Getting In Touch With Fellow Educators

I was lucky enough to get in contact with a current educator from my hometown of Camanche, Iowa. She is a 5th grade Science teacher, which works out perfectly for me because I am a Science minor here at the University of Northern Iowa. She told me all about what she is doing in the classroom this year and what tools she is working with, for example Next Generation Science Standards. She talked about how important it is to follow the standards but to implement them in a fun way so it sticks with the students. She also gave me some amazing advice that seems obvious but is something I tend to struggle remembering, which is to ask LOTS of questions!
I highly recommend talking with educators as a student going into education. You will be surprised how willing and excited they are to talk to you and get you advice and that advice will be some of the most valuable advice you get because it is coming from someone who is teaching now! So I challenge you to talk to your favorite teacher from elementary, middle, or high school and ask them why they chose the field and what advice they have for you while in school and in the future in your classroom.
Unfortunately, I have no links for you because the teacher I talked to would like to remain anonymous. 

Personal Learning Network!

At the beginning of the semester I began brainstorming my personal learning
network PLN)based on what little knowledge I had on the subject. While continuing
through the remainder of the semester I noticed there were things I was missing,
and there were also many more opportunities to expand this personal learning network.
But I started with this original sort of mind map:

To expand on my PLN, I made 10 new connections:

1. Twitter

The first thing I did was creating a professional Twitter to try and connect with
current or past elementary school teachers. I followed several accounts and even
started tweeting at them to ask questions about what it is like to be a elementary
school teacher. Here is a link to my Twitter account (follow me!). I also retweeted
and quoted several things that I thought were amazing tools to use in my future
classroom.

2. Facebook

Much like Twitter, I began making connections on Facebook by joining several groups
of teachers and other educators. I asked questions within these groups to start
getting some insight into what it is like to currently be a teacher, specifically
in the realm of third grade because that is my target grade to teach int he future.

3. Pinterest

I also created a professional Pinterest page. I followed several teachers boards
to get inspiration for classroom organization, material to use, decorations to put
in a classroom that correlates to what the students are learning about, and so much
more. I was happily surprised that these teachers re-pinned some of the things I
found on my own, it was very encouraging that I was looking at the right things
that will be useful in the future.

4. Zoom

I was able to make connections within my own Ed Tech and Design classroom using
Zoom. As a group working on our projects we were able to stay connected while being
in completely different places, as well as connect with Dr. Z to get feedback on our
projects. We were also able to use it as a class to connect with Write Our World
creator Julie Carey to get her story on global collaboration.

5. Ted Talks

Ted Talks are something I always associated with very boring topics that I was
forced to watchin high school but I learned that there is a whole world of purely
educational based Ted Talks.I watched several different ones that weren’t boring
at all because they were all talking about things that are so important to me to
incorporate in my classroom in the future.

6. YouTube

YouTube was something that I didn’t seek to be a part of this PLN it just happened
through pure luck. I tend to spend a lot of time on YouTube watching vlog style
videos, I stumbled across a first-year third grade teacher with the channel
Early EDventures. This teacher brought us along her day as a teacher while giving
advice and tools to use in the classroom. I loved being able to see what it is
actually like fora teacher in between actually teaching, because she never actually
shows her students she just gives updates before and after school and also during
lunch and prep times. I also was able to put my own video on YouTube created in
Ed Tech and Design.I was very surprised that my little video got several views,
I was able to connect with other educators by putting out my own content.

7. Gmail

I was able to connect with a middle school science teacher from my hometown through
Gmail, being a science minor I thought it was a good idea to get that specific
feedback on what it is like to focus on one subject area. She talked about how fun
it is to use experiments, games, and other tasks within the classroom because science
is so hands on. I thought this was such an amazing answer considering we had just
talked about gamification in the classroom in Ed Tech. Unfortunately this teacher
would like to remain anonymous so I am not able to share her email,but I highly
suggest you talk to your old teachers because they are so willingly to talk to you
and have so much amazing advice.

8. Symbaloo

I created my own Symbaloo account to be able to have all my favorite applications
altogether in one place. Something I didn’t realize when making this account is
based on things that you frequently search it will give you suggested apps. Mine
just happened to suggest things like Khan Academy, EDU Games, Google Classroom,
and so many more. These are all things that I had heard of but never used and was
able to explore them and learn just how useful these tools can be for teachers.

9. Ed Puzzle

I was able to discover a application called Ed Puzzle. It is where you can put any
video in and pause it in certain areas to create your own questions, as a quiz,
for your students to answer. I created my own to use in my Interactive Learning
Tool and while making it I though back to all the times that my teacher would play
a video to the entire class and give a paper quiz to go along with it. I was so hard
to keep up with the video while answering the questions. This app is so useful for
students because they are able to go at their own pace.

10. Blogger

Lastly, I created my own blog here on Blogger. I learned very quickly just have fun
it is to share all the things that I am discovering within my class, on the internet,
etc. I seeing that people are actually viewing it because I know they are discovering
these things with me. I also starting following several other education based blogs
to be able to discover what they have. It is a great way to learn new things all
in one place. So if you view my blog please feel free to leave a comment
so we can connect with each other about all things educational!

Global Collaboration!

Within our Ed Tech and Design Class, at UNI, we talk about many different topics. One of our main topics we talked about was Global Collaboration. We got the opportunity to talk to the founder of "Write Our World," Julie Carey. She was able to talk to us about what global collaboration means to her and discuss what Write Our World is all about. Here's photo showing our experience:



(Notice the use of Zoom, noted in another blog post) From my own personal experience I found how important global collaboration is in the educational world. It's so important for the children in your classroom to connect to people from all over the world! There are so many ways to do so through the use of different apps and organizations. If you get the chance to, look up Write Our World (with this link) and support your students and even yourself to make connections around the world!

Just Tweet It!

I wanted to talk about professional social media, specifically Twitter! Social media all together is such an amazing way for educators and all professionals alike to reach out to one another to talk and bounce ideas off each other. It broadens teachers, for example, network than just to there own schools and or community. Through Twitter we are able to reach out to people from all around the world! There are some things that we need to be aware of when using Twitter in a professional sense, mainly to be professional! Sounds easy enough but we all tend to share things that could be used or taken in a different way. For example when creating a handle you need to make it something that you would want people to call you, so don't make your handle @unicornlover28. 

You can see from my professional Twitter above that I used @msmorganlyons. It is something that I would want people to call me in fact one day I hope it is what my students will call me! There is so much more that I could dive into on this topic but I will keep it simple; be safe, responsible, professional, and overall have fun with it and make lots of connections!

So click this link and start making connections! Twitter

Zoom Into Action!

Hello there Blogger World! Today I would like to introduce you to an amazing application called Zoom! Zoom is a video chat room that allows you to talk to people all over the world. You may be thinking "I could just use Facetime or Skype." But they have nothing on Zoom! Within the application you are able to talk to many people at a time, like an entire class! You can pull up documents, videos, whatever you need and use that within Zoom! My class was able to use it to talk with our professor about a group project and get feedback without having to be in the same room. If you'd like to try it out for yourself click this link and make your own account for free!--- Zoom


Here's a photo that shows how it works with multiple people!

Hello Blogger World!

I'm a blogger! This is my very post blog post ever!

I go to UNI.

I am a sophomore, majoring in Elementary Education. I am currently taking a class called Ed. Tech. and Design, in which we are in charge of creating a blog, and this is mine. This blog will take you through what it is like to be an education major at the University of Northern Iowa, and some of the cool opportunities, applications, and resources there are. I hope you enjoy the reading and learning a little bit about my journey to becoming a teacher!