Objective: Teachers will learn how to access student portfolios and assess their learning. Teachers will encourage communication and involvement with family members. This session was supposed to be held after school however, one person was not able to make it because she needed to leave at 4:30. We also had grade level planning all day. Once we finished planning at around 2:30, someone asked me if I could have my last session now since everyone was already here. At first I was hesitant but I am glad that we decided to do it then. We were in the conference room along with the school STAT teacher and the reading specialist. They were eager to join in on the session, so I sent them a link to the Hyperdoc. The STAT teacher and Reading Specialist were starting over from scratch but they were able to use the directions that I had on the Hyperdoc to figure it out. The reading specialist was excited because she is interested in using it with her small groups that she pulls out of the classroom. The STAT teacher was curious about the website because she has a son who is now in third grade. At the end of the session I had the teachers complete a google forms survey which allowed me to see what they already know and what they still do not understand. After the last session, two out of the four teachers still want me to teach them more about Seesaw. Another teacher is interested in my teaching her about other presentation tools besides PowerPoint. I have sent her an email about using Genially. Her husband is a pastor and would like to try something new to present off of at church. I look forward to continuing to work with coworkers, while learning about new technology tools.
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Objective: Teachers will encourage collaboration between the students and their peers. Teachers will learn how to set up a student's online portfolio. This session was held online using zoom. This meeting was held after school at 5:00 p.m. Three people were able to join zoom from their laptops and one person had to join from her phone because she had to take her children to dance class. At the beginning of the zoom meeting, I asked everyone to share their activity that they created on Seesaw. It was very interesting because out of the four people, only one teacher felt comfortable using the voice instructions on top of the words. It was nice to see how creative everyone was with creating their own activity that went with a current unit. One issue that was noted was how hard it is to use someones template of a chart and take the title of the story off of it. Every time we would copy and paste it into word. We were able to crop it and save it. However, when we pasted it onto the assignment, the title kept showing up. Almost everyone was against using the zoom session for us to collaborate but it turned out to be a success. Everyone figured out how to share their screens and if they needed help it was easier for me to see what exactly they were having difficulties with.
Objective: Teachers will learn how to customize learning by creating assignments that align to the curriculum. Teachers will learn how to access Zoom to participate in online meeting sessions. I started off the session by getting one person caught up with adding a few more students to her class. Then, another teacher asked me how to change the icon character that is next to the students name. Session two took place in my classroom after school at 4:30p.m. Today, I was teaching the teachers how to browse the Activity Library and demonstrating how to also choose an activity that is already made and share it with your students. I used the projector to project my screen and allow them to watch me as I demonstrated how to share the activity with their students. I also showed the teachers how they can like an activity, therefore if they do not want to share it at the moment, they will be able to easily get to it.
Welcome to room 204!
Objective: Teachers will develop an understanding of Seesaw and how it can be used in the classroom. Teachers will add a class and share an assignment with their children. I was so excited about holding my first session. Even though I initially wanted to involve the entire school, I was now feeling happy that I didn't. It would have been even more of a hassle with having to figure out everyones schedule. I brought a mixture of healthy and unhealthy snacks and my coworkers were so happy that I brought food for them to snack on. This was my first time creating a Hyperdoc on google slides. I made sure to send out the Hyperdoc earlier that day so that they could have it up and ready after school. The first session was held in my classroom at 4:30p.m. This was right after dismissal time and I planned for it to last only 30 minutes. Those 30 minutes went by really quick. I started off with an introduction to seesaw. I used my Seesaw Leadership Presentation to guide instruction. When it was time for the teachers to start typing into the Hyperdoc, it would not allow them to because I sent the no edit link. I had to go into the Hyperdoc and chance the sharing to edit. I have to say that it is very different to teach adults and keep them focused opposed to teaching 3rd graders. Even once we were 5 minutes into the session, I already could not get them to stay on task and talk about the technology tool. These were times when I would say a call and response, but I felt silly doing it for adults. In session one I was able to teach the other 3rd grade teachers about the benefits of using Seesaw and learn how to create a free account. On October 11th I finally got my Approval letter signed by the new principal and I was eager to get started with my internship. However, I could only teach the other teachers who were on my grade level. Last year there were six 3rd grade teachers, however, this year there is only five and that includes me. I did not know how to feel about only teaching four other teachers about this technology tool but, I knew that this was out of my control. This was the first email that I sent to the new principal, which happened to be our previous assistant principal. We planned to meet after school on Thursday, September 27th at 4:30. I felt very excited and anxious at the same time. I had been waiting over a month to have this meeting and the Approval letter deadline was approaching very soon. I stayed up late the night before practicing my proposal with my sister. After my dismissal duty, I quickly rushed back to my room to get my laptop, then I went straight downstairs and headed to the office. Once I got into the office I could sense an urge of panic. The secretaries were gone and the teachers were running the office. Apparently a student was just hit by a car while crossing the street and the administrators were very busy. I waited over an hour in the office until everything died down. When the principal came in she looked at me and asked "Did we have a post observation today? Is that why you are here?" I said "no, I am here to talk to you about my internship proposal." She said "Oh no! lets schedule for another day. But while you are here, can you just tell me a little bit about it?" She did not like the idea of me teaching teachers about a tool that required them to use it with the students because it sounded like an action research. Baltimore County requires you to get an action researched approved first due to the new policy. So, I left the office without giving the proposal that I practiced so long and hard for and without my Approval letter signed.
Over the summer I spoke to the principal about my internship and she was very excited to see me play a leading role in the school. That same day, she asked me to be the school technology liaison. I told her that I would think about it and later on that day I gave her an answer. I could not help but wonder "Could I handle taking a grad class and completing my internship while being the new technology liaison?" Despite my doubts, I decided to finish putting together my proposal. When the school year started, it was time for me to get my proposal signed by the principal. I just knew that it would be a breeze, but it was the exact opposite. My principal was no where to be found. She had recently been promoted. Which meant that we were on the hunt for a new principal. I was happy to see her move up in her career but I could not help but think "what does that mean for me and my internship?" "Who am I going to get to sign this paper?" "Will the new principal even allow me to do it?" As, I could not stop thinking these negative thoughts, I kept telling myself to that everything would work itself out.
During the spring of 2018, I sent out an email to my coworkers to see who would be interested in participating in my internship. I attached a google form link to the email in order to collect data. The email that I sent is located below. The teachers on my grade level were interested and excited to learn about a new technology tool.
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Charmaine FutchI am a third grade teacher and technology liaison in Baltimore County. I am currently enrolled in the Educational Technology graduate program at Loyola University of Maryland. Archives
November 2018
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