Bio
I am an Instructional Technology Coach and Webmaster for Queen Bee District 16 in Glendale Heights, IL. I have been coaching best practices in technology integration with students and teachers from Pre-K through 8th grade since 2011. Before that, I taught music in Villa Park School District 45 for seven years. It was in my second year as a music teacher, that I got to participate in a state grant that earned me a SMART Board for my classroom. I found teaching with technology to be a natural skill and a passion that I wanted to explore so I decided to go for my Masters of Education in Technology Integration.
I am so glad that I went for that degree because I truly love what I do. I have gotten the opportunity to work with some fantastic teachers on some very rewarding projects.Technology is a unique subject because it gives me the opportunity to work with students on all subjects in education, not just music or computer science. I really enjoy watching students learn and create.
I aspire to be a Technology Coordinator or Technology Director for a school district. I find that coordinating the curriculum with the district technology scope and sequence will create a backbone for any technology initiative.
I am currently working in my first year of a 1:1 Technology Initiative with Chromebooks, Schoology, G Suite for Education, Go Guardian, Illuminate, Pearson Realize, Envision, and InterACTIVE Science, Discovery Education Techbooks and more! I have coordinated device deployment, student support, staff professional development, parent/guardian assistance, and communication. I have prepared policies and paperwork for our initiative and presented plans to stakeholders.
I teach: curious minds.
To ages: 1 to 22
Reviews
Class Dojo is a wonderful behavior management tool for so many reasons. It appeals to a wide age range of students and allows for complete customization for teachers. It’s wonderful that the data can be shared with the home as well. Our elementary and intermediate teachers love Class Dojo and there are a few teachers using it at the middle school level as well. I would definitely recommend Class Dojo to any colleague and I have many times over. We are a PBIS district and it integrates very well.
A lot of the teachers in my school use Remind. They like it because of its ease of use. The students enjoy it because they can get messages on their devices. The way they provide you with you with easy, printable instructions is superb. All apps should make it this easy!
We are using Schoology as the perfect compliment to our 1:1 Initiative with Chromebooks at the middle school level. Our students have been collaborating for years but Schoology gives them more access to materials, organized resources and a way to communicate with teachers. Schoology has given our students and teachers what they need to maintain a digital classroom while offering so much more. We are using it to create team pages, blogging, parent updates, communication, assessments, data review and progress monitoring. I would recommend Schoology to anyone for its robust capabilities, simple customization and ease of use.
Seamless. Brings all of your apps into one place. Mobile. Fun.
I use Google Drive for everything. I install it on my desktop computers, I use the app on my phone and tablet, and I am always working in Google Drive on my Chromebook. The fact that I can use it seamlessly on all of my devices is the largest strength. Google has done a very nice job of making apps that work well and in a similar way on every device.
The amount of collaboration that can be done in Google Drive is unrivaled. Students can work simultaneously in one document. I use the collaboration tools to work along with colleagues remotely at any time. My students are able to work in a doc with me and we can communicate in real time.
We use Google Drive to host content online, collect information, work with others, share resources, and track data. I recommend Google Drive to my colleagues on a daily basis because of its ease of use and compatibility.