Why we should use a LMS?

Please visit my voicethread presentation on Why I think we should us a Learning Management System? http://voicethread.com/share/1360619/

Week 8 Reflection

I will use the resources in the Differentiation Station social network to help me implement the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction by visiting the network when lesson planning and searching for supplemental materials to support my core curriculum or to provide a student with an additional resource that may better fit his/her learning style. I plan on using the network when I am stuck and need to find a reliable resource quickly. The nice thing about the network is that we all teach early elementary school so the resources we posted would meet any of our students needs because the content is age appropriate. The other members also posted valuable resources for me as a professional well I can go and further my knowledge and skills in UDL and DI as well and learn from what other people are doing and experiencing in their classrooms.

The immediate adjustments that I will make to my instructional practice regarding the use of technology integration to customize instruction as a result of my learning from this course would be to ensure that students get their hands on some type of technology at least three times a week. Most of my students do not have access to any technology at home, so I really need to make sure that I am providing them with multiple opportunities to learn those critical technology skills so that they are not lagging behind their peers more then they already are. I think that technology can help bridge the learning and language gap that my students are faced with as soon as they walk into my classroom. I believe that through technology my students' learning can grow by leaps and beyonds compared to the traditional method of teaching. My students need access to vocabulary and language to build their vocabulary and language and I believe that technology is the best way for them to do this.

Week 8 Reflection

The GAME plan that I developed and followed throughout this course was an important step in growing me as a person and a teacher. It made me not only expand my own thinking and learning, but it expanded my students thinking and learning as well. It has taught me the importance of reflection and setting goals for myself and my teaching. It has challenged me to challenge my students by making them use higher level thinking levels and taking ownership and responsibility for their learning.

This new learning will have a major impact on my instructional practices in the classroom. I will always set my expectations higher then I think I should and then watch my students rise to the occasion and take ownership over the material being presented. I will also allow more opportunities for my students to reflect upon their learning either daily or weekly. I will have my students use the GAME plan to write goals for themselves and have them progress monitor themselves during the school year. If they complete their goal and or need to modified it then they will be allowed to create a new one or modify the old one.

The immediate adjustments that I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in my content areas as a result of my learning from this course would be to include it more. I have just received 4 video ipod nanos for my classroom for next year. I got them so that my students can record themselves, friend, or me signing a story and then be able to replay the video while following along in the book. The students seem to be more engaged in lessons that have more technology integration then those who have none. My goals is to have technology integrated into every lesson next year to some extent.

Game Plan week 7

I will use the GAME plan process with my students to help them develop proficiency in the technology standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S by first creating a GAME plan on one of the indicators for the class. As a class we will go over the game plan and talk about the different parts of the plan. Once they have a handle on that, we will create a GAME plan as a class to work on for while. These steps will lead up to me pick a couple different ones out and explaining them to the students and then have the students pick one out that they would like to create a GAME plan for. Finally, by the end of the year, the students will be able to look at the standards for themselves and pick a standard and create a GAME plan for it. The students will monitor their progress on their different GAME plans on the class blog site throughout the year and they will be required to read some of their fellow student’s posting and offer praise or encouragement to them.

GAME Plan week 6

• What I have learned from this experience that I can apply in my instructional practice would be to have more patience when it comes to teaching my students new technology skills and encourage the students to do weekly reflections about their learning. I think that it is easy for me to get frustrated when trying to teach 20 first graders a new technology skill, but I need to remember how long it takes me to learn a new technology skill and I am adult with prior experience. I have noticed the benefit of my weekly reflections, and I think it is an important skill for our young students to learn to help them to learn to take ownership of their own learning.
  What goals are you still working toward?
  
• Based on the NETS-T, the new learning goal will I set for myself will be in the area of NETS-T 2, which focuses on design digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I want to have more individualized assessments for my students to help really show their progress on their IEP goals. I think that technology will be the best way to provide the require information and help me become a better teacher.
• The learning approaches that will I try next time to improve my learning will be to go onto blogs for teachers and to see what other people are doing in their classroom and get ideas and strategies from them. I also want to get familiar with more different technology tools that I may not even know exist, by talking with a person from assistive technology that may know of some technologies that some of my students may benefit from.

