KKUATeach

So, we’ve been asked to reflect on what to consider before implementing new tools into the classroom. One of the first things to consider (that actually fits into the TPACK model) is “Does this new technology add value to the learning process?”   Being an early adopter may be a good thing, but if you’re adopting just for the “cool” factor you may be diverting resources and wasting the students’ precious attention. Any tech you select should also be robust, supported and adopted. Imagine how frustrating it would be to have spent time integrating Google Glass into your lesson plan. Other considerations would be initial implementation costs, ongoing licensing and maintenance costs, privacy concerns, copyright issues and all the other things we’ve discussed earlier in the semester. So, with all these concerns, how do you select the right tech for your classroom. I guess the first thing is to start within the framework of the tech available to you in the district. Whether that will ...

I’ve just finished the first week on the field with the kids. It was quite the learning experience. One of the first things to figure out was how I was going to interact with Mike, the Head Coach.   Like I mentioned in my first post, I had plenty of interaction with Mike last year when he coached and I worked the scorer table. But that is completely different than coaching. Much of this week was spent with me figuring out what he wanted me to do and figuring out what is was OK for me to say to the kids. Like I mentioned last time, I spent my prep week documenting ways to teach a few rides and clears. Along with these, I found some help online to develop practice plans that brought these together in a series of drills that built upon each other. We did a couple of them the first few days and Mike asked me to introduce the drills and run them. My coach voice returned very quickly, and I found myself in the middle directing two groups of 20 kids each running the drills at...

Today I’m reviewing a photo editing tool, fotor, for my Cool Tool review. Unfortunately, this is the easiest review I’ve done. Right after we signed up for Cool Tools to review, I had a need for a photo editor. Thinking I’d be efficient, I figured I would try fotor out for my needs and for my review. To use the app on my laptop, I needed to download it. That’s when the trouble started. In addition to the photo editing app, I got a browser and a security app – neither which I knew was coming or agreed to. As far as I’m concerned, that’s dirty pool. The first thing I did when I noticed these extra apps was to uninstall fotor. After I did that, the app asked for feedback as to why I was giving it the boot.   I filled out the form and told them it was because I found these other programs and if it wasn’t because of them, they should let me know and I’d try again.   That was about 6 weeks ago. I haven’t heard yet so I’m going on the assumption that the extra programs on my devi...

This post will be about the different productivity tools I think I’ll be using in my classroom. The first will be some sort of desktop/laptop. With those tools, I can see myself using several applications and systems. Calendar – I currently use Google Calendar for keeping family activities straight, and I can see me creating a new calendar just for my classes. That will give me a way to keep track of events from major (testing, vacations etc.) to due dates of assignments. If I am in a school with Google Classroom, I can also share the calendar with my students so they can see important things. I would also consider an organization app like Wunderlist . Email – I can see that as being an important way of interacting with administration and parents. Google – In this class and others in the program, I’ve learned that there is a huge number of things out there to help teachers. From lesson plans to work sheets to class room activities, I plan to honor my previous career...

So, at the end of my last post, I had all my mandatory coaching training done, now I just have to wait until the paperwork gets through the school district and the state for my permit comes through. I have to wait until that is all done before contact with the team, so for now I’m focusing honing what I know about the mechanics and adding new drills and game play strategies to my toolbox. My first go-to for this is the US Lacrosse Coaches Education Program. As I already mentioned before, the Level 1 certification I hold focused on the basic techniques – how to teach a kid to pass, catch, shoot and pick up a ground ball. If you’ve ever watched a youth or developmental middle school game, you see how important it is to focus on the fundamentals of these particular tasks. The level 1 courses also gave me important lessons on how to teach the proper way for kids to hit – making sure we are playing a safe and controlled, yet physical, game of lacrosse without reverting to ...

This week, I’m reviewing a presentation Cool Tool called Slidestory. From their website, Slidestory is a way to create and share presentations .   At first, I thought this would be similar to Google Slides or Powerpoint, but it’s a bit different. What the product does it allow you to record your own narration over top of a series of picture files of your choice. Think being able to record a stereotypical “our vacation photos from an old-style carrousel slide projector” event. As I went to check this product out, three things jumped out at me. The first, the web site shows it’s a beta version. Beta software puts me on guard to start, so immediately I’m skeptical. In order to use it, you also need to create a free account. Now I’ve created accounts with several applications, but the Beta nature had me hesitate a bit more. Then, I noticed at the bottom of the page that you had to download a client application onto your own devices.   Now alarms are officially going off ...

Starting with the generic, Dr. Thornburg’s article on his theory of learning spaces made sense to me. .   While pondering (in my cave) about the video we watched in class , I started to realize the connection of the cave and the watering hole (our blogs in this case) are really helping my understanding of the material we all learning in this program. But there was something about the model, as presented in the video, that was bugging me. The first was how my mind looked at the three spaces and immediately thought of sequential steps, based on how the material was presented. Eventually I got through this by realizing the cave/watering hole stages intermix. The other problem I had went deeper. It seemed something was missing. As it turns out, so does Dr. Thornburg.  In the presented article, Dr. Thornburg adds the Lifespace to the initial model to deepen the understanding by doing. That brought it all together for me. Just in this program, we are exposed to the Life stage ...