ISTE Standard 4 Project & Reflection

 ISTE Standard 4 Project & Reflection

The poster below is designed to teach parents and children know about the importance of digital health and wellness. It was simplified so students at any grade level and parents are able to understand the meaning behind it.People don't want a large amount of information in front of them. The poster was also needed to be catchy and pleasing to look at. It had to have eye-catching visuals and only have the most important information for the people to know. The QR code at the end sends people to a website designed to help parents get more information on how to be proper digital citizens. If parents wanted more information on the physical and mental effects of the overuse of the internet than what I provided, then that QR code would given them more detailed info.

EDTC: Extra Credit Blog Post

           Since I started teaching I have used the educational social media site, Edmodo.com. In it I had a place to post videos, extra worksheets, and assess my students using the program. What I also did was use its community capabilities. This has been very helpful when I needed answers for geometry project ideas and apps to use for my students. It has been helpful, but as other social media sites have now taken the place of edmodo, I see it may be starting to lose followers. I might look into other places like Twitter to their educational community boards so I can gain a broader area to gain information. Enclosed are screenshots of me working with other teachers in edmodo by helping each other with questions.

Accomplished Teaching: End of Course Reflection

From the beginning of the course I was a novice teacher with some leadership skills. I led a Geometry Professional Learning Community (PLC), collaborated heavily with others in my math department over baseline exams, awards, etc. However, I felt that I lacked the full traits of being considered “a leader”. Over the course of the quarter I will admit I was a bit scared going into this program due to a possibly extreme learning curve especially not being in the University Place School District (UPSD). I was thankfully surprised over the support I received over the time by the class facilitator, Angie Franklin, and the rest of the classmates. Based off of the standards I learned from Seattle Pacific University’s School of Education I felt I gained the most in:

Standard 2: Analyze learning to promote student growth.

Standard 4:  Engage in analysis of teaching and collaborative practices.

With my district’s Danielson Framework of TPEP I found that I did use most of what I was taught in my classroom already. The standards included were:

          1e: Designing Coherent Instructions

          4a: Reflecting on Teaching

          4d Participating in the Professional Community

          4e Growing and Developing Professionally

    During the course of the quarter I found that an accomplished teacher always reflects on their practices. They are ones that look back at their lessons, see how well it went, and how to alter their plans for the future. In this class I found that the reflective strategies have helped. Brookhart, S. M. (2016) pointed out that lessons that support higher-order learning are also likely to interest and engage students. So I focused my time reflecting on how I could structure my lessons to interest the students. During the first meeting with the rest of the UPSD cohort I found the coaching session to be quite useful. Working with Pat Perkins during the coaching session, I wanted him to focus the time on methods to engage my students and an area in which I struggled was questioning and discussion techniques. Hintz, A., Kazemi, E. (2014) pointed out that the goal of questioning and discussion techniques are what the teacher can listen for, ideas to pursue, and which to highlight in the lesson. His years of expertise helped shape my lesson on lesson 3.2, different types of angle pairs to promote discussion as well as making it relevant to students. While forming the lesson plan for me to teach, his knowledge of English pushed me to influence more vocabulary by incorporating different strategies into the lessons to benefit my students learning geometry.

    After taking what my coaching partner told me I taught my lesson to my students. The overall lesson went well, but I knew I could have done better. Before showing it to the cohort, I wrote down different ways I could have improved the lesson so the class could tell me if that component would have been a better choice  During the second cohort session I was placed with Conrado Julian, Vanessa Oh, and Cleo Hagen. We reviewed each other’s lessons and gave critiques. I was glad to have teachers who did not know me too well to examine my lesson and give me critiques with less of a bias. The overall experience was useful as they gave more ideas on how to alter my lessons to engage more students and more questioning techniques. York-Barr et a. (2006) found that in groups, more resources are available and the participants gain significant improvements with their colleagues.

From this class I can now consider myself a more accomplished teacher and closer to my goal of being a leader. As I continue my future lesson planning I will make sure to influence more lessons that will engage students. For example, at the end of this unit that I am teaching on Transformations, my Geometry PLC and I will be giving the students a project I designed, “Transformations Logo Project” as a way to demonstrate to my students how geometry is used in everyday life in a creative way. I will also keep pushing myself to look for more questioning and discussion techniques for my lessons. As I continue to pursue my goals I will continuously look back on this class as it has been beneficial to how I reflect on my instructional practices.