GAME Plan week 5

My actions were very effective in helping me meet my goals. I find myself reflecting more and making daily reflecting notes instead of waiting to the end of the week. Though I am still doing a overall weekly reflection. My students are really starting to get into the weekly problem/ question. I find that I can give them more of control over the project and I find myself stepping back more and more.

What What I have learned so far that I can apply in my instructional practice is that student are capable of doing so much more then we tend to give them credit for. I think that the hardest part is on our end. It is easy to get frustrated and angry at the students or the lesson when it does not go as plan especially when it deals with technology and teaching them new technology skills and high level of thinking, but the key is to get through it and it does become easier for both us and the students and then it is amazing at what starts to happen. So I think that the important thing is not to just give up, but to stick it out to the end.

I still have to learn to allow the students to made mistake and learn from them without interfering. At times it is easier for me to deal with the problem and fix it then it is to let the students figure out that they made a mistake and how to fix it. The students will learn ten times as much if they catch the mistake themselves and figure out not only how to fix but also the solution. The new question have arisen is How do you encourage a low student to take more control of their own learning during these problem based learning projects, but also not let themselves get so discourage that they stop attempting anything at all? I work with kinder though 2nd graders

I plan on adjusting my plan to fit my current needs by allowing one student to act like the teacher during our class problem/question of the week. This way I can still be very supportive during the process, but at the same time letting the students take ownership of it and feeling more confident about doing their own problem/question of the week by the end of the year.

GAME Plan week 4

I am find the the information and the resources that I need to implement my game plan. I have a buddy that I use to bounce ideas and problems with to help find a solution. She is doing a similar thing in her classroom. My students are really getting into the class research question of the week. The students are learning a lot from watching me model how to surf the Internet and helping me decide if the web site's information is reliable. They are also benefiting from watching me think out aloud, which is exposing them to my thinking and reasoning.

I do not really think that I need to modify my action plan yet. The only thing that I may did to change is when I will allow my students to research their own question or topic. I do not think that my students have the necessary skills yet to be able to navigate the Internet by themselves yet.

I have learned that taking the time to reflect each week is really beneficial. I sometimes find myself forcing myself to fill out my little reflection sheet, but it has really been helpful. It is given me a chance to look back and decide which things worked and which did not and what I plan doing differently in the future. It is also giving me a chance to reflect on what the students have learned and what concepts some are still struggling at. This way I know which concepts I need to touch again and with whom.

My question that has come up is How can I give 1st graders the skills that they need in order to be able to use the Internet independently? and not calling my name ever 5 minutes for help.

Reflection on Game Plan Week 3

The part of my action plan that I have already started on is modeling creative thinking. I have been more aware of making sure that I am thinking aloud and showing the students how I would work through the problem and figure out the solution. The next part of my plan that I want to implement would be to start having a classroom problem of the week and having a reflection on one lesson that had technology integrated into to once a week.

The resources that I am going to need in order to carry out my action plan are examples of student based projects, some final examples to see what to expect from the students, different blog sites that relate to technology integration to get feedback from colleagues and to get new ideas and methods from them, and some mini lesson technology lessons designed for younger children to teach them how to use the technology and the Internet.

GAME Plan

My GAME Plan:

GOALS: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

· I will use my knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

· I will:

· a. promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness

b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources

ACTION STEPS:

· My first action step will be to model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness to my students. Since I teach young students, I need to model the behavior that I am going to expect from them.

· My second action step will be to create a class question list, so that as a class we can vote on one question a week to explore and try to find the answer to using technology.

· My third action step will be to slowly hand over the reins to a student that will lead the class in the weekly real-world issue.

· My final action step will be to allow each of the students to research and or solve their own real-world issues or problem and present their findings. Student would be allowed as much time as they felt they need to be ready to present their findings to the class.

MONITOR:

· I plan on monitor my steps by completing a weekly reflection on my teaching for the week.

· My weekly reflection will have question on it that will ask me:

o How many times did I promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness?

o If a low number or none, What could I have changed to promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness?

o What worked well and what did not work well?

o What technology skills are the students missing or weak on that I need to go back to and develop?

o How am I going to develop those skills?

o Did I hand over the reins to the students? How did it go, what I can do to help it go smoother for next time?

