Reflections

“The proliferation of social media and technology has changed the way educators teach, how students learn, and the way teachers and students communicate.” ( U.S.News & World Report LP, 2013).  I thought I had it all figured out when it came to technology and the classroom. Technology integration in my eyes was nothing more than buffing up current assignments with the different things that computers could do, such as Power Points and spread sheets, or slideshows. How I was wrong… Technology integration and how it works inside the classroom is so much more. By following my own game plan I have found there is a world full of resources and information, to help me improve and make my lessons connect to student’s everyday lives, before I was blind to this information. With this information that I have gathered from my game plan I now want to adjust my teaching practices to move away from group and class work with tests and answers to more questing project where student’s results may be very different.

 I realize some of the researching skills I want students to learn, and use everyday are not being retained because students aren’t really questing for information they are using Google as a one stop shopping center for a quick answer, they are not exploring all the different possibilities and ideas that are out there because of time limitations in the classroom. I also realize most students have to gear down for school vs how they are at home and that if I want students to learn and retain information I am going to have to let them explore and learn how to be good digital citizens. My game plan has really made me reflect how I am online and how I need to be aware of my own digital footprint just like I want to teach my students. “The purpose of explicit teacher modeling is to provide students with a clear, multi-sensory model of a skill or concept. The teacher is the person best equipped to provide such a model.” (http:/​/​fcit.usf.edu/​mathvids/​strategies/​em.html, January 01, 2013).  I need to remember this, and often remind myself about my world online, because students do know how to use Google and I wouldn’t want them to find anything I couldn’t back up.

Where to go along my path.

I have made this image a poster for myself on my desk area. I have often felt frustrated with my progress towards my G.A.M.E. plan. I am doing a fairly good job on finding sources for both digital citizenship and for alternatives ideas for working technology into my lesson plans. I have several sites that I have been using to adjust my saved lesson plans. Now I just need a time to test run the assignments and for that I need students. The one problem with summer starting.


My action plan is going well, I have started to noticed how much time I am spending on the computer and what I am doing. I have often found myself the last few days tucking away my computer and spending more time offline. Along with that I have started to watch what I post online. Before I would often not hesitate to shout out personal opinions or even tell a person what I honestly thought about them. Now I often think to myself before I post what do I really want to share about myself and about who I am. How do I want to viewed online? Do I want to be viewed in the same way that I wished to be viewed in public. I have realized that often I would just react, instead of thinking things through, because of the safety of being behind the computer screen. Now I have found I stop to ask myself will what I say be constructive to the person?

I don't think I need to modify my action plan but I need to start thinking about how I am going to assess all the new assignment with the integration of technology. I see the making of many rubrics in my future. How would you assess some of these lessons?

A stop motion video about an event that was influential to the students life? Would this be a project based assessment? "Although project-based assessments are especially well suited for formative purposes..." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008).
Or what about a PowerPoint presentation that is set to music? 
I have already thought about rubrics that are holistic in nature, so there is much room for interpretation of the final project. The reason I chose holistic rubrics is, "A holistic rubric may have descriptors that touch on each of these elements (content, grammar, punctuation, writing style, and general designs), but does not break them down into separate rating scales per category." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008)  Does anyone have an example of one they use in your own classroom? 
I belong to this website http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ and have found several good examples to start with and that can be adapted with discussion with my students. 

There are several new questions that have arisen for me. Like how do I assess students learning digital citizenship? Do I have them come up with some sort of project (of their choosing) and has them answer the question, "What does Digital Citizen mean to you?" as this will be the first year I address digital citizenship with my students, I am unsure of the assessment and the feedback for students. 

Gathering my resources.

“ There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”  Jiddu Krishnamurti. (http:/​/​www.brainyquote.com/​quotes/​topics/​topic_learning.html, May 21, 2013). Since setting my game plan in motion I have started gathering my resource, and have found several that I felt to be quiet useful.

First I am going to start with my resources for digital citizenship:

1.       moodle.oakland.k12.mi.us/.../What_Does_Digital_Citizenship_Mean.doc‎.

a.       This is a great document that can be printed and handed out to students about what digital citizenship means and it has some great questions for students to ask themselves about their own time online. I feel this handout could lead to a great open discussion in the classroom.      

2.       http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Ethics-Etiquette-21St-Century-Student/dp/1564841847

a.       This is the book that most of the information in the document came from. I have ordered this book in order to research about digital citizenship.

3.       Ribble, Mike. (2013). Digital Citizenship Using Technology Appropriately. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http:/​/​www.digitalcitizenship.net/​Home_Page.html

a.       This is a great page that has many different resources that deal with digital citizenship. This webpage also offers presentations about digital citizenship.

