Digital Writing Reflection

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Congrats!  You are ready to begin your final post for the semester!   Writing and commenting routinely is a habit.  It can be tough to cultivate such habits. For your final post, reflect upon your experience as a blogger, a commenter and an accountability partner.  I challenge you to think about your journey.  It was a courageous act to go public by sharing your writing weekly.  It was a caring act to read and respond to someone each week.  Some of you are reading this post and might feel that you didn’t quite complete the task.  If you are feeling that way, check out my friend’s post on Learning from Failure before you begin to reflect.

No matter your quantity,  think about your journey. and consider these questions as you write your final post:

  • What did you learn about yourself as a writer?
  • What did you learn about digital writing or being a member of a digital writing community?
  • What lessons can you take to your classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction?
  • Challenges/Successes?

Be sure to fill out this Form to tell me about the grade you deserve and why.

Also respond to two others and then consider your work done for this class!

Remember, however, that in our journey as teachers our learning is never done! I am so proud of your digital work!

Keep reading & writing!

What I’ve Read

Spring into Writing

Spring Into Writing An Original Illustration by Daryl Fefee

In teaching we are always works-in-progress.  Once we leave college we continue to grown in a variety of ways.  Most days your classroom and your students are your best instructors.  Professional development, perhaps sometimes foisted upon you, will be also be a part of that.  You do need to widen your net, which is where your self-selected learning where you make choices will be what will ignite and sustain your work.  Your most powerful asset will be to foster your PLN or Personal/Professional Learning Network- a network of teachers virtually and face-to-face to help you refine your practice.   As part of developing that, our post is about our lit circle reading.

The format here is yours- you can use respond in your words or use a digital tools to present what your readers/PLN need to know.  Here are some samples from previous students.  For examples, check out Jan’s, Jacky’s, Ketsia’s, Bethany’s, Emily’s,  Cindy’s, or  Ashley’s.When I read about what I read, I share memorable lines, strategies to try, resources to check out and questions I still have.

Remember to keep the learning going, choose to comment on someone’s book blog whose title was different than yours.  (Post your title in our comments so we can easily make the choice.)

Wordless or Open Post

For this post go ahead and do an open post or a wordless post.  A wordless post are just pictures. For my blog, I write a wordless Wednesday posts because I am working too long to get good writing done.  Wordless Wednesdays started out of this idea that a picture tells more than a thousand words.  Tell your story with a picture or feel free to write.

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The Wishing Tree at the Dali

 

Tech Creation!

It’s time to create something digitally. I explored Haikudeck because I wanted to learn how to embed a moving picture show in my blog.  I did both. It took more time that I wanted to spend.  I ended up with a dead-end with one tool, Photosnack.   I then tried Haikudeck and  made something. I am disappointed though and won’t use it again as it they now levys a charge for educators.  I made my one free deck, but  I won’t use it again. I have to keep working to find what I want, a tool that fits my budget and my idea of what I want it to be able to do.
https://www.haikudeck.com/e/p91rd5IHAl/?isUrlHashEnabled=false&isPreviewEnabled=false&isHeaderVisible=false

U-Pick Central Florida – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Create something digitally that you can use.  Share it with us via your blog.  Try something that you wouldn’t normally do. For this challenge, I have made infographics. a Powtoon (another former free tool for teachers), a fancy poster, and memes. Students have made word clouds using Tagxedo, Kahoots for their classes. Engage tech creators vs. consumers.  I can’t wait to see your creations. I am now going to check out SmileBox.

Tech Post

When I think about tech tools, I try to integrate the tools that will grow writers to not only write, but also motivate and allow them access to a greater audience.  I am trying to cultivate creators not just consumers. I have pulled together tools and sites so you can  explore tools to use with your current & future students.

There are six questions to consider:

  1. Consider the terms in the Wordle below and these questions:   How do you live your tech life–personally? academically?  How does that compare to your students or your former teachers?

wordle

 

2. Tech Tools to Enhance Student Learning:   Follow the links below and some of the tools that I have used with my students- just a small sample. Think about how you might use each one to reach out to students, parents, or the community.  Choose one and write about it.

3. Authentic Tasks for Students:  Here are a list of a few tools that you can use with students to write virtually.  Why is this important?  What are the benefits? The risks?  Write about your favorite discoveries. 

  • Publishing

4. What Lies Ahead?  Check out what is going on in the teacher-tech world.  Review Jane Hart’s Top 200 Tool’s for Learning and see what teachers are using around the world.  I like to click on the tool’s that are “new” to the list.  What you notice about the tools that educators are using around the world. 

5. The Thinking Matters aka Choose Your Tools Wisely:  Review this digital tool version of Bloom’s Taxonomy below.  Based on what you have done today and what you understand about Bloom’s Taxonomy, explain what teachers need to consider as they integrate technology?

blooms252btaxonomy252band252btechnology

 

6.  Based on your exploration, what do you want to try next? I only try to get good at one tool at a time. Currently I have been working on HaikuDeck and my next is FlipGrid.

