Online learning

Here is the link to my screen cast presentation about online learning. Just copy/paste it into your browser.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZGEwNTU2Nm

Reflection on Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning

I have recently taken a class that involved a lot about differentiated instruction (DI) and the universal design for learning (UDL). UDL involves implementing instruction that is appropriate for all and DI involves modifying instruction to adapt to specific learners (or at least that is my interpretation of it). I still have a lot to learn but I feel as though I have a pretty good understanding of it. I think that is due in part to the differentiation station that I participated in as part of this class. On this resource, we were required to post specified pieces of information to share with one another. I found this to not only be helpful, but very interesting as well. It is so great to know that there are others with the same problems as me and that there are some people with solutions or at least helpful advice. I think that in the future I will check it out from time to time to see if anyone is still posting to it and if so, help out if they need some pointers. I will also post to it if I am stumped and need some assistance.

As far as technology goes, I still have a lot to learn. However, this class has given me a lot of ideas on how to use it effectively in my classroom. I think that I basically need to find a way to regularly implement technology into my classroom. I need to figure out a specific part of my day to implement a specific piece of technology. Entering this school year, that is what I am going to try to do. Once I get comfortable with one type of technology, then I will try to add on to that.

Reflection on my game plan

Over the past several weeks, I have been creating a GAME plan for technology usage in my classroom. First, I wanted to create a slide show presentation to show my students how to act appropriately in a restaurant. Since they have significant special needs and difficulties in social situations, I felt like this would be a great way to teach them without taking them to an actual restaurant. However, I have not created this presentation yet. I suppose that since I know that I will not see my students for months, I am in no hurry to complete it. I still plan on working on it and completing it by the start of the year as I know that it will be a good benefit to my students. I guess that is what I have learned over the past several weeks is the importance of technology and the benefits it can have on my students.

I have also had a plan of communicating with parents via my school website. Again, due to my summer break, this has not been started either. I understand the importance of communicating with parents and I feel that using my website is the best way for me to do it. My parents will be able to see any assignments, view presentations, and view special events happening in school. I plan to get it organized this summer and set a certain day and time every two weeks to update it. Hopefully with all of the technology I plan on using, my students and their parents will get the most out of their school experiences.

Students' Game Plans

I think that teaching students to use technology is key. They need to learn these skills in order to survive in today's technology-rich society. Lately I have been creating and following a GAME plan to better my own technology skills. So why not involve my students in a similar process? I think that allowing my students to develop their own plans will help them to initiate their own learning. By doing this, students are able to enhance skills that they need to. If I were to pick a certain skill to work with students in class and a few students already have it mastered, then it is pretty much pointless.

More on the Plan

As of now, I think I am going to keep my game plan the same. I still want to work on my communication with parents via my website. I also still want to produce a power-point presentation to show my students how to act in a restaurant. The thing is, I haven't really gotten started on these things. I just finished with school this week and I just needed to catch my breath before I jumped into another project. I didn't want to do it unless I could do it right. I think that I would really need to get involved with my plan before I could decide if I needed to change it. Hopefully I will have more to evaluate on my plan the next time I post about it.

My GAME Plan, continued

For my game plan, I want to keep better contact with parents via my school website and I want to produce a powerpoint presentation explaining how to act in a restaurant. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot to report. With it being the end of the year, it just hasn't been a priority at the moment. I would like to do more on this when my schedule is less complex. Over the summer I plan to collect pictures or video for my powerpoint presentation and set a schedule for working on my website (such as 1:30-2:30 on Thursdays). I think that if I do this, I will be more successful at completing my plan.

GAME Plan...part 3

The goals I set for implementing my game plan were to create a slide show presentation to show proper behavior in a restaurant and communicate with parents using my teacher website. I haven't truly started to implement my plan. The intention is there, but it just hasn't happened given the fact that school ends next week and I can't even imagine everything that needs to be done. I have all of the resources and know-how to accomplish these things...I am just lacking in time. I think that in order to accomplish the goal of updating my website, I need to assign myself a time (plan period on Thursday, for example) to sit down and work on my website. Just like I make sure I complete my assignments for class, I need to make sure I complete my assignments for my website. Anyone else having similar issues?

