The Big Apple

It feels like just yesterday I was creating this blog to write about my Teach For America experience and here I am writing my last post as a TFA Corps Member in Dallas, Texas. The irony is that I named my first ever blog post “Apples to Apples” because I chose not to accept my job offer in NYC, as I decided to accept my position with Teach For America. I told myself if NYC was important enough to me, I would find a way to get there. Now here I am, moving to NYC in July, the Big Apple.

Yes after being a part of the founding team at KIPP Destiny Elementary for the past two years, I am going to be moving to NYC for the 2015-2016 academic year to teach at Democracy Prep Harlem Elementary. I am immensely excited about the opportunity to continue my teaching experience in my absolute dream city while I finish my Masters from Johns Hopkins University. This summer I am working on my curriculum, Life Skills Literacy, which is a curriculum that infuses social and emotional skills in familiar children’s literacy texts.

This past semester has been busier than I could have ever imagined, filled with celebrations both personally and for my little Kippsters. They say a picture says a thousand words. I have more than just one picture to fill this blog with memories and experiences…so here’s to thousands of words that you don’t even have to read, which some might argue are the best kind.

(Potentially one of my proudest moments as a teacher)

(Picture day at KDE, love the adorable bow ties)

(Field day at KDE!)

(Sneak preview of Life Skills Literacy)

(Our classroom field trip to the Dallas World Aquarium)

(The Kindergarten spring concert)

(Working as teams to decorate our classroom for the end of year party!)

(The Kindergarten Stepping Up Ceremony, so proud of these amazing little ones. They have taught me more than I could ever teach them).

(Saying goodbye to the most amazing teaching experience I could have had. Working with a founding team is such a unique and incredible experience. I still remember looking at the construction and thinking, "I hope the school will be done in time" and now it is a place that inspires young minds. I will never forget the experiences at KIPP Destiny and I cannot wait to see how the school grows and prospers throughout the years).

(Because when in Texas, you have to ride a horse through the Fort Worth stockyards. I am so thankful for the amazing friends that have supported me throughout this journey. This was one of the best surprises ever!)

Adaptive Tech

Why is living in this generation so much better for teachers and students? Adaptive technology! Adaptive technology enables programs to differentiate automatically based on answers from scholars. Our school uses a program called iRead. This program allows student responses and answers to dictate the next move. For example, if a scholar in Kindergarten has mastered their letter sounds then the program will advance them to something further, such as CVC words or rhyme. This technology is amazing because scholars are always being challenged but on a differentiated level. These programs also provide teachers with a great deal of data to look through, which is amazing because it can also be used for differentiation and remediation plans.

At our campus we use these programs within our blended learning model, as they also provide small group lessons to scholars to either differentiate higher or lower to differentiate. We use this to also provide us with a smaller student to teacher ratio when we pull for small group intervention or for guided reading. From the ITSE standards for students, this truly aligns with evaluating and selecting information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. It is also smart to teach your students about adaptive technology and why "everyone gets what they need." Explain to them why the computer screen or tablet screen next to them may look different from their own and why that is okay.

There are so many amazing benefits of having adaptive technology within our classroom and I believe that it truly is going to be the future of every classroom. Please share your experiences with adaptive technology and how it has either been a challenge or a success within your classroom!

BYOD

For my course through Johns Hopkins University, I have been posting about education technology regarding trends and opinions through different articles. In addition I am also implementing the ISTE Standards in my classroom lessons through my knowledge of these new tools and technological advancements. Something that is a hot topic in the education tech field right now is the idea of BYOD. BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device and it is becoming a trend in the education field. It falls under the ISTE Standard, Research and Information Fluency that enables students to apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information.

BYOD is when students are able to bring tablets, computers or phones into the classroom environment to use for research or educational purposes. I believe that teaching scholars about technology and coding gives them an immense advantage especially when we start this in the earlier grades. We all want our students to have the option to go to college or obtain an advanced degree and in this generation, most of these programs require a vast knowledge of technology. I think that there is a lot that we can teach our scholars in order to prepare them for the real world with technology. In addition, it requires a great deal of self-discipline to work with technology and not get distracted (Even I will admit that when writing this post I stopped and checked email, when I knew I should have stayed on topic the whole time). If we can teach our scholars to have this self-discipline and to avoid distractions on the Internet, this will further prepare them to use technology in a way that will grow them academically.

I teach Kindergarten; therefore, it is a bit trickier to implement BYOD, as many of my students do not have devices of their own to bring. Fortunately my school has been given a grant that enables us to have a blended learning model. We have 12 iPad’s, 4 chrome books and 4 laptop computers in my classroom which enables us to differentiate and have more blocks that involve intervention. If I taught a content area with children that were older and had devices to bring in for BYOD, I would definitely implement it. I think that there is immense value in teaching our scholars how to use technology and how to be forward thinking and entrepreneurial. Please share your ways in which you have tried BYOD!