Post #3: Open

Hopefully you found that the open post last week wasn’t too stressful as we have another!  Again they are my favorite to read!  One thing you might consider is to ask a question of your reader at the end of your post in order to get specific feedback or get their general input. I have included one of my favorite ed-spiration images by one of my favorite educators, Sylvia Duckworth.  Her sketchnote below describes some of the reasons I like to let student do open posts. The process of  Sketchnoting is one of the strategies I am learning in order to stretch myself and eventually my students.  I am not an artist believe me!  My fixed mindset about my skills as an artist are holding me back from the process.

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What are your creative outlets?

Open Post

What do you write when you have unlimited options?  Do you even have to write? I am sure these are the questions running through your head.  I found that open posts are my favorite to read.  My students never fail to surprise me and I find that I am able to learn more about them that the classroom suppresses.  Are you a poet? An Artist? A Fashionista? A cook? A Photographer? A Musician?  Open posts are your opportunities to showcase your passion and your hidden talents!  I like to use listicles in my posts. Below are my top five things to do in central Florida this spring.

  1. Pick strawberries at Pappy’s in Oviedo.  It is $3.00 a pound, but they are better than any you will buy.
  2.  Spring hop!  Head out after school on a sunny afternoon or during your spring break.  My favorite that is close by is Rock Springs @ Kelly Park.    If you don’t get here IMG_0406 (1).JPGearly on the weekend, you are shut out.  If you are in for a day trip, Rainbow Springs.
  3. Kayak or cruise around the historic chain of lakes in Winter Park.
  4. Read Before His Time by Ben Green or Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan McCarthy and then visit the Harry T. Moore Center.
  5. Pancakes at DeLeon Springs.  Not my favorite spring, but a college-budget friendly all-you-can-make-&-eat pancake place aka the Sugar Mill Restaurant. Honestly I don’t eat pancakes, but it is well worth the visit for those of you who do. Spring is the best time as there is no AC.  (Gluten-free and vegan options available too)  You can swim while you wait.

I look forward to reading your open posts!  What is on your spring to-do list aside from school and work?

 

Spring into Writing

Welcome to our springBethPHone12_23_15 321 blogging assignment!

My blogging journey began on March 2011 when I created my blog site.  I didn’t, however, write on it for a year.   A year later, March 2012, a friend challenged me to  join the Slice of Life Daily Writing Challenge After completing 31 days straight of blogging and commenting on three other bloggers, I decided that I need incorporate blogging into my instruction.  I collaborated with my critical teaching friend and a dean to create a two week blogging challenge for our ninth graders.   I then expanded the practice to my graduate students and then to my undergraduate students, which explains why you are reading this now.   The good new is that you aren’t the first group of students to step up to this challenge.  I do, however, acknowledge that each community of writers who participates in the challenge is unique and helps me understand the process even more.

Your challenge this spring is to create and maintain a blog and participate in our digital writing community.  Our work is to uncover the power of digital writing, and a virtual writing community as well as figure out how this could work with your future students.    Your challenge is to set aside the time to write. Your challenge will be letting go of finding the perfect words and crafting the perfectly composed piece.  Your challenge will committing to responding to others.

For your 1st post, craft a brief introduction.  You can use images or video to introduce yourself.  Check out these former students’ intro posts to garner inspiration.

So this week, create your blog, write your introduction, and link up!

If you don’t know where to start, check out these posts by former students:

Audra or Alex or Cindy or Brian or Catherine or Embree or Daniel or Ally

Final Reflection

 

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If you are reading this, you survived this semester!  Cheers!  Sometimes the work is can be so overwhelming that we must stop and celebrate the small wins.   Your final blogging task is reflect upon your experience as a writer, a responder, and an accountability partner.  Some of you are reading this post and feeling that you didn’t quite complete the task.  If you are feeling that way, check out my friend’s post on Learning from Failure before you begin to reflect.

No matter your quantity, you need to think about your journey. It was a act of bravery to put your words on the digital page.  It was a risk to participate in this community.

Consider these questions as you write your final post:

  • What did you learn about yourself as a writer?
  • What did you learn about digital writing or being a member of a digital writing community?
  • What lessons can you take to your classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction?
  • Challenges?
  • Successes?

Be sure to fill out this Form to tell me about the grade you deserve and why.

Also respond to two others and then consider your work done for this class!

Remember, however, that in our journey as teachers our learning is never done! I am so proud of your digital work!

Keep reading & writing!

 

Book Reflection

teaching-argumentsWe may have not discussed your book as much as you liked, but unless you join a professional book club or work with a community of people who read professionally, you may be working through the thinking about your reading alone often.  I did hear powerful conversations during our quotation mingle. For our second-to- last post, I am wondering about what you learned from reading your second book?

Not everyone in the room chose the same book and not everyone in your professional life will be reading (sad, but true, and for many real reasons).  9780325026749For your book post, share what nonreaders of this text missed.  Tell your colleagues and peers what they  need to know in order to improve their instructional practice.  Learning about teaching never stops.  Convey the big ideas, memorable quotes, teaching strategies,  AHAs, or even questions.  You can present your learning from the book in many different mediums through writing or with any of the tech tools that we have tried out. What do we need to know?

51m7yj4tn5l-_sx258_bo1204203200_For this post, try to comment on  2 posts from people who read the books you did not!

For examples, check out Jan’s, Jacky’s, Ketsia’s, Reina’s, Bethany’s  Emily’s post or or Cindy’s.  Here is another to check out, Elizabeth’s. and this one.

I look forward to reading about what you learned!