Over the summer, I was challenged with many new tasks in technology. Personally, I had never explored the internet resources to its full ability. I had become comfortable with the handful of tools that I was already using and did not branch out my thinking. The class has forced me to work outside of my comfort zone. This, in turn, is going to benefit my classes I teach this upcoming 2019-2020 year. I teach mathematics to secondary education students. To be more specific, I teach Algebra I and Algebra II. This upcoming year will only be my third-year teaching, and I have already learned so much between my master’s classes and my experience. Each day I complete another lesson, I try to reflect on what I can do to better my student understanding. I do know that great teachers are not born overnight, but I also know that great teachers do not become great by settling in their ways. The ITD course this summer helped me to see that I was starting to settle on the technology side of my teaching. This summer, even though I am not teaching over the summer, I was able to reflect on the technological side of what I can do. I have always focused so hard on what ways to deliver the message to my students verbally in class and less on what I can provide them outside of class or during class as additional resources. The technology side of the classroom is one of the main things that helped me in completing my college bachelor’s degree, but I somehow lost that mindset once I got into the classroom on the teacher side. For mathematics, there are times that students need more than I gave deliver within my fifty-minute class. Technology can be the solution to ensuring my class is developing the skills needed to progress in the class. I can make the message more widespread cater to learning abilities without altering the content for all students. One major aspect that we have talked about this summer is stations. I have always wanted to implement stations within my classroom, but I was having a hard time finding a way to effectively deliver them within my classroom. One thing that was discussed over the summer that I had not thought about what using technology. Technology can give the ability for all students to be progressing, but at their own pace. When I have tried stations in the past, I have always had one student who understands the lesson and rushes through the stations. Once complete, the student did not have another station to go to, so this student became a disruption. If I could cater the stations to the individual student learning ability, I could ensure that the students are not bored or lost. As the summer has progressed, we have worked with thirteen different applications that can be used in the classroom. These applications include: Lesson plans, Google Forms, Google Documents, Google Presentations, Podcast/Audacity, Movie Story/Movie Maker, Interactive Videos/Edupuzzle, Course Sites/Weebly, Padlet, Quiz/Quizizz, Rubric/RubiStar, Thinglink, and Scoop.it!. Of these tools, I had previously only worked with four of the thirteen. The summer was filled with new task and projects that I had no idea how to work. I spent majority of the summer learning the new tools rather than apply them to the project itself. I have learned, once understood, the applications were not that hard to build and could easily be integrated into a classroom on many different levels. Personally, with each project I thought how beneficial the application would be to a mathematics course. Some of these projects I do plan on using in my 2019-2020 scholastic year. First item that we were tasked with over the summer was the lesson plan. Being a third-year teacher, lesson plans were not completely “out of the norm” for me. However, this was one of the first lesson plans where I had to focus on a flipped classroom concept. As previously stated, I had been set in my traditional teaching method. I would previous deliver content verbally in class, then assign problems to practice at home. Now, I do not believe this method is bad, but I do believe I should blend the two concepts. Mathematics is most certainly a course that requires practice from the students to grasp complete understanding. Nonetheless, I could obtain a larger amount of understanding in the classroom if I applied the flipped classroom method. With technology readily available, I could ensure that my students have the framework needed for the lesson prior to class. The students would have a larger opportunity to ask questions and receive real time answers within the classroom. The next few items we worked on over the summer projects were the google powered items. My school has recently adopted high school issued chromebooks. With the chromebook being a google driven laptop, google applications were already readily used schoolwide. With all items being used, these were all very easy for me to navigate. I knew how to build the items needed and had previous had practice with all three. Google documents and google presentation were two items that I had already implemented into my classroom previously. I love the collaboration tools and plan to continue to use these platforms to encourage student collaboration. I believe that this enhances their ability to work together without forcing students to go back to the basic “pen and paper” format. I also like that the software keeps tabs on who worked on what item. This is a tool that I use to ensure that the students are held accountable for their portion of the work. The google form was one that I am excited to use in a new way come the 2019-2020 school year. I had used google forms or surveys before, but not as a startup for the class. The questions that I had built in the project were questions that I would like to know from my students moving forward at the start of the year. I plan on using the project survey for my students at the beginning of the year. I had also read several reflections from my classmates about using the survey to communicate with parents and stay up to date with them. I think this is a great idea and plan on doing this as well. Being able to easily communicate with parents and quickly evaluate data will be so beneficial to my teaching. I can assess the parent’s standpoint of the class and use this to continue to better the class year-round. This will be more efficient that sifting through hundreds of emails to determine what information given is relevant or not. Another project that we worked on was podcast. To build my podcast, I used Audacity. My husband is a sound engineer, so he has