Three benefits of this idea of Genius Hour – 20% Time are that the standards referenced are all ELA standards, the versatility of implementing Genius Hour, and the wide-open grading options for completed projects. I think that the closeness of the idea to ELA standards is the best thing as I am an English teacher who is always how to tie new ideas in with standards to match. This seems to be custom-made for the ELA classroom with all of the research, writing, speaking, and presenting. Add in the digital citizenship and it sounds almost scarily good. The versatility of the Genius Hour -20% Time is also wonderful. Teachers and students can make almost any project work in this instance. Whether it is putting together a class booklet on our town and solving the logistical problems and creative conundrums that come along or creating a new kind of book report with 3-D imaging and presenting it to the whole school, the genius of it is it will work with just about any project at all. The final thought I have about the idea is that grading can be done from almost any angle as long as there is a rubric that clearly delineates how the project will be scored, whether it be mostly on creativity with a nod toward grammar or heavily focused on the writing part of the project. The scoring can be as rigorous as we want or need it to be.

One potential hurdle with the Genius Hour idea is by giving students the freedom to do almost anything at all, we run the risk of one or more students deciding that doing nothing is a good way to spend the time. An idea I had to combat this to not let that become an option. Present the idea of 20% time with the constraint that there must be a project of such a length about a particular issue, problem, or product that the student chooses themselves. If they choose the thing they will be studying, they are less apt to do “nothing.”

Another potential obstacle could be resistance to the idea of such an open plan to education by parents and administration. As the author A.J. Juliani writes, a simple way to sell these groups on the idea is to invite them into your classroom and let them see what the environment is like and maybe get involved in helping the students problem-solve. We could also invite them to the presentations like an old-fashioned science fair but call it a “learning fair” instead.

I have been using the application Google Meet for the better part of the last two school years. One benefit I experienced has been the flow of information continued despite the lack of in-person instruction. While my students and I were not physically present in the classroom, we could still meet and learn together. A second benefit I noticed was the camera which allowed me to see my students’ faces during the meet. This was important as it allowed me gauge their levels of understanding from nonverbal cues. One last benefit I can think of is the ability to share the information and handouts through files I could attach to the stream and place in a folder in Google Classroom.

One big challenge in using Google Meet for classes was the lack of student interaction. They just didn’t seem as motivated when they were virtual. Even when called upon, students would sometimes use the excuse that their mikes were not working. Once our school allowed the students to have their camera on or off, the second obstacle became student presence – were they really there at the computer? It became tedious and distracting to keep calling on them. A final challenge to using Google Meet was the computer issues experienced on both ends. Not everyone had access to a second computer at home if the school-issued computer took a holiday.

Most of these problems disappeared when we came back from the pandemic lockdowns, but they weren’t solved in a real sense. If Google Meets become the norm once again, we will probably experience many of the problems again without a change in policy regarding the camera. Many families still do not have a second computer for students to use. Cell phones seem to be a bit too small to be practical in this instance.

Among the benefits of using Twitter as a Professional Learning Network (PLN) is discussing what’s working in teachers’ classrooms and how they address important issues in the same manner they discuss these things with their physical colleagues. In discussing the challenges and successes we deal with on a daily basis with our colleagues in our brick and mortar schools, we gain perspective and vicarious experience from our discussion. By adding in colleagues from all over the “Twitterverse,” we could gain a great deal more knowledge and benefit from the experiences of a much wider pool of colleagues than just those in our schools.

Another benefit to using Twitter as a PLN is that we can gain a sense of community outside of our schools where we can feel alone, especially with small faculty size. In schools with only two or one teacher in a subject area, this problem can result in feeling isolated and cut off with no sense of belonging. When a lone teacher can tweet with other teachers in similar situations, he or she can collaborate and share resources and ideas and maybe get some light professional development that larger faculties take for granted.

Using Twitter as a PLN comes with advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages is simplicity in that a user can be aware of as few or as many subjects as he or she could wish. Simply add or delete the subject from the Twitter feed. Another advantage is how accessible Twitter is. It can be accessed on computer web browsers, smartphones, tablets – essentially any device with internet connection can access Twitter. A third benefit is the compact limit of a Twitter message which is only 280 characters. All messages have to fit into this limit which makes it easy to read and digest. Sharing ideas and best practices is a fourth benefit to using Twitter. Virtual colleagues and peers are only a few swipes away for bouncing ideas off of. A final advantage to using Twitter as a PLN is being able to create an account for free. A Twitter user has full function in the account and not pay for any other services.

