Blog Journal 4

•  I have not used Pinterest or Instagram frequently before this class, but since I have followed some teacher related accounts, I have found both really helpful for finding inspiration for my future classroom. For my Personal Learning Network, these resources will be extremely helpful in getting ideas from other teachers of ways to decorate my classroom, activities to include in my teaching, and more. In my future career, Pinterest will be helpful for finding new ways to set up my classroom to make it fun and inviting as well as to help find interactive websites or class projects to keep the students engaged. Instagram will also be helpful for getting inspiration from other teachers as well as contact them through the message feature for any assistance or help I need from other teachers to help make my class as engaging as possible. 
• Growing up, I first went to a digitally poor school. Here, we mainly used physical textbooks in the classroom and only occasionally went to the computer lab. We also had a library in within the school, whereas my high school, which was digitally rich, did not even have a library on campus. Here, we did all assignments online and technology was highly incorporated. This was helpful for preparing me for using technology in college, though we only used Chromebooks and Chrome sites, so getting accommodated with Mac and Microsoft has been a bit challenging. My early experiences helped me get an understanding of life without technology, though it would have been helpful to be more immersed in technology at an earlier time. 
• To prepare my students for success, I would help get them accommodated with technology early on. This will include implementing collaborative writing and social annotation in my classes and assignments. Collaborative writing allows students to work together and learn from other students and social annotation helps make collaborative writing easier. In my future classroom, I will use things like digital bookmarks, highlights, and comments on sites like Diigo, Ruttl, and Padlet. This way students will learn how to easily annotate and collaborate on reading documents or writing assignments. For example, in a lesson where students are to read a short passage and answer a written response question, they would use Ruttl to collaborate on the annotations of analyzing the text together, and Padlet to respond to the question. This way they will be able to see and learn from other students' responses.