11-3 QR Code Posters

Click here for my QR Code Posters.

11-2 Digital Tools Wiki

Click here to see my Digital Tools Wiki.

11-1 Reflection

Teachers must reflect on our teaching practices because we constantly need to find ways to connect with our students.  Integrating technology exemplifies means through which we can connect with our students.  Reflection, observations, and surveys, provide us with data needed to improve our teaching.  We don’t teach in a bubble and shouldn’t expect that everything we do works perfectly the first time; we must model for our students that reflection offers us the opportunity to improve.  For example, currently in social studies, my students are working on a menu of items from which they choose activities to earn points toward their final grade.  This menu consists of activities that incorporate Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.  One year after we completed the unit, I asked kids how they felt about the opportunity to choose how they wanted to learn.  Overall, they loved the options but proposed the point distribution was a little unfair.  Some of them felt they spent much more time on certain options and didn’t receive what they felt were accurate points compared to activities that required much less of a time commitment.  We evaluated their feedback and the next year balanced out the point distribution.  

For one of my classes as SNHU, I read if a person from 100 years ago walked into a school today, s/he wouldn’t see that much has changed.  I beg to differ, the physical structure may look the same, but within our school very little looks like it did even when I was in school.  The library immediately draws your attention as it provides a physical learning space with the digital availability of ebooks, audiobooks, computers for research, and QR codes for additional information.  

Within our classrooms kids have 1:1 laptops for learning, communicating, practicing, and reading.  Teachers have document cameras, digital cameras, iPads, and laptops.  We use technology to communicate with our students, parents, and the community.  We update our webpages with links, resources, student work, and current events.  In our team meetings we discuss students, student work, and common core.  In our content area meetings we plan, reflect, research, and align what we do to standards.  Our administrators model technology use as they walk through our classrooms for observations.  They create presentations for staff meetings using the same programs teachers use in the classroom.  Our technology integrators teach summer courses based on the ISTE standards and continuously share links they find that connect to grade level curriculums.  Clearly, every aspect of our day revolves around refection and current practices all while focusing on what’s best for today’s kids.

10-2 Sharing NETS Portfolio

Using AR-media (augmented reality media)

I must admit, I bit off way more than I could chew with this project.  I thought it would be a great idea for teachers and administrators to complete a survey written in user-friendly language, and then get a print out of how the lesson or artifact aligns with the NETS.  I ended up with a survey that is more time consuming than I'd like.  I compromised with myself that if our administrators gave us time (10-15 minutes) at the beginning of each of our Monday meetings, teachers would become more familiar with the language and be able to run through a lesson while completing the survey.  I also need to figure out how to turn the report/print-out into a template so that each entry into the results page creates a new print-out.  Like I said, more than I could chew.  I know this is our Critical Task, but I guess it will have to be a work in progress...oh well.

Here is the link to my wiki.  I added it to the wiki I created for EDU 640 -they're all tools and resources, right?

10-1 Measuring NETS Competencies

I think a perfect way to know if teachers meet these competencies is to incorporate the standards into our digital professional portfolio.  This year, we had to evaluate ourselves using Kim Marshall’s Teacher Evaluation Rubric and then choose our goals based on our self-evaluation.  This would be a great place to include the ISTE-T (I don’t think any of the teachers in my building have even heard of them) and have teachers also choose a technology goal.  All our students in grades 2-12 are 1:1 so it is imperative that we integrate technology into our curriculums.  Using the NET-T and the NET-S would be a perfect format.  Afterwards teachers should reflect on their technology goal once a month.  I also think that the administrators should use the NETS-T as a basis for their observation and reflection when they complete their mini-observations; one administrator completes a mini-observation each month for each teacher.  For our professional portfolios, we also have to request student feedback.  As part of that survey, teachers should include questions based on the NETS-T.  Who better to ask if we're meeting these standards?  

In regards to measuring how administrators meet the competencies as found in the NETS-A, I think they should elicit feedback from their staff.  I also think that administrators should self-reflect on a monthly basis so as keep these standards in the forefront of their minds.  

Below is a write-up provided by my administrator from this past week.  It would be a perfect place to make a connection to the NETS-T, especially since the “list of options” include many digital choices.  Click here for this menu of options.

12.3.13-Social Studies

posted Dec 4, 2013, 5:25 PM by JA   [ updated Dec 4, 2013, 5:26 PM ]

The students were focused on you, pausing to take notes as you talked through the information regarding prominent figures of the Gilded Age.  You provided them with descriptions of Frank Baum, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller. The students added pieces of character trait information to the discussion.

I liked how you facilitated a conversation about the word epitaph, explaining that it’s a way to sum up a person’s life. You asked the students if they wanted to try to write an epitaph for one of the people being discussed. The kids came up with, “I like money”, “Oil, oil, oil”, and “The true wizard of Oz”.

The students were able to clearly explain the assignment, and their task to me. They told me that they had a list of options for work that they could complete to earn points as they learned about this era in history. They shared some of their work with me, and told me about plans to create a review game.

The students flipped to the back of their sheets when you asked them to, and quickly understood the valuable review tool you had created for them. They were engaged with the builders/dreamers format, and began to talk with their tablemates about the problem the dreamers were trying to solve by building the specific items outlined on the page.

Of special note during this observation was the engagement of every single student in the room. The students emanated a seriousness of purpose, while clearly enjoying the independence that this work allows.”