Week Fourteen Reflection: Technology 101 Skills for Teachers By Shelly Fryer
Shelly Fryer is an elementary teacher at Positive Tomorrows (@ptokc), a school for homeless children in Oklahoma. For the past few years she has been at Oklahoma A Plus Schools (@okaplus), where their goal is reforming and bringing change into school classrooms. Below is an informative video regarding what Oklahoma A Plus Schools are about. They believe that classrooms need to adapt to the ever changing world around us just as the world of technology is always changing. Within the interview some students said they really like their school, saying their teachers are very caring, creative, engaging, helpful, and have fun learning. They also said they enjoyed working in groups and being challenged. These schools especially put value on the arts. They use hands on approaches, incorporate cross-curricular instruction by linking core subjects, using collaboration, and helping students use multiple learning pathways for assessments. This school sounds great with its progressive learning environments and culture.
In the video below, you can see one way Shelly incorporates technology into her classroom. As you can see it is a demonstration of student learning utilizing a project where a student’s creativity and contribution is valued. With this video on YouTube, others are able to see what these students are learning within the classroom environments. This can help students realize that their work really does matter as well as show it off to a larger audience than just their teacher. I believe this project to be a great idea!
Shelly Fryer talks about how teachers need to be supported and encouraged to use technology and I agree with her. I believe that that is a key component in the evolution of our classrooms. As someone who is not all that confident with technology, I know that I could use that kind of encouragement and support. It’s important for teachers to get the support they need to learn about and have access to the numerous technology apps and tools available to them. Teachers also need to learn about how to use and incorporate this technology into their classrooms. The value of incorporating technology is so important because it is something that children today can relate to and can easily pick up. These apps are something a student can learn and use to create projects that they can be proud and excited about.
If you are interested in seeing additional ideas and projects on using technology in the classroom as well as many other great resources on a variety of topics from Shelly please check out her classroom website. From this website I also learned about different apps and websites that I could eagerly use in my own classroom. One that she uses is called SeeSaw, it appears to be a really simple and easy way to collect and share students’ work. It is a cross devise service, allowing you to use it on both a website and an app. This is greatly beneficial in the classroom and also a great way to stay organized.
Another interesting thing I learned about was Safeshare.tv. Shelly Fryer says that when she is sharing YouTube videos with her students, she uses SafeShare.tv. This makes it so that when she shows videos it provides her with a link that won’t allow other videos or comments to appear that may be inappropriate or distracting for her students. I also found out about the app called Pic Collage Kids. This provides students with image search tools that only allow appropriate and kid safe images. This is a great tool that would be useful for all teachers to know about.
If you are interested in seeing additional ideas and projects on using technology in the classroom as well as many other great resources on a variety of topics from Shelly please check out her classroom website. From this website I also learned about different apps and websites that I could eagerly use in my own classroom. One that she uses is called SeeSaw, it appears to be a really simple and easy way to collect and share students’ work. It is a cross devise service, allowing you to use it on both a website and an app. This is greatly beneficial in the classroom and also a great way to stay organized.
Another interesting thing I learned about was Safeshare.tv. Shelly Fryer says that when she is sharing YouTube videos with her students, she uses SafeShare.tv. This makes it so that when she shows videos it provides her with a link that won’t allow other videos or comments to appear that may be inappropriate or distracting for her students. I also found out about the app called Pic Collage Kids. This provides students with image search tools that only allow appropriate and kid safe images. This is a great tool that would be useful for all teachers to know about.
Shelly Fryer is not only an awesome teacher incorporating technology into her classroom she also has a class that has their own radio show, YouTube channel, and posts photos on Flickr. The following video shows why she believes it is important to use technology in the classroom and why it is important to share your students’ work both in and out of the classroom.
I really learned so much from Shelly Fryer’s blog, Technology 101 Skills for Teachers. I learned about Oklahoma A Plus Schools as well as a variety of others websites and apps. It was also great and reinforcing to see how she used some apps in her classroom that I have learned about within my own educational technology class. This was a wonderful way to review and gain many ideas on how to incorporate technology into my own classroom.
“I am convinced technology tools should be used to enhance and amplify student creativity.” - Shelly Fryer