EVAULATE AND EXTEND

· After I have completed my reflection, I plan on evaluating my answers and coming up with a GAME plan for the following week in order to address what did not work this week.

· I plan on looking and participating on different blog sites to share my experiences through this experiences and reading about others who are going through a similar experiences and learning from theirs.

· I plan on continue my education through Walden to continue to develop my technology skills and knowledge that I can then apply to my classroom and my students.

Reflection from Web Literacy

The most striking revelation that I had about the teaching of new literacy skills to my students as a result of this course would be that the students need to start learning these skills at a young age. I think that it is easy for teachers to look at the list of skills as say that their students are to young for them or that the skills are to challenging for their students. The problem with that is when the students get into the upper grades, they have no prior experience with the new literacy skills and those teachers have to start at square one and get them to where they need to be for them and then get the students ready for the next teacher. I think that when I first looked them over, it was overwhelming, but once I started breaking them a part into smaller pieces and realizing that I can at least start working on the foundation of that skill I was more comfortable teaching the skill.

The knowledge and experience that I gained in this course will influence my teaching practices going forward by helping me feel more comfortable and capable of teaching inquiry based project and undertaking teaching the student new literacy skills and technology skills require for them to complete the inquiry based project. I feel more comfortable letting the students lead their own learning and taking that step back and just being support when they ask for it. I know that inquiry based learning not only pushes me out of my comfortable zone, but also the students. They have learned to depend on me for their learning. Though I believe that once they gain self-confidence in the inquiry based learning, they will not want to switch back to teacher-centered learning.

One professional development goal that I would like to pursue that builds upon my learning in this course and develops my own information literacy or technology skills would be to have my class take part in an online collaboration with other classes that are outside of our own school district. The second part of my goal would be to one day host my own collaboration, where I set-up the medium of the collaboration and lead the different classes through the different steps of it. The steps that I will take to accomplish this goal would be to first search different education websites to see what kind of collaboration projects are already being offered through different classrooms. Once I have found one that I believe fit my needs and my students needs, I would sign-up to take part in it. While I am taking part in someone’s else collaboration, I plan on asking the lead teacher questions about how they went about setting up this collaboration and if they have any tips. Then for my own, I first would survey what different topics that teachers would be interested in researching for a collaboration project. After I have figured out which topic most teachers would be interested in, I would start putting together the different activities, technology, and website that would be needed for the collaboration. I would also try and have a teacher that has lead a collaboration before to help me set-up mine up and guide me through it. After the collaboration was finished, I would want feedback from the other teachers on what work and what did not work, so that I could improve for the next collaboration project.

Reflection

Reflecting back on my personal learning theory, that I developed in week 1, based on the knowledge that I gained from this course, I would not modified my learning theory. My personal theory about how students learn is: that students must be able to access the information being present to them, feel comfortable in the learning environment, receive positive reinforcement, and make meaningful connections to the information being presented. I believe that technology can be very easily integrated into my personal learning theory and there is no need to spell it out in the learning theory.

Any immediate adjustments that I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration will be to have at least one integrated lesson per day. I need to have my students on the computers more and take advantage of all of the resources out there that would let my students express their knowledge in a way that best fits them. Two technology tools that I would like to use with my students would web cams and VoiceThread. The reason that I picked web cameras is because my students are deaf and communicate through sign language. I think that web cameras would be a great to track progress of each student’s language development and reading fluency. It would be a great tool as well to record books so that the students can have a watching center instead of a listening center, which is what their hearing peers have. The reason that I want to use VoiceThread is because it allows the students to interact with each other in a different way and to have conversations about educational topics, so that they are getting that language practice and vocabulary development. It is also a good tool, because it allows the students to practice their writing skills, in a new and exciting way. I can also then grading and or track their progress with concrete evidence through these assessments as well.

My first long-term goal that I would like to make in my instructional practice regarding technology integration is to be able to think of ways that technology would support the standard curriculum without much effort. Right now, I have to work hard at making technology integrate into my curriculum. I want to be a person that people could give me a topic and could list five different ways that technology could be integrated into the lessons. The first to achieving this goal is to finish my degree in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. The second would be to follow blogs or professional journals and get ideas from the current experts in the field. The third would be to try as often as possible to have integrated lessons, and then make notes on each lesson about what work and what did not work so that in the future the lesson could be improved. The final step would be keep working at it because practice makes perfect and to attend workshops and classes to keep update on all of the new technologies that are available and support education.

