EDUC 6713 Final Reflection

EDUC 6713 Final Reflection Blog Post

At this time, my GAME plan is still in action. By the end of the school year, I began to incorporate more technology within my lessons. Each week we had a grade level meeting, in which we discussed ways as a group that we could begin incorporating more technology. With the help of my colleagues, I hope to continue to find ways to enrich the technology usage within my classroom. After talking with students and parents, my second GAME plan was to incorporate a class website or blog. The majority of parents said they would benefit from the online communication tool, and had access to internet either while at work or from home. I was excited to see some many parents interested in this communication tool. Since I will have a different group of students next school year, I plan on giving them a survey to determine whether or not they feel it would be beneficial. I had also discussed with my grade level about having a grade level website. In the last 2 weeks we have had many changes within the grade level including 2 teachers leaving, and receiving 3 new teachers so I will bring this up again at our first meeting as a new grade level. This may be too much considering all of the changes that are occurring, but if they are interested would like to see how it goes. After creating these GAME plans, I have realized the importance of making goals with actions to help us reach these goals. I plan on using the creation of GAME plans with my students to help them accomplish tasks that may seem hard to them.

After this class, I have learned ways to implement new technologies that I have not used before within my classroom. I thought it would be difficult to create problem-based learning activities that included the content I needed to teach. However, I found as long as students are conducting their own research and am able to guide their learning, and then they are completing a PBL activity. Students enjoy having a problem where they find their own solution, which allows their learning to be more meaningful. As for social networking, this was part of my GAME plan as well. I want my students to use our class website or blog to communicate with others on given problems or topics. This online communication will allow them to post their responses and posts on their own time after they have had time to think about it. The newest piece of technology that I have found to be interesting is digital storytelling. This allows the students to create stories in which they can present a variety of topics. Through these stories, they are able to communicate new thoughts and ideas to their audience and provide opportunities they may have not had before. I look forward to implementing all of these instructional strategies into my teaching. Unfortunately, the school year has come to an end, so all of my goals and ideas will have to wait until next school year. However, this gives me time to make my ideas better and find more ways to incorporate technology through content. I have enjoyed working with all of my Walden colleagues during this class, and look forward to the last 2 classes together.

Happy blogging until next time!

Samantha R.

Monitoring my GAME plan

Monitoring my GAME plan

For my first GAME plan, I have already begun putting it into action. After meeting with my colleagues, we found ways in which we could begin incorporating the technology we have available within our lessons. Right now, since it is the end of the school year, we are trying to prepare our students for fourth grade. We have found many websites and interactive games that introduce the same indicators we are introducing to students at this time. At this time, the interactive games and websites are the only technologies we have implemented in lessons, but we meet again soon to see if we can begin pulling in more throughout our lessons. At this time, I do not need to modify this GAME plan, other than the fact that it will continue into next school year as we continue introducing new technologies. I have learned the importance of working with my colleagues because they all have new and different ideas and knowledge that we are sharing with each other. I have learned about different websites and interactive games that I did not know existed through our conversations. I am continuing this GAME plan, and hope to continue growing as a teacher and a learner myself.

The second GAME plan, I still plan on carrying over into next school year. I have looked into many of the websites offered by my colleagues to try and find what will work best for my students and parents. As a grade level, we are still discussing the idea of having a grade level website with general information for all parents. Before the year is out, I plan on giving my students from this year a survey about their thoughts on this project and whether or not they think it would be beneficial. I am interested in seeing their answers. As of right now, I do not have any questions regarding this GAME plan. I plan on carrying it over into the next school year to use with my new third grade students and parents.

Overall, I feel that having these GAME plans are helping me to stay focused on my technology driven goals for my classroom. I hope after this experience I will be able to share with my fellow teachers the importance of having a goal, with actions and monitoring when trying to implement something new and different in our classrooms.

Carrying out GAME Plan

Carrying out GAME Plan

After creating my GAME plans last week, I was ready to begin finding ways to make them happen. After much discussion, I have realized that with the short amount of time left in the school year, it is even more important that I set the goals for myself and begin carrying out the actions as soon as possible.

For my first GAME plan, which is incorporating the use of more technology into my lessons, it is vital that I have various technology resources available to my students. It is also important that I work with a colleague to be sure that the way in which I am implementing technology is enhancing my lesson and not hindering student learning.  To help achieve this goal, it is also going to be beneficial for me to know what technology tools students have used before, and what tools I may need to teach them how to use before implementing it within a lesson. I want students to feel comfortable using the technology within the lesson so they can concentrate on gaining the content knowledge through the use of technology. I do not want the technology use to be a barrier for their learning.  To begin this GAME plan, I have met with several colleagues to look closely at the lessons we are about to begin teaching, to determine whether or not any form of technology can be implemented. We are still working out ways in which we can do so, so this GAME plan is still in the action stage.

