Laura Glas
Showcase
Welcome to my showcase! Below you will find a collection of my favorite works that I created throughout my Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program. My skills as an educator and professional grew during this program and the pieces I chose reflect this. My showcase can be organized into three main themes: leadership, technology, and pedagogy. All artifacts are either embedded into this site or are linked to the original document.
Leadership
Teacher Demoralization
This video focuses on why teachers are leaving the profession. I summarized the book "Demoralized" by Doris A Santoro, into 3 main ideas in 3 minutes. This video lays out how and what we can do about demoralization. Leaders (including myself) have to understand why teachers are leaving in order to help teachers not reach the point of demoralization. If we know why we can be looking for how to stop teachers from getting to that point.
Understanding Technology Presentation
I created this presentation to help teachers understand and use technology more effectively in their classrooms. Through the creation of the presentation, I developed my ability to create and lead professional development for teachers. The goal of this presentation is to give teachers new ways to implement technology. Also, help them to understand that technology in the classroom is more than just a digital worksheet.
Creating Meaningful Student Interaction
How do you solve a wicked problem? You survey, research, and propose solutions. A wicked problem like “How to create meaningful interaction between students and technology” is going to change solutions depending on the context. Trying to solve a wicked problem showed me that a problem can have multiple solutions. There is not always a perfect answer to problems in the education world. I examine possible solutions to this problem in the video on the left.
Technology
Benefits of Maker Education
This blog post and infographic are a quick guide on why educators should implement maker education in the classroom/ school. I discovered how maker education encourages collaboration, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and exploration. Please click on the image or this link for more information.
Networked Learning Project
This blog post is an analysis of learning a new skill through the internet. For this project, I chose to learn how to tile a backsplash. As an educator, it can be difficult to attend every professional development and learn the latest techniques in person. This project showed me how we can learn from the best, For more details on this project click the link above or the picture to go to the original blog post.
Game-Based Assessment
The game that is embedded below is a creation to help identify through error analysis what skills my students were struggling with during our multiplication unit. This game was created through Twine. Students are immersed in a space adventure where their multiplication skills are put to the test. During the creation of this assessment, I learned how to make assessment enjoyable for my students while providing information for me to help with their mastery.
Pedagogy
Critical Thinking in Social Studies Education
This research into why and how critical thinking in social studies can be found in both a slideshow (located to the left) and a paper linked here. Through research, I examined what the purpose of social studies is and how teachers view social studies. I also looked at the various methods into which social studies is taught. I concluded that social studies education needs to be an even mix of facts and critical thinking.
Learning Theories in My Classroom
This project focused on how I implement various learning theories in my classroom. This self-reflection opened my eyes to which theory I thought I leaned towards and which theories predominantly show up in my classroom. Although, my classes and management change year to year there are some trends that remain the same. This self-reflection can be accessed by clicking the image or the pdf link can be found here.
Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash
A 21st Century Lesson Plan
During the creation of this lesson plan, I learned how to have students move beyond the basic understanding of history. This lesson plan focuses on teaching sixth graders about The Crusades. Students will be asked to reflect on their fake journey and report as a news anchor as to what they have learned. This lesson plan and the original blog post with more explanation can be found by clicking the image to the right or by following this link.