Chapter 10

My reading this week gave me some great ideas. I was able to relate ideas in the book to my own experiences, the ideas as to what I think might work in my future classroom.

 I also took the liberty to ask them teachers what their thoughts were on assistive Technologies and what they'd seen work and not.

I recognized differential instruction as something I've done I really liked it because I was able to be paired up with people on my level so there was not much down time waiting for classmates to catch up or for my classmates waiting for me to catch up. For Universal designs a good idea however with more ESE students being placed in the general education classroom, how teachers can bridge the gap between general education and ESE learners.

The first thing a teacher has to understand, accommodations simply means lessons are equal however just changed a bit. (picture a hard of hearing student with the aid of a microphone).

Modifications means the students education is lessened, (think of a slow reader having to solve fewer questions making him not perform like the rest of the class.)

It is important to understand the difference so you are not listening a child education.

Courtesy Teachings in Education via youtube

There are many assistive Technologies available to teachers to help have an effective Universal designed classroom.

Students have difficulty with communicating can make use of various tools such as Piclit. Piclit website that allows students to choose a photo and drop down menu of words giving the student the ability to click and drag words to communicate. Use of this site could help with students and their writing by arranging words into a picture, then turning into main ideas then a rough outline.

For students with difficulty writing and organizing their writing, speechnotes that allows talk-to-text technology this could also be helpful in note-taking for students.

There are assistive Technologies available on iPad many of the ones that schools use are visually based, with colorful fonts, and optional music. Many of them feature click and drag activities, to better facilitate all learning styles.The teacher gave me examples of sites such as Sumdog, Compassmath, and ReadingStreet. The teacher said the district pays for use of those sites, but has seen progress with her students after using them.


I know technologies are always changing, once again to the classroom, technologies available. Look forward to exploring these available Technologies to help meet the needs of all of my students.

** As an interesting fact, this blog was dictated, all using the Speechnotes website.


Resources:

(2016, August 27). Retrieved February 25, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6rT2_fn4u0

Create a PicLit | Inspired Picture Writing. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2017, from http://www.piclits.com/

Speechnotes | Speech to Text Online Notepad. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2017, from https://www.bing.com/cr?IG=7246C17A88C440929FE5D804C64479B9&CID=0CEE662224BE672F33836C14258F6636&rd=1&h=iBziEFoeW6ZTYYwlmH1e2Zdo8-ACiMBg8rRZQJBOM7c&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fspeechnotes.co%2f&p=DevEx,5063.1

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2015). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson.

Optional Blog F- simply my thoughts, with no research done

This weeks wiki assignment was both interesting and a bit out of my technology comfort zone. I do like being challenged, as it only helps me grow.

I got to thinking about the use of a wiki in a classroom setting. While I don't think it would work for elementary school children, on a high school level, the possibilities are all there.

Think when you went to school- if you missed a day of class, you had to call all of your friends, and try to get missed notes and assignments. That is, if your friends even took notes. But what if we can change that?

Imagine a classroom where you are taught effective note taking, and the teacher gives you supplemental notes to look over, then a part of your homework is to go home and apply those notes into a wiki with a group of classmates. Students can log in at their convenience, put notes in, list assignments, collaborate ideas and never miss what is going on. They could showcase their academic strengths to help others. Students could link pages with other ideas and use those thoughts as a springboard to the next lessons. All notes are available for the year, so recalling previous lessons would be easier than ever.  Students could log in from their smart phones or any other online portals, essentially creating an opportunity to study anywhere. Talk about education to go.

Wiki's could also afford the luxury of peer to peer tutoring, by simply having students upload their ideas and strategies for their own benefits and the rest of the groups.

Created by A. Stewart via Prezi

chapter 7

This weeks topic on gaming and the classroom came at the perfect time. On Monday, I observed Gulf Middle school. I went to four different classes, and was surprised to see there were no paper and pencils on any of the desks. -Remember, I am older-  There were however chromebooks. I took notes on my technology based observations, because I have not seen gaming in the classroom before. I must say, that after my observations, there is no doubt there is a place for gaming in the classrooms. 

I sat in on a 6th Grade World History class.  As I was taking out my notes, the class fell completely silent, as I looked up, they were all in their chromebooks. I took the opportunity to talk to the teacher about what the class working on, and if in her experience, she thinks gaming was helping her students better grasp concepts. 

She told me her class was playing Fling the Teacher. It is a free game, available for download. I tried to download the game to create a sample game for a demonstration, however, the site will not allow me to download. My IT guy (teenage son) told me it is not his computer, but the website itself. He told me to wait a day or two and go back, but it was still down. 

I was able to find a Youtube video that shows someone playing the game. It is a multiple choice game, and with each correct answer, the player gets another piece of the catapult to fling the teacher avatar across the screen. An incorrect answer would cost the student all of their catapult pieces, making them start the game over again. 

Courtesy mamta narula on Youtube

The teacher did explain that since she starting allowing her students to play educational games in the classroom, she has seen an improvement on overall test scores. The class was completely quiet, with the exception of a few kids whispering "yessss" to themselves when they were able to fling their teacher, they were all engaged with the activity, and I got to watch one student play, and the questions were all pertinent to Ancient Rome, and they would all be quizzed on the topic later. The teacher said it was always hard to teach Ancient History to sixth graders, because they didn't have the attention span to sit and become engaged with a topic they were not interested with.

