WoW!!! I made through another class! I have learned a lot about technology and collaboration in this course. I typically do not like working in groups when it comes to my job or now in my graduate studies. I hate it when people are depending on me to finish something and on their time table. That is the whole reason I took online classes. I get to set my pace as well as when I want to work on things. Even if it is at 1:00am. I have three little ones at home and have a full time job. I started the school year as a kindergarten teacher (for the fourth year here) and was moved in the third week of school to a third grade class. While I absolutely love the transition, it has not come without more headache and planning than what I was used to. With that said, my group has been an amazing group of ladies to work with. They are understanding, and most are in the same position I am in. I really wish I could meet them for dinner or something! We have gotten to know each other virtually, but they seem like we could all be friends!

The parts of the course I was most intrigued with dealt with the importance of technology integration in the classroom. The videos I watched each week was looking into each students successes and how they use it in their everyday lives. Writing the e books and UDL lessons also made me think about the lesson I wanted to teach my students in a more focused way. I am actually teaching the unit we came up with in our scenario so having four other lesson plans to pull from while I have been preparing for my days has made it that much easier!

Week 4 reflection:

During this week I have been trying to make sure I have completed each section the absolute correct way as well as give the needed time and planning for my third grade class. It has been one of the most time consuming classes so far and I feel like I am taking time away from my young family. I have a wonderful husband that steps in when needed, but when the 2 and 3 year old only want mommy-it is hard to argue with that. 

During the readings and videos this week there were two things that stuck with me. Keeping technology and learning relevant for students and collaboration. Both of these things are not small ideas and not things we as teachers have never heard of. In fact, we all probably had an entire class teaching us about these things, if not more.

Collaboration is something I completely buy into. A quiet classroom makes me think they are probably not thinking about what they are learning. I like to give the students the opportunity to talk about what we learn, ask questions, and try to solve the problems in their own learning groups before letting them move to the computers to look things up, or lastly, turn to me for the answers.

Keeping technology current and relevant for the students is obviously something I believe in as well. I don’t think I would be perusing my education under the title of Leadership in Technology if not. I have used the idea that we have to meet the students in their learning space in order to make them want to learn. If that space is a form of media, we can do that!  I refer my teachers during staff developments I have facilitated to a website that discusses the ”Five things every Student want their teachers to know  (Nielsen, 2011) these include: “1. Socialization is important,  2. Students want to see each other, 3. Students want to see their teacher, 4. Students want you to know them, and 5. Keep it Relevant”. You can see the entire explanation of these at: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/11/five-things-students-want-their.html

Things I from readings, videos and UDL lesson and principals:

The videos from this week were very inspiring. It gave me chill bumps to see all the things some of these young students are doing with technology in their schools as well as in their personal lives. From helping younger students see their potential to one student using his knowledge to make his Hocky swings even better, the future looks very bright for them. It made me start to examine what we do in our school in the way of technology and how we let the students take on what they will and help them reach their full potential. Even though these students are sometimes doing things with technology we may not fully understand, we make sure they have all the tools they need in order to reach their full potential. I am proud of what my school offers all the students as well as how open minded the teachers are when it comes to trying something new in the classroom. I only hope this trend continues so we can make sure we are meeting the students in their learning space as well as not using outdated things to try to inspire them. 

After all the readings and videos from the week the assignment was to create a UDL lesson for the students in my group scenario. We chose to do a third grade reading class and the lesson I tackled was about character traits of the character. The UDL principals are to present information in a variety of ways, differentiate the ways students can express what they know, and stimulate interest and motivation for learning. I don’t know how other teachers are writing their lesson plans, but I know when I do mine, I always take these things into account. I have to try to reach every style of learning so variation in my teaching and outcomes is something I do daily. When I finally learned everything I might need to know about how to create a UDL lesson plan, it was time to actually do so...and wow! It took forever! I have been in the classroom for six years now and consider myself to be a great teacher! I truly now know that while I may not be writing out true UDL lesson plans for each thing I teach, I take into account the principals every time I get up in front of the class. No matter what age, what grade, there are students that are going to have different learning styles, be at different academic readiness, and they will all bring different things to the table when it comes to being able to show me what they have learned. Universal design lessons to me, is how we should all be thinking and teaching everyday! NO-I don’t think we should develop the three page lesson lans for each topic, in fact I think it is a waste of time. In college when I was learning HOW to become a teacher we did these relentlessly! The only reason we did is so that we would actually begin to think about each part of the lesson, how we wanted to convey the information, and how would we differentiate to meet the needs of all learners. I understand how to do this now and do not plan to write or type out another UDL lesson plan. Although, I will stand true to the UDL principals.
Here is a sample of the ebook I created for this weeks assignment as well.
http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=65091&page=1

Here is the UDL lesson I came up with:

 CAST’s UDL LESSON BUILDER

Lesson Overview Title: Character Traits and Feelings

Author: Shanna Hollis

Subject: Reading

Grade Level(s): Third Grade

Duration: 1 hour

Subject Area: Character Traits

Unit Description: Students will learn the difference between feelings and traits in order to understand who the character is in the book.

Lesson Description for Day: Differentiate between character traits and feelings

State Standards: §110.14. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 3, T EK (5)a & b, (6), (7), (8)a, (10),  (12), (14) NETS-s: 1.b and c; 2.a,b and d; 3.b and c; 5. B and c; 6. a, b, c, and d.

