I have designed this site to be interactive with the intention of having educators comment and post their questions as well as ideas. Below, find a brief synopsis of where to find tools, and the relevance to our classrooms.
Find Answers
Teacher Tube is a helpful tool for teachers who may need extra help with understanding content and how to best deliver instruction to students (TeacherTube). While I spend a lot of planning time focusing on different strategies and lab experiments that students can conduct to increase their content understanding, I seldom think of how to improve my direct instruction moments. I prefer to default to how I personally was taught content in my own education rather than think about different ways to explain content to students, and because Teacher Tube has so many videos, I was initially overwhelmed and unsure of whether to utilize this as a resource. However, I know that in addition to finding different labs for my students, I must also strengthen my own direct instruction in order to best help my students – I hope that continued use of this tool will help me find more relevant ways to teach content. With regards to my technological context, because Teacher Tube is essentially a search engine for instructional videos, it has increased teacher access to tools and resources.
Resources
TeacherTube. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://teachertube.com/
Blogs/News
On my Blogs I Follow page, I have listed several blogs that I have perused that may be helpful to STEM teachers from K-12. I will continue to add more blogs to this page, and am accepting comments for other blogs I should add. While I have utilized teaching websites for strategies and materials before, I have never consulted a blog created by a single teacher for ideas, which Ms. Bethea’s blog (Bethea, n.d.) and Science Penguin (We love science!, n.d.) both are. Growing up, I was taught that blogs are not credible sources, so I had to challenge myself to look into the materials offered on each site before determining that the blogs were not worthwhile. In the process, I found wonderful ideas for lab experiments as well as analysis questions to push students to utilize problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to understand how the lab relates to science content. I was also able to increase my own tech-savviness by looking at the format of both blogs in order to set up my own PLN. I appreciate Ms. Bethea’s blog’s emphasis on 21st century skills, and because I struggle with incorporating the technological context of instructional pedagogy for 21st century skills, I will continue to consult this blog for similar labs and follow-up questions. Our students must learn and develop the abilities for creativity and innovation in the safe spaces of school before they will be required to do so in college and career, and it is our job as teachers to shape our teaching practices to provide these opportunities to our students.
Resources
Bethea. (n.d.). Teaching Chemistry. Retrieved from http://blog.msbethea.com/
We love science! (n.d.). Retrieved from https://thesciencepenguin.com/
Social Bookmarking
Teachers can also benefit from social media to improve teaching practices. On my (Social) Media//Resources page, I have bookmarked my science Twitter account (Classroom, 2018), as well as links to Pinterest (Pinterest, n.d.) and Teachers Pay Teachers (Science Experiment Teaching Resources, n.d.) (TPT) science sections. With regards to creating a Twitter account for this network, I typically do not feel comfortable with having a public online presence, and do not like to post personal opinions and ideas. Additionally, after creating this Twitter and finding accounts to follow, I found several news articles about how the current education system is not adequately preparing students for their future. These experiences pushed me to embrace the challenge of making this PLN in the name of better serving our students. In my own classroom, I have reflected on my little use of visuals. Pinterest and TPT both provide pre-made handouts and student materials, many of which include visuals that I can now use in my classroom. I have gotten comfortable with creating my student-facing materials with a certain format, but these resources forced me to remember the importance of accommodating different learners in my classroom. By being an active participant online via this blog, Twitter, Pinterest, and TPT, I will be more equipped and knowledgeable when it comes to teaching students in my own classroom. Again, this increased the teacher’s access to tools that I can utilize to help my students. In particular, I now follow several Twitter accounts that offer grants and opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups to participate in science experiences!
Resources
Classroom, M. N. (2018, December 01). Ms. Ngo’s Science Classroom (@ngolovesscience). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/ngolovesscience
Pinterest. (n.d). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/
Science Experiments Teaching Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:science experiments
Collaborate
In the spirit of connection and collaboration, I have created a Collaborate! page designed as a discussion space for teachers to ask questions, reply with answers, and share ideas with each other. I also shared my blog with teachers at my school in person, with teachers from other schools at various meetings, and reached out to other teachers creating their PLNs as well. Again, I do not typically like to share my work with others because there is an abundance of material available online that has shown to work more effectively, and had to challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone to share my ideas, and elicit ideas from them, in the name of bettering our collective teaching.
In the process of setting up the collaboration page, I had to figure out how to create a page that would allow viewers to write comments, and also learned how to respond to comments and establish a system for future discussions. This collaboration enhanced my own learning because through setting up the page, I was able to receive resources on student-friendly data tracking from a fellow science teacher. Data tracking is a great tool to invest students in learning by having them create personal goals and I look forward to using this in my classroom. Additionally, this page will elicit different strategies that teachers have found to be effective; thus, it pushes teachers to improve their instructional pedagogy for 21st-century skills.
Ms. Ngo's Learning Network 