Quick Notes:
- If Google can understand your English, anyone can.
- Duck Duck Go is a web browser that doesn't track your searches.
- Students (and teachers) should develop their computational thinking skills.
- Dark text on light background is best for reading long texts.
Today's Reflection:
Though today was mostly a review for me of Google's different features, I liked going through the different features of Blogger and learning how to include videos in the posts. There is so much that I don't know about coding so it was great to get a chance to practice how to edit code in order to change details on a post.
When thinking of how I could apply this to teaching, the first thing that comes to mind is creating a blog or website for my classes that can be accessed by parents. A lot of parents struggled with home schooling this year and often asked where they could go online to find resources and supports to refresh their learning about topics they haven't thought about since their time as a student decades ago. While our school usually relies on Facebook groups or Microsoft TEAMS channels to organize information, it was not always as user-friendly as we had hoped, and many people struggled to find the information once it was posted. By creating a website or blog for the classes I'm teaching, it creates a better flow of communication between parents and teachers. It also allows me to have complete control over what information is being shared instead of having to submit information to admin and wait for it to be posted. It can also be a very proactive tool to communicate about upcoming events, field trips, unit plans, class portfolio, images or videos of student work, etc. It also looks great for resumes or job interviews when the inevitable questions come up about managing teacher-family-student relationships.
Like you said earlier....why didn't we learn this stuff in our first year of classes?! My life would have been 1000 times easier if I had been able to create an online platform like this, especially during Covid.
Great notes and reflection. Sounds like you are putting together some good ideas for using tech in your teaching and learning. I often suggest students write to PENT admin recommending they put ICT earlier in the course calendar.
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