Artifacts Listed in Reflection	Cohort Members in Reflection
Danielson Framework Lesson Plan Lesson from SMART board Transformation Logo Project	Cleo Hagen Conrado Julian Vanessa Oh Pat Perkins

Works Cited

Brookhart, S. M. (2016). Start With Higher-Order Thinking. Educational Leadership, 74(2), 10-15.

Hintz, A., Kazemi, E. (2014). Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

The Danielson Group. (2013). The Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument 2013 Edition. Princeton, NJ: Danielson, C.

York-Barr, J., Sommers, W.A., Ghere, G.S., & Montie, J. (2006). Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

EDTC: Blog Post #5

ISTE Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership 

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.

Question: How can I utilize technology to participate in digital learning communities and development so I can emulate what I learn into my Professional Learning Communities. 

Teachers are powerful people because they are ones that create the future of the world. For them to be the way that they are, teachers often collaborate with others to create a professional learning community  (PLC). They allow teachers to construct curriculum, design formative and summative assessments, as well as support each other. Teachers working together in PLCs make it easier to obtain the ultimate goal which is for student achievement. However, PLCs can only go so far. With the use of professional development (PD) it lets the teachers go outside of what they know by learning from professionals who would be able to help them gain more knowledge then bring it back to their fellow colleagues.

Now with the use of technology it makes it easier for the teachers to expand their knowledge in order to help their PLCs.  It is important for teachers to have that space to work with others. Nicholson et al. (2016) found that by creating a protected space where burdens could be castout to the group is beneficial so they can help them feel supported in navigating the hardships of their chosen profession. Although the PLCs can only go so far. Teachers have a limited amount of information to share with others in the group. Now it comes to the use of PDs. An SPU student, Michaela Clark found in her article that, PDs aimed to develop teachers’ capabilities by using instructional technologies in  order for a plethora of ways to benefit the teachers and students (Twining, P. et al., 2016 ). In these PDs it would allow teachers to practice different strategies and utilize them in hopes to demonstrate with other teachers.

A way to have productive virtual PDs is through The Mode Dimension Within the Computer Practice Framework. Twining, P. et al. (2016) found that teachers should be involved with finding ways to alter their pedagogy by ways to support learning objectives, extend the curriculum outside the textbook, and transform the content using technology. PDs that are focused on those areas lets the teacher expand their current knowledge of teaching so they can help students achieve.

From what I have learned from virtual PDs I found issues with bringing them to my PLC. The biggest issues are at with content blockers on district wifi. Some districts, including mine, have blocked access to wordpress, edmodo, and blogger like the ones in the hyperlinks provided. This can cause issues because if some strategies have videos to demonstrate its practice then it could not be shown during normal PLC locations which would be at school. Other issues are with time. My PLC can be a bit sporadic with some teachers not able to come to the PLC meeting times and others refusing. One solution is to send them the virtual PDs that I find and have them look at them at home prior to the PLC then come to the meeting with the information provided and use it to further our goal.

Another method to construct more solutions to bring to the PLCS is through the use of digital learning communities. In it there are places for teachers to post topics, communicate with one another, and find solutions to problems that other teachers may have asked. These can be located in different websites like edmodo.com and blog sites like wordpress.com as well as Blogger.com. Specifically blog sites like wordpress or blogger have a high benefits to newer teachers like myself. Anderson, J. et al. (n.d.) found, It is a place where teachers can blog about experiences and engages in practices that work in formation to form the new teacher’s identity. It has benefits for veteran teachers by giving ideas to  revamp their curriculum, look at different teaching strategies and creative formative assessments that can be used in the classroom. These types of uses have been especially beneficial to new teachers. In a study by Luik, P., & Taimalu, M. (2016).with new teachers found that in the group there were 85 participants who found that they grew immensely utilizing the blog capabilities. After looking through different blogs and other education type social medias I came across, ISTE’s post, “19 Education Twitter Chats Worth Your Time”. In it there were links to different education Twitter accounts that dealt with, general education, content specific, organization sponsored, and others like it. After looking through them I will now get a Twitter account so I can take advantage of all of the potential for me, and my PLC.

Works Cited

Anderson, J., Justice, J., Gorham, J. J., Wall, S., Boyd, A., Nichols, K., & Alheieser, L. (n.d.). The Affordance Of Blogging On Establishing Communities Of Practice In A Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Education Program. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 21(1), 49-88.

