September 2021 - Maricruz Rodriguez
Name
Maricruz Rodriguez
What Do You Teach?
3rd grade Math
Where Do you Teach?
Alamo Elementary
How Long Have You Been Teaching?
10 years
How Does Educational Technology Play a Role in Your Classroom?
Educational technology is instrumental in my classroom. I use Pear Deck on Google Slides to plan collaboratively with my team, embed resources like Flipgrid or video/web links in one place, and create engaging lessons for my students. Students can use Draw It tools for annotating with their stylus pens, and I love that I can add pre-made slides during a lesson to check for understanding.
How Do You Find Technology in the Classroom Helpful?
Technology has made giving feedback easier and faster than before, making it easier to individualize learning using resources like Quizziz, Education Galaxy and tools like Google Forms. Other class favorites are Blooket and timestables.com. Now that our warm-ups are digital using PearDeck, my students are even more excited when they see their work shared on the board at the click of a button. I like to highlight great "math expert" work for the class and also share math mistakes without the fear of having names on the screen.
What Is Your Favorite Piece of Classroom Technology? Why?
Pear Deck and my wireless mouse because I can manage my board from wherever I am in the classroom.
What Is On Your Technology Wish List For Your Classroom? Why?
More stylus pens because we use them daily!
What Do You Love Most About Teaching?
My students! I love empowering my students to take risks and celebrating their learning.
Nominated by:
Heather Tolleson, Alamo Elementary
"Mrs. Rodriguez has been able to utilize technology to give students immediate feedback, stretch their learning, and differentiate as she teaches general education students, bilingual students, and our newcomer academy students. As students complete assignments in her classroom on their iPads, she gives immediate feedback because she can see what they are doing. She points out how they're using strategies and shares work with the class. In this time of constantly changing expectations, Mrs. Rodriguez has lead her entire grade level in incorporating technology into all of their classrooms and has not stopped looking for new ways to enrich math curriculum through the use of technology."