4.       (http:/​/​www.gotoquiz.com/​digital_citizenship_quiz, May 21, 2013)

a.       I plan on using this online quiz as a pre-assessment for students before going into a section on digital citizenship.  I feel like we should spend the first few weeks of school dealing with digital citizenship and how we would like to address this in our own classroom. Students will then help put together a set of rules and questions for our own classroom to be posted on our classroom blog. Each student’s blog will have a link to the classroom one.

Once we have established the rules and ideals for digital citizenship in our classroom I can feel confident about opening up lesson plans that involve more technology, but not just with the web. “Digital media are the key factor for implementing UDL based on the flexibility they offer both teachers and students.” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008, p. 126).  If I want students to be creative in their final results then I need to be the one leading the way showing students how to use different technology.  I had a head start when looking for links for activities that would have students using different digital media to accomplish some of the typical mundane tasks required to be in an English classroom.

These are some of my favorites

1.       http://www.tewt.org/index.php/lessons-activities/grammar-exercises/12-active-passive

a.       This site is wonderful because it incorporates different media types within the website itself. Like this link I has both video and flash based games students can explore on their own. I love how this site had different types of media about the same subject so it allowed to students to gravitate towards their own learning style.

2.       http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=&subject=English+Language+Arts&grade=Grade+7&grade=Grade+8&grade=Grade+9&region=en_US

a.       This website is great for any teacher who interacts with a smart board on a regular basis. As I have stated before I am still learning with a smart board so I wanted to find something I could do that I could adapt to fit my classroom needs. This site gave me a great starting point and once I figure out how they built their games I can build my own.

3.      Nailor, Scott. (2010). Interactive Lanuage Arts. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http:/​/​interactivelanguagearts.com/​lesson-plans/​

a.       This website really intrigued me with the comic book project. I have many students who are artistically inclined in my classroom. So I wanted to look at an idea that would allow them a chance to shine.

           

I have yet to take any steps in my goals as we are wrapping up for school right now. Students will be out in a week’s time for summer. I have been going through my lesson plans seeing what lessons have worked, or which ones students have complained about being “Boring” and looking for ways to make them new and exciting for the next school year.

References

            Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2008). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use [A Standards-Based Approach]. mASON, OH: Cengage Learning. (Original work published 2008)

(http:/​/​www.brainyquote.com/​quotes/​topics/​topic_learning.html, May 21, 2013)

(http:/​/​www.gotoquiz.com/​digital_citizenship_quiz, May 21, 2013)

Nailor, Scott. (2010). Interactive Lanuage Arts. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http:/​/​interactivelanguagearts.com/​lesson-plans/​

Ribble, Mike. (2013). Digital Citizenship Using Technology Appropriately. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http:/​/​www.digitalcitizenship.net/​Home_Page.html

Week2

The two NET-S I want to strengthen my proficiency in are Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility and Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. I often listen to the teachers talk about how students abuse the internet all the time when they get time for in class, and they never use it for what it should be used for. I feel it is my responsibility as a seventh grade teacher to show students how to use the internet and technology as a tool, not just a easy answer finder. Along with my goal of wanting to teach students about digital citizenship, I want to inspire student to think outside of the box and to be driven in their helping their own education. To simplify my first goal is this
Teach students how to be good digital citizens.
   I am steps I am going to take is modeling by showing students how to be good citizen myself, I hope to inspire them to follow suit. This also means I need to learn how to be a good digital citizen myself and that is going to take some research. I need to look how I am using the internet and if I am falling into the same traps as my students. I am going to monitor my uses of the internet and what I use it for, by keeping a data base of what I do and time I spend online every week. I am going to evaluate my learning my seeing if by being aware of my usage online am I making an changes for the better. I am also going to study what it means to be a good digital citizen. I had an article from my last webclass that gave some good starting points for students.
My second goal is;
To inspire students to learn and to do it creatively
As and English teacher, even I grow tired of the same old routine of pre-write, write, edit, rewrite and turn it in. Students are just going through the motions and often I feel they are not pulling anything away from it besides of how to mess with the font of the paper. Because of this I am going to work to rewrite several of my lessons to be more technology integrated and give students a chance to show what they have learned from the lesson instead of just writing a paper about it. I am going to have to do some research though about how to adapt lessons with technology, because even doing powerpoints all the time isn't expanding the students skills. How I plan on monitoring my students learning and creativity is by looking at their projects. Did they go outside of what was expected of them? Was it something original or are they just mimicking each other? The biggest way to reflect on this is going to be feedback from students. How did they feel the lesson went, what did they really learn? Are they pulling the skills and content that I need them to understand or has it turned into something just like art class?
I have two questions for my fellow readers:
How would you monitor a students creativity? Would your assessment happen a different way?
Courtney