Instructional Technology Presentation

The following is a presentation I made about some of the topics discussed in my Instructional Technology class. I really enjoyed this class and it helped to broaden my knowledge on technology to use in my future classroom.


My Instructional Technology Journey Presentation Link

PLN

When I first read about PLN's I didn't think that I could use it as a future math teacher. After reading and discussing PLN's in class I have been able to think of a couple of ways to use a PLN as a future educator and have discussed three of them here.

The first way I can use a PLN is to connect with the entire math department at the school I am working at. It will help us to share ideas about lesson plans and to ask questions about anything we may need help with when it comes to teaching. A second way I will use PLN's is to connect with the other math teachers in the district to get help with lesson plans and questions. A final way I can use a PLN is to connect with math teachers from around the state of Texas. This will help the most because we all have to teach the same TEKS, so we can provide each other with help whether it is with lesson plans or ways to get our students more interested in math.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Trailer

This is a trailer for the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.    

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Storyboard

Below you will find a storyboard for the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

WebQuests in my Future Classroom

When I first read about WebQuests I was't sure how I could use them in my future math class, but after seeing some examples I've changed my mind. I will probably mostly use WebQuests to do introductory lessons and for projects. For example, I could use it to introduce formulas in a Pre-Calculus class. I can also use WebQuests for projects to help my students connect math to the real world.

How To: Degree of a Polynomial

The video below is a quick lesson on how to determine the degree of a polynomial.

UDL Tools

The following inforgraphic provides five resources dealing with brainstorming/mind maps/graphic organizers that can be used when designing a UDL lesson plan. The tool used to create the poster was Canva. Canva can actually be used to help in a UDL lesson because it offers a different way to present visual information.

American Museum of Natural History Expedition Quiz

Here is a Kahoot Quiz on the American Museum of Natural History.

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/41800f59-bd63-4cea-8e1b-e4af7ae8e89f

9 Elements of Digital Citizenship

This is an infographic that I made to list the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship. These elements are not just for students to follow, but for educators as well to help keep everyone safe.

What are Infographics?

An infographic is a way to visually represent information. It is really beneficial for visual learners. All the information I will be including in this post can be reviewed in the video by Kathy Schrock.

Schrock provides steps to help organize the process of creating infographics:

• Select a layered based image editor like CANVA and Daz.
• Have students investigate different types of visuals.
• Have students research different topics they would like to create an infographic for.
• The next step is to create a rough draft of their infographic.
• One of the most important things that students must learn is about Creative Commons
• Next is to create and gather assets
• Following this the students must learn how to use fonts, color, and layouts
• The final step is to setup an organizational method

Schrock uses the LATCH method.

• Location
• Alphabet
• Time
• Category
• Hierarchy

Below I have attached the video by Schrock and some examples.

Copyright and Fair Use

When someone has a copyright symbol on their work it means that it cannot be used without their permission. One aspect of copyright I am not sure about is how you go about getting the permission to use the work when its copyrighted. I know the symbol that represents copyright is the c inside the circle kind of like the @ symbol. I have no idea what fair use is.

Robotics Competition

The video below is my reflection on volunteering with the First Tech Challenge. Hope you enjoy.

Sway vs. Nearpod

This link is for a podcast that I did where I discuss Sway and Nearpod which are two presentation software tools.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2r7Wb7KdTr8UWR2WDhlUmlLQWs

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is taking credit for someone else's work. This can be a piece of writing, a piece of music, or even using a picture without the proper permission. If we use something by someone else and cite it correctly, giving credit to the rightful owner, then we can use it without getting in trouble. Some schools even provide resources to help students to submit their work to check to make sure that everything is cited correctly, so that the student does not get in trouble in the future.

Something that I still do not completely understand about plagiarism is what pictures we can use or not when it comes to using pictures off the internet?


Update (3/19/2017):
Plagiarism can apply to a lot more than just writing a simple English paper. We have heard examples of it coming from the music business as well.

Something that the article said that I liked the way it was put is "therefore, plagiarism also defeats the university's goal of teaching students to write, not just copy," (Nine). When college students decide to use other people's work without taking credit it shows that they haven't learned much in class.

The article also talks about how some people worry about writing something that they may have read something from a long time ago, but it matches pretty well with something someone else says and then using it in ones paper. This is a common thing that happens when students write papers, but as long as the phrase dose not come off as too long and too close to what the original writer said then there usually is not a problem.

Here is a link to the article: http://integrity.ou.edu/files/nine_things_you_should_know.pdf

Using Punctuation When Texting

When texting a friend or a colleague how often to you use or see punctuation in texts that you send? For me if I use punctuation when I'm texting, its just something that comes naturally to me. Some people just use punctuation when they are texting when it comes to business others just don't use punctuation at all. I use punctuation because it not just helps me, but I feel that it helps the receiver of my text as well to understand what message I am trying to get across.

Is Texting Killing Our Language

U r gr8t. These words are seen a lot in millions of texts that are sent almost everyday. Texting has become a big part of our lives because it's a simple way to communicate between ourselves and others. When it comes to actually writing an essay, letter, or even having a conversation compared to a text its hard for some people to actually write out full words.

When I'm writing an essay or even just a simple paragraph I find myself writing 'u' and 'r' and then having to go back and delete or cross out words to fix them and write the correct form of the word. I have even heard people use 'lol' when something funny is said.

Texting has been convenient for many things when it comes to making communication easier, but it has taken a toll on our everyday language.

Update:
After watching the TED talk entitled "Txtng is killing language. JK!!!" by John McWhorter I have decided that with a little help form Mr. McWhorter and a class discussion that texting is its own language. As teachers we have to help students remember when to use academic writing and when they are texting and can use that language.

Here is the video of the TED talk.