For this session of our Ed Tech class we kicked off by discussing where and how we are organizing our online resources as teacher candidates. This was a good reminder for me because my digital footprint is the equivalent of a student who shoves their papers straight into their backpack without care. This system may have worked for me in the past, but the reality is that as a teacher I need to model good behavior for my students in an increasingly technological academic landscape.
We then flowed into a sort of open forum for professional development called “Ed-Camp” where we picked the topics that we wanted to discuss. This style of professional development was really interesting to me compared to past experiences where we are just stuck in a room forced to listen and learn without regard for our personal interests.
Topics ranged from the death penalty to how to better support LGBTQIA+ youth, and the wall was quickly covered in topics that we generated in a class brainstorm session. I was really impressed by our ability to rapidly generate ideas because it showed the natural creativity and curiosity of the cohort. I chose to focus in on the conversation about how to develop higher quality presentation skills in our students. This depends on increasing their general communication skills, and also draws upon the tools we have been discovering in this class like Prezi and Canva.