Mrs. Freddy's Practical EdTech

                         via GIPHY That's what we are talking about here. Public schools get a lot of money to spend each year. A lot of this money is in the form of grants. The problem is that someone has to decide how to spend it while also making sure to follow guidelines laid out by the district or state. This is not an easy job and it may need to be a team effort. Making these decisions needs to be considered carefully with a well thought-out plan.  There are two basic types of grants that are available: entitlement grants and competitive grants. Entitlement grants include Title I, Title VI, and Eisenhower funds. Schools that qualify for Title I grants must have high numbers of low-income families. The best thing about these grants is that there are so many options of how the money can be used. Each school can use these funds to purchase supplies, instructional materials, programs, and technology.  Technol...

I know how most teachers feel about professional development. Ugh! In my experience as a teacher, I've been given a lot of tools, software, devices, programs. You name it and I probably have a teacher account that my district has provided. What is lacking is the training in how to use all of them or even most of them. So many times, teachers are sent tutorial videos to watch on their own time when given something new to learn. Other times, teachers have to teach themselves or find videos online to learn things. Something that I have noticed is that training is given for things that teachers do not even use on a daily basis. We have to change this. As a future technology coordinator, I want to make it a mission to provide training for teachers often and make sure that it will actually be relevant. Teachers do not want to feel like their time is wasted on training for "nothing." This means that leaders need to get input from teachers on what they need and what will be the...

This whole idea of Instructional Coaching is something new to me. I had never heard of it until recently. I knew of mentor teachers but that is not exactly the same thing. Instructional coaching requires a relationship that is trusting and honest. It will be one where all people involved will benefit. The video below is a brief overview of what instructional coaching needs to be.              After reading chapter four of The Impact Cycle , I feel that making a checklist will be a great starting point for the coaching process. I will be coaching a veteran teacher. We have discussed that she wants to get more student engagement for the whole class period. Her struggle is with the use of technology in meaningful ways that provide the engagement she wants. I use checklist for myself in other ways all the time. Knight et. al (2018) says, "Checklists help a coach remember everything by providing a clear structure and map for explaining the teach...

It is important to start by saying that I am new to the idea of instructional coaching. We don't have what you would call Instructional Coaches in my district. I guess you could consider some of the teachers working at the district office to be instructional coaches. They are what we call Resource Teachers. These select few work in all different departments and are available to educate teachers in anything new that comes through. I would say that is kind of my dream job, to teach teachers. With my master's degree in technology, I would love to be able to help other teachers find and use technology in meaningful ways. The video below talks about coaching teachers to do just that.                I feel like all teachers engage in coaching and mentoring with each other on a daily basis. We stand around and talk about students, good and bad. We bounce ideas off of each other and may even decide to try some of those ideas. It could be som...

  Why do we need to use Instructional Design?  We have all been to many professional developments (PDs) in our careers. Most of the time we sit there listening to someone lecture for hours and leave feeling like we learned nothing. This is why we need Instructional Design. This helps the teacher/presenter to know what materials will be the best to make the learners achieve their goals. Brown and Green (2020) say, " it includes development of instructional materials and activities, and tryout and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities." (p. 7). So, what can we do to make sure our own teaching follows a good design? Here are some tips to making your instruction successful. In this process, I have learned more about the need to plan your instruction. In writing an outline and thinking about what the needs are it has helped me to understand how to implement instruction that will be meaningful now and in the future. Brown and Green (2020) say, " it is good pract...

  As educators we all dread the words Professional Development (PD). It is just something that makes teachers feel as if they have wasted valuable time that could have been used for something else. As long as students' needs and experiences keep changing, we will still need to engage in PD to learn the tools to connect with them. According to Weidenseld and Bashevis (2013), "teachers report a lack of respect from district personnel in regard to their time and their opinions about PD. (p. 105)." They go on to say that "empowering teachers to select the types of PD and compensating them for time outside the workday would help improve teacher attitudes and participation. (p. 105)."  In the video below, Eric Sheninger says we have to change to meet the students where they are.              First off, I think that learning can occur with so many different resources and in a lot of different places. There is no one right way to learn or to ...