Reflection

Looking back...

As this course draws to a close, I look back at my own growth and development during the past eight weeks. When this course began, I knew I would get something from it, and was eager to see what this course had for me. Of course, once again, I was pleasantly surprised at just what I did gain from the weekly lessons. During the beginnings of this class, I thought I would find myself looking for ways to discuss things that I already do with technology in my class. It didn’t take long to see that I would do so much more than that. The development of the Content Are Unit Plan was so beneficial to me, providing me with knowledge and tools I will be using practically right away in my own classroom. Yet, the greatest learning for me came from the development of my GAME plan. Though I griped and grumbled to myself when I first read what we were assigned to do, I have to admit now that it was a great learning experience for me.



I can honestly say I believe I grew as a teacher developing my GAME plan. I set a goal for myself to develop an online location for discussion assignments for my students. While I have had my students writing responses to literature and other assignments, I have not had them doing so with technology nor have I had them doing any discussion amongst each other in the written form. I realize that I need to have my students communicating with each other in methods they will encounter in the technological society they will soon enter (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). My second goal I set for myself was to develop assignments in which I have my students create products that utilize Web 2.0 technologies and not just complete the same old paper and pencil work we’ve always assigned. As I developed this GAME plan, I did learn some things. First, I learned the real GAME plan process. Prior to this experience, I was always concerned about making plans for my students, never a GAME plan for me as the teacher. I have learned the importance of looking ahead at where exactly I want to go with my students and how I am going to get them there. I also learned that I don’t have to go out and find new tools to do some of these things I dream of doing with my students in the “ideal” world. I have learned that I can actually develop ways to do these things with the web site I already have going with my classes. I also learned to do more frequent evaluation and assessment of my own progress and goals. Because of some setbacks along the way with these goals, I had to do some evaluating and make some changes to my goals or at least my strategies. Turns out this took me to some new areas and caused me to develop some better things for my students.


During this course, I have come across some great new technological resources. I have learned form my colleagues about such sites as schoology.com, which I am still hoping to develop and use for my students. I have also learned about Ning. I am currently working with the principal over my department to help clear access to Ning so I can have my students use it. As for immediate adjustments, I am totally redesigning my current website to begin having my students turn in work electronically this next semester. I am also rewriting my syllabus with this in mind, so that when I get my new students January 4th, they will all know where I am going with this from the beginning. Another change is the incorporation of the lessons I developed during this course. I am actually going to change some of my assignments out that I have traditionally done with this next semester for ones I developed during this course. I also am very proud to say that from my constant comments and discussions I have made with my department and department’s principal, she has come to me with a proposal to look into and develop a network for our English classes with PD360.com. I am so thankful my experiences in this class are taking me to this point of bettering my teaching, my classroom lessons and assignments, and being a part of the leadership for my department and district.

Using my GAME plan with my students

Week 7 - Taking it all in...

I almost feel that I have dropped the ball here. I have been really pushing myself to stay on top of things during this course. I knew I would have to because of the amount I was tackling this school year and the time of semester this course would be taking place. I was feeling pretty good about myself then realized as I was finishing my lesson plans I have to have turned in to my principal by 8 tomorrow morning, I forgot to do my blog for this week. I guess I just let myself get buried under the piles of grading along with finishing up a novel unit and preparing for final exams I will be giving Tuesday and Wednesday.



So, here I sit looking over my GAME plan. As I do, I feel that I have made some real progress toward fulfilling these goals. If anything, I have done some real research. I learned about some tools such as schoology.com and Ning. I have discovered the importance of making this effort to find ways to help my students become more engaged and gain more ownership into the content and the lesssons.


I worry that I took a major setback with the schoology site. I have high aspirations for what I want to do with this site. I set up an account with schoology planning to use this site for educational networking with my students. I hoped to perhaps even have them use the site as a place to create facebook-like pages for characters in novels we study. This might happen but I wasn’t able to give it the attention I need to. By the time I got my account set up, I got bogged down with some things in my classroom and the schoology site took a back seat. My last day for this semester is Thursday, the 23rd, so I am hoping to do some work on it while I’m out and perhaps have some things ready when I get my new students on January 4th. As for Ning, this site may also be a real place for me to do just what I was describing, but Ning is currently blocked from on my district’s network. I have requested the block be removed but so far, I have been told it can’t because the term “social networking” is part of the description of the site.


