I have to applaud both Mrs. Moore along with the fantastic students for a great lesson. Kindness today isn’t discussed enough and by having your students share their thoughts on kindness paired with the project shown is a great way for students to connect with each other. Your use of online tools in and out of your classroom helps bring technology directly to your students and bridges the gap for those students who might have time or the confidence to share face to face.

As a 4th grade health teacher, I’m exploring ways to incorporate new online tools and through your lesson and students work it really is inspirational. As part of my curriculum I teach my students the “Golden Rule”, which too often is forgotten. We discuss how important being kind to one another is and discuss bullying. Your use of blogging and creative writing is a great tool for today’s students and your third grades did a fabulous job in both their writing and sharing. Being kind is both self rewarding and helpful to those you show kindness too. Kindness can, in fact, help someone who is being bullied or depressed by changing their mindset about doing something hurtful even if just for that moment.

Always remember rather than being mean, throw kindness like it’s confetti and it will make our world a much better place.

Click link to check out post:

http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/2018/03/30/why-is-being-kind-important/comment-page-1/?unapproved=1504&moderation-hash=78e2f6cf56eea020bba68c5ce44639b1#comment-1504

After looking at various blogs, I came across one from Mrs. Moore’s 3rd grade class.

Click link to view: http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/.

What fascinated me most is how they as a class used the blog to share their work. The first blog I read was a story creation called “Mystery Woman” were students used specific vocabulary words that they learned to create a story. Each student had to use their creative writing skills and compose a short story using the five vocab words. After scrolling even further, I found another assignment the class completed on kindness. Again using their creative writing skills, students had composed 25 different ways to be kind (collectively) and why it is important to be kind. This really hit home for me as a Health teacher because part of my self-guided curriculum is teaching about character and how to treat others. This unit also touches on bullying and our efforts to stop it.

What impressed me most was just how well the students used their vocab words and articulated their own reasons why it was important to be kind. If every class did projects similar to this I think it would help students better understand the quality of good character traits, a skill that many students lack in today’s society unfortunately. I also liked the use of a hands on project when it came to the kindness blog. Using the blog, it allowed students to share their work and describe just what it means to them to be kind. Being kind to one another helps combat bullying but also improves relationships with one another, covering all forms of Health education, not just the physical side of things.

I personally feel that I could use this idea for my own classroom, with adaptations of course. First, using my own blog, I can create a lesson that students can use their own creative writing skills in a manner that covers bullying. I would encourage my students to share their own bullying stories and why we need to stomp bullying out of our everyday life. I would also pair this up with a hands on activity that has students create their own anti bullying posters which can be shared with their stories.

After seeing just how a teacher uses a blog as an education tool, I also feel that I can incorporate this tool a little more if districts approves of course. I feel that sharing links to articles discussed in class can be shared on my blog site and students can share their own thoughts individually. I feel this is a good thing because I often have to tell students who want to share a story to write it down or talk to me after class because we never have enough time for everyone in class to share.

Blogging in an educational setting has many advantages that goes ways beyond the classroom walls and students today desire new and innovative ways to learn. Using tools like this to share students work, allow for open discussions about topics discussed, and adding online classroom challenges can help bridge gaps that can’t always be addressed in a 40 minute window. I also believe it can be used to motivate our students learning and sharing capabilities in new collaborative ways.

Check out these links to the student blogs discussed: http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/2018/04/17/mystery-woman/ – Mystery Woman

http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/2018/03/30/why-is-being-kind-important/ – Why is being kind important?

Today’s world of education has drastically changed since my days in elementary school. Web technology has shifted a lot of the research process to online websites and apps. Moving forward into the future, I can see a classroom in which students learn from a teacher on a screen rather than in person. Through use of face time and other video chat apps a teacher can educate multiple classrooms in various remote locations. Every student will have their own form of technology, whether it be a laptop, hand held device or simply touch screen desk that allows for online action. 

I attended high school in the late 90’s and had the opportunity to watch videos that predicted the future when it came to technology and many of those predictions came true today. I find myself using more web based sources and videos than the traditional book. As a special’s teacher, I have the privilege of finding my own resources and tools rather than using the traditional book that other classes use. Moving forward into the future, more and more apps and web based programming will continue to shift our educational process. Rather than regular white boards, inventions similar to the student’s desks will make the classrooms filled with interactive ways for students to learn. As an educators, I think the use of web based videos and resources will continue to rise and may shift just how we teach. As discussed in a previous lesson, because of the changing climate of technology we find ourselves in a world of fact checking rather than a simple library book. Imagine a classroom filled with students and an aide or two to help surprise and assist with the learning process but on the screen in front of the room is your teacher or simply waking up and logging on to your laptop while in your pj’s to attend class.

This is where I eventually see education shifting to. Just like many things though, this will bring both positive and negative issues. One issues that most concerns me already is the inability to communicate face to face effectively. I’ve already witnessed firsthand, in class where students had to figure out how to actually play a board game rather than a video game and just how difficult it was for them to understand how to play such a game. Scary but we live in a digital world and changes are happening around us each day.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Check out my reflection on online and blended learning.

I began my online learning and blended learning experiences within the last two years. I received my Master’s degree in Instructional Technology and have gained many experiences through my degrees work along with our online classes at PLS 3rd Learning.  Most of my entire Master’s degree program was done online using an LMS system. As a student, I’ve explored various online tools and am challenged each day how to incorporate them into my classroom. My thesis, itself researched how using a web-based site can be used to help with English language students. 

As a teacher, I’ve begun to take a more blended learning approach with my students. I’ve adapted many of my previous lessons to add a technology component. As discussed above, I’ve begun implementing the use of online web-based tools such as kidshealth.org. This site is a great tool that takes articles about the human body and translates them for EL students to learn and understand. I use this tool as a way to emerge both the English and Spanish language of the human body. I’ve also changed many of the typical articles printed into interactive projects that get my students to learn how to work with one another face to face paired with the use of laptops to research specific topics in class. I’ve begun to adventure more with my students by opening opportunities to create power points, online Glogster posters  and videos. 

I hope to continue building a blended learning environment in my classrooms and hope to assist my students in online learning. Incorporating web-based sites as a research tool, creating videos, watching videos, and creating ways for students to engage in learning with technology will help provide a great and exciting learning environment. 

The biggest challenge with blended and online learning personally is having enough laptops for each student to work on.  I know there are many other concerns such as accountability and proper use but being that my school doesn’t have enough laptops for each student its a struggle to emerge full use of technology equally. In my classroom, I have the pleasure of seeing my students once a week for forty minutes. This is challenging to fully develop a hybrid style of learning using rotations but this is something I hope to adapt and implement in the near future.  The best part of blended learning however is still having the face to face interactions. Although I don’t have much experience with online learning, I feel the lack of face to face experiences takes away from the personal touch. Students must be self-driven in an online class and as a teacher in fourth grade this would be extremely tough to accomplish. With blended learning, it allows a teacher to still engage with each student directly and use both verbal and nonverbal cues to keep students focused and on task.

We don’t stop playing because we got old, we grow old because we stopped playing… George Bernard Shaw