Halfway There!

The weeks are flying by and I cannot believe we are almost to spring break! I have learned so much already this semester. This week at Washington, I got to help co-teach a Dr. Seuss lesson for Read Across America Week. It was so much fun to be in my first grade classroom and help the students with all of the fun activities that my group came up with. The students were so excited and it made me so happy when a little boy came up to me and asked if we could do another lesson again sometime soon. It was a very rewarding moment to say the least!

This week in class, we met online and we talked about TPACK and SAMR. These things are really about how we as teachers should bring technology into our classrooms in a beneficial way for our students. I had never really thought about this before, but just sending students to the computer lab or handing them iPads isn't really the best way to integrate technology. Instead, we need to be creating activities and lessons around technology in ways that today's learners will best benefit from. Like Dr. Parker said in the video, we don't want our students to go back in time in our classrooms. We want them to be in an environment where they can grow and learn. Just like standard 4D states in NCPTS, teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. In my future classroom, I am going to be teaching students who were born in 2013. These kids have grown up with technology and I need to make sure I am including it for them in my class so that later on, they can benefit from living in the digital age.

While working on my SAMR ideas this week, I found a really neat app that I think would be good to use in the classroom. It is called ScuttlePad and it's a safe social media site for kids. It's basically like Facebook for ages 6 to 11. Students can create profiles, add friends, and join interest groups. It's free for kids and there are monitors  that ensure it's a safe environment. Standard 2B states that teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world and Standard 3D states that teachers make instruction relevant to students. Using social media in the classroom is a way for kids to get connected to the world around them, and for teachers to make things relevant for their students. The majority of kids now have Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, so by giving students a website that is age appropriate, they can still be connected while also learning. I know that in my future classroom, I would love to have pen pals from around the country and around the world in order to give my students global understanding. This app makes it easy to do that.