I’m Just Like You! Reflection of a Tech Coach on The School Shutdown and a Special Offer
For me, it was March 16 when everything seemed to start changing. Up until that day, even with all the craziness around me, my life was still kind of normal. My daughter starred in the district’s musical Wizard of Oz on Saturday. I went out to eat with my parents. I picked up my groceries […]
SCETV Guest Blog Series: Why All 21st-Century Educators Must Teach Media Literacy & How
Over the summer, my local PBS station, SCETV, asked me to present at their conference, 21st-Century Learners Week. They asked me to talk to other educators about media literacy. While I had done a lot of general digital citizenship instruction for all ages, I had never really focused solely on media literacy. I had to […]
SCETV Guest Blogger Series: Ideas for Teachers to Incorporate Digital Citizenship into Their Instruction
Many teachers feel overwhelmed by everything they already have to do in the classroom each day and can’t imagine having to do one more thing! Many teachers using technology complain about the management aspect of 1:1 initiatives. However, digital citizenship instruction can go a long way to improving classroom management in a 21st-century classroom. In […]
Engaging Students with BreakoutEDU
The past few weeks of this school year have been a complete blur!! Just when I thought things might slow down because of testing and teachers wrapping up the year, my calendar filled up quickly with teachers wanting to do Breakouts! My partner in crime, Andrea, and I had 7 this month! Whew! If you’ve […]
3 Reading Comprehension Strategies to Start Using Tomorrow . . . and 3 Digital Tools to Help!
Reading comprehension is likely the most important focus of the primary and elementary school teacher! In their book Teaching Children to Read: The Teacher Makes the Difference, Reutzel and Cooter call comprehension “the very heart and soul of reading.” Without comprehension, students aren’t really reading, they’re just decoding words! Further, reading comprehension is the basis […]
Celebrating Reading with Epic! Books for Kids
This month as you are celebrating National Reading Month, try celebrating reading with the ebooks app Epic! When choosing any type of technology, I always consider my instructional goals first. When it came to choosing a reading app, I chose Epic! because it offers a wide variety of reading options for students, gives students options […]
“Ready, Set, Grow!”: Reflections on Digital Leadership
This year our district theme was “Ready, Set, Grow!” Many of us have spent the year sharing and highlighting the amazing work of our students, teachers, and entire district on social media with the hashtag #Lex3grows. While I have been very caught up in my new position this year as a digital learning coach, I […]
Blogging Buddies
So I started off last year strong . . . I even had my list of things I wanted to try (I did get to some of them) in 2017, and had every intention of trying and sharing about every single one of them! But when school started back in August, I was in a […]
Building Classroom Community with Digital Tools
Building a positive classroom community and getting to know your students is crucial at the beginning of every new school year. This research-based practice contributes to good classroom management, student engagement, and positive student behaviors and interactions. As you think about classroom community activities that you will do at the beginning of this year, consider […]
My 5 Takeaways from the PBS Digital Innovator Summit and ISTE 2017!
So I’ve had about a month to decompress after my time at the 2017 PBS Digital Innovator Summit leading into ISTE 2017! What a wonderful experience they both were. And while I learned a lot from both, it was such a whirlwind experience at times I didn’t know if I was coming or going! Whether […]