Tag: ISTE

Posted in CCCWrite, Reflective Writing Club

Reflective Writing Club: Conferencing

Posted on by Mrs. Ruiz

So much for keeping up with new blogging prompts! I blame rewriting my dissertation prospectus and preparing myself for an effective job hunt as I work toward the next phase of my career. I really liked the premise of Michelle Pacansky-Brock’s Reflective Writing Club, so I am going to carry on anyway, even though the last prompt in her 6 week cycle was due on March 2nd.

Reflective Writing Club Prompt 2:

  • Discuss the role that attending conferences plays in your professional learning.
  • Reflect on one valuable conference experience you had and discuss why you found it valuable.
  • Let us know what happens once your conference experience is over.
  • Do you share what you’ve learned and, if so, how and with whom?

I love conferences. I would go to much more of them if I could afford to pay for them all. I am sure there are some educators and administrators out there whose employers pay for them to go to conferences, but that has not been the case for me. I think conferences are very valuable learning & professional development experiences that more educators and administrators should be able to go to.

My go-to conference of late has been ISTE . I am SUPER techie and love seeing all the different ways you can implement technology into education. I enjoy keeping myself in “the know” with what is going on with educational technology and the various ways innovators are using it to enhance academic experiences and outcomes for students.

Once the conference is over I internalize the information and move on. I recognize this is not the ideal way to process what has occurred. Ideally, I would love to put what I have learned together in a way to be of use to my colleagues. The trouble I have encountered is that is typically not the practice in my current work environment. That has everything to do with organizational culture which is a whole other topic.  So rather than focus on that, I will make a departure into my own little world where educators get sent to conferences and return to their school sites and present what they have learned. In that alternate universe, I would have viewed ISTE through a site-specific or district-specific lens. I would target things that I knew my school/district needed, or the reasons they sent me in the first place. I would have absorbed everything about those relevant topics that I could have, networked with the right people, and synthesized information. Upon returning to my site/district I would put that information together in a way that was easy to digest. Being a lover of tech, I would more than likely have created a Sway that highlighted all the most relevant information and included links to supporting information. That Sway would be publically available to anyone who had an interest in what I had to share.

Do you get to go to many conferences? If you do go to conferences, how do you share what you have learned with others? Let me know in the comments below! 🙂

Posted in Edublogs

Digital Citizenship

Posted on by Mrs. Ruiz

digital citizenshipEduBlogsClub Prompt #28:

Prompt: Write a post about digital citizenship

  1. How do you teach students about being good digital citizens and appropriate behavior on the web?
  2. Have you had any specific experiences related to students, behavior, and the web?
  3. How do you think that digital citizenship is related to in person citizenship?
  4. What would you add to the list of digital citizenship elements and why?
  5. How have positive and/or negative experiences online influenced your digital citizenship values?

Digital citizenship has always been important to me as an educator. I recall very clearly the last year I was in the classroom (2015), that I promised myself I would make digital citizenship a priority despite the lack of significant technology in my classroom. My students deserved it. They needed online skills. What I mean by lack of significant technology is that my classroom of 30ish 4th graders had 4 desktop computers and we had computer lab time for only a fraction of the school year when state testing or district testing was not occurring.

Despite the lack of a 1:1 or a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiative, I was able to teach digital citizenship. A safe way to do this was the use of Edmodo. It was safe for me as an educator because it was a district approved site and designed for student use. I took computer lab time to teach my students the ins and outs of Edmodo and they were very excited to use it. Because of our limited tech situation during the school day I fully expected most of the true interactions to happen at home where students were free to use their own devices. And use their own devices they did! It amazed me how quickly some of my students became cyber-bullies. It was shocking really and a very teachable moment. I would monitor Edmodo anytime I had the chance to, which meant several times a day during the school day as well as during my own time. I would then deal with any troubling issues like cyber-bullying as well as praise students for their creative ways of using the online setting in a positive way and related to their studies. I would always take a bit of class time to highlight things on Edmodo I had observed, the good and the bad. Mind you, I was careful to avoid publicly shaming students who had succumbed to cyber-bullying, but I did not avoid talking openly about it. We had very healthy conversations in class about what was good online behavior and what was not. I think it helped students to better understand what was bullying behavior and what was productive online behavior. It also helped students connect online interactions to their educations and not strictly social places to goof off.

I have been an ISTE member for a long time and have even managed to attend a couple of ISTE conferences. I highly recommend membership for all 21st Century Educators. They have amazing standards for Administrators, Educators, and Students that truly and clearly outline what sorts of goals we should have in all of those roles in today’s educational landscape. It has been the ISTE standards for students that has guided my instruction and motivated me to be creative and not let my limited resources prevent the instruction of digital citizenship.

I have been fortunate to have had many incredibly positive experiences online. The various platforms that exist to broaden our horizons and truly make us all global citizens is astounding. I want my students to be able to partake in that digital and global community and not only benefit from it, but contribute to it. That is why I teach digital citizenship with every opportunity I get.

Since I no longer have my own classroom, I have one active and ongoing student, my son: a 7th grader at Connections Academy, a public online charter school. Digital citizenship is a daily occurrence for him as his entire school day is spent online. He attends live lessons daily, which look more like interactive webinars for those familiar with such things. He interacts with his friends online as well, largely via Skype and whichever online game they happen to be playing.

