June 18, 2010
The Technology Change I now KNOW I can make
As I finish the 10th and final course, I feel this is a great opportunity to reflect on some of what I have learned. There were two main distinctions between what I learned in this course and previous courses in this program that are important and helped to make this course enjoyable. Firstly, the technology discussed in this class is more revolutionary in education and is more interesting than merely doing a more standard activity but using a computer. The second piece that I truly appreciated was that we discussed the techniques for implementing change in the classroom and school and acknowledged that there is resistance. This course helped to establish my confidence with a set of plans to have smoother transitions to greater technology integration in my school.
The integration of technology that I used in my lesson went beyond the types of activities that I had typically used in my classroom. Specifically, they were more game oriented. I took the opportunity to access to an activity that students had only previously used recreationally outside of school and connected it to their learning in the classroom. This is something that I feel comfortable doing because I am able to support my ideas and practices with the theories of how students learn when they are most engaged and the ways that video games reach students in new and interesting ways. Additionally, my lesson plan demonstrates my acknowledgement that currently I need to exemplify the change that I wish to see in the rest of my school and then in the future I can more successfully help others to integrate technology in their own classrooms.
From this course, there are two changes that I would like to make immediately. Firstly, I would like to gain permission to practice the effectiveness of new technologies in my classroom. On the small scale, I believe my administration may be more likely to allow these changes than trying to complete an upheaval of the school practices. In that vein, I’d like to seek approval to experiment with the use of mobile devices in my classroom, maybe only with a few preset activities that I discuss with the administration. Additionally, I will seek permission to use Twitter, an online collaboration sight, to increase parent communication at the grade level. Finally, based on my learning in this class, and specifically from my research during the week 7 application, I would like to pursue the grants that I identified. Especially considering the current economic climate, my school would benefit from the discretionary funding even if it was used to provide a stipend for teachers to work towards the greater implementation of the technology already available to us.
Through this class, and the courses prior, I have changed the way that I create a lesson. Now, I think of the technology that I would like to use and find the areas that it is best suited. That way, when I am ready to move to a new concept, I already have set in place several learning activities that expand the students learning in the 21st century to engage and enlighten my students in the possibilities of their future.
May 30, 2010
Yes to Online Learning! Enhancing summer school opportunities.
My speech explaining the benefits of enhancing student learning at summer school through the use of online learning:
April 23, 2010
I Will Differentiate Using Technology: A reflection of how
The Differentiation Station from this course truly helped me to have the opportunity to collaborate with the other students on a multitude of internet based resources. Each link posted on our group Ning sight is a free resource that is accessible to all. Particularly, it intrigued me the amount of useful unique resources we were able to find and the point of views that led us to the individual resources. In addition to the references collected on our sight, this collaboration taught me about the resources Ning provides teachers. It is a great interactive platform that would work well for students to use together and even independently. Mathematical discourse is often limited to inside the classroom, but now it could be extended to outside the classroom. In a previous course, teachers spoke of their classes interacting and sharing artifacts on days off, specifically snow days. With a structure like Ning I could see this for my students as well. This would allow for my students to collect their data from different resources and then discuss them online. Also, students who are disorganized would be able to find extra copies of resources on the website. Furthermore, students with reading or vision deficiencies could adapt digital resources using other computer technologies.
A second resource that I would use is the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html). This sight allows students to interact with manipulatives for the different math concepts. This differentiates the process students use to understand the curriculum, one of the three necessary components of UDL. Additionally, a different keyboard and mouse can help disabled students interact with the tools, possibly even in an easier fashion than with concrete manipulatives (http://www.cast.org/). Another resource I will use is through www.learnerslink.com on differentiating instruction. The link provides teachers with different formats to differentiate curriculum by readiness, learning profiles, and interests. It even provides specific tools and activities by subject. For math, it suggests the best websites for learning and practicing concepts to individualize the activity for students and engage them in the learning process. Finally exhaustive lessons for differentiating by readiness, interest, and learning styles from www.doe.in.gov/exceptional/gt/tieredcurriculum/welcome.html provide a successful example of meeting students’ needs.
