Monday, July 30, 2012
Workshop Research Cliffnotes
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Counting Plan
In the teacher world, my focus is completely different. How many of my students say please or thank you? How long does it take the average student to go to the bathroom and at what length of time should I be concerned? How many students are present today? How many copies do I make of this assignment? How many pages did they read for homework? My daily life is consumed by numbers at school, and I am only a reading teacher. The increasing amount of data driven instruction adds to those numbers, how many students mastered the concept? How many words did they read in a minute? What is their AR level and how many points is that book worth? It is truly shocking when you think about the countless numbers we encounter regularly.
I would like my counting plan to tie into my research topic. How many minutes are students given to write (or read) in one day? This count will be collected as a poll from all teachers anonymously. In that poll I would also ask the subject they teach. Moving to Common Core Standard Course of Study, literacy should be present in every classroom regardless of the subject. Students may read nonfiction texts and respond to them, they should read and write word problems in math, they should be able to explain and justify their answers, they should be able to explain the process they followed to reach that solution, etc.
I would like to count this because research states that students should spend at least 90 minutes a day in literacy. I am afraid that although they are getting a 90 minute literacy block (in some grades), that instructional time is being somewhat lost and the 90 minutes are not preserved. Another concern may be the honesty of the teachers completing the poll. Using the information, I would be able to support other teachers to incorporate reading and writing in their lessons, or encourage teachers to find other ways to allow students additional literacy time.
By including literacy in all classrooms, reading and writing become interdisciplinary and will make up for the instructional minutes lost in Language Arts class. These results may also support the need for additional time spent reading and writing or homework, to insure that 90 minutes are spent daily. The connection of literacy between the classroom and home is also supported by the research I found. Literacy cannot stop at the end of the school day, they need to see the continuation of reading and writing in all aspects of their life. To truly be proficient according to Common Core, students need to see the ties of literacy across all subjects and dedicate the time to practicing those skills. Through this counting plan, it would confirm or deny the need for additional efforts in all classes to allow for literacy to take place, and may even prove that this may be an immediate concern. If proven that very little time is dedicated daily, then it would further emphasize the need for writing workshop in all Language Arts classroom, and may change the way that my school looks at literacy and our curriculum. Additionally, this could lead to action research through which a team of teachers really evaluates and practices a variety of ways through which literacy can be used in other subjects (math, science, social studies, even the specials classes – art and music). This counting plan may lead a realization and confirmation that there is not enough time truly utilized for literacy in the day.
Literature Review
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Annotated Bibliography
Monday, July 9, 2012
Common Core Writing and Reading Programs: Introduction
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
CEP 800 Reflection
Lesson Plan Reflection
Timetoast African Americans throughout History
Sunday, June 17, 2012
CEP 800: Lesson Plan
My lesson for 4th Grade Readers on
Notable African Americans through History
asks my students to read biographies, and identify facts and main ideas to summarize that individual. They are then expected to add an entry for that person on our class timeline at Timetoast. This entry should include the lifespan of the person, the summary of their life, and a picture if the student is able.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Digital Storytelling
Listen to our story through this video or go to Youtube
Sunday, May 27, 2012
CEP 800 Audio Production
On this blog, I will display assignments, projects, and reflections as I continue through this program. The first assignment we have is for an audio production. I completed this assignment by interviewing upper elementary students about locations and attractions within the United States. The student in this audio file was asked verbal questions as well as hoping that he could point to the location on a map of the US as well. The audio portion is included in this file, and I have given some description as to the success of their ability to locate the sites on a map.
The United States Mismappings
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Wicked Project Final
This is Linnea Czerney, speaking to you about my Wicked Project, I apologize for the difficulty you must be having understanding me, but I have lost my voice.
As a first year teacher, in a completely new environment, I found myself struggling to have effective communication with parents. In the past, the students’ agenda has been a very useful tool, but many of my students will remove a note from their agenda, lose it, or continuously “forget” to show the note to their parent.
After completing 50+ parent teacher conferences, the need has never been clearer for more effective parent communication. This has been an ongoing process with trial and error, but I hope that the inclusion of more technology availability will help to allow parents to be more involved and more informed about their child's class as well as their performance within that course. I have tried several methods to communicate, but not through technology. This is so important because so often parents are not involved because their student does not convey the message of homework or the material we are covering in class.
I had created a website for my classroom, but had been using it for educational resources geared toward my students, rather than using it as an informational tool to communicate with parents. When realizing the problem I was having, I immediately decided to use technology to help ease the communication between parents and teachers. Although I recognize that this is not a cure all, and is virtually useless to parents without internet access, I found technology and a website to offer many solutions to this problem.
To begin, I created a survey using Google Forms to give parents input and influence in the direction of my project. The resounding results told me that these parents wanted to have access to homework pages, school information, and access to grades. With that in mind, I made several changes to my website and sent mass emails to parents informing them about the website and what was going on in our classroom.
