Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Storify: A Tool for Reflection

Last night, some of the participants in a Twitter chat, used the Storify app to create a reflective essay about the chat. Here are two examples, which speak for themselves about using the app in this way. I really like how the process proceeds from a chat question to an example tweet, followed by a reflection and comments for practice in the classroom.


From Edgar Ayala, a mathematics educator and facilitator. 







From Megan Amely, another math enthusiast,







I also like how Megan embedded the Storify in her blog as a viewable slide show, which you can find with this link;

 Teacheredchat Twitter Chat



Monday, March 2, 2015

The Blog a Month Challenge



So it is Blog a Month time. Glad to participate, and above is the prompt. Because I have been teaching Educational Research this year, and not Integrating Technology and Literacy, I have not been posting to this blog with my frequent regularity. Thus, it is good to see a challenge presented and to set aside time to do another post.

Yes, this quotation does resonate with me, especially the first two sentences. Each day, I do focus on purpose, especially when I'm teaching. Even when not in the classroom, am thinking of ideas for the classroom, which is one reason why I turn to Twitter, with a steady stream of tweets for gathering and prompting new ideas. I like to be creative, and sometimes just any tweet will spark an idea. So many wonderful educators share ideas and links to blogs, websites, and tech tools on Twitter. Twitter chats keep me even more focused. Just last night, I happened upon the #Read4Fun chat, a new chat, which garnered over 1200 tweets. How do I know that number? Well, after the chat, I went to Storify to gather them. I collected all of them, but the free version of Storify only allows for 1,000 entries in creating a Storify. Later, I joined the California Educators chat, #CAedchat. The topic was on "pimping your lesson plans," with links to Google Docs to submit a plan for feedback and suggestions.

Tonight, I will be on #teacheredchat, one of the Twitter chats for which I am an organizer. Being an organizer means I am always in search of good guest moderators. All of this reminds me how critical it is to be a connected educator. Why am I a connected educator? I guess it is because I stay focused every day on my purpose as an educator.

Would love to know how the above quotation resonates with others. Hoping you'll leave a comment, and if you are one of the participants in the Blog a Month challenge, leave a link to one of your posts.

I have several blogs and will cross post this one on one of those.

Looking forward to making connections and learning about how others stay focused.