Best Practice:
A best practice in regards to technology enhanced learning experiences is to allow many opportunities for students to create. By allowing students to create things, specifically through technology enhanced learning, students are required to deep at deeper level and use their critical thinking skills. I think many people at my school believe that technology enhanced learning simply means for students to work on an online program that provides lessons and practice problems. Although, this is a great use of technology, it is not using it to its fullest potential. Also, by allowing students to create things utilizing technology your are helping to better prepare them for the 21st Century workplace. This creativity results in even greater benefits when students have student choice within the creativity project. Defending Resource: Article: www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation This resource aligns with my stance because it explains the various use of technology on different levels. For example, it explains the benefits of technology when you have a smartboard, when you only have one computer, and when you have a computer for every student. I focused more on the idea of every student having their own computer because this is the scenario that I will have next school year. This portion of the article focuses on the ways that technology can be used to foster students creativity and allow them opportunities to create things such as blogs, digital stories, cartoons, videos, etc. This article also explains the positive effects that technology enhanced learning can have students. Technology Tool: ToonDoo: www.toondoo.com/ This technology tool allows students to create cartoons such as comic strips. books, etc. This tool aligns with my stance because this tool allows students the ability to be creative and artistic while creating through technology enhanced learning. In my personal classroom, I think that this would be an excellent tool when assessing students on a concept. I could have students create a comic strip that in some way explains a Mathematical concept or problem. I think that the students would have a lot of fun while learning when using this tool.
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Implementation:
In order to incorporate genius hour I would try to start with the idea at the beginning of the school year. After the first few days of school I will have students come up with any mathematical questions that they wonder about. I will stress to students that the questions that we want are questions that cannot be easily researched online. Once students have created a decent amount of questions we will categorize them within the different units that we will be covering for the school year. Once we begin our first unit students will be instructed to begin their first genius hour project focused around one of the questions created. Students will be provided with choice of how many people they work with, how they present their project, etc. Students will be given 20% of every class period (about 15 minutes) to work on their project. Students will also be instructed to post their findings from each genius hour project that they complete on a blog post. Genius hour projects will not have a specific due date, but students will be expected to complete a genius hour project for each unit for the school year. Benefits: This experience could benefit my students by encouraging them to be more intrinsically motivated. Students will become more intrinsically motivated because they will have a choice of what kind of question they explore. Also, students will have choice of who and how many people they work with for each project. I believe that students will also benefit from the learning of time management through these projects. Also, I believe that if students are working with a group of some sort students will learn more about leadership skills and working collaboratively. My overall goal is for students to become more engaged in Math through researching and completing a project focussed around the wonderings that they have. Tools: Weebly: www.weebly.com Weebly will be an excellent tool for students to use to blog about their genius hour projects. Upon completing each genius hour project students will be required to add a blog posting to their website explaining their wonderings, their findings, and reflecting on the overall project. Also, this website and blog posting will allow students to share their work with a wider audience besides just within our classroom. Google Drive: www.google.com/drive/ Google Drive will be a great tool for students to utilize when collaborating with others. With the use of Google Drive I could actually allow students to work with other students within different class periods. Also, if two students within the same room are working on different aspects of the project they can do this and share information and edit the same document while working. Google Drive will be an essential device to utilize throughout the Genius Hour work time for my students. Research: Article: matthewoldridge.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-road-to-geniushour-math.html This article was an excellent resource to help me better understand how Genius Hour can be used within a Mathematics classroom. I would encourage all of my fellow Math teachers to give it a look. This article explains how to begin Genius Hour within your classroom along with having students create a "wonder wall" or questions. Also, I appreciated that the article provided examples of what questions/wonderings were good for students to explore during Genius Hour. Support: According to the article found at: www.geniushour.com/2013/03/29/approching-your-administration-about-genius-hour/, Genius Hour, "does not result in any loss of class instruction, creates life-long learners, develops relationships with students, and teachers 21st century skills." According to this video, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFQUtHsWhc, "When students have a say in their learning they become much more engaged." These two sources support the idea of all the benefits of utilizing Genius Hour within the classroom. This post will explain a PD that I participated in online and how I would evaluate it in regards to its usefulness.
PD: Connecting with Students Safely Online (Link:www.simplek12.com/classroom-management/connect-with-students/) Ratings:
The pros of this PD are that it provides a very clear introduction to Edmodo and it is very short for educators who are looking to quickly learn about this tool. However, the biggest con of this PD is that it only provides introduction information and I felt like I wanted to learn more and it was not available in this PD. This PD did not provide much opportunities to imp,rove teacher pedagogical skills, but it did provide information and techniques on increasing student engagement. This PD provide information and techniques of increasing student engagement because it discussed how Edmodo offered apps that could be incorporated into your lessons. Also, Edmodo provides that present day communication system that helps in engaging students in their learning. Based on my school's needs the PD that I would suggest would be to focus on the use of Google Classroom. This would be a great PD for my school because with the Chromebooks coming out next year and the district going 1:1 I feel that Google Classroom will become an excellent tool for every educator's classroom. The format that I would like to use to present the PD to the staff would be trying the flipped PD format. I would have staff watch a short lecture on using Google Classroom before hand so that more time could be used to create things for our individual classes and for discussion during the actual PD time. Also, I would like to incorporate some walk and talks throughout the PD, so that teachers could discuss and and walk around the school building to get ideas from other teachers' room set-ups as well. As mentioned above, this PD will focus on the technology tool of Google Classroom because the district expects this tool to be used more often when we transition to 1:1 Chromebooks.
