Final Reflection

1: What did you learn?

• How did you put what you learned into action at school? I was able to use everything I learned for either school or personally (I really am looking forward to using more of this personally, but felt I needed to first devote time for my students and program)
• Did you expand your Personal Learning Network? I expanded my network mostly through Twitter. I do wish I had more tie to do that though
• What challenges did you face during the workshop? I think the only challenge was the time. Never enough time. LOL
• Any big “fails”? Any huge successes? What did you learn from trying, failing, succeeding? I think a few successes was that I really was able to use so much of this stuff right away in my classroom. I also plan on revisiting a lot of the interesting post by Eric Curts. 
• Were there projects that didn’t work out well for you? No 
• Other thoughts? I wish our district had a few of the google things like cardboard with the field trips ( I did ask them about it)

2: What’s next?

• Did you start some projects that you’ll be following up on in the future? Yes. I'll continue with the games, twitter, blogging-I'll create a personal one). I honestly don't know what I won't continue on.
• Are you planning to share what you’ve learned with others? I already have and am always telling my colleagues about this PD ( at least our tech-savvy ones)
• What other professional development projects will you be pursuing? I've done Smart Board which is very good to. They have a wonderful game maker. 
• Other thoughts?

3: Did you like learning this way?'

• For some of you, this might have been your first experience with this kind of independent, online, self-driven learning. Did this work for you? Yes, I love online learning.
• What did you most value about the program? I really loved everything. What didn’t work well?
• Would you do it again? Definitely. 
• Other thoughts? I would really love to see more pieces with Microsoft tools. They really have great products, they're just not as well known.

Thing 30: DIY – You Pick

For this assignment I used

Thing x: Flash Cards, Quiz Games and More

My students really love games (who doesn't). I teach a prep class for the skills USA regents exam. I have created this class completely on-line through the RCSD e-learning site. 

I love the convenience that they can go at their own pace but I do keep a calendar going also with it so they stay on task.

I am using quizlet for review for each lesson. I really like the idea of the Quizlet live and have done some of the reviews with them this way. 

I have just created a flippity game for review work for this class. On Fridays, we have shortened periods and this would be perfect for them.  I also created a jeopardy game with the different chapters using flipquiz,com   

I really think that games are for important with this generation. I decided to do some games myself since many of my students are always tired and they stay up late playing games (especially Fortnite)
I do realize how it can become very addicting. I was only doing word games and it does get addicting. I switched from that to Duolingo and am learning Italian.I have found this to be a really great site and you can compete with people. They also have it for schools. Some of my students are doing OCR (on line credit recovery) and I've shown them this. However,  I don't believe the OCR teacher (and RCSD) has embraced this yet, but it would be great if they did.

I like your flower flash card and quiz on quizlet!

Thing #28 Anything goes Goodle

Thing #28 Anything goes Google

Google Classroom and Quizes
I have used Google classroom for many years. It has it's pros and cons.I have a love-hate relationship with it.
I especially like the topics sections in google classroom,
I always put my entire class on line as I feel my students must learn how to be efficient on-line learners.
What I enjoy is the ease of Google Classroom and the app. My students are able to do their work on their phones. This is so beneficial to many of them since the majority of them do not have desktops, tablets or lap tops at home, but h=they do have phones. Two of my students did the entire class on line. One student has a baby making it that much more difficult to be in school. But he completed the class and both of them received awards for Best Indepemdent Learners. Just last week our art teacher commented on how well our student with the baby did in her assignments for art class in Google Classroom. As the computer/business teacher in our building I am always helping and encouraging our teachers to use more technology (especially google classroom) since this is what the districy has offered, But I do feel that is is somewhat cumbersome to use google classroom as the learning platform. It still is lacking options that I can do much easier on other platforms. One example is the grading and the returning of work and if a student resubmits work. I do like the grades goimg imyo into google sheets.

I love google forms and I love the streamline to google classroom.I like the idea of using google notes for comments.

I REALLY enjoyed the Hipster Google especially the Google trends and Google Scholar. Google scholar really enabled my students to search and cite their work for thei On line recovery English class (which I oversee and help with). Also love all of Eric Crts work and am following ho on Twitter.

I've shared with the art teacher the Google Arts and Culture. Also shared with my nephew who works in a college library the Ngram viewer and other library info.
Thank you!!

