February 2

Fear of Technology…so unfounded…

This post was originally posted in my Substack.

Yesterday, I had an unexpected change in plans. Instead of my usual Saturday routine, Zoom meeting with the PAECT President, recording my class podcast, and grading student work, I spent the day away from home with a family health issue. All is well now, but my usual schedule was thrown off.

Those who know me, yes my OCD flared up, but I was able to switch up and work on some class tasks using…mobile technology. Accomplishing a lot during down time and saving me from wasting more time today to get caught up, plus work on my usual Sunday routine. 

Many people fear technology and do not see a use for it in an educational setting. Technology, mobile technology specifically, gave me the ability to be away from home and still be productive with my classwork. I set up lessons, adjusted information for my classes, built out resources, all from a remote location. 

None of this could be accomplished without mobile technology, don’t fear it, learn how to use it efficiently. 

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January 4

Saturday Mornings

This post was first published on my Substack.

“Saturday Mornings” a time for productivity. I used to wake up on Saturday mornings rather late, since I was usually up late on Friday nights. As that changed, I would get up early on Saturday and participate in an educational “#satchat” on Twitter, mostly lurking and answering only on occasion.

Then, I restarted my Saturday morning podcasts back up for my classroom. I switched to being a creator over being just a consumer. That counts, even if few people consume what I produce.

Now that I have added the title of Vice President of PAECT to my responsibilities, my Saturdays have become even more productive. The President of PAECT, Eric Verno has a weekly meeting where we collaborate on PAECT business. Saturday mornings work best for our schedules, so on top of my weekly podcast, I have added a weekly meeting, and from there I wrap up some tasks we discuss. My thought is that everything is fresh in my mind and I already have my computer open, so just keep going. That then frees up the rest of the day for relaxation and fun.

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November 2

Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective

In my US History class we were discussing rationing and the black markets of World War Two. I asked the class what they envisioned black markets looked like or where they too place and what black marketeers looked like. Man, was I surprised.

I know Gen Z and Gen Alpha perceive the world differently than me and my fellow Gen Xers and Millennials, but a student’s comments totally blindsided me.

The student responded to my queries by saying when they thought of the balck market they thought of the Internet and a hacker as a black marketeer.

This is a far cry from my first thoughts of the black market being an alleyway, vacant building, or the trunk on a late 1970’s Pontiac. A black marketeer to me is a shady character in a trench coat or maybe a Robert DeNiro type from Goodfellas.

The difference between the two views was canyon-like, I realize the Internet and “Dark Web” have a plethora of ways to buy contraband, however the generational divide with my students was such that they did not envision my concept of a black market or black marketeer.

It makes me wonder how many others concepts we differ on.

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June 6

SketchNoting

I am participating in a PAECT Book Study, the book is Thrive Through the Five, by Dr. Jill M. Siler. At the end of each chapter, she includes a Sketchnote of ideas to summarize the chapter content. I attended a series of webinars through PAECT on Sketchnoting with Sylvia Duckworth, and have shown the concept to my classes. I need to revisit this skill over the summer and utilize it in my classes for my more visual learners. I am not adept enough of an artist to Sketchnote while taking notes, I would focus too much on the art and lose the content. I am better at revisiting the content after I take notes in a traditional format and converting them into images.

I will add this to my Summer To-Do List.

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | Comments Off on SketchNoting
March 5

#Sal308 Volume I

I am still sifting through information from PETE & C 2016 and implementing ideas into my professional self.  One idea that I especially liked was from George Couros, whom I follow on Twitter and via his blog, Connected Principals.

The idea was to daily Tweet something you or your students do in your classroom, adding a hashtag so you can easily track your Tweets.  I have started that process, which is not very difficult to accomplish; there should be tons of ideas that can be promoted in your day if you just pay attention to what is going on…I am using the hashtag #Sal308.

This is my first weeks’ effort archived via Storify.com.

 

Category: Lessons and Teacher Things, PETE&C | LEAVE A COMMENT