Reflection

As I walk away from this course I realize that my learning has really just begun. Knowing that technology will continue to emerge and students will continue to enter my classroom with more diversity than ever before, it is essential that I do not stop my professional development simply because my Masters is completed. I am thankful that this course has provided me with more resources and clearer definitions of how to apply what I have learned.
My classroom learning community has already benefited from my learnings; students are more frequently using technology across all content areas. I am becoming more comfortable with the idea that not all of my students need to be doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Wow, I sound very old school even admitting that my classroom tended to operate in this manner! Fortunately, while my students are learning and growing this year, as their teacher I am as well. I am very excited to continue to implement new instructional tools into my lessons and I am seeking out grants to help my school advance in our resources available.
While I have been exposed to many new resources from this class, I will need to continue to locate resources that are geared more towards second graders. Technology can be exciting and engaging, I always need to focus on the essential understandings to ensure that the end goal will be achieved by my students and that the tool is age level appropriate.
At times I get frustrated because I feel like I am on a solitaire ship traveling up river with my push to design more differentiated instruction and UDL into my lessons. I understand the importance of applying technology into my lessons to make DI and UDL possible. Yet as I collaborate with other members of our school technology committee, I am often told that our school is already doing well with technology and we should be thankful for what we have. With a student body of 654 students, I struggle appreciating the mere forty-five laptops we have to share. Our school needs more because our students deserve the best education possible.

PTA Support Presentation

Realizing that 25% of our student population is reading below grade level by the time they reach fourth grade, I am proposing to PTA the following presentation:

http://prezi.com/ysmfywlzgowx/online-learning-modules/

Lexia is an online reading program that individualizes reading instruction to the student. A para is not needed to teach the student and the progress is made easily available to the teacher. Students time away from core instruction is limited, as the recommended time with Lexia is a mere twenty minutes per day, which would be a great addition to a students literacy time. I would love to hear your feedback, prior to my presentation!

Reflection

As I reflect on my learning over the past few months around my GAME plan, I realized that I made terrific progress in some areas but, there are still some other areas where I see a need for improvement. My first goal was to increase the implementation of new lessons that provide relevant learning experiences while incorporating digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Originally, I planned to develop one of two lessons a month but found myself increasingly striving to plan one to two lessons a week as I noticed how engaged my students became with each new lesson. In regards to my goal of emailing the finished lessons or posting them on my website so that parents are able to see the digital-age work and learning occurring in the classroom, I found that I had forgotten about the amount of time it takes a beginning of the year second grader to complete a project using technology. I still hope that I will be able to communicate with parents their students’ successes however as the year progresses.

Another goal I am continuing to work on is engaging in more professional growth opportunities to collaborate will fellow teammates around technology. I am struggling, however, in positioning myself in groups that are challenging me to grow in my skills, as it seems I am doing more teaching then learning. I am becoming more proficient at the skills and tools I already know. However, when I set out to achieve this goal I envisioned myself learning more about integration and implementation of technology not just sharing what I already knew. I do still plan to reach this goal, and now understand the reality that I will need to branch outside of my school to further my development. Though this is not my preference, nor will it be as convenient, I believe it will be more beneficial for my students and me in the end. Though I need to come up with more feasible and flexible communities to collaborate with, I am excited to attend the ISTE conference in Philadelphia this summer!

I can say that I am effectively and actively modeling digital age lessons! My students are provided with ample opportunities to use the tools to show and further their learning. I am excited for second semester when more time will be devoted to using the tools to share their learning verses this semester where much of our time is consumed by learning how to use the technology. My teammates are also enjoying the new lessons and slowly but surely creeping on board. I would like to see our school dedicate more time to professional development opportunities where teachers are expected to model digital age lessons that are successful in their classrooms.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students...