previously showed me this platform to use to cut music that I was using in the classroom. This tool, if I had not previously worked on it, would have been a task. However, I was already trained on the framework so building my podcast was simple. The biggest challenge for me was training myself to talk slower. In the classroom, I have visual aids and students to help keep my tempo in check. On the podcast, on the other hand, I found myself speeding through the data quickly. I ended up re-recording the podcast a handful of times to attempt to slow my tempo down. I found that slowing the background music helped me to slow myself. Although I like the podcast, I am not sure that I will use this one often in my classroom. Mathematics becomes harder to follow for students who are new to the topic when they do not have a visual aid to follow. We also did a movie story. The movie story was slightly more time consuming to build but would be more beneficial to my field of study. I have previously used Screen-O-Matic and plan to still use this application, but for this project I used the Microsoft Movie Maker. This was my first time to use this, I even had to download it onto my laptop because I did not already have it. Creating a movie story helps me to better deliver my content because I can aid visual aids to my speaking. The only thing that I did not like about the movie maker application is that the screen was not interactive. I could discuss topics and show completed topics, but I could not actively do an example for the video. This is one reason I do like Screen-O-Matic, because I can make my screen active and using the writing feature to show an example. Another project we did in the class that I enjoyed was the interactive video or EduPuzzle. This is one that I would use within my classroom. The interactive feature would help me to keep my students engaged in the video with different questions and content placed in areas that I want to have special focus on. When building mine, I went through several video choices. That was the hardest part, picking the video that I wanted to use for the content. After completing the project, I saw several classmates used their own videos for the project. I believe that is a great idea. There are many great videos, but many contain areas that I don’t want to focus on or more content than I want to currently discuss. Making my own video to use in EduPuzzle would help me to ensure that the content being delivered is what I want for my class. One of the most challenging and most beneficial projects we did was the course site. Making the course site helped me to see how I could use the summer content in my actual class. The course site was, by far, the longest to build. However, the benefit of having an interactive website for students to visit would certainly outweigh the amount of work needed to put in it. I have currently begun to build my website for my classes in the 2019-2020 year. I plan on using the website as an additional tool for students. I can have all the information I want to share in one place for students and parents to easily access. I can also use this website to help parents navigate their children’s needs of the content when they are at home. The more I play with the website, the more interesting way to display information I find. I am extremely excited to implement this application into my class. Two other projects we did were Padlet and Scoop.it!. The reason I am grouping these together is because I found them extremely similar. Both were simply a way to display information on a given topic. Of the two, I prefer Padlet. I feel that Padlet was easier to navigate from a builder’s standpoint. I also think that Padlet was a more interesting way to display the same kinds of information. However, I don’t know that I will use either of these in the classroom. For mathematics, several students get easily bored. I could see how displaying a lot of information in one confined area would seem overwhelming or boring to a student. Instead, I plan on implementing similar information in pieces to my students. I believe that this will help to pique their interest rather than detour it. Thinglink was a project that was also new to me. This project, however, was very simple to build. The software application was very straight forward and took a matter of minutes to complete. Like the project that I did, I believe it would be best applied in my class as an explanation of tables. Tables are often given in my class as a summation of the information already discussed, but I often have students who have forgotten one piece of the table. Rather than forcing them to re-read through the entire lesson again, I can use Thinglink to help them focus on the area that they are struggling with. The application would be simple for me to do, and help students target their weaknesses within the summary. Another project that was applied this summer was building a quiz through Quizizz. This was also a simple platform that allowed me, the teacher, to easily build a quiz. Personally, I only plan to use this as a review format. I like that the students can answer at the pace they need, and I like that the questions are interactive. However, I do not feel like the platform would be good for me to evaluate understanding of content in an assessment form. When testing, I like to see the student work to assess if they made a minor error, or do not understand how to solve the problem. With Quizizz, I would only be evaluating the final data, not the steps to build to that. Nonetheless, the application would be great as a quick review. I could even apply it as a game format to make it more exciting for the students. I could quickly analyze the data to determine if I need to help individual students or an entire area of study. The last project that I was most memorized by was the rubric maker or RubiStar. When I saw the application, I was slightly mad that I did not know about this prior to this summer. The application was fantastic. Previously, I had spent hours building a rubric for my class when one was needed. This application allowed me to build a well thought out rubric in a matter of minutes. I plan on using the rubric I built for the summer course within my actual courses moving forward. The language was concise and easy to follow to ensure that everyone is on the same page for my grading platform. With all the summer projects, there were only a few that I do not plan on using moving forward. This class, although challenging, has shown me a great deal of information to take to my classes within the next year. I know that technology is prominent and beneficial, but the class has allowed me to see the true benefits within my personal classroom.