As I said, I have ideas that may have partially been there before beginning this GAME plan, but have been really thought through and even taken root. While I would have liked to have gotten much further, I do believe the beginnings have taken place and I will only go further toward fulfilling my goals.

Back to the drawing board - Revising my GAME plan

If I learn anything during this when it comes to technology, it is that for all I think I know, I am constantly finding more I don’t know and more I need to learn. I have already learned so much by developing my GAME plan. I have definitely learned as I have been working with my GAME plan that I need to view my lessons with scope. In the past, I often viewed my lessons and assignments singularly. This has already taught me to look at how I can have several assignments layered, building upon what I have my students to learn.


In last week’s blog, I mentioned turning my attention to developing a schoology page on which I could have my students create mock “facebook” pages. I am still working on this. I did run into some obstacles, but I am getting back up. My first obstacle was getting my account verified. Seems the email was not getting to me because of my district’s filter. I did start playing with this concept once I finally got the account verified, but just as I got my class started up, I ran into some deadline issues with our yearbook and I must admit, my schoology page took a back seat.

While this could seem poor time-management on my part or at the least just an unfortunate postponement, I think it may be working for the best. I had not really looked ahead and so I have just this week learned about Ning. Ning will allow my students to blog, upload files and images to enhance their posts, and communicate safely with each other and their teachers during assignments (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This may be something else I can try out to get my students to doing some social networking with assignments. It’s funny how this stuff comes around. I have been thinking and trying to develop some incorporating of social networking into my lessons for some time now. I wrote about it in our last course. I have thought I was kind of stepping out there with the idea, then discover we have a lesson on it and even an application involving it. This is something I am really determined to use. I am even more excited about is my need to pause with schoology gave me the chance to discover a “facebook” template just yesterday. I was in a meeting and mentioned what I was doing or rather wanting to do with social networking and pointed out that, of course, I can’t get my students actually on facebook in my class (the site is blocked from our district’s network) so I was trying to come up with an alternative. That’s when the A.P. coordinator in our meeting said she had a template she could send me. I got it today and am already trying to decide how this could work for my goal.

As I get my new students in January with the next semester, I want to take this goal even a step further. I want to actually use blogging, wikis, and even social networking as methods of turning work in that would have traditionally been done by the old paper-and-pencil method. I believe this will not only bring my teaching more in line with 21st century methods but also generate more interest for my students.

Looking forward beyond even the next semester, I want to set another goal for myself. I would like to begin to “communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats” (ISTE, 2008). I would like to begin communicating with my student via digital methods from texting to discussion posts online. I would like to make regular posts on my class web page for parents. I would like to do these in blog format so they can reply to me. I would also like to begin attaching video and audio casts to these blog posts as well, bringing parents into my classroom. I also think I could go further and have students doing similarly to teach each other. This goal is far more reaching and would take a great deal of time to achieve, but I really think it is where I would like to go next.



References:
ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx


Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Davis, P. (Speaker). Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1. [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD.

Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good

Evaluating my GAME plan progress  -  week 5

Isn’t it interesting how things seem to come around in cycles? A week ago as I paused to evaluate my progress thus far, I had taken some steps, small steps mind you, but steps nonetheless toward my first goal of having my students participate in on-line discussions as we read a work of literature. However, I had not really done anything of any significance with my second goal beyond some research. Well, a week later, it seems I am now getting somewhere with my second goal.

My second goal is to design and develop assessments for digital-age lessons that assist my students to make real-world connections with 21st century technologies (ISTE, 2008). I have several things in mind I would like to learn to incorporate into my lessons. The last two weeks, my thoughts have been focused on learning to have my students produce pod casts and video casts. While this is something I would really like to work toward and have real plans for such, I need to also be looking into other methods of getting my students using technology in my lessons. It just so happens that one of the assignments I have been dabbling with and have tried a few variations of is an assessment I conduct as I conclude my lesson on indirect characterization. As I have been working the past week, I have had the epiphany to develop this lesson with a technology-based assessment. I had some ideas skulking about in my head but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Then, as fate would have it, I read Melissa’s week 4 blog, in which she discussed her use of Schoology (Provost, 2010). I had to go check out the site. While looking it over, it occurred to me that this site might just prove to work for me as a place to have my students create “mock” facebook pages for characters in the novel we are reading. I could feel the ideas ricocheting about in my head. This has potential.

