This week I decided to review the media creator Smore. I used it to create a fictional classroom newsletter just to see how the website works. It turns out it was quite easy to work with. Here is an image of the one I whipped up:

How to use the app:

Go to smores.com

You can then click on the sign up tab in the middle of the screen and fill out the information. It is also free to start using, although there are certain features you need to pay for.

At the top of the screen, on the left hand side, there are tabs labeled Newsletters, Mailing list, Templates, and Upgrades. To create a newsletter, click on Newsletters, and click start a newsletters. 

Here you can access all of your newsletters. You can either make a new one by clicking on the button: start a newsletter, or you can edit previous newsletters. 

To create a newsletter: 

To edit a newsletter: 

Here is a quick video of how you can add links, change fonts, themes, colours, and edit text for your newsletter.

You are also able to email the newsletter. Here is a video on how to do that: https://www.loom.com/share/4494d3a8e2134407b46e8e8955e114f2?sid=ae76e2f0-b511-408b-995a-d354c26aeb6b 

Smores.com would be a great tool to use for a classroom. I think it would be a perfect way to communicate with parents about what students are doing in the classroom as well as a way to remind students of upcoming events and assignments they have. 

There is only one thing I would change: the subscription. There are quite a few features, that I would say are more on the basic side, that I wish were free. I wish the whole thing could be free but we cannot have everything.

Smore is definitely under the transformative category and I believe it would fall under redinition. It is simply replacing that verbal reminder for students. The features that Smores offers allows you to put links and documents on the newsletter so students can access them at home if needed. The newsletters are also able to be sent to a mailing list which is a lot quicker than typing out each email. 

I use technology both in my personal life and my academic life but I am not the biggest fan of it. I think technology has its place, in both your educational and personal life, but I do not like how reliant I, and society, is on it. I do think balance is key, but on the other hand it can be hard to stop yourself from using technology. 

I use Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook, Netflix, Audible and Google Chrome on a daily basis. Google Chrome definitely takes up most of my time because I use it for educational purposes whether I am studying or using it during class. However the rest of them are for personal use. Tik Tok could almost be tied for first place; it is the first thing I open when I wake up in the morning and I am constantly on it throughout the day. I use Netflix and Audible when I am doing daily tasks that I cannot listen to music; so doing laundry, cooking, and light cleaning. Facebook on the other hand is not something I can multitask. I have an addiction to Facebook Marketplace, I am not proud to say it but it is true. I will shop for hours looking for the most random things from old trucks and cars to turn into projects, old furniture that I could upcycle, to hunting for vintage PYREX for my future home. 

I do not really use digital apps to keep myself on track. I have ADHD, so I find it extremely difficult to remember to add things into a calendar that is not right in front of my face. I need physical pieces of paper to look at which is why I use a physical paper planner. I have it open on my dresser for the next date so I know what I have to do that day. However, if there is a day where I know I will be doing a lot of homework tasks and possibly be out of my house, I use the app called ToDoList. I find it great because I can easily add and delete tasks from a specific day. It even has a dragging feature that allows me to drag tasks from one day to another. 

As I have previously said, Tik Tok, Facebook  and Snapchat take up a lot of my time. I find these apps to be the most disruptive for me because I get notifications from them all day long so anytime I look at my phone I feel the urge to check what someone has said, if there is a truck worth buying, or who is liking TikTok’s I have reposted. I find that putting my phone on do not disturb works pretty well. However something, that is not so commonly talked about, that I do is to be harsh to myself about it. Granted it may not be the best answer but I find that it is the most effective. I tell myself little things like “if you keep staying on your phone, your vision will start to go,” or “do you really want your future kids to become iPad kids?” This is also how I balance my life with technology. During the day I tell myself I can either be outside in the sun, or studying and when it is later in the evening or even at night I can either read a book or go do an activity because being on your phone is not a hobby. 

A little about me

My name is Ellie Hales and I am from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I am going into my third year of Secondary Education at the University of Regina with a major in social studies and a minor in health studies. I went to A.E Peacock Collegiate for high school, which was and is still known as the hick school in the city. I will always say that Peacock was the place to be because of the amount of learning opportunities it had for its students. There were so many shop classes offered at the school, some of which I took, which helped so many students find their passions and careers. Even though a good chunk of students that went there were not from out of town, you could guess that I was one of the ones who had an agricultural background. I grew up working on my family farm, with my dad, which I hope to operate one day with my future family. Speaking of family, they are the most important thing to me (along with my friends). I will always value the connection I have with these people more than anything because they made me who I am today.

educational technology EXPERIENCE and thoughts on blog posts: 

I would say I have a decent amount of technology experience. I am no coder by no means but I do know my way around a computer. UR Courses has definitely expand my blogging and posting skills because a lot of online courses are based on posting and replying to blog posts. I am not always 100% for blog posts. WHile I have never made blog posts for a website before, I have made them for UR Courses. Granted they are more formal and usually are information dumping. However, even taking that out of the equation I am still not for blog posts. I can totally see where they can be helpful for others but I like the information presented to me in a raw form without extra tid bits and explanations and experience’s. I hope that with this class my views on blog posts will hopefully change a little bit so I can maybe be 50/50 on blog posts.