Reflection

Reflection

This course has helped me to develop my own technology skills and use them in my classroom. There were so many things of which I was not even aware before this course. I had never participated in a wiki or podcast before; in fact, I did not even know what they were. There were so many ideas in this course that I have not even had time to use them all, yet. This course has inspired me to continue to search the web for new ideas that I can use in my classroom. I will continue to do project based learning segments using technology to achieve my goals.

My view of the learning process has changed to include the teacher as a facilitator rather than a lecturer. I now see the student as being responsible for his own learning. My knowledge of the teaching and learning process has been deepened by a new view of this relationship. I now see myself as someone to aid the students as they learn and discover things on their own, even if I could teach them. I have learned to give up the control of my classroom in the sense that I allow students to explore for the answers instead of controlling completely the direction the class will go. I keep the students on target with our state standards, but they can all be a part of a learning, collaborative group working together to discover and learn.

My perspective has become more learner centered. This has been a little difficult for me. I was always the kind of teacher who had the whole year planned out before the first day of school. This year, I only planned a few project ideas. I involved students in the state standards and let them choose what we would study first. I modeled what a project would look like for the first few projects. Then, I allowed students to develop ideas and plan their own activity. I think I will become better and better at this as time goes on. I even think I may be able to plan more but with loose flexibility as the students direct the learning a bit more.

I will continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement by my continued searching for internet ideas. I do not want to limit my technology experiences to the computer. I also want to explore ideas with ipods, phones, and the like. I have thought of having the students created a rap song to teach some math truth. Then we could record it to a podcast, and allow students to download it to their mp3 players.

In the long term, I have proposed a plan to my principal to teach a class on technology at my school. I want to have students design things and find things to help teachers. I want them to create a website to which they will post what they have found. I would like to see the teachers have the RSS feeds for the site so they can keep up with new posts without having to check it all the time. I may face some resistance from teachers in this area.

I also want to have my class go paperless. This will be an adjustment for me. I have put a few things in place to move that direction and have resolved to take baby steps to get to my goal. No one in my school runs a paperless classroom. I want to be successful and encourage other teachers to also go paperless.

As I look through my checklist, most of the things I should be doing, I am doing. A few of the items moved from the sometimes column, to the often column during this course. I think the things I need to work on come mostly from the colleague section, not the student section of the checklist. I need to try to push more for technology literacy. I want to seek out teachers who are willing to advance in that area with me. I have attempted to start a teacher blog with the teachers in my school. This has been completely unsuccessful. Not one teacher commented on the blog, even after several email reminders. I overestimated teachers’ excitement about participating in technology collaboration. However, I am not discouraged. I have now sent an email asking teachers to please email me any addresses and ideas that have been successful for them on the internet, and which they think other teachers might be interested in using. The teachers in my school tend to email quite a bit, so I expect a better response. I will email out the ideas I receive as well as post those ideas to my blog. In the event that this does not work, I plan to talk to teachers one on one about things that have worked for them, and then post those ideas. I realize that some teachers may not use the computer with students at all, and they may not have ideas to share. However, having a resource they can look at for ideas may increase their comfort level and encourage them to use technology in their classrooms.

Walden University M.S. in Education Program, specialization: Integrating

My first podcast

I just created my first podcast. It gives some demographic information about my eighth grade math class and their experience with technology. It may be listened to at my podcast site at podbean. It is entitled "EDUC 6710."

http://missymccoskey.podbean.com/

21st Century Skills

I was very impressed by the website Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I think it is well thought out and innovative. I was saddened that my state is not a participant. I think education is far behind technology, and the ideas in this website could help to bring education closer to meeting the needs of technology in the workplace and in life.
I was surprised that Missouri was not a part of this project. I was also surprised that Illinois was a part of it. As I read through the Illinois’ site, I found that they are working on updating their state assessments. I really think Missouri needs to be working on that as well. I was pleasantly surprised that someone is working on updating those assessments.
I disagreed with some of the information in the rainbow and rings symbol on the home page. It was a pretty good depiction of things, except I do not think standards and assessments have caught up with the technology rainbow. Since this is a core support for the rainbow, I think it would have to come first. I think the assessments, in particular, state assessments, are way behind in this area (and in other areas). State assessments are just now going “on line” in Missouri and they do not really incorporate any technology other than that the traditional test is now online. It is the same format just available on the computer, now.
I also think the state tests neglect the collaboration component and possibly the creativity component. Technology is also not included in the state standards; in Missouri they are called Grade Level Expectations. I think we must rush to get these supports in place or the whole rainbow may fall. It is very important that our state standards and assessments get on board with technology and the new types of learning. Teachers must feel that their work in technology and collaboration is important. If this support was really in place, I think there would be less resistance from teachers to incorporate these necessary skills.
I think that students and educators need to embrace the idea of 21st century skills. Illinois had a wonderful idea of making sure the principals are on board with the program. This is a key component to making it work. No matter what I want to do as a teacher, I must have the support of my principal to truly feel successful. Principals are also the key to getting educators on board and to supporting students in their endeavors.
The second thing Illinois was doing was updating their state assessments. I think if we are going to work toward a broader view of education which will include more learning of technology and collaboration, we must update the state assessments. I am tired of state assessments that nearly demand we teach to them in order to get our state money, and also demand that we do not teach to them. There are so many things not taken into account. Things that are not tested are deemed as worthless, instead of essential education. These things, such as collaboration, computer knowledge, etc. may be the whole pillars of our future. I realize that state assessments cannot test everything. However, because of the new direction that learning for the workplace is taking us, we must update our assessment and the sooner, the better.
This site is an excellent source. I was disappointed that the professional development was already over. I could not have afforded to go to New York City for it anyway, but I wish there would be some professional development near me that I could attend. I am wondering how to go about getting my state involved. I wish the website had been more specific about what you can do to spur your state to join. It did give some information, but I am still not sure what I need to do as an educator to help this happen.

I teach 8th grade math. I think it is important for students to learn how to blog properly because it is becoming more and more a part of society. This will be a life skill. Since anyone can read blogs, students need to be aware that prospective colleges and even employers may be able to access their blogs to make decisions about who to accept or hire. Therefore, they should always put their best work on the web. This week I have chosen to use my blog for students to showcase their collaborative work. I created a private chat room with a password. I gave my students the directive of collaborating to decide what data they would collect to put into our data analysis lessons. But, they cannot talk to each other. They can only "chat." When they are finished collaborating, they must post to my blog what they have decided, as a group, to do to collect data. I gave them some ideas such as surveys, lunch room observations, and parking lot inspection. In the near future, I will have them collaborate on exactly what those ideas will mean. For example, if they choose a survey, the next step will be to collaborate on to whom the survey will be given and what questions we will use. I am excited about this new way to teach my lessons. It is easy to incorporate language and science in this lesson so that it is cross curricular. However, I think it is a little more difficult to come up with creative ways to use blogs in a math class than in a language course. I look forward to brainstorming more ideas and ways to incorporate technology in my classroom. I also welcome ideas from my readers. As I tell my class, all ideas are welcome here.

First blog

I am really not sure what I am doing. I thought I might post some difficulties I am having and see if anyone has any ideas to help. I teach a math class in which I have students with special needs. I only have 10 students, but the special needs in the class are very demanding. I have been presenting lessons with lots of activity and interaction. This is great for 8 of the students, but 2 of the students are having trouble focusing on the lesson and getting their assignments done. How do I continue to present the lessons in an interactive way (which is how we are supposed to design lessons now) and still meet the needs of the 2 students with attention problems?