Post #4

Sorry - the video embedded above my post.  I will need to work on embedding the videos in the right spot too!

Have a great night!

Post #4 - All I've Learned and Goals for the Future

Blog Post 4

When embarking upon this course, I was hoping to improve my teaching practices and familiarize myself with technological tools that I could implement in my classroom.  I am happy to say that I have learned and implemented many tools, and in doing so, I have noticed a change in my students’ learning and engagement. 

As “blogs are the first widely adopted easy publishing tool of the Read/Write Web,” I thought this would be a great tool to implement in my classroom (Richardson 2).  In my Reader’s Workshop units, I have had the students reflect on their readings, demonstrate mastery of mini-lessons, etc. all within our class blog.  As the year progresses, I will be working to add more collaboration to these blog entries.  For instance, one hindrance of the literature circle unit is that I can only listen to one group at a time, and even if I record the students’ conversations, I can only add to their conversations during the next day’s lesson/discussions.  By having students do some “discussing” on a group blog, I am able to assist and facilitate as much (or as little) as needed.

I have also personally used GoogleDocs, while collaborating with fellow teachers to work on creating a new reading and writing curriculum.  I have not yet begun the poetry unit (TIP), but I am very excited to implement GoogleDocs within that unit.  By allowing students to edit and revise their peers’ pieces online, I will have been able to “construct, develop, sustain, and participate in [a] global network that render[s] time and place less and less relevant” (Richardson 9). 

I have not yet done a Literature Circle unit this year with my students; however, as I was perusing sites and reading our two books for class, I got some excellent ideas for culminating activities which my students could work on collaboratively to demonstrate their understanding and analysis of the text.  One example of such activity is below:

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=175121&title=Tuck_Everlasting6

Over this semester, I feel that I have learned a great deal and have begun to transfer that knowledge and activities to my class.  In the future, I would like to learn a little bit more about how I can work to get this implement in earlier grades.  If students came to me with some of these skills already, I would be able to drive head-first with blogging and GoogleDocs, and then I could teach them using some more challenging tools like Glogster and Podcasting. 

I hope you all have had success as well and hopefully we will all collaborate in classes in the future. 

Richardson, W. (2010).  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Post #3

As I continue to learn about new digital tools through our graduate school class, in the back of my mind, I am always considering how I can incorporate these tools into my own classroom.  I think technology enhances the education we are providing our students, but it should also be used to keep students engaged and interested in what they are learning.  As a seventh-grade reading and writing teacher, I often have students who resist reading and writing, so anything I can do to get them engaged will help with my ultimate goal of teaching them.

We are currently working to write editorials in class.  However, one obstacle I always face is getting the students to pick new, innovative topics that they are truly passionate about, as opposed to the typical “Why we should be allowed to chew gum, eat candy, etc.” or “Why we shouldn’t have homework,” etc.  Therefore, I turned to Youtube, as it “provides input for many students who are visual learners” and showed my students the following video (Schrum and Levin 80):

I modeled for them how I used this contemporary video to spark some great editorial topics.  After viewing this video, I told the class that I would use this video to inspire an editorial about not wasting so much money on holiday decorations in these difficult economic times.  The students loved this, as it was an interesting,relevant video and I was able to write a realistic editorial from the video.  For homework one night, I even assigned the students to watch a news broadcast, read the newspaper, read news articles online, or peruse Teachertube.com or Youtube.com to see if they could identify possible editorial topics using technology.  Some of the students came up with great topics after using technology: Should there be restrictions on population (after reading about the 7 billionth child being born), techniques for preventing childhood obesity (after reading an online article about the harms of candy corn), etc.  Using videos can generate much better topics, and thus better final pieces, for my students’ editorials.

As suggested by Richardson, I have accessed the New York Public Library’s photo gallery to use to help students generate ideas for writing or whole writing pieces (105).  While this is definitely a great improvement over simply telling the students what they can or should write about, another step I would like to take is to use Flickr which has the “ability to start online discussions about the images you post by adding comments under any particular photo” (105).  I currently do an activity like this in-class, where I place photos and alphabet grids in manila folders.  The students record as many words as they can about the picture.  After30 seconds, they pass the folder to another classmate who adds more words, passes, and so on.  Then the folder is returned to its original owner, who then uses the words collected to create a writing piece.  I love this activity, but by enhancing it by using Flickr, we are able to reach people “beyond our classroom walls,” as the students could work to help people in other classes, other schools, and other states, etc. to improve their writing by contributing valuable ideas and comments to the posted photos (Richardson 6).  I hope to soon immerse myself in Flickr and become comfortable enough myself that I can use it to help improve my students’ writing. 

Richardson, W. (2010).  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Schrum, L. M., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21^st-Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. 





Post #2

As I was reading Schrum, Levin, and Richardson, it really got me thinking about my classroom, and some long and short term goals I have for myself.  Thanks to the skills I am developing in this class, I am trying to implement a wiki and blogging into my classroom.  While I am trying to implement it, it is a slow and steady process as it is not really part of my Language Arts curriculum, and I am trying to apply it within the curriculum and within the time constraints upon which I am placed to complete each unit.  As noted in Schrum’s text, “Students use technology far more outside of school than within the school environment, where it is often still seen as an ‘addition’ rather than a part of the curriculum” (66).  Unfortunately, although we have very limited ‘free’ or flexible time as educators, I gained many ideas throughout these texts of technology that I would love to implement over the next few years, if the technology is at my disposal.  Although there are many tools I learned about and would love to implement, during this post I am going to focus primarily on tools pertaining to video. 

