Reflection of Course 8

I am proud to say that I not only survived another first day of school, but my coteacher and I utilized technology on the first day of school as well. We showed a math video about how easily math mistakes can be made, and had parents and students sign up for Remind 101 at open house and on the first day of school. Remind 101 will allow teachers to send messages to students and parents cell phones or email, so this is yet another way to communicate with families to make them aware of their students’ needs.

As an update on my first goal of integrating at least one type of technology into my life each semester:

·         I have successfully converted my school email from Outlook to Google.

·         I have a working cell phone again and have set up my calendar with reminders on the phone. I also have an application that allows me to “write” myself to do lists. I do not have my school email linked to my phone yet, but still intend to do so.

·         Our Analytic Geometry team is creating a Google drive so that each member can access each other’s data from any location.

·         Our Analytic Geometry team has piloted its first year using Remind 101.

My second goal is to have students using technology in the classroom weekly. Our first full week of school begins on Monday, and we have planned for students to use the SmartBoard to label the sides of triangles as opposite, adjacent, and hypotenuse from various angles within the triangle.  Our team has been working together very well; we are busy laying the groundwork for a great year. In addition to my personal goal we have been training to utilize various grouping strategies within the classroom; I feel like that has been more of a focus so far this year but I do not want to let the technology goal fall by the wayside.

                The GAME plan is very focused on goal setting, and I think this skill applies to many areas in the classroom. Each week we plan lessons that include objectives or goals for the students. We frequently refer to these goals, so the students are aware of them.  Additionally, when I write IEPs they are also very goal focused. I will remind my students the steps of the GAME plan throughout the year as they are struggling with or taking the next step of their goals.

                Through this course I discovered a great resource, ePals, which allows me to find teachers all over the world who are seeking communication with other classes. This is a great way to integrate technology into the classroom, increase global awareness, learn about diversity, and create an audience for my students to work for. I can send survey questions that my students have written to students in other countries who are learning to speak English. Both sides benefit from this, other students get to practice their English skills (or simply communicate with another class), and my students gain authentic data to create graphs with. 

The Countdown Begins...

Back to school shopping has commenced, back to school planning is in full swing. I still do not have a functioning cell phone, so I am going to start looking into a second option for integrating a new type of technology into my life: switching my school email from an Outlook account to a Google mail account. I am not completely abandoning my dreams of using my cell phone as an agenda for my life, but putting it on hold until I have a phone that works. I did get a great suggestion last week, to have my school emails sent to my phone, I will link these when I get my phone up and ringing.

My action plan for switching to Google mail includes looking through old emails and deciding whether or not I need to convert any to my new email address, or if I can just start fresh. I will also need to spend a little time updating my contacts and familiarizing myself with how Google mail functions. I know this is not a major change, but it is something I can do towards achieving a goal of integrating a new technology into my life.

I have done some research this week of ideas for integrating technology into my classroom weekly. On Pinterest I found this great blog site, http://walkinginmathland.weebly.com that has references to UTube videos that relate to the content I teach, as well as some math games that I can modify to use on the Smart Board.

In my research I also found this site for Geometer’s Sketchpad Resource Center at http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/.  I am not sure how much money I have in my budget, but I doubt it is much, if any to spend on software like this. The price is $30 for a student edition.

These next few weeks before school begins I will continue to look at online lesson plans and activities I can use in my classes. I am still open to suggestions on integrating authentic lessons and technology into Analytic Geometry for tenth graders, so please post ideas if you have them.

Action!

As you recall from last week’s blog post my first goal is to incorporate one new type of technology into my life each new semester of school. I have a Smartphone and have become very reliant on several of the applications available on it; however I have not yet gotten used to the calendar feature, or the reminders that are available through this application. As school supplies are beginning to go on sale around me I have considered purchasing my new agenda for the school year, but have decided instead to not to do this and rely on my phone instead. I picture myself being able to speak reminders to myself in my phone as I walk between buildings and classes at school, always having my calendar at my fingertips, and never missing a meeting because I will have text reminders sent to me. To become comfortable with using the phone as my agenda I need to become comfortable with the features, and I will likely have someone with a similar phone show me how they use theirs. I have access to several expert teenage phone users who I am sure would love to show me how to do everything I need. Summer seems like the perfect time to begin experimenting with this, but alas, my phone battery exploded and I have been without my beloved phone for over a month now. I ordered a replacement battery June 8^th, and it is still on back order… it is due to arrive July 22. Step one to accomplishing my first goal is to actually get my phone to turn on; I have not accomplished this yet but hope to do so soon.

My second goal is to have students use technology in the classroom weekly. To do this I plan to meet with my colleagues weekly to plan collaborative lessons with them and present ideas on how to integrate technology into my lessons. Since it is summer break I have not yet accomplished this.  This week’s resources have included several ideas for my content area: using Microsoft Excel to have students enter data and create graphs, using software (we have Smart Notebook) to allow students to create lines to solve for, and assigning online tutorial work to struggling students to replace missing assignments, (Laureate Productions, Inc., 2011). To keep coming up with fresh ideas I intend to research lesson plans online. There are many teachers who post their classroom ideas on blog sites and Pinterest; I will use these resources to find creative ways that I can adapt technology to my classroom. I have researched some teacher websites in the past, but if you know of any great sites for teaching Analytic Geometry please do feel free to share.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Meeting Students’ Needs with Technology Part 1. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com.

GAME plan

As I reviewed the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers this week I found that I am confident in areas of collaboration, authentic lessons, and using technology that I am familiar with in my lesson plans. However, some areas I would like to improve upon include indicator 3d “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning,” and indicator 5a, “Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning,” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007). To improve on these two standards I would like to set the following goals:

·         Incorporate one new type of technology into my life each new semester of school.

·         Have students using technology in the classroom weekly.

To achieve these goals the actions I will need to take are to research types of technology and become comfortable using them. I will need to take the time to explore how each new technology works and experiment with it myself to become comfortable with it. As I become familiar with the technology I will make a note of ways that that technology can be used to make my life easier or more efficient, or how it can be used in my classroom.

When I create lesson plans with my colleagues I will need to be prepared with ideas for using technology in the classroom and express to my team the importance of using technology in the classroom. I can research other teachers’ lesson plan ideas that incorporate technology in Analytic Geometry classrooms via the internet and have those contributions ready to present when planning lessons for our own classrooms.

I can monitor my progress by sharing my goals with my colleagues and have them hold me accountable to my goals.  By December I should be proficient with a new type of technology that I was not comfortable with in August, and then in May I should be proficient with another type of technology. I can reflect on my lesson plans at these two benchmarks and evaluate how frequently the students used technology in my classroom. I believe if I set the standard for myself that each week’s lesson plan should include technology that I will be able to make that happen.

I will be consistently extending my learning through the incorporation of using technology in my lesson plans and researching what other teachers are doing in my subject area.

References

International Society for Technology in Education, (2007). Teacher Standards. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Reflection of Learning Theories and Technology

When I began this course I described my theory of learning as a cognitivist approach. I focused on the importance of formative assessments and having the students’ knowledge drive the instruction. Now that I have learned more about different types of learning theories I also see the value in the constructivist, constructionist, and social constructivist approaches. Having students create artifacts increases student engagement and allows students to participate actively in their learning, (Laureate Productions, Inc., 2010b) which will later help with remembering what they have learned.  I was reminded through this course that the brain stores information in networks and the more connections that are made in those networks the easier it will be for students to retrieve that information later. The dual coding hypothesis states that students learn best when taught with images and text, (Laureate Productions, Inc. 2010).  Technologies such as online concept maps help to illustrate the connections of information and can include visuals along with texts. Allowing students to create their own concept maps is an even better idea as students are constructing their own maps and demonstrating their knowledge rather than sitting back while the teacher does all the work.

As I prepare my lessons I now consider the importance of providing visuals as well as text, and try to focus more on student participation in the lessons rather than always being teacher centered. This course has introduced me to voice threads, concept maps, and virtual field trips. While I have used the concept maps once, I used them in an introductory note taking situation where the students filled in a blank copy I created. I want to have students create their own concept maps as more of a summarizing tool to show what they have learned. I would also like to try having students respond to a voice thread assignment, maybe by working in groups in class.

Two long term goals I have for my instructional teaching practice is to focus more on constructionism and to create a website which has voicethreads of my lessons for students to be able to access when they miss a class or need more review. To increase my constructivist projects I am going to have to brain storm ideas that go along with the practice of the standards we are already teaching and carve out time from the curriculum map for the completion of these tasks. Creating the website with voice threads just simply means taking the time to do so. I could even set a webcam to record my teaching as I present the lesson to the class so that no extra work or time is needed in creating the lessons.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program seven: Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Social Learning

Cooperative learning supports social constructivism and connectivism as students are working together to accomplish a task that demonstrates their understanding of some knowledge. The discussion and feedback evident in cooperative groups allows students to come to a deeper level of understanding of the material. While students may take pages and pages of notes on a subject, until they have to use that information it is just writing on a paper. Allowing students to explain the information to each other forces the students to process what they have written to be able to put it into their own words and apply the knowledge. Even this week as I wrote the definitions to what connectivism and social constructionism mean, the definitions are meaningless until now when I have to explain and consider how they can be used in my classroom.  When students are given new facts we have learned that those facts are stored somewhere in the brain. The brain works by forming connections between pieces of information; when students are distributing their information amongst themselves they are forming more and more connections with that information so that it can later be more easily retrieved.

The internet provides so many opportunities for students to actively engage in constructing artifacts and conversing with others, perfectly aligned with the definition of social learning theories (Laureate Productions, Inc., 2011).  Students can work with the people in their classrooms or even in another continent through the use of blogsites, voice threads, wikipages, and keypals. Most students are very familiar with using sites like facebook to give their input on their personal lives, so providing input about their content knowledge via educational tools is often easily accepted by students as well. Most teenagers are not comfortable sharing their answers or ideas in front of the class or their peers, but feel safer to share when they are hidden behind a computer screen typing what they know.  As we continue to move towards a global economy I feel that students need to be capable of communicating their thoughts and ideas to others even if they are on another continent.

Please visit a voicethread I created: http://walden.voicethread.com/share/4087569/
to see one resource we can use to create discussion in our classrooms.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program eight: Social learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Constructive Learning

Our minds and experiences are so diverse that a concept as simple as a chair can lead to so many images. When you think of a chair do you picture a wooden chair? A plastic chair? A comfy recliner? Perhaps a zebra print chaise lounge? Everyone has such creative minds that it is impossible to limit the image of a chair to one perspective, this is how constructivism works: each learner actively constructs his or her own learning, (Laureate Productions, Inc., 2012).  When we allow students to actively engage in constructing their own learning there will be multiple versions of the same concept. Students who take the time to create a project will demonstrate their knowledge of the topic and the connections they make to the topic through their individuality.

One method of constructivist teaching is to allow students to generate and test hypotheses. When given a problem, students will have many different ideas on how to approach the solution. Although this is associated mostly with science, we generate and test hypotheses frequently in our daily lives and throughout many subject areas. For example, if I am looking for the best price on cereal I will form a hypothesis on where the best deal will be found based on my prior experiences. I can then test that hypothesis by checking the prices at several different stores. While this is a time consuming method of shopping, it does show how I am able to construct my own learning of where the best price is found. 

A common problem with testing hypotheses is the data collection. However, “technology can play a vital role in generating and testing hypotheses because new developments in probeware and interactive applets allow students to spend more time interpreting the data rather than gathering the data- a process that can be tedious and error prone”, (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenski, 2007,p 203). Cutting the time spent on calculating and gathering data will encourage students and teachers alike to spend more time generating hypothesis and forming conclusions. Instead of just watching a movie on water pollution, students can easily test local water sources through the use of probeware; survey results can be calculated quickly through the use of spreadsheets, and search engines can cut the legwork off of research (such as with my cereal prices).

