MACUL Conference-

 The night before the conference I was a bit nervous and not sure what to expect.  I visited all the MACUL first time visitor sites, downloaded the app, and put the address in my GPS.  I had gone through a giant list of the different exhibits I could attend and settled on three: 

1. I Am PAC-MAN: Learning Through Gamification

2. Pinterest for Educators

3. Differentiating With Technology (I ended up attending

3D Printing in the Science Classroom)

1. I Am PAC-MAN

I chose this exhibit for two reasons.  I was interested in learning more about gamifying my classroom and I enjoyed Liz Kolb's presentation in the past so I was looking forward to hearing her talk again.  She started off the exhibit with asking the audience to join her Edmodo and answer the question.  Edmo-what?  I looked around and was astonished that most of the educators knew what she was talking about, they added themselves to her group by the code she projected and away they went.  I spent about five minutes registering for Edmodo and then joining her group.  From my little experience with the site I can tell it is a site where teachers can have a sort of online classroom within their current classroom, like a Blackboard or CTools.  

"Join over 33 million teachers and students safely connecting in online classrooms, collaborating on assignments, discovering new resources, and more!"

-Edmodo Website 

Liz engaged the audience by asking us to go to https://www.govote.at/ and answer a short question that all teachers could answer, it was something like - What is your biggest challenge in your classroom.  The answers were flying around the screen in a very interactive way, kind of like a Wordle.  I imagine students would love this!  

Onto the Gamifying! - The first thing Liz explained was the importance of creating badges for students in your gamified classroom.  She used http://badg.us/en-US/ to create badges for her class.  Badges become a sort of check mark, students are trying to achieve certain badges and must do so in order to master certain content.  Like in an actual game!  *Be sure to search badg without the E!  I made this mistake and was very confused looking at police badges for sale :) 

Liz then explained the website she used to turn all of her assignments into quests http://3dgamelab.com/.  I learned a lot listening to Liz share her stories about the site but I imagine I would learn a lot more by clicking around the site and attempting to make a quest myself.  Liz also shared a site created by UM that allows you to turn your class into a game and is free as of now http://gradecraft.com/.  

Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibit and am glad I chose it.  Students at my current placement have limited access to computers at school so I do not see myself gamifying my current classroom but I would definitely try it in the future.  I see myself starting small and attempting just a unit my first time around. 

2. Pinterest for Educators

I chose Pinterest for Educators as my second exhibit because I love Pinterest and wanted to learn more about a resource I would actually use!  I learned the basics at this exhibit (which I already knew) BUT I also learned about Pinterest for Educators!  This was an amazing discovery.  Pinterest for Educators is just for teachers and is updated by respected professionals in the field.  You will not only find engaging activities to try with your kids but you will uncover the latest articles and research published by professionals in our field!  

The woman running the discussion also had a good idea about keeping two Pinterest accounts.  She said she keeps one personal account and one professional account that she shares with parents and fellow teachers.  I think this is something I may consider in the near future before I begin pinning more lesson ideas.  This would be a great way to collaborate with teachers and parents! 

3. 3D Printing in the Science Classroom

By the time the third exhibit came around I was tired and still confused by all the exhibits, different buildings, and numerous rooms.  I stumbled across a sign that said, "3D Printing in the Science Classroom" and decided I was sick of walking and just going to sit through this exhibit instead of finding my final choice.  

The exhibit started off with a bunch of high school boys passing around little plastic pieces.  Keep in mind at this point, I had no idea what a 3D printer even was!  I looked at the pieces and tried to figure out what they might be and passed them along.  

The boys then began their presentation.  They discussed how they were given the opportunity to come up with a research project for a semester class.  The boys settled on 3D printing and decided they were going to research how to build their own 3D printer.  They talked with passion about coming in early, staying late, and eating their lunch in the lab in order to spend as much time as they could on this project.  They had to write a paper about their process so they spent a week learning how to write in APA format, they had to learn how to solder wires to the motherboard so they spent time learning and practicing their soldering skills, they had to troubleshoot with their printer so they spent (and still spend) countless hours troubleshooting.  I was blown away by the maturity and passion these boys exuded.  It really made me think about how I can inspire students in my classroom to be excited and determined to learn something! 

Check out the Dewitt High School Boys and learn more about this program here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LknVqn8aQyI (seriously, do it! they were amazing!)

This exhibit turned out to be the most meaningful one of the day for me and I just randomly chose it.  I think for conference next year (which I really hope to attend!) I will check out multiple exhibits during the hour and settle on one that piques my interest.  The exhibits are all very informative and inspiring and I would hate to have missed the Dewitt high school boys.  

