Mary's World

     Although I know many students who would argue with me, I have honestly enjoyed distance learning this semester. I think that as long as you can stay committed to attending your classes over video calls, balancing your school and personal life can be quite easy. I've been able to broaden my work hours as well, since I no longer have such a strict schedule. Being able to complete my work on a more personalized schedule has definitely made school less stressful.     Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational resources, activities, tools, etc. that are accessible, and usable to everyone. While using an OER, you are free to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the work based on the creator's wishes, and set your own restrictions on how your work is used/changed. Using OER's, teachers can save a lot of time developing lesson plans and  activities/assignments. This article   summarized the importance of OER, how to use them, and...

     I really enjoyed the web design assignment and being able to personalize my own space! Although I had never done it before, I was able to figure everything out and learn a few new skills along the way. I had never created a virtual calendar before, and was pleased with how organized and clear I was able to make it. This new skill could definitely be put to use in my daily life! I often find that my planner is messy and hard to follow; using a digital calendar could reduce the mess and keep my tasks organized. I also learned how to better use space and create an aesthetically pleasing and decluttered product. These skills can be useful not just when creating websites, but any online space. These tools can help me to take better notes as well as organize my work. You can visit by website here. In our use with Diigo, I have noticed that it could be a very useful tool while researching. It's highlighting a sticky note features make it easy to keep your annotations with t...

       Teacher pages are a good reference for both students and parents when they're in need of contacting in the teacher or getting information about the course. I was able to find a class blog curated from a high school teacher of mine on the school website's faculty directory. He has a page for each of his classes that include due dates, assignments, and notes. His blog also provides current even stories that connect the subject matter to the real world and a tab for submitting questions. I think that this class blog is a very useful tool to help students keep up with the classwork as well as expand the ideas/knowledge they've learned in the classroom. This blog also makes it very easy for parents to contact the teacher as well as become familiar with what their children are learning. An NFMHS Class Blog: https://mrandosciasclassroom.net/class-blog/      Technology can be implemented into classrooms in many different ways and its prevalence in ...

     Diigo was completely new to me before last week’s assignments. I did not have much trouble learning how to use it, but I would not say I enjoyed using it. Diigo’s set up is not very aesthetically pleasing to me; it seemed as though the web page was focused on function, not design layout.      Before this class, I had always been interested in blogging but never knew how to approach it. Now navigating my own and everyone else’s blogs has been one of my favorite parts of this class.  I really enjoy being able to set up my own online workspace and organize it however I please. My biggest takeaway from what we have learned about blogging in this class would be how to make the contents of my page appear minimal and organized.       One web tool that I would love to use in a classroom is Prezi.com . Prezi allows you to make all different types of personalized slideshow presentations. I used this website for many presentations as a ...

       I have been using twitter since the year 2013 and would consider myself a pretty fluent user. I find twitter to be one of the best platforms to have conversations and share/find information. Although I always knew twitter was home to countless different hashtags and subjects of tweets to explore, I was still shocked to see the surplus of new and constantly updating conversation going on in the education communities. This could be extremely beneficial in my future career as a way to ask questions, get advice, and share my own tips in whatever field I am pursuing.       Digital divide has proven to have a large impact on student success. Students who have access to updated (or any) technology outside of school will be better equipped to incorporate it into the academics/work later on. The digital divide is often caused by economic disadvantages that prevent families from being able to afford new devices, wifi, data, etc. As a teacher it is ve...

     The ELA technology standards are in place to help students learn how to implement technology into their educational/professional work. LAFS.7.SL.2.5 (7th grade) requires educators to implement multimedia/visual components into their presentations/lessons. During past school assignments I have loved using graphics, slideshows, posters, etc. to make presentations and lessons more exciting; we also practiced using graphics and posters in our newsletter assignment, which I had very little to no trouble with! As a student who has dealt with these components on multiple occasions, I can see how important this standard is when creating an effective and comfortable learning environment. Based on my current skills and the observation above I think I am very prepared to implement this standard and am excited to expand my knowledge on how to do more within it!      One resource available in the CPALMS (7th grade, English) that stood out to me was an interactive s...