Luik, P., & Taimalu, M. (2016). Factors of Participants and Blogs that Predict Blogging Activeness During Teaching Practice and Induction Year. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(1). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v17i1.2169

Nicholson, J., Capitelli, S., Richert, A. E., Bauer, A., & Bonetti, S. (2016, Winter). The Affordances of Using a Teacher Leadership Network to Support Leadership Development. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29-50.

Twining, P., Raffaghelli, J., Albion, P., & Knezek, D. (2013). Moving education into the digital age: The contribution of teachers' professional development. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(5), 426-437. doi:10.1111/jcal.12031

EDTC: Blog Post #4 for Module 4

Math is a subject that people feel is a bore. In popular media it is viewed where students come in, sit down, the teacher lectures, students write down notes, leave, do the homework and repeat. With the use of technology it has allowed math teachers to get away from the myth of math being monotonous. Social media has especially allowed teachers to create more ways for students to branch out and communicate with others about mathematics. A question to help me figure this out is, “How can I teach my math students appropriate digital social interactions around mathematics with others outside the classroom?”

In order to have my students utilize social interactions online, first the students have to be taught proper digital behavior. Since the birth of social media the use of it by students has surged. This brings new situations for students to go through in their daily lives.

“The Pew Research Center’s 2011 report, ‘Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites,’ indicates that 25% of the respondents said that an interaction on a social media site led to a face-to-face argument, 22% said that it ended a friendship, and 13% reported that it made them nervous to attend school the next day.” (Ribble, n.d.)

From that a new threat focused around bullying has emerged called cyberbullying in which people are harassed or victimized using technology. All over the world, students are facing these issues as social media has become more prevalent in their daily lives. Having digital citizenship is necessary to combat these issues so students are able to feel safe at school, home, or online. Another SPU cohort student, Conrado Julian, found in his article, “The Strategies for Digital Citizenship,” that we teach positive values in everyday life, but we lack in the digital realm. By focusing on digital citizenship we acknowledge that our students’ lives on the internet require the same amount of attention (Don & Edward, n.d.). We as teachers need to focus on digital citizenship because it can have dire consequences if left alone.

To be able to teach this type of digital citizenship the teachers have to be the ones demonstrating how to act. To be able to connect students with other classrooms from around the world, teachers have to do so first (Lindsay & Davis, 2010). That means teachers have to try it out, figure out the issues that may arise, create plans for said issues, then demonstrate to the students proper etiquette. Students can then emulate what is being asked by the teacher in order for them to communicate with others from around the world about mathematics. Even with demonstrating proper etiquette students will forget. Teachers should always be prepared with consequences for misuse. When moderating all collaborative online discussions, if a student is out of line, then there are steps such as screenshotting the misconduct, having the student make an open apology, and suspending or even banning students from the social network (Lindsay & Davis, 2010). With these ideas on how to demonstrate and monitor proper digital behaviors, I can focus on working with students to be able to communicate with others on mathematics in order for them to collaboratively solve problems.

After teaching digital citizenship students can utilize online discussion boards. There are major benefits to allowing students to work collaboratively online with others on problem-solving activities and other discussions. It gives students an opportunity to create their own learning community with people separated by distance, culture, organizational, and international borders and lets students who are usually isolated in face to face observations to communicate (Brodie, 2009). One school used this idea for creating online learning communities that allowed students to work with each other in cohorts. University of Southern Queensland located in Australia looked to improve their online engineering program. They implemented more discussion boards and online meets for the students to utilize instead of having no interaction with other students (Brodie, 2009). This provided major benefits toward the students academically. The school found in comparison to their on campus classes that the online students were performing better. The number of students passing the course went up higher than their in-class counterparts. It also allowed students that weren’t already able to work in a team and more confidence in their work (Brodie, 2009).

I have already looked into ways that I want to implement social media sites into my classroom for students to work collaboratively with others on mathematical problems, such as social media sites that are made specifically for students to communicate with others about any academic subjects. The social media site Docsity allows students to connect with a plethora of other students around the globe and engage in activities, study posted materials and simply have discussions with others about any subjects. It is even available for androids and iOS devices so it can be more accessible to students since all of my students have access to an iPad everyday. I will experiment with the social media site for its potential to help my students communicate with others about mathematics. A major goal of mine is to utilize its communication potential and create mathematical problems that would have students communicating with others from around the world to solve them.

Works Cited

Brodie, L. M. (2009). EProblem-based learning: Problem-based learning using virtual teams.    European Journal of Engineering Education, 34(6), 497-509. doi:10.1080/03043790902943868

Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. (2010, April). Navigate the Digital Rapids. International Society for Technology in Education, 12-15.

