August/ September

How your Classroom Environment can help our kids' Digital Footprint!

Setting up our classrooms at the beginning of each school year is deservedly a major focus of the first months of the school year. But have you thought about how our physical classrooms impact the digital ones??

Classroom routines, procedures and expectations must be established for both the physical classroom and the digital one. As we practice routines in the physical classroom, we also need to discuss and practice digital safety. Take a look at the link to Digital Citizenship lessons via Common Sense below.

It is important from their first interactions online for our students to understand how to participate safely on the Internet. The students can be guided in choosing appropriate user names and warned about the dangers of sharing personal information with unseen "friends" they might be playing games with.

Innovative Instructional Designer

Do you use technology to create and adapt personalized learning experiences that foster independent learning? Does technology help in accommodating various learners' needs? On their own and in groups, are students using technology to take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes? Are you an innovative instructional designer?

An example of this in the GISD elementary setting is teachers using formative assessment data to personalize learning in small group rotations.

You are doing so much everyday! You have grown in using technology in the classroom over the past several years. Are you sharing your successes? Tweet your triumphs!

Create a Twitter account for your professional self. Please add your information to this Google Sheet and advocate for your classroom!

Share with me: @dghtymusicrocks, with the school: @DES_Hornets, and with the Digital Learning Team: @DigitalGISD.

Want to be caught being techy? Email me I'd love to come by your classroom, take some pics, and share your successes!