Isabel's Educational Journey

This is a common saying of teachers when students are taking a test. Having a student look at another student's answers is not acceptable and considered cheating or stealing. In the same way, it's not right to take someone else's work and use it without their permission. This is why copyright and fair use is so important, especially in the classroom. This video titled "Creative Commons & Copyright Info"  gives a great overview of Creative Commons, a copyright license that allows people to share their content with others and allow them to use it in different ways. Another good resource to look at to learn more about copyright in general is this article titled "A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright"  It does a good job of going over all of the rules of fair use and copyright. Teaching students about copyright is important because of the topic of last week's post, digital citizenship. As I said last week, teaching students to be digital ...

Art and visuals are important things to have in the classroom. They help visual learners and young students to learn about new things, and having posters in the classroom help remind students about certain topics. This week I used Piktochart , an online infographic maker. Although the templates seem to be more for business infographics with lots of data I used it to create a set of classroom rules for a Pre-K or Kindergarten class. You can see it here . The website was actually very easy to use. When you make your first infographic the website will show you how to do certain things as you start to explore the page. There are also different templates you can choose from to create an infographic. There are ones for free and if you upgrade to the Pro version there are more templates to choose from and also you can choose a color scheme. With Piktochart you can also create a presentation or a poster to print out. I think that the website is so easy to use because it has a toolbar at the ...

When thinking about being a good citizen, what comes to my mind is voting in the elections, being polite to your neighbors, and not littering. Being a good digital citizen is different. There are 9 different parts of digital citizenship according to this article . They are access, commerce, communication, literacy, etiquette, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and security. The elements that I think are most important are communication and etiquette. Technology is all about creating new things and sharing them on the internet to have a conversation. Etiquette and communication go hand in hand because it is important for students to use the internet appropriately to communicate with their peers. Cyberbullying is very prevalent in this society and teaching kids the right way to use the internet and what to do in a situation with a cyberbully is important. I personally have experienced someone commenting something hurtful on a picture online. The way I dealt with...

Listening skills are very important to people of any age. Sometimes adults need more help in listening skills than children. Reading to young children is a great way to expose them to new vocabulary and to help teach them about different topics in certain subjects and can also teach them important social skills. This week I used the  GarageBand  app and recorded myself reading  My Monster Mama Loves Me So  by Laura Leuck. This was one of my favorites as a kid.You can listen to it  here . It did take me a while to figure out how the use the app since there are so many features. On top of regular audio recording, there are different instruments you can play with and you can record songs. The app could be useful in music classes to create songs and have students express themselves. It could also be great for students to learn about the different instruments and how they sound. Students could also use the app to record a song or rap about a topic learned in c...

Packing for a trip can be stressful sometimes, especially if you wait until the last minute. You don't want to forget something and not realize it until you've already gotten to your destination. As Clare Kilbane says in her video "TPACK 101" it's important for teachers to pack TPACK, which stands for Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge. Kilbane explains that TPACK is at the heart of good teaching and that, "The more types of knowledge a teacher has and integrates into instruction the more powerful the learning experience is for the students." Integrating technology into the classroom is important as Nada Salem Abisamra says in her article "Integrating Technology in the Classroom" that technology in the classroom gives students a better chance of having a brighter future. I agree with Kilbane and Abisamra's points about using TPACK in the classroom. When choosing a new technology to use in the classroom, it's important...

Time is sometimes a difficult thing to comprehend, especially for younger children. A tool that can be helpful to show the progression of time is Sutori . This website allows you to create a line of events that can be a historical timeline or just a new way to present things to the class. You can add text, an image, video, audio recording, multiple choice or matching question, or a forum question. Using Social Studies Standard 8.1.3.A I created a short and basic timeline about the history of the United States. Take a look at it here . I can see this timeline used in a elementary classroom to show how time has progressed and how the U.S. has changed. Sutori can be something for teachers to use to present ideas to the class, but it could also be used by older students for projects or class presentations. It is a very useful resource but there were some struggles when I was using. Two things that I dislike about Sutori are that you cannot resize the images that you add to the timeline...

Being an open book involves not having any secrets or keeping anything to yourself. In the education world, being an open book involves being willing to share your knowledge with others. In last week's blog post I talked about sharing in PLNs. In a way, openness is similar to sharing in PLNs but with openness educators share their knowledge with the whole world and give educational access to those who otherwise would not receive it. David Wiley, in his TED talk , explained how in this day and age, law and policy are leading us to believe that what we create should not be used by anyone else. But he makes a good point about how knowledge is not something that can be taken away from you. He says that teachers aren't bumble bees that once they sting someone they die. It is important for educators to share because like I mentioned last week, without sharing education doesn't exist.  I see in the future a lot more educational resources online available for everyone to ...

Sharing is something that we learn to do as kids. Our mothers would tell us to share our toys with our siblings or cousins and when we would complain she would remind us, "Sharing is caring." In the digital age we live in now, we are often told to be careful what we share online and that sharing everything about ourselves can be dangerous. We have also been taught not to use other people's work for our own benefit. Teachers and educators, however, need to be sharing their thoughts and ideas. In Dean Shareski's video titled "Sharing: The Moral Imperative"  he talks about how since education is built on sharing teachers are obligated to reach out beyond their classrooms and share with other educators. Throughout the video, Shareski showed examples of the benefits of sharing. One example in the video that stood out to me was about Dan Meyer and how sharing his video that he used for a lesson plan was used by someone in Scotland. In Jennie Snyder's blog po...

Pictures and photos are a way to share our experiences and to express ourselves. Pictures can also be full of meaning and information hence the phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words." A tool that I think can be useful in the classroom is PicMonkey . This tool is a photo editing app that enables you to crop, adjust elements of the picture (ex: brightness), and add filters. The app also allows you to draw, add text, and add fun stickers. You can also share a photo once it is edited on social media platforms and by email. Students could use this app for different projects or activities. An example of an activity in a science class could be that students take a photo walk outside and identify certain parts of nature that were discussed in class. The app could be used to point out each item through drawing or stickers and then emailed to the teacher for him or her to present the student's findings to the entire class. Teachers could use this app to make pictures fun...