Hooked On Curation

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Jeremy Macdonald: Teachers as guides, not sources, of learning

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  

I'm going to stray a little from my normal "this is a cool app" approach and share a few thoughts. On Tuesday I saw a retweet from Michael Smith that got me thinking. Below is the original tweet from Sean Junkins:

I am a big proponent for teacher professional development. I think school districts have a responsibility to provide meaningful and useful learning opportunities to their faculty. Teachers need some "heads-up" nowadays with the amount of technology entering our schools and classrooms. It really can feel overwhelming at times. As one who plans and facilitates professional development, I hear the cries for relevant PD.

However, that said, Sean has a point. Often our students would much rather jump in, without any preliminary guidance, and learn along the way. Are they naive? impatient? fearless? eager to learn? Whatever it is that you think, maybe we should embrace a little of that as teachers.

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Jeremy Macdonald: Chrometastic web browsing

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

In my search for a more productive work experience and a more meaningful learning experience for students, I happen upon little things there and there that, for some, can mean lots. I don't know what browser you're using, but I'm quite fond of Google Chrome. It provides me with the quickest Internet experience, as well as the most innovative approach to streamlining life, work, and play.

I've mentioned Evernote once before in these posts, and I still continue to use it in many ways in and out of the classroom. But Evernote + Chrome is a dream-come-true for a techie like me. In addition to Evernote's Web Clipper extension for Chrome (which is how I currently save online content for later viewing offline), they also have a nifty little tool called Clearly.

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Jeremy Macdonald: Simply Powerful

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

There are so many tools and apps and widgets and gadgets out there that it is often difficult to figure out which ones are worth your time and which ones are better left alone. But in reality, who has time to figure that out?

A while back I wrote about the phases or stages of ed-tech. Many of us become enamored with a device or an app before we have a chance to see what the alternatives are. Fortunately for me, I have (or at least I tell myself that I have) time to read up, demo, play with, and try for myself a lot of what hardware and software companies are designing for education.

And recently, something has caught my eye and it has intrigued me with it's beauty and simplicity. Haiku Deck is the next generation of presentation tools. It allows you to create stunning, visually masterful presentations that get to the point and help you share your message effectively.

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Jeremy Macdonald: Going Google

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

Everyone these days seems to have gone Google.

I just had the opportunity to participate in Oregon's Google Summit. With the new iOS Drive app and all the daily updates to the Google Apps Suite, it's difficult to find a reason why your district shouldn't be on board with Google Apps for Education.

So I thought I'd share one of the resources I gave to attendees today. The session was called "There's No Place Like Chrome". While my intention wasn't to knock other web browsers, my goal was to introduce attendees to tools that Chrome provides to easily make our "web time" more efficient and productive.

You can find the resource here; conveniently, it's a Google doc: There's No Place Like Chrome. Read Entire Post

Jeremy Macdonald: #LeadLearner

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon. 

Every year we ask our students to stretch themselves; to take risks; to try new things; to step outside their comfort zone. And every year we get frustrated when students are reluctant to do so. Failure is a natural part of the learning process (or cycle -- however you want to put it), and it can be intimidating to a lot of our students.

Learning needs to be modeled. The process needs to be evident each and every day in our classrooms. And that means that you and I, as educators, need to fail. We need to make mistakes. We need to ask for help. We need to be vulnerable, and most importantly, we need to actually learn something.

So here is what WE are going to do. Pick a tool -- new hardware (tablet, smartphone, laptop, clickers, etc) or a new app/software. Just one. Don't be an overachiever here. Keep it simple and keep it focused. The key, however, is that it has to be something new; something you are not familiar with; something you haven't used in class or used with students. If you need some ideas, look back at some of my previous posts.

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Jeremy Macdonald: Already Thinking About School

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade & Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

Like most summers, I'm never able to get to everything on my "To-Do" list. We all know how this feels. Especially as educators. In my last post , even, I had big plans to become a coding guru. That hasn't happened. In fact, it hasn't even started. Family and travels have kept me busy and distracted (in a much needed manner), but I've never able to completely turn off work...just turn it down a little.

While traveling and visiting with friends and family between Oregon and Colorado I've had plenty of time to think about the upcoming school year and my new responsibilities. I'll be leaving a regular fifth grade classroom and be taking on English Language Development AND Title Interventions AND Instructional Technology at my school. More is better, right? With the new (and additional) roles, I have been thinking about how I will continue to integrate technology ubiquitously into student and teacher learning.

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Jeremy Macdonald--Breaking the Technology Code or: What I’m Doing on My Summer Vacation

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade & Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

As I wrap up this school year and look forward to new opportunities next year, I think about our use of technology in education. Is our spending justified? Do we invest in more "stuff" or do we begin focusing more on the "human" capital. Whatever it is that we choose, we need to make clear for ourselves, our students, and our community why we do what we do. But I want to take that a step further.

How many of us understand what is happening when we open up a browser window or when we click on an icon or change the font in a document? How many of us understand the coding or language that is used to run the applications that we use so regularly and often take for granted. There are thousands, even millions, of processes that are all happening at once when we interact with our devices. The nuances of coding are just as intricate and dynamic as a spoken language or mathematics. Are they just as important, though? I would say yes.

 

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Jeremy Macdonald: If You Tweet It, They Will Come

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade & Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

Many of us who participate or contribute to a Professional Learning Network (PLN) do so outside of our own school community, often as an activity that doesn't involve many (if any) of our building or district colleagues. While a PLN can take many different forms, the most popular seems to be taking place in Twitter.

Several of my colleagues often question the time I spend "on" Twitter. The most common comment is, "When do you have time to do this? Nobody needs to know what I had for breakfast anyway." And my response is almost always the same, "It's not about being on Twitter all the time or sharing today's breakfast, it's about have place to go when I need ideas, resources, and conversations around what's going on in education." My response typically has little effect on their opinion, but that doesn't keep me from trying.

 

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Jeremy Macdonald- ShowMe For All Occasions

The following post comes from Jeremy Macdonald, a 5th Grade & Instructional Technology teacher at Mills Elementary in the Klamath Falls City Schools district in Klamath Falls Oregon.

I'll just come out and say it.

I love ShowMe.

Now I know that many of you don't have an iPad in the classroom, let alone multiple iPads, but I feel the need to share ShowMe with you all this month. At this point, most of you are familiar with the "flipped classroom" model. If you're not, it is essentially the creation of classroom content, lessons, and examples that are shared through videos accessible to students before, during, and after instruction. These videos are often used to facilitate independent learning or provide additional support to students. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of example on the web of teachers "flipping" their classrooms and using this model in an attempt to engage students in more interactive ways than before. I'd recommend Googling it (wait, never mind, I did it for you) if you want to learn more.

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