Data Collection

Hey Everyone! I haven't posted in a while, so it's good to be back!

I am in a new semester of masters classes, one of which is called "Enhancing Learning Through Action Research." If you can't tell by the title, we are working on learning about action research! Part of this involves learning about the methods of collecting data and the differences between qualitative and quantitative data. To learn more about these things, our professor assigned us to read Ch. 6 of our textbook "A Short Guide to Action Research" by Andrew P. Johnson. At the end of this chapter, the author provides suggestions for activities to do in order to practice collecting data. Our assignment was to choose one of these activities, create a checklist/rubric/questions/etc. to use to collect the data, then blog about our experience and results.

The activity that I chose involved recording one of my classes and creating a Data Retrieval Chart (DRC) to indicate the number and type of some observation. DRCs are "graphic organizers that are used to help you (or your students) collect and organize information" (pg. 80). One of the ways of doing this is to create a map. These maps can record the paths students take in the classroom or where certain behaviors occur. I decided to use this form of DRC to indicate how many times and the type of interactions I had with my students in one of my Algebra 1 classes. A picture of my map is below:

I know it's a bit difficult to see on here, but all of the lines indicate the paths that I took when walking around my classroom. An "X" on the desk represents some sort of direct conversation that I had with the student. I may have walked around and glanced at their work, but the "X" shows that we had some sort of conversation about their work, whether that was checking if their answer is correct or having some other conversation about the work. An "X" with a circle around it indicates that the conversation involved me explaining something to the student or clearing up misinformation. Finally, and "X" with a square around it involved the students explaining something to me.

After looking at my results, there were a few things that stuck out to me. First, I wanted this lesson to be an exploration of multiplying polynomials. We had discussed the distributive property before, so I wanted them to come up with the "FOIL" method on their own for multiplying two binomials since "FOIL" is just an acronym to remember the order in which to use the distributive property. The "X"'s with the squares on the map show that I only went to a few of the students to hear their explanation of how I got the answer to the example problem. Therefore, I only know that a few of them saw and understood that I used the distributive property to simplify the expression. I instead, should have visited multiple/all students to see/hear their level of understanding. I also noticed that I only had direct conversations once or twice with a couple of students, but multiple times with others. That tells me that I need to make sure that I am in contact with all of my students and making sure that they all understand versus only talking to a handful of them. As I was watching the video back to get this information, I also discovered that it took roughly half the period to get around to some of these students. Other students had been taking my attention up until then so I hadn't gotten around to them. Once I did, I then made sure to get around to them more often since they needed a little more help. Their number of "X"'s then increased.

Doing this activity helped me see how I could better use my class time and helped me realize that I sometimes have little one-on-one contact with some of the students. This of course isn't on purpose, but rather it's due to timing. Sometimes other, more vocal students want to know if they have the answer right or want an explanation. I then get tied up with those students and time has ticked away so I go back to the front of the room and discuss it as a large group. However, the more quiet students need to be involved too and need the one-on-one contact as well. I need to change so that I get to all of my students in some way so that all students are understanding the material, and I know that they are understanding it or not.

I enjoyed this activity and definitely recommend it to other teachers. If you didn't want to create a map like this, you could use a DRC instead to indicate the number and level of questions you ask, the gender of the students who respond to your questions, the number and type of times/ways your class gets off task, or any other information you would like to know. Have any of you done anything like this before? I'd like to hear about your experience!

Breakout Edu Escape Room Challenge

Hello again, everyone! Well, now that my Digital and Social Media class is over, blogging is not required, but I did say in my first post that I was going to try to keep it up after the class was done, so here is my first attempt at doing so!

Last week, I did an Escape Room challenge with my Algebra 2 classes, and I posted about it on Facebook.  A few of you wanted to know what it was all about, so I'll try to explain as best as I can here and if you have any other questions, feel free to contact me!

