Amazing......

This is kind of mindboggling....


Created by Online Education

Educational Technology.....Goals.....Future....

In looking back to the last few months in my master's program I have found many interesting things.  The latest course has really helped me to try new things, and to allow others to help show me new things also.  I may know alot of things about the latest technologies, but there is still lots to learn!  To increase student acievement with technology I am going to utilize the 21st century skills within the classroom.  By having projects that students have to collaborate on, and work together on, students will gain more experience and knowledge of the skills necessary for the future work environment.  Even if we are not using technology, I can still prepare my students for the skills and attitudes necessary for the future.  I am laying the ground work for future teachers to add in the other components that students will need.

One goal I am looking to accomplish in the next couple of years is to have mp3 players for students to listen to reading.  I believe that students need to hear good readers and follow along in their books.  I am writing a proposal in DonorsChoose.org to ask for the materials, as well as from families for the players, books, and supplies to continue having the mp3 players available.  Another goal that I would like to attain is to utilize more web 2.0 tools within the classroom.  By having a class website, wiki, and blogs that students contribute to, students can take more ownership and responsibility for their learning.

I have really enjoyed a class that I was able to try out the technology, but also to hear the pedagogy behind them!

Podcast....Technology and Students

Here is the Podcast I created.  I interviewed four fourth graders and how they use technology.  It was very interesting to hear their thoughts on how they use technology and what they want to use technology for.  Even students are wishing that everyone had a computer!

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Digital native or Digital immigrant?

This week we focused on the debate over digital natives and digital immigrants. Dr. David Thornburg and Hall Davidson discuss the differences and what characteristics each have. Digital natives would be people who grew up with technology all around them, they have been immersed in technology from the beginning. Digital immigrants would be older generations who are not as accustomed to technology and it is still very new to them. I also watched a video about millennial and neomillennial learning styles from Dr. Chris Dede. I was very interested in his thoughts about how these types of learners are developing.

Here is my discussion post with my opinion about the debate.......
Before watching the debate between Dr. David Thornburg and Hall Davidson, I felt that students were born with many different learning styles. Listening to Dr. Chris Dede speaking about the millennial and neomillennial learning styles had me thinking more about how our brain is originally wired and how learning styles develop.

In the debate over digital natives and digital immigrants, I agree with Thornburg in his point about how age should not determine whether someone is a digital native or a digital immigrant. I believe it depends on a person’s experiences with technology and where their interests lay. I am one of the younger teachers who had an Apple IIe in my classroom, and a few years later a computer in the home. I grew up with TV’s and games available with many restrictions. I am in the under 40 club of teachers. Many of my coworkers who are the same age, are not interested in technology. Technology is a challenge to them and they are not interested in using it unless they see ways that it can easily fit into their teaching style. It is always a debate with them about new technology available and how it can be used. Often times, they will let me show them things and how I’ve used it, and even the successes of my students, and yet they are still hesitant about bringing it into their classroom. They are curious about it, but not comfortable enough to utilize it. There are also staff members who are above the 40 mark who have absolutely no interest in technology, yet try it, and those who go above and beyond to input technology into their classroom. The technology coordinator for our building is over 40 years old and she is enthusiastic about technology and how it can benefit students. She is always the cheerleader for trying new things in the classroom.

When Dr. Thornburg began discussing how “education is still frozen in a precomputer world” and how methodology is still a paper-based mindset, I wanted to scream. This has been a frustration of mine in the last few years. To move out of this paper-based classroom is incredibly frustrating with limitations from administration and parents. There are so many things I would like to try to work on with my students, but I do not know how much I will be able to accomplish because of these limitations. I will continue to encourage and challenge all of my students and their various learning styles, whether it is digitally, paper based or (hopefully) both.

21st Century Skills website pondering....

The website for 21st Century skills is an amazing resource!  The front page was difficult to follow and reads like a textbook (ick!).  However, it can guide a reader through the the information about what 21st Century Skills are and how business are working with classrooms to fund the tools necessary.  The most helpful resource on the site that I found was the online tools.  I was able to research different lessons at Route 21 to help infuse my classroom with technology rich activities.  I was able to find a curriculum map for each content area.  It lists many different activities and projects to foster the skills for the 21st Century.  I plan on printing it out and using it as a guide to focus the project based tasks for my students.

I was disapointed, but not surprised, to see that Alaska was not on the list of states with the 21st Century Skills initiative.  No matter how much technology our state puts into the hands of our rural students, our state is still behind the curve.

