Alexa Atzert GEN 2243

⁤ Maintaining momentum is important for educators to create a strong learning environment. ⁤⁤ When an educator starts to feel comfortable and aren't trying to better their skills, they start to lose their momentum. ⁤⁤ Maintaining momentum is important since it will help promote student engagement and in return create larger student achievement. ⁤⁤ Momentum in education involves the ongoing improvement that continues to push the learning process forward. ⁤ A valuable approach that will help maintain momentum is appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is a valuable approach to sustaining learning and change in communities and networks (Connected Educator, Chapter 7). Appreciative inquiry is the belief that educators will improve their knowledge when they are constantly asking questions and focused on learning more about it. If an educator is upset about their problems and not actively trying to fix them, there will be no improvement. Instead, educators should inquire into these is...

Good Websites vs Bad Websites When it comes to good websites and bad websites, it's important to know the basics of what differentiates the two. It is important to make sure the website includes the following...  Is there a purpose?  Is it easy to navigate?  Is it relevant?  Is it pleasing to look at? For this topic, I decided to compare the following two websites and compare their strengths and weaknesses. For the sake of this experiment, I decided to look up the word "bee" and attached the link that the website would then bring you. Wikipedia  (Good) Encyclopedia  (Bad) My findings were that Wikipedia was good, whereas the encoyclopedia.com website was bad.  I made this decision based on how well each website performed. When you look up a topic, Wikipedia brings up a whole article on bees, and each section is labeled. There was also a menu bar on the side that allowed you to jump to different sections that you were trying to find more information abo...

Connected Learning: Blogs Within the Classroom Recently I read all about using tools in connected learning. As a future educator, there is such importance when it comes to using online tools both inside and outside of the classroom. These tools offer benefits to both teachers and students in a variety of ways. Within this posting specifically, I am going to focus on how blogs help students and teachers engage with each other, promote critical thinking, and build a community. To promote student engagement within the classroom, blogs provide a platform for students where they can share their thoughts, and ideas with others. By using blogs while teaching, teachers enable students to participate in learning. Furthermore, writing and posting blog posts doesn’t only develop their writing skills but also makes them feel that they own the learning process. Through these real-time channels, feedback and discussions are guaranteed and create a sense of collaboration among students. In relation t...

In today's digital world, technology has changed the way we both teach and learn. Whether you are a student or a teacher, many different programs and applications will make your life easier. There are so many different resources to choose from to meet your own individual needs. An application that has recently been gaining popularity is Canva. Canva is a platform that allows you to create and design many different materials, which could be very helpful in a learning environment. Canva offers many different features that are very beneficial to teachers. One of the best advantages of Canva is how user-friendly it is. Canva makes it easy to pick a template and add your own information where it is needed. A struggle that many educators face is time management. Creating extra materials can take up so much time; however, with Canva this time can be reduced drastically. Teachers can use Canva to create presentations, lesson materials, and even worksheets. The ability to create your materi...

As a future educator, it is so important to build a personal learning community. There are so many benefits both inside and outside of the classroom. With today's rapidly evolving advances, creating this sense of involvement among other educators promotes collaboration and ultimately results in more student success. By creating your own personal learning community, having this platform will encourage not only yourself but other educators. There will be so many more tools available from like-minded individuals at your fingertips.  This collaborative approach not only enhances students' learning experiences but also cultivates essential skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. When creating your own personal learning community, there are many tips that should be followed. It's important to pick a tool of your choice, that will benefit you and is easy for you. After creating your profile, it's important to follow individuals who you believe you will ben...

 Attached is the link to my Web 2.0 Tool Smackdown on Facebook Smackdown