While I’m not there yet, I started just this Monday with my fourth block students on Schoology. I am basically using them as a trial run with this, a test drive. It may not be the final version of this assignment, but this will definitely be a big step toward my goal. I’m sure I’ll have to make adjustments but I think I’m on to something here. I’ll definitely let you guys know how it goes.

p.s. Thanks Melissa!!!



References:

ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved
from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

Provost, M. (2010). Monitoring my game plan progress. [blog]. Retrieved from http://mprovost.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/monitoring-my-game-plan-progress-week-4/ on November 27, 2010.

One Day at a Time - My GAME plan progress

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I devised my GAME plan. I set two major goals for myself. Now, I didn’t think I would suddenly meet these two goals over night. I would have been kidding myself to think so. This is especially true as the school where I teach is on the 4X4 block schedule, so the classes I am currently teaching are almost over. This does mean that I will get all new classes when the second semester begins in January. So, while I haven’t achieved these two goals to their best yet, I am making some progress toward getting things in place. I am taking baby steps, it seems, but I am learning quite a bit and hope to have a real handle on things so that I can really put this plan into place with the next semester.


I have gotten started on my first goal, having my students respond to discussions in a discussion board on my web page. I’ve gotten the discussion section of my web page set up and got my students all registered into the discussion group. I have made one discussion assignment. So far, for this goal, I am finding all the information I need to get it up and going, and I don’t think I need to make any adjustments to the goal. I have learned how to create the discussion group and how to be more efficient with the sign-up process for my discussion groups. I have learned how to best do this next semester with my next classes. I have, how ever, come across a few questions or concerns about this goal during this initial trial run. How can I get my students to give me more in-depth responses to the discussion prompts? Do I need to form my prompts better to illicit deeper thinking and more detailed responses? Do I need to address this directly? I have thought about providing a list of questions that must be addressed but I was afraid I would be leading them and not allowing them to do the critical thinking they need to do on their own. My second question is: How do I get my students to respond to other students posts with more than just the cursory “I agree” or “That’s a good point” that I seem to be getting? Should I also provide an outline or list of questions for this part of the assignment? Any input from my colleagues here would be most appreciated. I am also not sure what I should do to follow this up or make it all connect back in my classroom. Any suggestions here would also be welcome.

My second goal is one that I haven’t gotten very far yet. This goal is to have my students produce podcasts and video casts that can posted for other students to listen/view and respond to. So far, I have determined that I can upload such casts onto my current web page. I found it would require more storage space, so I upgraded from the free web page to a subscription page with more storage. What I am still not sure of is how to best record the audio. I have the software needed, that’s not the problem. My concern is with the recording itself. I’m sure my classroom is not going to be a very quiet place to do the recording and the microphone I have would pick up lots of noise. I need to use one, though, rather than the headset because I plan to have my students do this in small groups. Does anyone have any ideas here? I suppose I could have my students record in pairs rather than in a group, so I could use the headset, I would just need two of them. My biggest concern is the background noise. I want my students to record during my class, I’m just not sure how to do this. Any tips or suggestions?

As you can see, I’m working on it, I’m just taking baby steps. Well, like the saying goes, one day at a time.

Let's Get It Started In Here - Carrying out my GAME plan

What a GAME plan I have, huh? When I first looked back over what I had written, my assessment was that my plan was too simplistic, not sophisticated enough. I have to admit, I rather felt ashamed I hadn’t come up with a more grandiose plan. However, my plan sets goals that I really want to accomplish, goals I truly believe I need to achieve for my students. That in mind, I returned to my plan to really think about the goals I had set and begin to study just how I am going to meet my goals. What resources would I need? Will I need to collaborate with anyone or call upon an expert or two? Do I need additional information? As I pondered these questions, I realized that my plan wasn’t so simple after all.


