Course Content Reflection

In the upcoming year I want to focus more on my classroom being student centered in which students are participating in inquiry based projects.  I want the various stakeholders to see students working collaboratively to solve a problem, seek information and/or produce a project to share with others.   This course has given me productive information that will help me achieve this.  The information I have learned in this course will be shared with the other teachers in my building during our monthly meetings which will encourage them to try new things as well as hold me accountable for retaining and using the information I have learned.

A Student Centered Classroom

Moving to a student centered classroom has been easier than I had thought.  Actually this process has taught me a lot.  Our students are digital natives therefore they don't have hesitation when it comes to technology.  Rather their thinking is more freer than an adult's thinking.  When I release the control in my classroom and allow students the freedom to problem solve or to create, their finished product is always better than I had imagined and always done in a different way than what I would have chosen or even thought of.    An example of this in my classroom was when students were asked to create a presentation of the zoo animals they learned about on our class field trip.  Not only did the students choose apps or web tools that I hadn't thought of using they also surprised me with the content they chose to use in their presentations.  Examples of this would be the students who chose to not only take pictures of the animal at the zoo but also took a picture of the informational sign outside the animals habitat, and recorded a zookeepers presentation of an animal.    I  was also pleased that the students uploaded the sounds the animals made, songs, and additional pictures from the web.  I never would have dreamed a year ago that first graders, when given the freedom, would be so on task and so focused on a given assignment.

It is so important for the students to use the iPad as a tool to learn and not the apps or web tools.  Apps and web tools will come and go but if the students learn to problem solve, create, and produce using their iPads they will be successful no matter what app, tool, or program is available.

Now more than ever a teacher must be a facilitator and encourage students to collaborate  and work together.  Classroom environment must be conducive to this and one way I found to do this is to arrange student desks into learning groups where they are encouraged to discuss and share.

Authentic assessments are also more valuable in this process.  An assessment that requires a student to think and produce is more meaningful than answering a set of questions.

The hardest part of moving to a student centered classroom is getting students to value the process.  Students will work harder, stay on task longer, and produce more meaningful activities if given the chance to be involved in their own learning?  Giving students choices.  is a very powerful tool to use.

Communicating with St

In order for technology integration to be successful in our schools all persons involved in this integration must be fully vested.  We refer to these groups of people as our stakeholders. Stakeholders  include school board members, administration, teachers, and parents.  Parents are the stakeholders that I find to be the most important concerning day to day integration of technology.  This does not mean that the other stakeholders have less importance in this process.  However, as a teacher, in order for the one-to-one iPad initiative to work in my classroom effectively I have to have the support of my parents.  When addressing my parents at the beginning of the school year there are specific points that must be communicated.  First, I must have their support.  Parental support would include making sure their child has their iPad charged completely each day, reinforce digital citizenship at home, and follow iPad care instructions in order to keep iPad in good working condition.  Second, a positive attitude towards the one-to-one initiative.  And finally the last point would be open communication.  Parents, as well as myself, need to keep the lines of communication open during this new process.  Parents should feel comfortable in sharing their concerns and/or difficulties with me so that changes to this process can be made through out the year to ensure a successful integration.

Conquering Distraction

     Distraction in the classroom has been an issue teachers have encountered since the beginning.  Now in this digital age there is even more opportunities for students to become distracted.  In the article, Freedom, Digital Distraction and Control, the author sites three approaches for conquering distraction.  These approaches include:  control by authority, control through technology, and self control.   My first year of the iPad 1-1 initiative was definitely controlled by authority.  My students were required to have their screens turned down during instruction or until given permission by me to turn them over.  I spent a lot of my time policing the room trying to keep students on the appropriate site or app.  What I found was that students became very crafty in their ability to hide what they were doing and I felt compelled to control the environment even more.  What I have learned from this first year of the 1-1 initiative and from my technology courses is that my students were born into this digital age and that they are digital natives.  Technology is a way of life for them and I don't want to continue approaching my classroom management for technology punitively.  Instead, my goal would be to make the activities engaging enough that students won't become distracted but would instead be completely involved in the lesson. Thus reaching the final goal of students exhibiting self control.  Students who feel they have some control over their learning environment are more likely to take ownership of the activity or project thus eliminating the desire to become distracted with something else.   Allowing students choices when completing an assignment, assigning students activities that require them to produce a final product rather than just skill and drill, and teaching students to become curators of their learning resources are just a few ways to get students actively involved in their learning environment.  