As I think about how I can assist my students in becoming proficient in the technology standards, the first thing that comes to mind is exposure and opportunity. Many of my students have computer assess at home, however they tend to go to the same games and websites they are familiar with. As their teacher I need to provide lessons and time for my students to play and discover. Just as adult learners in technology need time to play and learn, kids also need that time. In fact, it has been my experience that many kids are better at playing and teaching themselves about the computer than many adults. I also think it is my responsibility as their teacher to show my students the standards and explain/model what being proficient at each of them would like. From there, the goal setting comes into play. My students are very familiar with setting goals and using strategies to reach those goals. We goal set in all content areas, it would make sense for us to do the same in technology.

Revising My GAME Plan

As I revise my game plan I feel it is necessary to review and repost my goals. My two goals are: 1.Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments,and 2.Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.

In regards to goal number one, I am not too pleased with my progress. Yes, my students are benefiting from digital learning experiences, and yes I am providing those experiences for them. However, I have not been able to create time for expanding my own knowledge to design NEW lessons. Instead, it seems that the time I would normally be able to sit down and "play" prior to developing a new lesson, I am being pulled to share everything I am doing with my colleagues. Don't get me wrong I know it is important to share with your team mates and that our students are all of our students. I am just getting frustrated that at this point it feels like the professional development time we are given is only benefiting the teachers who have no background experience with digital learning tools because all the rest of us are stuck teaching it. I get that we need to share our knowledge. I struggle with the idea that my time is not being respected though, as it seems that if we are stuck teaching everyone else, we are not getting the time needed to continue to expand our own knowledge. It is with this time that I would like to be able to sit down and DESIGN new lessons that I can then provide to my students. That being said, I am working on improving the amount of time that I can dedicate to improving my ability to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I spoke with my administration about requiring independent time to play with technology, rather than always having to have collaboration and sharing time. I believe this will be very beneficial to myself and to my colleagues. It will help me...as I struggle being able to tell a colleague no when they ask for help, and it will help my colleagues as they will be forced to actually learn how to use the tools rather then depend on someone else to do it for them.

As for goal number 2, well as you can see from above, I have been doing a lot of modeling! I am ready for the learning now... On a serious note, my students are coming to school with ideas from what they practiced at home and sharing with me what they chose to create or use on our class website at home. So I know the modeling is happening not only from me, but from my students as well. I am pleased with the progress of this goal.

Evaluating my GAME Plan

Is anyone else amazed that another week has already passed? As I think about my goals and how I am doing in meeting them, I am torn. Part of me feels like I have not dedicated near enough time into them, however, the other part of me thinks I am naturally incorporating steps into my daily teaching and planning to meet them. My biggest problem is that I continuously feel like I should be doing more and can not seem to be satisfied with celebrating the things I have implemented. Does anyone feel this way? I am continuing to update my website, encouraging my students to blog, my students independently completed a descriptive writing activity and presented it on Tagxedo, a group of students is working on a script for a voicethread about what we are discovering in science, and parents are telling me that their kids are coming home excited to show them new things they are learning in school.

My goal for this week is to introduce http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to my students as a choice for free-write time.

My Progress...

Our technology committee met this week and I left there quite discouraged. Of our 75 laptops we have had in the previous years, 26 of them are broken. I know that I should be thankful for the laptops that we do have, however, at a time when I am anxious and enthusiastic to implement new lessons into my classroom with my students, it is discouraging to learn that our mode of instruction is diminishing. As a second grade teacher I am kind of at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to prioritizing what grade level would benefit the most from the computers and when we are now sharing 49 computers between 636 students, my time available for computer check out is looking slim. In relation to how this is impacting my progress with the goals I have set, I will say that my first instinct was to revamp them as I felt like why bother if we don't have the tools. But then my pouting session ended and I decided to be proactive. I have applied for several grants in hopes of adding more computers back into our school.

Our tech committee has already started discussing what lessons we want to share with the other teachers first to get more technology integrated into the classrooms across the grade levels. My students began blogging today about the books they are reading and I am anxious for more to begin sharing their writing on the blog as the week progresses. Parents are actively checking the class website and responding to my emails. I am hoping to get parents to begin commenting on the class blog as well. I think this will be a powerful tool for students, as it guarantees them an audience.

Carrying out my GAME plan...