I realize that although I already have a class webpage, I still need some resources. Most likely, the resource that will best aid my plan is other teachers. I believe there are some other teachers here on my campus who have set up discussion boards and made these types of assignments recently. Not only should I look at their pages and see first-hand what they are doing and just how they have them set up, but I would benefit from information they can give me about their sites and their experiences. Some of the information I could get from these fellow educators would consist of their strategies of implementation and grading. How do they assign the discussions? Do they have to make groups, create log-ins or passwords? What sites are they using other than the site we host our classroom web pages? This information will help me make the decisions as I develop my assignments and get things set up on my webpage. I also think it would be good to gather information from my students. I will need to inquire about who has done a discussion post assignment before. I will also need to find out about internet access out of school. This information will help me as I determine the amount of time I give my students to complete the assignments. This same information from my students will be just as important as I develop lessons utilizing other items such as podcasts and video casts. I will also need to find out who has experience in using web design software. Finally, I will need to gather information about web design software that will be best to have my students use in my classroom. I will also need to make a contact with the web master at my high school so we can post our web pages my students make. I will need to investigate into the best way to post podcasts and video casts that my students can access on my campus. Basically, I have several contacts to make and a good bit of information to gather.

While I have really just begun, I have at least gotten started. All teachers in my district use the same site to create our individual web pages. I am sure our district does this to have some uniformity in the web pages and to make the links to our pages form the district’s and schools’ websites a bit easier to manage. I have already checked into what the capabilities are of this site where I have created my class page. I have learned that I can upload audio and video files to this my page on this site, so I should be able to have my students uploading podcasts and video casts without having to locate a site that can be accessed on our district server. I did learn, though, that while teachers are able to make their classroom pages here free (probably another reason our district has us using this host site), the free account has limited storage space. So, I went ahead and subscribed to have full storage capacity, which will accommodate audio and video files. I have also sent out requests by email to my colleagues on my campus to tell me about their discussion experiences. My next action will be to develop the groupings on my web page and set up the groups for a discussion board. I have quite a way to go, but I have gotten a start.

Got GAME

EDUC 6713-D-2 Application two: Developing your personal GAME plan

Goal #1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by promoting student reflection.

From NETS-T (ISTE, 2008)
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. C) Teachers promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative process.

GAME Plan

Set goals
I want my students to participate in a discourse about issues raised in the literature assigned to be read both in and out of class by using digital-age tools. I want my students to do more critical thinking on their own beyond the discussions I lead in class. I have a class webpage capable of hosting a discussion board but I do not utilize this. I want to utilize this tool for responses that go beyond the basic writing assignments and discussions of class.

Take action
In order to make this successful, I will first need to refine my class webpage and set up the discussion board section on the webpage. I will need to have all the students register as a student user with the webpage host. I will walk the students through this process in class. I will next introduce my students to discussion posting with an initial post assignment. Once they have learned to make a post on the board, I can then make discussion assignments in which they respond to prompts from the literature we are studying. In addition to their posts, I can also require my students to respond to other students’ posts as well.

Monitor
As I begin making these discussion post assignments, it will be important for me to make sure I am making progress toward my goal (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I will need to set aside a specific time to review and respond to students’ posts and their responses on others’ posts. I will need to check with any students who do not post or respond to be certain they understand the assignment and the method of using the technology.

Evaluate and extend
I will need to get feedback from the students themselves. Through discussions, peer evaluations, and even surveys, I can assess the success of the assignments and the benefits the students glean. If the discussion posts seem to be moving me to my goal, I can extend this assignment to perhaps having other classes participate in our discussions through the webpage as well as parents and other teachers. I could also extend this by branching out to a blog rather than just the discussion board. I will need to check in frequently with my students to not only make certain I am achieving the goal, but also to see if any adjustments or changes are needed (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Goal #2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments by customizing and personalizing learning activities.

