take this course. I feel that tech tools change and new ones are made every day that I have a hard time keeping up with them all. I am so happy that this PD was offered and had already pin-pointed so many tools out there to help direct us, but give us independence at the same time!

While I truly enjoyed every aspect of this course, I will say that I had difficulty deciding on which tools to pick! There were so many to choose from and to try to narrow it down to what is "manageable" to use in my career as well as what would be "fun" at the same time being useful for me. I had the most fun with Bitmoji, learned a lot from Supporting English Language Learners and have been using Instagram a lot in my daily life and have been using it more and connecting with students.

Moving forward, I would love to learn more! I know there are more projects out there that I have heard people talking about and having the opportunity to learn about them independently and on my time is right up my alley. I really want to learn about Google Drawing, Green Screen Fun, Screencasting and Screensharing, and more that I want to read up on because I have never heard of them before!

Here's to continued learning!

Thing 21: Supporting English Language Learners

Teaching in the RCSD has opened my eyes to so many new things. One of the things that I was unaware of coming out of college was the shear number of English Language Learners I would encounter on a regular basis. As a part of the testing committee for my school, I have to be aware of their testing needs so their accomodations are met, and as an educator, I need a lot of tools in my pocket to be effective for them.

Automatic Captions on Google Slides - I had no idea that Google Slides could do closed captioning during a presentation! Not only will this be an amazing tool for students who are hard of hearing (for medical reasons, I can't use the audio equipment/microphone/etc) but would be awesome for ELL students. While they can hear the words I'm speaking, the ability to read along with is great. Math is a confusing subject to read, so if the combination of spoken word and reading is available, it would help improve all students abilities in math! I can't wait to try this!

7 Technology Tools for Newcomer ELLs - I have so many new tools to learn about and discover! After the hurricane a few years ago devastated Puerto Rico, my school took on a large population of students. I can only imagine their fear and anxiety coming to a new place and not knowing the language much less trying to attend school in this new language. I am definitely going to explore more about Learning Chocolate, Picto4me, and Seesaw. I think using a combination of these resources will help me in my math classroom with a litte modification and development.

Edshelf - Just like with the above referenced sites, I need to start exploring these! I honestly have never heard of Edshelf before, so I have a lot that I will need to expose myself to.

I feel like I barely have the tip of my toes in the water with this topic. This school year, I have very few ELLs in my classes (most have acheived proficiency as well), so I have not dedicated too much time to exposing myself to a lot of resources for them, but this has given me more tools to figure out, more tools to use and hopefully create a better learning experience for my students!

Thing 14: Bitmoji Fun

Wow! This was fun! I loved creating myself in cartoon form! I definitely plan on using this in class.

I think the first thing that I will do is create a name card for my classroom door with my bitmoji on it! How much fun would that be?

It was fun searching through the bitmojis that already exist, but if I am able to create my own instead of the existing (Is that possible? I guess I'll have to look into it more!) that would be really cool.

As I have more fun with my bitmoji, I may need to print some of these on stickers to put on student work, make posters around my room and insert my bitmoji into my Smart lessons. I think it would be fun to have my image peek around from the side of the page!

Until then, I'm gonna keep

Thing 3: Photo Fun

I joined Instagram!

I've been part of the Facebook world for a while now, and I told myself that one social media membership was enough. There are so many out there that I wasn't sure if I would have time for another. With the way education is going, why not? I can always try something new, see what I learn from it and then gauge whether or not I will continue with it over time.

Things I've noticed -
1) A lot of my Facebook friends are on IG
2) There are a ton of #hashtags that I have to get used to using
3) Lots more filters than what I'm used to

I've always had a debate with myself over whether or not to connect with students on social media sites. I know that creating relationships with students is a number one priority in my career and life so that they feel safe in my classroom learning from me, but I didn't want to invite them too far into my life through social media.

Now that I am new to IG, I can aim in keeping this more geared towards education and connecting with students. I can post pictures from when I'm doing my "teacher homework" (PDs, creating lessons, attending workshops) so that they can see that side of me. Being so new to this site though, I have so much exploring to do. Maybe a student or two can help teach me? I know that they know more than I do, and with them sharing their experience and knowhow, they can feel as good as I feel when teaching someone something new!

As I learn more about IG, I will continue to share and develop and figure out new ways to connect with kids!

Until then, follow me on IG at jmacalways

Thing 1: Getting Started

Good evening!

Welcome to my first ever blog post! My name is Jennifer MacLaughlin and I am a math teacher at PTech Rochester (a program school located on the Edison campus). I'm in my 15th year in the RCSD and I love that I learn something new every day from being a teacher.

I am taking this course after the recommendation of one of my colleagues that said this will help me expand my horizons even more with learning new tech tools for my math classroom. I admit that I struggle using technology in a math classroom, but I am finding ways that I can incorporate it more and more!

So here's to growing and learning!

--Jen