(u05a1) Students Meeting the NETS-S

To be honest, the 6 NETS-S standards for students are often overlooked. It seems as though these 6 simple standards are overshadowed by the state-tested language arts, math, and science standards. This week, we spent a great amount of time looking at communicating, collaborating, and publishing with Web 2.0 tools.

To me, there are innumerable ways that the use of Web 2.0 tools can meet the standards if teachers are willing to go outside of the textbooks and traditional ways of education. I spent the majority of my time reading the profiles for “technology literate” students in grades K-2.  Profile #1, “Illustrate and communicate original ideas and stories using digital tools and media-rich resources” was one that came to mind with my 2^nd grade language arts classroom right now. Students are working on a book reflection/recommendation project. They are concept mapping and LOVING it! It’s been awesome to see them communicating with one another, working as trouble-shooters for each other, and being so proud of their published piece! Going through the profiles, I noticed that this one activity also covers profiles #7, 8, and 9.

The first four standards in and of themselves don’t require the use of technology. Great teachers have been helping students be creative, communicate and collaborate, research and interact with information, and become critical thinkers and problem solvers for years. Why use technology now? It’s not because of the tool, but rather because of the future of our students. John Dewey once said, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” The jobs our students will have, the tools that will be available to them, and the technological expectations that will be set before them require them to know how to communicate, collaborate, and present using Web 2.0 tools and a variety of other technology. Why wouldn’t we help them navigate these skills now?

Is there a reason students can’t do group work on a blog instead of on a poster? Do science fair projects have to be done on a tri-fold board or could a Prezi meet the same learning objectives? Wouldn’t a traditional book report work on S’more or Glogster instead of composition paper and graphic organizers? The possibilities are endless. Students are only limited by their teachers comfort zones. Our students are willing to take more risks now than ever before. How can we help them?

Project Based Learning (u01a1)

Coming into this course, I had heard of project-based learning, but hadn’t done a great deal of research regarding it, nor had I been able to see it in action. As part of the assignment this week, we read about and viewed three very different classroom projects. As a 2^nd grade teacher, it was encouraging to see that this approach to the classroom came from 1^st grade all the way up through high school and was very interdisciplinary.

All of the educators in the videos viewed and articles read this week seemed to have similar answers to the same concerns that you or I may be asking. Do you cover all of the standards? Yes. Are your students prepared for high-stakes testing? Yes. Do colleagues question this approach since it’s non-traditional? Yes. Math teacher Eeva Reeder (Applying Math Skills, 2002) gave great insight as to why she chose to use a project-based approach, ““It became immediately apparent to me as a teacher that talking to kids didn’t cause them to really deeply learn concepts.” Any great teacher who makes that realization must stop and reevaluate what’s happening in their classroom. Some of the teachers such as Miss Reeder had front-loaded instruction and used the projects as an application and relevancy assessment while others such as Mrs. Hetrick seemed to allow student inquiry to guide their instruction and the projects came as a result. Regardless, all of the teachers showed intentional planning and design of the projects. Kindergarten and first-grade teacher Patty Vreeland said, “"We've got to know our curriculum. We've got to know the standards inside and out” (Curtis, 2001). She also noted that, “teachers must be willing to work harder to ensure that projects are meaningful learning experiences.” Eeva Reeder also showed that teachers need to intentionally refine their assessment techniques. Rubrics ahead of time where students know the specific expectations will help make this more successful for both the students and teachers.

Project-based learning allows the students to take ownership of their learning. In essence, the students are now in charge, which can be terrifying for a traditional classroom teacher! The teacher has to become a guide or facilitator while the students are guiding the process. I feel that it’s important for the students know someone believes in them. They need to be guided, but not “mothered”, and challenged to reflect and evaluate their progress throughout the project.

What makes project-based learning memorable and shows application of knowledge and skills? The relevancy of the project, of course! If students see a practical application for the project, they will be much more engaged. If students feel like they are the one in charge and making the decisions, engagement level drastically increases! As a teacher, how will I know students have learned the skills to meet my required standards? I will be able to see it in their project results. This is much more authentic application than any traditional assessment. “PBL is not just a way of learning; it's a way of working together. If students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult lives” (Why is Project-Based Learning Important, 2007).