Well, I have started out doing well...this past week our grade level used digital tools to present our In 1787 poem to the school on school news and I sent the link to the parents as well in honor of Constitution Day. For those interested, here is the link: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=197353&title=Constitution_day_2010&ref=Mrsbarlow

In order to continue working towards meeting my goals, I will need to continue to utilize the "experts" around me (i.e. my husband and colleagues). The biggest factor I will need is time. Time to play and familiarize myself with the tools available. Being a school that is a Power library is also working towards my advantage, as our teacher librarian understands the importance and value of the ISTE standards. Our technology committee has yet to meet this school year, but I am anxious to begin bouncing ideas off of them as well.

My Personal GAME Plan...

As soon as I dare to think I am doing well at integrating technology effectively, I am reminded to quickly look at the ISTE educational technology standards for teachers (which I have located right inside the cover of my plan book, so don't worry my head never gets too big). While I know that I am actively growing in my ability to effectively use technology, I also know that creating a game plan to successfully reach my goals is crucial. The two goals I am setting for myself to improve upon are: 1.Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments,and 2.Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.

Action Plan...

Well, the first step is committing to the goals and believing that their is value in reaching them. So I guess I am already on the right track. Realistically though, I know that this is not enough. Shoot, if it were, I would have already lost that extra twenty pounds:) On a serious note though, to achieve my goals I plan to hold myself accountable for providing at least one (hopefully two) new lessons that provide relevant learning experiences while incorporating digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity a month. I plan to then email the finished lessons or post them on my website so that parents are able to see the digital-age work and learning occurring in the classroom. Engaging in more professional growth opportunities to collaborate will be beneficial as well. I like the convenience of knowing that I can collaborate online and at flexible times. This should be helpful towards my success.

Progress Monitoring...

I will be able to monitor my progress because I have already told my student's parents to expect this from me. We all know that parents are quick to tell us if we have not done something;) Plus, I am pretty sure my guilt factor would kick in pretty quick.

Evaluation and Extension...

The lessons I plan to provide will not allow me to find comfort with a sense of control. As many of the lessons will be open ended and "risky." Which means I will truly be looking at the learning occurring and the outcomes learned. I am excited for the new venture and possibilities. As for extending my goals, I do not think I am ready for that...I am a bit overwhelmed just thinking about what I have just committed myself to!

Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom Reflection

The BIG revelation I had while taking this course was the realization that I was completely unaware of the new literacies. This scares me considering I have always considered myself tech savvy. Then I think about the teachers at my school who come to me as a resource for technology. I am certain that they are unsure of the new literacies. How are we going to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students, if we are not preparing them with the skills of the 21^st century? Then there is the whole issue of teachers being aware, but still choosing to do nothing about it. For teachers that are unfamiliar with technology, but are willing to jump on board and begin integrating technology, research suggests that a teacher new to technology may take up to five years to become comfortable enough to effectively use the technology in the classroom setting (Dexter, Anderson, & Becker, 1999; Hadley & Sheingold, 1993; McKenzie, 1999a). Are our students doomed? Are we always going to be playing catch up?

As a second grade teacher who already feels overwhelmed at times when trying to fit all of the subjects into the day, I do not feel comfortable jumping right into teaching all five of the new literacies to my students. Do I understand that all five are important and that my students deserve to learn and use all of these skills? Of course, I do. However, I also know that in order to be successful and for me to have the courage to implement the new literacies, I need to make it manageable and doable for myself. The first new literacy I am going to implement in my classroom is to have my students create questions and/or problems to solve. This literacy is essential as it will further develop the student’s interest in a topic and teach them how to generate detailed answerable questions.

I do not feel comfortable returning to school and not sharing the information I have learned. A professional goal that I have set for myself is to share what I have learned and stress the importance to my teammates and colleagues to incorporate the new literacies into our lessons. As a member of the technology committee at my school, I plan to organize mini committees to teach the new literacies during professional development time.

