Ms. Kissel's Blog

     At the beginning of the semester, my Personal Learning Network was small and mostly centered on people I already knew, like classmates and my instructor. Over time, it has expanded to include teachers, websites, and professional organizations that share reliable resources. The spaces I use have also shifted from mainly social media to more professional spaces like educational blogs and discussion platforms. My tools have grown as well, moving from basic searching and bookmarking to organized platforms like Blogger. Overall, my PLN is still focused on supporting my learning, but it has become more intentional, diverse, and interactive.      As a future elementary school science teacher, I expect to rely on data collection tools to better understand my students and guide instruction. Tools like Qualtrics and Google Forms will help me gather information about students’ prior knowledge before starting a new unit. I can also use surveys to check how co...

     In my K-12 experience with distance learning, I’ve worked with tools like zoom, Google Classroom, and interactive digital tools like Kahoot and Nearpod. The video meetings helped maintain direct teacher student connection, though I found attention drifted when everyone was muted and cameras off. The learning manegment like google classroom was effective for distributing assignments and tracking progress, but I sometimes found it less engaging than in person work. I haven’t yet used more advanced virtual reality immersive classrooms or adaptive ai driven tutoring systems, but I would like to experience those because I think they could boost engagement, personalize learning more deeply, and bring a fresh dimension to remote instruction.      Open educational resources are freely accessible, openly licensed teaching, learning, and research materials that anyone can use, adapt, and share. In my own words, OER are like open source textbooks, modules, videos...

     While working on the Web Design assignment, I learned how to make a website look clear and organized. I used design ideas like balance, color contrast, and spacing to make my website easy to read. For example, I used light text on a dark background to make words stand out, and I made sure pictures and text were lined up evenly on each page. I liked being creative and choosing colors and fonts that matched my theme, but I didn’t like when the layout changed on different screens. These skills will help me in the future because I can use them to make classroom websites, online lessons, or even digital portfolios.           QR codes are a simple but powerful bridge between printed and digital classroom materials and extended resources. A creative way I might use them is to build a learning trail around the classroom or school. Each station on the trail would have a QR code linking to a short lesson, a 60–90 second explainer video, a reflecti...