I then took their feedback and implemented a variety of technology tools in attempts to ease their concerns.
In the survey I had parents create a code name for their student. Some parents returned the survey in paper form, and some did not fully understand the purpose of the code name. I had one student’s parent choose the name of another student in the class, and one parent give their child’s name for the code name. I then had to email them to have this changed, and include further explanation of the code names. I then used these codes to begin using engrade, per feedback, I have been practicing with this before I make it public to parents. I also wanted to get the rest of my grade level on board and they have not, so although I set up engrade and hope to use it in the future, the rest of my team would not agree on this grade level decision.
Another aspect that has not been used at all, is the feedback option I posted on the site. Parents have not used this feature at all. I have kept our class google calendar up to date on the website, and parents have referenced this as helpful in emails. In addition to the calendar, I added an “announcement” feature on the site so that they are able to have up to date important announcements.
Lastly, parents wanted access to homework assignments after students have lost them. These are posted under the homework tab, when applicable. This last week, my students did not have homework, so there was nothing to post. Through emails, parents have also mentioned that this has been useful to them.
The amount of parent communication through email has greatly increased from the use of technology, which is much easier for a teacher, who cannot make phonecalls whenever necessary with students in the classroom. Many have utilized email and informed us of this through the survey.
I have seen the amazing effects of the increased parental communication, but have also seen the aspects in which technology could not solve the problem or features that were not as beneficial as I anticipated. I have proof through my website that there has been increased use. Since beginning this project, there have only been 3 days that my class website was not accessed, and this graph illustrates the unique users that have utilize the sites features.
There is still more that I would like to develop on my website and need to continue to remind myself that technology will not fix all the problems of communication, but is an excellent aid in this ongoing process. As teacher parent communication increases, I would like to increase the tools and information that is accessible through this site. As commented through feedback for this project, I need to ensure that this is not overwhelming and I take the process one step at a time. If I bombard my parents with tools they are expected to use, it may have a negative effect.
Overall, I am very happy and satisfied with the results of my project. I have asked parents for their input about the increased technology and availability of content and information to them, and it has been greatly appreciate. Is the problem completely solved? No, but I have taken several steps in the right direction, to bridge the gap between home and the classroom.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Group Leadership Project
Group Leadership Project
Part 1 How to get started with Prezi by Lisa Napierala
http://screencast.com/t/STGZvwBV
Part 2 How to move, rotate, scale and zoom by Steve Veldman http://screencast.com/t/C8PFKglY3Svt
Part 3 How to use frames and create a path by Linnea Czerney http://screencast.com/t/GzKcHHAf
Part 4 How to invite others to view by Amanda Kain
http://screencast.com/t/8umJelEDrRr
Prezi:
http://prezi.com/hghw3c2dogey/copy-of-technology/
Professional Learning Plan
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Mobile Learning Lab
One way I explored to use mobile technology is the polling. It would be a great way for teachers to do fun checks for understanding or polls to get to know their students. Teachers could set up a poll of the day to connect to content material or just to better understand their students as individuals. I definitely would like to bring this up to my principal to discuss the options for this. Our superintendent is very pro- mobile learning using cell phones, however, he has not found great ways to have teachers regulate this usage. When we are told to take away cell phones that are brought out during the school day, it is hard to then ask students to use theirs during class for instructional purposes. If we could tap into the potential of polling with texts, texting answers, using apps for learning, allowing them to use the camera feature on the phone, or the internet as a resource - it may greatly increase participation and peak students' internet. Strict expectations would need to be outlined in the beginning, and they would need to be enforced. Students would not be able to participate if this is abused. I also think that it is impertinent that a set of cell phones be given to students, not asking them to use their own. I think eventually, or based on the grade, each student may be expected to have a cell phone, but in elementary it is not fair to expect that. Another issue may be asking students to use their minutes, data, or texts to participate in school.
Through this lap, I explored quite a few of the topics. I was recently given an Ipad for TFA and finally got internet access. i explored several apps that would be useful in the classroom. This led me to organizing the apps on my Ipad and thinking deeper how I can better use my Ipad on a daily basis. I think that this would be great in small groups or as a reward for performance or good behavior. I also gave more consideration to the idea of e-books. We have a few internet accounts that I have used, such as tumble books and e-books our library has purchased, but there are countless more resources out there. We have mobile laptop carts and my Ipad to use these e-readers. I think this would be a good poll for my students to see how they feel about reading books on a screen versus in print. We have asked about the possibility of kindles for the students, but I think first we need to consider if they are more or less engaged in e-readers, and what effect this has on their comprehension. Maybe it is a generational thing, but I personally need to hold a book in my hand when reading novels, but informational texts I read better on a computer.
One big push this year was the purchase of a flip camera. We have talked a lot as a grade level about "flipping your classroom" This is an excellent video that fully explains the concept. I think that this will really help my Wicked project as I continue to include to communicate with parents lessons in my classroom. However, it has been challenging to get my hands on one of the cameras.