Im Just A Teacher So What Do I Know

Please click here to view my digital presentation that I have created about online learning in grades k-12.

I hope you find it informative!

Through completing this course and the assignments each week, I now realize that I have already been differentiating within my inclusion classroom. I was not familiar with Universal Design for Learning but was also implementing most of the principles from that as well. Now that I am familiar and comfortable with UDL principles and strategies I will begin to make sure my lessons are designed with UDL and DI as the main focus so that all of my students will experience academic success in my classroom. I will continue to use technology to enhance the curriculum that my students are learning and use that as my main tool for differentiating. I plan to place a huge emphasis on getting to know each one of my students so that I can provide differentiation based on their strengths, interests, and learning profiles. One goal that I have set for myself is to continue researching and implementing new technological resources that are available to me and stay on top of new technology trends.

I have sincerely enjoyed this course and am thankful that we have our differentiation station groups so that all of my resources can be stored in one place. I am currently working on placing those resources on our schools server so that they are available to all of the teachers in my building. I am also planning on presenting my UDL presentation to our faculty to help other teachers become familiar with this information. I know that the best thing I can do with all of the knowledge I have gained from this course is to put it into practice and share it with others.

•Reflect on the GAME plan you developed and followed throughout the course.

I think I have developed and started working on a pretty solid GAME plan throughout this 8 week course. I plan on using my game plan with my students to help them begin to master the technology standards outlined in the NETS-S. My goal is have my students each year leave my room with a solid foundation of how technology is important in the lives. I want them to leave my classroom comfortable using a variety of technologies that will be important in their everyday lives.

•Summarize any new learning that resulted from your following your GAME plan and explain what impact your new learning will have on your instructional practice.

I am very excited about the new learnings I experienced at the Promethean Training and have already been working this summer on a plan of how I am going to go back to my school and help other teachers become more proficient with using their Promethean boards. I am so excited to have the knowledge to use the new Promethean Boards correctly and am looking forward to seeing my test scores increase as a result.

•Describe any immediate adjustments you will make to your instructional practice regarding technology integration in your content area(s) as a result of your learning from this course.

I am going to have to adjust to teaching in a totally different way now that I have a Promethean Board in my classroom. Traditional teaching is out the door at this point and I am now going to have to work hard on getting used to teaching with this new technology. I also am going to start doing more digital projects with my students after learning about them in this course. My first step will be getting my students to successfully complete a digital storytelling project. I know my students will greatly benefit from participating in these digital projects and will hopefully help them to retain the information they learn while in my class.

Post your thoughts and ideas about how you will use the GAME plan process with your students to help them develop proficiency in the technology standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S. Reach out to your colleagues in this learning community for assistance if needed.

After looking through the NETS for students and teachers I noticed that they are very similar. I think the most important part for students is that promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. I feel that this is very important for the 21st century learner! Critical thinking and problem solving skills aren't easy to teach to students and I think using technology is an excellent way of incorporating these skills into the curriculum.

My plan for the upcoming school year is to familarize my students with the NET standards and help each of them develop a personalized GAME plan. I want to focus on Technology Operations/Concepts and Digital Citizenship. These are the two areas that I feel are very important for my 3rd grade studetns. I feel that they need a strong grasp on how technologies works and can be used effectively. I also want them to understand the safe & legal ways to use technology. I feel confident that after taking this course I will be equipped with the tools necessary to help my student develop and carry out their very one GAME plan.

References:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicatiors for Teachers. retrieved fromhttp://www.iste.o-Trg/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

• What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice? What goals are you still working toward?

I have learned a variety of new techniques and strategies to use with my Promethean Board at the training I attended last week. I am still currently working on implementing those techniques into flipcharts and becoming proficient at them so I can sucessfully teach other teachers how to do these techniques at upcoming workshops and training that I will be holding once the school year begins. I am still working on organizing and planning out exactly how I will carry out these training for our faculty.

• If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?

I am not yet at the stage where I want to set new learning goals. This is due simply to the fact that school is not in session. When I return in August I plan on setting new learning goals at that time. I will extend on what I have learned so far by training other teachers in my building/district on how to use their Promethean Boards correctly in the classroom. I also plan on attending several of the online courses that Promethean has to offer. I am currently signed up to attend the Activexpression webinar so that I can learn more about using them to assess the students in the classroom.

• What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?

I plan to continue to say on top of the current technology trends and how to implement them into my classroom. I will continue to improve my learning of the Promethean Board and all of its components so that our school can utilize them correctly, maximizing our test scores.

I am excited this week to evaluate my GAME plan because I am attending a major training this week that meets one of my goals in my GAME plan. I will finish this training on Friday and then will be a certified trainer for Promethean.

What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
Even though I am attending an extensive training, there is still so much I have left to learn. One area that I need to learn more about and that I am having questions about is creating tests using the Activexpression (hand held devices). The training that I am attending this week does not cover that topic and it is something that I am wanting to start using with my assessments.

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I will adjust my plan to fit my current needs by enrolling in an online course on www.prometheanplanet.com that goes into how to create self-paced test on the Activexpressions. I will also be watching videos that are provided on this topic in the ActivTips section of the website.