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Week 7: Chapter 11-12 Questions & Project 8-10 Reflections Chapter 11 – Question 3 Online social interaction offers great opportunity to develop and practice positive social as well as good communication skills. However, the threat of cyberbullying and the possibility of inappropriate sharing require protecting children. What do you think the role of online social interaction should be in schools? What steps should educators take to ensure that such integration can be done safely? For students, online access is becoming a second-hand item. They see it young and they continue to have access to it as they age. In many cases, this can be beneficial. Online access, social media specifically, can offer many positive traits. However, it is important that children are aware and protected from the negatives. There are three ways that I currently strive to protect children from cyber bullying within our school. Nonetheless, without 100% access to the student, no plan is foolproof. The three items that we employ at my school are education on social media, parental blocks on computers, monitoring software on their computers. First, and most important, is educating the students. With students spending a lot of their day not being monitored by a teacher, it is important to give them the tools they need for when they lack the guidance at home. My school has brought in guest speakers to talk about how social media effects today's society. The speaker, who was a former detective, did a great job talking about how social media plays a big role in jobs, organizations, and marketing. These items can all be affected, both negatively and positively, by the user. This past year was our first year to bring in a speaker, and the impact was positive on students. It showed the students the reality of the total capacity of social media on each person’s everyday life. The two other items we do are very helpful, but they only help on school provided devices. These items are parental blocks on the laptops provided, and monitoring software available to all teachers for any student. These items have helped to monitor the students use and to ensure that each student was using software for the correct reason. The software program that our school uses for monitoring is GoGuardian. The platform is extremely helpful in monitoring screen use. Again, both are beneficial for their time within the classroom, but they do not monitor personal phones or computers. Monitoring is important for classroom use, but it is crucial that the educator gives students the tools they need when outside of a classroom format. We, as educators, must teach students how cyber bullying can affect the person being bullied, and how it can have a negative affect on the student who is causing the bullying. I always tell my students, once it is out there, it stays out there forever. Chapter 12 – Question 1 As emerging technologies continue to affect education, there is little question that the role of the teacher will change. Imagine yourself teaching a class in 20 years. How do you think your role would be different from the typical teacher’s role today? Teaching is constantly revolutionizing with technology. Even today, teaching has dramatically progressed within the last 5-10 years. Technology is playing a larger role within classrooms, and progressing the way that teachers are implementing topics. Online resources are readily available to students, and hard copy libraries are becoming obsolete. More and more teachers are using technology, mainly the internet, as a tool to help struggling students and progress advanced students. This progress will not stop but will continue to push for a different form of education within the next 20 years. Technology will cause the biggest change over the next 20 years. Online classes will become more readily available, and education will be pushed to be more online friendly. I believe that the teacher’s role will become more of an administrator of material than a teacher of material. However, the material must be formed by someone, and the teacher will have to be prepared to fit the role. The classes will be running more as a “teach yourself” format, and students will be held more accountable for their work and understanding. The teacher must be prepared to provide endless amounts of resources and time to the students to guide those who struggle with this format. The higher the education course level, the more computerized the content will be delivered. If online classes were readily available to middle and high school students, maintaining a school ground would be unnecessary. The additional cost of maintain the school ground would be no longer an issue. More funding would go to technology equipment and resources. Teachers would be assigned their classes online and would meet digitally or strictly through online submissions. With this advance, technology would be the backbone of classes. However, this would require more discipline on the students and their household. Although I do think we are going in this direction 20 plus years from now, I still believe there is an advance that needs to be gaped within the meantime. Teaching students how to use this technology as a resource to self-teach is harder for some students. Hands-on requirements would still need to be maintained for special needs students. This would also require students to have access of internet and a computer or hand-held device. For lower income areas, this could become an issue that would have to be resolved. Reflection – Projects 8-10 After completing the projects created with online tools, I would like to hear your thought on how to integrate these tools in classroom teaching and why. Upload/embed/link these mini projects to the end of your reflection. The tools used this week were very easy to compile. This week we made a Quizizz, RubiStar, Thinglink, Scoop.it!, and a Padlet. Of all these items, the rubric maker and Padlet were my favorite items. Being a newer teacher, going into my third year, I have had to create a rubric from scratch. I spent much time compiling how to word items, what I wanted, and how to make it effective. Once completed, I noticed I took several hours to make one document. The rubric tool through RubiStar took me a matter of minutes. I was able to use their template and edit the