Don O.; Edward C.; Illustration by Aaron Sacco. (n.d.). Independent School Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from http://www.nais.org/Magazines-Newsletters/ISMagazine/Pages/The-Strategy-for-Digital-Citizenship.aspx

Ribble, M. (n.d.). EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN AN ONLINE WORLD: CONNECTING STUDENTS TO TECHNOLOGY RESPONSIBLY, SAFELY, AND ETHICALLY. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(1), 137-145.

EDTC: Blog Post #3

ISTE Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

The following standards are most relevant to my triggering question

1. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. 

2. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. 

3. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Teaching students is not easy. All the factors that contribute to students’ mathematical abilities whether it is parental support, emotional needs and cognitive level creates a unique dynamic in my classroom each year. With the use of research-based strategies on technology it can become easier to assist students academically by evaluating them in order to provide individualized support. With the use of different digital formats a major goal of mine is to analyze my students’ ability in math, then create personalized education in order for them to succeed in my math course. The question I asked myself to help answer my dilemma was, “What are the different digital formats and their benefits?” With this question my hope is to construct individualized education for all my math students.

While researching I found an article on the use of a digital format that applied to the Chilean school system.  “Increasing Student Engagement in Math: The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms” follows researchers looking for the effectiveness of Khanacademy.org in the classroom in comparison to their traditional math classroom. The digital format has been useful for showing videos, creating an endless amount of practice, and generating data for teachers to monitor student understanding (Light, D., & Pierson, E., 2014). Those main reasons helped the Chilean teachers create a digital environment that can be overseen while students are able to explore new concepts or review ones they may have struggled with.  

This type of digital format would apply to the students I teach because they have a wide variety of ability levels, just like the students featured in the article. Khanacademy.org would allow me to create a space for each student to grow at their own rate. Louise Starkey in her article, “Evaluating learning in the 21st century: a digital age learning matrix” found major benefits for creating those student-centered lessons. “The students observed spent more time learning through student-centred studies and cooperative learning activities, which may have benefits in other areas not measured directly in the standardised test” (Starkey, L., 2011). Since the students who I work with have the use of iPads everyday at school and at home, having this resource would be beneficial to analyze their achievement in my class and provide one-on-one education using that tool.

Another resource I found that will help promote student achievement is Remind.com. The digital format was originally designed as a text messaging service where teachers could send announcements to parents and students. Now with the use of the iPads, it can be used as a two-way communication tool where the recipients can communicate back and forth with the teacher. While another SPU student, Katie Adams, was looking for research for her question, the article, “The Changing Nature of Parent-Teacher Communication” discusses the effectiveness with having parents as well as students use the text messaging service to provide immediate feedback. As text messaging emerges as a way to communicate, a majority of parents studied found it to be a viable and convenient option to communicate to their child’s teacher (Thompson, B. C., Mazer, J. P., & Grady, E. F., 2015). Being able to have parent support like that would provide an immensely positive impact on their child’s learning in mathematics.

What I found useful from Remind.com’s features is the potential to assist students by having the teacher become an online tutor. I have been experimenting with allowing students to ask me questions through the app. So far it has been beneficial with students and parents asking questions about their homework assignments by sending me pictures and I analyze them and provide feedback. A goal is to extend its current use into creating an online student-centered instruction where I can provide digital materials outside of the classroom. In this way I can have students explore topics or review materials in the comfort of their home. Then they can ask me questions using the app or bring it to me the following day. Remind.com is beginning to be extremely useful to my needs as a teacher by creating an online presence to help students and hopefully to create student-centered instruction.

As I utilize these digital formats to support my students I will want to make sure I am working to provide a strong digital presence so my students can have an individualized education. There are a few minor problems for what I want to accomplish. First as with anything that is new, time is needed to create and implement. Trying to effectively create an individualized education takes quite a while to organize the intended goal, and the steps to achieve it. Another would be the issue of access to the internet. A portion of my students have limited access to food and housing, let alone access to the internet. The only way they can access digital materials is in the school. Creating an online individualized education would be difficult for those students. I would have to change my plan for them so they can utilize the digital formats also. With technology resources increasing, students are given an opportunity to expand their knowledge more easily than previous generations. As a teacher I must be able to meet their needs by creating student-centered lessons and activities using different digital formats.

