week 15: google calendar appointment slots

One new skill I’ve learned this year (and practiced earlier today) is how to create appointment slots on google calendar. This is how we’ve organized our virtual parent teacher conferences. This allows families to go to my google calendar appointment page and sign up for an available slot at a time of their choice. I’m guessing the ability to make appointment slots is available for an organization who has additional google features as it is not available on my personal google calendar. In addition to using appointment slots for parent teacher conferences, I also used them to organize my interviews for my capstone project.

Appointment slots are selected when you create an event. You will enter the overall time frame of all the slots and the length of each appointment slot. Once the event is created, you can access the link to your appointment page by clicking on “go to the appointment page for this calendar.” This link can then be shared with others.

One way I think appointment slots could be improved is by allowing a marked off time between appointments. For example, my conferences next week are 5 minutes long with a minute in between. I would prefer if families could only sign up for 5 minute increments and then already have the one minute in between blocked off. As it stands now, I meet with the family 5 minutes early and then have to end the conference technically one minute early to prepare for my next scheduled conference.

week 15: summary of Quality Check your Tech 6 Strategies

One thing I learned from my now retired assistant principal is that all instructional decisions must have a purpose and come from research based strategies. This article discusses how it’s important to critically examine new adaptations of technology and make sure they are meeting the needs of all learners. Even if a tool shows student progress, we need to examine which students are progressing.

One strategy I appreciated is use the tech like a student. And I would add to this, spend time sitting next to a student and watch them use the tech. I find myself making assumptions about kids already knowing how to use technology when they don’t. Many resources you are able to log in as a student. However, this is my district’s first year using Dreambox Learning for math and I wish I could experience more of the student view.

The second strategy I found quite valuable is asking “how is this tool fundamentally changing something about teaching and learning?” (Rupa Chandra Gupta). It’s definitely tempting to use cool flashy tools (especially when they increase student engagement), but I think it’s essential for teachers to be able to explicitly articulate their instructional decision and purpose for using a certain tech tool. We don't have time to waste using tools that don't support instruction. 

week 14: photomath

I’ve heard of the photomath app before, but never knew anything about it until this year. Photomath is a free app that takes a picture of a math problem and then shows a step by step process for solving it. I’ve had a minimum of two students this year use it to cheat on assessments during virtual learning. The latest occuring this past week. What’s intriguing to me is that I noticed them using it because the strategies/method it provided and they wrote down is so much more sophisticated than the methods we’ve learned in class and way above their ability level. I ended up downloading the app myself and tested the problems and wal-la the work my students wrote is exactly what came from the app. This is frustrating to me because my hope and goal is for students to understand material. I feel like I bend over backwards to offer help and support student understanding and I don’t understand why they feel like they need to resort to cheating by using the app. Both students have been confronted. One parent is not happy with ME one bit for accusing her student of cheating. And I haven’t been able to reach the second student’s parents.

week 14: summary of 6 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2021

When I first saw the title of this post, “6 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2021” I was initially turned off by it. I know that it’s always valuable to learn and explore new things and discern how they may be applicable to your teaching practice. However, I also feel overwhelmed this year with juggling virtual school, Bellarmine classes, church commitments, volunteering. I do not want to try anything new because virtual teaching is already so new. I want what is already familiar because it feels safer right now when I have so much going on. I know this isn’t always the most healthy perspective, but that’s how I’ve felt often this year so I wanted to acknowledge that and how it correlates with posts like this one.

That said, I’m still glad I read the post because it describes such neat tools! The top three that caught my eye are described below.

1. Google lens- This app allows the user to point the camera on their phone at an object and the app tells them about the object. It can also be used to translate text between languages. From some quick searching, it doesn’t seem to be functionable with an iphone so that is a bummer. I thought of my 19 year old friend who I tutor. He’s a refugee and a native French speaker. I think the language translation could be handy for him.

2. Mote- This extension allows a teacher to provide verbal feedback on any item within google suites. I don’t think that is applicable for teaching math. But, it made me think about how historically feedback is written. It feels funny to think about giving verbal feedback, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

3. Embracerace- This website is a curated collection of resources that help kids learn and talk about race. Growing up in a 95+% white community,I didn’t see the importance or value of learning/talking about race until I was probably 20. Now, I’m trying to learn everything I can and have thought about down the road how to parent my kids in a way where conversations about race are the norm. There’s a need for this resource.

week 13: digital footprint and reflecting on teaching

My district is virtual the entire year. It’s interesting to think about how there is a record of me and my teaching from September through the video recordings in my google drive and assignments in google classroom. One thing I know is so beneficial is watching recordings of my teaching. Honestly, I think I’ve only done that once this year when it corresponded with my observation. But, I know reflection can be transformative in learning and growth and it’s so easy to reflect right now via video while everything is virtual. I think there are elements of teaching that finally come more naturally to me and I don’t realize I’m doing them (changing the cadence/volume of my voice, giving good directions, setting time constraints). But, I think when one steps back and watches themselves outside of the moment it’s easier to more objectively evaluate your own teaching.

I am a Court Appointed Special Advocate for two kids in foster care and this has been another way I’ve experienced this year how what I do or say is recorded. When I attend court via zoom, the court hearing is recorded and kept on court records. Also, it is streamed live on youtube during the hearing. Any facial expressions I have or words I choose to say when testifying are kept in their records and I don’t know who is watching on the other side of youtube. This isn’t good or bad, it’s just made me conscious of the presence I have during the court hearings.

week 13: summary of A Four Part System for Getting to Know Your Students

Often, the most effective relationship building happens organically, but I like the idea of having a concrete plan for relationship building with students. I know I am intentional about relationship building at the start of the year, but I could improve on maintaining and intentional relationship building throughout the year. Especially with virtual learning, I’ve found the group of students that I feel like I don’t know as much about is larger.

The four parts in the system are: break the ice, take inventory, store your data and do regular checkups. What I think would be most beneficial to strengthen for my teaching practice is storing my data and referring back to it. I learned this year how to bookmark websites or google documents (I know I’m a little late in the game) so the excuse of “well that file is buried in multiple folders and I don’t want to go pull it up” doesn’t fly any more. I liked the example in the article that if there is a math story problem about cooking, quickly pull up the inventory sheet and see which kids like cooking so you can reference them by name. I currently have a good system for recording my parent contact for each hour. I wonder if I could incorporate interest/inventory questions into the current document I already use.

week 12: Mining ideas from Instagram

I’m on spring break this week and have been thinking about how I can’t even get away from technology during a week of break from school. I have my Bellarmine work, some long term data I need to compile for school, communicating with my CASA director about my two cases, and catching up on podcasts are the first things that come to mind. Especially with teaching virtually the entire year, I sometimes feel like I spend the entire day on a screen. I’m kind of sick of it. I’d like to go to a cabin in the woods, go for a nice long hike, read some books, work on craft projects.

Anyways, I was thinking about something I used to do in August before school started when I had more time. I would go on instagram and search different hashtags relevant to my world of 7th grade math like #iteachmath, #iteachmiddleschool, or #tlap (Teach Like a Pirate) to get ideas for my classroom. It’s so fun to see ways other educators have practically implemented cool ideas to fit their classrooms. As you search a hashtag, you do have to scroll through posts that don’t seem as relevant. And it’s obviously a broad way to add ideas to your toolbox, you can’t as easily search “activities for area of circles” through a hashtag. It’s nice to utilize hashtags as a way to get connected to people in certain communities of interest.