Last PLN, Productivity

I am a very productive person. Other people call me a busy-body as I cannot just sit down, I have to constantly do things. Whenever I help students with homework, I cannot sit down, I have to stand up and walk around. This helps me think of new ideas and activities to do with the kids since I am always thinking. Technology has helped me expand my ideas to others and if I cannot think of something to do, I can use technology to help me use someone else's ideas. But that is just one way I use technology to be productive. I also use my Google calendar to organize my routines and deadlines, that way I always have my schedule with me wherever I go.

After watching this week's topic video and reading the featured articles, I have learned about so many other ways to become even more productive that relate more towards teaching rather than my every day activities. I have used Google Docs in the past for school so I am familiar with the app, so that will be a must use in terms of sharing documents with colleagues or parents. I found this fa-nominal app called Wunderlist. I checked it out and it is so much better than my Google calendar. Here is the link to sign up. As with my calendar I can access it anywhere with internet or data. When signing up for the app, it gives you categories to choose what you want included such as grocery lists, family information, work information, etc. I can then enter in to-dos and share them with others and organize them however I want. In the classroom, I can use this tool to set goals for the students and share them with the parents, that way everyone is on the same page and the parents can be involved in their child's goals and accomplishments throughout the process. Parents can be there to help their child because of course there will be steps and processes included.

Other productivity tools I will use in my classroom include YouTube and SmartBoard. I am sure there are others I will use, but these are a must.

Jake Miller's presentation showed me that for big issues in the classroom, there are small, easy solutions. Teachers just need simple guidance to learn such steps. He did not just use some issues, he used many issues that teachers may face every day, for example, one of the problems addressed was "I need a way to communicate with [the students] what they should be doing, when" the solution: Google Calendar, one of my favs. Well done presentation, Jake's presentation.