So if you haven't heard of it before, you should check out Breakout Edu. I had pondered the idea of creating an Escape Room in my classroom before, but didn't really know how to go about doing it until some people in my class were talking about this site. On the site, there are tons of games already created that you can search through by content area and grade level (you can also search by group size, but don't get too hung up on group size. Most games can be played with different group sizes than suggested). Some games are officially published and vetted by the Breakout community, and some are called "Sandbox" games which aren't officially published in the Breakout directory but have been created and used by other teachers. Also, the games are password protected, but if you fill out the beta form on the Get Started page, they will tell you what the password is. They are password protected so that students don't go on the site and get the answers to the clues. All games use the same kit (around $125), and the kit includes all of the locks, invisible ink pens, and uv flashlight, etc that you would need for each game.  You could also find your own box (I've seen people use tackle boxes or anything that you could put locks on) and open source your own kit using the links that they have on the site to Amazon for all of the stuff you would need.

Once I had researched it a bit on the site and talked to a friend who had used one of these kits before and played the game that I was thinking about doing, it was time to convince my principal to get one these boxes. He asked the usual questions, "how much is it", "how often would you use it", "could this be used in other content areas", and so on, but it really didn't take that much convincing! Like I said before, the one kit is used for all of the games that are already created (and you can make your own too)! So I ended up filling out a PO, but then I was talking to a teacher at the middle school and she said they already had 2 boxes! So instead of buying one or two more boxes, I just borrowed those from the middle school, which worked out well. If you are looking into getting a kit, I would suggest getting at least 2 boxes. It can be done with just one, which is what I was planning on doing before learning that we already had some in the district, but it is easier with 2. If you can only get one kit, I would suggest having the teams figure out the clues then have them tell you what they think the combination is and you can keep track of how many each team has done. Then they can unlock them all at once at the end to get the prize in the box. Or, you could have them try to unlock it, and if they get it, then you can just put it back on the box for the other group(s) to try.

Once I got the boxes, I used a game that was already created called "Linear Thought", but I ended up tweaking some of the clues to make it fit better with what we were doing in class. Once all of the clues were set, it was time to change the combinations to the locks and get everything printed off that I would need. If you keep track of all of the directions to reset the locks and the combinations that have been previously used, the locks really aren't difficult to change combinations. I joined the Facebook group for Breakout Edu as well and have seen people having difficulties with some of the locks, but the people on there are great about giving advice if you need help with a lock. One of mine had reset itself while it was in the box so I didn't know the code. So I put a post on the group page and it was answered with some good advice on how to crack it within a few hours. Also, I would suggest printing off more clues than you would think you would need. For example, I had 2 teams in each class, and the one team used the back of a clue to write stuff down. I had printed off 2 extra copies, so instead of creating/printing a new one in the limited amount of time that I had between classes to get everything set back up, I just pulled out one of the extra copies that I had. It's so much easier to be prepared before hand!

Ok, now for the setup. I ended up setting it all up the night before, then had my morning Algebra 1, Pre-Alg, and Trig classes in the ICN room so that they wouldn't mess around with all of the stuff that I had set up. I wish I would have taken pictures of my room with everything out, but alas, I did not think about doing that since it was going to be recorded while the students were playing the next day. But, below is a picture of how the locks are set on the box and a picture of the 3-digit lock box. Anyway, I had split the room down the middle so that each team had to stay on their side of the room. Then on each side, I had posted all of the clues on the walls or desks in plain site so they wouldn't have to dig through anything, but I also put red herring clues out as well like word find books, Sudoku puzzles, and other QR code activities to make it a little trickier. The boxes were then up front with the locks on them and candy inside for their prize for breaking out.

I was so excited once I had gotten it all set up! Finally 4th hour came, and I met the kids outside of the classroom to split them into 2 teams. Each team consisted of 6 kids in 4th hour and 4 kids in 6th hour. These ended up being perfect sized groups, and I think if there were many more in a group, some of the students would end up maybe not participating or feel left out. I think it worked out well having 4-6 kids in a group, and everyone was participating in some way.  Once they were split into groups (I let them choose), I led them into the classroom and laid out the scene. Then they got to work! Each of our classes are 43 minutes long, so by the time I had explained everything (I tried to do it fast so they had more work time), they had about 41 minutes to "break out".  I thought it was interesting that in both classes, they all went for the Sudoku and word find puzzles that I had out on the desks first. These were supposed to be red herring clues, and I ended up telling them that they were fake clues with about 28 minutes left. I didn't want them to get too stuck on these and not figure out the rest. Now that they've played this, I think they would try to find some of the less obvious stuff first.  I also had some QR code activities up on the wall that have been there for a while since I've used them with some of my other classes, so they didn't really focus on the QR codes that were up there as clues. Once they figured that out it was smooth sailing! Each group gets 2 hint cards that they can use, and most groups used 1, but I think I ended up giving them more help than I should have without them using a hint card. I wanted them to break out, but I think I gave them more help than I should have. Next time, I will try to keep my mouth shut and let them figure it out themselves.

