Throughout this course, I have definitely improved and grown in my familiarity with technology. Becoming aware of UDL principles and implementing them in my lessons, has really helped my teaching. I have begun to see the daily practicality and have even brought it up in my PLC's at school. My skills with webquests have also grown, looking back at the first one I created years ago, the sophistication and understanding of the process has certainly improved. I would still like to work on incoporating these technologies on a daily basis in the classroom. I am able to create great resources, but do not do it on a regular basis. I would like to utilize my classroom blogs more and have students completing blogs on a weekly basis or even for homework. The biggest challenge is always finding the time to create resources and to allow students to spend the time necessary for a good blog post.
I think being a teacher in the classroom both helped and hurt this process. As I had anticipated, a first year teacher is extremely busy and ideally I would have liked to spend more time internalizing the material and making more resources to use with my students. However, also being the classroom it gave me great perspective and a purpose for instruction. I knew where my students were and their needs, as well as the instant application of material. I hope to continue to take the time and put together online resources for my students using the UDL principles and evaluating the online resources I find.
Technology seems as though it can play the role of another teacher in the classroom. In 4th grade, I have 52 students and no assistant. I would love to use more technology to be able to teach my students while I am working in small groups. This will allow for greater differentiation between my readiness levels and my classes. One example of this, is next Wednesday I will have a sub in my room, so I hope to create a voicethread to explain everything to my students and minimize theirs or the sub's confusion. Another effective strategy is to use it as the product of their learning. For example, my students are completing a project on holidays around the world and they are using research, a social bookmarking for acceptable sites, google maps, wallwisher, and blogs to express what they have learned. We also created a voicethread with our visualizations of The Night Before Christmas, and each student recorded their part. Technology can be so effective in allowing you to differentiate and to instruct, while giving students the practice of independent learning.
As I gain familiarity with web-based technologies, it becomes increasingly easier to implement them. For example, I remember the first website that I created, years ago and the time it took me to be able to format and embed various resources. Now, I have about 10 websites and 5 blogs that I maintain. In creating the StAIR, I saw the need for a Georges Melies website that was conducive to student learning, so I created one. The same has occurred with blog formats, voicethread, and prezi. I struggle with some other resources, but I know the more I use them, the more familiar I will become and will be able to effectively use them on a regular basis.
My personal goals were to be able to feel comfortable using more technology and using it more effectively in my lessons. Now that we have mobile labs at my school, I really do feel I have met my goal. I think that this class not only introduced me to a couple resources I was not aware of, such as MERLOT, and I have learned to use them in a practical way. Although I feel I had a large amount of background knowledge in technology, I was able to push myself further to be able to meet my goal and get a lot out of the class.
Now my goal is to continue to explore and proceed with my Masters. I hope to continue to explore web 2.0 and increase my familiarity and comfort in using a larger variety of tools. However, I have also realized through this course that it is not the amount of resources, but rather the quality within them. If my students are not using a tool well, or I am not using a tool well, then there is no reason to keep adding technologies on before others are completed. I have had a problem with just moving my students on through project with technology, and not allowing them to truly explore and make it their own. I have done a much better job with that during the most recent holiday project. My plan is to create more tools and familiarize myself with more resources to get to the comfort level of using and integrating them into my classroom more regularly. Long-term, I would love to provide professional development on technology or teach online courses about technology to help bring teachers into the 21st century. I have already presented on tools I am using in my classroom at a staff meeting, but would continue to explore. It would be nice to have a course on the ipad and app tool associated with that. Those apps could be a session in this online course, to help teachers better use and understand the prospects of the ipad.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Online Teaching Experiences
After reading and exploring this document, there were several resources that I am already utilizing or have in the past. One technology that I had not explored before were the Online Field Trips. This is an excellent resource! With previous classes, I have created my own virtual field trip using pictures from my visit, maps, and other resources, but had not sought out pre-created field trips.
What content could this help you teach?
In fourth grade, we teach North Carolina history. This resource could greatly help in our Social Studies and Reading classes because the students would be able to explore places they had never been. In our rural community, many of our students are not able to travel at all and have never been outside of the small city limits. It has been very eye opening at how little knowledge they have about the outside world and recognition of other cities and states. These field trips could really open their eyes without leaving the classroom. Similarly, it would increase their ability to visualize places when we are reading about them.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
There are countless pedagogical strategies that would be used with these Online Learning Experiences. One that I would use with the field trips would be independent study. The students would explore these field trips independently during stations or at home for homework. This may also involve note-taking so that the students know what they are responsible for getting out of the field trip and to keep them on task during their independent study. Many of the characteristics mentioned in the document appeal to me for the classroom. I would really like to use a gradual release of responsibility to the point where students are utilizing class time to complete their blog or explore the field trips, but eventually be able to assign it for the week and have them take the responsibility to finish the assignment either on their own or at home. To begin, I would need to use primarily teacher involvement and then work toward their collaboration between students.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
Given the age of my students, some of these technologies seemed like they would be more challenging to incorporate in a meaningful way. Some of these would be RSS feeds, Online Resource Evaluation, and Career Planning. At this point in time, Career Planning is not a productive use of time within my classroom and many students are very unsure as to what they would like to do for a career. That is not an exploration that would be a possibility for them to do independently. I also think my students would have a difficult time utilizing or understanding an RSS feed and it's application. On previous research projects, my studetnts really struggled to find resources to use online with the computer teacher, and so it seems very challenging to ask them to evaluate the site after finding it.
What content could this help you teach?
In fourth grade, we teach North Carolina history. This resource could greatly help in our Social Studies and Reading classes because the students would be able to explore places they had never been. In our rural community, many of our students are not able to travel at all and have never been outside of the small city limits. It has been very eye opening at how little knowledge they have about the outside world and recognition of other cities and states. These field trips could really open their eyes without leaving the classroom. Similarly, it would increase their ability to visualize places when we are reading about them.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
There are countless pedagogical strategies that would be used with these Online Learning Experiences. One that I would use with the field trips would be independent study. The students would explore these field trips independently during stations or at home for homework. This may also involve note-taking so that the students know what they are responsible for getting out of the field trip and to keep them on task during their independent study. Many of the characteristics mentioned in the document appeal to me for the classroom. I would really like to use a gradual release of responsibility to the point where students are utilizing class time to complete their blog or explore the field trips, but eventually be able to assign it for the week and have them take the responsibility to finish the assignment either on their own or at home. To begin, I would need to use primarily teacher involvement and then work toward their collaboration between students.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
Given the age of my students, some of these technologies seemed like they would be more challenging to incorporate in a meaningful way. Some of these would be RSS feeds, Online Resource Evaluation, and Career Planning. At this point in time, Career Planning is not a productive use of time within my classroom and many students are very unsure as to what they would like to do for a career. That is not an exploration that would be a possibility for them to do independently. I also think my students would have a difficult time utilizing or understanding an RSS feed and it's application. On previous research projects, my studetnts really struggled to find resources to use online with the computer teacher, and so it seems very challenging to ask them to evaluate the site after finding it.
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