BIG thanks to Jeff and Rory for making MACUL happen for me!  I am already looking forward to next year! 

MinecraftEdu

Tonight I may have stumbled across a life changing blog when finishing up my assignments for the semester.  A classmate of mine wrote a blog post about MinecraftEdu.  Being the mother of a 9-year-old avid Minecraft player I was surprised I had never heard about this move by Minecraft producers to make Minecraft more accessible in educational institutions.  I did a quick search and was inundated with youtube videos, blog posts, and websites discussing this move by Minecraft producers.  I found teachers making Minecraft videos about cell structure, math functions, physics topics, etc. etc.  

Cut to my 9-year-old making Rainbow-Loom bracelets having already used up his one hour of game time today.  I yell to him to come into my office and question him about what he is currently learning about in school.  He replies, "multiplication, division, Thanksgiving, the different Native American tribes of Michigan." Bingo!  After a few more questions I learn that he is currently learning about the historical location of the tribes throughout the State.  I tell him he can play Minecraft if he somehow incorporates what he is learning about in Social Studies.  He was thrilled!  He raced downstairs and 30 min later produced the video above.  

This not only made me think about the ways I could incorporate more learning into Minecraft it forced Kal to talk to me about school.  School comes very easily to him and he is usually bored with the topic and replies with "good" every time I ask him about anything related to school.  I learned more in our five minute conversation about what he learning than I have learned questioning him every day!  He was motivated.  I am excited with the endless possibilities to come from this new discovery.

Below are some useful resources-

http://www.youtube.com/user/EduElfie/videos

http://minecraftedu.com/page/

Edublogger

I was a bit hesitant to respond to an Edublogger.  I was not quite sure what to say or what to ask or how to approach commenting.  I ended up telling the blogger how helpful I found his blog.  I thanked him for all of his great ideas about teaching anatomy and asked him how he introduces new vocabulary to his students.  The amount of vocabulary students in anatomy are faced with can be overwhelming so I was curious as to how he approached this with his students.  

I was pleasantly surprised when he responded within a few hours! He answered my question and thanked me for my comment.  There was however something about his response that I found a bit irritating.  He plugged his book and copied the link to purchase a textbook he had written.  It made me feel like he responded just to try to sell some more copies of his book.  I then thought maybe that was the point of his whole blog- just to try to make money off his books.  Either way I will continue to read his blog because it is a great resource with a lot of helpful links but I do not see myself commenting again. 

On a side note, the image above was generated by a free program called Wordle.  All you do is either type or copy and paste text into the text box and hit generate.  Wordle randomizes the words and makes the words that are used the most bigger than the others. You can format the shape and color of the font that Wordle generates.  The one above was created by copying and pasting a blog post from the Edublogger I have been following.  I thought it would be a fun activity to do with students for a get to know you activity at the beginning of the year. 

Podcasting

I was one of the few in class who had no idea what a podcast was.  I knew there was a tab for them on itunes but I had never looked at them.  As you can imagine, I learned a whole lot from the group presentation on podcasting.  

Who knew it was so easy to make your own podcast?! What a fun activity for students to try!  I thought more about incorporating this into my classroom when Liz taught us about audioblogger.  This seemed like a relatively easy tool for students to use to create their very own audio diary/podcast/blog.  I know the students would be excited to try any assignment that allowed them to use their cellphones!  I can see them being excited and engaged in whatever assignment I chose to use the podcasting for.  

Another interesting thing I learned from the presentation was that there are thousands of podcasts available and FREE on itunes!  You can search by whatever you want and have many different options.  I drive an hour everyday so I listen to TED talks in the car.  The problem with that is sometimes they refer to their Powerpoint presentations that I am not able to watch as I am driving.  I think listening to podcasts would be a better option.  

Overall the presentation influenced me to listen to podcasts and perhaps try having my students record short messages as homework.  The presentation did not motivate me to make my own podcasts.  That still seems a little to tech advanced for me :) 

Cellphones in the Classroom-

 

The joy a 9-year-old gets from his first cellphone! 

Last week we had a very informative speaker come in and talk to us about all of the educational uses for a cellphone.  I was fascinated by her presentation and grateful for all of the resources she shared with us.  I was also very moved by her story and found it extremely motivating.  

I was unsure about incorporating cellphones into my classroom because I did not want students without a smart phone to be at a disadvantage.  The guest speaker shared with us numerous things you could do with students with just a simple flip phone!  I was blown away.  

