Digital Storytellying: Learning about 5 Major Landmarks in Colorado

 Digital storytelling is a great way to integrate technology into learning. The digital story below teaches about 5 Major Landmarks that are found in Colorado. 

Blogging in Education

 Blogs are becoming more common and you cannot ignore the benefits that blogs have to offer. While some blogs offer parenting help, baking tips, vacation tips, or some other fun topic, blogs can also serve as great educational resources for teachers. Educational blogs give opportunities for the teacher to collaborate with ideas and grow professionally through sharing resources and tips. It also allows for teachers to work with each other and share and promote their teaching experiences. Educational blogs can be utilized by students as well as they can create their blogs to share with their classmates and teachers or benefit from their teacher's blog using it as a source for information. Educational blogs can be utilized in many ways by teachers and students. Benefits of blogging include easy accessibility to new and shared ideas, a form of easy unique communication with a population, and a way to get resources from other teachers. One of the downfalls of educational blogging is it may be hard to continually post and look at other blogs as it can be time-consuming depending on the length of the blogs. 

A student in a virtual school class
on a computer

Along the lines of using technology to advance and learn, during the past few years, we have seen a new form of learning come into play, virtual learning. Virtual learning was a way created to allow students to continue learning from home during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. While it was a great way to attempt to keep kids actively learning despite having to be outside of the classroom, some challenges and downfalls come with virtual learning. First, the teachers and students must have a basic understanding of how to use the platforms being utilized for virtual learning (i.e, Canvas, Zoom, Google Classroom, etc.). Aside from being able to understand and navigate the new software being used and dependent on, a lot of students do not have access to the proper technology needed to participate in virtual learning. Those without the ability to get technology for online schooling created inequalities to those who were able to afford computers and tablets, leaving those without the lack of schooling opportunities. In a perfect world where everyone does have access to virtual schooling, there are still negative effects that come along with it. Those doing virtual schooling are missing out on creating relationships in the classroom and are lacking social interaction. This lack of social interaction is said to be having an impact on children's mental health, as students need to have that kind of interaction. Even though it is not the same, the online platforms have done a good job at trying to bridge the gap by creating software with videos to create a classroom that feels more personal. Fortunately enough, the online platforms may be challenging for some to use, they seem to be pretty user-friendly and easy enough for students to be able to manage. Many challenges come along with virtual learning, but as time goes on technology is making it easier to feel more normal even while virtual. 

My experience with blogging has been very brief, but so far, I think it is a good opportunity to display ideas and thoughts. It is pretty easy to do, and if you have a good following I could see how it is a good resource to others. Personally, in the future, I could see myself having my students create blogs as a unique way to do different assignments or to do weekly check-ins. I do not see myself being able to keep up with a blog in the future and for communication will my class I will probably use another educational app line Remind. Blogging is absolutely a great resource for someone who can keep up with it! 

Standardized Testing: The Good and The Bad

No matter what school you go to, you are always guaranteed there will be some form of standardized testing. While standardized testing has been prominent in the United State for years, it especially skyrocketed during the "No Child Left Behind" movement. This form of testing brings about many opinions from different people, some in favor of it, but many against it. As with everything, there are good things that come from standardized testing but also negative aspects as well. Starting with the pros of standardized testing, it offers a broad overview of how students are learning on a large scale. The test scores can also be marginalized on a smaller scale to get an idea of how students are doing academically within a county. Having such scores also allows us to see where there needs to be an improvement in the curriculum within the counties. A standardized test can also be an indicator of academic success and rigor within a student as seen within the results.

Three students taking a test in a classroom

While those are three pros of standardized testing, there is a long list of cons. One of the big cons of this form of testing is that it only evaluates three main areas, math, English, and science. Because the exams only cover those three subjects it does not measure critical thinking skills, problem-solving, creativity, and so on. Therefore, this form of testing is said to not be a great, measure of a student's academic success. Standardized tests are also known for only showing which students are good at testing and those who are not, totally discounting students who thrive within the classroom who struggle with testing. The test also can vary from state to state as they are created individually, which does not provide a good consistent indicator for comparing scores. As with anything, there are always pros and cons, but it is good to consider both to form an opinion on standardized testing. 

