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Student Teaching
This is my 3rd year of teaching. During student teaching I was exposed to new technology that I had not encountered before. We used our Smart Board daily for math lessons. We had a laptop cart that we used a few times a week. The students also used IXL frequently when we went to the computer lab. For behavior management, we used the website Class Dojo. This was a technology for the teachers, not the students. The students had little access to technology in the beginning of my career. -
Classroom Instagram
During my first year of teaching, I decided to create a classroom Instagram account. (@missbensko) My middle school students are great at finding you on every social media and I was tired of blocking them from everything. I decided to create a classroom account for my students and their parents. I post pictures of what is happening in our school and classroom, as well as reminders. I LOVE it & I highly suggest it for middle and high school teachers! -
Year 1
In my first year of teaching, I dove right into using technology in the classroom. The students were 1:1 with laptops for the first time so this was a big change for our school. Google Classroom was also very new, but I dove right in and had my students be my guinea pigs! In science, the students used online simulations such as Phets and Explore Learning Gizmos. I was introduced to the websites Quizlet and Kahoot as review games for the students. I also created a class Instagram! -
Professional Instagram
I started my professional Instagram the summer after my first year of teaching. I remember following all of these amazing teachers and saying, "I want to do that. I want to share my resources and inspire others!" I cannot explain how much this Instagram has influenced me and all of the connections I have made! (@maniacsinthemiddle) -
Team Website
I created our Team Website because I wanted to have more freedom with what could be on it. Before, we had one "landing page" and we couldn't fit everything we wanted on there. I create this Weebly with everything that parents and students would need to find! -
Teachers Pay Teachers
I created a Teachers Pay Teachers account. I did not post a whole lot in the beginning. I began to post more in the last 6 months and have had a lot of success. -
Year 2
In addition to the technologies from year 1, I started to expand the technology I was using in my classroom. I met with our tech coach twice a month. She would share new websites she had found. We used Vocaroo for a project. Animoto and Powtoon were actually shown to be by my students. They asked if they could do their project using one of these sites! I created our website that we use as a team. For quizzes, I started using Socrative and Google Forms. -
Year 3
This year is my 3rd year of teaching. After taking two tech classes this summer, I really enjoy finding new technology to use in my classroom. Screencastify and FlipGrid were both introduced to me through the summer courses. As a district, we switch our 1:1 to Chromebooks for the students. Another teacher showed me Quizizz which I love for a review game! My partner teacher introduced me to PearDeck which lets the kids have the presentation on their laptops! I also use Spotify for music. -
Blog
I am currently working with a blog designer on my blog! (maniacsinthemiddle.com) It should launch in the next month or so. I am so excited to share my journey, resources, and lessons through this platform! -
Merge Cubes
Have you ever heard of Merge Cubes??!! They are all the rage right now. My technology coach at my school showed them to me and I freaked out. They are 3D Augmented Reality Cubes. They are $1 at Walmart currently. You download various apps on your phone and point the camera at the cube. Looking through your phone, it is as if you are holding a human heart that is beating, or the entire solar system. This new technology is amazing and is transforming the way our students learn! -
Professional Teaching Blog
One of my goals for 2018 was to create a blog. When I was student teaching and during my first year of teaching, I would constantly look to Pinterest for teaching ideas. I would then end up on a blog where the teacher went into great detail about their lesson. I just wanted to do this for other teachers. I want to share lessons in my classrooms with teachers all over the world. http://maniacsinthemiddle.com -
Classroom Blogs
My reDesign project was on implementing classroom blogs as our bell ringers. I did this using eduBlogs. This has been a goal of mine for quite a while. During student teaching, we all had a blog through one of our courses. Ever since then, I have always wanted to implement this into my classroom. My goal was to get the students commenting and collaborating appropriately through an online platform.
