Well, I told you I would try to get this done by the time you were off the grid in Alaska and I did it. I want you to know that I truly appreciate you support through this. I want to teach and having a situation that threatens to take me away from teaching makes me realize so much more how important to me it is.
I enjoyed this whole experience. Yes, sometimes I would work until 5:30 p.m at school and then come home and work on this class until 10:30 p.m until I could not keep my eyes open and had to crawl into bed only to rinse and repeat the next day but, as I said earlier, I started to realize that this class was impacting me when I found myself taking the things I was looking at or creating and discussing them with my principal or my coworkers.
I did find that I am very experienced with technology but there are still areas that I am unsure how to incorporate and so I found that this demanded time of evaluating technology helped me wrap my mind around areas I felt insecure about.
I have already naturally created a teaching community outside of where I work. I have now worked at 4 different schools and sadly enough I know that I have not work where best practices are being held. I have always felt more inspired by teaching blogs and pinterest projects that I can find. I have emailed a couple women from the blogs that I follow to get advice and the really neat part is they will respond and really want to help. Understanding that that we are trying to bring the best into the classroom is really a bonding factor that spreads beyond the fact that we don't know each other.
One of the other joys I found in these was also bouncing ideas off of you. It was fun to go back and forth with ideas or findings...even when I would send so many emails at a time that you could not respond to one.
There are some classes that have to be taken that make you wonder how and when you are going to use the information that you are spending so many hours on. This class is done correctly because every project I had to complete was something very relevant to todays classroom. You can quote me on that if you need to reassure this incoming class.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
# 10 - Final Project
For my final project I created a wiki page that will be used in class for reader's response. The students will have to post their responses and there is a chance for classmates and I to respond. I am even thinking of opening it up to family members and my principal as well.
I wanted to create something that fits into what I am doing in the classroom and if I was going to spend hours creating or investigating something I didn't want it to go to waste. I am excited to see how this is used in the coming school year.
You can find the link to the wiki here.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
# 10 WebQuest
Grow School Greens?
The Efficiency Expert: Great focused structure of the WebQuest. Very simply laid out steps to follow without much confusion. It takes the concept and dives deep into it with well defined steps along the way.
The Affiliator: There is a collaborated effort that is needed to reach the final product. Every team member must do their part which teaches the students individual effort within the team context. The rubric asks kids to discuss strength and weakness of the team leading to a richer assessment of the process.
The Altitudinist: Within this project each end result will look the same without much room for creative expression. While there are some good concepts being taught the students might be more focused on perfecting each step without lending itself to higher level thinking.
The Technophile: While the gifs where cute the WebQuest itself does not harness the full power of the web. There is potential for other formats that could help students understand the planting and growing process.
Where is My Hero?
The Efficiency Expert: The scope of this assignment is too broad and needs to provide more focused guidance. For example, the local hero part of the assignment is left up to the students which could lead to a wide array of definitions and responses. There should a stronger tie to the mastery of a concept.
The Affiliator: While in the rubric there was a space for accountability that judged the individual effort as well as the groups much of this project lends itself to individual work that does not need much collaboration.
The Altitudinist: Having students learn about other peoples perception of hero and then find a common definition requires higher level thinking skills. There is a lot of room for creative expression in creating the poster.
The Technophile: While I liked the links to relevant resources they could be more effectively used if interspersed throughout the WebQuest to focus thinking and provided examples along the way of the process instead of the after thought at the end.
Unraveling the Underground Railroad
The Efficiency Expert: Students will walk away from this WebQuest with a deep understanding of the Underground Railroad from many points of view.
The Affiliator: The talk show involved a lot of collaborative creativity and a process that forces students to engage with their team members in the design of the activity.
The Altitudinist: This WebQuest involves synthesizing the same historical information through different view points. This engages higher levels of thinking and the expected output leaves a lot of room for creativity. It does not just expect one type of project but pushes the group to demonstrate their expertise of the subject in a variety of ways.
The Technophile: This gives relavent links to multimedia within each component of the activity. Each link meaningfully advances the students knowledge within that area.
We All Scream for Ice Cream
The Efficiency Expert: The activity is well designed to teach kids about ice cream but I wonder about the worth of the learnings from the lesson.
The Affiliator: The group has to come up with one product which necessitates collaborative discussion.
The Altitudinist: I am left disappointed. There is an opportunity to have higher level thinking. There is the opportunity to dive into deeper skills, such as math and science. Instead, the WebQuest is one dimensional.
The Technophile: All the links I was sent to were no longer working. That alone leads me to be disappointed. Technology could had been the link used to bring it back to math or science instead of just a fun group activity about ice cream.
Ancient Egypt WebQuest
The Efficiency Expert: This activity asks students to focus on a narrow topic and develop a deep understanding of it.
The Affiliator: It is good that it is designed as a group activity but the way the accountability, or lack there of, is set up lends the opportunity for one person to do all the work.
The Altitudinist: After looking at past WebQuest it is obvious that this pushes students less because they are only expected to understand and report historical fact instead of analyzing and evaluating various view points.
The Technophile: The links where to resources that would have been just as effective in a worksheet.
The Efficiency Expert: Great focused structure of the WebQuest. Very simply laid out steps to follow without much confusion. It takes the concept and dives deep into it with well defined steps along the way.
The Affiliator: There is a collaborated effort that is needed to reach the final product. Every team member must do their part which teaches the students individual effort within the team context. The rubric asks kids to discuss strength and weakness of the team leading to a richer assessment of the process.
The Altitudinist: Within this project each end result will look the same without much room for creative expression. While there are some good concepts being taught the students might be more focused on perfecting each step without lending itself to higher level thinking.
