Stepping Through the Looking Glass and Into the Digital Age

screenshot of Danielle Goebbert's internet mapping project When setting up my internet mapping chart, I created four sections for personal, professional, visitor, and resident. From my understanding, the visitor end of the map represented internet sources that are not often used, while the resident end represented internet sources that are used frequently. The professional end of the map represented internet sources used throughout my professional life, while the personal end represented internet sources that used primarily for my personal pleasure. When beginning this assignment, I copied Nicole's strategy of writing out a list of internet websites and applications that I use in my personal and professional life. When I couldn't think about any more, I looked at my phone for any that I missed. I then took this list of internet sources and applications and placed them where I believe they fall on the four-sectioned map that I created. Here are a few of the icons tha...

This past Thursday, I participated in my first ever Twitter chat. If anyone has worked with me in previous courses, you know that I am not a fan of Twitter. It appears too overwhelming to me visually and it is hard for me to get used to in terms of what to use it for. I honestly, do not understand the hype of the app by its users and followers at all. Therefore, prior to this week's Twitter chat, it appear obvious that I felt more than apprehensive of having to participate. I had never heard what a Twitter chat was and had no clue how it worked or what to do. I tried to do some research to prepare myself for the functionality of the Twitter chat ahead of time, but everything sounded like gibberish to me since Twitter is a confusing social media platform for me anyways. For this experience, I chose to participate in the #ICEILChat on Thursday night at 8:00pm. As I logged on the night of the Twitter chat, I introduced myself while also explaining that I was a first timer when...

The article that I chose to read for this blog post was written by Dayna Laur and Jill Ackers and titled, "Developing Natural Curiosity". You can click on this link to view the article. This article discussed the importance of embedding 21st century skills into authentic learning experiences that educators design as well as what these types of experiences should include in order to pique the natural curiosity of young students. This article's purpose connects directly to the 4C's concept we are discussing in our course as quoted by the authors, "at early ages, children’s curiosity and intrinsic motivation make them highly receptive to experiences that build creative, collaborative, critical thinking, and communication skills.” The article discusses how this link between intrinsic motivation and a learner's natural curiosity, when paired with good design strategies can, "propel the development of the problem-solvers we are all striving to foster in o...

Discussion of Padlet Activity: The padlet that I created can be viewed in the image above or accessed through this link . The blog that I accessed for this padlet was designed for a classroom of students to communicate with a peer who was off on a "new adventure". This new adventure was a movie that he was hired to act in. The students posted their comments, reactions, and questions for their peer who was enjoying his new experience as an actor in a film. When the acting student had a moment, he posted his responses and pictures of his experience on and off set for his classmates to see. This blog is an example of active learning because the students are leading and interacting discussion with other peers, the teacher facilitates conversations among students, and the discussions are relevant and engaging for students. They are learning about real world experiences while practicing their writing and questioning skills. Through this blog, students were able to learn ab...

Teaching: As I entered my professional career of teaching in the Fall of 2013, it was very competitive to find a job right away. Therefore, I began the year as a paraprofessional at Erickson Elementary School in Bloomingdale. All of the paraprofessionals were licensed educators that had not yet found a job, so the school was good about encouraging us to continue applying for full-time teaching positions. During my first few weeks working as a paraprofessional, I had a a few interviews for various districts and finally landed my own full-time teaching job at Gilberts Elementary School teaching 3rd grade (the grade that I hoped to be able to teach)! My beginning was quite unique for a few reasons. First of all, I got the call that I was officially hired on the morning of Friday, August 30, so I finished up my day as a paraprofessional and left as soon as I could to visit my new school and meet with my principal and team to figure out what needed to get done before I started. I the...