In the end, the first group in my 4th hour class broke out with about 10 minutes left and the other group had 8 minutes left, and in 6th hour, one group got done with 15 minutes left and the other had 9 minutes left!  Overall, the kids loved it! I gave them a little reflection sheet to fill out afterwards to rate it 1-5 (1 it sucked and 5 it was awesome!), and all of them put either 4 or 5! I was excited about it and so were they, and they said they would love to do another one sometime! I'm so glad they enjoyed it, and I can't wait to do another one with them! I'm also going to try it in some of my other classes, too. I think this would be great for PD as well, and there are games already created for such a thing too! There are so many possibilities with this, and it's all about problem solving, collaborating, and team work!

Have any of you tried one of these Breakout games? How did it go for you? If you haven't tried this yet, you should! If you have any other questions about it, please let me know!

Global Collaboration

Image Source

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've posted anything! Sorry to keep you waiting!  Our assignment for my Digital and Social Media class this week (and the past couple weeks) is about global collaboration.  Initially, our project was to meet with other grad students from Poland to discuss our different cultures, but unfortunately that ended up falling through.  Then, our professor had arranged for us to meet with students from Connecticut, but because of some communication issues among the two classes, this didn't end up working out either.  I'll talk more about this later.  Once we decided that the global collaboration wasn't working the way that we had hoped, our professor decided to change the assignment a bit and have us do some research on global collaboration projects that we could implement in our own classrooms and reflect on it.  After doing some thinking and searching, here is what I came up with.

I've seen and heard of global collaboration projects before, but they're usually about the different cultures and backgrounds of the people who are doing it, or working on some sort of problem in the world.  I didn't know how I could do something collaboratively with math from students around the country or world.  As I was trying to think of something, I decided to do some research to maybe jog something in my mind for what to do.  Then I found an idea that was done in an elementary school about students tweeting math problems out and students from other schools around the country/world would solve their problem.  Then those students would post a problem and the first group of elementary students would solve that problem.  And so on and so forth.  I liked this idea, but I wanted more...more collaboration, more discussion, just more.  So then I thought about having students post a problem on Twitter or through email or something like that (a real world problem, not just "solve the equation 2x + 3 = 5") that could be solved in different  ways.  We could have the students solve them in whichever way they wanted, then have them discuss how they decided to solve the problem with someone from another location through video conferencing.  As the teacher, I wouldn't necessarily tell them if they solved it correctly or not, but they could discuss the way they did it and if it makes sense and is correct with their partner.

After looking through some more examples (all from Global School Net), I found a few that were similar to this idea that I could use to base the set up of my project on.  Unfortunately, they don't show the final project or the process of it, but they do have a general overview of what the project entailed.  One of them was pretty much the same thing as what I thought of, but they didn't use video conferencing, and instead just posted things on what sounds like a discussion board and wrote to each other.  This is ok, but I like the idea of being able to talk with each other rather than just writing.  However, I could see where writing would be beneficial.  It could help the students "talk" more mathematically rather then just having them show the other person their work and say "here's what I did."  The other two that I found that were similar dealt with geometry, which unfortunately I don't teach anymore, but I still liked them and though they related.  A lot of students have difficulties with proofs, so in this project the problem would be posted and each class would take turns posting the next step of the proof.  They could also post questions or comments in the discussion board about each step and critique each other.  Again, writing vs. talking, but in this case I think it works.  The third one that I found was pretty cool too.  This project is to help show students how geometrical objects in the community can be used to explain mathematical concepts.  Students would find geometric shapes (2D and 3D) in their local communities and send pictures or descriptions about these objects through email.  They would then have to draw nets of these objects, find area/perimeter/volume of these objects, and determine the shape of the cross section of these 3D objects.  Again, written and not very collaborative, but still pretty cool to see what the local communities of each location kind of look like and relate math to real life.  The teacher that posted this project is actually in Botswana, so it would be neat to do a project with them.

