Personal Beliefs

My Beliefs as an Educator that Uses Technology for Improving Student Learning

1. That the role of the teacher is is to keep up with current practices of technology inside of his/her classroom.
2. That students completely engaged and getting the most out of their        learning experience by using technology.
3. That community members and parents respect the usage of technology in classrooms and support the teachers as well as students
4. That knowledge is forever changing and technology will always be updated and grown upon.

#edchat

I followed #edchat which is run by Jerry Blumengarten. The topic that was discussed was “What are elements of blogging and social media that would suggest that it is good educationally for admin, teachers, and students. I got on a little before noon and typed in the hashtag edchat and it just started blowing up. I was a little confused at first but then I went to to the #edchat top results and it weeded out some of the ones that didn’t make sense or have to do with the current topic. My favorite post regarding this topic was one made my NEAToday and they posted an incredible article talking about the pros and cons as schools lift bans on cellphones. I really liked this chat because it gave everyone a chance to tweet their own opinion but you could also interact with other tweets. It also shows everyone how there can be pros and cons to any of the topics brought up by Jerry.

Link on NEATodays tweet  http://neatoday.org/2015/02/23/school-cell-phone-bans-end-educators-weigh-pros-cons/

Participating in #edchat

When participating in the twitter chats I was overwhelmed to say the least. With so many people participating and using the hashtag #edchat there would be new tweets coming in every second. On social media I am not typically one who will comment on other peoples posts, unless I have a strong disagreement or agreement with the post. So during the #edchat there were many tweets that I agreed with so I would either favorite or retweet based on how much I liked it. On twitter if I passionately agree about a tweet I will retweet it, and if I feel like I really like it, but I’m not 100% passionate about it then I will just favorite it. The more familiar I get with twitter chats is when I would feel more comfortable to respond and not just favorite or retweet.

Who I followed on Twitter

One great thing about being a teacher is being able to learn from your colleagues. Twitter is a great place to follow other teachers' accounts and learn new classroom ideas and perspectives. To find five educators to follow I did quite a bit of experimenting on twitter and the internet.

The first account I followed is @Teach_Preschool and the reason I followed her is because she is a very well respected preschool teacher. Being an early childhood education major, I can teach preschool to third grade so I thought it would be interesting to get all different aspects from different level teachers. Her account is all about the preschoolers she teaches including different learning activites, arts and crafts, as well as recipes. 

After following the account above, twitter recommended someone for me to follow with the handle of @mattBgomez who is a kindergarten teacher with lots of followers in the twitter world. Most of Matts tweets consist of things he has learned from being a teacher and also lots of his tweets are responding to certain chats he takes place in on twitter. One of my favorite tweets that Matt posted said, "I have learned that just because something is easy and works doesn't mean it is best for the kids". Following Matt gives me his viewpoints and brings up good discussion topics. 

Another account I followed was first grade teacher @kathycassidy and I liked her twitter account because it is completely different that both of the educators above. The objective of her twitter account is to give educators around the world a good look into her classroom. She has posted 350+ pictures showing what goes on in her classroom. Being new to the world of teaching it is definitely a good idea to follow this account and have ideas for my future classroom. 

I also followed an early childhood account mixed together with literacy practices for kids with the handle of @literacycounts. this account is different ways to encourage children to read as well as different activities to help kids learn how to read. I am currently taking a phonics class and I thought following this account was really interesting and it also tied in some of the things I have learned in that class. 

The last account I followed was @Prekpages. Although I always thought of myself teaching in 1-3 grade classroom, this semester I will be observing in a PreK class. This account has the best of both worlds with pictures from her classroom as well as activities that can be done in the classroom. 

Although there are way more accounts that would be beneficial to my teaching and future classroom, I am glad that I took a deeper look on these educator's twitter accounts. I am looking forward to keeping up with their accounts and their posts to come! 

Professional Identity

When setting up my professional twitter account I knew there were a few things to keep in mind. The most important things being:
1- Anyone can see everything that is being posted under my name. Being a teacher you should expect for students to look you up on social media and it is important to always remember this.
2- Make sure that your picture and background make you look professional. There is nothing worse than looking unprofessional and how do you expect to get a job when you look that way?
3- Keep everything updated and stay current with technology and other posts about education/teaching. How can you be respected as a teacher if you aren't up to date?