Works Cited

Light, D., & Pierson, E. (2014). The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms: Study of an      Intel Funded Pilot Program in Chile. 2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 103-120. doi:10.1109/icalt.2014.65

Starkey, L. (2011). Evaluating learning in the 21st century: A digital age learning matrix. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 20(1), 19-39. doi:10.1080/1475939x.2011.554021

Thompson, B. C., Mazer, J. P., & Grady, E. F. (2015). The Changing Nature of Parent–Teacher 
           Communication: Mode Selection in the Smartphone Era. Communication Education, 64(2), 
           187-207. doi:10.1080/03634523.2015.1014382

Teching with Technology: Module 2 Blog Post

 

EDTC6433 Reflection on Module 2 Triggering Event Question

Each student comes into the classroom with their own unique qualities and different learning preferences. The learners that I focus on are the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. University of Massachusetts stated that auditory learners are people who need the transfer of learning through listening, visual learners need to be able to be shown information, and kinesthetic learners need a more hands-on approach for learning (How to Accommodate Different Learning Styles - umassd.edu, n.d.). They all bring both new ideas and frustrations as I, being a teacher, have to construct differentiated learning activities and assessments to meet their educational needs. A classmate in my learning circle, Michaela Clark found an article on technology enhanced formative assessments that reaffirms my need to focus on formative assessments.  Beatty & Gerace stated, “Formative Assessments is particularly beneficial for traditionally ‘low achieving’ students, with potential to help narrow the achievement gap between students from different socioeconomic strata” (p.147). Working in a Title One school where the free and reduced lunch rate is above fifty percent, I want to make sure that all my students, no matter who they are can receive a proper education. With the rise of technology, it has come to be extremely helpful with providing the necessary materials needed to the students’ unique learning qualities. As I reflect on this I asked the question, How can I incorporate more types of assessments that reach multiple types of learners, in order to keep students interested in math?

The use of technology has grown since the time when I was in school with the basic Macintosh during the WEB 1.0 years. Students now have an opportunity for a vast variety of information in front of them with only a few short searches. One study found that sixty-seven percent of the teachers believe that digital resources will help differentiate learning for individual learning (Lang and Vockley, 2010). Teachers are not the only people who want to utilize technology for lessons and assessments. Surprisingly students want technology in their learning. The use of Integrated Communications Technology Learning (ICTL) for information seeking, sharing, and classroom learning can improve teaching and learning by creating a stronger understanding for student learning based off of their preference (Mills, L. A., Angnakoon, & Putthachat, n.d.). As a teacher I strive to meet the needs of all my students and find ways to formally and informally assess my students with all their different educational needs.

After looking through some searches, I found a website that will assist in my goal of reaching my students. Learningpath.org created a list of thirty multimedia tools to use for my main types of learners. For the visual learners I found ways for students to visualize what they are doing with the use of Mindmeister.com. The website allows students to map out what they are learning. This would help with my students who want to visualize proofs or take a concept and branch out on what it means, the steps involved, and its real world applications. For my Kinesthetic learners I found websites that would get them a more hands-on approach. There are websites like Quizlet where students can create flashcards for themselves and Classmarker which students can assess themselves on any topic they choose. Finally, my auditory learners are able to use Podomatic.com, a free program where students can create their own podcasts. That can be beneficial when students want to discuss problems with each other through audio.

Even though there are a plethora of multimedia tools available to differentiate assessment, some of the most sought after ones come with a catch. Many of the tools have a paid subscription. This is becoming a problem for districts who cannot afford the programs for every student. One study found that twenty-five percent of the teachers use their own money to have adequate technology instructional resources (Lang and Vockley, 2010). Another issue is with  having the increased use of wireless connections. The strain can reduce the bandwidth to a trickle leaving students and teachers frustrated that they cannot use basic internet features on crucial days. With all the resources found, I have quite a bit of work to do to organize all the materials. The hardest part will be not using these resources to differentiate my assessments to accommodate toward all my students’ learning preferences, but time to create them. I look forward to utilizing some of the resources during my future instructions.

Works Cited

Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment: A                     Research-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Science with Classroom Response Technology. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(2), 146-162. doi:10.1007/s10956-008-9140-4

How to Accommodate Different Learning Styles - umassd.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from http://www.umassd.edu/dss/resources/facultystaff/howtoteachandaccommodate/howtoaccommodatedifferentlearningstyles/

Lang, & Vockley. (2010, August). Deepening Connections: Teachers Increasingly Rely on Media and Technology. PBS and Grunwald National Research, 1-12.

Mills, L. A., Angnakoon, & Putthachat. (n.d.). How Do High School Students Prefer to Learn?   (pp. 133-139, Rep.). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED562121)