Amanda's Education Blog

Technology Leader Throughout these first four weeks, I have learned a lot about what makes a great leader a leader. A leader must have great communication skills as they will be talking to many different departments within the district. They also need to be organized. They need to be Photo Credit  organized because they will be placing orders for very expensive equipment, collecting data to ensure programs are working and figuring out the best way to store technology on a day to day basis. A leader also needs to be patient, lead by example and build relationships. When I think about myself as a leader, I think I will be a great one, but I did not think about all the responsibility that would come with it. Such as the hiring and ordering sections. The one video I listened to described how when someone is selling you a product they are only going to tell you all the great things about their product. It is up to me to do the research and ask those hard questions that might...

Research As educators we are told to follow best practices based on statistics and research. After reading through many of the articles, there was one article that stuck out to me. The article was called Social Media Fact Sheet completed by Pew Research Center. The center began tracking many things about social media, such as how often, age, race , gender and which account gets used the most. This article contains information is mostly relevant to me.  The chart below shows the age ranges that use some form of social media. Something that does not shock me is that the top line represents ages 18-29 and the bottom line is 65 and older. It is obviously clear without this graph who uses social media the most and who doesn't. I would have liked to see the ages of 10-18 though. I feel like this is the age that most teens start using social media and I would be interested to see is they use it the most.  Photo Credit Another statistic that stood out to me would be ...

First Glances.... When I first went to our schools website and visited the technology page I immediately found the Acceptance use policy. However, after looking at it this was only for teachers and I was not able to find the ones for students. To view the agreement click on the link below.  Scroll down on the right hand side and you will find the policy sections.  Link to Policy What caught my eye here was they say using the network is a privilege, which I completely agree with, but then the next section which is 15 bulletin points long is the unacceptable use. To be honest, I never read any of these forms. I also feel I am pressured to just sign it in front of who ever is waiting for it. The section labeled M stood out to me. It states that we are not able to connect any other devices to the network without district approval. For example, our own personal computers or cellphones. Now to me I do not care because we have unlimited data on our cellpho...

Pinterest Who doesn't love Pinterest!? I have so many boards all pertaining to the different communities that I belong to. If you click on the Pinterest logo below, it will take you to my page. You can see boards for reading, teaching, math, science, holiday and phonics...even a board designated to Dr. Seuss!   Photo Credit and Link to Boards I love using Pinterest to gather ideas for a certain topic. I love how teachers post "life hacks" on how to create the most space in your classroom using tools from the dollar store.  4 Areas  I think the area that this covers most would be social. Anyone from any where is able to have a Pinterest. If I chose to follow someone who had a great idea about something, they could live in California and I am here in Chicago. I also think it is social because I am able to share the ideas I found with other educators that might not be searching for the same topic that I am.  This area might be reaching far, but I feel...

My Photo Hello! My name is Amanda Bielawski (Georgiou through Dominican as I have not yet changed my name). The picture above is from my Facebook account. This picture means the world to me, as I'm sure many of you can see why! On June 2, 2018 we got married at Naper Settlement in Naperville. We are expecting our first child this coming June...June 6th to be exact (it might fall on our anniversary!)  Photo Credit  I am currently a Special Education Teacher at Troy Shorewood in Shorewood. This is my first year at Troy. I love being 15 minutes away from home. I previously taught at Cameron Elementary School in Chicago and my commute was over an hour and half each way. I am overly grateful for this opportunity at Troy. I am currently taking two courses right now and I will finish my Masters in Education after that and intend to graduate in May. Hopefully the peanut does not come early and I am able to walk! My husband and I have two loving and fluffy...