Choosing online school was a family decision and took some rearranging of our lives. First and foremost I did not feel he was benefiting from what I call a “traditional” schooling within my own school district. Others in the online schooling community call it “brick and mortar” schooling. Either way, my son was falling through the cracks and also had to deal with escalating bullying. To make matters worse, he was officially diagnosed with depression and anxiety. As an online learner myself (I completed my second Masters degree online and am currently working on my doctorate online), and someone passionate about online learning, I knew this was a viable option for my son’s education. I believe online learning has been successful for my son and my family thus far (we started this school year). It did require my mother moving back in with us (which she was going to do anyway) so that my son could have some supervision during the day while my husband and I are at work. However, I have never had his schooling be so transparent. I know exactly what he is working on and how to swiftly and easily reach his teachers. His current grades are only a click away and always up to date. My son is using technology all day long which is helping his digital citizenship skills tremendously and helping him work on the other standards that ISTE outlines for students.

I don’t believe the teachable moments I have with my son about digital citizenship are any different than I had with my students in the classroom. The only difference is perhaps I am a bit more direct with my son as the filter that teachers need to use with children that are not their own is not necessary when it comes to talking to my own child.

How do you teach digital citizenship to your students? How do you teach it to your children? Is it the same? Different?

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Posted in Edublogs

Professional Learning and Conferences

Posted on by Mrs. Ruiz

conference-2705706_1920EduBlogsClub Prompt #25:

Prompt: Write a post about conferences and professional learning.

Here are some possible topics to help get you started:

  • Write a list of the top conferences you want to attend before you retire.
  • Have you presented at an academic conference? If so, write about your presentation and share with everyone!
  • Write about the most inspiring speaker you’ve seen at a conference, and tell about how it impacted your approach to education.
  • Write a post discussing tips for getting the most out of conferences.
  • Write a post about what conferences need to do to continue to be a positive force in education.

I love professional learning and conferences! I love them so much I decided to make one of them an annual thing and turn it into a family trip. 🙂

I am sure I am not alone in saying that my district doesn’t pay for a whole lot of conferences. I can see how something like that gets expensive real quick, but conferences are really a valuable learning experience. I have a passion for edtech and so that usually drives my conference interest, as well as academic innovation.

CUE logo

The first conference I used to go to on the regular was CUE (Computer Using Educators). It is a great edtech conference held in Palm Springs, CA in March of every year and is only about a 45 minute drive away. Many educators consider it a warm up to ISTE in June, and I would have to say that is a fair assessment. On the whole it is a great conference and I recommend it.

ISTE logo

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is my new regular conference now. It is a massive edtech experience. I have been aware of the annual ISTE conference for years but I first attended in Philadelphia 3 years ago, and attended again this past June in San Antonio. Next year it will be in Chicago. I have been telling my husband that I want he and our 12 year old son to accompany me to make it a family trip and I am excited that this time we will finally be doing that. So ISTE will officially be a family summer trip so I can get my edtech fix, and my son can see the United States. Win-win right?

sxswedu logo

SXSWEDU is one I only just became aware of about a year or two ago and I have yet to attend. It is held in early March each year in Austin, TX. I am interested in it because it showcases academic innovation and not just edtech. We need so much innovation in education right now! I am hoping to attend next March.

What are some of your favorite conferences? Share with me in the comments below. 🙂

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Posted in Minecraft

Minecraft at DGE

Posted on by Mrs. Ruiz

Minecraft Club Header

Dear Families,

I am thrilled to announce the beginning of the 21st Century Club at Dorothy Grant Elementary! In this very special club we will focus on teaching students the 21st Century Skills they need as children of the information age. Specifically we will focus on the following International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for students:

  1. Creativity and Innovation
  2. Communication and Collaboration
  3. Research and Information Fluency
  4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
  5. Digital Citizenship
  6. Technology Operations and Concepts

The first phase of our 21st Century Club will focus on Minecraft and game based learning. This opportunity is open to all 3rd through 5th graders as a distance learning experience. That means students will be connecting to the club from home. The following are required to participate:

  1. Reliable home computer with MinecraftEDU Minecraft installed (MinecraftEDU will not be used after all, regular Minecraft will.)
    1. This is different than the commercial Minecraft client. The MinecraftEDU client will be sent to students in the club once all requirements have been met.
  2. Reliable home internet
  3. A Minecraft account ($26.95) or a MinecraftEDU account ($18)
    1. With commercial Minecraft, the account is yours to keep. With MinecraftEDU, you are borrowing the account.
  4. Skype (for audio communication)
  5. Edmodo (online classroom)
    1. Students do not need to sign up for another Edmodo account if they already have one.
    2. A group join code will be sent once all requirements have been met.
  6. Permission slip with parent and teacher signatures

The Minecraft Club will take place on Thursdays from 4pm to 5pm. Our first meeting is Thursday, September 10th.

If you are interested in this opportunity for your child, please email me your child’s name and their teacher’s name. A permission slip will then be sent to them for completion along with further instructions.

Thank you!
Mrs. Ruiz
4th Grade Teacher & Technology Coach
ruizmy@fusd.net
www.mrsruiz.net