Course Reflections

The GAME plan that I designed and followed throughout this course was in regards to designing my own classroom webpage and in order to help me carry out my GAME plan, I was chosen to attend training on design webpages. I was very excited about going to this training and went with an open mind at how I could begin designing one for my classroom. Well much to my surprise, this training was not for individual classroom webpages. It was for the school webpage and keeping it up to date. While this is still beneficial to parents, I was hoping to be able to begin implementing my own classroom webpage at the start of the new year. However, I did learn how to design our school’s webpage and upload pictures on it to keep parents up-to-date on what is happening in our school. One thing that I took from this experience is that even though I was not trained on how to design a classroom webpage, I can use other venues for deigning the page. I am hoping that once we get our school webpage completed with everything that is needed, that I can play around in the software and determine how I can make my own classroom webpage.

I do not reflect on my teaching near enough but through the use of the GAME plan, I am able to reflect on my lessons and discover what went well and what did not go well. I also think that having students use the GAME plan during group activities will help them to reflect on their processes as well. Also by using the GAME plan, it helps us to set clear and obtainable objectives that student’s can see and grade themselves.

I learned a great deal on ways that I can begin implementing technology into my teaching practice. Through this course and talking with my administration, I believe that we are going to purchase a mobile laptop cart that is wifi capable. My school is not equipped with wifi capabilities therefore making it difficult to bring laptops into the classroom to work. If we want to use the computers, we have to go to the computer lab. Sometimes when we visit the computer lab, we run into the problem of not every computer working therefore meaning more time that I have to take to fix the problem. This becomes very frustrating after a while. I hope that funds will allow us to purchase this mobile laptop cart because I believe that it can be very beneficial to both students and teachers.

When we return from winter break, we will be starting our unit on geometry. I hope to be able to incorporate digital storytelling in some form for this unit. As far as problem-based learning and networking/online collaboration goes, I am not quite sure of how I will be implementing these into my curriculum but I do know that I will be using problem-based learning in science. When we return from break, I am going to talk with my colleagues about ways that we can use problem-based learning in our science curriculum. I am excited about my journey to implementing technology into my classroom and hope that next school year, I will have the means to be able to begin allowing my students to use technology first thing.

Monitoring Progress Towards GAME Plan

The progress towards my GAME plan is on hold at this moment until I attend the training on classroom webpages on Wednesday, November 30. I hope that after this training, I can begin to progress forward in my GAME plan goal and begin design my classroom webpage. During this time, I have looked at other classroom webpages and gotten some ideas that I would like to use on my own webpage. One of those things is providing useful resources to my parents. For example, one resource that I seen was teachers providing parents with useful websites that they can go on with their child to strengthen their skills in math. Also many of the websites had students homework for that week listed as well. I believe that this is a great resource for parents because it helps to keep them informed of things going on in the classroom. I know that many times I have parents calling me after school asking what the homework for that day was because their child either forgot to write it down or it is not legible. By posting this on my classroom webpage, parents can use this as a tool in helping to inform them of what is going on in the classroom for that week.

At this time, no I do not need to modify my action plan. Since I have not attended the training yet, I have not learned anything in regards to designing webpages but I have gained some useful information in looking and exploring other teacher’s webpages. Through some of these webpages, I have seen things that I plan to use on my own webpage. I do not have any questions at this time, but I am sure that after my training, I will have plenty of questions in regards to designing webpages. :) I am excited about this training because implementing a classroom webpage is something that I have always wanted to do. I hope that I can come back and share some useful information with my colleagues so that they can begin designing and implementing a classroom webpage as well.

Beginning Stages of Carrying Out My GAME Plan

For this assignment, I chose the GAME plan with the goal of designing a user friendly classroom webpage that parents and students can use. I also hope that my colleagues can find my webpage useful. In order to carry out my plan, I need a few resources. One of the resources that I need is guidance in how to design a webpage. I have been chosen to attend training on designing classroom web pages. I hope that through this training, I can obtain some useful information in helping me begin my classroom webpage along with information that I can pass on to my colleagues to help them get started as well. Another resource that could be valuable to me in helping me design my classroom webpage is looking at other teacher’s webpages to get an idea of how they set theirs up and information that they included on their page.

