February 2019 - Kelly Mills
Name
Kelly Mills
What Do You Teach?
Biology
Where Do you Teach?
Goose Creek Memorial High School
How Long Have You Been Teaching?
3 years
How Does Educational Technology Play a Role in Your Classroom?
Educational Technology allows me to bring the outside world into the classroom through a platform that current students are most familiar with due to the level of technology available in society. It enables me to be able to diversify my lessons and differentiate instruction for all students on a level they can understand and comprehend.
How Do You Find Technology in the Classroom Helpful?
Technology in the classroom opens doors to allow my students to experience varied learning styles and assists them to learn and understand the content in an environment that is most suitable to them. It also allows me to be able to effectively communicate with students not only on the content, but also their individual progress within the course.
What Is Your Favorite Piece of Classroom Technology? Why?
My favorite technology is the use of the one-to-one iPads for students and the variety of instructional tools this allows me to use; such as, Google Classroom, Interactive Websites and Animation Labs.
What Is On Your Technology Wish List For Your Classroom? Why?
My technology wish list would include Rocket Books to allow Biology students to utilize a combination of the Rocket Book and their iPads to create a digital interactive notebook. This option would allow students to have a hands-on digital footprint of their work and encourage them to be organized in a technological way, which is how most industries function currently. The days of large binders and big reference books has gone by the wayside. Students need to be able to create a resource for themselves and effectively use it as a tool for learning.
What Do You Love Most About Teaching?
What I love most about teaching is being able to bring real-world applications into the classroom and combine those with effective instruction of the content. Students are much more engaged and inclined to "buy-in" when they are able to see the relevance of what they are learning and the application of the content to their everyday lives.
Nominated by:
Lauren Mercer, High School Technology Integration Specialist
"Mrs. Mills engages her students by using Microsoft OneNote, a interactive digital notebook, on a daily basis. Her students utilize their 1:1 iPad to collaborate with each other, communicate, and think critically. Way to go Mrs. Mills!"