Voice thread for week 5

The reoccurring problem that I have in my classroom is keeping the classroom library neat and organized.


http://voicethread.com/share/571330/

Week 5 Blog

Chapter 7: Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is when students work together to have a better understanding of their learning.

Keypals looks to be an interesting site for students to reach out to other students in different states, or countries. This idea is a way for students to learn about others and socially interact with students about a give topic. This is a very social way for students to learn about cultures, languages, as well as different student perspective about an academic topic.

As I was reading about WebQuest, I was thinking of how I could use this in our school. My class only has 5-8 students so it gets hard to come up with a project they can work together on that will interest all of them. So if I was to set up a webquest with another classroom, students would be able to have the social connection and cooperative learning with out having to work with the same few kids all the time.

Another social activity I thought of adding to my classroom is having my class build a web site. This would be a place where students can have online discussions as well as show competed work. For those students that do have a computer at home they will be able to share their work with their parents. For those students that do not have a computer at home they can share their work with their parents during student led conferences.

There are so many new technology based ideas in this chapter and all of them are good examples of social learning.

Week 4

Constructivism/Constructionism in Practice

Chapter 11: Generating and Testing Hypotheses

Dr. Orey states that constructionism is “a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others.” (DVD) With constructionism the teacher is the guide to help along the way but the students are the ones that are in charge of their learning. They then become the teachers when they present their finished project.

In chapter 11, they talked about students using spreadsheets, data collecting tools, web resources and gaming software with students to create hands on experiences. These are good examples of the constructionism theory because they are a way for a student to create or build their learning. Technology is hands on and students are able to create a finish project.

My students would be really interesting in the gaming software. They are highly motivated by video games and it would make a really interesting PBL unit.

The Project Based Learning web site is a great jumping off point when making a PBL unit. This website is for making middle and high school PBL units but I plan on seeing if I use it to make elementary PBL units for my students. I spend a lot of time making the units on my own I was excited to see a site with a format that I can follow.

Week 3

How cues, questions, advance organizers, summarizing and note taking correlate with the principles of cognitive learning theory as well as concept mapping and virtual field trips.

Chapter 4: Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers
“The instructional strategy cues, questions and advanced organizers focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use and organize information about a topic.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, p. 73) This statement helps define cognitive learning theory. Dr. Orey stated that cognitive learning theory focus on putting information into short term and long term memory using cues and connections to retrieve information. Using word processing to create tables and organize information for students is something that I have been able to teach my students how to do once the template is set up for them. The use of concept mapping and advanced organizers is essential for teaching students how to effectively organize information so that it makes sense to them. I enjoyed reading about the Tacoma bridge project; this is something I discuss with my students when talking about weather and our Washington communities. I am going to try to incorporate some of the texts ideas when we talk about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge next year.

Chapter 6: Summarizing and Note Taking

This chapter has once again opened my eyes to new ways to use Microsoft Word. After reading about how to use the track changes and summarizing features I can see that there is more to word than typing and tables. This makes me excited to share this information with my class and help them learn and better way to take notes. The inverted T chart helps connect words with pictures cues to help student recall information. The use of concept maps to summarize and organize information is a simple way for student to learn and retain information. I am interested to explore the web resources in chapter 6 to see how I can use them with my students. Blogs and wikis are a great way to share notes with others. Students can work together to teach each other what they have learned as well as asking clarifying questions.

Blog Assignment week 2

How reinforcing effort and homework and practice, relate to behaviorist learning theory.

“Reinforcing Effort”

The use of spreadsheet software and data collection tools to reinforce student effort is a great idea. When students can see how the amount of effort they put in place will affect the out come of their learning. I believe these two methods of technology show strong sense of behaviorism by helping students understand the correlation of effort to progress. Students learn what effort is and have a clear formed rubric of how to successfully show effort in their learning. The more they understand effort the higher of the reinforcement because of the better grades. When the data is used school wide students are able to see how this affects other students as well as themselves. Technology becomes a strong tool to help students focus on achievement; this is something that most teachers do not take the time to share with their students. I think this method would be very powerful for students.

“Homework and Practice”

After reading chapter 10, I was amazed at all the different uses of technology that I didn’t know about. I have learned new strategies through the use of Word that I can’t wait to show my students. The idea of having homework and practice available to student to complete at home is a new concept for me, I believe most of my students have computer assess and would enjoy some of the multimedia and web resources described in chapter 10. I can see how the tools in word would relate to behaviorism especially with the immediate responses and feedback with the use of the spelling and grammar tool as well as the auto summarizing tool. Also some of the web resources that gives the student information and then asks them questions about the information is also a skill from the behaviorist learning theory. I think that technology makes homework and practice more exciting for students and will increase further understanding than paper and pencil tasks.