I will be attending this training on November 30 so this is the first step in helping me to reach my goal. I am very excited about this training because I enjoy designing pages and being able to actively experience technology. I hope that once I have my own classroom webpage up and running that I can plan a lesson in which my students design their own webpage that shows portrays important information learned in class. I believe that this training will begin to open up a new horizon for me and also give me some wonderful ideas that I can use in my classroom with my students in regards to designing webpages.

GAME Plan

For these particular indicators, I feel confident in them but I am not as proficient as I would like to be. I would love to have a classroom that is based solely on technology and begin seeing how successful my students become through the use of technology.

Indicator 2a: Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

G- Goal
• My goal for this indicator is to begin planning mini-lessons that include some form of technology in which students have to be an active participant.
A- Action
• I plan to achieve this goal by incorporating small pieces of technology into my lessons.
• I also plan to achieve this goal by looking at my current lessons and begin brainstorming ways that technology can be integrated into the lesson(s).
M- Monitor
• For this particular indicator, I plan to monitor my progress by keep a checklist of all my lessons and if technology was incorporate within each lesson.
• Since I can be kind of hard on myself sometimes, I also plan to partner with a colleague and have them monitor my progress with implementing technology and or digital tools into my lessons.
E- Evaluate
• For this indicator, I plan to evaluate myself by using a checklist of lessons that technology was incorporate into and how effective they showed to be with my students.
• I also plan to work with a colleague in helping me evaluate myself as well.
• If I see that incorporating technology in lessons was successful for a majority of my students, I plan to begin implementing some form of technology in every lesson forward.


Indicator 3c: Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-safe media and formats.

G- Goal
• My goal for this indicator is to design a user friendly webpage that parents and students find useful and resourceful.
• Another goal for me is that this webpage serves as a resource for my fellow colleagues as well
A- Action
• To help me achieve this goal, I plan to attend an Epowered training, provided by my district that helps me design a classroom webpage.
M-Monitor
• In regards to monitoring, I plan to use the knowledge that I received from this training to begin designing my webpage for my classroom. I hope to be able to have this webpage up and working after Christmas if everything goes well.
E- Evaluate
• To help me evaluate my progress with this indicator, I will set a deadline that I need to have my webpage completed. Once it is completed, I will share it with my students, parents and colleagues and have them give me feedback on the webpage in regards to how useful and resourceful it was to them.

EDUC 6711 Course Reflection

As I think back over the last few weeks in this course, I can honestly say that I have deepened my knowledge into ways that I can incorporate technology into my classroom. I also learned many different instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom. Overall, this course was very helpful to me and gave me many different ideas and uses of technology in my classroom.

Reflection on prompts:

1. After reading back over my “Personal Theory of Learning” I do not believe that I have any major modifications at this point. The only thing that I would like to being implementing into my teaching practice is more use of technology into the classroom and through this course, I learned various tools that I can use to engage my students and give them those positive learning experiences that are needed.

2. Next school year, I hope to be able to incorporate more uses of technology into my classroom either through the use of the Smartboard or through some of the different technology tools that have been discovered thus far. Two of the technology tools that I would like to use with my student is concept mapping and blogging. Through the use of these two technology tools, I feel that my students will get a variety of learning experiences and will allow them to be more engaged in the learning process.

Through this course, I have learned many different instructional strategies that I can use in my classroom. I use a few of the strategies that we have talked about in this class but there were some that were new to me. I hope to be able to incorporate a few of the new instructional strategies in my classroom in the near future.

3. Two long term goal changes that I would like to make to my instructional practice is to begin incorporating more use of technology into my classroom and obtain more technology devices to use within my classroom. As far as the incorporation of more technology into my classroom, I plan to begin doing that during the upcoming school year. Through out some of my courses, I have learned various organization or websites that I can look into at obtaining technology devices for my classroom at little to no cost. My goal is to begin looking into some of those organizations and websites with some colleagues of mine at the start of school.

