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A Tech Teacher on a Mission

Using My FitBit for Reminders While Teaching

10/28/2014

6 Comments

 
PictureImage retrieved from Wikipedia.org
In May of this year, I purchased a FitBit Flex - a device to wear around my wrist that would help me to track my daily steps taken, nightly rest cycles, and to give me daily silent reminders through a vibrating alarm. Some teachers use the FitBit or other health trackers to ensure that they are up and moving all day. While my FitBit has certainly reminded me to get up and get moving more, I have found another use for it while teaching.

So, confession time: I am a very forgetful person when it comes to timing, scheduling, and keeping track of items like my keys. I could probably lose my keys while my car is running... it's that bad. So, if a brilliant moment of learning is going on, I completely forget that I am supposed to remind Student X to go take her ADHD medication or for Student Y to go to his small group lesson for Learning Support.  As I have settled into my new class for the year, I have several students who need reminders throughout the day about specific things, whether to check in with me on a behaviour issue, check in at the office for medication, or just to be sent to the Learning Support room for extra assistance with academic or social skills.

I have begun setting my FitBit silent alarms to go off throughout the day to remind me to do those things. That way, when I feel the device buzzing on my wrist, no one else hears it, and I can gently remind the student about what they need to go do, even if it is in the middle of something else important for the rest of the class.

I know this is a tiny tip, but it has already helped me enormously with remembering all of the "little things" that we teachers do to accommodate student needs. I hope it helps you, too!

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6 Comments

Educational Gratitude: A Sketchnote

10/5/2014

4 Comments

 
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences throughout teacher job action in British Columbia. At the end of that post, I promised that I would write about the moments in being an educator that I was grateful for. Now that we have fully completed the first two weeks of school in BC, I have spent some time to reflect upon the many hectic and chaotic moments of the startup, but also the ones that made me remember why I’m an educator.

Instead of listing them, I decided to make a sketchnote about my first two weeks. Here it is:
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Gratitude: Why I Love Being an Educator - Victoria Olson; Made with Paper and Pencil by FiftyThree for iPad
Each of the sketches, words, and quotes on this sketchnote have held some significance for me in the past two weeks. I fully and truthfully admit: my passionate fire for education is back. While I'm still aware of the deficiencies of our system, no one is stopping me from loving my job anyways.

I think it’s important to continue to have conversations about gratitude in education. In fact, these conversations have already been happening (check out the archive from #bcedchat’s discussion on Educational Gratitude). This has stuck out to me since things have gotten so busy again: if we don’t stop to be thankful and focus on the positive, we can very quickly lose ourselves in the negatives that we all know exist.

Please comment below with some of your moments of gratitude from your job, or better yet, a link to a blog post full of those moments!

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4 Comments

    Author

    Victoria Olson
    A curious and passionate educator in Langley, BC

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