Ms. McBride Gets TECHnical

Tweens, Teens, Tech, and Mental Health As a middle school teacher, I see the wide range of emotions that many of my students go through on a daily basis. Students frequently use technology as an outlet to cope with how they are feeling. With the pandemic interfering with daily life activities, teens have resorted to using technology more often to connect with others. I took a closer look at Common Sense Media's report titled "Tweens, Teens, Tech, and Mental Health: Coming of Age in an Increasingly Digital, Uncertain, and Unequal World"  to learn more about how technology impacts our teenagers and their mental health. Key Findings The first key finding that stood out to me was that the article stated that adolescents should use the internet as a social safety net.  Image Source: Common Sense Media I was surprised by this because if not used properly, teenages can navigate themseves into unfavorable situations that can have negative impacts  o...

I hate to admit this but before doing the reading for this week, I had not heard of the term active learning. However, after taking a deeper look into it, I realized that I already do this in my classes I just don't refer to it as active learning. Image Source: Arizona State University Active learning has students engaging as participants in the learning process. They are not just sitting and listening to a teacher lecture, but they are getting involved and thinking critically about the material. In doing so, this helps to build their understanding of the topic and gets them to increase their confidence.  Cougar Code I had the opportunity to take a closer look at an elementary example of active learning. In this activity, the students from John C. Coonley school are working on visualizing what it means to be respectful, responsible, and safe in their building. After their class discussion, t he students worked in groups to create a storyboard.  At the end, students created a ...

Digital Spaces The internet provides us with many different tools in order to engage us both personally and professionally. In doing this, we are able to become residents and visitors of these digital spaces.  A resident is a person who goes online to interact and connect with others. They are creating an identity for themselves in their online communities.  Visitors, however, are much different. They are users of the internet for specific purposes. Visitors do not create a web presence. They like to remain anonymous in order to protect their privacy and security. Check out this blog post by David White to learn more about digital residents and visitors. This week I was able to map my own digital presence to determine if I was more of a visitor or resident. Check out my map below! My Digital Map All images from Google Images Reflection: I have never been a person who wanted to have a large web presence. I have always kept things private and off of the internet. This cla...

This week I had the opportunity to explore some of the hottest topics in educational technology . This list was compiled by the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE). There were some pretty important points on this list, but the one that stood out to me the most was social emotional learning.  With the majority of students in the United States not attending school in person last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, now, more than ever, do we as educators need to support the overall wellbeing of our students. Just being back in the building for about a month now, I am seeing how much some students are struggling to cope socially and/or emotionally. For the majority of the students in my building, their positive outlet is school.  Second Step: One tool that we use in my building to support students both socially and emotionally is the Second Step program. This tool has been designed to be implement in both the elementary and middle school grade levels. We have...

This week I had the opportunity to take a closer look at a few different technology frameworks. Prior to this module, I was unaware of the majority of these frameworks. We have touched on The SAMR Model a little bit in my school, but we have not implemented the use of this framework as a school or myself as an individual. I decided to take a closer look at this model since we have spoke about it in my building and because it is the most commonly used model in the field of education.  What is The SAMR Model? The SAMR Model was first introduced by Dr. Ruben Puentedura in 2010. The title is an acronym that stands for his four different steps for technology enhancement and transformation. Those four steps are: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. Dr. Puentedura created this model so teachers could reflect on their technology usage as well as identify meaningful pieces of technology that would enhance and transform their instruction. Breaking Down the Areas of SAM...

Hello and welcome to my blog, My name is Katie McBride! Image Source: Personal Image About Me: I am an 8th grade Special Education teacher at a middle school in the suburbs near O'Hare. This is my 10th year teaching. I have been at my current position for 7 years. Prior to this, I worked at a charter high school in Chicago. This year I get to focus all of my energy into teaching 8th grade math. I support our special education students in two co-taught classes as well as teach my own section of a self-contained 8th grade math class. I was not the best math student growing up, but now I could not imagine myself teaching anything else!  I love my family to death and I am very close to them. My two brothers, Bobby and Tommy, and I love to attend sporting events. Our favorite games are Bears games. We are so excited to get back into Soldier Field this year to watch them play. It has been way too long! We are hoping for a great season with many wins and sooner, rather than later, an appe...