My second long-term goal that I would like to make in my instructional practice regarding technology integration is to have every lesson for every subject to have some technology integration built into it. The first step would be to pick one subject and try to have one lesson a week, and then to slowly build to having it in every lesson. The second step would be to add another subject after, feeling comfortable with the previous subject or subjects. The third thing would be then to work towards having all subjects. I think that it could be a huge undertaking, but I think the key will be to take it slow and not try and hurry. I think that this goal may take a couple years to full master, but I think the pay out at the end is well worth the effort. I know that I cannot do it alone, so I will need to tap into every resource available to me whether it be blog sites, professional journals, workshops, classes, and or people around me.

Voicethread Project

Please scroll down to view my voicethread project.

Social Learning Theory

The instructional strategies described in the resources I explored this week correlate with the principles of social learning theories, because they focused on social networking and using others to gain information and skills. The resources talk about using different software and programs the enable many people to work on the same project at the same time, and where the participants are located does not affect their ability to work on the project. Social learning theorists believe that the primary way that people learn is by interacting with people and their environment. They believe that children should be involved in cooperative learning groups and should connect new knowledge and skills to old knowledge while they work in their groups to complete a common task. These cooperative learning groups are a great place to integrated technology using social networking. Group members can not only work on the same project, but they each other feedback and answer each other’s questions

The Constructivist Perspective

Lever-Duffy and McDonald (2007) stated, for constructivists, knowledge is a constructed element resulting from the learning process. Further, knowledge is unique to the individual who construct it" (pp 16). I believe the key to that statement is that knowledge is unique to the individual. There are so many things that we learn how to do in our life, but if we were asked to explained how we learned them we each would have an unique answer. How one person learns a new skill or a piece of information may not work for another person who is trying to learn that same skill. An example of that is when someone ask another person how to teach them to do a certain task. The person teaching gets frustrated at the person who is trying to learn the task because they are not getting it and the learner is frustrated at the teacher because they do not understand. It is because knowledge is unique to the individual who constructs it.

That is why project based learning and or problem based learning is so essential for our students. It gives them the opportunity to show off what they know in an unique way. A student may not be able to explain how they know something but given a chance to show you, may blow you as the teacher away. I do think that students need guidance during this process to ensure that they stay focused on the skill that you are assessing them on. I think that rubrics are the perfect match for these project based learning assignments. They provided both the structure and the freedom that is required for both parties to get what they require. I know that I loved problem based learning, especially when I can to work on the computer for the entire thing. Our kids are getting burned out of learning at an early age it seems like now a days, one way to get students excited about learning again is to use the resources provided to us and the technology that we have access to, to provide students with these problem/project based learning opportunities.

Social Learning Theory

The instructional strategies described in the resources I explored this week correlate with the principles of social learning theories, because they focused on social networking and using others to gain information and skills. The resources talk about using different software and programs the enable many people to work on the same project at the same time, and where the participants are located does not affect their ability to work on the project. Social learning theorists believe that the primary way that people learn is by interacting with people and their environment. They believe that children should be involved in cooperative learning groups and should connect new knowledge and skills to old knowledge while they work in their groups to complete a common task. These cooperative learning groups are a great place to integrated technology using social networking. Group members can not only work on the same project, but they each other feedback and answer each other’s questions.

How to get students to focus on details

Cognitive Thinking Theory

My thoughts on how the instructional strategies described in the resources I explored this week correlate with the principles of cognitive learning theory are that thinking maps are the perfect partner for cognitive learning theory. According to Levrt-Duffy & McDonald (2008), cognitive theorists focus on learning as a mental operation that takes places when information enters trough the senses, undergoes mental manipulation, is stored, and the finally used (pp 16). Thinking maps provide the brain with a way to organize the information and a way to link old information to new information. Cognitive theorists would love that students would be linking the old information to the new information because it would make retrieval of that information quick and more efficient. The learner would remember more because they would be learning information that was always represented in a mental process, which is what cognitive theorists, live for. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski had this to say about thinking maps, “to aid the learning process, look for opportunities to activate students’ background knowledge, thereby providing a direction for exploration. The technology, in turn, provides you with editable visual aids and multimedia resources that appeal to a number of learning styles” (pp. 79).

