The Janney Journal

  When you think about the perfect classroom, what comes to mind? What does it look, sound and feel like? What are the students and teachers doing? Classroom management plays an important role in every classroom. Students cannot learn if there is not an effective management system in place. Managing classrooms has become even more difficult in the digital age. As Turner and Hicks (2017) state, students are using technology at increasingly younger rates. According to Dowd and Green (2016), our classrooms and resources have drastically changed, but the needs of our students have not. They say students need caring teachers, a safe environment, high expectations, and clear boundaries. Having these things will allow students to take risks and be the best they can. The book Classroom Management in the Digital Age by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green can help teachers of one-to-one (1:1) classroom s create an environment conducive to student learning (Dowd & Green, 2016). This b...

Edvolve.Thinkgraphic by LeeAnn Lindsey We’ve all heard the saying “think before you speak.” Now that we are living in a digital age, maybe this saying should be updated to think before you post, share, or like (Turner & Hicks, 2017). The use of social media is ever increasing (Tezci & Içen, 2017). There are many forms of social media in our lives today. Pew Research Center (2021) believes that some of the most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. They even researched how these platforms were used across different demographic groups. Below is there findings. With so many ways to express ourselves, we really need to stop and think about what messages we are sending. Turner and Hicks (2017) point out that many times, people respond, post, or share without analyzing the message or argument that is being made. They continue by saying that just a simple like on a post is actually promoting a type of argument.   I feel that social...

  Beginning At the beginning of June, I was given the task of recording a two minute video introducing myself to others in my first graduate class. I grabbed my phone and began recording. It took several tries with several different camera angles. Out of all of these tries, I did not like any of them. There was too much background noise coming from my house full of preteens and teens. I remembered using Screencastify  to  record lessons for my class. So, I grabbed my laptop and headed to the front porch. I was mainly focused on the video being the required two to three minutes and what was happening in the background. A research project conducted by Naylor, et al. (2019) found that when teachers were given the task of making videos, their videos were complex and unspecific. This research did not surprise me. This was exactly like my first video introduction and the videos I have recorded for my class in the past . My Learning Fast forward a week and a half later. I was a...

  "Information Overload" by DeaPeaJay is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Did you just come from Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest? Stop scrolling! Did you see that? WOW, that's a lot of information! Did you realize you were being bombarded with infographics? What are infographics? Turner and Hicks use Wikipedia's definition of infographics. They state, "infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly" (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 60). They continue by saying that infographics are becoming more and more popular and this popularity could be because they are so easy to share and understand. This blog written by Sheikh (2020) gives you examples of infographics and information about using and creating them.   Now what? Learning new information is exciting to me. As a teacher, I always think about how I can implement my new learning or concept into my classroom. Infographic...

    Due to the recent pandemic, many people had to begin rethinking their everyday lives. This was especially evident in our schools. The Shelby County School System, along with many other Alabama school systems, gave parents the opportunity to have their children learn remotely. I believe this shift in thinking has helped teachers, parents, and students see the value in a more technologically enhanced classroom. I had the opportunity to teach a remote first grade class this year. I implemented so many new and exciting activities through the use of technology. I worked very hard to make everything digital for my students and allowed them to show mastery of concepts using different digital assessments. Some of the resources my students were given the opportunity to use were Kahoot!, Flipgrid, Nearpod, and Epic, along with all of the Google apps. Flipgrid was a great way to allow students to explain their thinking and reasoning. Students could record themselves, post the v...