With the good comes the bad. Among the disadvantages is the same 280-character limit that was a benefit above. The limit can be very restrictive and a challenge to be brief. A second disadvantage is time can be wasted on Twitter. The more time spent on managing tweets is less time spent on lesson planning or other teaching duties. Third, one has to contend with a lot of spam and ads. They are everywhere and tend to interfere with legitimate tweets and can be very challenging to new users. A fourth disadvantage that is a common problem of technology is addiction to using Twitter. It is rather easy to start spending more and more time and get increasingly involved. This can lead to losing sight of other important things in life. A final disadvantage is that videos cannot be uploaded as videos, only links to the videos can be posted. If a teacher wants to view a video link, he or she has to leave Twitter to visit another page. This makes Twitter a text-based service and not as well suited to visual learners.

Twitter can be used a PLN as an educator can communicate with a much larger community of peers and colleagues to gain more ideas and perspectives to solve issues he or she sees in the classroom. While doing this, educators can educate themselves in many best practices and methodologies for their subject areas. When the hashtags attached to posts are searched, educators can find more specific Tweets regarding their interests and needs.

Flickr would be very useful when asking students to think imaginatively when discussing Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” I could post an image from Flickr of the moon and have them put themselves in Whitman’s place when thinking about the mystery of the moon as opposed to the scientific facts of it in the night sky. Flickr is a treasure-trove of images with any level of licensing and copyright there is. This being the case, I would use it to teach my students about copyright and intellectual property. This knowledge will come in very handy considering that most of them will be heading off to college and the work world where considerations of who owns what idea, text, or image becomes much more serious. Teaching students about acceptable use and gaining permission when needed are invaluable skills for their future.

References:

IMAGES, G. (2022, June 4). phases-of-the-Moon2022_0607_204236. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cristian2014/52489134989/in/photostream/

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Collaborative learning and sharing of knowledge can have many beneficial effects for teachers and students. One of these is everyone in the school environment, including teachers, students, and parents, feels more connectedness and motivation to teach and learn. This increased connectivity could lead to more school pride, a quality that has been lacking in many schools in these last several years.

Another benefit of sharing knowledge is an increase of learning opportunities for students. They will be able to use and interact with the learning materials on an increased rate and depth. As they begin to increase their own knowledge, they will begin working with each other and seeing other perspectives, thus helping them increase their social and emotional learning as an unplanned for side effect of the process.

A final benefit for teachers is the ability to use the interconnection of the classroom to create differentiation for everyone, not just IEP students. The teacher can post remedial materials for those students who are a bit behind, advanced materials for students who need more stimulation, and a general curriculum for the average student to follow.

Nageswaran, K. (2022). 6 Benefits of a Connected School Community. Schoolbox. https://schoolbox.com.au/blog/6-benefits-of-a-connected-school-community/

In “How to Expertly Organize Your Classroom With Google Sites” on edsurge.com, educator Evan Stoudt leads us through building a Google Site to organize the online information in one’s classroom.

Stoudt begins with his struggle with how to bring all of his personalized learning tools and information together but was rescued when one of his fellow teachers recommended building a Google Site. He lauds the openness of the Google set-up while adding the disclaimer that he and his school are Google Apps for Education users and big fans.

As websites are around to share information, disseminate news, and help people connect online, teachers can create an online classroom to do those thing by choosing and using some of a list of categories, such as contact information, class announcements, shoutouts, mastery tracking, study guides, classwork and homework, extra credit and accelerated work, and helpful links. All of these are designed to increase student engagement and learning in his Google Site while building digital literacy and technology fluency.

Stoudt then proceeds to enumerate and give reasons for his favorite Google Site features. Google Calendar is easy to insert in any Google Site and helps teacher and student keep track of due dates and test dates. He also claims that having the calendar displayed prominently helps to guide the students in managing their time and developing organizational skills.

Google Sites can also function as a mini-search engine to help one find information, content, or subpages in the Google Site. Stoudt claims this makes finding resources much more efficient. If students need to find information on a particular skill over the weekend or remediate in preparation for a exam, they simply type a keyword into the search box.

Access to Google Drive is also a big benefit in that any files are synced to your Google Site by default. Sharing a resource located on the Drive is easy with a few clicks. Any changes a teacher makes in a document containing information or due dates update automatically when students access the file.