 

 

Goals

Unit Goals: Students will build their story comprehension skills as well as the importance of character traits as well as character development in a story. Students will also gain an understanding of how to use the ipad as well as various apps to present information learned.

Lesson Goals: Students will understand how to pull out the character traits and feelings from the story; both those that are explicitly stated as well as those that are inferred.

 

Methods

Anticipatory Set: We will read the short story Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Students will then get to brainstorm ideas of how they think Lilly felt in the story and try to explain why.

 

Introduce and Model New Knowledge: As a class we will have a picture of Lilly on the interactive white board and we will write the words is…around her. Students will get to put on the board what she is and we will discuss why she is that why.

Provide Guided Practice: Students will take pictures of themselves using their ipads. They will turn in Screen Chomp (an app we use daily to take notes and pictures to put in our interactive notebooks) to write various things around their headshots. For those that choose, they can record the information they want to present of themselves using the record button on this App. The students will share with each other what they made and explain why they either feel a certain way or what the traits they listed for themselves are.

Provide Independent Practice: Students will use the App Toon Doo to create a short story about EllRay. They can use the information we came up with as a class and of course add things to what they think he is feeling or his traits. We will present at the culmination of the activity.

 

 Assessment

Formative/Ongoing Assessment: Teacher observation as well as various checks into their projects to make sure they are including both feelings and traits of EllRay and explaining the difference.

Summative/End of Lesson Assessment: Students will present their final project about the book EllRay Jakes. They will show that they understand how he feels as well as his traits. They can do this by using various modes of delivery. Animoto, Toon Doo, Wordle, anything they would like to show their comprehension of the material we have discussed- Feelings versus Traits of EllRay. They must provide evidence of where in the book they are either getting the information or inferring the information.

Materials: Lap Tops for each student or student group, Microphone for hearing impaired, computer settings larger for student with visual problems, the book Ellray Jakes, online book to be read aloud for students with reading problems, headphones.

 

I feel very passionate about using technology effectvily in the classroom. One of the main issues teachers have these days is keeping it current and relavent.

"The task for educators is to understand how students learn and use the technology available in this digital age to provide selected supports where they are needed and position the challenge appropriately for each learner." (Rose and Meyer, 2002)

Living in Texas we are supposed to follow a little thing called the TEKS. In these TEKS we are now required to teach the technology strands to all grade levels. How to use it, safely,appropriately, how to find out if websites are legit, and numerous other things. If teachers just try to sit by and go with what they have always done and use the technology they alwasy have, then they are not rising to the challenges each year. I came across a website discussing the 5 things students want their teachers to know. The five things included: Socialization is important, students want to see each other, students want to see their teacher, Students want you to know them, and last was to Keep it Relevant. (Nielsen, 2011) This is from the mouths of students. They are wanting the things we should already be giving them. We need to meet them in their learning space and make sure we are making it as relavant as possible.

After discussing all the plans for my group project through Skype, I feel very confident that this is going to be a great end product. While this project is based on a third grade reading class and basically just a scenario,it is still something I will use in my third grade reading class. We are centering it on a Bluebonnet book, Ell Ray Jakes is not a chicken! We are actually reading this in my classes right now so all of the lessons we come up with in my group will be some I will be able to implement in my class. As good teachers, we all differentiate for our various types of students and this is also part of the piece in or scenario. I know my students will enjoy the lessons because we are all going to incorporate technology as well as a reflection each student will have to generate on the blog or website they create. I am excited to see what my other team members come up with. I also can't wait to share with them how it worked in my classes!!
Our plan is laid out on our google site which you can visit at:
https://sites.google.com/site/lamaretlproject/home

Hope you enjoy!

 “Five Things Students Want Their Teachers to Know About Online Learning” by Lisa Nielsen was originally published on The Innovative Educator. 2011

After presenting a staff development to the teachers in my district, some of the complaints they wanted to discuss were concerning parents. They informed me that some parents say they already have too much "screen time" in front of the TV and are worried that with technology and computers being used so much in the classroom they are making their children lazy. To be honest, I kind of giggled. My first response was to tell those parents to limit the TV time at home then. Knowing that would never happen with so many parents working and trying to make dinner as the students are getting home from school, I told them to try to tell them all the other things we do in school to make sure they are getting enough exercise. I also told them to look at the Texas TEKS where it tells teachers we have to teach using technology. Some parents still (shockingly) don't realize that without the computer skills being taught as well as how to use them safely, their children will not be ready to be productive members of society. I would have loved to direct them to some of the videos and articles I just read for this class.

"Several groups have reviewed the literature on technology and learning and concluded that it has great potential to enhance student achievement and teacher learning, but only if it is used appropriately "(Dede, 1998).

When I read this quote it made me think about my Action Research plan that I created in my last class. My question that I am researching is, How are teachers using technology in the classroom, and is it effective? I want to know if it is having a positive effect on grades, behavior, parent involvement, and time on task in the classroom. Connectivism discuss how it is the ability to stay current with knowledge and learning. We are not the only information sources that we have at our disposal now. Using technology and its resources we can creat a network of people, places, and information in order to make our connections to certain subjects or ideas even stronger. In this day and age we rely more on each other and these networks to gain some of the same information we would have gotten from books articles, and individual experts. We are the experts!!