Impactful Integration With Amy

Technology has transformed the way I teach and the way my students learn.   As a librarian I get the pleasure of meeting students and staff right where they’re at to help them select relevant tools to meet their learning goals.   I’m passionate about leveraging technology to amplify student voice and  bringing innovative tools to the library and schoolwide that promote critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration.   My goal is that students find the library to be a space for innovation, collaboration and risk-taking. Each day that our students enter the doors of the library is a new opportunity for them to grow and pursue their passions and to get closer to acquiring the skills they need for lifelong success.   I am so blessed to be able to work with our teachers weekly on impactful technology integration.  We are focused on developing a shared vision and culture for technology use campus wide.  At PSJA Collegiate ...

Choice boards have been around for awhile, however I have noticed they are really trending lately.  When I was an elementary teacher and librarian, I did use choice boards in a low tech way.  I gave students options in how they might respond to a lesson. Now that our campus is one to one with devices, I realized I hadn't tried digital choice boards with my high school students.  I decided to go with combination of stations and choice boards to flip my instruction with my 11th graders last week.  I knew I wanted to structure their library visit in a way that we could cover four areas: finding a good book, researching colleges, exploring test prep materials and checking out a book.    So how do we start using choice board in way that works for teachers and students. Tip 1: Use a template I'm always so inspired by what Mrs. Howell is doing with Gold Edu and I decided to use a template she shared with our group.  Here is the template I used: Inspiration/ t...

  This issue of Power PD includes some creative ways to increase productivity, build your PLN and jazz up your slides presentations.   You can check out the slidedeck with all the links here. Productivity:   I think each of us is thinking about how we can be more productive and eliminate unnecessary stress in our lives.  I had a chance to listen to the Truth for Teachers Podcast recently as they discussed 5 ways to improve productivity.  I highly recommend you tune in to the episode to hear the host really delve into each of the 5 tips.  I thought I'd take a few minutes here to reflect on how I plan to use those tips in my life: 1. E liminating unintentional breaks and making intentional breaks. For me this is a big one, sometimes I find myself jumping around from task to task and I have found that a daily to do list keeps me grounded.  Since the pandemic I started using an iPad and the GoodNotes app to organize my thinking and planning.  One...

  Throughout my time as an educator there have been training sessions that really stuck with me and those that were quickly forgotten.  As I begin rolling out Tech Tuesday sessions with teachers this school year, I took some time to reflect on what makes an interesting, memorable and impactful training session for me.  These are some of the questions I consider in how I provide training for teachers: 1.  What does this look like in the classroom? 2.  How can I apply what I've learned? 3.  How does this solve a problem or make my life easier? 4.  Is the information easy to follow and come back to? Making Thinking Visible- What does it look like in the classroom? In my recent training session with my teachers, we revisited their Gripe Jam which I spoke more about in this blog post .  They delved into brainstorming areas they are struggling with in their classroom.  It could be organization, lesson planning, lesson implementation, engagement, ut...

This post is week 8 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators . Honestly, as the final week concludes I'm sad to see it go. I'm so glad I stumbled across this challenge during #pd4uandme Twitter Chats.  I had received some feedback from a few of my colleagues and friends that I should try my hand at something new.  One suggested blogging and one suggested opening a TPT store.  I thought about options and marked them down as possibilities.  When I saw the #8weeksofsummer Blog Challenge I knew this was the time for me to make the leap and just start already!   This week's topic is all about sharing new knowledge, skills and attitudes I learned this year.  The biggest change that led me to gaining new knowledge was becoming a Google certified trainer.  It has opened so many doors for me.  Three years ago I attended a regional service center training to become Google level one certified.  During that summer, three years ago, t...

This post is week 7 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators .  I don't know about you, but I always have mixed emotions as we get ready to go back to school.  I am excited about all the potential each new school year brings, but I'm also feeling like summer passed to quickly.  Can you relate?  Throughout this summer I have been searching out my own training through my PLN on Twitter, PD books and other online resources.  I also stumbled upon some new to me blogs and podcasts that I felt like I could really relate to.  One thing all of these resources have in common is that they are focused on one or more of these topics:  how to engage students with high yield strategies a framework that allows students to represent their ideas in multiple ways and to provide students voice and choice in how they express what they know using backward design to choose technology tools after the learning objective has be set innovative teaching methods...

This post is week 6 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators.   This time I'm looking into what I will keep, lose or try in the upcoming school year.  I really liked this question posed by the Hot Lunch Tray blog: "What makes educational technology a keeper?"  To me this is an essential question to address because as we come back to completely in person instruction my goal is to help teachers feel empowered to continue using technology in impactful ways with students and not just say well we are back let get out the worksheets.  In order for educational technology to be a keeper for me it has to address the 4 C's- creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration and it needs to be simple enough that we aren't wasting too much time explaining how to use the tool over and over again.   Which Tools Will I Keep? Canva - 100% yes!  This year I attended a session by Kristina Holzweiss, author of Hacking School Libraries and @li...

This post is week 5 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators. This week's topic is all about the successes and challenges of communication during the pandemic.  It became crystal clear that during virtual learning the focus of communication needed to broaden to reach students multiple ways.  Without students coming to the virtual space of the library or classroom, I couldn't rely on signage on walls, tables and doors to spread the news of upcoming events and new resources.  Also I had to consider, how can I get my learners talking in a virtual environment? During this past year, communication had to get an over haul to meet the needs of the different learning styles of my learners and to ensure accessibility to make learning equitable for all.  When instruction was happening in person, many times I would give the directions and model how to do something.  I would include written directions for multi step assignments.  This strategy alone did...