Artifact Reflection Blog #2 Trendy Research Paper

Writing a research paper was one of the assignments I dreaded most in my first graduate course in almost 10 years. I was not ready nor prepared for the depth of writing required...or so I thought. As with many students, I had talked myself into the "Negative Nellie" mindset on this assignment and was letting the negative thoughts cloud what ultimately was a significant learning opportunity for growth in educational technology. Once I opened my mindset and actually started researching for the paper, I was flooded with excitement for next school year. I was ready to start with the two trends I studied: parent communication and online student portfolios.

Click here to see my research paper.

Throughout the work I did for this paper I naturally paused to reflect on past practices in my own classroom. Last year, I began using Remind.com to communicate with families. I chose to integrate this tools because I heard great things from other teachers about the success they had with Remind in their classroom communities. The benefit to my classroom was the way that parents were able to comfortably and securely text me with questions or comments about their child. I enjoyed being able to send quick reminders to the whole class or select only a few at a time. It made communicating much easier and convenient for all of us and I intended on continuing to use it, but now I was on to the best practices with Remind...I couldn't wait to learn more.
I since have been discussing remind with other colleagues in my PLN (Professional Learning Network) and enjoyed a few suggestions I can't wait to use. First and foremost, the idea of sending parents positive notes throughout the day. I did this rarely last year, but know it will make a big impact on the home school connection by utilizing it more with many students each day. Secondly, the ability to schedule messages was something I knew was an option in Remind, but did not utilize to its fullest potential last year. I will focus on this and pre-type messages for parents throughout the year to aid in my classroom organization and to-do list completion.

Like Remind, Seesaw will get a lot more attention and use from me this school year. Though I used it regularly with students last year, there are so many more ideas that I have found to be useful. Those ideas and suggestions came once again through my studies for this research paper. I found ways to integrate Seesaw and focus on the student reflection piece that so desperately needs attention within my classroom. Students reflecting on their learning means students are focused on learning. This goal is key in any successful classroom. I know I need to work more here for student success and Seesaw is going to be a significant tech tool next school year.
The second benefit that I need to focus on more with Seesaw is again that parent home connection. Some parents really got into the online portfolio and commenting on their students work, while others didn't tap in as much. I left it up to their comfort level, but didn't think about the parent education end of it all. Through the research I did on this paper, I learned a lot about the need to sometimes teach parents to help them become more comfortable with the technology our students are using. I intend to do this through offering times I will meet with parents to share how to use Seesaw painlessly. If parents want help, I'll be there as before, but this time just center it around the technology that might be holding them back.

Needless to say, once I got rid of the fixed mindset I had on this research paper assignment, the learning occurred. See even an "old dog" needs a growth mindset reminder once in a while!