For my second GAME plan, the resources I will need are websites that allow me to create user friendly blogs or websites for communication. Thanks to some colleagues at Walden, I have been introduced to several different websites that are user friendly and will allow for this communication to occur. I plan on creating a survey for my parents and students to determine their interest in using a class website to help them stay informed, but I will probably have to gather this data at the beginning of the next school year as well. With the end of the year quickly approaching, I feel that this GAME plan will be one in which I will need to carry over into the next school year with my new group of students. However, I am still going to determine the interest level from this year’s students to see how parents respond to the idea. After talking with my colleagues about this plan, they too are interested in creating a website for their classroom, and possibly a grade level website where general information can be found.

As I continue to carry out my GAME plans, I am realizing the importance of making sure that I have a goal and actions in which to help me. If I set a goal for myself, I need to have ways in which to achieve that goal, and determine what resources I will need to help me be successful. I am looking forward to continuing both GAME plans, but primarily the first one during the remainder of this school year.

GAME Plans

When looking at the NETS-T standards, I realized that I feel pretty confident in most of them however, I do need to work on my proficiency.  In order to be more proficient in these standards, I will need to be sure to create a GAME plan that I will stick to, including deadlines I set for myself to make sure I accomplish the goals I establish.

The first indicator is:

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

G- My Goal:

-My goal for this indicator is to incorporate the use of technology for students into more of my lessons. The incorporation may occur during a mini-lesson or it may occur as the main component in my main lesson.

A- Action:

-The action I am going to take for this goal is to begin analyzing the content I am covering on a deeper level. I will think about the various forms of technology available to my students, and find ways to allow for student use and engagement. The content will be my basis; however the use of technology tools will enrich the lessons.

M-Monitor:

-To help monitor the achievement of this goal, I plan on creating a checklist of technology tools available. As they are incorporated into lessons, I will check them off. I also plan on working with a colleague to help ensure that the technology being used in enriching the lesson and not hindering student learning.

E- Evaluation:

-With the checklist, I plan on documenting a brief reflection of the integration of the various technologies. Hopefully, as result, I will be able to see student growth in technology use as well as content knowledge. I will continue to work with my colleague, and use evaluations from them to determine whether or not my goal was achieved.

The second indicator is:

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

G- My Goal:

-The goal for this indicator is to create a user friendly website of blog in which I communicate with parents, students, and the community on the exciting things occurring within the classroom.

A-Action:

- To achieve this goal, I would like to discuss with students uses they would like to see happen with a classroom blog or webpage. I would also communicate to my parents my desire for this communication, and hopefully the responses will show that they would be interested in being a vital component of the communication. Since I already have this blog created, it would be easier to incorporate the needs of my classroom into this blog and make parents and students aware of what information they would find by looking at this blog.

M- Monitor:

-To monitor this goal, I would keep track of the number of visitors to the blog or webpage. I would also document the number of comments and posts concerning classroom needs to make sure it is being used as a vital communication tool between school and home.

E-Evaluation:

-At the end of the school year, I would take a survey from parents and students, on how useful they thought the webpage/blog was. If they did not find it useful, I would ask for their opinions how I could change it be more beneficial.

Final Reflection EDUC 6711

Final Reflection

Throughout this class, we have explored a variety of learning theories as well as instructional strategies that we can implement into our classroom. It is important that I as a teacher know and understand theories and strategies so I can determine what may work and may not work for my students. According to the needs of my students, I need to adapt my lessons and implement the strategies that I feel will help them be the most successful.

At the beginning of this class, in my personal learning theory I stated that I felt students learned by doing. For the majority of students, they are kinesthetic learners that need to be active in the lesson in order to fully grasp the concept. I also believe that all students are different, and have their own preferred way of learning so as their teacher I need to get to know them in order to implement their style of learning into my lessons. As I reflect upon this learning theory at the end of this class, I still believe that students learn by doing. After this class, I believe this even more now than I did before. When students are actively engaged in the lesson, they are able to retain that information for further recall and are able to build on that knowledge when presented new information. With learning theories, it is important to know the theories that affect me in the classroom.  By understanding the difference in the learning theories, I am able to connect my lessons and activities to learning theories that may allow me to understand how my students will process the information that I present. With the use of educational technology, I now understand the importance of making sure that students are actively engaged in the use of it, not just the teacher. When students use the technology, they are able to guide their own learning and use the technology as a tool to help them understand the new information.

An immediate change I will make in the integration of technology in my classroom, is to allow students to interact with the SMART Board more. I allow them to use it on a regular basis; however I want to find ways for them to interact with it on an everyday basis. I also want to create lessons in which students have to present information using a technology tool such as wiki or concept map to help their classmates learn the concept as well. One tool I want to use with my students is the concept map. I want my students to use the map to show their understanding of a concept. When students create a concept map they will be able to show their knowledge with text, as well as images and other resources. I like how the concept map allows students of focus on one topic, and branches off with more information regarding that topic. The second tool I would like to implement with my students is the voice thread. The voice thread would allow to students to create a presentation on a topic, and then add their comments to the presentation through the use of voice thread. By doing this students would have to conduct research on the topic and then be able to clearly explain their learning to the listeners. The voice threads would cause students to understand the material before they present it. Again with the voice threads, they can provide images that relate to the topic to help their viewers connect the information to an image.  Through this course, I have learned about both of these tools. I did not know what a voice thread was or a concept map. Not only do I know what they are, but I know the steps needed in order to create one. By knowing what to do myself, I am able to show my students how to use these tools effectively.

