April 2021 - Tyler Stafford
Name
Tyler Stafford
What Do You Teach?
7th grade - Texas History, Yearbook
Where Do you Teach?
Highlands Junior School
How Long Have You Been Teaching?
6 years
How Does Educational Technology Play a Role in Your Classroom?
I have always made it my goal to incorporate as much technology into my classroom as possible. I believe our job as educators is to prepare students for life outside the classroom, and as we all know, that world is becoming more and more reliant on technology. Our students are incredible at picking up and learning new devices, apps, games, etc., so I try to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of all my students.
How Do You Find Technology in the Classroom Helpful?
Technology allows me to cater directly to the needs of all my students. In Google Classroom, I can create the same assignment with varying levels of rigor and assign it to each student individually. This allows me to differentiate instruction for them, but does not make them feel embarrassed. Technology also allows me to get feedback in real time. I am able to assign a writing prompt on Google Docs and follow along and give feedback to each of my students as they work on it in class.
What Is Your Favorite Piece of Classroom Technology? Why?
My default technology is anything in the Google Suite — Classroom, Slides, Sheets, Docs, Forms. I love taking an existing slide show and using the Pear Deck add-on to make the lesson interactive. For reviews, I use Kahoot, Quizziz and Blooket. The kids love the games on Blooket! We also use Edpuzzle, which is great for checking for understanding as they watch a quick video.
What Is On Your Technology Wish List For Your Classroom? Why?
I have taught 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Social Studies so I know how difficult it can be to find resources in non-STAAR-tested subjects. Our principal, Dr. Mulvaney, got us a subscription to Newspapers.com, which allows me to find primary sources for Texas History that I couldn't find before. Anything that makes finding visual information (maps, graphs, charts, pictures) and primary source documents for our class would be wonderful.
What Do You Love Most About Teaching?
At the end of the year, I want my students to know that I care about them as people both in and out of the classroom. I love equipping my students with skills that will carry them far beyond my classroom, which is why I love using technology so much.
Nominated by:
Ruben Rivas, Teacher - Highlands Junior
"He puts together everything in Google Classroom for our entire department. He gave a school-wide training over Eduphoria and has made a lot of materials for all of us this year including Pear Deck, Google Forms/Docs/Slides/Sheets, etc."