When he first started with digital content, Stoudt liked the fact that students enjoyed the content and videos but did not like directing them to an outside site. He ended up “branding” his website and buying a domain through Google. This helped the author to make the Google Site interesting to teachers as well as students to the extent that every teacher at every grade level created individual course pages. Stoudt goes on to add information about tracking numbers and types of users who access his site.

Personalizing the Google Site to one’s taste is also very easy as there are over 50 different themes to choose from. This makes creating a site with the teacher’s personality. While the themes are not as polished or professional looking as other sites, Google Sites makes up the lack in speed and ease of creation.

Sharing, permissions, and customization are also easily possible with just a few clicks of the mouse in the right settings area. Stoudt takes the time to mention that a new user should take it step by step and not try to do too much at one time.

This article will help my professional practice with its description of the many possibilities available when creating a Google Site for my classroom and this class. The fact that it is possible to make small changes as I go along helps with the anxiety of trying to do it all at once. There also several tips on what to try out on a new page. Stoudt’s insistence on the ease of customization is also a comfort.

Stoudt, E. (2018, December 27). How to expertly organize your classroom with google sites – edsurge news. EdSurge. Retrieved November 14, 2022, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-07-08-how-to-expertly-organize-your-classroom-with-google-sites.

In “Google Sites vs WordPress: 4 Key Differences,” author Kathryn Lang discusses the 4 main differences between the two platforms and breaks down which platform is better for whom on ithemes.com. Lang begins her article by discussing who each platform is for, continues into customization options, goes on with ease of use, and finishes with overall flexibility.

Lang begins her comparison by stating that WordPress is for everyone as it offers so many options and customizations for people who want to run a blog or magazine-style site, an event site, or an eCommerce site. WordPress itself originally began as a blogging site but has evolved into a “complete content management system.” This means that it is usable by someone with no extra knowledge of html, coding, or other specialized knowledge which has increased its appeal to a growing demographic of users. Lang goes on to say that 40% of all websites are on WordPress. The one downside, she says, is that there is a learning curve in the beginning; this difficulty soon passes as one becomes familiar with the platform.

On the other had, Google Sites can be set up and running very quickly for someone who just a simple and straightforward page builder. While one’s ability to customize the Google Sites is severely limited, it is a good choice for a “on-off site.” This does not make a good long-term site choice for business growth.

Kathryn Lang goes on to discuss customization options which both platforms offer in different ways. WordPress gives one the ability to customize freely with one’s imagination. This can be a difficulty, Lang says, due to the sheer number of different option available in all of the features. For people who like coding, there are even more options. When it comes to customizing Google Sites, there just are not a lot of options. However, Lang says that what it lacks in options, it makes up in ease of use and simplicity. When creating a new page, one sees a page builder load and all options that are available. Easily added are options like text boxes, dividers, images, buttons, other options. Dragging and dropping are the only skills needed.

With ease of use, some users may become paralyzed with the sheer number of options WordPress offers and be asea with where to begin. Once one becomes familiar with the system, however, we realize that everything is there with a bit of learning. Google Sites does not suffer from the same difficulties as it is incredibly easy to use from the moment one begins to create. While Google Sites is incredibly easy to use, WordPress cannot be denied winning based on sheer power.

This power is most evident in WordPress’ flexibility and customizability to create any type of website one could want. While Google Sites cannot compete with this flexibility, it gives the user access to Google’s complete suite to use. And while it cannot be used to publish blogs, one can link to Google’s Blogger platform.

In the final analysis, Lang states that the two platforms serve two very different audiences. Google Sites is a wonderful platform that is easy to set up and is great for new, inexperienced users. It gives one a limited presence on the web. WordPress is definitely for a more business-focused community of users who want or need more versatility in their web site construction and use.

With my limited experience with website construction and limited use for now, this article helped solidify my choice of Google Sites as my collaboration tool. I would like to focus on a more limited area before branching out to something as big and varied as WordPress. However, my recent experience with Edublogs, a subsidiary of WordPress, has me thinking that I may be able to handle something like the latter.