few items that I wanted to alter. The other item I enjoyed working with was Padlet. I will most certainly use this in my classroom. It is a great way to compile a lot of information to easily access on a certain topic. The backgrounds made the items fun to view, and the linking allowed all sites to easily be accessed or viewed through a quick click of the mouse. All the items were very resourceful and easy to use. Given the different areas that need additional assistance in the classroom, I could see how all of these could be used. As a teacher, there are never too many resources that can be used as an additional resource or primary resource. Check out my projects below: Quizizz , Game Code: 200474 Rubistar Thinglink Scoop.it! Padlet You can also view all items on my classroom site HERE. Week 5: Chapter 9-10 Questions &Project 7 Reflection Chapter 9 – Question 1 Web communication tools open broad new opportunities for interaction among students across the globe. Of the communication tools you have learned about, which do you think holds the most promise? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How might you use this types of tool in your classroom to develop and promote 21stcentury learning skills? Web communication is extremely important for the 21st century learners. With internet being a major tool of learning, the communication platforms are endless. Within chapter nine, six major communication tools are discussed. The communication tool that I believe hold the most promise is discussion boards. Discussion boards are used to communicate messages to the public or, in a classroom setting, the students. However, the discussion board is not limited to one-way communication. Discussion boards can be used to communicate within the class from student-to-student communication or teacher-to-student communication. These communications can be both class-wide or privately restricted between specific groups or people. Discussion boards can also be checked across several devices. This helps to not set limitation on the student, which is important in a 21st century learning environment. Our ITD class is an example of a higher education 21st century form class that uses a discussion board. Within canvas, our class has a discussion board that allows the class to communicate across several topics. The discussions are all split into threads that allows the student to easily navigate which discussion the student needs to immediately look it. The discussion boards also allow the student to check at their own convenience. This form of communication is not limited to time restricted time frames or specific internet connections. Chapter 10 – Question 2 One of the primary issues associated with implementation of distance education revolves around the teacher’s ability to adequately and appropriately evaluated student progress and competencies. Do you believe that this is an issue? Why or why not? Classroom progress on an online or distance-based class is important to be monitored. However, I believe that the ability to monitor this completely falls on the teacher or class facilitator. If the teacher or class facilitator is educated in the technology they are implementing, they can easily monitor the students and their progress in several ways. The first is monitoring the student’s competencies. With a distance-based class, one way to check in on the students is an interactive online class meeting. This allows the students to prep for the class and allows the teacher to evaluate student understanding off the conversation. With this conversation, the teacher can add points that the students have missed or add depth to the conversation based off the student’s thoughts on the topic. However, this form of monitoring restricts the students slightly. Having an online meeting forces the students to be available between a certain time frame and have an internet tool readily available. For classes that do not want as much restriction, they can check student competencies through online questions or quizzes. This opens a wider window for the students to complete, but still allows the teacher to easily view their understanding or progress. With this, the teacher can leave comments to the students to help them to better understand the topic if the teacher sees fit. Another topic that can be concerning with a teacher with little experience in technology is the student’s progress. Nonetheless, like competencies, a teacher can easily monitor if they understand the technology. The teacher can set deadlines on required assignments, add interactive student-based conversation, and let the students hold themselves responsible for the work. All of these are simple things to implement but require prep work from the teacher. All-in-all, if the teacher is well trained and disciplined the class can be easily help accountable. The teacher must have training in how to run an online class and the software that is being implemented. The teacher also must be willing to do the prep work to ensure the class is effectively run. The more independent the student work, the more prep work required from the teacher or class facilitator. Reflection – Project 7, Course Site This week, we created a course site that was meant to be implemented within our actual classroom setting. This project was a complex one, but great experience. Building a classroom site allowed each of us to see how we can actively engage the previous projects that we have done. Being a current teacher of a high school course that is constantly trying to implement technology, I can see the benefit of applying a website for my class. The website allows the students to always be engaged. I can reach more students understanding by providing study/review material for students who need it and applying additional material for the students who have completed the skill and wish to further their understanding. This constant learning will reach more students and better the chances of a class advancement for all students. On top of this, the class that I teach is an important step in the building blocks of mathematics understanding. Following my course, the students will take Geometry and Algebra II. Both classes require the skills learned in my class to be able to succeed within those classes. This puts a lot of pressure on me, as the educator, and the students to succeed. Implementing the website can help with this. Check out my classroom website by clicking the link below.
Week 5: Reflections of Projects 4-6
