A Much Needed Rest

Fall break, thank heavens, has arrived! I so need this respite from the classroom. It arrived at just the right time. Last week I was thinking, 'I don't know if I can do this all year long.' And, I don't just mean teach. I mean teach, take online master's classes, and try to maintain some sanity in my family. At least for one week I will have one less thing to worry about. I think it will be just what I need to recharge and make it through to the winter break.

For the few of you still following this Blog, thank you, and at the end of this post is the link to the digital story I created in my last course. I would love to find a publisher, and am on the quest to do so.... However, if anyone has any connections, or suggestions, I would appreciate the information.

Enjoy the story and please feel free to share it!

The Little Black Sheep

What an Experience!

I cannot believe the last seven weeks have come and gone!

     I feels as if I never even had a chance to blink during TEC539. This was my most challenging course yet. Although I always learned something new in my prior courses, I already felt comfortable with the material they covered. With this last course that was never the case. It was all new to me and therefore required a lot of time, energy, and learning on my part!
     I had intended to blog and reflect throughout this course, but I just did not have the time. Besides this course, I had to set up my classroom (with the gracious help of my wonderful mother and 17 year old daughter) and begin a new school year.
     Now that it is over and my final project, a digital story, has been completed I feel such a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I am very proud of myself, what I have learned, and my story!
     I will be sharing the link to my digital story in my next post. Look for it sometime next week.
     Until then, I will be busy beginning a new course, TEC542 Development and Design of Media in Educational Settings...I think I may be entering another subject of which I currently have little or no knowledge.....

Reflections

If you have read, or visited my Blog prior to this post, you already know it was originally created as an assignment for an online class I was taking. Even though I have successfully completed the course, I have decided to keep the Blog up and running. I think it will be very beneficial to me as I continue to complete my Master courses to have a place to reflect on what I am learning. On to the next course!


Currently I am taking a course titled "TEC539 Digital Media in Education". This course focuses on digital stories, learning about,  exploring, planning, creating them, and more! It is an exciting class because I am pretty much in an uncharted area for me. I fact, I did not even know what a digital story was until the first week. For those of you who may not have an idea either, they are stories told and shared with digital tools (i.e., a computer, etc.).


So, one of my first projects was to create a video tutorial of myself teaching my students how to complete a task. Did I enjoy it? Not much, because not only can I not stand to hear myself, but I had technical difficulty after technical difficulty. Yet, I did finish and it wasn't perfect (I tend to be a perfectionist) but it will do. Thank heavens I didn't have to actually record myself, just my voice, because if there's one thing I like even less than listening to my own recorded voice it's seeing myself on video!!


I'm very relieved the next project involves taking pictures, and not pictures of me! WHEW...

Objective Tests, Friend or Foe?

            There is a time during each school year that I literally just want to skip. It brings on an instant large dose of stress, often followed by a small-medium dose of depression. Is it the beginning of the school year, when I must bid farewell to the relaxing days of my summer vacation? No, I am not a homebody, so I am usually ready to go back to school. Is it the end of the school year when I must bid farewell to my students who I have come to love throughout the year? No, although that is a sad time of the year, it is overshadowed by the amount of pride I feel for how much my students have grown and the knowledge that they are ready to move on. So, what time of the year is it that I dread? It comes in the spring.

            Ah, the beautiful spring! When the birds begin to build their nests and chirp and sing so joyously. When the bitter cold of winter begins to slip away. When the sweet flowers begin to bloom in all their glorious vibrant colors. Spring. When our state testing window opens and my 6, 7, and 8 year-old second graders must sit for a 1-2 hour span and focus, listen, concentrate, and complete a multiple choice question test designed to measure what they have learned throughout the year. Every. Single. Day. For a week and a half. Spring test stress + student frustration = my depression.

            O.K., so maybe, maybe, I am being a wee bit dramatic. Regardless, I have definitely digressed. So, back to the topic. This Blog entry is supposed to be a reflection on the idea that tests are the only objective assessments of student learning. This statement is one I completely disagree with. Tests, are only one measure of student learning, and they are not 100% objective.

            There are other options. Portfolios, oral assessments, informal observations, and various reports/projects, are all examples of alternate assessments. Some would argue that these types of assessments are too subjective. They can be, but, with a clearly stated goal set for students to reach, they can be utilized objectively. Using a rubric, to determine and measure the goal, is probably the best way to ensure objectivity. Furthermore, having other teachers grade the assessments is another effective way to add objectivity.

            Besides, objective tests questions are supposed to only have one correct answer, such as true or false, or multiple choice questions. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of objective {as the intended use in objective assessments} is, “not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion” (Retrieved July 07, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/objective).

            Unfortunately, there is always some type of personal input from the individual who designs the test(s). Therefore, a test is usually not completely objective. Yet, objective tests are very popular, particularly for online tests. In addition, throughout the course of a normal school year, my colleagues and I, administer a variety of objective tests. We start the year with a baseline test, we give formative and summative tests, CRTs (Crtierion Referenced Tests) are given at the end of each trimester, and then there is the BIG test; the California Standards Tests (CST).
            Tests may not be the only objective assessments of student learning, but they are a large part of it. Tests, objective or not, are important in education and they do help determine what students have learned. Which brings me back to my springtime stress . . . that all-important state test.

The above word cloud was created on Wordle's website located at: http://www.wordle.net/

Infused with Technology or Technology-Infused?