References:
Applying Math Skills to a Real-World Problem. (2002, February 11). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from                 http://www.edutopia.org/mountlake-terrace-geometry-real-world-video

Curtis, D. (October 1, 2001). Edutopia: More Fun Than a Barrel of …Worms?   Retrieved              from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Why Is Project-Based Learning Important? (2007, October 19). Retrieved March 16, 2015, from                 http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-importance

You.com (u07a1)

The task this week was to create my digital portfolio. To be honest, I didn't think this would be difficult at all. I planned to just update my current blog and create a few new tabs with links to the course work I had done while a part of this program. WRONG! As I was trying to navigate adding tabs to the blog, I realized that it was not set up to do what I wanted it to do.
I went back to the drawing board and decided to use about.me to create a digital portfolio. This was a VERY easy website to use and interact with. I appreciated that it literally walked me through the decisions I needed to make on how to use it. I decided to set the background as a picture of fireworks that I had taken myself. They are my FAVORITE part of summer and I wanted to enjoy seeing my photo posted online. It was now time to post a collection of my work as well as link to my online presence. Over the course of this summer, I'd been reflecting on my online presence and didn't think I had a very large one. When it was time to actually link to my projects, however, I realized that I have learned how to use QUITE a few sites! It was fun to go back through my files, find my projects, and link them all to one location. I chose YouTube to store my videos that I've created and linked the rest of the projects individually. It was a fun learning experience for me to reflect on how I've grown in using technology from the time I started the Instructional Media program until now!

Broadcast Yourself Live (u06a2)

Broadcasting yourself live was a very new concept to me this week! I loved reading about it during the week’s readings and seeing different ways that people incorporate it into their classrooms. To be honest, I never would have thought of using it in my 2^nd grade classroom. After investigating several different sites, I found UStream to be free and also fairly user friendly. I created an account and was up and running in no time! They have sent me several different e-mails (maybe even a few too many) to help me troubleshoot my way through using this website. The other nice part about UStream is that you do not have to be a member or sign-up in order to watch live broadcasts. That’s a really nice feature for parents and families who just want to peek into the classroom but not broadcast live themselves!

Next came the tricky part…deciding what to broadcast live! I must admit that this would have been a whole lot easier to do during the school year because I would have broadcast something live from school with my students to their families. This coming year, I definitely plan to do so. This will be a fun experience to do with assemblies, class author celebrations, reader’s theater plays, class parties, and maybe even our field day or bounce house rewards! I am excited to continue exploring the app that’s available for iPads and iPhones, because I think this would make me a little more mobile to broadcast in the classroom and throughout our school. It will be fun to broadcast myself and then showcase the students, but I think they will also REALLY enjoy getting to “host” our Room 201 show!

Since it’s summer time, however, I had a really hard time deciding what to broadcast! I knew that I was going out of town until later Sunday so I had to take that into consideration as well. It needed to be something I could do indoors with just my webcam. After doing several test videos and broadcasts, I realized that UStream was pretty easy to use and knew I could to it! I landed on the topic of geocaching. If you’ve been following several of my other blog posts, I’ve given a short version of geocaching throughout some of them. I decided to use my iPhone during the broadcast because I was showcasing a specific app designed for geocaching. This was a bit tricky as the glare from my lights was different in the dark live-broadcast time than it was during my daytime practice run early in the week. If I was doing this again, I’d consider using a mobile web cam as opposed to the one built into my computer.

I didn’t want this to be a super long broadcast, but wanted to make sure that my audience would get the gist of what I was trying to share. I think it went off pretty well! I learned that you need to have a script prepared ahead of time or people can see you stumble over your words in real life! :D I also realized when I went to share my broadcast that I hadn’t also recorded it. Oops! I had only done the live show, but no one else would be able to go back and look at it. I rerecorded my broadcast so that you could see I really was live and on the air! It is accessible here. One final aspect of the live broadcast that I need to work through for next time is that it wasn’t loading on iPads or iPhones. This was fine for some viewers because they were using PCs, but MANY of the parents in the audience I would typically be broadcasting for may use other handheld devices and that would be very frustrating for them. I’m thinking that downloading the UStream app would help this issue, but plan to do further investigation just to double check!