Audioblogger - I think this would be a great tool to use with students.  As a science teacher I imagine taking students on a trip outside and having them audio record what they saw, what interested them, what they would like to know more about, etc.  This would be useful for me to learn about what their interests are but it could also be an intriguing lesson launch for students.  There are a lot of different avenues we could go down from here... 

As a mom I agreed with the speaker when she presented evidence about - the younger students are introduced to texting the better their ability to read words.  My son could read by the age of three and he spent a lot of time on my cellphone.  When we would be out to long dinners he would text his aunts and uncles to pass the time.  He began by asking me how to spell certain words around the age of two and I would help and tell him what they had said back.  As time went on he got better and better at not only texting but reading the responses.  So far this year he has gotten a 100% on every single one of his spelling tests and he is one of the top readers in his class, although math and social studies are his favorite subjects.  The guest speaker got quite a bit of negative feedback when she presented this evidence but I agree with what she presented.  My son is in 3rd grade and just got his first phone for his birthday.  He loves the games on it but also uses the kindle app to read books :)  

The only question I had that I did not get to ask was - how do you find out what phone, if any, students have without embarrassing those without.  The only thing I could think of was an anonymous survey.  Any other ideas or things you guys have seen?

Tech in My Placement

My placement school has computers in the media center, two laptop carts, a few smart boards, some ELMO projectors, and a whole lot of smart phones!  Teachers at my placement school hang signs in their hall windows that are either red, yellow, or green.  The students know that these colors designate the level at which their phone can be used.  Red means it cannot be out at all, yellow means it can be used if it is for educational purposes, and green means have at it.  

My teacher keeps the yellow sign up and the kids do a great job at using their phones when the time is right.  Last week we were in the lab and the students were creating a model of a cell using things they had brought in from home.  Most of the students pulled up a photo of a cell on their phones and used that photo to successfully complete the project.  This week students were asked to write about how oxygen and carbon dioxide diffuse across your alveoli into your capillaries.  I was happy to walk around see students googling and researching this topic on their phones.

I have also noticed students taking pictures of the agenda for the day or the assigned homework.  These may be students who do not have a planner or place to write down their homework so this is exciting that they are actually going to know what to do when they get home!  I plan on using Remind101 when I begin teaching so I will be able to send out a mass text reminding students and parents (if they choose) about the assigned homework.  This is an awesome tool I saw used over the summer.  Read more about Remind101 below- 

https://www.remind101.com/about

I look forward to doing webquest activities with my students in order to enhance student learning about difficult topics in science.  I have been researching some interactive activities to do with my students and found a great edublogger in the process!  I also plan on showing a lot of YouTube videos about different processes in science - Kreb, mitosis, meiosis, DNA replication, transcription, glycolysis, etc. etc.  The list is endless.  I have found it so helpful to watch animations of these processes when trying to learn them.  It brings them to life and is a lot more engaging then reading about them in a textbook (although students will be expected to do this also).  I have started writing my guided notes and have embedded links to videos throughout.  

What interesting things have you guys seen in your placements?  Any resources I must check out?  I look forward to hearing about your schools.

"Pull Yourself up by Your Bootstraps"

I am the type of person who tries to make the best out of a bad situation.  I try to find the positive in a not so positive situation.  

Certain aspects of this semester have been a challenge.  

Not the classes or working with Scarlett students but the never ending doomsday lectures about standards!  We have chosen to become teachers and were pretty excited about it until around the second day of class.  I feel like ever since we have gotten a healthy dose of pessimism in multiple classes.  I wanted to go to medical school and every physician I knew tried to talk me out of it.  I thought about PA school and got the same response from practicing PAs.  Current teachers look at you like you are crazy when you tell them you want to go into teaching.  Why do so many people bash their profession?  

Is everybody really that unhappy?!

I want to learn about all of the great things about teaching.  The positive impact we are going to have on our future students, the fun times we will have in the classroom, and the feeling at the end of the day like we are making the world a better place.

I totally get that standards are difficult to teach and difficult to follow and difficult to be tested on.  I get that standards are not a good indicator of student knowledge and stressful for students and teachers.  But - our leaders have decided that as of right now this is the best option they can come up with.  

So instead of the negative/doomsday/the sky is falling talk, why not teach us how to conform to the standards while also employing high leverage teaching practices.  

How about motivating us and telling us we will get through it and we will all make fabulous teachers! 

We learn how important it is to motivate our future students everyday :)  

Am I just living in a world full of rainbows and butterflies? 

I look forward to reading your comments - am I the only one who feels this way!?