I hope to begin working towards many of my long-term goals at the start of next school year!!(2011-2012)

:)

Voice Thread

This week we had to complete a Voice Thread that was based upon an issue we faced either in our classrooms or schools. Please take a look at the problem that I faced in my classroom.

Check it out:) https://voicethread.com/?#u1845824.b2094368.i11159037

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This week we learned about the instructional strategy of cooperative learning. As I read about cooperative learning, I realized that I already implement this strategy within my classroom. The one way that cooperative learning is prevalent in my classroom is through learning centers. During these learning centers, students are placed in groups and are given specific task to work on in each center. The tasks normally align with our classroom curriculum. As far as grouping, I try to vary groups from week to week. Sometimes I group children based up their ability levels and other times I do random grouping. My students enjoy change therefore they accept any change within the classroom.

Through these cooperative learning center groups, students are socially connecting with one another. These learning centers are giving students the opportunity to interact with their peers on a different level than when outside on the playground. It is teaching students the appropriate way to interact with their classmates when working in cooperative learning groups. Through these learning centers students are becoming those MKO (more knowledgeable others) which in turn helps to foster students ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development).

From experience, I can say that my students enjoy working in centers and it teaches them great interaction skills that they may not get elsewhere. It also gives me a break from teaching and them a break from sitting still and listening therefore it's good for both parties involved. :)

Constructivism/Constructionism in Practice

Through my learning this week, I learned about the constructionist and constructivist learning theories. The constructivist learning theory states that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning where as the constructionist learning theory is a theory of learning that states that people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Dr. Orey mentioned that many get these learning theories confused and said that there is a difference between the two and the differences need to be noted, especially for teachers. In a classroom, you will take note of the constructionist theories being presented.

As I thought about the constructionist and the constructivist learning theories, it brought me back to my teaching methods recently and had me to ponder over them. As I sat and thought about these two learning theories, I realized that there are instructional strategies that I use in my classroom that would fall under either theory. This week the instructional strategy of generating and testing hypotheses was introduced. As I read about this strategy, it made me think of science, which happens to deal with testing hypotheses. But as the reading stated, this instructional strategy can be used in any subject. As I thought about this instructional strategy and in reference to the two learning theories, I realized that this instructional strategy falls within the constructionist theory. It involves students being able to explain, problem solve, investigate and even allowing them to create. Through this instructional strategy students are able to take part in their own learning and be engaged in the learning process.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Constructionist and constructivist learning theories. [webcast] Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: author

Cognitivism in Practice

This week I discovered many different instructional strategies that integrate technology that I can use in my classroom. As I read through many of them, I realized that I have used many of the strategies in my classroom but not with technology involved. One of the strategies that my students tend to struggle with is summarizing. Summarizing tends to be very difficult for students to understand. To help students in understanding summarizing techniques, it was suggested that Microsoft Word be used. In this program, teachers are able to use a feature that takes a text and provides a summary of it. This is beneficial to the students because they are able to visually see a summary written from a specific piece of text. This correlates with dual coding in the Cognitive Learning Theory. Through this process, students are able to learn the information and began to store it into the long term memory sector.

Another strategy presented in the reading was cues, questions, and advance organizers. I will admit that I have never used an advanced organizer in my classroom partly due to the fact that I have never heard of it until recently. But I have used cues and questions as an instructional strategy just not in the format explained in the reading. When talking and discussing with my students during a particular lesson, I normally have a focus question. As I am teaching the lesson, I am mindful of what questions I should pose to the students based upon the focus question. Although I tend to use questioning a lot in my classroom, I have never incorporated any form of technology with questioning. Through questioning, students are able to create a concept map in Inspiration. With the use of concept maps, students are able to retain information and store it into long term memory. Students begin to store information in their long term memory when, as mentioned earlier, dual coding is involved. This is where students are given a visual picture along with either text or audio. Concept mapping is great for enhancing the Cognitive Learning Theory. As the concept maps are discussed and created with students, it will help me to grasp a sense of those students who understood along with those who are still having difficulties understanding.