All of these projects were pretty cool, but if I were to implement one of them or one similar to them like the idea that I had, it would take a lot of time to get set up!  Like I said, I don't teach geometry right now, so I would probably use my idea with my algebra 2 students to start with.  They are a little more mature and some of the real life problems might be easier to solve in different ways, although any of my other classes (pre-algebra, algebra 1, advanced math, trig/calc) would work too. Our high school is not very diverse.  We have a large Hispanic population, but otherwise it's mainly Caucasian.  It would be cool/interesting to work with students in a diverse larger city, or students from other countries, since we are in a not very diverse small town.  This would help students "travel" beyond the small town of Britt, Iowa and learn more about other areas and cultures.  Before digging in to the math part of the project, they will need to build relationships with each other in order to feel comfortable enough with each other to share and critique each others' work.  The first few meeting times would have to be dependent on this relationship building, which is a great way for them to get to know each others' backgrounds and cultures.  Another advantage of this project is that they would be talking mathematically!  It's sometimes difficult for students to discuss their thought process or demonstrate what they did to solve a problem, but this would be a place for them to practice this type of talk.  They would also be seeing various ways of solving a problem.  A lot of times, students in a math class want to know what the correct answer is and think there's only one way to get there.  But this would be a great way to show the many pathways they can go to solve a problem.

One of the challenges to global collaboration projects is time.  It takes time to set it all up...to find another class that would be willing to do this with you, to meet with this teacher to get it all worked out, to determine and set up the way that students would share their answers.  Time is also a factor when talking to students from other time zones.  If they are in a different country, it might be night time when we are in school and vice versa, and the same idea applies if they are still in the U.S. but in a different time zone.  We would have to determine the best way for that to work.  Another challenge, if they are from different countries, is the language barrier.  The way they talk to each other about their lives, and also when they are talking mathematically, might not translate very well.  So students would have to be understanding of this and maybe have to explain something differently to get their point across (which could be a good thing too).

Even with all of the possible challenges, I do want to implement my idea for my global collaboration project sometime.  I was excited when we were going to do one for my masters class, but unfortunately that fell through.  It would have been nice to kind of go through it myself before I actually implement one in my classroom to see how it would all play out and what challenges I could expect.  Although the failing part of it did teach me something about implementing it for my classroom.  It taught me that to work properly, it can't be set up within a few days and that communication between both parties is very important.  Like I said before, it takes time.  I understand that the Poland thing fell through, and the professor from Connecticut was willing to work with us, but I'm not sure if he considered the time commitment for his students and if he communicated the expectations properly to them.  Since the connection with them was organized so quickly, the communication and connection became problematic.  I think if both sides knew exactly what was expected of them in this project, it would have gone a bit smoother.  Also, having a clear topic of what we should be collaborating on might have alleviated some of the nervousness that some of us had felt as well.  Our professor was willing to extend the due date of the project since we were trying to email our group members on our own, but it still felt like we didn't have a lot of time when we are communicating through email for at least the first few times.  We had to invite our group members to join this project, then come up with a topic, then find a time to meet, then create the video, etc.  It seemed like a lot and maybe not everyone would agree on, or enjoy, one specific topic.  If we would have had a set topic to work on (i.e. holiday traditions), I think it would have helped a bit.  I also learned that flexibility is also important.  Things might not go the way that you planned, so it's important to be able to go with the flow and change things around if necessary.

Have any of you tried a global collaboration project before?  If so, how did it go?  What were some challenges that you had?  I'd love to hear from you!

Learning through Gaming!?

