Reed's Reflections

Digital Citizenship is more important now that ever. With the entire state transitioned to remote or distance learning, our students are on the internet more than ever before. Not only are they online more, but students are online at a much younger age than before. Below are two videos to help understand what digital citizenship is and why is is important that our students understand the importance of building a POSITIVE digital footprint now. You can see these and other resources I've gathered for on digital citizenship here .

Ok guys, I get it. I chose to purse Ed Tech so I could become a better teacher. Teaching online? I'm pretty sure I already know that is not going to be gig. So creating this online course has really made me change the way I plan out my lessons. I'm the teacher that has an outline and plan of the lessons and objectives I'm going to teach, but having every lesson in concrete weeks in advance--not my style. I consistently come up with better ways to deliver instruction to my students either based off of something new I've found or to build upon something that happened in class. For this online course, having to have lessons and assignments for Weeks 4 and 5 already posted, this gives me heart palpitations.  I will say that I have enjoy having a more specific outline for students each week, and I definitely see the benefits for having students, including my own child one day, taking an online course before venturing off to college. An online course teaches time management...

I would like to ask and discuss the following questions with our leadership team and ultimately all faculty. Does our vision statement, mission statement, and curriculum support and promote these skills in ways to help our students become life-long learners that are valuable members of society? How are we teaching and encouraging students to think beyond the test?  How can we best train and equip our teachers to build and use these skills as part of the daily fabric of their classrooms? I can honestly say that I don’t know the practical answers to these questions. I know what it may partially look like in my classroom, but I would love to brainstorm with our administrators as to the best way to make these skills the expectations of all teachers and students--make them a part of our culture.  Wagner (2016) and Galinsky (2013) promote essential life skills that are similar. They both agree that students need to be able to effectively communicate, be able to think cr...

Confession: Spelling is NOT my favorite. And now thanks to modern technology, my students are even worse at spelling than I was growing up. We have weekly spelling tests and now that we are almost halfway through the year, students are writing their words in cursive for the test. This has been a major speed bump for some of my students. They are terrified of cursive. Some of them press down so hard that their hand hurts after one word. I've now started using Flipgrid to record their spelling words so that students can take their tests at their own pace. This way they can hear a word repeated as many times as they need, and students can also use as much time as they need to work on their cursive hand writing. My kids love this because now they are sitting wherever they want in my room, just taking care of business. Game changer!!!!

I love that our school takes field trips that are educational and fun. My first thought about going to the Wax Museum was that it would be creepy and weird. And it was. But it was also fun. Of course, my teacher brain couldn't let go of the fact that my students were able to visualize some of the parts of history that we learn in our class. Oh, and did I mention that I have a tiny crush on Thor?

I'm a little late posting this, but I appreciate that our small school makes sure that our local Veterans feel appreciated and that our young students understand that this is important. It was a small ceremony, with pomp and circumstance, but then every student walked through the line to shake the hands of all of the Veterans present. It was very heartwarming to watch my two boys do this, especially since we come from such a proud military family.  My father and brother when they were serving in Afghanistan together.  I think the most unique part of our school's Veteran's Day celebration is our participation in the Platoon of the Fallen in the Dallas Veteran's Day Parade. For the last three years, our seniors and some juniors have carried the portraits of fallen soldiers from Texas.  Shad and I did not know about this until about a month ago, but we are true believers that God allowed us to be a part of this special event for a reason bi...