Why a Showcase?
Welcome to the showcase page - a gathering of artifacts that are of some significance to me in my pursuit of professional and personal growth. The items vary widely and are only a glimpse into the coursework that I dived into throughout the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University. Artifacts are loosely categorized based on Pedagogical Innovation & Questioning and Technology and Society. You can take a closer look at each artifact by clicking the "Check Me Out!" button under each description. Enjoy!
Pedagogical Innovation & Questioning
Failure IS an Option - Wicked Problem ProjectA Wicked Problem is a problem that is not solvable - but it can be made easier. In this project, myself and three other educators worked together to brainstorm various solutions and created a website to present these ideas to teachers. The entire questioning process opened my eyes to a glimpse of inquiry-based learning that yielded a collaborative project that explored several "solutions" to this wicked problem. In the end, all team members agreed that failure can be a positive force when it comes to learning.
|
Assessment Genre Critical Review - WIDAIn this blog post I took a close look at an assessment for language skills used widely throughout international schools. This was a particularly interesting blog post for myself as I have spent the last three years reviewing the WIDA assessment with my English as an Additional language departments in South Korea and Vietnam to see how the assessment inserts cultural bias and does not accurately assess language levels in certain domains. While there are many positive components of this assessment there remain significant flaws that should be addressed when being administered internationally.
|
Assessment Design ChecklistMultiple weeks were spent breaking down and analyzing the affordances and constraints of a fluency assessment used within my English as an Additional Language class and judging whether this assessment was purposeful for the students I was working with at the time. It was perfect timing as this project helped me question how I used assessments in my intensive English as an Additional Language class at my new school in Vietnam.
|
NMTT (New Media Text & Tools) Dream ProjectOriginally a daunting project that required completely renovating an entire English Language Arts unit to thoughtfully incorporate New Media Text and Technology (NMTT), this website from CEP 816 rapidly became a way for me to destress as I began to pick apart a pre-built unit from Engage NY to fit the needs of my students. I am particularly proud of the scaffolding added to this supplemental website that will coincide with the in-person nonfiction reading & writing unit we will complete.
|
Maker Lesson - Tinkercad & Food ChainsEasily one of the most frustrating courses I took - CEP 811 really challenged me to "think outside the box" when it came to integrating Maker tools. Through the support of the Makerspace teacher at my school I was allowed to explore the various options we had at hand and it gave me the idea for students to create their own animal for 3D printing through Tinkercad as part of a food web. The lessons for this project show where students start with learning about food webs to creating their own animal as part of that web.
|
Technology & Society
Transitioning to Remote Teaching Blog Series: Student Well-BeingIn February 2020 I had the unique experience of being in one of the first countries in the world to make the overnight shift from in-person to remote learning. Within 24 hours we learned that schools in China and Vietnam made the call to move to virtual learning (before any educational technology platform was offering support to educators nonetheless!). I am thankful that my school has an advisory program where I met daily with my twelve 6th grade students to check-in on their learning and provide both academic and emotional support. This blog post emphasizes the importance of well-being for both teachers and students whenever you feel like it is difficult to get by. I am also especially honored that this blog post was featured in the Mini-MOOC on Remote Teaching in module 2 about student-wellbeing and creating routines.
|
Podcast: Ed Tech GalwayPictured left is the pillow fort we created as a Year Two cohort to create a quality sounding podcast centered on Educational Technology. I am particularly proud of this project from my Galway courses because I took the lead as the producer of the first episode of our podcast. This included creating foundational materials for the cohort to use with each episode, organizing times for recording sessions, communicating the needs for production, and using Garage Band afterwards to put it all together into a 30-minute episode. You can listen to the first episode of Ed Tech Galway below where we focused on ethics in technology.
|
|
Book It to CheckoutBook It to Checkout is a game created with partner Diana Gedye to promote literacy skills. This long-term project yielded not only a game for upper elementary readers to help them learn how to identify various book genres but it also resulted in the creation of an entire website to sell this game as a real-life product. I take pride in the work taken to create the website to advertise this concept (link below) and imparting knowledge to my partner when it came to using Powtoon for our final pitch (which you can view in the video to the left).
|