After completing the podcast and video projects, reflect your working experiences of creating multimedia materials, the challenges you encountered during your creation. You also want to focus on how you will use these technologies into your own classroom? How can authoring software help you teach and your students learn? Make sure to use Chapter 7-8 as your reference. You need to upload your movie to youtube and embed youtube video to the end of your blog. You can embed vocaroo audio to your blog as well but the link will be expired soon. So I want you to download your audio as MP3 file and upload it to your blog. You will also post the interactive Edupuzzle video class and access code to the end of your blog so that your readers will be able to access it. This week I created a podcast, a video, and an Edupuzzle account. All these items challenged me this week because I did not have much experience with many of the software programs. The only software I have previously used was Audacity. With the software platforms being new to me, I spent much of my time just trying to figure out the software to complete the projects. The longest process for me was the build of each project. After the build was complete, I did not take long to complete the subject area since it is what I currently teach. Of all the software programs, being that I already use Audacity in the classroom, I like the Edupuzzle the most. This software would allow me to get my classed involved with outside resources, while also helping me to ensure that all the students have seen and completed each video offered. I plan on implementing the website to show additional resources and monitor who is using the resources. This will help me to gauge the student understanding and the student effort. I did also like the video project. However, I feel that mathematics is such a visual subject that it is hard to show examples without an interactive surface. I have previously used Screen-o-Matic to show my screen as I wrote on the surface, but the free software version is slightly limited. Technology is continuing to grow and will continue to play a major roll on the next generation. By implementing new technologies into the classroom, we can guarantee the students see various forms of technology and various forms of the topic at hand. This can also help to ensure that the educators have greater odd of reaching a larger portion of the students within a lesson. Links below for: -Podcast -Movie Story (also embedded below) -Interactive Video (Passcode: "pejdemj") Week 4: Reflections of Projects 1-3 Teacher task software is abundant for instructors to perform all types of teaching and learning responsibilities. After completing the Google Docs projects, reflect your working experiences when collaborate with your group members by using Google Docs. You may want to focus on how you use these technologies into your own classroom and how Google Docs promote active learning and collaboration among students? Make sure to use Chapter 7 as your reference. Link your projects at the end of your reflection and make the links open in a new window. This week we collaborated on Google powered documents. We used GoogleDocs, GoogleSlides, and GoogleForms to do these collaborations with our fellow group members. All of these allowed us to see how we can implement these items into our classroom and how the collaboration works firsthand before we encourage the use for our students. Personally, I have worked a lot with Google powered documents prior to the project. My school, St. Patrick High School, deployed a Chromebook venture across our school to help students increase their use of technology prior to leaving for college. With the computer provided being a Google computer, we urge students to use Google’s office-wear for all their task. We also do all voting for any school activities through GoogleForms to help all students find the time to vote without being forced to be in a certain location at a certain time. Nonetheless, the project this week helped me to see some new ways to deploy the software for my students. Previously, I had used GoogleSlides for projects or in-class items. The project we did this week helped me to see how to use it as an additional resource rather than the soul resource. The capability to urge students to seek additional help, especially in math, is something that I plan on using in this upcoming year. The online resources are endless, and I know many students need the help but are unsure where to look. Providing this platform allows students to learn about a crucial tool before they leave to go to college. This will help to encourage a broader thinking student within all subjects, but with mathematics being my focus for students. The collaboration effort also could be a great tool across several teachers, not just students. Personally, I teach at a smaller school (2A size bracket) so there is very little cross over between courses. However, I can share the information to all teachers who are teaching a class together to help it be unanimous for the students. This will help to ensure that all students are being provided equal information on the course. We can also deploy surveys to parents and teachers to get constant feedback from the people that we do not see in the classroom every day. In all, the project was a great way to see how to implement collaboration on many levels. This can apply to teachers, parents, and students within the Google powered framework. The ability to use this additional tool outside or inside of the classroom helps to show students the full capability that technology can have on a learning environment. This will help to prepare students for the 21st century within their further education, or their future career choices. Click the links below to view: Week 3: Chapters 4-6 Questions Chapter 4 – Question 1 The concept of universal design suggest that all instructional activities should ensure equal access for all learners regardless of their unique needs. After reading the In Depth feature on universal design and examining its evolution from architecture to learning to consider how you might include universal design in your classroom. Do you intend to adjust your instruction to universal design principles when you teach? Explain why or why not. Universal Design for Learning allows educator to have a guide to reach all student regardless of learning diversities. The goal of a UDL is to help teachers stray away from a single approach, for instance the oral lecture, to every lesson. Instead, it helps teachers to have a large outlook for the classroom. This