Teach.com' s SXSW Teach of the Day

     I had a great opportunity to go to SXSWedu this year. Attending was one of my goals for the year, so I am on track for doing great things in education this year. You can view the article here. 

     Thank you to everyone who has supported me and given me cool ideas to incorporate in my classroom!

SXSW and #edTechWomen

     SXSW for most Austinites means traffic and not being able to do much of anything around town. This is mainly true for me---- Okay, well maybe I still spend my time watching a ton of my favorite bands play and its fun, but this year I switched it up and went to SXSWedu. I had a great time attending the #ETW15 conference and made a lot of great connections with like minded women. The theme among my conversations with others was that there is a need to support each other instead of innately pitting against one another. I think there was some validity in that, but I did not agree when I heard some women saying that those without children need to cut slack for women with children. I don't understand that. I hold everyone to the same standard and some days you choose to work, others you choose to slack. How other women manage their time isn't my concern. If something is done wrong or late that is on the person not meeting expectations. It is not the responsibility of others to cut slack. 

     The rest of the week went really well. I taught a class on the ProLoQuo2Go system to parents and district staff, saw a handful of solid educational films, hung outside of the formal parts of SX with some really great Grrrls, and was able to increase my personal growth. The week left me feeling reaffirmed in my belief that large strides need to be taken toward a technologically enriched classroom for all students, including Special Education students. 

Q: Who Run The World? A:Tech Grrrls

Fun fact about me that also makes me cringe at times--

      I have never been good at tech stuff. I have had males in my life that were excellent at all things related to technology, but they never included me in learning these skills. Being young, it never occurred to me to advocate for myself. It was a boy's club and I wasn't invited.

     Something changed during the last two years. My lead IT was a woman. Not just that, she was a knowledgeable, open minded, and friendly IT. I had never met such a lovely unicorn in my life! I started looking into what she wrote about in her emails, PD sessions, and general information about technology as it related to the classroom. I pick her brain WAY too much and am sure at this point I am coming across as annoying. But I know she is always there for me to learn from or bounce ideas off of.

     Last year, I was overwhelmed with my program. It is all paper! Pictures, data sheets, graphs, lesson instruction, visuals....ALL PAPER BASED. It was a lot to keep track of and I often found myself stuck taking home cartloads of data to analyze. My thoughts were "new program, new school, new district; I am not ready to take risks!"

     In August, I decided to incorporate as much technology into my lessons and data collections as possible. I started by making blank copies of all data sheets organized in my drive. Followed that by taking at least 3 technology PDs a week. This was a lot of commitment because I am a mom, I teach, and I am working on my doctoral dissertation. Somehow I made it work! Now I see other grrrls I work with asking me questions or for help in general. I am glad they have a desire to learn. This tech journey allowed me to see I am not great at it all, and that is okay! Practice makes perfect, so I just keep making interactive lessons my students can enjoy. Without the support of Lisa, Shannon, or Amy I would not have a desire to know about technological skills and various ways to increase efficiency in my classroom.

EdTech Review: Emaze

     I have been using Emaze for about a month now. It is essentially a VERY learner-friendly version of google slides. Emaze let me use slides that were made by others or I could make my own presentation. Applying videos was a little tricky because some would not work, or work and play even after the slide, so I played around with the features for awhile.

     My very first slide took me about 35 minutes start to publication. I took the vocabulary notes I already had printed, then made each one a separate slide. The playback took about an hour because I would pause the slides and ask separate questions that encouraged communication from my students. "What color is the shirt?"; "touch the boy"; "say 'pa-rade'". I even introduced intraverbal skills to all levels of my class by asking and helping specific students answer questions like, "the turkey is on the..?" If the student did not know to say plate, I would say it, ask them to tact, or receptively plate.

    I like using emaze, but am currently into interactive videos. I took a webinar provided by the company and learned some cool shortcuts. However, being limited to their specific template themes is kinda....well, "mehhhhhh". That is also the brilliance of Emaze. It takes the humanistic approach out of presentations and chooses the basic applications for you so you can focus on just putting out your content. Extremely helpful if you are running short on time.

Have fun playing around and make sure you click the link above to look at what I have done. Remember I teach SpEd and most of my work is modified for students with Autism more on the severe side of the spectrum.