Reflections on EDUC560

As teachers we all know how messy our desktops get. Teachers are always on the run, you have to craft assessments, design activities and PowerPoint presentations, save interesting articles and inspirations for later, all that requires time and tons of storage. Google drive offers easy ways to share, edit, and store files, without worrying about them being lost or unsaved. It also offers an option to share files with another party, allowing them to edit or just comment. This can be a great aid for teachers when they create tests or activities and want to get the coordinator's insight, or in situations where two teachers teach the same class and need to create common activities. It is very convenient because you can also chat with your document partner on the side as well. 

Incorporating technology into our teaching strategies can be a of great help. Using Google Forms for example offers an easy way of creating tests and collecting answers. For multiple choice questions we can easily set a key and have results appear as soon as the answers are submitted. Results are displayed as a summary of the averages of the whole form or for individual questions, which is perfect for saving time and gaining an insight on how your students are preforming in general. You can also view the responses of each participant for more details. It also offers other question options form short answers and paragraphs to check boxes and linear scale making it even more versatile. It is important to note that short answers and paragraphs require manual correcting.  Google Forms is also a great tool to teach our students while working on projects or research to collect data. 

As teachers our pedagogical knowledge should always develop and advance. We need to keep our methods updated to the latest and best research to match our student needs, and educate ourselves about the different aspects teachers might encounter in a classroom. One of the best ways to do so is by attending seminars of great researchers and professor who spent their lives in enhancing education, and to learn from their experiences. This can be easily done online by attending webinars. Webinars offers great opportunities for people around the world to learn from each other through the convenience of their own homes or offices. 

Whether its our students' science fair projects, or our view on a certain pedagogical strategy, we love to share them for our colleagues and students' parents to see. Of course we can always resort to social media to do so, yet blogger offers a great way of grouping all of these accomplishments into one website with a creative interface. In a blog you are able to create your own posts where you can freely express yourself, have pages . You can also view blogs of others and get ideas and inspiration.