Behaviorism in Practice

This week we learned about two instructional strategies that embed technology within them. Those two strategies are reinforcing effort and homework/practice. These are just a few of the instructional strategies that can be used in a technology filled classroom.

As I mentioned in my discussion post, my school "39 Eagle Essentials" which are deemed as our rules. Everyone in the school follows these same rules. One of the Eagle Essentials is that homework must be turned in Tuesday through Thursday. With this rule in place, it makes students accountable for their work which in turn makes them pay attention better in class. My students are told from the first day of school that homework will not be given on material that has not been covered in class. I hold true to this because I want homework to be something that students can freely work on with out maximum help from mama or daddy. As stated in our reading, there needs to be either homework contracts or policies put into place. This helps to minimize disruptions and off tune behaviors because it makes students responsible.

Another instructional strategy mentioned was reinforcing effort. This tends to be extremely beneficial to the students especially if they are getting praised for great effort. In my classroom, I have all students try and they must make an effort to do the problem. I want them to feel comfortable making a mistake- that is how we learn. When we reinforce effort that lets students know that we care about them and believe in them. When students are being rewarded and praised for their efforts, that leads them to want to do well in school and have a mindset that they believe.

Reflecting on My Learning

Throughout this course, I was able to explore many new technologies such a blogs, podcasts and wikis. When I first began this class, I was a bit hesitant about the many different forms of technologies that I would be learning in such a short amount of time. After exploring the different technologies, I realized that many times, the students in my classroom feel just like I do. With this thought in mind, I understood that in order for students to understand the concepts presented in the classroom, that they must be given the opportunity to explore them on their own.

Through this course, I have deepened my knowledge on how to integrate technology into the classroom and how I can make it interesting and engaging for the students but yet still following the state standards. As I explored the concept of blogging, I realized that this would be a great tool that I could use in my classroom. It may not be easy to implement at first but as students are introduced to blogging and are able to explore it, it can be very beneficial to the students and teacher(s).

My perspective on going from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered classroom has not changed dramatically. This is something that is going to take a lot of work on my part for my classroom to become completely learner-centered. Although I do a lot of cooperative groups and learning centers in my classroom, I still do not believe that it is fully learner-centered. This is a weakness for me that I am trying to work on because I know that students learn a great deal from their peers especially when they hear me everyday.

Not only am I a teacher but I am a learner as well. I am constantly learning new things everyday either from my colleagues or from looking up things on the internet. As a teacher, I think that the learning process never stops and we are constantly learning new things that we can implement into our classrooms to better equip our students with the knowledge they need. I hope to continue to stay up-to-date with some of the newest forms of technology and how I can implement and use them in my classroom. I never want to cease learning! :)

The following is two long term goals that I hope will allow me to change my classroom into a more technology filled environment:

1. I hope to change my classroom environment by writing a grant to get a classroom set of iPod touches donated.

*I plan to accomplish this goal by writing a grant or posting on www.donorschoose.org and explaining my reasoning behind wanting a classroom set of iPod touches.

*An obstacle that I will face in being able to reach this goal is having wifi in the school. The school that I currently teach at does not have wireless internet therefore meaning that the iPod touches will not work. I hope that I can convince someone to wire internet throughout the school building in order that these iPod touches be used.

2. I hope to change my classroom environment by beginning to implement classroom blogging.

*I plan to accomplish this goal by starting out at the beginning of the year introducing blogging to my students and allowing them to explore blogs. I plan to work on this with the students throughout the year so that by the end of the year, students are able to actively post on the classroom blog.

*An obstacle that I will face is that many of my students will not have availability to the internet at home meaning that a majority of this will have to be completed at school in addition to teaching the curriculum. I hope to be able to plan time to where, as a class, we can go to the computer lab and work on blogging once or twice a week. Once students get the idea of blogging, I am sure it will be very useful to them and me as well.