Reflection Response

• In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?
• This course has given me the opportunity to explore different areas of technology, in doing so I am able to better understand my students and their desire for technology based academics. I now understand what a blog, wiki, RSS, podcast and what Google reader is capable of doing. These a all things I have heard of before but never took the time to figure out how to use them. Now that I know how to use them I am able to teach students and staff in my school how to use them.
  


• In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of the teaching and learning process?
• I feel I have a new way to look at how material is presented and evaluated. The changes in technology need to reflect the changes in our teaching, these changes are present in each of our students.
  
  
• In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?
  
• I have been giving my students the opportunity to explain to me how they want to prove their learning. I have some students that write better than others and some that are better with the computer. Instead of having every student give me the information in the same way they are now allowed to choose how they present their information.
  
  
• In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?
  I believe I need to continue to ask the questions, my learning will only continue if I ask how and what when dealing with new technology. I have keep myself up to date with the new technology and have discussions with the school and district staff to increase the desire to teach these technologies in my classroom. By looking for other classes that focus on teaching 21 century skills I will do a better job teaching these to may students.
  
• 
  
• Set two long-term goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

The first goal I an setting is to use blogs in my classroom for journaling, read aloud responses and book group discussions. Because we do this everyday in the regular journals this will give my students daily practice on the computer.
My second goal is to be a life long learning in the area a technology. I will be looking for other classes I can take to help me better understand 21 century skills. With this information I will educate staff at my school.

Ya this works from school now!!!

Podcast Assignment: Profiling the Students of Today

http://www.gcast.com/u/danikafulcher

Podcast Assignment: Profiling the Students of Today

http://www.gcast.com/u/danikafulcher/main

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

After looking through the web site I was in amazement do to the high standards and the alignment to the business world. I feel I could really stand behind the framework and the “21^st century student outcomes”.

Some of the things that surprised me were the intense focus on Information, Media, and Technology Skills starting at the kindergarten level up to high school. In most public schools we focus on Reading, Writing and Math we add technology here and there but there is no true focus. This make a huge gap between graduating high school students and the skills needed when applying for a job. Another thing that surprised me was the section on Life Skills. There are not many teachers that take the time to teach ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility. Teachers expect these skills in their students but usually do not take the time to teach these skills. I fully believe in teaching students life skills, I currently teach social skills and character education skills to my students 60 minutes a day. There are a few teachers in my school that take the time to teach some of the social skills their students are missing.

There really wasn’t anything I disagreed with on this site.

Some of the impacts for me as an educator would be the need for more professional development in the area’s of Information, Media, and Technology Skills, economics, and civic literacy. I currently try to teach the core subjects with a project-based viewpoint. This has really seemed to help my students focus on content instead of isolated skills.

If my school district adopted the frameworks it would mean that many more of our students would graduate being prepared for what is expected from them in the work place.

How I might use a blog in my classroom.

I currently teach 3rd, 4th and 5th grade Emotional/Behavioral Disordered Special Education students at a Title One school. Twice a year we hold student led conferences where our students show their parents their work and explain whether or not they are meeting standard on the items they have chosen to put into their portfolio's.

I think it would be exciting to set up a blog for each of my students where they would be able to upload the work they would want to put in a portfolio and blog about their work. They could reflect on each assignment from what they liked, what they didn't like, what they could change for next time. This would give students an electronic portfolio that they would be able to share with their family outside of the school day. If each of my students had an E-Portfolio they could build on it year after year and share it with their next teacher. With the blog set up I would be able to give feed back to each of the assignments and post the rubric that goes with each assignment.

The only draw back is the fact that our district does not allow any blog sites to be brought up on school computers. I would have to figure out a way to use a non-school computer and a wireless network that didn't belong to the district to make this happen.

Is there a need for teachers to teach social skills in the classroom?

Year after year, day after day we see the same students going in and out of the principles room with the never ending behavior problems. These students fill out problem solving sheets and do their time and are back in class doing the same behaviors they were sent out for in the first place. What are we as educators doing to help these students with these never ending behavior problems? We see these problems because of the students lack of social skills but are they teaching social skills in many of the general education program as part of the curriculum? At our school there are a few teachers that take the time to address and teach social skills but not very many. Those teachers that do not take the time are the teachers that are sending students out to the office.
I teach social skills everyday for 60 minutes in my Emotional/Behavioral Disorder Special Education Classroom. I follow a scope and sequence starting with manners ending with bulling and anger management. I have found that the Social Star curriculum is very helpful when I write my lessons. I have really seen a big change in the behavior of my boys once we completed a section of the scope and sequence.

How do other teacher handle lack of social skills in their classroom?
Do you feel there is a need to teach social skills in General Education as well as Special Education?