More About My Game Plan

In an earlier post, I mentioned my game plan and what exactly I wanted to accomplish. I want to create a power point presentation to illustrate clearly how to behave properly in a restaurant. To do this I would need to gather information and images or video clips to use in the power point. Then I would need to put it into the power point, add a lot of "bells and whistles" to make it more interesting and show it to my students hoping to get positive results.

The other part of my plan is to communicate more with my students and parents using my teacher website. I already have an account with my school, I just need to customize it and update it frequently. I have also thought about creating a survey to send to my parents asking them what they would want to see on my web page. When I know what they want, I will have a better idea of what to include on it. After it is created, I will send out a paper that includes instructions on how to access the site. I know I am probably forgetting something... please help if any of you can think of it!

Implementing NETS-T Standards: My Game Plan

As a teacher it is important to implement new technologies into teaching. Fortunately, there are standards to follow in order to do this as effectively as possible. Personally, I would like to implement some more technology into my classroom. To do that, I would like to follow a couple of the standards from the International Society for Technology in Education. The two standards I would like follow are: 2A- which involves using digital tools to promote creativity and learning in relevant learning experiences; and 3B- which involves collaborating with students, parents, and community members by using digital tools for student success.

To implement standard 2A, my plan is to create a slide show about proper ways to act in a restaurant. When teaching students with special needs (which is what I do) it is important to incorporate social learning experiences as much as possible. To get their interest, I will incorporate actual photos and/or video clips of myself or of another staff member to actively demonstrate how to act in a restaurant. In order to monitor my progress, I will set a timeline and try to stick to it. To evaluate my progress, I will keep track of what I do and see if I adhere to the timeline. Then I will see how my students respond to it and evaluate my success on that.

To implement standard 3B- I will try to keep up with my teacher website, which I am not very good at. I would like to update or add things to my website at least twice a month and include interesting things that my parents might get involved in. To monitor this, I will simply set two days each month in which I will make changes to my website and I will indicate if I accomplished it or not.

Reflection of New Literacies and the Internet

As I reflect upon the most recent course I took as part of my master's program curriculum, there are several things that come to mind. I learned a lot of things about literacy and its relationship to the internet. I think the most shocking revelation I had was that so much about using the internet is related to new literacies. I never realized that simple tasks such as suing a search engine and evaluating the effectiveness of websites would help students develop their literacy skills, but after taking this class... I am totally convinced.

I think that after this course, I will rely more on using technology to teach some literacy skills rather than attempting to teach them with more "old school methods. I would like to take my students to the computer lab more and try to put these methods to practice.

One thing I would definitely like to do in the near future is try to use at least one part of the unit plan I created for this class. To accomplish this, I will need to look at the pacing guides and the needs of my students to see which section of the plan to use and when to do it. Then I will have to make sure all of the resources are organized and ready. Last I will schedule a few time slots in the computer lab and teach the lesson. My hope is that my students' literacy skills will improve if I can accomplish this.

Reflection on my theory and more...

As I looked back at the theory I produced several weeks ago involving my views on learning and teaching, I realized that I haven't really changed it. I still follow more of a behaviorist view. I still base my teaching on what is best for my students to learn. I try to teach them using methods most rewarding to them. If that means that I involve more "hands on" activities, then so be it. However, after taking this class and learning about different ways to use technology in my classroom, I have perhaps learned a few things that will enhance my teaching and support my theory. I think that if I were to make any immediate changes to my teaching it would be to simply use more of it. I think one thing that would be helpful is to do a virtual field trip, even if that means doing it together using a projector. Since my school does not currently allow field trips due to the cost, this would be the best way for them to experience things. Another tool I might use is to make slide shows on Power point and maybe allow my students to take part in making one themselves. My students are very visual learners so I think that this would be helpful for them.