Technology Interview of 3rd Graders

This was quite an interesting assignment to me. At first, I was really apprehensive about what I needed to be done and how I should go about completing this assignment. Through the mind of a teacher, I was thinking "how could I possibly interview four of my students for this assignment but yet not take away from my instructional time?" So in other words, I did not want to take away my instructional time in the classroom but I then realized that I was actually learning in the process; that was my instructional time! :) I discovered a great deal about the students in my classroom and the types of technology they use on an everyday basis. I was very surprised by many of their responses. I guess this was so alarming to me because I was not exposed to technology as such a young as age as they are but as the readings for this week stated, students are digital natives and technology is all they know and all they have grown up knowing. This can be seen just from the interviews that I did with four of my students.

The following is the link to my podcast: http://nguyent3.podomatic.com/entry/2011-04-03T09_49_55-07_00

I teach 3rd grade math and science. I teach 28 students. I have 14 in my morning class and 14 in my afternoon class. I chose to interview a male and female from each class. I hope you enjoy listening to their interviews and you also discover a lot about students and technology in the 21st century.

Partnership for the 21st Century Skills Website- Reaction

This website was very interesting to me as I began to explore what all it had to offer. With me teaching in the 21st century, it was exciting to see a partnership that supports 21st century education and the many resources this site had to offer educators. In order for students to be successful in the 21st century, a framework has been established. This framework is based upon 21st century standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction. In order for our students to be successful in the 21st century, as educators, we need to follow this framework.

As I explored this site, I enjoyed watching some of the videos that showed 21st century teaching. As I am a visual learner, this was very good for me because it gave me an example to go by and it showed me what 21st century teaching/learning looks like. I also enjoyed watching the teacher of the year video. I only watched a few minutes of it but what I heard was very intriguing to me. One comment that Mrs. Sara Wessling made was "we must meet students where they are." This is a very true statement. We can not expect students to come to where "we" want them to but yet as teachers, we need to meet them exactly where they can function and learn. I really enjoyed listening to Mrs. Wessling because she made some great statements that many teachers need to take with them into their classroom in order to become 21st century teachers. Another thing she said was that we need to teach to the student and NOT the test. I know that in my own teaching, I am guilty of teaching to the test and not the student. One reason is that I know that I am accountable for the end of the year testing but as Mrs. Wessling mentioned, if I teach to the student then they should be able to take the test because I taught them on their level and ability. This something that I am going to have to work on in my teaching because it seems that everyone is saying, "teach to the test"!

Something that I took away from this site was that in order for my students to come 21st century learners, I need to become a 21st century teacher and that starts with me becoming familiar with 21st century learning and the framework provided. I hope that through this course and the remaining classes in graduate school that I can learn to become a 21st century teacher.

Any suggestions for how to become a 21st century teacher?? :)

Using Blogs in my Classroom

Although I have never used blogging in my classroom, I do feel that it would be a great means of communicate between school and home. If I were to use blogging in this manner, I would post important dates such as test dates and assignments that are due for parents to be up to date. I would also use it to ask for any suggestions or questions that parents may have about things that are going on in the classroom or any concerns they may have regarding their student.

I would also use blogging as a means of displaying all star students either for a job well done in class or great behavior. Through using blogging in this way, I feel that it can increase student motivation because students will be able to see their name posted and the reason they are being displayed as an all star student. I also feel that it will allow parents to get involved in their child's education because it would be every parents dream to see their child's name posted.

I teach 3rd grade in which I teach math and science. This departmentalization is something new for me this year but I do enjoy it thoroughly.

Blogging....Something New To Me

Blogging......this is definitely something new to me. I have always wanted to try out blogging but have never set my mind to doing it. I have been invited to a few blogs and I have even commented on a few but as far as making my own, I have never done it until NOW! :)

I really hope that I can use blogging as an effective means to communicate with my fellow colleagues and with my parents at school. Through this process, I hope to take blogging to a new perspective and begin to use it in my classroom. Have any of you educators ever used blogging in your classroom or had your students participate in a blog? If you have, please comment on how well you felt it worked and how your students reacted to blogging.