Instructional Media Blog

The Glogster I created was specifically designed for a designated cohort of teachers in the Anchorage School District (ASD). For those teachers who use SMART or Promethean boards, and are on alternative evaluation models, I also provided ASD’s narrative requirement (for the end of the school year) as a Discovery Education writing prompt for the teachers’ convenience. I believe having this at their fingertips will provide areas of focus during their monthly meetings. (This is for those synthesizing minds.)

Teachers involved in this cohort are required to develop Promethean flipcharts and resources that align with Alaska’s curriculum and state standards. After approval requirements are met, they must upload their flipcharts to ASD’s Moodle which has also been linked in my Glog. I wanted to provide them with a handy resource that will meet their needs for this year long project. My favorite link on this Glog is the one to the podcasts in iTunes. The Promethean sales rep had no idea that there are “Teacher Features” and ActiveTips as podcasts available for free download! I’m hoping to encourage teachers to seek out other podcasts while they are there such as iTunes U! The links to Promethean Planet are for convenience, and I wanted to be sure to include video of teachers using a board. I couldn’t choose which one to upload, so I chose my  top three. Finally, I selected an easy link to BrainPOP because the student response clickers interact with that website. It’s easy to forget which great partners in education that the folks at Promethean form.

When I was thinking about which standards that Glogs obviously address with kids, I came upon an interesting crossroads. The standards seemed to keep focusing back on the teachers that I work with. I mean, after all, the Glog was set up to put many important resources in one place. I believe that as teachers interact with this Glog and create model lessons for kids, they are indeed “developing their own creative minds” and returning to the classroom meeting the following standards:

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T)

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership: Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.

Any way you look at it, the teachers are returning to their classrooms with tools to then foster the development of the creative minds and may even decide to use Glogster as a result! I hate to think of Glogster as a “by-product” because it allows for kids to be bold, ambitious, to construct their own environments in which to thrive, it has no single right way to create it, and it extends knowledge, “ruffles the contours of a genre”, and offers “new, unanticipated directions”.  (The quotes are from Howard Gardner himself!)  I have to say, that’s exactly where this assignment took me.. in unanticipated directions.

Check out the Glog: Promethean Glog

Resources:glog-resources-frackman-edim5081