The Fling the teacher site also generates reports for users, explaining what questions are incorrect, averages for the class and individual averages. While they are not used as grades, the concept mapping is helpful in letting the teacher know what is working and not working.

The Language Arts class I observed also used the chromebooks and Quizlet. The teacher explained that all vocabulary words are learned through quizlet live daily. Every other day she is able to quiz students and teach them more vocabulary words each week. She said overall retention is much better than it was before she started using quizlet, and her students are learning more because the quicker way they are retaining knowledge. 

Here is the quizlet live game I created as an example. The game is played by the class signing in, then quizlet generated random teams. Teams must work together to get the correct answers to stay in the game, and the first team to answer all the questions both quickly and accurately win. The site is not allowing me to embed the game, but will let me share the link. 

Chapter 3 Reading

This weeks reading was especially interesting to me. I have always wondered how teachers teach. 

After reading the basics of lesson plans, then deciding how to best execute the plans, I decided to just create this blog post as if it were a classroom. I wanted to post lesson plans and incorporate ways to teach, then measure mastery of content, using Web 2.0 tools. 

For the purpose of this blog, I am Mrs. Stewart. First grade teacher at Web 2.0 Institute of Technological Learning. 

Lesson plans tell WHO is going to do WHAT, WHEN, for HOW LONG, and how will mastery be MEASURED. 

Sample:

By Friday, students will be able to define and identify adjectives, used in sentences. Student will also be able to properly use adjectives when prompted. Lessons for adjectives will be taught during ELA daily, in 25 minute blocks. Additional time for small group instruction will be in the mornings, if necessary. Mastery will be measured Friday by quiz. Student must have a "C" or better to prove mastery.


My first step would be how to introduce the lesson to the first graders. In this case, I created a story book. Using this book, my goal would be to read it together, discuss and share ideas together as a class.

For smaller group, more intense instruction, my thought would be to use piclit to allow students to pick a photo, and click and drag adjectives to their chosen photo, to compose their own work of ideas.

I also liked the idea of creating a toondoo, as a means to capture the students attention.

I have been exploring the online quiz site, Kahoot (I have not made a quiz yet). I wanted to explore it, because using an informal quiz could help me as a teacher gauge the students grasp on lessons. If they all miss a certain question, I as the teacher have the opportunity to go over the lesson again. I like it means of checks and balances.  Wrong answers can help me fill in the holes of my lessons, and perhaps adjust my teaching methods to better cover materials.

There are so many resources out there, and I think this new generation of students will be a group that has never known life without an iPad, or the internet, or that constant technology bombardment.  If teachers want to reach this generation, they are going to have to step up their technology game. Giving children the choice to engage with technology is the future of teaching.


On a more personal note, I had the opportunity to talk to a teacher at Ida Baker High School, who teaches digital information technology and the AVID program. It was neat to learn about the different certifications and technology programs available to our high school students now. I was able to kind of pick his brain about the programs, and their benefits. He was telling me that there is a high school graduation requirement for technology/online credit hours. I am glad I am in this class, finding my online "footing" so I am prepared for my class room.

created: Angela Stewart via ToonDoo

Chapter 1 reading

In reading chapter one, I must agree that becoming a 21st century teacher has it's technological challenges. There are always new technologies to try out, and in addition to being able to learn the newest technologies, there is an importance in having support from the other teachers and administration.

I was interested to read about the Generation M concept. If you were to think about it, the generations of students I will be teaching has never known life without an MP3 player, smart phone, or iPad. Given that our adolescents use about six and a half hours of some form of media a day, (Rideout, Roberts, & Foehr, 2005, p.6), it is only natural the schools in which these students are attending adapt to the changing landscape of technology. In thinking about it, with the birth of this generation came the birth of many of our newest technologies. Even I can say I am older than the internet.

I do believe there are important roles involving technology in the classroom. I understand there are issues with technology in the classroom, but I believe my readiness to integrate technology will better help me serve my students. Kids of today are no longer content with the flashcards and repetition ad nausea. Kids of today have been raised with the instant gratification of todays technology. With the advent of YouTube, gone are the days of kids waiting all week for Saturday morning cartoons. Kids today will never know what it is like to wait for your favorite song to come on the radio so you could record it. And God forbid the deejay was talking over your song! Kids today simply stream the music they wish to hear. This is where technology comes into play. As a teacher, if I could use learning games that teach the kids memorization skills such as spelling city or Fast Math, I think it would engage more of my students. I also think games that support critical thinking and creativity are also important, like Sum Dog.

In the concept that there are many teachers and adults that are afraid or unwilling to use technology, while I can understand the apprehension, being intimidated is not an excuse. In this day and age, you can Google just about anything you want to know. We are living in a day and age where you can turn on YouTube just about self help video. There are resources out there to get the information you need, you just have to look for it. My third grader is in a coding class at school. I love that he is being exposed to technology at a young age. There are plenty of videos about software and how to use it. The curriculum coverage or lack thereof, only means that perhaps the teacher or administration isn't trying hard enough to find it. I tutor my son who has Autism, and augment our learning with songs or videos found on YouTube. It helps his learning and he remembers the material more than he would if I lectured him.

In all, technology is not going away, in fact, it is only changing everyday. It is imperative that students know how to use it as a useful resource in their education. I believe that technology for students is often the platform they use to find other interests. A gateway drug if you will. Teaching children about technology while they are young will only lead them to be more confident, comfortable, and a better netizen overall.

Photo credit: Jane Plusben via Flickr

Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.