Mainly, I will use online resources for students to receive, practice, and assess their mastery of math concepts. Technology will be used more student led as well. Typically, I would use and show the resources, but now I will expect the student use technology outside of the classroom. Since the beginning of this course, I tried assigning a homework that required online research. In response, I had students who compiled their findings in a PowerPoint presentation, which was above my expectations. I think the students showed me that by 7th grade, a simple technology project is reasonable and desirable. Since time and access to technology is often a challenge in my school, specifically with computers, I will use technology both in and outside of the classroom. I look forward to the success of my students based on the exposure to and support of technology in the learning process.
February 25, 2010
Wrapping up and Reflecting
Throughout this course, I have created, implemented, and evaluated a GAME plan to help improve my efficacy on meeting the technology integration outcomes outlines by NETS-T. Technology integration is a vital component in creating a positive learning experience in our 21st century classrooms. Continuously working to make improvements to our teaching practices will help teachers to remain current, relevant, and useful to the needs of our students as they leave school and enter the workforce. Overall, I found the GAME plan method to be very useful and practical in making changes to my teaching practices. Additionally, I learned how significant of an impact these minor changes could have on my students’ experience. Finally, I would like to use the GAME plan in my future professional development to help me to make measurable progress in reaching my professional goals.
My GAME plan would overall be categorized as a success. I found that soon after beginning the action process I was able to see the positive impact of my adjustments. Also, that with a defined goal that there are more people at the school willing and ready to help me than I have taken advantage of in the past. Especially when technology is concerned, many educators have similar goals and are interested in working conjointly in meeting them. One adaptation that I may make in the future, based on what I learned in this class, is to have my action plan either be longer, or have steps that build upon the success of the initial progress. While it is absolutely important to set reasonable expectations, one also needs to feel that they are making new strides and accomplishments as they continue with their current GAME plan without always needing to establish a new one.
From this course, and again working with integrating technology in the classroom, I feel an even greater sense of comfort when working with my students. I feel that I have greater familiarity with technologies, but also specifically how I can use them to accomplish specific course objectives. I also am excited to implement my current lesson from this course with my students, and plan additional ones for our upcoming units. Just today, I introduced a new project for one of my classes that requires them to create a digital artifact. I presented it as digital storytelling and set forth the expectation that they create storyboards prior to using the computers to create their final product. This course has increased my excitement for many of the new technologies that I have learned, and I think that my students will strongly benefit from that enthusiasm.
February 15, 2010
Student use of the GAME Plan
Considering the success I have experienced in implementing my own GAME plan to increase my achievement of many of the NETS-T standards, this will be a great tool to help my students make similar improvements to their technology integration and abilities thus making strides in the NETS-S 2007 standards. The outcomes listed for the students are similar in nature to the ones outlines for teachers. However, professional development, while a key concept for teachers, is not reciprocated for students in the same manner. Students are rarely taught in absence of any curriculum objectives how to improve their skills of being a student. Therefore, it is the role of the teacher to teach these skills through the lessons of the content materials. One way that I plan to do this for my students is through successive projects. Through the completion of each project, I will have the students establish a GAME plan to further incorporate greater technology use. The student will use the GAME plan as one form of assessment of their assignment completion. Therefore, if the project is to research alternate number systems, the students will set one goal to use technology in a way they have not in the past. They will then be able to outline what actions they need to complete to be successful as outlines in the GAME plan. While the students’ GAME plan will take place over a shorter time, and thus need to be manageable and concise plans, the students will be able to see their improvement and have a sense of accomplishment in addition to completing the assigned project. I hope that my students will feel the same sense of triumph that I have felt through implementing the designed actions and reaching my intended goals.
