Web 2.0 For Life

A challenge for educators is keeping up with technology trends due to budgetary constraints.  As I continue my career in education I plan to keep up to date technology in my classroom by applying for grants from both the McKinney Education Foundation and outside resources. To ensure I stay up with Web 2.0 advances, I plan to use social media such as Twitter and Instagram to follow fellow educators. My professional learning network helps motivate me to be a better teacher. I am glad this class has introduced me to new Twitter users to grow my professional learning community.

Twitter and Instagram Must-Follow List

• Teach Outside the Box- Brooke Brown 
• True Tales of a Teacher- Kori Markussen
• Hello Literacy- Jen Jones 
• Teaching with Appitude- Kami Butterfield 
• Elementary Shenanigans- Hope King 
• Mrs. Richardson's Class- Amanda Richardson 
• Mrs. Jump's Class- Deanna Jump 

Social Bookmarking Adventure

During this week's adventure, I found Diigo to be very user-friendly. Well... the only I struggled with was getting my picture to move away from the default picture. I haven't used a tool like this in my personal life or in the classroom. I find this tool geared towards research papers and maybe even science experiments. I am not sure I could use this tool next week with my kinder friends but I think with some out of the box thinking it would work. When I tried to upgrade my account to an educator account I was prompted to enter a unique code for McKinney ISD. I plan to reach out to some teachers at other campuses to figure out how they use Diigo with their teams or students.

Adventures in Aggregating Pages

My adventures in aggregating pages this week was one of my least favorite technology adventures to date. I started the adventure using Netvibes and that lasted about five minutes before I decided to give Protopage a try. I am so glad that I did because it was user-friendly and took around ten minutes for me to set everything up. I was unable to add my YouTube playlists directly but I was reading that multiple students had the same problem. Moving forward I don't see myself using this technology as a Kindergarten Teacher. But if I was in charge of social media for a company or school district I see the aggregating pages as a huge benefit.

Youtube Adventure

Vanity Search

When I conducted my vanity search, I was surprised by the results because all of my social media sites are set to private. In the Google Image Search, a picture of me was the first one to appear. As silly as this sounds the first thing that came to my head was hopefully that pictures haven't been made into a meme. After playing What Do You Meme last week I became very curious about those people who have made the cut to be a photo in that game. When scrolling through the website links that appeared when searching for myself, the first link was to my McKinney ISD Teacher Website. I was glad that none of my social media websites were linked. Guess completing vanity search needs to make it onto my to-do list.

Current Issues and New Directions

Starting my second year in Kindergarten, I am very excited to integrate more technology into my classroom. Last year, I struggled to implement technology into my classroom because Kindergarten is totally different world than second grade.For TTESS, one of my goals is to integrate a new technology tool monthly. After reading our final chapters, I have starting to make my list of technology tools. Google classroom and Google sites are template like resources that all access to curriculum and assignments. The McKinney ISD student login for Google is very long. This year I am hoping to start using Google Suites and Classroom. Google Suites allow voice to text capabilities, which will be great for publishing writing for my students. Prodigy math is a free engaging math world, that allows students to practice critical math skills. I plan to use this during math stations from early on. For the creation part of the Project Based Learning Model, Engage to Learn, I plan to use the green screen and iMovie. I used iMovie last year for the first time. I was amazed how user-friendly it was.

I have struggled to write and learn from the perspective of a Media Resource Specialist because the role is unfamiliar territory. As a Media Resource Specialist, you are the campus' leader in all things technology. As my course work continues, I hope to be more aware of how to address campus needs rather than personal.

Kindergarten is unlike any other grade, the skill level is very diverse. Skills levels vary from being able to read to not being able to name the letters in the alphabet. With these high demands, differentiation is required for both student success and teacher sanity. Using technology to differentiate engages students, unlike traditional resources. As student's access to technology increases, digital citizenship programs are in high demand. With resources such as Google, YouTube, and Social Media students have access to both educational and inappropriate things. Both parents and educators teach the importance of responsibility from a young age. The idea of responsibility when using technology is forgotten by a majority of students. To solve these problem school districts need Digital Citizenship Programs that educate staff members, students, and parents.