The implications for my students, and myself are education.  I will look to the online tools to broaden my base of ideas for implementing technology in the classroom.  This site will also be a resource to use to remind myself of the type of students that are in my classroom.  For my students, we will look to the projects to get ideas of ways that we can implement more technology in the classroom.

21st Century Skills for Students......Fisherpeople

This week, I listened to Dr. Chris Dede speak in the program "Technology Interfaces" from Laurete Education, Inc.  I was really interested in the idea of how teacher's roles have changed.  The workplace has changed and so must the learning environment that these future employees come from.

In this week’s resources, I was intrigued with the message of teaching students not just a program’s menus and tools to tweak things, but on the rhetoric of those programs. When should students use wikis, blogs, and videoconferences? I see this as being my challenge as a teacher. I am not teaching students the information as much as I am teaching them how to find information to answer their questions, and what is the proper platform to present their information. The 21st century skills for students require them to be more responsible for their learning. Are students ready for this?

In my classroom, I plan to change my role as the answer book, to the informational guide. By using blogs, wikis, and my webpage, I hope to collect valuable resources for students to utilize. Having more opportunities for project based learning and more team oriented assignments, I hope to instill the collaboration and communication skills that are necessary in the future work environment. By creating a classroom that fosters teamwork, communication, and problem solving, I hope to address many of the needs of my 21st century learners.

I am using the courses at Walden to improve my flexibility with technology. I will never know as much as my students do about technology, but we can all learn about it together. These courses are reminding me that it is about trying new things without a teacher’s guide. Thinking like my students, just pushing a button and learning from the mistakes and celebrations of others is extremely valuable learning.

Image from WWF   http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/own_goals/overfishing/

Wiki Wiki Wonderful five times fast!!!!

This week a group of online classmates and myself created a wiki.  A whata??  A wiki is an online collaborative site.  We were able to create a site that housed all the wonderful blog resources we have found so far.  I am hoping that our group continues to add to the wiki and really utilizes it as a place to share valuable resources.  Here is our wiki website: technologyandteachersoutofthewoods.pbworks.com/ Try it out!

Our posting for the week was a reflection of the wiki process and how we might use a wiki in the future.  The following is my reflection to the wiki we created.

In creating the wiki this week, there were some high and low moments in the process.  It was frustrating working with a group of such different backgrounds, and needs.  When starting the process I was unsure of how our wiki should develop and to what purpose it would eventually serve.  I find that I need to have lots of clarification about the end result. 

The low points were the frustrations with communication.  I was unsure of the result and so I was frustrated with exactly how to proceed.  My group members were fabulous in communicating all the steps and changing things to help improve our wiki.  It would have helped if we had a chance to get to know each other better before working on a team project.  I tend to be very concerned with people’s feelings, I really did not want to step on any toes, and so I was more hesitant to do too much on the wiki.  I would have liked to know my classmates better so that we were all confident in changing things if needed, recommending different directions, or getting feedback that was helpful.

The high points in creating the wiki, was my group members.   We all did our piece of the project to make it a great resource.  Everyone was able to contribute with his or her talents to improve the wiki.  I also really appreciated the simplicity approach we all seemed to have.

With my students, identifying the final outcome of the project would be the most beneficial.  I like how the wiki shows all the changes each person makes.  Giving students a complete structure and ideas for each step of the way would help my students.  I would also have a rubric to identify the different components necessary and a chance for students to identify each role that they will take in the wiki.  At this time, I do not know if I will use a wiki in the classroom.  It would be more beneficial as a staff resource.  I have used a wiki in collaborating a training that a group of staff members attended.  It was very helpful to have a place to put our information and the different steps we were going to take to implement the information within our building.  It would also be very helpful to have a school wiki where staff could find documents, calendars, and another way to voice opinions about the information at the school.

Classroom vs. Workplace

In the assignment I had this week, I had to think about the disconnect between the classroom and the workplace.  It made me really start to think about our curriculum and the purpose for students to be in school.  What are we preparing students for?  How can we predict what students will need in 10, 20, or 30 years from now when they are in the workplace.  Does it all come back to the rules we learned in Kindergarten? 

The disconnect between the business world and my classroom grows larger everyday.  With technology changing daily there is no way I can prepare my students for each new shiny-fancy-thing. 

Businesses rely on different communication skills that students, these days, seem to be lacking.  There is a larger emphasis for people to communicate effectively and to work cohesively with a team.  Many of these traits are things we work on in school.