Tool #1- Mystery Skype
Tool #2- Google Apps (Google Doc)
Tool #3- Voxer
Sample Lesson IdeaMy sample lesson idea would be for students to work with a global partner that is a common grade towards the end of the school year. For this assignment students would have to teach others about an 8th grade Math concept that they learned about this school year. When first meeting we will all participate in a class Skype in order to introduce our class and review communication and assignment expectations for the students. Students will then be introduced to Voxer which will allow them to communicate with one another. Also, students will be encouraged to use things such as Google Apps that allow students to create and edit documents at the same time. Students will be given choice as to which 8th grade Math topic they choose and how they would like to present their assignment.
Part 1After reviewing the resources provided for this lesson I have come to a conclusion. That conclusion is that the key to digital citizenship is to educate. It seems that in order for our students to become good digital citizens we have to first educate them on how to make good decisions online. Students need to understand that the things that they do online will stick with them forever and can be viewed by essentially anyone. I personally have never taken the time to educate my students in digital citizenship, but I feel that some these resources are a great place to start. One specific idea that I found interesting was the idea of digital citizenship week. I honestly think that it would be very beneficial for all schools to incorporate this idea within their school. Although one week is not enough time to complete all digital citizenship education, it is a great place to start. Part 2I plan to model and promote digital citizenship within my classroom by incorporating digital citizenship week within my classroom, educating my students through digital citizenship lessons, and by utilizing ViewPure when showing videos during lessons. Digital Citizenship Week
Digital Citizenship Lessons
ViewPure
Webinar- TED Talk (Conrad Wolfram: Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers)This webinar was viewed through YouTube on the TED Talk channel. During this webinar Conrad Wolfram discusses the problems with Math education today, and he urges educators to make Math more practical and conceptual through the use of technology. The presenter argues that many people believe that using technology in Math makes it easier, but actually it opens more opportunities to be able to solve more types and more complex problems. Also, the presenter explains that the importance of incorporating technology use when administering exams because this would allow students will more performance type problems. I can use this resource to deepen content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration by informing other Math teachers of the importance that technology can serve in Math education. Also, this video helps Math educators to view Math education in a different light that is not usually presented because many individuals do have the belief that technology in Math removes rigor because it makes things "easier" when in fact it only provides more opportunities for learning. Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=60OVlfAUPJg YouTube- TED Talk ChannelThe YouTube channel that I chose to explore more is the TED talk channel. The TED talk channel on youtube provides presentations from their conference from individuals within various careers, but I have found that this channel has great presentations from educators and education experts that are very worthwhile to watch. I can use this resource to deepen content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration by viewing presentations in regards to education, Math, and technology. By watching presentations focused on these topics I have found many great instructional ideas and some have even shifted the way that I think about teaching and technology. I have learned a lot from watching these presentators and I think that the TED talk channel provides presentations that would relate to anyone looking to learn more or to become inspired. I actually find this resource to be the best for finding current and emerging technologies, especially for the education world. This channel posts a new TED talk every weekday so you are sure to be viewing current and relevant information. Also, these TED talks focus on the up-and-coming of education and technology, so you can you learn a little about it and the benefits that it can supply to your instruction. Link: www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector/featured Blog- Tammy's Technology Tips for TeachersThe blog that I chose to follow was Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers because I loved her weekly tips. This blog provides weekly tips for teachers regarding technology use in the classroom. I think that the tips that she provides are very useful and practical things that I could utilize within my classroom. For example, in one of her blogs Tammy explains how the google timer can be used to easily display a timer for students completing work. Tammy also provided additional tips to use if you have a Chromebook which I found to be very useful as well. I can use this resource to deepen content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration because it provides many useful tools that I can incorporate into my instruction. Also, Tammy provides very clear step-by-step instructions that make it very easy to understand how the tool can be used. I find this blog to be so useful that I have added it to my bookmark toolbar and my symbaloo. Link: tammyworcester.com/tech-tip-of-week/ Online Community- eLearnThe online community that I liked best after exploring was eLearn. This online community provides many professional development resources and digital resources that are sure to be useful in advancing my education knowledge. The professional development provided is focused on digital citizenship and incorporating the use of technology within the classroom. The learning community also provides ways of communicating and accessing content through social media, such as Twitter, as well. To be completely honestly, I have not found online communities to be extremely beneficial to me as an educator. I do not find the information easy to access or as relevant as I would like for it to be. However, I can use this resource to deepen content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration by utilizing the professional development provided and communicating through the social media community. Both of these tools will allow me to learn more about technology in the classroom and will allow me to talk to others who have already tried the things that I am considering. Link: www.doe.in.gov/elearning/social-media Application in My CareerI currently deepen my content and pedagogical knowledge in technology integration through this class and through district professional development. Each week the assignments from this class allow me to deepen my knowledge of technology integration because I am constantly learning about new tools that I can utilize within my instruction. Through this class I am able to learn more about how the use of technology impacts my students and colleagues as well. Also, I attend professional development within my school district that provides me to learn more about technology integration as well. Since our school will soon be 1:1 next year, our district has been working very hard to teach us about the tools that we can utilize through this change. Therefore, I have attended multiple professional developments on the use of Chromebooks and online tools that can be useful in the future once this change takes place.
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AuthorMy name is Heather Thompson and I am and 8th grade Math teacher at Zoneton Middle School. ArchivesCategories |