Art of Tek

Since this is our final blog of the semester, I thought I would give my thoughts on how following this page has gone for me as an educator. I like that there is a page for educators that is not afraid to dip their toes into politics. I think education is political, and too many are afraid to broach the subject as such. Scott Mcleod has found a way to not only be political but thought-provoking, relevant, bring technology and leadership to the forefront of this blog. He started a podcast this past year called  Silver Lining for Learning  that chronicles issues globally and how they intersect here with the United States Education system. If you have time, I would check out the podcasts, they are enlightening and relevant to what we have learned this semester. I will continue to follow this blog, it has captured my attention! http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/

  The Learning Management System(LMS) our District uses is Schoology. We have used Schoology since we became a 1:1 District in 2012. This LMS has come a long way in the almost 10 years we have been implementing this tool. When we first started using Schoology it was really just a replacement tool to put documents and maybe incorporate an assessment or discussion board. Today, Schoology is so much more and offers opportunities for individualized learning and has a great potential to be a tool for Blended Learning.  The first thing that I think is important to do when setting up your personal Schoology page is to add pictures to your courses. This helps your students, especially middle and high school students who have multiple classes. This gives them a visual for your class and can find it easily without having to read every tile.  The next feature that is great is for working on a team or setting up groups for clubs or homeschool students. This is where individualization...

I found this week's post to be very interesting. It was written about how Mcleod was asked to be the keynote speaker. However, rather than speak the whole time, he broke the group up and had them to do a scavenger hunt and collaborate.  " At each destination, there was an envelope with their team logo on it. Inside each team’s envelope was a Mission Document that explained the conversation station at that location (i.e., their ‘mission;’ an example is below), a sticker for their Mission Checklist, and a clue to their next destination. As you can see if you follow the link on the Mission Document below, the goals were to spark rich discussion and for each team to complete all six conversations." (Mcleod, 2021). I think we all get very exhausted going to conferences and PD and just sitting there. This Scavenger Hunt seems like such a great way to break up groups and a fun way to explore and collaborate for the day. This was held at a small school, but maybe once we are out ...

  Discovery Education has come a long way since its inception. Unfortunately, it is not free, however, most districts I know do have a license to this amazing resource. This started out as just a way to watch Discovery videos at school, however, it now has so many more features. You can make Assessments from the videos you show, create PLCs and Educator Networks, classrooms to show content to certain classes, and create content by standards. You can also create Channels that align with your subject, content, and grade level. They have great historical and current events in their database. It is great for all ages and content areas. They even have an SEL section.  It also begins to make suggestions for you after a while from what you show in your class on your channel.  You can also create boards with content and quizzes you can share with students or educators. You search the database for the videos and then you make the questions to go with the videos.    ...

 In searching the Blog I follow Dangerously Irrelevant, I was lead down a bit of a rabbit hole this week. However, it lead me to a topic and a page I believe we are all facing right now, Compassion Fatigue. According to George Couros (2021),   at the heart of innovation are people, not stuff. If we always keep that truth at the forefront of our work, we are more likely to create an innovative culture.” What has come to the forefront of everything that is going on right now in and out of education is that people are at the heart of learning and innovation.   It isn’t technology. It isn’t a cool new program. It isn’t any initiative. It is people. People bring great ideas and learning to life and humanity to our schools. Being human, when we are so focused on digital tools, is more critical than ever.  This has always been true, but it is more apparent than ever. I know many schools across the world of education have emphasized social-emotional learning for th...

I know Flipgrid is not new to a lot of us, however, I am going to talk about how I use it in my classroom. I like to use Flipgrid as a tool for critiquing artwork. Students often feel shy to talk about their artwork. However, they love to make videos! I have found that if I assign Flipgrid critiques, they are all too excited to talk about their artwork. When we do critiques we use the model of two Glows and a Grow. After students do a critique of their own artwork, I then set the feature so students have to respond to two students' videos with the same criteria, much like a discussion board, but in video format. They love this style of critique in my class.  Here is an easy to follow infographic to get you started if you have not explored Flipgrid Another feature I really enjoy and my students love is the Mixtape tap feature.  Flipgrid has come a long way since the beginning and is always updating its features. It has been a great way to connect my in-person and virtual studen...