Posts

Troubleshooting Guide for Educators

Image
What is Troubleshooting? Image Source Day by day, technology is continuing to make its mark in the world. Technology has enhanced lives for the better. By utilizing technology through smart devices and applications, people are able to enjoy entertainment, communicate, improve work efficiency, gather information, and use services in ways that are easy and efficient. However, using these tools are not always perfect. This is why troubleshooting is important in order to determine why something is not working and figure out ways to fix the issue.  Technology in the Classroom Educators are always trying to find different ways to be responsive to their students and teaching. In order to achieve this, educators need to be aware of what their students are like beyond the classroom. This is why technology integration is so important. By welcoming technology into each and every classroom, educators are increasing student collaboration and communication, providing richer and deeper understand...

One Less Thing to Worry About

Image
Trust the Process The process of creating a technology plan proposal has been interesting to say the least. When first beginning the journey, I really struggled to focus on one problem within education since there is a plethora of them. I decided on student data tracking because, it is a part of education that you are just expected to know what and how to do. I always see my colleagues using the data in order to plan almost every single lesson which is something that I struggled to do in my first year of teaching. I knew that student data was important, but what to do when there is so much of it seemed impossible to process and manage. As I continued to work on the technological plan, I found myself becoming more invested and interested in my idea. I always believed that I was the only one struggling to keep track of student data since I am a fairly new teacher, but through this experience I was able to learn that I was wrong all along. First, I was able to gather research that would s...

A Magical Tool for Educators

Image
What is it? Have you ever found yourself scrummaging around to find pre-assessment data in order to create an effective lesson to meet the needs of each and every student? It can become a hassle especially when you are required to give a pre-assessment for every subject pertaining to different topics and concepts. This becomes a hassle especially when trying to find where each pre-assessment is, and reviewing the data gathered. In order to use time wisely, and take off unnecessary tasks off your plate, the tool that I want to create would have student data in one central location. This student data would be specific to math since there are many concepts that are covered throughout the school year. In math, each unit focuses on a certain skill so it may become difficult to keep track of pre-tests for each unit. To add on, there are standardized, district, and teacher testing. Some assessments are able to detect students' strengths and weaknesses for you which is major help in itself...

The Mask of Social Media

Image
Mental Health Worries Mental health is important for all individuals, no matter their age. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The way that we think, feel, and act all comes from the current state of our mental health. I chose to focus on the mental health category since the students that I currently have are the ones who seem to have been affected the most by the pandemic. Although we have been in school for only a month and a half, I can already tell what state my students' mental health is. There are more students that I'm worried about than not. I always thought that the cause of this was social media because, each student owns smartphone. After reading through a few sources, I have learned some information that opens my eyes to the current situation.  Image Source Social Media Takes Over We all have people that we look up to, either as role models or heroes. Most of the time, children will choose a celebrity to be their idol. Their i...

The New Ms. Faceitch

Image
Before Nicole As a teen, I absolutely loved social media. I enjoyed being able to message friends, post pictures, poke people on Facebook , crush over boys on Instagram , and share hilarious GIFs. As I got older, I started to have a love-hate relationship with social media. I realized how much of my time was being consumed. As a result, I decided to deactivate almost all of my social media accounts. The time that I used to use on Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , Snapchat , and Tumblr was now being used to spend time doing activities that I love. Once I was able to realize that my anxiety from social media has decreased drastically, I was afraid of letting any technology in. During my first year of teaching, I was clueless when it came to integrating technology. I always felt that I would be doing a disservice to my students since a lot of negative impacts could be attached to it. I never went out of my way to find interactive websites or programs that I would be able to use with my stu...

Tattoos Are For Life

Image
Digital Tattoos I do not have any tattoos because of how permanent they are. I have learned the hard way that I outgrow my likes the older I get which is why I could not commit to a tattoo. My thought process is that I would have to like that tattoo forever which is something I can't promise myself. I feel the exact same way when it comes to any posts that I make on social media. This is due to the fact I posted a lot of embarrassing photos or statuses on different platforms. I would have never thought that I would make myself cringe from reading old postings. Not only can I see it, but the whole world could have the chance to see it too which is even worse. I think posting online is very similar to tattoos because you are making an imprint on the world just digitally. In "Digital Tattoos in the Industry" by Rebecca Soto , it is mentioned that, "A digital tattoo is an individual or business 'footprint' or digital identity. In this connected world, immediately...

Twitter Fingers, Go Teachers!

Image
Personal Learning Network (PLN) Have you ever needed to go on Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers in search of inspiration for a lesson? Personal learning networks are crucial for teachers in order to share ideas and resources. Just like how educators encourage students to listen to when questions are being asked by other students since they might be thinking the same thing. Educators do the same thing. If an educator is struggling to find strategies to incorporate effective classroom management, then they could easily benefit from the ideas of other educators who have mastered it. This is why it is important for teachers to be able to collaborate and share ideas. Teachers push for the needs of students, but who satisfies our needs? A burden is lifted when another teacher is able to provide a need that you have been in search of. Teachers understand one another since our experiences might have different details, but in the end it is all the same. PLNs help educators do exactly that be...