Education Technology: Through the Eyes of Your Students

As I mentioned in my previous post, for one of my Masters classes through Johns Hopkins, I have been asked to post on my blog about technology and its impact on the classroom and about any applications that I have found helpful within my classroom. Recently I read an interesting article through “Hongkiat,” about how technology is transforming education and what we can expect to see in future classrooms, based on technology that is currently in process. Today on the blog, I wanted to share some of these insanely advanced technologies and my opinion of how they will positively impact the education sector.

Hongkiat suggested that virtual field trips will begin to become more popular now that Google Hangout and other similar applications allow us a technology “glass” to see and hear from educators and specialists that are miles away and cannot be accessed easily. Throughout my technology course, I have spoken to several educators that have used Google Hangout for their lessons, projects and even started to adopt the virtual field trip model. While in person field trips are definitely more enriching and engaging for all students, this technology enables us the access to people and places that may not be easily reached for a variety of reasons. It is an option that is now available to us and provides us the opportunity to broaden the perspective of our students.

In addition to virtual field trips, Hongkiat also discussed the educational impact associated with 3D printing. While right now 3D printers are expensive and not commonly used within the classroom, predications are being made that soon they will be used about each day. Imagine the technology to duplicate all those lost manipulatives in your classroom. Imagine the technology to further engage scholars in content through play through 3D objects incorporated into lessons. Even just thinking about it gives me goosebumps at the possibilities!

If you could barely wrap your head around the 3D printing predictions, you will be mind blown by this technology… Biometrics. We all remember those old cartoons where the door would laser shoot the character’s eye in order to open the door…as if the eye was a password. Those cartoons just got a lot older, considering we now have the technology to authenticate our identity through several mediums including eyes, voice and fingerprints. Some schools have already begun to develop systems in their school through fingerprint scanners; however, not many schools have utilized dynamic analysis. It has recently been discovered that the same analysis that tests where and how the eye looks, can now provide data on individual learning styles. Imagine having the data on where and how your students learn through sight. We always said we needed to look at our classrooms through the eyes of our students…well now we literally can.

Works Cited: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/future-classroom-technologies/

Class Dojo

For my one of my Masters classes, I have been asked to share a few technology resources through my blog. I have learned about so many amazing applications and resources throughout this class and recently we have decided to implement one that enables you to manage behavior as well as track the positive and negative redirections within your classroom. It is called "Class Dojo." https://www.classdojo.com/

 

In my classroom we use this application specifically for our centers rotations. The best part about the application is that you can set it up and create your own "rules" for point additions and deductions. In my classroom we currently have it set up so that if a scholar gains a point you can categorize the point for either "working hard" "being nice" or "being safe" as these align to our KIPP values. However I know that other campuses have different rules and language, which is why it is great that Dojo allows you to select how you will categorize the point addition or deduction.

In addition, it has been an engaging way for our classroom to get back to their academic learning time independently. My co-teacher and I can also operate the class Dojo from our iPhones through the mobile application, that way each of us has access and we can redirect behaviors and choices with just the tap of a finger. The board does everything including alerting the scholar and giving them the reason for why they gained or lost their dojo point.

The application is also able to be viewed by parents and influencers at the end of each day. All they will need to do is just log into the class portal and they will be able to see where their scholar was during centers for that specific time of the day. This has enabled our classroom to get back on track in a way that is fun and engaging for scholars. I hope this is something you find helpful for your classroom!

February Fun!

February has been quite the eventful month, starting with saying goodbye to our phenomenal school leader at the beginning of the month. The kids all decorated these amazing banners with a few of her favorite quotes on them to present to her. They also chanted the first chant that our school leader ever taught us, Read Baby Read!

We celebrated our brains being 100 days smarter on the 100^th day of school celebration!

We took our learning off campus with a trip to the Meyerson Symphony Center to go see “Peter and the Wolf!”

Our scholars completed Black History Month Projects about someone that inspires them. We dedicated a day to talking about the importance of Black History Month and some of our scholars took a risk and acted in a play about The Story of Ruby Bridges!

And some of our kinder babies got to see the first snow fall! :)

Going the Extra Yard for teachers!

I am so thankful that my corps experience led me to Dallas, Texas as they have hosted several major sporting events during my time here. How does ESPN relate to teaching? Well…the first National Championship decided to honor teachers and host the first ever Extra Yard Teacher’s Summit, which was quite possibly the best teacher summit I’ve had the privilege to attend. We heard from a Google Education specialist, a student from the first ever KIPP class in Houston, the CEO and founder of DonorsChoose.org and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I left completely inspired by their moving words and am more ready than ever to impact the classroom during my last semester of TFA. Not only did they inspire through words but concluding the event they announced that every teacher in the audience that had a current project on DonorsChoose.org would be completely funded by the organization. It was like Oprah teacher version.