Ms. Clark's Technology Blog

One of the subjects I teach is Anatomy & Physiology. It is my favorite class to teach for so many reasons. It is an elective science class, so every student made a choice to be there. The class is for juniors and seniors, so most of my students are planning out their future and considering colleges and careers, many falling within the field of health sciences. This contributes hugely to the level of engagement in class. In my experience, engaged students are also inquisitive students. Every year, I provide the disclaimer to my students that while I am an Anatomy & Physiology teacher, I am not a doctor. Therefore, there will likely be many questions that I am unable to answer. This is where having student researchers plays a vital role in my classroom. In my classroom, I have a "Parking Lot". It is simply a large piece of paper on the back wall, divided into my different class periods. If a student asks a question that either a) I do not know the answer to or b) re...

I always tell my students that I have learned more as a teacher than I ever did as a student. I took Anatomy & Physiology in both high school and college, yet my first year teaching it was when I actually finally began to comprehend the material. Processes that I only memorized while in college suddenly made so much sense as I was talking through it and trying to come up with ways to explain it simply and efficiently. I think that students should try to talk through material as much as possible, and making students tutorial designers is an excellent way to do this in the classroom. Before this topic came up in my grad class, I decided to try out a project in one of my classes in school. I teach a class called Freshman Seminar which is intended to help students in their transition to high school as well as teaching important topics that don't fit into the curricula of core classes. I asked students to identify a problem they (or one of their friends) encountered during their f...

Some students are better note-takers than others. I have some students who don't take notes at all, some who will write down only the headings, and some who come to class with an array of pens and highlighters to ensure their notes are organized and even color-coded. All students need to have access to the material, so how can it be shared? Alan November suggests having a student as a scribe. I decided to look into the app Evernote for this task. I use Google Classroom to upload all of my class materials, so students always have the notes exactly as they were given in class. However, having a student scribe create a document to summarize the notes from class could help to consolidate the information. I think that this would keep students from feeling overwhelmed, as there can be multiple PowerPoints for each unit that could be hard to navigate. Evernote makes it easy to write clear, organized notes, including images and attachments. I tried out making one for my anatomy stu...

From September-June, my brain is constantly overwhelmed with information. My biggest issue is maintaining a straight forward to-do list. In my short prep period or after the final bell of the day, I sometimes feel that I am being extremely inefficient in the way I work, jumping from task to task as it comes into my mind. My old method of keeping track of what I needed to do was Post-its...everywhere... on my desk, in my planbook, on my computer. Needless to say, I was fully aware that this was not a good strategy but I hadn't really searched for a better solution. However, I am now optimistic about my organizational future thanks to my discovery of Google Keep. Working at a "Google School", I thought I was aware of all of the apps within the Google Suite. I use gmail, Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Classroom all the time. I could not believe that Keep hadn't entered my realm of knowledge. Google Keep is a place to keep notes and checklists, which makes littering my spac...