Five Tech Things on a Friday

Happy Friday Everyone!  Each Friday, I will share five tech "things" -- anything from videos to articles to apps reviews.  If there is something you'd like to see, please let me know!

• The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has standards for learning, teaching, and leading in the digital age.  These standards are a great guide for thinking about what we want students to be doing and learning with technology, and how we as teachers can guide that work.  ISTE has standards for students, teachers, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators.  You can check out all of the ISTE standards here.
• In September, the New York Times Magazine ran an article called, "No Child Left Untableted."  It's a lengthy article, but it's full of great thoughts on teaching and learning with technology.  One of my favorite quotes from this article is, "It's the teacher, not the technology."  Tech tools are wonderful, but they are just tools.  We still need expert teachers guiding student learning.
• I loved this blog post on 7 Simple Tips for Getting Your IT Issues Solved Faster.  It's wonderful that each of our buildings has a dedicated Level 1 Tech.  Let's make sure we support them in the hard work they do to keep our equipment running smoothly.
• Common Sense Media is one of my favorite resources for teachers.  The whole site is full of great information on how media impacts children, app recommendations, education families, and professional development opportunities.  I especially love their Digital Citizenship resources including videos, posters, and an entire curriculum on teaching digital citizenship!  Our students are using the internet regularly.  It's just part of the world they were born into.  We as teachers need to partner with parents to teach students to be safe, respectful, and responsible on the internet.
• My last thing to share this Friday is one of my favorite TED talks.  I'm a little bit of a TED talks addict, so I'm sure this won't be the last one I share.  Grab yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for the next 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

Welcome!

October is Connected Educator's Month, so what better time to start my new blogging journey?  Yet, I've been stuck here with one sentence for weeks!  The first blog post is always the hardest, right?  Well, here we are, so let's just jump on in!

I have been passionate about technology in the classroom since early in my teaching career.  I started a classroom blog in 2007 as a way to connect with parents and allow families a glimpse into our classroom.  A few years later, I began working with one of my colleagues to create videos of our favorite classroom stories and songs.  A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to get a smartboard in my classroom, and last year I wrote a DonorsChoose proposal and received an iPad for our class.  In the past few years, my love for technology integration has really taken off, and I am always excited to try out new tools in the classroom.

After 8 years as an early childhood special education teacher, I decided to take on a new challenge.  This year, I am working as a district-level coach for instructional technology integration.  I am so excited about this new adventure.  I truly believe that technology can transform the way that we teach and learn, and I'm eager for all of our students to have access to these amazing tools.

I'll wrap up this introductory post with some words of wisdom from Sir Ken Robinson: