Over 100 Granite educators joined us for our first GSD Tech Meet, a live virtual meeting for teachers held in Google Meet on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. The meet was facilitated by Kacie O’Maley, School Technology Specialist at Upland Terrace Elementary and an incoming Team Leader for our department next year. In this first session, Kacie introduced the meet as a collaborative space for teachers to connect and share with one another, putting forth discussion questions that encouraged participants to share successes, ideas, and solutions they have developed during the distance learning period.
[Read more…] about Highlights from the First GSD Tech Meet, April 21, 2020ClassDojo
Teacher Spotlight: Shanna Bingham, Pioneer Elementary
Mrs. Shanna Bingham is a kindergarten teacher at Pioneer Elementary. I had the opportunity to watch her work with her students on counting and number recognition. Her students worked as partners and used iPads to scan QR codes. Those codes took the students to her UEN website (http://my.uen.org/myuen/230078). The students then counted the number of pumpkins and wrote the number on a worksheet. Once that activity was complete the students then used the app Doodle Buddy to practice collaboration and providing feedback while counting. One student would say a number and the other student would tap out that amount of snowflakes on the screen. The first student would then give a thumbs up or down to indicate whether the student completed the request accurately. The final activity was using the app ShowMe which was the first time using this application. The students were give a two minute explanation as to how to use the app. Then with their partner they created a mini counting movie. It was amazing to see how engaged and the amount of collaboration that took place during this forty minute lesson.
Mrs. Bingham is always eager to incorporate technology into her lessons. Whether it be using the SMART board to instruct from or having her student use iPads instead of worksheets to complete lesson activities. She always keeps productivity at the forefront of her lesson planning. Her lessons are engaging and keep her kindergarten students collaborating. To quote one of her students “This is super awesome!” She is a true 21st Century teacher.
Spotlight Author: Heidi Meenen, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Additional Resource Shown on Video: Class Dojo