From NETS-T (ISTE, 2008)
2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. C)Teachers
customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources

GAME Plan

Set goals
I want my students to make connections to the real world while they expand their understanding of the literature works we read. I realize that my students have varied learning styles and do not all learn the same way. In order to reach all my students, I must develop assignments that will appeal to their different learning styles and strategies. I also have a goal of my students completing assignments with digital-age technologies to make their reading and the assignments more relevant to their world (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Take action
In order to help my students make more relevant connections as they delve deeper into the reading, I want to assign my students activities and projects that relate their varied learning styles. I would like to have my students develop and post podcasts that can be accessed online by other classes. I want my students to use digital media such as Web 2.0 tools to complete assignments from our literature. One such thing I could have them do is to actually design a webpage about the novel using web design software. I could also have my students create videos to be uploaded to the internet.

Monitor
As I work to develop assignments for my students that promote understanding of the literature while presenting relevance to the digital world, I must monitor whether or not I am actually achieve this goal Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). If I am not finding the interest level, I will need to make modifications.

Evaluate and extend
Once I am satisfied that the assignments I am making appeal to the students learning styles as well as their interests engaging them in the learning, I will need to assess the assignments ability to achieve comprehension of the objectives with the literature. If there is not an acceptable level of comprehension in the objectives, I may need to modify the assignments to better focus on and target the desired learning. When the assignments are successful, these could be extended to connect with students in classes from other parts of the country studying the same works.



References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom

Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA:

Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved

from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program 1: Promoting self directed

learning with technology. [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore,

MD.

EDUC 6713D-2 Integrating Techonology Across the Content Areas

Course 8 is now upon us. I hope my fellow scholars here from Walden are all doing well. I must admit, I am hitting a bit of burn out. It seems that I have taken on so much where I teach during this time I have been studying here at Walden. I guess I should have known it was coming because I managed to dodge it all the year I was doing National Boards. Oh well, I can truly say I am learning so much and becoming a better teacher for it. And that is just throught the things I have undertaken at my school. With the things I learned here at Walden, I am really expanding my knowledge and skill and growing in who I am as a teacher and an educator.

I am very excited to be starting this class. I have so enjoyed the courses that have dealt with the technology aspects of this program. I am very eager to delve into this one. I am also glad to be working with you guys once again. I have gleaned so much from what you guys have shared and posted on during our previous courses.

Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis - A Reflection for EDUC-6712

As a teacher, one of my main priorities is to instruct and guide my students to become more literate. This is especially true as an English/Language Arts teacher. When I first began teaching over twelve years ago, I really felt that meant exposing my students to different types of literature, by different writers from varying backgrounds. That is true; however, I have come to realize that literacy goes far beyond knowledge of the world’s literature. My students must also be able to locate, gather, and compile information from places other than just the literature we read in the classroom. My students need the skills to evaluate and apply the information they find. My students need to be able to communicate to the rest of the world the knowledge they garner from this research. Only then will I have helped my students to become truly literate (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).

With this realization, I now am evaluating the lessons I teach, studying ways to have my students do some form of research as they proceed. I am modifying some of my plans for teaching units so that I begin the lessons by having my students develop their own questions (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I will still be taking my students in the same direction and through some of the same steps, but rather than asking them the questions myself, I know that need to change my teaching practices so that I am instead guiding them to ask the questions. I then will be making assignments in which my students develop their new literacies by leading them to research information to answer their own questions. I will further their skills in these new literacies as I assign my students to produce writings of various forms to communicate to others their findings (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).

These plans alone are professional development goals I have for myself, but I feel the need to set a couple more goals, more personal goals. As I move forward in teaching my students to become more literate, I first want to find better ways to prepare myself. While I do feel technically literate, I tend to be hesitant to incorporate things into my classroom because of the limitations of the technology in my district, or because of the possibility of students’ lack of technology at home. I have set a goal to go forward with my plans and find alternate strategies and methods to carry out my assignments. Along with this goal, I am also setting a professional development goal to actually do the research to prepare to assign my students to research. I have found in the past when I have ventured out to assign my students to research, there have been blocked sites, poor sites, and confusion with my students on just how to research. My goal is to try to do the research the way my students would go about it, from a classroom computer. This will help me to find the pitfalls my students would otherwise find.

