Integrating Technology

 My Final Thoughts...     The past several weeks have been an educational journey. I have learned so much about technology in the classroom and how to better service all my students. Technology in education is a must. We are living in a technological world and it is our job as teachers to incorporate and teach the benefits of technology. Before taking this course, I was an advocate for technology in education and now that advocacy has just grown. I know there are teachers who are against giving technology a try and that is such a shame. Technology enhances our teaching ability and is the future. We are teaching the future generations who are going to be in charge and I am confident that with the help of technology, they will be more successful than ever before.      To my surprise, one of my favorite tools I have used this course that I plan on implementing into my classroom is this current platform, Blogger . I think Blogger allows for creativity, discussi...

 My Data Mine     It is crazy what the internet knows! Have you ever tried to look yourself up on the internet? For this blog post, I am going to tell you all about what I found when searching myself on the web.  Image Source: Author     With one single click on Google I was able to find everything screenshotted above. From this simple Google search, I was able to find my current occupation, my past career in softball and my usernames for a few of my social media platforms. I am not confused or even concerned about these findings, but more so impressed. The internet is so incredibly smart and resourceful. Luckily, my digital tattoo is harmless and I do not have anything to hide from my past or present. More than anything, I find it useful because the information is accurate and I know when I want to know something about someone or something, I go to Google. Image Source: Author     Above is a screenshot from my result of searching myself on the w...

       Hi Everyone! As a teacher, I want to talk about something I find very important in education and that would be accessibility. It is the right for all students to be given the opportunity to reach their full potential in the classroom. With that said, accessibility in education is allowing all students to have a fair chance to succeed no matter what their capabilities might be. For me, I am proud of the fact that I am able to explain complex math problems in way where all the students can understand it. I am able to make the subject of math relatable and connect real life scenarios to the topic to get the students engaged and conceptually understanding. I do this by providing accessible learning materials. These include having worksheets and textbooks for the students. Of course, there is always room for improvement and what I want to make better is creating more resources and support for those students struggling. This ties into accessibility in the classroom ...

 Gen Z & Y Statistics  Image Source: mccrindle.com     Hi Everyone! In today's blog I am going to be talking about statistics pertaining to the generations of Gen Z and Gen Y. I used an article produced by McCrindle, which is a social research company. Click HERE to access the article I will be discussing. The first statistic that stood out to me was, "Almost half of Gen Z turn to TikTok (48%) and Instagram (46%) to teach themselves new things daily." According to Google, there are about 2 billion Gen Z's in the world; that means that about 1 billion people are using TikTok or Instagram everyday to learn new things. My initial thoughts are how impactful and educational social media can truly be. I know there are plenty of cons when it comes to apps like TikTok or Instagram, but they also can be beneficial and are teaching people every single day. Even with this high statistic, I am not completely shocked. As a young 26 year old high school teacher,...

Personal Learning Network- Twitter Image Source: Author Follow me! @MaggieStimac Click HERE to see my page!      One education resource I found on Twitter is the work and publications done by Dr. Jackie Murawska. Her Twitter handle is @murawskamath. I recommend giving her a follow! Murawska is the former president of Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) and is now a STEM coach who has her own website where she offers her resources and publications. Click HERE for her website. On this website, there are different techniques and strategies that can be used in the classroom. She has done presentations all over the world about productive struggle, math skills and critical thinking problems to get the entire class engaged. One of my favorite problems she talks about is called, " The Seven Billion People Problem ." When solving this problem with the class she discusses how to promote productive struggle and implementing a plan. This type of problem relates to rea...

  1.  What are the 1 - 2 most important things you learned in this course? How will these things be part of your future work as a teacher or librarian?      One of the most important things I learned in the "Coding for Educators" course was the significance of integrating coding and computer science into my math teaching curriculum. This not only makes the learning experience more engaging and relevant for students but also helps them develop problem-solving skills that are crucial in both mathematics and computer science.      Another key takeaway was the use of Scratch as a powerful tool for teaching coding concepts to students. Scratch's block-based programming language is user-friendly and visually intuitive, making it an excellent platform for introducing coding to students. Learning how to create interactive projects in Scratch and understanding the pedagogical strategies for teaching it will be valuable in my future work as a math teacher. ...