Techy Teacher Award

My school gives a "Techy Teacher" Award to a staff person incorporating technology in their roles whether it's a teacher or in my case a counselor.

I love using technology to help with my role as middle school counselor.  I created a student circle in Google+ where I can share motivational videos, quotes, and important information with the students. One feature of using technology was creating student interest surveys for their possible class electives next year. The students were able to login to Google and complete the survey in less than 5 minutes. The technology allowed me to have an instant spreadsheet with the data as well as charts to show a visual presentation of their selections.

Sharing information with teachers through Google Drive is so easy! The ability to collaborate on documents, make comments, and share ideas saves time. When I come across a cool educational app or site I can share with an individual teacher, department, or the entire staff. Collaboration also extends to the students. Three EAST students came up with a project idea to create Students of the Week and together we created a short URL to send to teachers and all the teachers have to do is click on the link and complete the form.

There is no substitute for face to face contact but sometimes students are unable to see me when they need to especially if it isn't an emergency and with the power of technology in front of them, they are able to send me a message either through email or the chat feature.  Just that little connection with students can make all the difference if they are having a bad day and this is the most powerful use of technology.

 

 

Here's my award placed outside my office.