Amanda's Education Blog

Active Learning Photo Credit When I first heard about the topic active learning, I immediately thought about students being active (moving) and learning at the same time. I started reading about active learning and said "ohhhhhh, this is what my principal was trying to get me to do this entire time!" As a teacher, I have a hard time of letting go of authority. I like my room to have structure and everything so the way that I planned it to go. My principal started explaining that students need to take ownership and start to lead conversations. I always had a come back like, "well most of my students struggle to communicate their ideas verbally and they do not carry on conversations with students." (since I teach special education). He said "Well they need to be taught how so you need to teach them." I agreed.  My First Lesson My first lesson was a read aloud that I wanted to use the strategies turn-and-talk to predict what would happen next. I ...

My Digital Map Photo Credit When I first began creating my digital map, I drew my visitor and resident lines and then personal and professional lines and then went to town searching on my phone. At first everything was in my resident and personal box and every icon was HUGE because when I was adding them I kept thinking, "Oh yeah I always use this app."  By the end, I had no back ground in this section. Then I had to stop and think about what David White said about what makes us a visitor and what makes us a resident. I also had barely anything in my professional sections. I had to really stop and think about what I use to help my students learn. Then it became filled with icons.  Personal Like I said at first all my icons ended up in personal and resident. I had to stop and think, I use a lot of these icons help me in my professional life as well.First, I LIVE on Amazon, its so convenient, order online and you get it in two days! I use Amazon to order this for...

Technology in Education Photo Credit When I was student teaching I had a SMART board in my classroom and soon came to love everything about the board. All the different features, how you can easily change images from big to small to show congruent shapes, how the students can physically interact with it, blew my mind! My students loved it and I realized that I could probably never teach without the board again. I then entered into my current position where I did not have a SMART board and came to realize I still need to find a way to make students engaged. I needed colorful anchor charts, pictures, videos that could be display on an over head. It was much more time consuming, but the students were still engaged. After some  I noticed that my students needed me to keep adding more and more to my lessons to keep them engaged so to me that meant creating and creating.  Triple E The Triple E framework allows me to keep the students engaged by involving tec...

Hey guys!  Here is a Screencast about everything you need to know about Khan Academy. The last slide offers links to additional articles as well as the link to Khan Academy. I have posted the links below for easier access! Hope you enjoy! https://www.khanacademy.org Click here to read an article about a 10 year old student who started using Khan Academy and how it impacted his life. Click here to view an interview with founder Is Khan Academy the future for education ? This link is a good video to show to students to help them get started with Khan.

Hello everyone! Personal Photo  I cannot wait to start working together over these next 8 weeks!  Let me tell you a little about myself. My Name is Amanda Georgiou, and I have been teaching for 4.5 years. I currently work at Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt park where I teach special education grades K-3.  I received my undergrad from the University of St. Francis in 2012.  I went to Dominican in 2015 and received my ESL endorsement.  https://www.stfrancis.edu/ Family-  I got married on June 2, 2018! I could not be more excited to start this new life journey together as husband and wife. We bought our very first home together last year and we have two Siberian Huskies, Skyler (white and red) and Mia (white and black). Skyler and Mia are both 6 years old. We got Mia about two years ago and it made our "pack" complete.  Personal Photo Personal Photo  I have an older sister and a younger brother. My sister has two...