As a former school secretary, I always needed to schedule meetings for my directors. We used Google as a school system. However, when you need to schedule a meeting for 15 people or more, how to manage it efficiently? Also, currently during the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have lockdown, others limit their borders. How do we synchronize our time to meet each other in different time zones?  It is certainly a challenge, but I found a smart tool which can save our lives! Let’s schedule a meeting with Doodle

1. Go to Doodle
2.   Set up your available time
3. Invite participants
4. Allow participants to choose their available time.
   Super simple, convenient, and efficient and……..most importantly, it is free!

As I posted earlier about ‘screen time’, as technology advances, researchers pay more attention to technology, play, and learning. In the process of child development, play time is essential. It not only opens up an opportunity for children to explore the world but also stimulates children’s curiosity and creativity. It is definitely beneficial to children’s brain development. However, there is a tendency that when kids are noisy, parents use digital devices to direct children’s attention, which is, ‘babysit children with the technology’. Then when young children have not yet developed their self-control, screens can occupy, distract, and entertain children for sure.

Thus, it is detrimental for both sides: for the child, learning to look outside of oneself for happiness or distraction in tough times; for parents, learning to rely on screens instead of our own ingenuity to soothe and occupy kids. It deprives the interaction between parents and children. It also destroys the explore opportunity for both children and parents. Moreover, it is not a good parenting skill certainly. It just kills children’s time and wastes the cherished moment getting along with parents.

Therefore, how might time on screens affect relationships? In my opinion, before children developed self-regulation skills, stop babysit them with screen time. Kids have no choice nor perception to self control. 

Reference: Beware the quick tech fix when….

Have you ever worried about inappropriate advertisements always popped up at the beginning of a video? I encountered the same problem when I played a video in the student assembly. All the kids were watching the Ads and laughing which distracted the main focus. At that moment, I was so embarrassed.

Now, I’d like to share a simple way to remove Ads from videos!

1. Go to safeshare
2. Upload your video. Choose the appropriate category. Copy and paste the link.
3. Share your end product

As a lady who has been educated in the teacher-center, lecture-based, test-oriented,
educational system for a long time, it was until the first day I worked as a teacher in an international school, I suddenly realized that assessments NOT equal quizzes, tests, and tests. Although when I pursued my master’s in NY, I learned that assessments can be diverse and multiple. However, when I tutored students back in Taiwan, it was still traditional teaching and learning under time pressure, content-based, and test-oriented. I feel that acquiring more knowledge about assessment is critical. As I had the opportunity to know what assessments were connected to data analysis, my reflection is as follows.

[table id=4 /]

–Aptitude tests: predict future performance based on cognitive abilities (Ex. placement test)

–Achievement tests: usually tie to specific content (Ex. PISA, MAP Testing)

–Power tests: have unlimited time, but measure the limits to the person’s ability (Mater to Doctoral entrance exams)

–Speed tests: performance is only measured in terms of speed (words key-in tests)

• Standardized tests: “High-stakes tests”

–Norm-referenced tests: individual scores are compared to performance of other people (Ex. College Entrance Exams, Praxis)

–Criterion-referenced tests: individual scores are compared to a specific standard or set of criteria, rather than other people (Ex. TOEIC)

• Selective Response Items: Multiple choices, T/F, and matching questions

-Strength: easy to score reliably, efficient, objective

-Weakness: encourage route memorization

• Constructed Response Items: short answer, essay, oral essay

-Strength: allow students to showcase creativity

-Weakness: difficult to grade objectively, time-consuming

• Performance and Portfolio Assessments

-Strength: broadest assessment category, incorporate both skills and content

-Weakness: the hardest to grade

As a teacher, our school policy clearly defines how the homework amount is supposed to be varied by grade levels. However, there is nothing called ‘screen time policy. Therefore, I often had parents came to the office and asked how much screen time do my kid needs to spend on assignments. I have ever had several parents concerned about their kids using too much 3C and decided to transfer. Then, my question is— How much is “appropriate” or “too much” screen time? How do people define it? Before the COVID pandemic, I had no specific feeling about screen time. It was just occasionally some popped-up screen reports on my cellphone which told me how much screen time did I spend during last week. I never paid attention to it seriously. However, since I started online teaching as a teacher and learning as a student to pursue my teaching certificate, I have to spend ALL DAY LONG from morning to midnight staring at the screen. I started to feel that screen time can become an issue. For me, as a teacher, it is hard to say whether screen time is necessary or detrimental to students. On one hand, I think technology stimulates students learning; it gets kids so excited to learn. Indeed, game-based learning can motivate students to overcome frustration and obstacles. On the other hand, when I myself have a duo status, both teacher and students, I am really worried about my eyesight. Unlike the super energetic university students, my eyes become easily tired, so I have to use eye drops to make them comfortable and apply eye-warmer to keep them relaxed and healthy. Thus, when I scanned through some websites, “Screens: Are They Ruining Our Brains and Mental Health and Eyes and…” caught my eyeballs. If you are in the same situation as me, stay tuned and listen to Spotify. It is an interesting debatable topic that is worth your attention!

In fact, one study found that getting kids outside for 40 extra minutes a day during school dropped the rates of myopia and other studies have found this kind of thing too.

But as we’re realizing that the myopia epidemic is way more complicated than just – big bad screen — a new fear around our eyes was born — around blue light! It sits on the blue part of the light spectrum .. and you can find it in sunlight … and beaming out of our screens.  It’s the latest in the long line of fears around screens… People are worried that this is wrecking our eyes and even mucking up our sleep. But when scientists looked into this, they found that only a teeny tiny amount of blue light is being beamed from our screens. Therefore, is it because we have stereotypes towards rapidly evolving technology or technophobia is dominated our thoughts? For myself, I’m sure it’s not, but for parents of my students…definitely!