Adventures in EdTech

Shoutout to one of my favorite pandemic binges (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), for the inspiration for this title: https://www.youtube.com/embed/H09aVaZ4ydk?start=5&end=13 As my years in the classroom go on (and I sadly find myself with an ever-growing age gap between myself and my students), I am always intrigued by how the lives and experiences of my students are changing-I think it’s honestly a fear that soon will come the day that I am truly ‘out of touch’. I know what I often hear from my own students, trends I see as far as lifestyles, how they communicate with one another, how they claim to spend their free time, but I realize that might not be indicative of students their age across the country. Luckily, there is a variety of reports that can offer greater clarity to we educators who want to get more insight on just how much time our students are spending on social media, which apps they prefer over others, or even just knowing what in the world our kids are referring to when they us

  It’s so important to stay active, right? Every day we see commercials or ads on our favorite social media app touting the latest workout equipment, fitness channel, or the most comfortable pair of shoes to lace up for your next marathon (it’s literally like running on air!) If we go too long without hitting the treadmill, yoga mat, or even just a walk through our neighborhood, we can start to feel the effects in a number of different ways. Staying active helps maintain our overall health, both physically and mentally. In a similar fashion, staying active in learning can have major benefits for our students. Active learning is a method of teaching and learning that, as the name suggests, asks students to take a more active role in their education. This is not about lecture and recitation. Instead, students are tasked with actually grappling with concepts and materials, taking a lead role in the classroom, while their teacher focuses on facilitating learning with consistent, targeted

I have always felt like I am part of the first ‘social media’ generation-I can still remember going through high school, and the excitement of having a friend invite me to join Facebook (since it was still invite-only in those days, and I had been a Myspace kid until that point, for those who remember the drama of choosing who was in your ‘top 12’). My first cell phone was strictly to be used for emergencies, because text messages still cost money, and I think the most exciting thing I could do with it was add new ringtones that were basically 10-second clips of different songs I liked at the time. As I’ve gotten older, that has obviously all changed, and I actually think my social media usage has tracked like a mountain-a sharp increase as more and more apps came out, and then a slow but steady decline over the last few years. My use of any sort of educational apps outside of school was basically limited to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint-nowadays I feel as though every year there are m

 A few years ago (I think it was before my third year of teaching), my district brought in a presenter who kicked off a PD day by talking about project-based learning and Genius Hour. It has stuck in my mind as one of (sadly) the few PD presentations that I actually felt applied in my classroom, and that year, after a few emails back and forth with the presenter, I took the leap into trying a Genius Hour unit with my students. On the end-of-year reflection form that I asked all of my classes to compete, Genius Hour was almost universally declared as the highlight of students' time in my class. From that point on, I made Genius Hour a consistent part of my curriculum plans, and it continued to be the most well-remembered part of students' years.  In simplest terms, Genius Hour comes originally out of a practice at Google, where developers were allowed to spend 20% of their time working on 'passion projects' (I've also heard Genius H)our referred to as '20-time

TPACK , or technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge, is an educational framework that teachers can use to measure their ability to teach effectively with technology. It is a combination of three separate knowledge areas-technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge, which are of equal importance and influence in terms of how well a teacher can integrate all three into his/her professional practice. Content knowledge refers to a teacher’s understanding of the subject matter being taught. This includes knowledge of the subject itself, laws, theories, ideas, knowledge progressions, etc., as well as learning standards that reflect the knowledge and skills students are proposed to acquire through their learning.  Pedagogical knowledge refers to a teacher’s knowledge of theories and practices associated with the act of teaching. This could include methods of instruction, grouping, learning environments, assessment, and any other considerations that can impact