Lang, K., & Kathryn LangKathryn Lang believes it is simple. (2021, October 7). Google sites vs WordPress: 4 key differences. iThemes. Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://ithemes.com/blog/google-sites-vs-wordpress/

In “What is Google Sites, and When Should You Use It?” on howtogeek.com, Sandy Whittenhouse gives many reasons why we might want to give Google Sites a try. But first, Whittenhouse defines Sites as “a website and page creation tool…part of the Google Workspace productivity suite.” It is free to use at the moment and completely integrates most other Google apps such as Calendar, Maps, Docs, and more. Another selling point is that we do not need any knowledge about coding, html, or computer design.

Among these reasons for using the application are when we are creating a in-house website for company information, communicating with family far away, working on a project with shared information and documents, writing an online resume and/or portfolio, or most interestingly, making a class website that posts rules, office hours, and assignment details.

Whittenhouse states that the complete integration of other Google services is the biggest advantage with the ability of the user to add calendars, maps, documents, slideshows, and tables with a simple process. The simplicity continues with page construction with drag and drop capability and ease in resizing text boxes, images, and charts. Sharing the website is also extremely easy and works like sharing documents or slides with total control over who sees and does not see the contents.

There are limitations in Sites relating to an absence of site categories, description, or sitemap. We cannot embed the site on other sites. We cannot use social sharing buttons nor have access to the HTML code.

As my intentions in using Google Sites is purely for within my classroom, these limitations do not hinder me. This Google app fits my needs very well. At the moment, my needs encompass a place to interact online with my students and places to post assignments. A clearly defined and limited space is all I need at this stage of technology integration. it will allow me and my students to get used to the idea of blogging whether they are new to the activity or veterans. Using Google Sites will allow me to provide access to all the materials to everyone regardless of their presence or absence. I can post a calendar with the assignments with instructions and due dates for the whole class with the option for the students to ask questions. This will be especially helpful for the students who are hesitant to ask so as not to be seen as less by their peers. This website creation tool will be very helpful in getting our class set up on the web and will be a stepping stone once I have learned how to use it well.

Writtenhouse, S. (2021, October 1). What is google sites, and when should you use it? How. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.howtogeek.com/749191/what-is-google-sites-and-when-should-you-use-it/#:~:text=Google%20Sites%20is%20a%20Google,Google%20Sites%20might%20be%20ideal.

Lesson: Appreciating Thoreau

Objective: Students will read Walden by HD Thoreau and blog about it.  

Process:

1. Student will read the excerpt posted on the class’ Pinterest board.
2. Students will respond to the discussion questions at the end of the selection. The responses will be posted on Google Classroom.
3. For the next week, students will take a daily walk in or around a natural setting. Students will keep a journal comparing and contrasting the world/nature Thoreau writes about and the world they are observing.
4. At the end of the week, students will work collaboratively to find and tag other pages or boards that are compatible with the views expressed by Thoreau in Walden and pin those pages/boards.
5. Students will explain their choices in a blog post on the class blog.

I chose this lesson plan because I usually have the class keep a paper journal and thought that this would be a good way to incorporate a different kind of journal. Another reason I chose this lesson is that Thoreau is one of my favorite Transcendentalists. It is a good marriage of the 19th century philosophy and 21st century technology.

Advantages to making the revision would probably include increased interest in Thoreau if only for the sake of using the computer for class work. Other benefits would include better netiquette, digital literacy, and better digital citizenship. A disadvantage may be taking some of the focus away from Thoreau’s natural observations in favor of technology, Another disadvantage is that students may have to take notes on paper and then transfer those to the computer. It is sometimes difficult to take a computer into the rain or on a windy day.

When I have been accessing RSS feeds for this assignment, I have been struck by the amount and variety of information that is available out there. I think that students using the feeds would help them with information gathering on a research project, as well as helping them to discern good sites from bad sites. This would help to enhance their information literacy. I could see myself benefitting from RSS for the classroom and instruction tips and plans. It would be much needed “shot in the arm” with fresh ideas to teach and encourage students to learn.

Five of the RSS blogs and feeds that I have found to beneficial in the future for my practice and classroom are:

1. TED Talks about Education – There is a lot of good information and some motivational speaking to be found here.
2. Grammargeddon – This is a humorous site with jokes and puns about grammar and the English language.
3. Pennsylvania Education – This RSS can keep me up to date on current news on education and life in Pennsylvania.
4. Education Trends – Another RSS feed I think will keep me up on current national educational trends.
5. Daring English Teacher – This RSS feed contains some humor and many lesson ideas for the English classroom.