The Technophile: While the gifs where cute the WebQuest itself does not harness the full power of the web. There is potential for other formats that could help students understand the planting and growing process.
Where is My Hero?
The Efficiency Expert: The scope of this assignment is too broad and needs to provide more focused guidance. For example, the local hero part of the assignment is left up to the students which could lead to a wide array of definitions and responses. There should a stronger tie to the mastery of a concept.
The Affiliator: While in the rubric there was a space for accountability that judged the individual effort as well as the groups much of this project lends itself to individual work that does not need much collaboration.
The Altitudinist: Having students learn about other peoples perception of hero and then find a common definition requires higher level thinking skills. There is a lot of room for creative expression in creating the poster.
The Technophile: While I liked the links to relevant resources they could be more effectively used if interspersed throughout the WebQuest to focus thinking and provided examples along the way of the process instead of the after thought at the end.
Unraveling the Underground Railroad
The Efficiency Expert: Students will walk away from this WebQuest with a deep understanding of the Underground Railroad from many points of view.
The Affiliator: The talk show involved a lot of collaborative creativity and a process that forces students to engage with their team members in the design of the activity.
The Altitudinist: This WebQuest involves synthesizing the same historical information through different view points. This engages higher levels of thinking and the expected output leaves a lot of room for creativity. It does not just expect one type of project but pushes the group to demonstrate their expertise of the subject in a variety of ways.
The Technophile: This gives relavent links to multimedia within each component of the activity. Each link meaningfully advances the students knowledge within that area.
We All Scream for Ice Cream
The Efficiency Expert: The activity is well designed to teach kids about ice cream but I wonder about the worth of the learnings from the lesson.
The Affiliator: The group has to come up with one product which necessitates collaborative discussion.
The Altitudinist: I am left disappointed. There is an opportunity to have higher level thinking. There is the opportunity to dive into deeper skills, such as math and science. Instead, the WebQuest is one dimensional.
The Technophile: All the links I was sent to were no longer working. That alone leads me to be disappointed. Technology could had been the link used to bring it back to math or science instead of just a fun group activity about ice cream.
Ancient Egypt WebQuest
The Efficiency Expert: This activity asks students to focus on a narrow topic and develop a deep understanding of it.
The Affiliator: It is good that it is designed as a group activity but the way the accountability, or lack there of, is set up lends the opportunity for one person to do all the work.
The Altitudinist: After looking at past WebQuest it is obvious that this pushes students less because they are only expected to understand and report historical fact instead of analyzing and evaluating various view points.
The Technophile: The links where to resources that would have been just as effective in a worksheet.
#8 Technology Gadgets
I love my document camera. I find that it has been the easiest and quickest way to bring technology in my classroom. My visual learners love it because it lets them see small items, text, and demonstrations in a much a bigger way. My hands – on learners love it because they can be the ones placing objects or items under the document camera and talk about what they are showing. All students love to be the teacher and explain their learning to others. I also am able to use it as a station during my literacy block.
One thing new I also want to use them for next year is an app called K-12 Timed Reading Practice. I think it will be a great way to have documentation of my students wpm and this is a way that seems to fit a way for me to accomplish this.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/k12-timed-reading-practice/id374985358?mt=8
I use them to take attendance in the morning. I use them a lot during math because it provides another thing that my students can move and touch and it helps make the concept more concrete.
Monday, June 17, 2013
# 7 Common Core
Common Core is on everyones mind right now. For a long time I felt like I kept hearing the words Common Core but no one could actually tell me what that meant in my classroom. I have not had to jump right into it. I have been allowed to hang out in the shallow end and get a feeling for it.
I think that the new Common Core Standards are great for a number of reasons. I like how our country will now be unified under standards that all students should be learning. I like that teachers will have to know the standard they are supposed to be teaching instead of just knowing what unit they are on. I like how there is a concrete understanding of what needs to be taught during the year.
I have talked to a lot of people about this and what I try to express is to not be scared of Common Core if you are already doing what you are supposed to be doing in your classroom. My experience is that my teaching already fits with the Common Core. It's just that now I have these standards that I have to assign to the learning that is happening.
I love checklists. I love knowing that I am doing all that I need to be doing. I like looking over the standards and thinking about how the learning that is already happening fits into these standards. I also like the challenge of figuring out what is learning is missing and finding a way to fit that into our year.
I am also taking Contemporary Education with John Jimo. One of the books I chose was How to Teach Thinking Skills Within the Common Core: 7 Key Student Proficiencies of the New National Standards. I am excited to educate myself more because I know this is our hot topic and as much as the words Common Core are thrown around I want to be able to have an educated conversation about what that means in our education system.
Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice
I think that the new Common Core Standards are great for a number of reasons. I like how our country will now be unified under standards that all students should be learning. I like that teachers will have to know the standard they are supposed to be teaching instead of just knowing what unit they are on. I like how there is a concrete understanding of what needs to be taught during the year.
I have talked to a lot of people about this and what I try to express is to not be scared of Common Core if you are already doing what you are supposed to be doing in your classroom. My experience is that my teaching already fits with the Common Core. It's just that now I have these standards that I have to assign to the learning that is happening.
I love checklists. I love knowing that I am doing all that I need to be doing. I like looking over the standards and thinking about how the learning that is already happening fits into these standards. I also like the challenge of figuring out what is learning is missing and finding a way to fit that into our year.
I am also taking Contemporary Education with John Jimo. One of the books I chose was How to Teach Thinking Skills Within the Common Core: 7 Key Student Proficiencies of the New National Standards. I am excited to educate myself more because I know this is our hot topic and as much as the words Common Core are thrown around I want to be able to have an educated conversation about what that means in our education system.
Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)