Hello, all! This week for my Digital and Social Media class we have to play a game! Sounds like a weird/fun assignment, right!? I agree, it was fun, and it does have applications to what we are discussing in the class. We were to play the game Kingdom Rush and use our experience to relate it to learning.  Here is a little bit of my experience with this game:

I started play Tuesday night after class, and was really excited to start this game.  I didn't really know what it was all about or what we would have to do in the game, but I figured I would figure it out as I went along. Thankfully, they have some tutorials and initial information when you first start the game, so I found those to be really helpful.  As you go along during the battle, some more information pops up, too.  This was helpful, too, but I also found it to be a little stressful at the same time.  Some of the new enemies that it would pop up to say were being introduced weren't able to be killed by certain towers and methods that I had set up.  I would have to quick build a new tower, or use some of my reinforcements or upgrades that I had to be able to defeat them.  I also had difficulty figuring out how to build the towers or use the reinforcements at first.  I tapped on the flag to build the tower, but then thought, "now what?" It took me a few minutes to figure out that I had to tap it again to actually build it.  The same thing happened with the reinforcements.  The tutorial showed me how to do it the first time, but then I had forgotten how to do it the next time I went to use them.  I noticed that I would forget that I could use the reinforcements, the reign of fire, or any other upgrades and extras I had, so I would forget how to actually use them.  I think this definitely relates to learning as far as having the correct tools to complete the job.  We as teachers try to provide our students with as many tools as necessary to solve a problem or complete the task, but students often forget about these tools, or haven't used them often enough to remember how to use them.  Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error, too, to figure some things out.  Like the tower building...nobody showed me how to do it, but after a bit of experimentation, I figured it out.  This happens a lot in learning.  I "failed" to build the tower or use the upgrades, but after that failure came success with the experimentation.  Failing leads to learning.

I am also very competitive and a perfectionist, so as I was playing, I wanted to get those 3 stars on every level.  I had the sound of the game off, but I left the vibration on so it would vibrate whenever one of the enemies had made it past the line.  When I felt this vibration, I felt let down. I knew letting one or two go would be ok, but if I felt any more, I would either start that level over, or I wouldn't have the drive to complete the level at my best because I knew I would want to do it over to get the 3 stars.  When talking about learning, the vibration is kind of like a formative assessment.  If no vibration is felt, I knew I was doing ok. I sometimes wasn't able to watch the line to see if any of them were going through because I was looking at another part of the map to build a tower or get some reinforcement to a certain area because there were so many enemies.  That vibration helped to know how I was performing. A lot of times, students will give up when too much "vibration" or negative feedback is given, which is kind of what I did when I would lose my drive to do my best, but ultimately I ended up doing it over to do better.  We need to encourage our students that the feedback is meant to help them and to not give up because of a "poor" performance, but to keep trying!  The stars can also be equated to grades.  The three stars is the highest, which would equate to an A.  Some people are satisfied with 1 or 2 stars and just passing the level (a B or C to pass the class), but, like I said, I'm a perfectionist so I wanted that third star, or that "A".  If I didn't get the three stars right away, I would replay the level and change my strategy so that I wouldn't let any enemies through that gate.  This could be thought of as retaking a test.  I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I learned from my first experience and did something different and better on my second try.

I talked about gaming and "flow" in my last post, and I can say that I was in flow for at least the first time that I played the game.  I was so interested in how the game was played and figuring out the strategy part of it that I looked up at the clock and over an hour had already passed and it was time for me to go to bed! However, after the first experience with the game, I didn't really experience flow.  It got to be a little difficult for me, and I would get frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to stop some of the enemies.  When I got frustrated, I had to put the phone down and try again later.  I was stuck on one level for quite some time, and after our conversation about looking for help last week, I ended up looking for advice online. I even asked some of my gamer students, but they haven't played this game before so they were no help haha.  I usually try not to search for help in games, but if I'm stuck on something for a while, I want to know how to get past it.  I think this relates to learning as well.  I don't really see it as "cheating" as more of getting help.  I encourage my students to go out and find tutorials on how to solve certain problems if they are not understanding how I am teaching it.  I also know that the answers from some of the worksheets that I use are also online.  I don't mind them looking up the answers, as long as they show the work on how to get to that answer and can demonstrate they know how to do it.  I think this is the same for gaming.  I looked up how to do it, but ultimately still had to put that into practice and do it myself.

Learning something new always takes time.  Most of the time, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and failing.  This is what happened to me during this gaming experience. I failed a lot and had to have the dedication not to give up and keep trying.  Like I said in my very first blog post, I'm trying to instill this type of growth mindset in my students more this year.  Even though they might not get the results they wanted the first time, they still need to keep trying and work hard to figure out what to do in order to get the results they want.  I think I might even tell my students about my gaming experience and talk to them about how they think gaming relates to learning.  There are many parallels, and if they can fail and keep going in a game situation, they can do the same thing in the classroom!