If I had to make two long-term goals for incorporating technology, it would be first to learn and master the technology pieces in my building such as a smart board and a Mimeo board. I think that these tools would be useful for me as a teacher and for my students to learn, but until I learn how to use them myself, they are useless to me. To accomplish this, I will seek help from one of my building's technologically savvy teachers and set aside a small amount of time once a month to learn from them. I will also make myself "play" with these tools at least once every two weeks to become more familiar with them. Another goal is to teach at least one lesson a month that involves my students (not me) using technology whether it be making a power point, blogging, concept mapping, etc. To do this, I will choose a certain week of each semester (for example, week 6) and plan a lesson that aligns with the pacing guide for that week. At the beginning of the semester I will either develop a new lesson plan or modify an existing one. I think that the more I have my students use technology, the more proficient they will be at it, thus preparing them for our technology-filled world.

Voice Thread

Here is the link to my voice thread: voicethread.com/share/785991

Cooperative Learning.

I think that cooperative learning is a great thing. I think that by working with one another, our students learn a lot more than the curriculum. One way our students can do this is by constructing a website with one another. They can be given a topic and need to work together create an informative website that can be viewed by others in the class. I think that this is a great way to collaborate and also showcase work.

Constructionism in the classroom

This week, we learned about constructionism and what that means for the classroom. From what I understand, constructionism involves learning through creating a project of some type. I think that one way to support this is by making rubrics. I like the idea of rubrics because it clearly outlines what is expected. This way, if there is ever a question of the grades, the teacher can simply refer to the rubric and that's that. I think that if you expect your students to learn by creating something, it might be best to give them a clear list of what you expect. Has anyone used rubrics in your classroom? Has it had a positive or negative impact on your teaching?

Tools used to support the cognitive learning approach

The cognitive approach is all about how information enters the brain, is stored, and is used. In order to support this, their are several different tools that can be used. I think that it is a great idea to create advance organizers. This can easily be created on a word document. One type of advance organizers is a graphic organizer which can be represented as a table, chart, or artistic work. I think that this supports the cognitive approach by giving a clear way for information to enter the brain. I am a visual learner and so are many of my students so seeing some sort or chart or graph is very helpful.

Strategies to Incorporate the Behaviorist Learning Theory in the Classroom

For this week, I am going to talk about a strategy that I learned about. According to Dr. Michael Orey in a video I watched, the behaviorist theory involves either reinforcing a desired behavior or punishing a negative behavior. One way that this could be incorporated in a classroom is to use an online tutorial. A tutorial is a program on a computer that gives a small piece of information and asks you a question (usually multiple choice). If you get the answer correct, you get rewarded with a screen that says either "Correct!" or "You're right!" or some other positively reinforcing statement. If you are wrong, you get a screen that pretty much states the opposite. My district requires staff to do training for things like fire safety and communicable diseases by using tutorials. I would love to find some tutorials to reinforce learning topics for my students. I think that they would get a lot out of them.

References:
Orey, M. (2009) "Behaviorist Learning Theory." (video resource)

Hello again!

If anyone has been following my blog, I apologize for not submitting a posting for a couple months. I have to admit, I created this blog to fulfill a requirement for a class I am taking and now that I have to post to a blog for another course, I'm back. I hope to get into the swing of using this even when I do not have to.

For those of you who are subscribers of my blog for our current course, welcome. I hope to be getting comments from you soon!

Reflection

When reflecting upon the class that I am currently taking involving technology, there are several things that come to mind. First, I think that I have learned a lot more about using technology in the classroom than I thought that I would. Before I took this class, I barely knew what a wiki, blog, or podcast was, let alone how to use them. Now I have successfully been able to do each of these things. That is not saying that I am an expert by any means, but I definitely know more than I did before. Second, I have learned that with these tools, instruction can be more student-centered than teacher-centered. I think that I will try to use things like blogs and wikis so that my students can facilitate their own learning.

I think that in order for me to continue to learn more about using these technologies, I need to use them more frequently. I think that practice will make it a lot easier for me to use these tools effectively. I also think that it is important to set goals for myself in order to make sure that I continue to use blogs, wikis, or podcasts. One goal I want to set is to successfully create and maintain a blog that my students can effectively use. Another goal is to use blogs to communicate with staff rather than emails or meetings. I think that looking back on how I was with technology before, I have improved. I now have new ways of involving my students in conversations and other forms of interactions.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic