Stephanie Feeman Education 776 Blog

As I reflect back on the last two years of my school at Dominican University, it has always been in the back of my head whether or not I will stick with this after all of the classes are done. I am at the end of this path and integrating social media into my classroom has never sounded more necessary. I have found so many awesome resources that could possibly change the way that students learn. Not only that, but the way that I communicate information with parents and community members could be completely different. I had recently learned about the Remind App to communicate with parents. This changed the way I communicated with parents, but through this class I found even more social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Edmodo that would be beneficial as well. Moving forward, I'd like to look into transforming some of my current classroom interventions into technology based interventions. I'd also like to streamline some of communication with families and community member...

photo attributed to psychcentral.com This week we had the opportunity to unpack Rheingold's 5 different social media literacies. He described them as attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness, and critical consumption. I think all of these areas are incredibly important but the two that stuck out to me the most were attention and collaboration. These are two areas I think of most when I think of my own students. When we are working through curriculum and instruction whether it is with technology or traditional classroom setting, these two areas I feel are the most important. When you integrate technology into the classroom, attention becomes an area that students can begin to struggle with. I do a large amount of my interventions through apps like MobyMax. It is often really hard for me to tell if students are giving their full attention to the activities within the program. I often get information back from the activities that do not match what I know their ...

Photo attributed to Pinterest.Com This week in class we took a deeper look into the laws surrounding keeping our students safe and knowledgeable when working on the internet. I had actually never heard of these laws before, and had no clue that these kinds of laws were in place. I know that my school has all of the documents required through these laws in place, but I always thought it was just common sense and our responsibility as educators. I like the idea of having these laws in place, but I just find it so hard to enforce when not inside the school the setting. We have site blocks and intensively teach about internet etiquette, but so many of our kiddos go home and have no censors and are exposed to things that are so inappropriate. In the light of the recent news in Florida, I can't help but think there could be something more we could do to help students and young children not have access to those kinds of terrible sites. I believe in the freedom of internet sites, but I...

photo courtesy of imgflip When I think of Digital Tattoos, I always think back to the people who choose to put their entire life on the internet for everyone to see. My meme that I created shares my opinion on the matter. I have a social media app called Timehop that pulls up old pictures and social media posts from years past. I am always so embarrassed by the song lyrics and awkward teenage quotes that I find that I shared over the years. I then remember that I started social media when I was still in high school, and the social media universe was a very different thing. I am now much smarter about what I choose to post on different social media platforms. However, I still see people I am friends with write and post the most ridiculous things on their social media accounts. I'm often times unsure if they got the digital tattoo memo that everything you post on the internet stays there forever no matter what you try to do. I have this same conversation with my Jr. High basket...

photo attributed to Speak Up This week we needed to look up information pertaining to the use of social media and technology within the classroom. I was shocked at what I found. The above infographic was most interesting to me. This infographic shows data and information from 2016. This is one of the first years that I started teaching. I really don't have a reference from before then, so the data here was most interesting to me. Check out these inforgraphics! The first statistic that I found was #3. This data said that 64% of teachers use videos to support learning goals. As I was going through my undergrad and practicing writing lesson plans, technology was always used to grab attention and keep students engaged. It is shocking to me to see that just over half of the teachers in the United States are implementing videos and other technology to better round out their lesson. I use videos on a daily basis, usually more than one time a day. It helps students hear the informati...

photo attributed to The Blogging Adventures of the Awkward Education Major Social Media is in every aspect of the 21st century world, so it was only a matter of time until it reached the public education arena. With the increase in Social Media comes the responsibility to monitor it's use within the school setting. This week we were given the task to find out District Social Media Policy and examine it. My school and district policy is one in the same, as we are the only school in our district. District Internet Policy, see page 42 As you can see this document does exist, but is very vague on its view of social media uses within the district. The district took the time to outline all that is prohibited while using technology and district computers. Every student in jr. high has their own school Google account. They are able to access all of the Google Apps for Education. These terms outlined in the above mentioned document clearly state that the use of all internet resources ...

Professional learning networks are the future of education and professionalism. I believe that there are particular skills required in today's business and school environment that were not necessary in my generation's upbringing. Students need to learn how to actively engage in effective conversation through the use of social media and professional learning networks. The social aspect of learning is what stood out most to me. I have always struggled with normalcy within interactions between colleagues and growing up with classmates who I didn't know very well.  As I began to think about this topic more, I began to think back on my time in college. When I was in college this idea of a professional learning network was at the forefront of learning theories. I had to learn how to participate in these kinds of networks in order to be successful. I have always had an issue working in groups with people who I didn't know personally. I was often able to get out of it in high ...

Hello Everyone! photo courtesy of S. Feeman My name is Stephanie Feeman and I am a third grade teacher in a rural, yet incredibly diverse, elementary school in Southern Illinois. This is my final class at Dominican University to receive my Masters in Education and I am so incredibly excited to learn this semester. I earn my undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University with a specialization in English and Middle School. I currently teach third grade and coach Jr. High Girls' Basketball, Go Trojan! Professionally, I am the general education teacher in a 3rd grade co-teaching classroom. We believe in teaching our students in a way that best suites their learning styles. Last year, we transformed our classroom into a flexible seating classroom and have seen great success with it.  My first profile picture is from my Instagram page. I really enjoy traveling and try to document my travels and adventures on my Instagram page. The picture at the top shows me hiking Ca...

How has the process been? To be completely honest, this whole process has been a little overwhelming. I have truly enjoyed having the opportunity to go through this process, but I never could've imagined how much actual time and work it takes to get one of these plans off the ground. I was appreciative for the different steps and outlines. As I recently found about my learning style, I learn best when things are outlined for me with very clear steps to follow. That made this huge project a little bit less intimidating. I learned a lot about the process of getting a new technology system going in a public school. It was also really interesting to see what kinds of ideas other teachers around the state had that they thought would benefit their school.  Have there been challenges? Time has been a major challenge. As I said above, I never thought it would take as long as it did to find information about this particular project. I al...

How has the process been? Overall, this process has been challenging yet rewarding. I feel like this is something that will help me in my career and could possibly lead to a successful implementation  of new technology in the classroom. It has been challenging, but by taking it step by step I do not feel to overwhelmed. Have there been challenges? Are you still excited about your topic and believe in its potential? I am still incredibly excited about my topic. I think that I am more excited then I was when I started. After doing research this project seems more doable then before. I have read testimonials during this experience of how beneficial Chromebooks are in the classroom and I know how successful they could be in my classroom if this proposal follows through! What has been the most positive aspect of this part of the journey? The most positive aspect of this journey is taking the time to figure out the details of large projects like this. They organization of this jo...

Getting Started with Snapchat in Your Classroom Okay, so I read the title of this article and was like "No way, no how!" My students are third graders so I don't often have problems with them being on their phones, but I also coach Jr. High Girls' Basketball and it is like pulling teeth to get these girls off of their phones. They are always on Snapchat sending weird pictures and silly things to their friends, and their friends are usually in the same room. I use Snapchat as well and I do exactly the same thing. When I think of Snapchat, the last place I think of it is in the classroom. I use it as a mindless way to de-stress after a long day of work. However, then I read the article, and the same juices that start to flow when I get lesson ideas in my mind began to flow again. There are so many ways that Snapchat can actually be used effectively in the classroom. This was something that I never would've believed, had I not read how successful it has been show...

photo courtesy of learninginhand.com As I look back on the last eight weeks of this class, I feel like I can totally rearrange the way I teach in my classroom. Before this class, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how to use technology in the classroom and what kind of resources I had available to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much was out there that I didn't know about. This class allowed me to explore different resources I had never heard of, resources I had heard of but didn't have time to explore, and old resources that had been reborn.  Technology is incredibly important in a 21st Century Classroom. Students in classrooms today have grown up with technology as a 6th sense. Traditional classroom strategies have become outdated and unnecessary. I took this class because I felt that I could learn something about how to use technology in my classroom differently. I had some resources that I used in the classroom that were effective, but the internet is so big...

