Hi! My name is Stephanie and I am a special education teacher at Naperville North High School. I just wrapped up my fourth year at NNHS. Since I began teaching, I have taught and co-taught a variety of classes: biology, earth science, algebra 1, algebra 2 core, English 2, resource, and literacy workshop.
Prior to teaching, I attending the University of Illinois and studied psychology. While there, I was an avid participant in our student athletic board and cheered on our Illini, even though it was often hard to do. After graduating, I attend Lewis University where I received my Master's in special education, which ultimately led me to NNHS! I am married and have an 18 month old son who is always very busy!
When it comes to technology, I feel pretty comfortable with digital learning. Our school is entering the third year of one to one using chromebooks. Learning with our students has been incredibly rewarding. I have been able to implement much more into my classes than I was prior to the students receiving the chromebooks. At this point, using technology in the classroom feels seamless. Students understand classroom expectations regarding technology usage, and are usually very willing to comply with these expectations. They are familiar with lots of applications and are Google pros! Very little instructional time is lost due to explaining how to use the technology. This has allowed us to make the most of our classroom time, but still redefine traditional classroom activities.
I have grown to really appreciate Google Forms as a way to collect formative feedback from students. It has allowed me to help students do more in the way of self-monitoring and self-reflection. The graphs that Google creates for you are especially helpful as a special education teacher. I also utilize Canvas on a daily basis. The harmonious integration of Google and Canvas also makes my life easier. Google Read and Write has also really helped me integrate student accommodations into the classroom.
While I don't necessarily have any huge successes or failures to speak of, I will say that I have learned a great deal regarding when the use of technology is appropriate and when maybe traditional paper and pencil is the best way to go. This is a delicate balancing act that I continue to learn about daily.
I am anxious to continue learning about technology in order to help meet the needs of all students, as well as prepare them for their 21st century lives!
Hi Steph! I completely agree with you when you say that there is a time and a place for using technology. While I think that technology allows for more reflection, self-pacing, and exploration, there are many simple activities in which technology is not appropriate even though it is certainly possible. This definitely takes some time to figure out what works best for the class and the students.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to meet you Stephanie! We both seem to like many of the same technologies Google/google has to offer. I am quite interested in the method you employ to collect data and how you then use this data to drive instruction. In your post you mentioned you have a son named Jackson. Great name! I have two sons...Sully and Auggie Joe and one daughter...Lila. I look forward to collaborating with you this summer!
ReplyDeleteHey, you are a special ed teacher like me! I am intrigued by your use of Google Forms and the creation of graphs to reflect data. Love to talk more about that! Your word "seamless" is a perfect one to describe the Chromebook implementation. Despite my initial fears and apprehensions, that's what the roll out has been--seamless. I, too, have seen some of the benefits of Google Read & Write. Some of my students love it, embrace it and make it a regular part of classroom assignments. I have other students who are very reluctant to use it and rarely make it a part of their classroom practice. I struggle with how much I should push or involve myself when students prefer not to use an application that the district is pushing, especially for our SPED students.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, you have some great ideas on tech. Tech should be used to enhance learning, paper and pencil work great for some tasks, and tech can make our teaching lives easier. I look forward to learning with you!
ReplyDeleteI love google forms too! I use them a lot to get feedback from my kids too, especially at the beginning of a unit.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of your blog! Thanks for sharing your great tech ideas. I look forward to learning with you!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like a majority of the students are adjusting well to the Chromebooks. It's interesting the amount of students who don't have their chromebooks in class or do have it charged and/or don't bring a charger. I agree for the most part they are seamless when using the technology-- its really changed the delivery of instruction!
Terri
Hi Stephanie - welcome to Multimedia Tools in EDU! I hope you will find some tools that you can use personally as well as to enhance and elevate the learning for your students. I look forward to hearing more about your role and how technology makes it even better!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie--
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to hear how you use Google Forms. I've mainly used them for parents, but am not sure my little learners would be able to handle them. I'd love to learn more about how you use them, and see if I can simplify them enough to use with my kindergartners.