TUIT: Maddie Meyer, SSE

Today's #ShelbyTUITshoutout is a throwback to my previous embedded school, Southside Elementary.   After last Thursday night's open house, kudos must be given to fifth grade teacher Maddie Meyer.

Before we get to what Maddie did at open house, a little background. When it comes to technology, she is not afraid to jump in with both feet.  For example, she learned about Kahoot from PD I presented before school began, and set up a quiz with students within the first few weeks of class.  (They were excited and definitely engaged!) At another PD of mine, she heard of Educanon, and when I observed her classroom, she tried it out. She hit a bit of a technical snag getting the video to stream, and here is where she won my admiration; without missing a beat, she switched to an "analog" version of the lesson (she read a book aloud and stopped periodically to question students).  By the end of the literacy timeframe, Educanon was up and running and she continued with the planned edtech.  It's a marvelous example of dealing with the reality of our 21st century classrooms.  We will occasionally hit a tech snag (a computer glitch, a network hiccup), but we don't have to let that rattle us -- give us four walls and a voice, and we can teach! -- and we cannot ignore the power of edtech by giving up either.  We just have to develop our "tech grit," push through, and try, try again.

Back to Maddie's open house. I discussed Flipgrid in a previous PD (and a post), and she wanted to use it in a unique way with her students.  Ms. Meyer created a Flipgrid for her students to record video responses: "Our 'class technology supervisor' [used an iPad and] handled the taping of all of our video responses, and the students got to see their responses live the next day." (Another student taking a leadership tech role!)  In the videos, students spoke about what they had learned in social studies so far this year. For open house, parents were given access to the Flipgrid so they could watch their child (and others) speak about their learning with their own voices.  According to Ms. Meyer, parents were impressed. "Parents were excited to see Southside’s new technology go to good use - student use!"

I briefly interviewed Maddie about Flipgrid and her plans for edtech.

Using Flipgrid for open house was pretty inventive!  How do you see using Flipgrid in the future?

I will be using FlipGrid in the future as a study tool -- my students can record responses as to what they’ve learned in class, and have access to the grids so they can watch and re-watch their videos!

What other edtech tools would you like to try with your students?

I can't wait to try BuildWithChrome.  I can already tell you that my students will be building Jamestown with this software as soon as we begin our unit on colonization.  I’m really counting on my Minecraft junkies to step up and teach everyone the ropes! We'll also be using Aurasma  during our first science unit.

Maddie Meyer, a well-deserved #ShelbyTUITshoutout for you!