Claire Molony Educational Blog

 After doing more research and thinking about digital divides in my building, I have decided to focus on digital skills instead of access. I want to focus on the digital skills of teachers and how that can be addressed to support the highest level of skills for our students. This would fit with the second level of divide, skills and usage which are determinants of the use of technology especially for more creative use  (van de Werfhorst et al., 2022).  This gets me into the "dividing factors" of my community members. "Dividing factors" refer to the challenges that prevent communities from accessing, using, or benefiting from digital technologies. My community does not have an access barrier. According to the Digital Divide Index (DDI) my county which I teach in has a low divide because even though I teach in a rural community, our county has a major urban area ( Gallardo, 2022). We have solid infrastructure, with Wi-Fi being available to students and community membe...

 Hi everyone! My name is Claire Molony and I teach high school science in rural Eastern Iowa. I teach chemistry, biology, forensics, and wildlife management. This is my 6th year teaching and my third year in my current role. Along with teaching I coach basketball and golf. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and recently got back into reading. This is my second to last class before completing the program in May!  My community is a small rural community in Eastern Iowa. My students and colleagues are who are going to be impacted by what I learn in this class. I teach students in grades 9-12 in both required classes and electives. Our school is a 6-12 building with around 250 students in grades 9-12. Around 27% of our students are economically disadvantaged, 9% are minorities, and our graduation rate is 98% ( “Cascade Junior-Senior High School”). The readings from the week made me realize the digital divide is not just about physical access such as ...

 Part 1: Digital Tools and UDL-Based Instructional Strategies to Support Students with Disabilities Online With so many options for online and digital tools, it is often hard to pick which will help move students towards the learning target. This article helps identify various digital tools that can be used in meaningful and intentional ways to support all students, especially those with disabilities. Then it continues to tie these tools into the three principles of UDL which are: representation, action and expression, and engagement. One part of UDL is considering when and how barriers may arise and how to plan for them. We need tools to facilitate learning when those barriers are present. In Representation online, students tend to struggle with so much information thrown at them without frequent checks from the teacher. To help with this teachers can create step-by-step directions with screenshots, post screencast videos, or use an online form to offer chances for reflections (Ra...

 Part 1: Link to Levels of Organization Lesson The lesson provided from Magic School AI is a good starting place. It is nice how it gives you all aspects of a lesson. Currently our initiative at school is to do the Gradual Release Model. Meaning every day we need focused, guided, collaborative, and independent learning. This lesson has all of that. It does a nice job of tying to the standard HS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within a multicellular organism but not to the ISTE standards. It has students learn the levels, create their own model, and then share their model with others. I do not feel like this lesson is rigorous enough for sophomores in high school because they need more than regurgitate information I tell them. The assessment does not align enough with the standard because the assessment has them making their model with different levels in it. They need to be able to sho...

This week Chapter 5: Knowledge and Reasoning has readers reflect on how knowledge are reasoning are obtained. It mentions the art of learning the skills and how they need to be practiced. The reading ended with providing strategies for educators on how to improve these skills in their students. Tying this to technology and creative learning provides a well rounded education for students who are able to improve their 21st Century Skills and learn more about how they learn along the way. As educators we need to promote creativity in the classroom so students are able to think for themselves and solve new problems as they arise. The more knowledge and reasoning they have, the more creative they can be. This graphic will take you through the key points.  Here is a link incase the picture is blurry.  Infographic

 Authentic Intellectual Work: The nature of Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) is to have students engaged with the learning that will take them beyond just memorizing facts and following steps. It encourages students to construct their knowledge in a meaningful way. Students are then able to study the details of a problem, create a product, and share the product that has meaning outside of school. (Newmann et al., 2007, p. 2) This is different from traditional approaches because in a lot of classrooms, students are going through the motions to earn a grade or credit. They have very little buy-in and no ownership. AIW makes students be active members in their learning and creates an environment where they want to be engaged in order to create a product they are proud of for success in society.  The three criteria for AIW are: Construction of Knowledge, Disciplined Inquiry, and Value Beyond School. Starting with Construction of Knowledge, which is "organizing, interpreting, eva...

 Introduction: Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog! My name is Claire Molony and I teach high school science in Iowa. It is crazy to believe this is the start of my sixth year of teaching. Currently, I am focused on getting my Master's in Educational Technology so I am better able to incorporate technology into my classroom and maybe in the future switch to a technology job. I want to continue to grow as an educator and be better able to help my students be successful in the 21st Century.  Computational Thinker indicator 5b says "students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them and represent data in various way to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making." Students in a high school Biology class could address science standard HS-LS1-3 by using their technology to conduct and collect data to support their claim that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis. In the classroom, students can use a Google Sheet or Excel to collect ...