Please click on this voice thread and share your suggestions...

voicethread.com/share/1198381/

Constructivism in Practice

My understanding from this weeks resources...Teachers that understand not every child always needs to conduct an individual experiment, however, every child will benefit from manipulating the data to see how the outcome could change with varying data, are effectively using their instructional minutes. We are fortunate to be teaching in a time that has tools that will provide more opportunity for out students to ask "what if," create a hypothesis and get instant feedback to show the outcomes of "what if." Students are not weary to question because they are not turned away by the amount of work the results could take to find. I compare this same willingness to question, to the first time my math teacher handed me a graphing calculator. I was much more enthusiastic to problem solve and try different variables when I knew the tool would do the "work" for me. Testing out the varying variables and examining the results provides a more beneficial and increased level of understanding.

While not every student needs to have the same first hand experience with a concept, Dr. Orey stresses the importance of having every student building an artifact to build upon an understanding they already have. This is referred to as constructivism verses constructionism. Constructionism is used when lessons are interacting with the student to provide assimilations and accomodations to construct something. In order to understand new concepts, accommodations and new schema must be made available to students. Learning is individualized and focusing on what is going on in each students learning process. This correlates with the ideas presented in the text because students are able to quickly try out different variables and get instant feedback. They are able to take what they already know and build upon it or create knew schema as needed.

Cognitivism in Practice

"Students who lack sufficient background knowledge or are unable to activate this knowledge may struggle to access, participate, and progress throughout the general curriculum, where reading to learn is a prerequisite for success" (N. Strangman & T. Hall)

Knowing how important it is for students to have background knowledge and the disadvantage students are at without it, it is vital that teachers provide virtual field trips for their students. Our curriculum is designed to teach students about the world. And while it would be great to be able to travel the world with our students and provide them with real life experiences and memories for them to build off of, it is not a scenario that is offered to the majority of our students . Fortunately, we can bring many of the wonders of our world to our classroom. One teacher in our building has the students create fake passports for the Social Studies unit on Canada and Mexico. She stamps the students "passport" after each field trip. Many of her lessons include a "guest speaker." However, the guest speaker is thousands of miles away. Through the use of Skype, she has students talk with a native from the country they are studying. The students are no longer simply reading about this far away land, they are experiencing it through another persons eyes. Suddenly their lesson and objective for learning has relevance and personal meaning. The students can connect with the concept and are concerned...which aligns with the theory of cognitivism.

While virtual field trips are of great benefit to students, they are only one of many tools available. They can be strengthened when combined with a concept map. Concept maps allow students to visually show the knowledge they are learning and the path that has gotten them there. The concept map displays the connection or thought process that leads the thinker to the outcome reached. It is a tool showing relationships and recall. Having just started playing around with this tool, I am amazed at easily one concept naturally leads to another. I would love to see how insightful concept maps could be when used in a high school history class!




http://www.cast.org/system/galleries/download/ncac/ncac_BK.pdf

Behaviorism in Practice

We all know someone who attended a school with multi-age classrooms or grew up having forty-five students in their homeroom class; as a teacher who panics when the class size jumps from twenty-five to thirty, I can not even imagine. Knowing how beneficial instant feedback is, and the importance of differentiation, I have no idea how teachers have been able to feel successful at the end of the day before computers. Computers are a tool that allow students to interact with their instruction, while progressing forward to expand their knowledge and likewise stepping back to review a concept when mastery is not shown. Students are no longer expected to master a concept at the exact same rate as their perfect classmate Sally. Programs available on the computer allow students to have a more individualized education plan. No longer are only the students that meet the criteria to be placed on a state IEP getting the benefits of an individualized instruction plan. Computers are a tool that allow every student to be monitored and ensured a successful growth rate. Our school has a program new this year called Acuity. Acuity differentiates the test a student is taking based on the answers the student is getting right. The program then offers resources for the student to practice to ensure the student is understanding the intended benchmark. This program aligns with the behaviorist theory because the students response to a question is what determines what the next question given to the student should be.

This weeks reading of "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works" offered me with insight that gave me many "ah ha" moments and reinforced my decision to be pursuing my masters in technology. I was so excited to learn about MS Word being able to summarize writing and the option to have MS Word evaluate the paper in regards to the readability scale level. Just as I envision and want my students to use these tools when they write a paper, I found myself going back and pulling up papers I had written to see how I had scored. Empowering students with this tool provides a quick check for the students to check their sentence variety. Being a second grade teacher I am not ready to introduce my students to the feedback option from their peers, however, I can see how impacting that tool could be.