Behaviorist Learning Theory integrated with Technology

The instruction strategies described in the resources this week correlate with the principles of behaviorist learning theory because they discuss ways to increase a desired behavior by reinforcing it and punishing undesired behaviors. According to behaviorists, the learner acquires behaviors, skills, and knowledge in response to the rewards, punishments, or withheld responses associated with them. In the chapter that discussed homework, it talks about using different websites that allow students to practice certain skills and are reward for correct answers and punished for wrong answers by not being allowed to move on to the next level.

In the chapter that discusses reinforcing effort, all of the strategies that are provided to improve student effort are based on the behaviorist learning theory. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski stated (2007), “Spreadsheet software and data collection tools support the instructional strategy of reinforcing effort by helping students to chart the relationship between effort and achievement one of the classroom recommendations” (pp 156). A powerful way to show students that their hard work is paying off is to not only show them the data but combined data on groups that they associate themselves with. This strategy is built on the principal that the students will continue to work hard because they will be rewarded by seeing their data on the chart improve.

Growing through Reflection

This course has made me feel like I am up to date on my technology skills as a professional teacher. I feel like a computer whiz and I cannot wait to start the new school year, so I can not only use what I have learned in the course in my classroom, but share my knowledge with other teachers that what to use these strategies in their classrooms. I feel like I can walk into a room with others discussing new strategies for the classroom involving technology and I would be able to understand and add to the discussion now.

This course has broadened my view on teaching and the learning process. I am no longer unaware of why are students are having a hard time in today’s typical classrooms and what skills that these students are going to need in order to succeed outside of school. I now realize that I need to change my strategies and how I present information to my students in order to keep them engaged in the lesson but also prepare them for the future. This course has shown me that traditional learning strategies are not longer going to work for today’s students because today’s students are not the traditional learner.

The ways that I have changed my perspective from being teacher centered to learner-centered are that my students are not no longer going to benefit from a teacher centered classroom and in order for them to succeed they need to be taught in a learner centered environment. I now realize that I need to let my students struggle in a healthy way on challenging tasks and not jump right in and help them. My perspective has changed from thinking that my students are to young to do some of these tasks to my students need to start practicing these skills as soon as possible because most of my students do not have access to lot of technology at home. I need to work on my patience to let the students work through problems in their own way, if even if it means changing my agenda and stepping out of my comfort zone.

The ways that I can continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement are to continue with the masters program that I currently enrolled in at Walden and to continue to read and participate in blogs that relate to integrate technology into the classroom. I think that being able to see what other people are doing in their classrooms and then modified it to fit into my classroom will be a great help. I want to attend workshops, training, and or lectures that discuss using technology to increase students learning and stay current and up to date on the ever changing best practices and how to use technology in a new way.

The first long-term goal for transforming my classroom environment is for my students to use a form of technology daily in some way, shape or form. This will be a challenge because I currently have only one computer in my classroom and the computer labs are on the other side of the building and are not set-up in a way for me to work with my deaf students. I plan to accomplish this goal by getting computers that people no longer want and setting them up in my classroom. I will write grants to try and get more technology into my classroom, like digital video camera, video iPods, and web cameras. If I have all of these forms of technology at my fingertips, I will be able to create lesson centered on them and the students will get to use them daily. The second goal that I want to accomplish is to have a classroom blog site that the students contribute to and also provides lesson in ASL, spelling list, a place where parents can connect together and come to learn American Sign Language. I want to be able to post the students themselves signing for the online resource and stories. I want it to be a place where students can go and still be exposed to sign language at home and a place where parents can go and learn the language that their child uses to communicate. The way that I am going to accomplish this goal is by getting my administration and parents on board. I think that is going to be the most challenging part because I know that parents and administrators are going to be worry about having videos of the students online for everyone to see. I am going to have to conceive them that the students are going to be protected and that the blog site will provide huge benefits to the students, parents, and the community.

Podcast

Here is my podcast. http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/1420/episodes/6778

My podcast is me interviewing three brothers about their technology use in a social and academic setting. They also talk about their feelings about an technology based classroom.