February 8, 2010
GAME Plan: Adaptations and Extensions
Overall, in setting my own goals to improve my meeting the standards set out in NETS-T, I have made vast improvements in my digital competency and integration in the classroom. While I have not finished all aspects of the GAME plan that I set in place originally, I have made significant progress and feel that they have been overall a success.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
Throughout the implementation of the project, I have found out how naïve my students are about the rights of people who post to the internet. Many of my students feel that if they can copy and paste a resource, it belongs to them. This was not a malicious mindset, but something that has been set forth by many sharing websites. It has been important to help them to understand that material still belongs to the originator even if they can view it or manipulate it on the computer. Teaching my students about ownership has brought to light some of the projects that my students are involved in such as posting their own YouTube videos. I have learned that some of my students are already creating on their own, and that I must tap into these ideas and resources. My students have many things that they can teach me about technology and have many insights when teaching them about digital citizenship or creativity.
What goals are you still working toward?
The main goal that I am still working on in my classroom is to provide my students with the opportunity to be creative in mathematics as well as guidance to build up the confidence to do so. This goal is not accomplished in a single action, but the continual encouragement to think outside of the box and safe and comfortable opportunities for them to practice these ideas. Looking into the next few months of this school year, I already have a project that I am planning to allow them the opportunity to implement some of their creativity and freedom in the classroom.
Additionally, I will continue to implement mini-lessons on digital citizenship with my students as well as continue the practices that I have implemented. In the project mentioned above, the students will have their first formal time when they must utilize the skills we discuss in class and I exemplify in my presentations.
Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
Since my goals have been successful in igniting change in my own classroom, I would like to focus on helping my colleagues to be successful in integrating technology in their classrooms as well. Often times, my students mention that I am one of the only teachers they have that has interactive whiteboard activities. While this may not be fully factual, I know that I often use more of the board’s capabilities and strengths than many of my colleagues. Using the interactive whiteboard is time consuming, but something that I truly enjoy. I would like to work with my fellow teachers to help improve their skill, but more so their confidence and comfort with the technology to help engage our students in all of their courses.
What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
Unfortunately, in my short teaching career, and use of technology, I have a tendency to create my own resources (beyond the textbook). All of my classroom presentations are created from a blank page. While I have become adept at creating these interactive lessons on my own, there are many pre-created resources available through the online interface of my county of the interactive whiteboard company. I would like to work with on my own and with my colleagues to access what is available and adapt that information with a specific classroom.
February 1, 2010
My GAME Plan: Evaluating my progress
This week, I continued to implement the actions and monitoring section of my GAME Plan.
- How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
Currently, I feel that I am making great strides in meeting my goals through the execution of my actions. I had not realized how large of a difference it would make to make my citations visible on my class presentations. Many of the students had not thought to ask me where my pictures are from. Actually, it makes the students more aware of the effort that goes into creating their lessons and my interactive whiteboard presentations.
I still have a lot of work to accomplish my second goal of increasing student creativity and mathematical thinking. While some students have taken advantage of the opportunities to be creative, the majority of the students respond with a blank stare when asked to expand their thinking or come up with their own ideas.
- What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I have learned that since students are reluctant to give a wrong answer, they need to be put into an environment where there are no wrong answers. Unfortunately, in mathematics, answers can be wrong. In allowing my students the opportunity to all be right in different ways may provide them with a greater sense of confidence in their understanding. Also, I need to work on students who are less comfortable with the mathematics to explain that sometimes their thinking can be out of the box and legitimate.
- What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
A focus within my school is studying cultures and understanding how they affect instructional practices. Comfort with creativity and not following rules has come up as a possible weakness for several cultural groups. I need to determine how I can expand the options and still meet the expectations without making students uncomfortable or work against their cultural norms.
- How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
To move forward at this point, I will continue to provide my students with mini-lessons about digital citizenship with the support of my media specialist. The students seem interested in the topics and understand the importance of these lessons. Additionally, I think that I need to adjust my open lesson format to a slightly more options based, but where each option has a venue for following directions to assist the students who are still less comfortable with creativity.
January 25, 2010
The GAME Plan Continued…questions? concerns?
My GAME plan has been making small but beneficial steps to its completion over the past two weeks. I feel confident that I am making the appropriate adjustments in order to reach the goals that I set forth. At this time, I do not see any need to modify my plans because I feel that not only have I begun to be successful, but I still have steps that can be completed and adjusted to reach my goals.