While I will feel the pressures of teaching the English level our state assesses students with the high-stakes test, I have come to realize I can’t let the state test keep me from teaching what my students need to know that won’t just be asked in an exit test. I have to take them to that next level of learning. I need to direct my students to use various resources and expand their literacy beyond the classroom and the textbook. This course has opened my eyes to the fact that I am not completely teaching my students until I take their literacy to these next levels, the digital world.


Reference:
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry.New York: The Guilford Press.

Relection on the Impact of Technology

The course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society has been quite an experience for me. During this course, I have dealt with the death of a colleague, survived the worst illness I have endured in years, had to defend my teaching practices to administrators who question state test results, and had to go tooth and nail with contractors in a effort to get back into a home of my own some four and a half years after Katrina. However, the real experience for me has been the learning I have done in this course. I thought I knew what blogging was, but quickly learned what I had to learn. The idea of using a podcast for my classroom had never occurred to me. Before this course, a wiki was only something I had heard of and never in relation to the classroom. For all I thought I was doing to make technology an iatrical part of my classroom, I realize now that I need to be doing so much more to truly make my class a 21st century classroom (Cramer, 2007).

During this course, I have learned how to set up an account to blog and develop a wiki space. I have learned how to post a podcast to a hosting site on the internet. I have been keeping a webpage for my class the last two years, but have come to realize now that I’m not really doing much with the site beyond posting my lesson plans for my administrators to check. I have learned several ways to take my website beyond this basic simplistic posting spot. I have also learned that having my students produce a slideshow in PowerPoint does not make my classroom a 21st century class. I have learned that I have to look at what they do and the tools they use to do things and incorporate those things into my class. I have learned to leave the concerns of high school and truly investigate how daily tasks and operations are done in the world for which I say I am preparing my students. I must develop my lessons to have my students do things in the same manner as the world would have them while fulfilling the objectives of my course. I have long said I want my students to take ownership of their learning while I challenge them beyond their comfort zones. Technology-based assignments is a way I can get my students to do so while having them demonstrate their knowledge in an authentic way (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008). All the while, I know I must continue to learn more myself. I have to keep my eyes and ears open to the world going on outside the walls of my high school classroom. I have learned through the experiences of this course that I have to get my hands dirty. In order to stay up on things and keep myself prepared for my students, I must try things out for myself. I have to experiment. I have to read. I have to continue to learn. I have to practice technologies that I learn about and study how to incorporate them into my classroom, into my lessons. As I continue to learn, I have to listen and watch my students. I must remember that I can learn from them as well. I should be looking at what they do to understand what I should be having my students do in my classroom to make my lessons more relevant to them.

I am setting two long-term goals for myself to help transform my classroom to a place where technology is integrated seamlessly to help instruct my students and improve their achievement. My first goal is to make my class website an interactive place for my students rather than just a place to electronically post my lesson plans. I plan to do this by setting up a blogging area on the website. I will have my students blog in response to certain topics in stead of turning in the traditional written essay as I cover the writing lessons of my course. This will allow me to bring the writing I have to teach my students to do into the 21st century and will also allow me to have my students interact with each other and hopefully learn from each other. My second goal is to have my students help develop methods for complete assignments in a technological way. I will give my students the objectives for the lessons and discuss the traditional methods for achieving the objectives. I will then have them brainstorm technologies that we could use in the classroom to accomplish these same goals. We could even have different groups do the assignments in different ways, then evaluate the results at the end of the lesson. Both of these, particularly the second, will take me a couple of years to fulfill. I believe that they will help make me a better teacher, make my classroom more 21st century and more fun, and make my students more successful (Cramer, 2007).

In a way, I am embarrassed to admit it has taken this course to get me thinking the right way about technology in my classroom. I have always though of myself as a technological-minded teacher. Yet, here I am, having to admit that it took this class to get me in the correct direction. Then again, that is what being an educator is all about; learning all the time and seeking new and better ways of educating our students.

References:
Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Bringing the Fun into Teaching with Technology. The teaching professional [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society. Baltimore:MD.

Wesley Rogers teaches high school English II (tenth grade).

Learning to make a Podcast...

