TEACHMEETNJ Reflection

On August 22, 2013, I attended TEACHMEETNJ at Stockton.  This was another experience with an unconference and it was an interesting one.  This one already had the topics decided ahead of time, but you only had 20 minutes in each session and then you would vote for a longer session later in the afternoon.  I liked how organized this event was, but I would have preferred longer session times and just done without the really long one at the end of the event.  Overall, I did learn some new things which I hope to benefit from in the future.

The first session I went to was App-onomy, Finding ipad apps to fit your curriculum, which I found to be very good considering I only got 20 minutes worth of it.  This was one session I would have preferred to be longer to begin with.  I feel like too often teachers pick apps simply because it is somewhat close to the lesson they are teaching, but tend to ignore the fact that it may not fit into the curriculum.  I also was finding it hard to find apps that fit into the curriculum we were using for making lesson plans at Stockton.  I found the suggestions of apps that fit into the different levels of Bloom's to be very helpful!  We're constantly being told to utilize the higher levels of Bloom's and being able to find apps that fit into those levels will help me to achieve doing that while bringing in some technology.  I liked the suggestions for apps in the different content areas and the information on how to figure out if the app fits into your curriculum.  Again, I wish this could have been a longer session or picked for the afternoon one because I feel like I could have gotten so much more out of this, but I did get a lot!

The second session I went to was about Professional Development and how to make it more fun for the teachers.  I enjoyed this presenter a lot and liked her use of Prezi because it made a boring topic really cool!  Having never gone to PD, it was interesting to learn what is liked and hated about it from other teachers.  I liked how she showed examples of how to amp up the PD so that teachers enjoy it.  I really liked when she showed her school districts' video for the beginning of the year and how they teased that something big was gonna happen.  Her district seems to really be invested in the teachers and their PD!

The third session I went to was the creating a website using Wordpress.  I have wanted to use wordpress in the past, and even for me who had done some website work, I found it overwhelming.  This session made it not feel that way anymore.  I clearly am still on blogger, but now I know how to implement a wordpress website and use it when I am teaching in the classroom.  He showed us some really cool tricks on how to only allow certain students to see things, only allow parents to see things, how to make things private, etc.  This was another session I wish could have been longer and gone more in depth because I feel like I could have learned a lot!  I truly think websites are a great resource for teachers to get information to their students, the parents, and the rest of the school.  In today's world, everyone has a webpage and I think learning how to make a very useful one will benefit me when I begin in the classroom.

The fourth session I went to was Pinterest, the professional goldmine.  I LOVE pinterest...I would even say I am addicted to it!  I had looked on it for some inspiration for lessons I was making in intro semester, but I felt like I came up so short for my content area and my grade level.  Most things are aimed at elementary and math and science.  Janice Malone really showed us a goldmine of things for every grade level and every subject.  She was very knowledgeable about which websites to use and I even followed her and constantly get all her new pins.  She had some really great ones for inspiring the students.  I wish her session was longer too because then I would have been able to get more info on where to find the best pins for my content area and grade leve.

The fifth session I went to was Google Tools, which was good too!  I liked learning about some things Google offered that I didnt know.  I learned about google forms, chromebooks, utilizing google drive and a bunch of other google things in the classroom.  I am amazed at how easy google has made my life and I would love to be able to do that for my students.  I never really thought about using some of these things in a classroom, but during this presentation, it began to make perfect sense to me!

The sixth session I went to was another Pinterest one, because as I said, I love it!  This one was very different from the previous one.  What I liked about this one was they showed us specific people to follow and why.  They also had a list of people to follow based on your content area.  I went and found those people and have been getting new pins from them every day!  This one turned into a longer session, and I went to it.  I probably should have picked a different one, but it was nice to think of different ways to use pinterest.  Like I never thought to have the students use it to share and save their ideas with their groups members.  However, I'm not sure many schools would be happy about that, but maybe in the future.

The seventh session I went to was all about google forms.  I now LOVE the idea of google forms.  I like that I can create this form and it will do all the work for me!  I also like that I can make it look pretty and interesting to my students.  I also think the students would be more willing to do a test, quiz, do now, or exit card on the computer than with their hands.  Plus it allows me to take all the answers with me simply on google drive so I can access it from my phone, computer, wherever!  This will allow me to do work without having to take all the papers!  Plus this will save the environment too!

Overall I did enjoy my sessions at TEACHMEETNJ.  I wish they were longer, but I got a lot out of them.  A lot of the sessions aimed on helping to create that harmony between technology, content knowledge, and pedagogy and helped me see it can be done.  It helped me see that there are things out there to use that will fall into my curriculum, help me assess my students at a higher level, that are in my content area, and that will be technologically appropriate!