This was my first experience using Prezi and for this initial presentation I designed a roadmap of my educational journey. I could imagine using this as a supplement to my CV and cover letter during a job interview process if I'm asked to provide materials that would help differentiate me as a candidate. I would also like to use it on the first day of class to introduce myself to my new students. I'm currently earning a license to teach English/Language Arts to grades 7-12 but imagined this Prezi as more suited to upper high school. Were I to teach middle school I would shorten it and add more pictures.
As for my experience using Prezi, it was a mix of fun and frustrating. The layouts are gorgeous, high-quality images and I appreciate the non-linear format for progressing through a presentation. I chose the free "Classic" version and noted there are still many options for adding creativity to the presentation.
On the other hand, I learned two frustrating factors for classroom consideration. First, Chromebooks and Prezi don't always play well together. I could *not* rotate images no matter how much I willed it to work. There was much Googling and fist-shaking as I tried to solve this conundrum. In the end, I was only able to use images that appeared right-side up from the moment I embedded them. This led me to use fewer images than I would have liked. I could imagine students being frustrated with this, especially as Chromebooks are common in schools.
Second, the movement between topic areas makes me dizzy. Does anyone else have this problem? When students would use Prezi in my classroom I would sometimes have to close my eyes during the transitions. Not good for grading a student's presentation!
Overall, my critiques don't take away from the enjoyable experience of designing something completely different for classroom presentations. Prezi offers a unique platform that's polished and (mostly) user-friendly. I enjoyed this adventure. Next time, I'll remember my dramamine.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Monday, January 21, 2019
Three Teaching Blogs I Like
While I am VERY NEW to K-12 teaching and learning, I've discovered a few blogs that are getting me up to speed on the transition from college-level teaching to middle and high school language arts. Here are three blogs I like in no particular order.
1. Language Arts Classroom
Lauralee Moss founded this blog as a means to provide practical tools for ELA teachers. What I've enjoyed is the blog site's organization by category: ELA, Classroom, and Education. The "ELA" category posts a range of resources from classroom tech, to various literary skills, to standardized testing. Each post is usually titled "How to..." or "Ways to use..." and, just like it promises, the content walks users through the steps to implement these tools in the classroom. The "Classroom" section is full of ways to design your classroom space, management & procedure options, and building a community in the classroom. Finally, "Education" has posts about the profession, from reviews of the latest books to handling angry parents. Overall, this blog is helping me build a toolkit of practical teaching resources to use when I begin to teach.
2. Class Tech Tips
Monica Burns is my new shero. While she's a tech geek extraordinaire, her mission is to foster a learning environment that prioritizes "tasks before apps" (also the title of her book). The goal is to use technology as a tool to enhance and deepen learning. While this blog covers the spectrum of K-12, the tech is easily adaptable to a teacher's learning goals and subject area.
3. Mindful Schools
This site is maintained by a collective of educators committed to "education, social justice, and mindfulness." While this is another generalist site that spans K-12, I find the resources are highly applicable to my age group of adolescents. After all, research shows that when adolescents receive training in personal skills such as self-awareness, mood regulation, stress-reduction, and empathy that these skill-sets translate into deeper learning. I'm invested in teaching the whole student, and with almost 50% of our public school kids scoring at least a 1 on the ACE test of childhood trauma, it's important to remember that what our students experience outside of school impacts their ability to learn in the classroom.
1. Language Arts Classroom
Lauralee Moss founded this blog as a means to provide practical tools for ELA teachers. What I've enjoyed is the blog site's organization by category: ELA, Classroom, and Education. The "ELA" category posts a range of resources from classroom tech, to various literary skills, to standardized testing. Each post is usually titled "How to..." or "Ways to use..." and, just like it promises, the content walks users through the steps to implement these tools in the classroom. The "Classroom" section is full of ways to design your classroom space, management & procedure options, and building a community in the classroom. Finally, "Education" has posts about the profession, from reviews of the latest books to handling angry parents. Overall, this blog is helping me build a toolkit of practical teaching resources to use when I begin to teach.
2. Class Tech Tips
Monica Burns is my new shero. While she's a tech geek extraordinaire, her mission is to foster a learning environment that prioritizes "tasks before apps" (also the title of her book). The goal is to use technology as a tool to enhance and deepen learning. While this blog covers the spectrum of K-12, the tech is easily adaptable to a teacher's learning goals and subject area.
3. Mindful Schools
This site is maintained by a collective of educators committed to "education, social justice, and mindfulness." While this is another generalist site that spans K-12, I find the resources are highly applicable to my age group of adolescents. After all, research shows that when adolescents receive training in personal skills such as self-awareness, mood regulation, stress-reduction, and empathy that these skill-sets translate into deeper learning. I'm invested in teaching the whole student, and with almost 50% of our public school kids scoring at least a 1 on the ACE test of childhood trauma, it's important to remember that what our students experience outside of school impacts their ability to learn in the classroom.
Welcome to my teaching blog!
Greetings! I'm currently obtaining my Adolescent & Young Adult Language Arts-focused teaching license from Otterbein University, paired with a sprinkling of classes from Columbus State Community College.
Before returning to school for my teaching license, I worked at Denison University for 12 years, dividing my time between teaching and administrative work. In terms of teaching, I primarily taught First-Year Writing seminars on various topics, but my favorite class was on fairy tales and popular culture. I also taught gender studies and queer studies classes, and learned a great deal about multicultural education, teaching difficult subject matter, and the transformational power of sustained dialogue.
In my administrative capacity, I was the Assistant Director of the Writing Center for two years and specialized in tutoring English Language Learners. Before that, I helped establish and coordinate Denison's interdisciplinary campus theme for eight years. I originally came to Denison from Thurber House, where I learned about program management by coordinating their writer series.
All this is to say my experience has taught me that I love collaborative teaching, diverse ideas and people, and experiential learning. I also care about making students college or career ready, and believe my background in transitioning students to college-level writing can be reverse engineered to prepare younger students for this transition.
This is my first blog, and I look forward to this new adventure in cyberspace!
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