If I were doing this particular broadcast over again, I would probably sit in a different lit place in my house or maybe even outside. The location of my built-in webcam on my computer reflected the light with a tad bit of a glare. I would also try to use something to help eliminate glare through my iPhone. On the flipside, there were many positives to this broadcast. The volume and location of the camera worked the same way they did whilst practicing, which was great! The broadcast saved when I actually remembered to turn it on. It was easy for my viewers to access on their computers, and I was able to receive immediate feedback while I was broadcasting.

Although I was initially apprehensive about this project, I think it ended up being one of my more enjoyable ones for this course! I can see DEFINITE relevance and immediate application uses in my classroom, which is kind of neat! I can also see my 2^nd graders being able to use this independently (within classroom supervision, of course), in some of the scenarios I listed above. Fun new internet tools like this make me even more excited for August 19^th to roll around! Until then, however, I’m off on one last summer vacation trip!!!

Attend a Live Webinar (u06a1)

Attending a Webinar this week was a new experience for me. I’ve had to log in on WizIQ for other Wilkes grad courses, but I’ve never had to locate a Webinar to attend on my own. With my schedule this summer and the way this course is laid out, I typically work on a Wednesday – Sunday schedule. When I started searching for Webinars this week, I realized that most of the listed sites hosted their Webinars on Monday or Tuesday. This was a little bit of a hurdle since I had already passed those days. The other thing I realized was that many of these only hosted during the school year or once a month. So I set off onto Google and found a Webinar hosted by Presence Learning entitled: Online Speech Therapy: Hot Questions, Cool Answers. The archived version of this webinar can be found here.

I appreciated attending this type of Webinar because there were slides (that were accessible at a later date) and commentary. There was also a q&a forum as well as an open chat for participants to dialogue with one another and ask questions of the presenters. As someone who doesn’t always like to speak up in group settings that I’m not familiar with, this made attending the Webinar more comfortable. When thinking about future Webinars, I would definitely be more likely to attend one in this format as opposed to the Google Hangout or live video streaming ones. One of the weaknesses was the site that was hosting the Webinar. WebEx has a nice platform, but I had a hard time figuring out if there were any other participants attending, and the default settings for the q&a/chat forums were not made so that you could interact with your fellow participants very well. It was also hard to do too much exploring because the session was only active when it was time for the Webinar so I couldn’t get acquainted with it very easily.

I think there are uses for Webinars in the educational setting, but I see it mainly with distance learning, blended learning, or in a secondary or post-high school setting. I really believe that my 2^nd graders still need the in-person, face-to-face interaction. If I were going to encourage Webinars to be used in my school, it would be through faculty in-services. I think there are MANY free valuable Webinars out there that we could benefit greatly from as a staff.

Integrating Social Networking Project (u05a2)

I'm currently teaching 2nd grade, and this year we will be departmentalizing our instruction. I will only be teaching language arts, so I chose to adapt a lesson and project that I currently do with my 2nd graders to incorporate social media. When I think of social media, Facebook and Twitter automatically come to mind, but there are many sites that allow for online interaction. I'm choosing to use Voice Thread for this project. It is a Web 2.0 tool that I became familiar with during another EDIM course, and would LOVE to use it with my kiddos this fall.

Lesson Plan for Tomie dePaola Author Study Culminating Project (Multi-Day Project)
Goal: As a class, we've been studying Tomie dePaola as an author and illustrator. We're learning from him through both our reading and writing eyes. The goal of this project is for students to choose a favorite Tomie book, analyze it with the given criteria, illustrate four pictures to match their descriptions using paint, create a Voice Thread digital story, and comment on the digital stories of at least 2 other classmates.

Objective and Relevancy: TSW analyze Tomie dePaola as an author, construct a reflection of what they've learned, and respond to the learning of their classmates in order to properly share opinions with others and integrate technology into their learning.

Procedures: (After finishing reading/discussing several Tomie dePaola books and analyzing them as readers and writers.)