can help to connect students of different diversities to grasp the lesson without affecting the classroom setting. These diversities can be a large range of thing: learning disabilities, different learning types, language barriers, and physical disabilities. The resources available for guidance in the matter are endless. University of Washington has a DO-IT project that offers an array of guidelines to help teachers who are new to the profession, or new to the range of student diversities. The DO-IT project encourages teachers to anticipate student needs rather than finding constant solutions and changes to the lesson. Although the program warns teachers that the initial start can be time consuming, the program urges that the benefits outweigh the initial difficulties. After much research into the topic of UDL’s and the information from the DO-IT program, I intend to use universal design within my classroom. Within my school, I teach mathematics. I (obviously) love the subject, but I have come across several students who dislike math due to their difficulties and hardships within the subject. My goal has been, and will continue to be, helping the students to succeed in mathematics and leave the class with a better mindset for future mathematics classes. UDL could help me to achieve this for more students within my classroom. In apply UDL, I plan on using more learning tactics such as: different lecture strategies, more technological resources available, working in small groups or pairs, and continuing to show students care for their success. I plan to teach to all skill levels and physical needs before they become present within an assessment. I also plan to encourage students to reach out with any initial concerns, both physical and mental. Small surveys can also help me to identify what areas need to be focused on before the lesson begins. Although the work may be slightly time consuming, I can ensure that all students are gaining a positive outcome from the class. From my two years of teaching, I have noticed that within mathematics classrooms diversity is inevitable. However, I believe that UDL can help me to personally achieve more success for majority of students. Chapter 5 – Question 2 Discuss the cloud storage. Why is it advantageous for educators to share resources and programs on a network? What concerns are associated with program sharing? Cloud storage is a form of storage that is accessible online to those with the password. The files placed in the cloud can be accessed from multiple devices with online capability. The files within the network can be private files, or files that are deemed shareable. The cloud also has the capability to keep your devices connected to internet on a synchronized mode. This allows the files within the device to backup to the cloud whenever connected to internet. Many of today's phones and Google computers have this capability built into the device automatically. With the scholastic standpoint of the cloud, the ability to share resources can be so beneficial. For example, as previously talked about, my school is on a Google powered network. We all use Google accounts and all the abilities that it shares. The Chromebook back up to the cloud network automatically so that students will not lose files when they forget to save them. The main objects that my school shares are documents, calendars, and surveys. Giving the school the ability of having these items without using a hard copy is resourceful and easily accessible from multiple people. Another way to use the cloud storage to the advantage of the students is GoogleSlides. This application allows multiple students to simultaneously work on one project in different locations. The teacher can easily access who worked on the slide show from the history and the students can all be held accountable for their portion of the project. Although I have personally seen how cloud storage sharing can be beneficial to the classroom, I can also see possible downfalls. In today’s day and age, teachers must constantly be on alert for cheating. With programs, assessments, activities, and files easily being shared across a program, it is a risk that a student may use this convenience to copy what they need rather than doing the work. At my school alone, we have had students share homework files with each other to allow one or more students to copy work. The ease of access allows an easy way out for the student, but at the risk of their education. Without an educator being vigilant towards the matter, the problem may go uncorrected and the students will suffer during final assessments. Chapter 6 – Question 2 Some teachers believe that too much emphasis is placed on computers and other technologies in the classroom. Considering the technologies you have learned about in this chapter, do you agree? Defend your view. Technology can make a significant impact on student learning in a positive way. Technology can be harmful if not used properly. However, when used properly, the technology at hand can help an educator to address all learning types within one formatted lesson. Computers have such a broad array of task that can assist a teacher and student within a lesson. An example in a mathematics classroom: A student has trouble taking notes due to mental or physical disabilities. The teacher can offer a digital version directly to their computer. This not only allows the student to pay attention in class without distraction, but it also helps the student to have material to study at home. Another instance where computers are helpful is assisting ones who may need extra practice or more challenging material. The computer can give different students different level of problems to assist their needs. All students remain on task and productive, but the entire classroom is not mandated to work on the same difficulty at the start of a lesson. Another beneficial software to mathematics classes is the smartboard technology. The electronic whiteboards encompass the same basic layout as a traditional whiteboard but have more capabilities. Electronic whiteboards can allow the teacher to refer to previously discussed material in reference to future material. Further, the ability to input shapes and charts can be beneficial and save time for the teacher when in lesson. Another helpful tactic to help students with visual learning skills is the use of color on the board, which can be done on smart boards with the click of a button. All these tools help to ensure that all the students benefit from technology within