Tuesday, December 29, 2015

How I #MakeSchoolDifferent - #RaesBlogChallenge Post #3

In my role as an administrator and professional developer, I work everyday to #MakeSchoolDifferent by creating learning opportunities for teachers that model how we want students to learn. With a focus on personalized learning and being connected, I try to create learning environments that inspire educators to be global learners.

Whether it is a Blog Challenge, creating gamified learning like Edubadger, or developing online courses like Teaching in the Digital Age, I work to keep growing and sharing as a lead learner in my county.

How do you Make School Different?



Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Creating Science Memes for #RaesBlogChallenge

The topic for the 2nd post of my December Blog Challenge is to create a meme and post it on your blog. I chose to focus on creating science themed memes.

As a former science teacher I love memes that address science issues. There is nothing like getting a good #nerdgiggle from a particularly geeky science meme.  I love this play density and the fact that ice floats. See more of these on the 42 Best Science Memes on the Internet from Buzzfeed.


I had an idea that students could create memes based on science inaccuracies or mistakes in popular media.  For this post I did a Google search for science mistakes in movies and watched a short video from Business Insider on the biggest science mistakes in the movie The Martian.  The meme I created below is from one of the facts shared in the video.


To create this meme I used Google Drawing and simply added two photos and two text boxes. The nice thing about Google Drawing is that I was able to crop the images, re size them and also brighten and adjust the color. The image editing tools in Google Drawing are simple but effective! 


There are meme generators you can use like Meme Generator or the Meme feature in a photo app like Enlight.

I love the idea of students identifying science mistakes in movies, tv, and advertisements and then creating memes that correct the mistake. This is a fun way for students to explore science concepts and think critically about how science is portrayed int he media.

What ideas do you have for students to create memes?

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

My Advice To Future Teachers



The best advice I can give future teachers is to never stop learning. The energy and passion that exudes from an active learner is contagious to students. When you are learning, you model this for your students.

Someone once asked me if I had a hobby. The only thing I could come up with was that learning is my hobby. I love to learn and I think this is important for all teachers to love learning and love BEING a learner. When I have met teachers who are not learners...it shows.


Rae learning about IBM computers at the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, California.

When I was getting my masters I would come to my students each week excited about what I was learning. They were always ready to let me try new strategies and ideas. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. But, we had fun trying.

Once I took an online self paced course to learn Javascript. This was challenging and reminded me of the frustration my students sometime feel when learning new concepts. Never forget what it feels like to be a student!

I am out of the classroom now, but when I attend an EdCamp or other professional development I always come back and try something with kids.  Whether it is creating green screen videos, 3D printing or blogging on a new topic, I love sharing my learning with students.

Rae's new R2D2 Google Cardboard!


Recently, I have been learning more about Virtual Reality. I was able to try it while visiting Stanford University last month and I was hooked. A couple of weeks ago I got Google Cardboard Star Wars Edition. I tried it out at  home with my family and it was so awesome that I came in the next day and shared it with the students in my building. We spent over almost an hour that day trying out virtual reality apps and learning together. One student summed it up when he said, "You can't use Google Cardboard without a smile on your face'

That is my goal, more smiles on student faces.


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Multiple Representations in Math - iPads in Kindergarten

Recentlly, we were able to provide each Kindergarten classroom in the district with a minimum of 8 iPads. To support teachers in integrating this technology effectively, I am providing a series of hands on trainings. Teachers will be creating projects and examples that they can use in class with students. This is the first training which is focused on some basic iPad management and Multiple Representations in Math using several apps including the native camera app, Skitch and Pic Collage.