Are any of you gamers?  If so, have you ever thought of how gaming relates to learning? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Flow in the Classroom

This week and next week in our Using Digital and Social Media in Education class, we are discussing gaming in the classroom.  I used to be much more of a gamer than I am now.  I wasn't much into the World of Warcraft or anything like that, but I did enjoy playing video games with my dad and brother when I was growing up.  My husband and I have three different gaming systems at home now, but we unfortunately don't get a lot of time to play them.  I remember playing Crash Bandicoot and Mario growing up (and now on the Wii), and even Roller Coaster Tycoon on the computer, and being engrossed in the game for what could have been for hours. Time seemed to fly, and I always wanted to do that "one more level," or get passed that spot I was having difficulties with.  As I learned in my readings this week, this experience was called Flow.

I have heard and read about the concept of Flow before. A few years ago, I read "Drive" by Daniel Pink and he discussed Flow in there, too.  According to authors like Daniel Pink and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow is "when a person is completely involved in what he or she is doing, when the concentration is very high, when the person knows moment by moment what the next steps should be." (Edutopia interview with Csikszentmihalyi) This would be an ideal situation in education, but we don't really see this a lot in schools, unless it's maybe in a music or art class.  Most kids don't really get that Flow experience during a traditional math class. As I said before, I experienced Flow while gaming, and one idea that many have suggested to get students into the state of Flow is to introduce gaming into the classroom.

I see the perks of gaming in the classroom, and I also see the downsides to it as well. One of the benefits would be the immediate feedback.  In a game, you know if you're doing the right thing or not immediately.  This would be good in the classroom so that students know if they are correct or not right away instead of having to wait to get a graded assignment back. This is why games like Kahoot are so popular. It is a game, but also provides immediate feedback.  If you were to introduce a true gaming system in a class, however, a lot of students are not gamers, so it might be difficult for them to be excited about this way of learning. I've seen this with one of my colleagues' classes. She has tried to introduce Classcraft in one of her science classes, but the students weren't really buying into it and getting excited about it.  I think it might depend on the students and their personalities for how well gaming would work in the classroom.

Gaming and Flow are all about motivation. Flow would be more of an intrinsic motivator, while gaming is more extrinsic (at least to start) then could move into the intrinsic motivator if you experience Flow within the gaming.  Either way, it's motivation, and that is why gaming is becoming more popular in the classroom.  It's a way to motivate students to learn.  Some students may not be comfortable with the complete gaming experience, but I think introducing some of the parts of gaming into the classroom, like the badge system/"leveling up," could be a good motivator for some students.

What are your thoughts about gaming in the classroom and the Flow experience?

My PLN

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we will be talking about my Personal Learning Network (PLN).  Before my Digital and Social Media class, I had never really thought about my PLN, how big it was/was not, or how to expand it even more. As I began this project, I didn't really know where or how to start, or how I wanted it to look.  After looking at a few examples from The Big List of PLE Diagrams, I found a few that I liked, and created my own using some ideas from those examples.  As I started to create mine, more and more ideas of resources that I use kept popping into my head! Before I knew it, I had a huge diagram! It was cool to see how many resources I actually use in order to create lessons, gain new ideas, and just network with other teachers! Below is the link to my PLN map.

Melinda's PLN created on spiderscribe.net

As you can see, my PLN became pretty large with a lot of nodes branching out.  The way I did my PLN also just includes resources. If I would have included individual people within some of these resources, it would have been even larger! However, there is still more branching out and growing to do!

One way that I plan on expanding my PLN is to get involved with some more Tweetchats. I participated in the #iaedchat a few weeks ago, but have unfortunately not been able to join in on the conversation since then. I would like to keep up with that, plus find one or two specifically for math that I could join and get some ideas for my math classes through there.  I also really enjoy scrolling through my feed to find what other teachers who I follow have posted. I have gotten some really great ideas from them and have retweeted some things too, so that I can reference them again later.  As I get more involved in the Tweetchats, there will be more people who I can follow, gain ideas from, and have conversations with.

