Reflection on my Learning Specialist/Instructional Designer Proposal

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.

Pln: Twitter & EdChats

First Time Twitter User 

I made a Twitter account for the very first time several weeks ago!

You can follow me at: @lwalls776

In the past, I have been on Twitter to read some tweets of celebrities, etc., but I never made my own account. I will be honest that I had a negative notion about this social media service as I thought it was only for people who wanted to constantly let other people know what they were doing at the moment! I was like, "Who cares what you had for dinner?" After creating my account and finding a ton of educational ideas, resources, and people to follow, I instantly changed my mind! What a fantastic place for educators to share ideas and talk about important education topics.

Image Source

#EdChat:Engagement in the Classroom 

I participated in an #EdChat last week for #ETCoaches
(ISTE EdTechCoachesNetwork @EdTechCoaches) about engagement in classrooms and professional learning experiences. The chat was hosted by Steve Wick @WickedEdTech. He is a High School Science Teacher and Technology Coordinator. This topic of engagement was very fitting for me as we were discussing active learning that week in my online class. Steve Wick introduced himself and shared a picture of a quotation that said The More You Share, The More You Learn. This saying definitely rang true for me after I have finished the chat since I gained some great ideas from this experience. I only learned because I participated.

Steve Wick asked various questions related to engagement, and I responded to most of them. The first question asked us to define student engagement and to share some key words connected to it. My response is below:

Personal Photo from #EdChat  Twitter Account

The part that I really liked about this experience is that the host and other people started liking and retweeting some of the thoughts I was sharing. Steve Wick liked that I said that engagement is when students are actively "discovering a solution," and he liked that I used the word "curious" as a keyword for engagement. I was nervous about participating in this chat at first, but after hearing positive comments like this, I received affirmation that made me feel more confident about myself and my thoughts related to education.

Personal Photo from #EdChat Twitter Account

My favorite part of the chat was when he asked what strategies or things we do to "hook" our students at the start of a lesson. This was my response:

Personal Photo from #EdChat Twitter Account

By sharing this example on the #EdChat, I made the host laugh out loud! At the same time, a lot of people responded well to my response. I felt really good that I shared this example.

Personal Photo from #EdChat Twitter Account

One main takeaway that I gained from this chat is the idea to have students respond to a video clip by making a slide recap. I tried this idea a few days after this chat with my students after they watched a social studies video clip. I had students write 3 things they learned and 1 question that they had about the video clip on a Google Slide. Students then had to present these in class. It was a very engaging and simple activity that put the learning directly into the hands of the students. I love that I learned this idea!

Personal Photo from #EdChat Twitter Account

Steve Wick also talked a bit about HyperDocs. I shared that I learned more about them in my class, and he said that if I have any questions, or if I want to run one by him, he'd be excited to talk. I thought this was so nice, and I am so happy that I follow him!

Personal Photo from #EdChat Twitter Account

I wish I had known more about Twitter and the online support it provides, especially when I first started teaching. I think being a part of an online community like this would have helped me gain ideas and possibly ease some of my anxiety during those early days of teaching. Staying connected with other educators can help me grow and stay up-to-date with new ideas, so I am glad that I am following this community now.


Resources:

HyperDocs: I was able to find several already made HyperDocs by just searching for specific ones on Twitter. These are ones that connect with current units I'm doing in class. There are a whole lot out there on Twitter!
            
 Mesopotamia: Hammurabi Code HyperDoc by Nicole Beardsley (@beardsleyteach)
 Plate Tectonics HyperDoc by Stella Pollard (@Stella_Pollard)

 How-to HyperDoc: Intro HyperDoc for students and teachers by Nicole Beardsley (@beardsleyteach)

I follow Ditch That Textbook on Twitter. They provide and share a lot of great resources and lessons, especially related to technology. 

I also follow Smekens Education. A few years ago, I attended several writing and reading conferences from this service. I gained so many ideas in writing that I still use today. I am happy to follow her (Kristina Smekens) on Twitter as she shares different resources and writing tips via videos.

I have been following Seesaw, too. I saw a recent post that spelling tests could be dictated to students by using Seesaw. By using this, it can allow teachers to administer several individualized tests to students. See tweet @MrsKylieHand