I believe that although standardized testing has pros, there could be made major improvements to this testing system to create a more holistic approach. The fact that the test only evaluates three subjects is crazy and could be changed. If the test was more holistic and had ways of including critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative elements, the test could be more beneficial. As a student, I have taken many standardized tests and while they have the potential to reveal valuable input, they need to be more than just bubbles on a scantron to be more beneficial. A lot of education revolves around a standardized test so it is important to find a better way to measure student success!

Are You Involved in The Classroom?

Children spend approximately seven hours a day at school and in the classroom. During those seven hours, children are learning and exploring new topics. What a child learns during the school day should not stay bound within the four walls of the classroom, but parents should be given the resources and opportunity to help expand on what their child has learned at school, in the home.

A group four of children playing a game

The amount of parent involvement can determine how successful your child can be in the classroom. If learning stops in the classroom and is not fostered at home as well, children are not able to practice important skills in real-life contexts outside of the schools. Parents know their kids best and can work to expand on skills in a way they see works for their child's learning needs. Not only does parent involvement help the student learn and grow, but it also allows the parents to be more in touch with the teachers and have an open line of communication which has numerous benefits. Parents and teachers should be working as a team through communication to teach their children continuously both in school and at home. 

While a lot of us know how important parent involvement is, there still seems to be a lack of it in the majority of classrooms these days. To me, it seems crazy that parent involvement has been declining over the years when the resources we have gained to allow communication have increased. For example, aside from paper and pencil updates and required brief parent-teacher conferences, there is new technology and apps to encourage easy communication. There are numerous educational communication apps designed for parents and teachers to communicate easily and allows for sending videos, observations, quick texts, all with the ability to send messages to the whole class, or individual families. Everyone has a powerful tool for communicating to allow for more parent involvement, their phones, but it is up to the parents and teachers to decide whether or not they take the simple steps to use them. 

Teaching Diversity and Inclusion Through Children's Books

Using Books To Teach Diversity and Inclusion In The Classroom

All around us, especially these days, there is a push to incorporate more supports diversity in the classroom. Each student in the classroom brings in different cultures and we must become familiar with other cultures aside from our own, and appreciate each one. Recognizing and understanding these concepts is essential to growth as a student, but also in the classroom. By embracing other cultures and adding those lessons into the curriculum it allows for students to become more inclusive and learn valuable information about what each student's story brings into the classroom. 

Three young kids reading

There are many ways in which a teacher can bring more diversity and culture into the classroom, but one beneficial way of doing this is through children's books. Children's books have more to offer than just growth in reading skills as they also hold the power to tell stories children remember and learn from. Over the past few years, authors have stepped away from the classic American picture books and focused on creating books that talk about different cultures and encourage the inclusion of all different races, socio-economic status, citizenship, and the list goes on. Books on diversity and inclusion can serve as an anchor text to build an entire lesson plan around the classroom and allow for children to share their individual stories. 

My Experience With Books Supporting Diversity

I believe that books have a big impact on students especially those of a younger age as I have witnessed in my time with kids in the classroom. For some kids topics about diversity and inclusion are foreign to them, and introducing the conversations through a picture book with characters that show emotion is a perfect way to do so. I think that as a school system there could be more of a push to add in conversations around different cultures that allow for students to share their own. Having a set curriculum may create limits on what is taught in the classroom, so if there were to be a curriculum I believe that there should be some flexibility. So far, my experience with seeing kids learn about diversity and inclusion through books in the classroom and stories I have heard seems to be a unique and effective way to teach children to appreciate all cultures. Some of my favorite books that have been used in the classroom have been linked.