Project based learning is another form of constructivism and constructionism as it allows students to create something that shows what they understand. Again, the creative solutions to the students’ problem are endless. I visited a website of project based learning ideas (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm) and the ideas on the website itself are testament of the creativity possible in project based learning. There are so many ideas and options that people have brainstormed and used when asked to show project based learning.  I encourage teachers seeking to promote creative, constructivist learning to visit this site for ideas in many subject areas.  Taking the time to have students create an artifact that shows their learning will be more meaningful and memorable to the students than a traditional lesson.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program seven: Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cognitive Learning Theories

Note taking and graphic organizers go hand in hand with cognitive learning theories. When students are actively taking notes during a lecture or lesson they are seeing the information as well as hearing it; this supports the dual coding hypothesis, (Laureate Productions Inc., 2011). Using graphic organizers for note taking is even better as the graphic organizers are generally set up by grouping information together, which is very similar to the networking storage method of long term memory, (Laureate Productions Inc., 2011). I can remember studying for tests and being able to picture the format of the notes to help me remember the facts.  “The classroom recommendations for note taking include using a variety of note-taking formats and giving students teacher prepared notes,” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenski, 2007, p. 128).  These methods will help students to know what to write and what category each piece of information falls into for easier organization of ideas in their brain.

                I love using graphic organizers to show the steps of how to solve math problems before or alongside working out examples. It helps students group the information needed to solve the different types of problems so that they can easily find the correct method or formula when looking back in their notes.  For example, we recently learned the formulas for Sine, Cosine, and Tangent to solve right triangles. In class the students created a foldable for their notes; each flap of the foldable has the formula and an example of how to use it. This foldable breaks the three formulas into separate pieces so that the students do not become confused among the information.

During class lectures and note taking many students with disabilities have trouble keeping up with taking notes and processing the information at the same time. To accommodate this problem I often provide copies of the material with just a few blanks to fill in. This helps the students stay focused and on task, and at the same time they are able to focus more attention to the teaching instead of trying to catch up with the writing. The cognitive learning theory tells us that short term memory can only process about seven pieces of information at once, (Laureate Production, Inc., 2011). However, classes such as history and science often cover many more facts than that in one class period of note taking. Knowing this limit of memory makes the graphic organizer much more important; without showing the connections of information, all of those facts will just become lost in the students’ brains. To help with this overload of information I also find it very beneficial to take breaks and have the students reflect on what they have learned to help them process and store the information.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

 

The Rewards of Effort and Practice

Dr. Orey defines behaviorism as operant conditioning, and especially notes the importance of reinforcement of desired behaviors, (Laureate Productions, Inc., 2011).  This can be linked to the importance of effort on student success; the problem with effort is that students do not recognize the reward that effort has on their success.  According to the behaviorist learning theory, for students to increase their success they need to be rewarded for their efforts. Once the rewards begin to increase the amount of effort, students will see that effort itself earns a reward of success.

This is where instructional technology can play its’ part. I love the idea of having students self-rate their level of effort and then comparing that data to the test scores (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenski, 2007, p. 158-161). Students are oblivious to the impact that putting forth effort can have on their grades and I believe spending time showing students the correlation between effort and success would improve the success rate. For example, in my 10th grade math class we assign homework weekly. Students often have more than one day to complete 8-10 math practice problems that are only graded on effort…. Wrong answers do not hurt their grade. Despite the lenient policies, only about half of the students in our classes do their homework. While it is easy for me to see the rewards of completing homework (extra practice, easy A’s, help students understand the content) students are obviously not realizing the benefits.  I am excited to try this  idea of having students correlate their effort with test scores to see if that makes them realize the importance of effort.

If teachers can condition their students to complete it, homework is a valuable resource for extra practice. Spending time working on problems individually will allow students to see what areas they have questions in, and allow for repetition that we do not always have time for during the regular class period. “Multiple exposures to material help students deepen their understanding of content and become proficient with skills,” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenski, 2007, p 188). Many students do not have access to technology at home, so I do not recommend assigning online programs for homework, but teachers can spend some class time utilizing websites that offer tutorials and games for practicing specific skills. These games often tell students immediately if their answer is correct, and many even give hints to help students reach the correct answer.  In a class of thirty students a teacher cannot provide this immediacy of feedback or provide helps as quickly as an online program can. In educational games students are also receiving the benefit of being rewarded for correct answers by being able to play the game when they answer the questions correctly, which supports the behaviorist theory. I do not believe that these online games and programs can replace a student’s instructional experience, but I they are a great resource for providing extra practice to add to the classroom instruction.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program four: Behaviorist learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

 

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.