There's just so much!!!   Bit by bit!

Thing 24 Google drawings

I explored google drawings. It is similar to microsoft word and publisher as far as the drawing features go with fills, colors, lines etc. I really like the resources by Eric Curts. The powerpoint (slides) .Google drawings Powerpoint I found very useful. BTW I love google slides for the audience participation.
I reviewed the slides with our art teacher. She and I have been wanting to do a computer art project together. We reviewed the mime creations and the cartoonify youself  with google drawings.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ve54FcztDA
We decided to try the cartoonify yourself and will do this in the next few weeks.

I can not draw to save my life. I really love the auto draw. If I had more time I would love to just doodle with this alot.

The checker template is wonderful. I have a student that really enjoys playing checkers with me and a few other teachers so I downloaded the game. I think it's a great way to stay in touch with them.

And just in case you're feeling like me with %^$^** WINTER
Cant wait til spring

Thing 27: Note-Taking Tools & Skills

Thing 27: Note-Taking Tools & Skills

I love notes. I'm always reminding myself to do things and constantly keep track of my tasks.I love the feeling of checking something off when it's done.
But there never seems to be that one perfect app for everything. So here are a few items I use and my newest discovery.(which I have been wanting to use forever)

For task management and to do lists I love
Any Do

This app lets you add all your quick to do lists along with adding sub tasks to them. You can also schedule your tasks and plan your day. In fact just today one of my students asked me about this app. (he wants to try it out). This is a great time management tool.  

I use
Google Keep 
alot for many things too. Mostly I use it for shopping lists and quick notes. I have to give credit where credit is due. I think our Thanksgiving this past year was a success thanks to Google Keep. We were doing a large Thanksgiving at our new Cobblestone home. We all love to cook but had really 1 day to do most of it. So before Thanksgiving I creates 2 lists (with a Thanksgiving picture on it so it wouldnt get lost in all those notes) and shared them with my daughters away from home We planned the entire Thanksgiving dinner- who was making what. Also did a shareable grocery list so they put all their ingredients they needed before hand. Then I shopped and we were ready to cook the Wednesday they got home. One of my daughters ( BTW ...I have 3 daughters: 21, 22 and 23!) so my oldest even did a schedule of cooking times and who needed which oven.  This was such a wonerfully smooth process to our usual insanity!  However I think Google Keep falls short as a true note taking app for a student in high school or college.

Hence .Microsoft One Note
There is quite a learning curve on this but so far it is just what I needed for in depth notes.At first it was very difficult trying to figure out which Microsoft account went with what but once that was sorted it was wonderful. It's a handy tool for keeping page after page of notes on one subject and organizing it into some meaning. You can also have different note books on any subject or a school one and a personal one or 2 or 3. It's very easy to add links, snip its and your own notes along with drawing and highlighting items. You can also use sticky notes. And it has that old comfortable feel of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The phone app works extremely well and quick notes work great too. I would love to use this with my students and will try but there is insufficient time for this. And since most students use chrome books it will be a prolem. (This is an on going arguement I have with the tech department since as a business teacher I feel it somewhat of my duty to expose students to both Microsoft and Google products). But I have my computer lab so I do make things work!

I will by all means use One note for the majority of my notes and I'm sure once I find the time perhaps use it as my everythink notes,

Thing 4: Twitter, Facebook & Personal Learning Networks:

Thing 4: Twitter, Facebook & Personal Learning Networks: I had joined twitter years ago, but never used it (found that out when I tried to create a new account!) I've been mostly following accounts. I have found some very good accounts that my students might want to follow too. I teach business in high school so I am constantly in search of great financial management tools for my students. It is very hard to find decent tools for them to connect with.
My students demographics are pretty much this scenario

Child poverty in Rochester ranks third in the nation
and my students are all black males greades 9-12 at risk students.

So some of the things I am following are:
right to tech   and   everyone on

(Yes there is stull a big problem with no internet access at home or no compuet or laptop.
Some school work they can do on their phone but not evefrything.

Another good account I found is
Ed tech chat

I hope to get more interactive with twitter and tweet more in the future.

Hi, I teach at New Beginnnings for the Youth and Justice department in RCSD. I'm very excited to learn more things about technology. I use technology all the time with my students. I also love gardening.Here's my favorite flowers that I grew this summer.