Photo courtesy of Internet Identity Workshop I think it is also interesting to see what others can see when searching for me. I was watching a movie once where a character asked another, "Did you Google yourself?" I never knew this, but apparently it is a new trend to search yourself online and see what your web presence is like. I fell into the social hole, and "googled myself." As you have found out over these last few weeks, I am a pretty private person and don't like to have a lot of my information out in the open for all to see and judge. I am also a teacher and coach, and I know all of my students and basketball players are able to google search me and find out certain things. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my web presence is pretty minimal. I know that as educators in the 21st century we should have a web presence that reflects our classroom and makes it easy for community members to get in touch or get to know me. I am working on my pr...

This week I created a tutorial on how to use nearpod. This is a new web tool 2.0 that I came across recently. My dad actually introduced it to me months ago but I hadn't found the time to explore it until taking Education 776. This is actually one of the best resources I have found on the internet to use in the classroom. Nearpod is an interactive lesson that is done all online. Students using 1-1 devices participate in the lesson and explore from their seats as you explore from the board. The website allows you to create your own lesson or use one of the thousand different lessons in the Nearpod library. While I was getting to know this tool, I was amazed by how many different FREE lessons are available to use in the classroom. The library allows you to search by grade level, standard, subject, or type of activity. As a really busy teacher, I love that they give me ready to use lessons instead of just the option to create my own lesson. Lessons are interactive and encoura...

I had the opportunity to create a twitter account. I was never aware of all of the different resources available to me through twitter. I always viewed twitter as another social media network that was designed to share funny memes and silly stories. I never thought that I could actually learn things about teaching and different things to try in the classroom. I looked through and began following several different twitter accounts. The best account/resource that I found was Mindshift. Its twitter handle is @mindshiftkqed and it shares the most interesting things. This resource focuses on shifting our brains from traditional ways of learning to more progressive ways of thinking. I think during this time in history, it is incredibly important for everyone to shift the way they have thought about teaching and education, and move towards the future. This Twitter account embeds a growth mindset across all areas of education. I think I was so interested in this particular resource beca...

Photo courtesy of www.tomorrow.org 'Project Tomorrow' The more I dig into the learning/education culture, the more important I think it is to view statistics of my professional field. I feel that teaching as a profession is rapidly changing. Classrooms and districts are completely different from what they were in the past. Students learn differently then they used to, and standards hold teachers accountable in vastly different ways. With that being said, it is important for educators and administrators to analyze opinions and points of view from all areas of their community. I dove in to a highly regarded Speak Up statistics firm. Digital learning is something that is relatively new to the front line of education. I have been trying to find out more information about implement digital learning into my classroom. I believe that digital learning can allow students to become more self sufficient and add different levels of differentiation to every single student. In my class...

Photo Courtesy of S. Feeman Padlet Presentation This week's blog gave me the opportunity to discover a different way to engage the students in my classroom. We learned all about active learning and what it looks like in a real 21st century environment. Active learning is student led, teacher facilitated, builds on communication/collaboration/critical thinking skills, and allows students to create things they learn. My professor shared with us different activities that she has done with students in different classrooms. I read about an activity she did using QR codes. She had students in her class use QR codes to decode different famous quotes for an African American history project. Students traveled around the classroom reading beautiful and famous quotes and then used the QR code to figure out the missing word. Then she flipped the script on the kids and had them create their own QR code mystery quote. Students worked collaboratively to find a quote and then shared them with ...

Photo Courtesy of S.Feeman This week we had the opportunity to digitally map how we use technology in our personal lives. I really enjoyed this activity because it caused me to stop for a second and actually think about how I use technology effectively. I always thought that I was a technology resident. I grew up with technology, and I've always considered myself technologically literate. I often find myself helping older teachers in my building and can often troubleshoot my way through problems that arise when working with technology. However, after doing this Digital Map I have found that I am more of a visitor than a resident. I use technology all the time, but I rarely contribute to anything. I usually have a million things going on every day, and I use technology accordingly. I use it as a resource or a tool for entertainment. The parts of the internet that I do consider my a resident in are things related to school and work. My school is a large Google for Education sch...