The first long term goal I have for myself regarding my instructional practices is have students create presentations using technology on a regular basis. Since I teach third grade, I have always thought it would be difficult for students to create Power point presentations and use the SMARTBoard to present them to the class. However, after this class I feel that my students can complete this task, and they will be successful as well. In order to accomplish this long term goal, I need to teach my students how to use the programs they need to use for the presentations. After they are successful at making the presentations, I need to teach them the proper way to present information to others. Many of my students do not have the communication skills they need in order to do so, so that would be something I would have to teach them. Therefore my goal is to have students using presentation software to create engaging lessons to help them teach others a new concept.

My second long term goal is to create a class wiki or blog for students and parents to use. I want to have a place where students and parents can go to communicate with each other and myself. I also would use the wiki or blog to present new information to students before I actually teach it to them. I could use it to determine students’ prior knowledge regarding a topic to help guide my instruction in the classroom. This communication tool would allow students to discuss information outside of the classroom, and also allow parents to be an active participant in the conversation. In order to do this, I would need to make sure parents and students know and understand how to use these tools, and create a plan of use for the blog or wiki. I really want to accomplish this goal because I feel it will open up many doors between school and home.

In conclusion, this class has shown me the importance of using technology in a way that helps students be more successful. Technology is a great tool we can use in the classroom to create fun and engaging lessons that students will enjoy. Students need to be involved in their learning so they can retain the information we present. Educational technology is a great tool as long as it is used effectively. Students are able to use technology outside of the classroom, so what are you doing in your classroom to provide them ample opportunities to use technology in the classroom to allow them guide their own learning.

I have enjoyed this class, and will continue to use the information I learned within my own classroom. Happy blogging until next time!

-Sam R.

Social Learning Theories and Voice Thread

Social learning theories address the need for students to work collaborative and converse over the concepts being taught to help deepen their understanding. When students are given the chance to work together and build upon each other’s knowledge, they are able to use their peers to help them understand the concept or lesson. In my classroom, I give students multiple opportunities to work together on projects, or simply to solve a problem. When I do this students are able to share their different strategies, and learn different ways to approach the same answer. According to Dr. Orey, the social learning theory is about students working together, either completing a project or teaching each other about new content (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

The instructional strategy we read about this week is cooperative learning. This instructional strategy and social learning theories directly relate to each other. In cooperative learning groups, students are able to explore their knowledge of content on a deeper level. In their groups students are able to share ideas and thoughts to help others understand it better. When cooperative learning groups are used, students should know the purpose of the group, as well as their job in the group. I teach third grade and this is an important aspect of forming groups. I assign my students different jobs so they know what I expect of them, and when all the jobs are put together, the assignment or task is completed. After learning about voice threads, blogs and other educational technology tools, I can see how I can implement the technology with the social learning theory. Students need to be aware of social media since they are exposed to it outside of the classroom.

Both cooperative learning and the social learning theories are based upon students working together to solve or explore a given topic. When students are engaged in their learning as a group, they are accomplishing this theory and strategy. In today’s classroom, students need to be exposed to working together collaboratively and realizing the impact they can have on each other’s learning.

Here is my voice thread I created for this week about a problem we face at my school:

http://voicethread.com/#q.b2493352.i0.k0

Happy blogging until next time!

-Sam R.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Social learning theories. Baltimore: Author.

Constructivist and Constructionist Learning Theories

When I began exploring these two learning theories, I was curious to see how they were different. Like Dr. Orey states, many people do not know and understand the differences in the two theories, but it is important for teachers to understand so we can implement them effectively in our classrooms (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). In the classroom, the theory that is evident and important is the constructionist theory. When students are engaged in their learning, and they are creating artifacts to show what they have learned, they are participating in the constructionist theory, according to Dr. Orey (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  In my classroom, I feel that this is very important to help students grasp the concept and be more successful in their learning.

The instructional strategy we read about this week is generating and testing hypotheses. Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was science; however this strategy can be implemented into any subject. Once I began reading about it one of the aspects of this strategy is problem solving. Being a math teacher I got really excited because this is a major component in helping my students become better mathematicians. If students discover a problem, create a hypotheses and then test their hypotheses they are accomplishing this strategy. Generating and testing hypotheses correlates with the constructionist learning theory because students are able to use project based learning and their own experiences to create knowledge. Especially with problem solving, students have to generate ways to solve their problems, and continue to test those strategies until they successfully accomplish the problem.

Now that I know more about this strategy and constructionist theory, I feel that I will be more aware of the projects that I assign in the classroom. I want my students to be challenged and engage in meaningful learning through the projects. Of course to help them be successful, I will provide them with my expectations and resources; however students will have to complete all the hands-on components of the projects.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Constructivist and constructionist learning theories. Baltimore: Author.