Our schools writing scores on the Standards Based Assessments continue to go down.  Our students are not communicating in writing as effectively as they should.  Why should they write drawn out passages when texting, and short phrases are the norm in social networking?  The ease of technology stifles the complete thoughts, and description necessary to communicate successfully.

Students are working as a team and building their community networks, yet they have difficulty when interacting face to face.  Social etiquette is not as emphasized with students or their families. 

As an educator, my role is to continue teaching the content necessary to be educated in the world today, but also to teach students how to make smart choices they are responsible for.  For students to learn how to be flexible, to adapt to change quickly, and how to find reliable and trusted resources it will take more changes within the classroom to bridge the gap with the workplace.

All I Really Need To Know
I Learned In Kindergarten 

by Robert Fulghum

- an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.  ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:  

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

© Robert Fulghum, 1990.
Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com by Mark A. Hicks, illustrator.

Blogs....Safety....Permissions

I've been contemplating how I can incorporate blogs in my classroom, and it really started me thinking about internet safety.  How can my students learn to blog if I haven't touched on being safe and appropriate on the internet.  Just last week, I had to make sure all my student's parents signed the appropriate use forms for their students to use the computer.  On the same form was permission to publish student's names, email addresses, and participate in videoconferences.  The form was very vague and nondescript as to the uses, or possibilities that our classroom might be using technology for.


My question is... What permissions would I need for students to participate in a blog?

I have thought of several ways that I would love to use blogs in my 4th grade classroom.  I thought I would start with asking a question and students commenting on the question.  I plan on making a bulletin board to start, so students can see how a blog operates.  By posting within the classroom first, I would like students to get comfortable with writing for a broader audience within our building, and then move to a blog on the internet with an even larger audience. 

I have also spoken with another teacher at a different school about colaborating on projects.  We have talked about doing blogs with a book talk setting, as well as a wiki for writing projects.  By already having in place a specific audience, it has helped me feel more comfortable with the process.

Eventually, I hope to use blogs as a way to extend student thinking in all of our subjects.  Why not discuss math problems along with books, writing, and science questions! 

It all starts with laying the appropriate groundwork........We have LOTS to do!!

Report Cards...Halloween....Conferences!

Whew!
It has been a whirlwind!  Each year I get to this point of the year and feel steamrolled and stretched to the max.  I know it is a rollercoaster ride until January after this point, but I am wiped out!  For some reason I feel a couple months behind where I should be in school.  However, my students are doing what they should, lessons are getting completed, students are learning, and yet I have this nagging thought that I need to be prepared for.....something.  At the end of the year I usually wish that I had started something earlier or took more time on certain lessons.  One of my personal goals is to be better organized.  By being more organized I might actually feel like I can reflect on how things are going at school and at home!  If I had taken the time to document my reflections and look at my plans from the year before I might feel better prepared when the whole world gets flipped upside down!

In short....Reflect in my lesson plans so I can look back and improve upon my lessons, and professionalism!

CREDE

I've enjoyed learning about Dr. Tharp's CREDE standards. First let me explain... CREDE stands for Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (http://crede.berkeley.edu/) Their 5 theories are important to any classroom, but highly effective for classrooms with English language students. The theories are:

1.Teacher and students working together
2.Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum
3.Connecting school to students' lives
4.Engaging students with challenging lessons
5.Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

I feel that I am working on all these theories with all my students. I think that I am implementing many of these theories within my classroom. When working on a lesson, I listen to the students and the questions they are asking. This leads the discussions and much of the information that follows. When they get excited about a topic within our unit I try to foster that inquisitiveness. We spend time finding answers for the questions students are interested in.

There is soooo much information to cover in our curriculum. I try to create word walls, and word collectors for students to cope with all the vocabulary we encounter. I need to find more ways of collecting and connecting the words to students. It should be important to students for them to fully understand and use the words.

One of my favorite activities that I use often is to share with neighbors. Whenever there is a point in the lesson that students start to "check out" or are disengaged I have them share or answer a question with their shoulder partner or face partner. It helps to have them check their understanding and to refocus on the lesson. Other times I will have them stand up, hand up, and pair up a few times. Each time they pair up they have to answer a question. Sometimes the questions are fun and about the students. Other times it is an academic question to extend their learning. I randomly call on students to answer the question they just talked about, or to share what their partner talked about. I think that in this way it helps all students to get their thoughts out and then to have to "present" their information. It keeps them accountable because no one knows who will have to share and what.