Teaching Demo

Here is the PowerPoint for my Teaching Demo tonight :)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OhFF5KJyVAW4P_W9uSjw_UsdNVgXNFv6QlFuTV3n9AU/edit

School Anxiety

I can't really write about anything else right now. As we are passing the halfway mark of the semester, I can't help but feel nervous. Finals are coming up quick. All my big projects are about to be due. There are so many books I still need to read and so many papers I still have to write. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming, especially since I am a bit of an overachiever. I'm guessing that some of you who might be reading this blog are feeling the same way. Here is a little reminder for all of us:

We will be okay.
It will all work out in the end.
No one is perfect.
We are all only human.
We just have to keep doing our best.


We should all also remember to take care of ourselves during stressful times. If you are stressed out or feeling anxious remember to take time for your sanity. Taking a break to sleep, eat, or spend time with friends doesn't make you a weak person. It makes you a smart one. Burning yourself out is not a good idea if you can avoid it.

Are any of guys stressed out right now? How do you deal with it? Lets take care of each other in the comments.

Tech Exploration

I would definitely consider myself a current resident of the internet. I wasn’t always here, but now that I am I feel rather integrated into the culture that surrounds it.

Kahoot is the site I liked the best. It is such a simple tool that has massive potential in the classroom. It can be used to create competition that children usually enjoy. It is also a very fast paced game. I think that this is a good thing to use as a final review. If it is used to early in the lesson what may happen is that the kids could be absorbed into the competition a little too much. This means that they will begin guessing answers, making it difficult for the educator to make absolutely sure that his or her students truly understand the material.

I really liked the virtual bubble map site. I think that it could be really fun to work with in a group setting. The only real problem I could think of that one might run into while using this resource in the classroom may be that some un-engaged or bored students might not use the bubble map in the way that it is supposed to be used.

The 100 teaching tools page was awesome! I definitely plan to share this with some of the teachers and tutors I know. I also thought it was really cool that this site shows a lot of well known social media platforms to showcase how they can be used in education.      

Based on what I did today and Bloom’s Taxonomy, teachers need to think about how different resources need to be used during different points of the learning process. For example, a teacher shouldn’t have students use a resource that is better for checking for understanding at the very beginning of a lesson.

Based upon all of this exploring, I feel like I will definitely use technology with my students more often. I have a smart board at my disposal after all. I like a lot the games that I saw on the main page and really think that my adult students would enjoy them as well. I also feel like technology is something I could use help keep myself more organized as well. In this way, technology can end up help both me and my students.