Blog 7

     I found a school website where numerous teacher pages are linked. While going through the grade levels I saw that at least 1 teacher has a website linked. However, the teacher pages did not give me much to work with. They seemed to be very short, with just an introduction to their name, subject, and grade level, with a possible inclusion of a graphic or their contact information. When comparing them to the website I am designing for Assignment #3, it seemed very relaxed, minimal, and not very informative, from a parent's perspective. However, I would like to give credit to the school for having such a user friendly way for how they presented each teacher page. Overall, I was very unimpressed with the content provided in the teacher pages. Link to School Website 

    I envision myself using technology daily to accomplish my professional responsibilities more efficiently and effectively. The first thing I would want to have as a teacher is access to either all Google or Microsoft processing systems. I would also want to use other fun technology tools like Canva and/or SlidesGo for my classroom presentation to have a little flare. This would allow for me to quickly create emails, classroom presentations, lesson plans, spreadsheets, and other classroom materials. As a teacher, I would use multiple teacher productivity tools. If I were an elementary teacher, I would 100% utilize ClassDojo. I remember when I was a kid and I loved ClassDojo, because not only would I get rewards, but it would also incentivize me to complete work on time and correctly to earn more points. I would use it for the same reasons I loved it as a kid, it would help my students stay on task, teach them the principles of punishment v. rewards, and it would allow for a class party, which I know as a teacher I would enjoy! I would also use Remind. As a teacher, I really only have direct communication with my students, and I believe that utilizing Remind, I could keep the parents informed weekly about the happenings of my classroom. Lastly, I would use Canvas. I have used Canvas since my high school career, and I find it to be teacher, student, and parent friendly. 

    Overall, I had a positive experience working on Assignment 2: Critical Evaluation. I think that ChatGPT did an excellent job of creating a visually appealing and easy to read layout for the teacher to understand the structure of how that instruction should be taught. However, this varied within my group, which I believe is based on the prompt that is given to the generative AI before creating the lesson plan. I think that the variation/styles of instruction (lecture, group work, discussion, individual work, etc.) should be based on the teacher's knowledge of how their students learn best. While the generative AI did incorporate numerous options, I think that aspect of the lesson planning still requires the human teacher's knowledge and expertise of their students. This assignment taught me that what makes a "good" lesson plan varies from teacher to teacher. For example, when evaluating Brooke's lesson plan, it was extremely minimal, which left more room for the teacher's discretion. Brooke could've felt confident to use that lesson plan without need more prompts to generate more examples. Thus, the lesson plan for teachers can vary in depth, based on the teacher's needs. I do think that evaluating an AI-generated plan changed how I think about designing my own lessons. Just like I explained before, I think for my lesson plans, I would need to have a very in-depth structure/layout to be able to visualize myself teaching the lesson. I liked how the Canvas group tool allowed for collaboration, even when not in the presence of my group members. I also enjoyed creating different layouts for the "Home Page" as it allowed our group to be on theme. I thoroughly enjoyed having different "pages" for our group, as it allowed for our information to be organized. I did not find anything that I disliked from this tool, nor would I want to recommend a different tool.