     Throughout the past year I have collected ideas, evaluated current activities and made notes of how to make them more productive, and collaborated with colleagues so that this next school year the technology use in my classroom will be more effective and less distractions will occur.  This will be an ongoing process that I will have to continue each year in order to keep up with technology and to move up on the SAMR model.  

21st Century Skills

     First graders don't seem overly concerned with their futures or as to what profession they might be interested in.  However, as their teacher I think about this a lot.  I especially worry about those students who do not have a solid support system at home.  What will they become, how will they support themselves, will they have a chance to go to college or a trade school?  What can I do as a teacher to get my students to think for themselves and to be problem solvers?  The 21st Century Skill that I identified with the most during this module was that of problem solving.  My first graders come to me so dependent on an adult's help.  Before attempting to complete an assignment or a task their little hands shoot up imploring for help from me.  It takes a while, but they begin to learn that I am not going to rescue them every time they encounter a problem.  Instead, I ask them to stop and think about it.  They must make 3 different attempts to solve their problem, complete a task, or find information on their own before they are allowed to ask me.  Now the challenge becomes how do I find ways for students to solve problems using technology?  I like to use apps that require the students to create using pictures, concept maps, and videos.  Apps that require students to brainstorm, explore, and collaborate.  I am continuously surprised at how well my students adapt to a new tool.  Students in my class are very adept at using apps and web based tools such as popplet, haiku deck, padlet, prezi, iMovie, sock puppets to just name a few.    We are coming to an end of our school year and I am so impressed as to what my first graders can do.  We recently went to the Louisville zoo for our class field trip.  While there the students were to take pictures of the 3 animals we studied in class that highlighted an important feature or fact about each of those animals.  They were also asked to do the same thing for 2 new animals they found at the zoo.  Students then returned to school and were assigned the task of putting this information into a presentation using the app of their choice.  Students were required to include a picture of the animal and list 3 facts about each one.  Their presentation needed to include some type of audio as well.  A project that I thought would take days in fact did not.  Students did a fantastic job of completing their presentations.  So much so, I have now asked them to create the presentation again using a different app or web based tool.  They then must tell me which app or web based tool they liked best and why.  What were they able to do different with the new tool that they weren't able to with their first tool of choice?  What could be done easier, What was harder? etc.   I have been amazed at how well my first graders have been able to complete this task.  A few of the students even chose apps I wouldn't have given as a choice if I had chosen the apps for them.   Those presentations are probably my favorite because the students were able to complete the presentations following the guidelines set for them with little to no help from me and were able to do it in a way that I had not thought of myself.  This is all the assessment I need to know that
my first graders who were once scared to work on their own are now bright eyed independent learners that have the world at their fingertips.  

Philosophy of Education

My role as an educator is to provide a safe and secure learning environment in which students feel comfortable being part of the learning process.  I believe all students can learn and that it is my responsibility to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of all my students.  It is my responsibility to diagnose issues students face in particular areas of their education and develop a plan as to how we are going to overcome these obstacles.

I believe that students should be active participants in their learning environment and that they should use technology with ease.  Students should actively seek out information and answers to questions by utilizing a diverse set of educational tools which includes technology.   I want to challenge my students to recognize that through the use of technology possibilities are endless.  Technology is more than a tool that will assist them in completing traditional assignments efficiently.  Technology will allow them to see new things, experience parts of the world that may be out of reach, and will allow for exploration of any area of interest thus giving them and education that would not be possible without technology.

Finally, I know that I will continue to grow and change as trends in education, technology, and society evolve.  I will not stop seeking ways to better myself as a person, student, and educator.  In doing so, I hope to instill the desire in my students to also become lifelong learners.

     This is my second online technology course that I am taking.  I am currently enrolled in the Introduction to Blended and Online teaching course.  I have learned so much in the short time I have participated in this first course that I am excited to find out what new things I will learn in this course as well.  I love technology and love using it in my classroom.  Technology changes so fast it is hard to keep up with the new resources that are available.  Taking courses is a way to ensure that I continue to move forward in teaching with technology and that I utilize it as a student centered learning tool.  I am very comfortable with creating flipcharts, prezis, powerpoints....... but those are all teacher directed activities.  I want the students to use their iPads as a learning tool.  I want them to produce work on their iPads which is why I am taking these courses so that I can utilize the technology in my classroom more effectively.
     I am very comfortable in creating lessons using technology.  I often help my fellow teachers with their questions or give them ideas on how to create a specific lesson.  What I want to know is how can I use my student iPads for them to produce work and to use it as a learning tool instead of a practice tool.  My hope is that I will gather a multitude of ideas from this course that I can use to enhance my curriculum and share with my fellow colleagues.