This week, week 5, our application was to interview students and post a podcast from the interview. Each week, it seems, I learn more and more in this class. I was glad to get my feel with the world of blogging and the more I think about blogging and the more I do with it, the more I see ways I can and will use blogging in my teaching. The same goes for the wiki. By the time I got through the week's application, I had several ideas of how I will use wikis with my class. Not only that, I also have gotten brainwaves of how to utilize wikis to make our interdepartmental collaboration much better, more productive. In fact, this past week, I was able to present my ideas to the department during our weekly meeting.

My experience with the podcast has been no different. I have experience recording and editing. Now I will admit, my experience has never been recording students in the the classroom. I am not pleased at all with the audio quality of the recording. I am used to recording audio for video and that I will be doing things with later. In fact, I am used to having to rerecord and loop spoken dialogue in a very controlled setting. I guess that would be the first real lesson.

My experience here, however, goes way beyond the little issue of the recording. Since I didn't have to really learn anything here about editing the actual audio tracks, once I finished the mix and was ready to upload to the hosting site, my brain immediately began thinking of ways I could use this. I think I have envisioned more ways I will be able to use podcasting that even the blogging. I am so excited about the possibilities this holds for my class and my teaching.

Before listening to the interview itself, I think I should describe my class. I did a round table interview with four students from my third block class. This is a class made up of twenty students. Of those twenty, four are minorities. In this particular class, 60% of my students are female. This is a regular class, not an excellorated or honors class, however I have 9 students who take an excellerated or honors class in some other subject. As for technology, all my students said they have grown up with a television in home. Only two students said they do not have a computer or internet access at home. Three students do not own a cell phone. However, only 12 of my students said they do anything on the internet at home on a regular basis. Of the students who do not use the internet at home, they are not really using it in the classroom either, according to their responses to my survey.

Wow, what a great experience. True, doing the survey and looking into the demographics of the class that I can't see (i.e. technology use) was an eye opener. Beyond that, though, I have gotten the podcast bug. I can't wait to modify my class and start doing things with the podcast. I should send out a warning to my principal now, he will not know what to think of my class come next year.

The link to my podcast post is http://wesleyrogers.podbean.com/2010/02/06/week-5-application-technology-student-interview/

Bringing the Classroom into the 21st Century

This week, I’ve been exploring the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. The belief that today’s students need to be educated with the understanding that our modern world is very integrated and education has to evolve to better prepare students for this world is becoming a part of my philosophy as a teacher. In an interview about the changing workplace of the 21st century, Dr. Chris Dede discusses how the students we are graduating are heading into a world in which they must compete not only globally against other workers but against the emerging technologies themselves (Laureate, 2008). How are we in education preparing these students? Are the methods used to teach us going be enough to get our students ready?


About the site

This is really quite a website, worth far more than just a quick glance. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an organization dedicated to making our students literate. As the site illustrates, it was once essential for a student to learn to merely read and to sign his name. Then it became more important to become literate in other skills as math, science, and history. In today’s information age, it is now essential for a student to be literate in technology as well. I am so excited to have been shown this place in which educators can learn about methods for helping our learners become literate in these areas beyond the traditional “three R’s.” This partnership between businesses and educators provides curriculum, ideas, methods, strategies, and resources for teachers to integrate their traditional core subjects with the emerging technologies and interlink them with interdisciplinary themes such as Civics, Health Literacy, Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy, Global Awareness, and Environmental Literacy.
I was so excited to find a site to help me. I know as an English teacher that I have to help my students become better communicators. I also know that for today’s student, that goes beyond reading a novel and writing an essay. I believe that I need to help my students learn to tap into the global world of telecommunications. I also need to help my students connect the things we do in an English class to other disciplines and relate them to this “flat” world in which we live (Friedman, 2005). Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a treasure trove of information, ideas, and resources for how I can better do this in my classroom.



