Several challenges that I face in my classroom involve increasing student engagement and providing more differentiation within my instruction. Yes, these are two challenges, and if someone asked me to pick just one, I would have a hard time deciding which one is more important. Therefore, I wanted to find something that would help me to try and achieve both for my students. I know that incorporating something with technology could help, and after learning about and researching HyperDocs, I feel that utilizing these tools in my classroom could be just the thing.
After assessing my needs in my classroom and thinking of this idea, I have brainstormed questions to ask the technology coordinator at my school to help me with implementing HyperDocs. I feel that I have thought of all possible challenges I may encounter with using these. I have also gathered research to support how these will help with engagement and differentiation in the classroom. I feel that the process has been going well so far. The major challenge that I have encountered is having the time to create this. I want to incorporate links and videos and other tools to make this learning experience meaningful for my students. I also have not had time yet to meet with my technology coordinator to go over this with her. These past two weeks have been extremely busy since report cards and conferences are taking place. I hope that after the holiday, I can meet with her and spend time gathering resources. I also want to tailor some of the HyperDocs for specific students.
I am excited about implementing a HyperDoc because I feel my students will be more invested in what they are learning. I am fortunate that I am in a 1:1 environment at my school since each of my students have Chromebooks. I therefore feel that these would be a perfect tool to start using in my room to create a more blended-learning environment. I really do not feel anything negative about using these other than I may feel a little odd in the classroom while my students are on these because I am not actively involved in the instruction. However, if I get better with these, I can incorporate features where I can provide feedback directly or ask questions to the students as they are engaged in them.
While there is so much that I can do with HyperDocs, I do have to step back a bit and think in simple ways by starting off small so as not to overwhelm myself. I know I want to use this for a social studies lesson. After coming up with the lesson objective(s), I will then gather the resources. I think my first HyperDoc will be small, and then I can build from there and make them longer with different tools and features attached.
I am liking the idea of being a Technology Specialist because I think the next step in my career is to be more involved in instructional design and to find ways to reach students. I feel that I can do this best by not being tied down to just one classroom, but by being involved with multiple classrooms to learn ideas and collaborate with other teachers at a school.
