About

My name is Megan Jolly

I am a mother, an artist, an educator, an art lover, an animal lover, an outdoor lover, and sadly... an allergy sufferer. Learn more about me and my projects below.

Throughout my journey in education, I have learned multitudes! I have learned so much regarding how to manage class behaviors to maximize instruction and learning time. How to create strong relationships with students, staff, and families. I have taught general education classes in which I was a homeroom teacher teaching kindergarten, then first grade, and second grade. I taught third grade special education using the push in, pull out system to support my learners. I made the switch from teaching elementary general education classes to teaching elementary visual arts classes to students from kindergarten to fifth grade of all abilities. While teaching I also have been working on raising incredible human beings of my own. Navigating how to give my all to my students and still be able to give my biological children my all at home has been a challenge. Balancing homelife while teaching is an important goal for a mother who is also a teacher. This blog provides information regarding art, creating art, teaching art, curriculum and instruction information, parenting tips, and self-care tools. Often teachers, especially single mother teachers take care of their own children and their school children and put themselves last. This blog is a reminder that we can do all the things, however, we should use the resources at our literal fingertips. Teachers are used to working alone in a classroom. Single mothers are used to "working" alone in their homes taking care of their children and their house. Sometimes we need a reminder that we are part of a community. Helping others is what we do. We need to allow others to help us as well! This blog is a place in which all aspects can be nurtured to grow effectively while taking care of ourselves.

Blended Course Reflections

Creating a blended course was a brand new experience for me! I have had so many experiences inside different styles of classrooms teaching different content. I have endured the covid pandemic teaching of teaching on zoom and teaching in person with masks and almost six feet apart. The new skills I acquired were in a way forced on me. I was forced to adapt to teaching from home with minimal computer skills. I could use social media, write papers, and send emails using computers. I had never hosted a zoom meeting or translated my in-person teaching to teaching from screen to screen during a time when families and students were stressed, scared, and confused. While I navigated all of those feelings, I still had to take care of my children and my school children. Through that experience. I learned a lot about how to use google slides. When I started I had no idea how to do anything. Now I can create an interesting presentation using google slides very quickly and use them as a means to organize my lesson presentation during my art classes at school.

With participating in C6163 Technologically Driven Curriculum and Social Media with the American College of Education I have worked on perfecting my skills of creating a blog with the requirements given. I have learned how to use Loom to create videos to introduce and support my blended course. I have stepped far out of my comfort zone by doing this. I like technology but I am not like a lot of my colleagues who enjoy it. I use it when I have to. My library teacher at my school has a large tik tok following and shared a video of her and I trying to make an announcement video regarding who won our bookmark contest that went along with our One School, One Book events. I caught a case of the sillies and could not stop sweating and giggling! The blooper real that she ALSO shared on Tik Tok is quite funny and our students have enjoyed it. Through this process, I am seeing the value of creating a blended course and organizing everything in an eportfolio. I have often thought that it is probably a lot easier for teachers who teach general education classes to produce these requirements. As an art teacher, most of what we do, especially with the younger years is all hands on. I have integrated much more technology than the other art teachers I know simply because I like videos and short clips. I could never teach just using paper and pencil or God forbid a textbook! Learning more with the times is important but sometimes uncomfortable. I am sure I will look back at this experience years from now and be entertained with how little I knew and how much I learned through this experience!

Research Analysis and Action Research: CI6103

I learned so much in this course over the last ten weeks. It was tough but I kept trying. This course reinforced the notion that instruction should be student centered and catered to a diverse population. There are so many strategies that may be utilized to differentiate instruction. A novice teacher should connect with a veteran teacher or a mentor to discuss classroom management techniques and strategies to assist in developing rigorous lesson planning. The whole of education is growing more diverse and more technologically advanced, therefore the world of education must rise to the occasion. Press the image below for the link to learn about integrated curriculum.