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.