10-Rep Learning ~ Teague's Tech Treks

Learning Technology & Tech Observations by Dr. Helen Teague

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Flag Day

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Happy Flag Day!

Happy Flag Day! 

Here’s a Flag Day Check-in for my wonderful online Learners in RDLA235!

 

Click on this link to relive the wonder of this most iconic images by Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag on the surface of the Moon.  Learn more about stars & stripes in space:

See a short yet comprehensive video on Why We Celebrate Flag Day at this link from the Cincinnati Enquirer

 

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Culturally Responsive Teaching, Digital Media & Informal vs. Formal Learning and Empathy

You’ve been thinking deeply about digital media and culturally responsive teaching, and the differences between formal and informal learning during this week.

Teachers must walk the line between both formal and informal learning everyday. In this inspiring narrative, 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Leonard provides an poignant example of empathetic formal and informal teaching.

The Power of Seven Words–The Whisper Test

Mary Ann Bird was born with multiple birth defects. She suffered not only from her physical impairments but also with the emotional trauma of “being different” from others. Here is a story of the power of 7 familiar words.

From Mary Ann’s reflection, “I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.

When schoolmates asked, “What happened to your lip?” I’d tell them I’d fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.

By the age of seven I was convinced that no one outside my family could ever love me. Or even like me.

And then I entered the second grade, and Mrs. Leonard’s class.

I never knew what her first name was – just Mrs. Leonard. She was round and pretty and fragrant, with chubby arms and shining brown hair and warm dark eyes that smiled even on rare occasions when her mouth did not. Everyone adored her. But no one came to love her more than I did. And for a special reason.

The time came for the annual “hearing tests” to be given at our school. I was barely able to hear anything out of one ear, and was not about to reveal yet another problem that would single me out as different.

And so I cheated.

I had learned to watch other children and raised my hand when they did during group testing. The “whisper test” however, required a different kind of deception: Each child would go to the door of the classroom, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and the teacher would whisper something from her desk, which the child would repeat. Then the same thing was done for the other ear.

I had discovered in kindergarten that nobody checked to see how tightly the untested ear was being covered, so I merely pretended to block mine. As usual, I was last, but all through the testing I wondered what Mrs. Leonard might say to me. I knew from earlier years that she whispered things like “The sky is blue” or “Do you have new shoes?”

My turn came up. I turned my bad ear to her, plugging up the other solidly with my finger, then gently backed my finger out enough to be able to hear.

I waited and then the words that God had surely put into Mrs. Leonard’s mouth, seven words that changed my life forever.

Mrs. Leonard, the pretty teacher I adored, said softly, “I wish you were my little girl.”

 

The Bible says we will be held accountable for our every careless word (Matt. 12:36-37). Normally, this is taken as a negative – our every idle, harsh, or mean or untrue word.

I believe it also applies to life-changing positive words like “I wish you were my little girl.”
Story by Mary Ann Bird

 

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Thank you for all you do for kids!

Dr. Teague

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Learning, Coaching, and Laying the Track

As We Close Our Final Day of our Final Week

“With one exception, every single writer I met likened writing for television to one thing–laying track for an oncoming speeding train. The story is the track and you gotta keep laying it down because of the train. That train is production. You keep writing, you keep laying track down, no matter what, because the train of production is coming toward you- no matter what.” ~Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes, pp. xiii.

Tech coaches liken coaching their colleagues to laying track for an oncoming speeding train. Learning is the track and you gotta keep laying it down because of the train. That train is the school year and the students. You keep learning and coaching, you keep laying track down, no matter what, because the train of the school year and the students are coming toward you-no matter what.

 ~Adapted from Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes, pp. xiii.

In this last discussion forum, you continued your peer support and collegiality continues. Now, at the close of the course, we are at the perpetuation and sustainability level of our PLN (Groundwater-Smith & Mockler, 2012). We are laying track for the future.

You are busy, busy tonight with so many things. But in the next day or so, please consider clicking in and returning to class. Please click over to the Class Wall, where you began our course. Scan/read the introductions we all posted there. Take just a couple of minutes to read/reread the service-oriented intros of your course colleagues. You might not have visited the Class Wall in almost six weeks, but please return there and scroll through the messages of the members of our class PLN.

It has been a privilege to learn with you… please keep in touch as you keep laying track!!

Dr. Teague

 

Reference

Groundwater-Smith, S. & Mockler, N. (2012). Sustaining professional learning networks: The Australasian challenge. In C. Day (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Teacher and School Development (pp. 506–515), London: Routledge.

 

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My Favorite Screenshot ~ June 11


 

 

(Image from available on Amazon: )

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Changing Your Profile Photo in Canvas

Hi Online Learners in PBSRDLA 235!

Great to talk with you by phone/Skype/email yesterday and today!

Need Help to Add Your Profile Picture in Canvas?

Watch this little Loom Video: https://www.loom.com/share/a3c9a46a8ae74ca8947f577f4e812078

(Note: The video does not have narration.)

Teague Loom Vid Cover Image

 

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Teaching LifeLong Reading Habits Features Lisa Bu

There is still time to register and join us!

 

Listen to the TED Talk Podcast Audio:

 

Please visit the PBS TeacherLine Catalog to sign up for our course!

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Digital-Age Best Practices

 

Read the Latest Research

Digital Age Best Practices – ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/…/3+Digital+Age+Best+Practices.pdf

TEC544Week53DigitalAgeBestPractices (2)-1s34y3j

 

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PD by the Pool! (or the park, porch, playground…)

 

 

Link to the Complete PBS Course Catalog: http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/catalog/

@PBSTeachers

#PBSReaders4Life

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Weekend Ed. Quote ~ June 7

“Technology coaches use their expertise to design, develop, and deliver high-quality professional development programs that help their colleagues learn about and learn with technology.” ~Jo Williamson

 

TeagueSessionTCEASkype

 

 

 

Reference

Williamson, J. (2015). Effective digital learning environments: Your guide to the ISTE standards for coaches. Eugene, Oregon ; Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education.

 

 

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More Weekend Ed. Quo

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