Survey Monkey was used in my classroom this week. I loved the idea of giving my students real data...not data from a worksheet. My students completed a survey about how much effort they put into preparing for their weekly spelling tests and compared that data to the data collected on the average grade they were receiving on their spelling test. It made for great discussion. I am excited to see the results of this weeks spelling test as I told my students we would be taking the same survey again to compare results...again looking at effort compared to the grade. I am confident we will notice an improvement in both.

I by no means think a computer is the end all solution for educating our students, but I do believe when utilized properly it can be a great benefit to a learning environment.

Course Reflection

This course reminded me of the importance of continuing to expand the use of technology in my classroom, AND that yes something better and more efficient will always be out there. However, I can only make the most out of the resources available. The assignments expected of me in the class, emphasized the need to play and that through the play, learning and growth is made possible. As our resources continually pointed out, a teachers role is changing and as a teacher it is neccesary to adapt to the change.

Two long term goals...I am going to attend ISTE conference in June, and will implement techniques that I learn from the seminars into my class for the upcoming school year. I also plan to make better use of the mp3 players. Many of my students have fluency as a goal for their reading. Teaching the kids how to use the mp3 player at the beginning of the year will allow them to independently record and hear their fluency. Students can then go excel and graph their progress. Goodness, I am getting excited just thinking about this!

Website Partnership for 21st Century Skills Reflection

Being the optimist that I am, I was hoping this site was going to offer tools for me to walk away with and apply into my classroom tomorrow. Not quite the case. Nothing really jumped out at me as new or wowing. It confirmed that yes our schools have work to do, and quite a bit at that. Unfortunately the solutions are not as easy to come by. I received my B.S. in 2002, I can recall having to take one class that required us to create a website, laminate and bind a book, and use a dye cut machine. Two of my classrooms had smartboards in the room, however neither teacher ever turned it on. My point in sharing this is that teachers are not being expected to use technology actively through out their college training. Thus, how are they going to be prepared to come into a classroom and begin using it then...and if teachers are not using it, can we really expect our students to be using it. I am a fairly young teacher, excited to use technology and get my kids using it. Many of my colleagues are timid to try the technology and often use the excuse that it doesn't work every time and they don't have time to waste "fixing" it in class. The part that is hard to explain to them is that the "fixing" it part can usually be figured out by one of the students.

My husband who is in the computer field was laughing at me as I was reading through the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. He talked about how much easier his job would be if schools educated the students and adults entering the career field using up to date technology. The significant gap between our schools and the expectations of the job market in using technology is not benefiting anyone. It makes sense that the two join forces. My hope for myself as a teacher, for my daughter who will begin her public school experience next year, and for all teachers and students out there is that technology no longer resides as an option for teachers to use with their students, but rather it becomes an expectation.

As a second grade teacher, I could see a connections blog being beneficial to my students on many levels. With my students being younger the connections blog could be a first experience for many of them to blog. Using a blog to share connections would also save time in our class discussions as so many times a connection a student has with a book can end up turning into a five minute story...which then inspires another to have a connection...As a teacher it is difficult at times to balance the need for students to share their connections and knowing it is time to move on. The blog would allow every student to have the opportunity to make their voice heard, while also allowing practice for their writing and reading skills.

A Slice of Who I Am...

This is my eighth year of teaching. My first seven years were all in sixth grade and this year I made the jump to second. I am licensed to teach k-12 with emphasis in mathematics and language arts. I teach in a school district that is actively trying to implement technology. Our goal is for every classroom to have sound, Smartboards, N-computing, and document cameras. At this point my classroom has N-computing and a Smartboard. Our school is trying to mount a new Smartboard in each grade level each school year...sound is the last priority. I love seeing the interaction kids have with the Smartboard and believe it opens up quite a bit of new opportunities for the students learning.