The Wow Factor

I have to admit, this website really surprised me. I have been concerned for some time now that I need to do some things differently in my classroom to better prepare my students. I need to make my classroom more of a 21st century class. I just wasn’t sure how to do it. This site has shown me that I don’t have to wait for my state or my district to adopt a new curriculum or incorporate a new plan. The ideas and tools are right here at my fingertips. Score another one for the World Wide Web. Like I said, we are a global community.
A big surprise for me was the limited number of states that have gotten on board and joined the partnership. My own state is one of those yet to join this partnership. I was taken aback by this. What was even more of a surprise to me was many states much bigger than mine with far greater financial resources than ours that have not become part of the partnership.
On a more positive note, the biggest surprise for me was the accessibility to the information and resources. There is so much for a teacher on this website. Many, no, most websites offering fewer resources with less affectability tend to charge teachers for the things they offer. The Partnership provides the cornucopia of products without even asking the educator to become a member of anything. That is refreshing as well as a godsend.
I should say that I generally agree with so much of what I see on this site. I do have to question the idea that we need to completely leave the concepts developed when our culture was more agrarian. For starters, I believe we need to keep in mind that there are still the more agricultural communities and cultures. I do believe that these 21st century skills can aid them; we just need to be mindful that not all students will be going into a financial or computer industry after high school.



My Students and Me

Our students are different than we were twenty years ago. I was recently in a meeting in which a fellow educator commented that students aren’t any different today than we were as students. I understand what he was talking about; he was referring to discipline and classroom behavior along with teachers being prepared for their students. However, when you think about it from this 21st century frame of mind, I would say students are very different. Our students today know how to work a computer and surf the web before they can even read. My own children are a perfect example. Every thing they do seems to be multitasking with the latest technologies. Even students who struggle with reading a novel read and comprehend vast amounts on the web (Miners and Pascopella, 2007). Partnership for 21st Century Skills has great implications for my students and me. This is literally a clearinghouse of information for educators. I have instant, free access to ideas, suggestions, resources, and strategies along with a curriculum to help me reach these contemporary students in my classroom. Not only will this help me and make me a better teacher, but by becoming better armed as I enter my class, I will be making my students more rounded and better prepared when they leave the high school.


References:

Friedman, T. (2005, April 3). It's a flat world, after all. The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). [DVD]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, “The Changing Work Environment: Part 2.” Baltimore, MD.

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.

Using Blogs in my Classroom

“Weblogs truly expand the walls of the classroom.” (Richardson, 2009) This is exactly what I want to do with and for my students. I don’t want learning to end just because the bell rings. When I was first beginning in the classroom, I thought students would just do this on their own. Boy was I wrong. True, there are the few who do. And that doesn’t mean that students are bad learners. They are just being teenagers. I have to come up with ways to keep things going after they leave my classroom. Blogging assignments can be one way I am able to do this.

One way I plan to begin using blogs with my English classes is to have my students blog as characters from the novel Battle of Jericho while we are reading it. I plan to have my students respond as characters from the novel to discuss why he/she (the character) wishes to join the Warriors of Distinction. I believe this will help to accomplish multiple goals. I want my students to comprehend the varied motivations for the different characters. It could be discussed in class, but I would like for my students to take on much of the interpretation by this point of the course. My students will gain better depth and understanding of the characters if they not only look into the characters on their own, but express this understanding by speaking or blogging as the character. This will also provide my students with an opportunity to gain insight from each other. As weblogs are a part of the World Wide Web for anyone to access (Richardson, 2009), each student will be able to read the blogs of his peers. A student might get something from another student that he didn’t get himself. It will be interesting to see the differences of interpretation here. This, too, should add to the learning for my students as they read their peers’ blogs.

Since virtually anyone can read blogs, I know that blogging will be a great way to showcase my students’ work. I am not quite yet sure how I want to utilize this. I am still working on this exactly. To my peers, I would like suggestions as to how you guys will be doing this with blogs in your curriculums.

As I become more confident and better at this, I know blogging will become one of those things that is just part of my class’s curriculum. I will probably be asking myself one day, “How did I teach and not do this?”


Reference: Richardson, Will. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Pr.

In the beginning...

I am an English teacher. I've been teaching for eleven years now, and have always felt I was ahead of my fellow teachers as far as incorporating technology into my classroom is concerned. However, I have yet to utilize blogging in my class.

Well, it is time for me to do so. I am first just trying to learn to blog myself. Once I've done so, I want to learn ways to include blogging in my curriculum.

Any ideas or tips anyone can give me as to how to incorporate blogging or make assignments inwhich my students blog I would be most happy to recieve.

Thanks. Look forward to hearing from you guys.