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EDU 776 Introduction

 Hello! 

A Little About Me

Source: Personal Photo
My name is Ashley! I am a fourth grade teacher and high school cheerleading coach. This is my sixth year teaching and my third year coaching. I have taught fourth and fifth grade. I am certified in all sorts of areas such as ESL, SPED, and middle school ELA. I currently teach in the district I attended as a student, and this year I was placed in the elementary school I went to! I was super excited to be back where I went to school as a kid. My fourth grade teacher was who inspired me to be a teacher so to be doing the same thing is so special to me. I have to mention I attend Elmhurst College for my undergrad, go Blue Jays! 

When I am not teaching or taking graduate classes, I am busy getting ready for my wedding! I get married in just shy of three months. I have many projects to finish. My Fiance and I also just bought a house. This is crazy time in our lives right now, but we are embracing it and enjoying every minute of it. 



Source: Big Brother on Giphy

This is the last class in my program to complete my Masters in integrated technology! I can't believe I am here. With everything else going on in life I am nervous, but also so excited! I am the first in my family to have graduated from college let alone receive a masters degree. I have truly enjoyed all the classes I have taken in this program and cannot wait to see what I learn in this class!





Me and Technology

I would definitely consider myself a technology person. I use technology for everything. I use it in my personal life and professional life. The district I teach in is a one to one district, therefore every student has a device. We are using technology in the classroom daily, multiple times a day. In my previous district, I was a part of the innovation team where we would collaborate and create ways for teachers to utilize technology in their classrooms. I have found myself leaning on the technology coaches in our buildings to help me come up with new and engaging ways to use technology with my students. We primarily using technology with reading, writing, and science/social studies. I love being able to upload our texts and have students annotate on them. Or students working on a writing draft and I can make comments on Google Docs. My favorite is Classkick because I can see students work in real time. This website allows me to pull students for support on the spot because I can see immediately how they are doing. That is just of the many amazing features.

I use technology in my personal life daily as well. I admit I scroll aimlessly on apps like Instagram and Tik Tok. They are my guilty pleasure. My current obsession is this couple who lives in Colorado and owns six sulcata tortoises. They post Tik Toks multiple times a day showing them letting them out for the day and putting them away at night.  I am not sure what it is about their videos but it brings me joy every day! I am also guilty of using a Kindle to read instead of a physical book... I know I know... I never thought I would be that person. For the longest time I said I would NEVER get a Kindle. Then one day they were on super sale, and I couldn't pass it up. Now, I haven't looked back. I actually just bought a physical book from Sam's Club not too long ago. It  was a book I have been wanting to read for awhile too!  I was struggling to read it. I ended up purchasing it on Kindle and flew through it. I. try to be mindful how much time I (and my students) spend on technology and incorporate other things to do into the day. But sometimes it hard because we are so use to it at this point that it has become a part of us! 
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Comments

  1. Kelly BarkerAugust 29, 2024 at 3:45 PM

    Hi Ashley!

    So nice to "meet" you! I can definitely connect with your experience with technology in the classroom. My school is also fortunate to be 1:1 with student devices- while this is a great thing for us, I do find that we are very dependent on our technology use. One day last school year, our internet went out across the district and it was like we didn't even know how to function without it! Gone are the days of the paper and pencil instruction that I and many others grew up with, but there are definitely lots of benefits to all the great technologies we have access to in order to support our students. I would be so interested to know more about Classkick-- it seems like such a great platform. We use Apple Classroom to monitor students' screens, but I really like the way that Classkick can show you their work in real time so you can step in and help if needed. It reminds me somewhat of how I would use Google Jamboard when teaching with a hybrid model during COVID. Using this platform, I could enter a student's Jamboard, see how they were solving a math problem, and give corrective feedback/help them make corrections while instructing them on Google Meet. Unfortunately, that Google product is being discontinued in the near future, but I have found that Canva whiteboard can be a great replacement!

    I feel like one of my toughest challenges in using new technologies in the classroom is the need for support from technology specialists or coaches. We do not have any of our technology staff housed in our buildings, so when we run into issues or have questions, we aren't able to get things resolved right away. Will your technology coaches come into the classrooms to provide support or even model lessons with your class to help you see how things can best be implemented? I feel like that would be such a blessing to have at my disposal, and feel that school districts will have to move more towards having at least one "go to" technology coach in each building as we continue to increase the time spent on devices and decrease the need for more traditional paper based products.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ashley PeschAugust 29, 2024 at 7:33 PM

      Hi Kelly!

      I have used Jamboard a little bit, I will have to try it out again!

      To answer your question - yes! Technology coaches offer support in many ways. They will sit down to plan with you, collect resources for you, and even come in and teach or co-teach a lesson! We are pretty lucky in that regard. I don't think enough people take advantage of the awesome opportunity to work with our tech coaches.

      Delete
  2. NMZumpanoAugust 30, 2024 at 12:13 PM

    Congrats on being soooo close to the finish line, Ashley! I'm excited to help you wrap up your degree this fall. Hopefully this course will be enjoyable for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ashley PeschSeptember 1, 2024 at 5:10 PM

      I am looking forward to another class with you!

      Delete

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