Confused? Wondering, “What’s the difference?” Let me explain. 
Infused with technology is what I refer to as our 21st century digital natives. Or, in plain English, children growing up today. They are infused with technology from birth (see my prior Blog entry “Teaching Students in the 21st Century”). 


On the other hand, technology-infused refers to a classroom that is equipped with (and making the most of) technology. It is a 21st century digitally enhanced classroom. So, what does a technology-infused classroom look like? A technology-infused classroom is one in which technology is integrated into lessons throughout the school day/year. Looking around one of these classrooms you would see 1:1 computers, laptops, or iPads for the students and teacher. A set of classroom student responders (clickers), a projection unit, a document camera, and an interactive whiteboard would all be present. 


And what would the students be doing in a technology-infused classroom? They would be involved in real-world authentic learning experiences. They would be working independently or in collaborative groups to solve an assigned problem or task. They might even be communicating with experts or others around the world via Skype. 


I plan to have a technology-infused classroom by volunteering to try out any new technology offered to me. (Which I actually already do and have done in the past.) Currently I have quite a bit of technology available in my classroom. I have a class set of responders, a projection unit, a document camera, and an interactive whiteboard. I also plan to ensure that I am exploiting these technology tools fully in my students’ learning process. Furthermore, I plan to try ad obtain some type of 1:1 technology hopefully through an online donation site or grant. 


I pledge to use the technology I have to meet (or exceed): my grade level standards, the common core standards, and the ISTE-NETS (the International Society for Technology in Education National Educational Technology Standards) for students/teachers!

Visual Literacy, the Internet, and My Classroom

Almost everyone has heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. This phrase applies well when discussing visual literacy. Visual literacy is the capacity to learn from information taught in the form of an image or images. Not everyone is visually literate; yet, many students are or can benefit from the use of visuals in the classroom.


Using visuals to enhance one’s teaching is not a new idea. Teachers have been doing this since the profession started (think chalk and slate). What has changed is the plethora of visuals available to today’s teachers, thanks to the Internet. Today’s teachers can, more often than not, find a visual that corresponds with the subject matter they are covering.


Visual-thinking strategies I would like to use, or do use, in my classroom that are available on the Internet for free are: posters, charts, photos, books, clipart, PowerPoint, Videos (including educational music videos), demonstrations, tutorials, and educational games.


Utilizing these strategies impacts the teaching and learning process in my classroom in a positive way. My students are more engaged and excited about the lessons. They want to participate if it is an interactive visual, they ask questions at a deeper level when they can see real life photos or demonstrations, and they are having fun while learning.


Sometimes these positive results begin with a negative because it can be time consuming to look for an appropriate visual to use for a particular subject matter. Nevertheless, the positives undeniably outweigh the negatives! This is the main reason why I choose to use these strategies.


I also want to use these strategies because I feel the Internet is a significant part of my student’s lives now and will continue to be. Therefore, it should be an important part of my classroom. However, the role of the Internet in my class should be, and I strive for it to be, educationally significant. What I mean by this is, when I incorporate the Internet into a lesson it is because it enhances my lesson, otherwise I do without using it.

Teaching Students in the 21^st Century

John Dewey once said, "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow." 

            Every year it seems less and less of my students are able to sit for any extended period of time and maintain their focus. I truly feel this is a result of all the technology available today. From the time my students wake up to the time they go to sleep, technology is a large part of their lives. They wake up and listen to music or watch cartoons, on a computer, not a radio or television. They use computers at school to practice their math facts, complete reading quizzes, and write personal narratives. In addition, they use classroom clickers (responders) to take tests. Long gone are flash cards, hand written papers, and paper and pencil quizzes and tests. Then my students go home and play video games, listen to their iPods/MP3s, or chat/post in an online community. Now, do not get me wrong, I am not saying this is a bad thing. My students are living in the Digital Age and they are embracing it 110%!

            What is bad is the way my Digital Age students are accustomed to learning. They learn best when information is presented in a multitude of ways, in short snippets, and with a high level of stimulation and interaction. Therefore, teaching students in the 21^st century requires using a variety of instructional strategies. Additionally, some of the best-suited strategies involve implementing technology.  

            Utilizing a variety of teaching strategies adds considerable value to my lessons and my students’ learning. It allows me to differentiate and therefore (hopefully) address all of the different types of learning styles in my classroom. Incorporating technology in my teaching allows me to grasp my students’ attention, sustain it, and it offers a multitude of ways to do this. For example, I can (and do) use: PowerPoint presentations, games, and videos to introduce, review, or practice concepts. In addition, I teach my students computer basics such as keyboarding, navigating our classroom website, and exploring educational websites. This, in turn, allows me to integrate even more technology teaching strategies, some of which were mentioned in my opening paragraph. Additionally, my students self-select educational games to play, master using an interactive whiteboard, and learn to use a wireless laptop computing system.

            Often, there will be about ¼ of my class working on math facts on the computers, another ¼ working on reading comprehension quizzes on the computers, ¼ peer tutoring or working in a small group, and the remaining ¼ working independently on an assignment and waiting for their turn on the computers. There is a lot of peer communication and collaboration needed for this to occur, both of which are important 21^st century skills. Furthermore, this requires my job to be that of a facilitator. I am there to help guide my students as they learn, with the goal of preparing them to become successful learners, workers, and 21^st century citizens.