Resources Found/Actions Completed:
Currently, I have spoken with the media specialist at my school and found that she will be an excellent resource for my classroom and my goal to improve my digital citizenship. Not only is she very knowledgeable, but she already has mini lessons that she is eager to come into my classroom and instruct my students on some of the copyright infringement issues that I discussed. Additionally, I have determined what I need to do to create clear and accessible citations for my resources. This past week, I have added these citations into my presentations and the students have noticed the change. This upcoming week will be my first mini lesson on digital citizenship because we will be accessing internet resources during class and I want to be transparent about the steps that I take to ensure that I am compliant with the copyright laws.
I also have discovered two opportunities for me to allow my students to be free thinking and imaginative. My lessons on patterns will allow them to see that there can be more than one possible way to represent a pattern and therefore, different solutions can be correct.
What I have learned so far:
Through the implementation of this plan, I realize how simple these changes can be. Through setting forth straight forward actions, I am able to complete them and take significant steps towards meeting my goals. I have wanted to make changes in my transparency of my digital citizenship with my students for several months, but only now do I feel I have made a real difference. Making changes is easier with the assistance of such a clear plan. Additionally, I have learned that my students are nervous to be wrong and I need to encourage them to take risks and be willing to share their thought processes and understandings of concepts.
New Questions:
How am I going to explain mathematical controversy over topics that are too abstract or difficult for my students to understand (such as the controversy over the creation and ideas in Calculus)?
My students still struggle to understand that people, mathematicians, really sit around and think up the concepts that they are learning. This is such a foreign concept and therefore, I need to make these more real before they feel like they can take on those roles. How do I make this more applicable for my students when mathematicians have such abstract discussions?
January 18, 2010
Elaborating on the GamePlan: What am I actually doing?
Resources/Additional Information:
To implement my goal on digital citizenship and appropriate citations, I need to determine whether my citation should be APA or MLA. This decision will take research based on what format is most appropriate, but also what format will my students be expected to use when completing their own citations. I can determine this through research and discussing citations with my colleagues who are more familiar with these processes. Additionally, I will need the technology to assist me in creating my own citations, such as various online resources such as BibMe.com. To create my mini lessons and teach students about the rules of copyright, I would need to conference with my media-center specialist at my school. As part of her job description and expertise, she works with students on research, both internet and book, and teaches them the skills to utilize the resources appropriately, including citations. I may have her guest teach my class with these mini lessons that she already establishes for the students when they complete research in the media center.
When working towards my goals for increased creativity and freedom on the part of the students, I will need to work with my colleagues to brainstorm concepts that will facilitate this type of project in addition to successful projects in a math classroom. To encompass my ideas to increase student discourse and expression of alternate solutions, I need to continuously ask my students if anyone had another way to solve the problem, listen to their solution, and positively reinforce their participation through praise and dissecting their mathematical reasoning and recognize their prowess in these critical thinking scenarios. Finally, I will need to conduct research of mathematical controversy and debate that has taken place in history or current events. I would like to find information on mathematicians proving each other wrong, discovering new theorems and their steps, as well as finding alternate and possibly better solutions for a problem that already had a preliminary solution. While I do not have a precise idea of what I need to find, I am confident that based on my own studies of mathematics, that mathematicians have a tendency to explore possibilities that may not be successful but contradict established thinking to see what may be produced.
Completed Steps:
At this point, I have taken preliminary steps in modeling digital citizenship. I have created a base list of resources that I reference most often in a word processing document. This document will be a location to compile all of my sources in one location, so I can easily paste them into any presentation or worksheet as necessary. I have also begun to research the copyright laws associated with clipart and Microsoft Word that allow for them to be used without citation. Finally, I have begun to brainstorm my own ideas for curriculum objectives that can facilitate an open ended student directed assignment.