the classroom. Nonetheless, it is important the educator to understand the technology they are trying employ. Otherwise, the technology can become a distraction in the class rather than a resource. It is also important to regulate the student usage of technology. Technology is rewarding when used correctly, but students can find a way to use the technology as a distraction if not monitored. Week 2: Chapters 1-3 Questions Chapter 1 - Question 2 Lifelong learning is not just a teacher preference; it is also a requirement for maintaining state certification. Technology literacy courses and workshops are some of the most popular learning experiences for certificate extension and renewal. Do you believe that taking additional courses in technology literacy is an important as those for your content or discipline? Is too much emphasis being placed on developing and maintaining technology competency? Defend your view. Technology has already become a major aspect of all fronts of education. Me personally, being a math teacher, I use technology daily simply by allowing students the use of a calculator. Although calculators are such a common practice now, this is a great example of technology that is increasing the student’s skills and understanding of certain topics. Many schools are also converting many of their practices to digital forms; whether that is online platforms for classroom submissions or simply online grading systems. With all these items being the forefront of modern education, it is crucial that teachers stay up to date on their educational practices. As an educator, our job is to help our students succeed in the content and in their further endeavors. Many of the college course are now offered with a technological platform or solely online. It is important that we train our students for this use before they lose their daily support from the teacher within a structured classroom setting. In training students, the teachers themselves must be able to understand the technology. How can we, as the educator, expect a student to gain technological knowledge without guidance? The same could be said for the teacher. Without guidance, or further education, a teacher cannot be expected to magically gain technological knowledge. One major aspect, as previously stated, that I have seen in my own classroom is the use of calculators. I teach Algebra I and Algebra II, and one of the items I require my students to get is a graphing calculator. This was a policy before I obtained the position at the school, but previous teachers were not teaching the students how to use the technology to its full potential. I had some skill in the matter, but I had to outsource many TI workshops to truly understand the full potential of the graphing calculator. I am also signed up for TI updates that will alert me if a new software or skill is available. Graphing calculators are roughly $100 per calculator. This is an expensive purchase if it is not used as designed. Majority of skills that I teach in the class can also be done within the software programed into a basic TI calculator. The newer versions are even more impressive with the technology in place. Now, I do believe it is important for the students to learn the process of problem solving. All topics that I teach, I start without a calculator. After the skill is fully understood, I show them how to perform the same task with the click of a button on their calculator. The fascination on a student’s face when they see this is so rewarding. I was very blessed to have been required to take a few programming courses for my undergrad, so I can fully appreciate the ability for a click of a button to solve a complex algebraic problem. My field, as well as many others, can use technology in so many ways. The only limit is the teacher’s ability to implement this into lesson. The educator has a duty to the student to gain the knowledge to share with their students. Chapter 2 – Question 3 You have learned about a variety of technologies useful to support learning in this chapter. With which one of these are you most comfortable? Which are most useful in helping to prepare 21st century learners? Describe the technology and its potential applications in the grade level or content area you wish to teach and demonstrate why it is most appealing to you. Many of the software options offered within the chapter were new to me. I have seen a few of these: SurveyMonkey and Skype. Of the two of these, I am more comfortable with Skype simply because SurveyMonkey was replaced by Google survey for me at my current position. (We use Chromebooks and Google based items.) Skype has been used within several of the courses I have taken within my graduate and undergraduate degrees. Skype is also constantly evolving to better fit the model needed today. The most resent version of Skype that I have used is the Skype for Business model. This model allows classes to conduct a virtual class meeting that does not require everyone to be in the same room. It is also multi-framework operational. Meaning, it can be used on a laptop, phone, or tablet. This technology is so beneficial for students who cannot be locked into specific time constraints. In my case, this was perfect for a working teacher to accommodate regardless of location. One of the new technologies offered within the chapter that I am interested in using in the future is GeoGebra. After reading about it, I did research into the site and was very interested. I am a current teacher for Algebra I and Algebra II at my school. As most teachers would agree, the hardest challenge is reaching all students within one class time. My current school is on a period schedule, so my classes only meet for 52 minutes. Within this limited time frame, I try to check homework, teach a lesson, help struggling students, while still maintaining my teacher duties. This software could help me to expand my reach of understanding for those who need some more hands on time, both inside and outside of the classroom. The website offered activities, resources, and tutorials on various areas within Algebra. I, personally, offer tutoring to all my students 3 days a week in the mornings. This additional website could help me to offer guidance without being on location. I have also used many platforms that were not listed in the chapter to attempt to help students: Screen-O-Matic, Canvas, GoogleSlides, and ConnectED. Although these were all helpful, only one of these was catered specifically to my subject like GeoGebra is. I am excited to share the new technology learning opportunities with my students. Chapter 3 – Question 3 This chapter introduced you that lesson planning was an outgrowth of your instructional design. The DID section helped you to see the overall organization of your instructional unit on an instructional day-to-day basis. Now identify, describe and use the most common steps in lesson planning. With any lesson planning, there are three main components that must be met.
