The Story

For my design ILP, I chose to create a class in Class Dojo. I wanted to work on this website because in a classroom that I observe, the teacher uses Dojo every day. It looked like a vital tool, so I wanted to get acquainted with the website and all the features it encompasses. For the purpose of this project, I dabbled with the point system, the group system, and the class "tweets," which I think will really help increase and streamline parent-teacher communication. Overall, this ILP let me get familiar with the tools of Class Dojo, and I am positive that I will use it in my career as a teacher. My VoiceThread Link can be found here . My Class Dojo can be found here ; however, you can only see the class when I am logged in (if you would like to see it, comment your email, and I can add you as a co-teacher!). Here is a screenshot instead! Disclaimer: I am sick, so my voice is really scratchy!

I created a five question survey about the days of the week. It can be found here . This survey is a mix of multiple choice questions and fill in the blank. Thank you for taking the time to fill it out!

The flipped classroom is exactly what it sounds like: a classroom that is completely backwards. In a flipped classroom, the learning is at home. Students get instructional resources where they learn new information. For example, the resources might be an interactive lesson plan, a video from the teacher, or a written lecture. The students do the learning at home, and then they come to school for reinforcement with worksheets, games, and other methods that help to reinforce information and smooth out any misconceptions of the information. Therefore, where a traditional classroom has students learning in school and practicing their skills at home, the students now are flipping that method with learning at home and practicing at school.  Open educational resources are resources that teachers can use, usually found on the internet. With OERs, teachers can take information from other lesson pl...

Diigo has shown me how internet collaboration can be streamlined to be more effective than ever before. With Diigo, I now know how to annotate texts thoroughly and build upon other people's annotations. Also, Diigo has shown me how to share a resource with others that isn't out of the blue; the tags and descriptions show why that text is important, which is vital for effective collaboration. In my classroom, I can see my students using Diigo as part of a group project with one group working together to annotate something and then me, as the teacher, going in and evaluating whether they got the main point and most important details from their work. With my team members, I can easily use Diigo to share resources that I think are relevant, and vice versa, so that we can build upon each other's resources to be the most effective teacher we can be. Finally, In my individual professional efforts, I can use Diigo for professional development by tagging what sources go with whic...

With Twitter, my experiences are getting more and more positive and effective as the semester has moved on. I keep retweeting and commenting on posts from popular education sites, and some of them have actually responded, saying that they are happy someone in school is following what they are saying and how they hope that I continue to follow their tweets. With this interaction, I felt like Twitter was more than just a classroom assignment; I am actually networking with other educators, so I hope that this experience will be effective so much that it will help me with my career later on. Furthermore, using Twitter has taught me how to network in unusual places. I was not expecting to ever get a response from these famous accounts, but by them responding to me, I have learned that networking can happen where we least expect it. I've even gotten into contact with the principal of Hillsborough High School, a school in my c...

For teacher websites, I looked at FSUS, a school that I am currently observing. With the second grade classes, I noticed that they all have an "About the Teacher" tab that is available to everyone. On this site, it includes the teacher's history both in their K12 education and their career. For the teacher I am observing, Mrs. Wilson, she was in the military for a couple of years, and then came back and got her degree at Flagler College. She has been at FSUS for the past seven years. Also, all of the websites had a class schedule. I'm assuming this information is given for parents so that they know where and what their kids are doing during the school day. Finally, in multiple class websites there are tabs for upcoming events such as field trips, book fairs, and there are links for newsletters and curriculum so that teachers can stay up to date with their child's education.  In my future as an...