In last week's blog I identified my GAME plan for strengthening my confidence in two of the indicators in the NETS-T. This week I am going to be addressing the following points

To carry out my plan I will need to locate information on the safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. I need to make sure I am fully aware of this information so that I can appropriately teach it to my students and embed it into my everyday curriculum. My plan is to research those topics on the Internet and become fully aware of the laws and rules that are associated with using digital information in the classroom.

Some additional information that I will need will be to find more about the copyright laws that are associate with the Promethean Board. I will need this information so that the teachers in my building are also aware of the usage rules that accompany the boards. They will need to know how sharing of the flip charts work and how to cite the sources that they are using when creating flip charts.

Step#3 Determine how you will monitor your progress.

In order to monitor my progress for standard 4 my plan is to design rubrics for my students to utilize when creating digital projects. This rubric will include ethical use of digital information and documenting sources. By embedding this into my projects I will be holding students accountable for this standard and not making it an option. When grading the different digital projects I will be able to see first hand if the students are able to accomplish this task and reflect on my teaching of this skill.

To monitor my progress for standard 5 my plan is create a survey that my fellow co-workers can complete after attending my trainings which will allow them to give feed back on my progress. I also plan to create polls and send them out to the faculty so that teachers can indicate which areas they need more help in so that I can modify my trainings to meet their needs.

Step#4 Decide how you will evaluate and extend your learning.

To evaluate and extend my learning I plan to participate in the Promethean Forum and Blogs so that I can stay on top of current trends and problems that are occurring. I will collaborate with the other teacher in my building who will also be a certified Promethean trainer so that we can make plans to extend our learning together.

I have always considered myself to be a tech-savvy teacher and know that in order to maintain this status I must continually develop GAME plans that not only focuses on my growth but also the growth of my students and my fellow teachers.
References:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and PErformance Indicatiors for TEachers. retrieved from http://www.iste.o-Trg/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/For Teachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

As I reflect back on my personal theory of learning from week one of this course, I do not see that I need to make an major modifications. I discussed in my paper from week one that I feel that it is important to teach to the different learning styles that are present in my classroom and I still believe that is very important. I did learn through this course different technology tools and learning theories that will help me to continue in my quest to teach to the different learning styles in my classroom.

There are two technology tools that I am very excited to begin implementing into my lesson plans. One of those is the voice thread technology tool. I have actually already complete one of these with my students and I went over very well. Another technology tool that I have began to implement into my curriculum is concept mapping. In our school we have a software program call Kidspiration that allows us to create different types of concept maps with our students using both text and pictures. Both of these technology tools allow my students to construct learning while working and also working with partners. This makes learning more exciting and meaningful for the learner.

One goal I have for myself and my students is to move more toward a paper free classroom. I would like to move away from worksheets and paper activities and depend more on technology tools and virtual projects. Another goal I have is to incorporate Skype into my lessons and network more with other schools. I think that having students work with students from other regions and cultures will greatly benefit them better prepare them to be successful in the work force. I already started working on both of these goals and I fully anticipate on reaching both of them.

Here is the link to my voice thread http://voicethread.com/share/784202/

Chapter 7, Cooperative Learning, is an excellent resource for involving more social learning theory into your classroom while also integrating technology. The resources listed in the chapter were probably some of my favorite thus far. My favorite portion of the chapter was the "Keypals" section on page 145. Under this heading were several ways to connect students from around the globe together to work collaboratively on projects and assignments. I think this is an excellent idea, as I have always been a big fan of "pen pals". I think allowing students to work with students from other cities, states, and countries is an excellent way to prepare students to be global communicators. It also exposes students to other cultures and points of view that they wouldn't have otherwise experienced. I think Skype is another excellent tool that allows students to connect socially with other students and work face-to-face with students that they may or may not know.

All of this week's resources directly correlate with the social learning theory because they focus on students working together, constructing knowledge, and conversating about what they are learning.

This week's assigned reading was Chapter 11 in our course text which was focused on generating and testing hypotheses. The book states that "When students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content" (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008). This is very important for students as it requires them to use higher order thinking skills while allowing them to "construct" learning through testing different hypotheses. This is what the constructionist theory is all about.

Chapter 11 shows how to use interactive spreadsheets with students so that they can organize data while testing different hypotheses. This is a technology application that allows students to create a plan and compare their predictions. It saves students time and also reduces the amount of error in the hypotheses. Through using these interactive probes students are constructing their own learning and not relying on a teacher to give them all of the information. The chapter goes on to discuss data collection tools and digital probes which I was not familiar with. I have not used probeware with my third grade students so I was a little unsure of how those work. I was able to gather that digital probes are another way of students collecting data and creating a digital representation of the data, again aligning with the constructionist theory of learning.

Students are typically more engaged when participating in project-based learning and chapter 11 gives some excellent ideas on how to implement more project-based learning into your curriculum through the use of generating and testing hypotheses.


References
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

I completed my very first podcast! Check it out and tell me what you think......

Also, here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Dik9sc3M8