Digital Resources

   As mentioned earlier this week, I have ventured out into allowing my students to create their own websites. Students are allowed to create any type of website, so long as it is school appropriate. This is a huge leap for some of us to take. Giving up control of what our students create can very scary for teachers who have been drilled into writing step by step detailed lesson plans which account for every minute of classroom time. They are then submitted to an administrator as proof you are teaching the right standards in the right way. I have strong opinions about this practice. Lesson plans are not for administrators! They are for you. (I happened to use a digital lesson plan called Planbook. It is easy to use and relatively inexpensive for the ease of use and features.) Just as lesson plans are not for administrators, actual lessons are not for you, they are for students!

    So this leads into what should come first when it comes to integrating digital resources in our classroom? Learning! Digital resources should first focus on how it helps children learn. Does it hinder their understanding of the topic or does in enhance it. I tried many different digital lesson planning platforms before and after Planbook, but I always came back to Planbook because it is so darn easy to use!

   But the key is that I continue to look for something better. That is how we should view teaching and technology. Use what works, but always be on the lookout for new digital resources to enhance student engagement and learning. A new digital resource I want to try next school year is Sutori, www.sutori.com, which allows students to create digital timelines. I have to give a shout-out to my sister-in-law, Kathy Hayman, who is an awesome teacher-leader in Texas. She forwarded me the link in an email earlier this year. I didn't have a chance to incorporate it into my lessons this year, but I will with my high schoolers next year.

One digital resource I have used for several years is quizlet.com, however, now they have Quizlet Live which is a great tool to use. My students BEG me to play this. The great thing is they are learning and communicating with one another while they are using it. It is web based and does require a small yearly subscription. Here is a video of how it works. (Not my actual class.)

  Together with the local Kiamichi Technology Center Director, we created an online program that while help teachers earn a certificate as an educational technology specialist. The course is over four hundred hours long. Teachers will be able to take as many of the modules as they like or complete them all for a nice resume enhancer. The great news is that teachers within the local Promise Zone consortium will be able to take it for free! Other teachers will have at steeply discounted rates if they complete the entire program.

   So now the question is, how can I stay current on the latest technological trends? It's like I tell my students, you have a hand-held computer at you finger tips. Look it up! Network with other tech-savvy teachers. Don't be afraid to try something new. If it doesn't work, ditch it and move on to something that does. I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I can also use technology to enhance things I already use in the classroom. Attached is a video of how I combined using an interactive notebook and an iPad. Students were able to research any topic they liked and then used the interactive notebook as a guide to write a paragraph citing evidence from a digital source.