Blog #5

I wasn't allowed to have a phone until 8th grade, and later had social media the summer of 9th grade. I was a big fan of Pinterest and Youtube before having the common social media platforms. I then got Instagram and Snapchat and interacted with long distance friends and classmates, and it was helpful to be able to contact them with homework questions and just to catch up. Pinterest and YouTube can be good resources for inspiration and activities I can implement into my lesson plans. Instagram can be a good way to connect with fellow educators and inspire others in this field as well.

I had the best of both worlds and went to a digitally poor elementary school and a digitally rich school in middle school and high school. I remember students having to do more work on paper and sharing technology so we had enough to go around. This didn't impact me as much as we still had access to some technology and were still young enough to adapt without needing tech as one would in 6-12th grade. I had limited access to technology in general, and my family shared one computer for schoolwork. I remember transferring and thinking how weird it was for everyone in my class to have an iPad to take home and use for the year for assignments. Some kids were used to this and took advantage, and it was the weirdest transition coming from a digitally poor school and seeing my peers view this as normal. Overall, these experiences have made me grateful and I still find it a blessing to have technology of my own. This has made college so much easier so far. I don't think I would change anything to better prepare me as I quickly adjusted to technology in middle and high school, and feel as though I'm adequately prepared for college.

Collaborative writing and social annotation are good ways to encourage comprehension and review in the classroom. Google Docs is a good way for collaborative and interactive work that will encourage my students to contribute in their assignments. It also has features like commenting and highlighting that are good forms of annotating and furthering comprehension.

I've used it as a student and with my friend as we are writing our book, and can say that it has helped me in my studies. I love this resource, and will implement this into my lessons. It is a good way to digitally work on an assignment as everyone can type at the same time instead of passing papers around, and their work will automatically save, where other platforms won't. I will also be able to see which students contributed and how much they added to their group work. This will allow me to work with students that might need additional help with the topics and be a good way to review for others. I would use this resource to have my students answer a list of reading comprehension questions, and whichever group finishes first will win a prize. This will help me see how effective my teaching has been and how prepared my students are for the next lesson.