Another way that I plan on growing my PLN is to keep blogging! Like I said in my first post, I created a blog for an undergrad class, but I only did the minimum number of posts, and I never kept it up after that. I did create this blog for my Digital and Social Media class, but I am actually liking the experience this time, and want to keep it up after this class is done.  It is another way for me to share information with other teachers. I plan on sharing my blog posts on Facebook and Twitter so that more people can see them, and maybe I'll get some more followers and commenters on my blog! I get a lot of ideas from other peoples' blogs, so maybe someone could get an idea from me!

Outside of the technology world, I would also like to be more active when I go to teaching conferences.  I am a pretty shy person when I don't know people, so I tend to stay to myself or stick with the people who I went to the conference with.  In order to grow my personal learning network, I need to be more willing to ask questions and talk to other teachers at these conferences to gain new ideas and perspectives. We could also exchange contact information, or follow each other on Twitter so we can share some of those ideas quicker and easier.

Have I inspired you to create your own map of your PLN? Give it a try!

My Online Presence

This week for class our assignment is to Google ourselves! I have done this in the past, but new things have popped up since I did it last, so here is what I found:

There is another Melinda Tremmel, who is a clinical nurse coordinator in St. Louis.  Her LinkedIn page is the first link that comes up.  The second link that comes up is the one that intrigues me and surprised me a little bit! It says "Melinda Tremmel mug" from the Globe Gazette, the local newspaper.  I saw the "mug" part of it and automatically thought "mug shot," but I've never been arrested or anything like that so I was a bit concerned! I clicked on it, and it took me to an article that the paper wrote about the new teachers who came into the West Hancock district a few years ago. I obviously don't like the name that they called the photo, but the link takes you to a good article. A lot of other things that I found related to my wedding last year. There are a few photos from our engagement session and wedding that pop up from Facebook or the article from the "Celebrations" page of the newspaper, and also our wedding website from theknot.com shows up as well.  Since we are not in the wedding process anymore, I deleted my account from that website, which also deleted our wedding website. It will take a few days for the deletion to take effect, but after that, I wonder if some of those engagement pictures that were on there won't show up anymore on the Google search?  Along with all of these, the other links that show up are related to the people I know (people from my cohort show up in the pictures, so does my brother-in-law, and so do people who are related to newspaper articles that my name is mentioned in such as the girls golf photo taken last year when I was the coach), or people with either Melinda as their first name or Tremmel/Trammel as their last name. Other than the "mug" link, nothing really surprised me or stood out to me as "bad".

In order to protect myself and keep my online presence positive, I created a Google alert to alert me if my name is mentioned anywhere online. I've heard about this, but have never done it myself. I think it is a good idea! I also created an About.me landing page. Using this page, I updated my profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (which I always had, but never really used until now). Screenshots of what my updated profiles look like on these sites are below.
     

I also looked at the "10 Ways to Build Your Online Identity" article and used some of those suggestions to keep myself safe and build my online presence as well.  For example, I purchased my own domain name mtremmel.com through GoDaddy.  I have it linked to this blog, so if anyone types in mtremmel.com they will come here!  Also, if you are a member of the NEA, they have a great collaboration website for teachers at mynea360.org.  They have many groups to join, and one that I've joined and contributed to was Secondary Math 6-12.  They layout of these groups is similar to Facebook or Twitter, but teachers in similar areas are in the group and can collaborate together and share ideas!  I also wrote a couple of reviews for books that I've read and/or purchased about the education field on Amazon.  These positive posts and interactions online will eventually show up on my Google search later on and are proactive measures to keep my online presence positive.

Many of our students don't know the importance of creating and maintaining a professional web presence. It is very important to keep this image for getting jobs and references in the future. I plan on sharing this blog post and the ideas in it with my students to show them that even after you have a stable job, it is still important to keep that presence professional. I'm sure they have already, but they can Google themselves to see if anything negative comes up.  Usually, this is the first thing that employers do when looking for people to interview.  If there is anything negative that comes up (pictures or other things that they have posted), it would be a good idea to clean them up now! Creating your own domain name also guards and protects from online identity theft as well as being a good place to keep everything in one spot on your personal website. There are many other ways to protect yourself online, and I plan on sharing these with my students and future children.  What other things have you done to build your web presence and protect yourself online?