First, as Dr. Boling discussed in her video, I would love to incorporate Animoto, where I would be able to make a video to introduce myself to my students and allow them to do the same.  As Richardson references, Flickr could help with this endeavor as well.  Students need to get to know about one another in order to feel comfortable enough to participate and share in a classroom.  As I work in a very diverse school district, I love the idea of uploading images and information about their respective cultures so we can work to learn about one another and truly become a cohesive community of learners (105). As mentioned by Schrum, if I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a whiteboard (there are a few in our district!), that tool even has software where the teacher can “keep notes and annotations as an electronic file for later distribution, either on paper or through a number of electronic formats . . .[or] record instruction their instruction as digital video files and post the material on the Internet for review by students at a later time” (66).   I would love to have access to technology like this, as I feel it would be so helpful!  First, it would help students who are absent, as they would have access to any lesson they miss so that they do not fall too far behind with class.  Additionally, students who may struggle with note-taking would have the ability to review a lesson at their leisure.  Lastly, I have many parents who want to help their children study or review but are uncertain of the material; parents could access the material/lesson to aid their children.  There are so many benefits with a tool that does not seem too difficult to implement!

Another tool Schrum reviews is digital still and video cameras (67).  As a Language Arts teacher, I think this would be very applicable with my curriculum.  The Thinkfinity lesson that I recently reviewed was with students using wordless picture books to generate their own stories.  How much more powerful would this lesson be if the students could use their own images and videos to develop their writing!  I can only imagine how excited my students would be if they were empowered to capture their own photos or videos about which they could write.  I suspect this would make them much more vested in their own learning!

Lastly, a more long-term goal for my class would be to use video publishing.  I think I would have so many more students engaged in their books if they knew at the end, they would have the opportunity to record a video book review, movie trailer, or shoot a scene from the book.  They would still be learning critical literacy skills, but they would have more control and creativity in demonstrating their understanding and mastery.  See an example of a student-made movie trailer at the bottom of my blog.

Does anyone else have any first-hand experience with these tools or suggestions or ideas for implementation?  Thanks all!

Kate

References

Boling, Erica.  Video Discussion on Facebook and Social Networking. Fall 2011. 

Hernandez-Ramos P.  (2005).  If not here, where? Understanding teachers’ use of technology in Silicon Valley Schools.  Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(1), 35 – 46.

Richardson, W. (2010).  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Schrum, L. M., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21^st-Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. 

Post #1

             As I was reading over the last module, I was bombarded with so many ideas of activities and lessons that I could implement with my seventh-grade students.  One difficulty I encounter with some of my students is their lack of interest and motivation when it comes to their reading and writing, and I think many of these activities and technological programs could assist me in my quest.

                In the current reading unit I am teaching, the ultimate goal is to help students to find books they will enjoy reading and read voluntarily, as well as boosting their self-confidence as readers.  My firm belief is part of the reason some students dislike reading so much is due to the tedious, minimally-effective worksheets that some teachers assign.  As stated by  Olgren, “The purpose of interactive activities is to involve students in the kind of deep analysis and synthesis processes essential for deep understanding and application” (Leading 21^st-Century Schools, 47).  By allowing students to work on activities like wiki sites and blogs, we are still holding them accountable for understanding and analyzing books.  However, instead of simply recording answers on worksheets or in their books, they now have the opportunity to dialogue with other students, in their own class or in other parts of the country or world; the boundaries are endless. 

                Also, education constantly stresses the necessity to individualize our instruction to meet the needs of our very unique learners.  As Schrum and Levin explain, “The main characteristics of this “new” Internet are connected with its constant development and delivery of services tailored to the needs of each user” (48).  That way, teachers can allow many possibilities of response, reaction, and assessment to help all of his or her learners to grow and succeed. 

                I have embedded a link to blogs, one for each class, into my wiki.  I feel that these blogs will be easy to utilize in my Reading classes, as students can respond, question, and discuss the books that they are reading.  As the year progresses, and many students have read the same books, it will create a very convenient opportunity to dialogue about their book choices and ideas.  Furthermore, if I have a student who seems to have very unique interests that don’t really match with those of their classmates, they can interact with other learners of the same interest.  “ . . .Collaboration can be much more accessible and diverse.  We can create sites where classes from disparate geographies can conduct all sorts of experiments” (Richardson 27).  That way, students can dialogue with people outside of our classroom.  Bringing their unique experiences to the table, the students are equipped to both teach something they know about the book, thus empowering themselves, and they are able to learn from someone else who has the same interests.

                While I am very excited to work to implement this, I have two hesitancies.  First, I am a little uncertain what permission I need to get from the school and the parents in order to ensure that all students can participate.  I am going to begin by contacting my principal to ensure that I am following proper protocol.  Second, our school district has a very tight curricular schedule.  I will work to incorporate these activities in class, but I think they will also need to be assigned for homework.  Unfortunately, I work in a district where only some of the students have access to the Internet from their home.  I will need to work with those students to make alternate arrangements so that they have opportunities to utilize the technology as well.  I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!