With the first step, I personally prepare my classroom with a bellwork question. This question will prompt the students to begin work as soon as they walk into the room, helping to avoid disruptions. The question (or questions) also help me to assess the steppingstones needed for the lesson. For example, if the lesson to be taught is multiplying binomials, I would first address the classes understanding of multiplying monomials. With allowing the students to solve individually, I can see the personally understanding of the required lesson and assess if I have any struggling students. This would also be an opportunity to do an initial check. If classroom understanding is not as high as needed to proceed, I can use the day to build up the required skill to a higher cognitive level. Otherwise, I can proceed the lesson with the original plan in mind. The second step is one that the state requires for my school district. Most, if not all, school districts fall under a mandated requirement of objectives to meet. This ensure that students are progressing in the subject matter. The book I use within my classroom, Glencoe brand, helps to ensure that state requirements are met. The book outlines the objectives within each lesson, and I can double check with state standards to confirm that requirements are being assessed. These objectives help me to teach the lesson with an end goal in mind of where I want the students understanding. The final step is to prepare how the lesson will play out within the classroom. With my limited time constraints in the classroom, I try to make sure I hit three major areas within a lesson: teach the content, do several examples, and then assign practice problems for students to do at home. With the three pieces in place, the students have seen the objective within formal text and language, seen the objective actively within a problem, and practiced the objective on their own. I also place several prompts for questions within my lesson to actively assess along the lesson. Within the lesson, one can not expect students to progress any further if the current placement of the lesson is weak. A fellow mathematics teacher taught me to implement the, “I try, we try, you try” method for the examples. This allows me to first show the students how to take a problem and employ the tactics already learned. Then I can guide students as they attempt to go through the process. Finally, I can allow students to self-assess. The practice problem is an opportunity for me to work the room and answer questions as they arise. Introduction: 6/7/19 Hello, my name is Jamie. I am a graduate of The University of Southern Mississippi. I completed my Bachelor's of Science and Technology, majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Chemistry in May of 2017. I started teaching at St. Patrick High School in August of 2017 and am approaching my third year at the school. I teach Algebra I and Algebra II to grades 8-12, coach and run the program for cheerleading, and I am co-adviser for the student council. I am currently obtaining my Masters through the MAT program at USM. This will be my 6th class through the program. I started the program immediately upon obtaining my Bachelor's to get my teaching license. I am glad I decided to move forward with the career because I have truly enjoyed my time in education thus far. While still working to obtain my Bachelor's degree, I was able to take two computer programming classes: Mathematics Computing and Computer Science 101. These two class allowed me to really grasp the ability that technology can really do within my field of study. I use that to encourage all of my students to pursue the STEM field as they go to college. I remind them of the endless possibilities that are present in a Science and Technology based field. My first year at St. Patrick's, I was tasked to be the "trial" group for Chromebooks at our school. The administration wanted to implement more technology to the students without taking away everyday instruction. Within the trail year, we used a program called PowerLearn. After the year was complete I suggested Canvas, and we have since moved to Canvas. We use the software platform to post all assignments, updates, test, and handouts. This technology allows the students to understand how an online class is run while they still have the guidance of a teacher and lecture each day. Since the Chromebooks are a google powered framework, we use primarily google operations. I have constant contact through gmail, Canvas, googledocs, googlecalendars, and googleslides. I also have been blessed to be able to use a Promethean board in my classroom while teaching. The online contact is helpful to streamline information to students, and the Promethean board helps me to have a colorful board to better help students with disabilities. I can also use the smart board to implement pictures and shapes when needed. This helps me to apply to my visual learners. With these programs used daily within my lesson, I am very comfortable with this technology. I have also used Canvas to upload videos of me re-teaching lessons to help students study. I form them in the same format as the Youtube videos (screen watching with a video of me in the corner) and I use Screencast-O-Matic. Another major aspect of technology within my classroom is the graphing calculators. Many of these calculators have ways to solve and simplify that are not taught within the book. I often like to teach a lesson by hand, them show them how amazing technology is by showing the lesson again in the calculator. My time in the classroom has been a learning experience for myself. I am constantly working to find new ways to reach the students and help the students to succeed. With Chromebooks being used within the classroom at our schools, I am discovering how to implement them without taking out the lecture portion of the classroom. I do feel that it is important for students to gain knowledge with and without technology at their fingertips to help them succeed in any situation of life. |
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