1. Ss choose favorite Tomie dePaola book and respond in their journals to the following prompts:
         * What is your favorite Tomie dePaola book.
         * Who is your favorite character in that book and WHY?
         * What is your favorite part of the book and WHY?
         * What is the author's message?

Sample Template for Student Prompts

2. Ss illustrate a rough draft in their journals to make a picture for the following slides:
         * Design a new book cover for your favorite book.
         * Draw and label a picture of your favorite character.
         * Draw a picture to represent your favorite part of the book.
         * Draw a picture to represent the author's message of that story.

3. After T has a chance to correct steps 1&2, take Ss to computer lab to paint their four pictures using Paint. T troubleshoots as needed and directs Ss how and where to save the pictures they are drawing.

4. T guides students through the Voice Thread process of uploading photos, recording their voices, and sharing the links with the teacher. (See example Voice Thread created about Tom. All pictures included in the Voice Thread were painted by yours truly using Paint.)

5. After T compiles links to all Ss Voice Threads, Ss spend a day in the computer lab commenting on fellow classmates Voice Thread projects.

Closure: Back in the regular classroom, Ss and T dialogue and reflect on what they learned from completing the project, what their favorite part was, and one thing Ss enjoyed hearing another classmate learn.

Assessment: completed projects, observation, q&a, student interaction on other's Voice Threads

I've completed a project similar to this with my 2nd graders in previous years. It's a LOT to bite off with 7 year olds, but I've learned that slow and steady wins the race. I can't expect them to complete this project in one day unless I want to see tears from them and shed a few myself! :)
In the past, I've done this project in Photo Story (as per district requirements) and embedded each project onto our class website as something to share at November conferences. This year, it would be really neat to add the aspect of social media via Voice Thread so that students could interact with one another's projects. I think expanding their audience gives more relevancy to the project (which is a huge push in our district right now). I also think that it would give students another technology tool for their tool belt. Even at the age of 7, they know how to do some great technology projects! The final reason this project would be beneficial to complete whole class would be because I could then assign Voice Threads as a center for some of my students to work on during Language Arts (on iPads and PCs). They would LOVE this, and it would give more "beef" to my sometimes "meh" centers!

Photo-A-Day #7 and Project Reflection

Meet Rubie...a puppy of one of my great friends. Rubie gave me a new perspective on two things this weekend. First, Rubie gave me a new perspective on patience. My friend and her husband adopted Rubie not too long ago and are going through many of the challenges a puppy brings - sleep schedules, potty training, eating everything, etc. Spending time with my friend and Rubie this weekend showed me a whole new perspective on how patient my friend really is...not just with her pets, but with people, too. To go along with that, Rubie also shed a new perspective on parenting. I'm not a parent, and my friend has no human children, but she and her husband are definitely parenting their dogs. Rubie is in that "newborn/toddler" stage, and is giving them a perspective on parenting as they work through those challenges together.

Doing the photo-a-day project has probably been one of the most fun projects of this course for me. I really enjoy taking pictures as a "journal" for life's adventures. In the past few weeks, I've been doing a great deal of life processing, and perspective has been a theme that's come up. It was fun to thread that word through all aspects of life this week. I started out the week (Monday and Tuesday) looking intentionally for a picture that would encapsulate perspective. Wednesday and Thursday, I just took pictures as I normally would and then looked at them to see what reflected my perspective of the day. Friday-today, I wanted my pictures to showcase my vacation with friends. After taking the pictures (either on my Nikon CoolPix or my iPhone), I posted some of them raw, edited some using Pixlr, and collaged some on Pixlr to encapsulate more than just one moment. This is how I post all of the pictures I share online so I approached this challenge no differently. I'm sure there are many ways to upload onto my blog, but I posted each through my computer. It was just easier for me to manage, and once I got myself into the routine, it didn't take very long at all. I've seen several of these "challenges" done on Facebook before, but had never participated myself. As I was thinking about this project from a classroom sense, I thought it would be neat to have a picture or two of the week that my class decides on as a whole group. We could Tweet them and share them on our class website. I'm sure they would definitely take ownership over that! It would also be neat because I put together a photo slide show/video for them as an end of the year gift, and they would feel like they had a part in creating it.