January 14, 2010
Review of Standards with a Game Plan for SUCCESS
Throughout my graduate studies, I have learned techniques that have drastically improved my competency and integration of technology in a meaningful and productive manner in my classroom. Upon reviewing the National Educational Technology Standards set forth by the International Society for Technology in Education I realized I have made significant strides since the last time I reviewed these standards. Specifically, my improvements focus on my use of technology to enhance learning situations, comfort and understanding of the technology, and my professional development activities that supplement my skills (ISTE, 2008). However, there still remain two areas that I feel I am the weakest in meeting the set forth standards: promoting and demonstrating the importance of digital citizenship and responsibility, and supporting students in the development of their creative skills (ISTE, 2008). The standards that I am not confident in my successful completion include: “advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources” and “use knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation” (ISTE, 2008). While I try to employ different protocols for decorum in my technology use myself, they are mainly behind the scene and therefore unapparent to the students. Additionally, I have made improvements in my own creation of creative engaging activities, but the changes are on the part of the teacher organization of activities and not student implementation. In order to make concrete advances in these areas, I need a plan to establish and monitor my development. Dr. Cennamo suggests establishing up a “game plan” where I institute specific goals, identify specific actions that can help to meet my goals, and monitor and evaluate my progress to help me to make the necessary changes to better meet the standards (Cennamo, 2008).
Goals:
To show the steps that I take to comply with copyright laws, and explain to the parameters of plagiarism in the context of internet usage.
To learn techniques to elicit creativity from my students and increase their creative thinking skills.
Actions:
In order to meet these goals, I need precise steps that I can implement. For my goal concerning promoting internet citizenship, I would like to make my actions to comply with copyright laws more apparent to my students. That would mean including visible citations as necessary on my interactive whiteboard presentations. Typically, I kept citations in notes without listing them visible for the students. A second step would be to have a lesson where students explore the different applications of plagiarism on the internet and understand the different circumstances where they may have unknowingly broken the rules. It may be important to explain to the students that there is a difference between clip art in a program like Microsoft Word and ones found on the internet; ie. Microsoft copyright laws grant you access to their clipart files.
To improve my students’ skills with creativity, I need to have more open ended assignments. Since this is a technique that I have struggled with in the past, I think that it may be important to try to establish one assignment that allows for creative implementation. The assignment will still need to give guidelines to the students, but they are able to make decisions that provide them the opportunity to think creatively and implement individual ideas. Secondly, to encourage more creative thinking in mathematics, I will have the students discuss and determine alternate ways to develop solutions for their mathematics problems. I can be more open to alternate solutions while still maintaining mathematics accuracy. To support this action, I’d like to create a lesson where students explore mathematicians who discovered and established their own principles that may have differed from other established math practices. This may help them to understand the many different solutions that may not follow a standard technique but still be mathematically accurate. To establish these different opportunities, I can research different mathematical discourse resources as well as reaching out to my colleagues and staff development professionals to help brainstorm ideas.
Monitor:
To monitor these actions, I will set a time frame in which to execute the aforementioned actions. Over this time frame, I will keep a journal on my progress and account for every time I take a step to complete the established actions. This log will account for any planning time oriented towards establishing a creative and open ended assignment, but also when and how the lessons are put into action. I will record any suggestions as well as account for meetings or research that helps to further my progress.
Evaluate:
To evaluate the effectiveness of my goals, I will need to determine whether I have been able to influence my students understanding of their digital responsibilities concerning copyright laws and plagiarism. One strategy to determine my success would be to omit one of my obligations and ask the students if they can determine what I am missing and why it is important. Additionally, I could provide my student with an assignment that requires them to be conscientious about their use of internet materials. In order to assess the efficacy of my attempts to promote and improve student creativity, I could provide problems with undetermined methods for solutions and see the results. Additionally, I could track how often students are open and freethinking in their solutions and how willing they are to share them in class. Using these assessment strategies for my own productivity in executing my goals, it will allow me the opportunity to brainstorm new, possibly smaller goals and actions to help insure greater success or develop my skills further.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
ISTE. (2008). National Education Technology Standards. Retrieved January 13, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards
Beyond A to B: An Educational Exploration 