Course Reflection – EDUC-6714D-2 Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology.

As the first week in my new school year comes to a close I have to reflect on what I have learned the last 8 weeks and how I am using it in the classroom. When I first laid eyes on my little freshmen I was very excited! Not only do I get to have the pleasure of getting to know them and teaching them but I can do it in such a way that I feel I am really making a difference. My teaching practices have been altered since then end of last year. I now view the students as puzzles for me to figure out. What are their readiness levels, what interests them and what learning profiles lurk beneath those brand new clothes? My first job is to get to know these fresh-babies as I call them. Tomlinson points out that the better we know our students and all their proclivities, the better we will be able to engage and motivate them to learn (Laureate, 2009b). I have already given my classes the reading and interest inventories. Aside from that though I have talked to them and watched them, their behavior speaks louder than inventories. I have identified my very reluctant readers, my can’t keep quiet kids, the tapping feet and hands kids, the please show me what it looks like kids and all this will lead to better instruction on my part.

Some big concepts with regards to my students this past course was learning about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). Universal Design for Learning emphasized breaking down educational barriers (Center for Applied Special Technology, 2009b). This idea prompted me to look at different aspects of instruction and ask myself if there were components to my teaching that were allowing barriers to exist. Rose and Meyer (2002) state that everyone deserves access to learning and I know it is my job to provide this access. I now think of delivering content using multiple ways and allowing the students to show their learning in multiple ways and finally keeping them interested and motivated using multiple avenues. My increased knowledge of DI is also incorporated into my schema of what makes up my students. It, too, has me contemplating how I can effectively deliver content, how the students can process the material in different ways and finally how the students can demonstrate learning in a way that respects their different learning styles.

I know that I cannot attend to all the students’ differences by myself and this is where technology plays a very important part. Technology is flexible. The options for attending to the vast array of teenagers that I see every day are amazing with technology. As an educator, you almost feel giddy when you find out about a new tool, link or application. I started my day on Monday by introducing myself, via the glog that I made, to my students. They were amazed. On Tuesday I thought, hey, let me show the students how easy it was to make and together, the students and I, made a glog about their class. I let each period contribute something to the poster. By the end of the day I had jazz music, a Bob Marley quote, and really cool text formatting describing the class. To say it was a hit would be an understatement. I could not have accomplished this endeavor prior to EDUC-6714D-2!! I also plan on using a few things that I gleaned from the Differentiation Station social network that I was a part of. The teachers that contributed to the resources on this site came up with some pretty cool tools. Some of these are:
a spelling site, a vocabulary site , a site to recommend books for my students, a site for really good graphic organizers and lastly, a site to generate flash cards to study with . These are the resources that I have designated to use as a part of my instructional practice today to better reach my students. One more new tool I want to mention is a site that facilitates creating a digital book. I have my students craft stories as a regular part of my curriculum and now they can turn these into digital stories. This is a very good thing.

With the many ways to be flexible using technology it is incumbent on me to not inundate my students or myself with too many new strategies, tools, or applications. Tomlinson (2009b) promotes growing slowly. I will heed this advice because I do not want to use technology just for the sake of using it; I want it to be purposeful and meaningful so that the students are met where they are and as they are to increase learning and break down educational barriers. This will be an exciting year indeed. As a side note, I want to share that it is my intention to communicate effective instructional practices I have gleaned from this course with my colleagues. Let’s reach those students!

Ruth Crawford

Resources:
Center for Applied Special Technology. (2009). UDL guidelines, version 1.0. Retrieved from http://www.udlcenter.orgaboutudl/udlguidelines.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Introduction to differentiated instruction. Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore: Author.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Final thoughts on GAME plan and inclusion of technology

My goal in my GAME plan was twofold. I aspired to start a class wiki and I endeavored to connect with other educators via blogs and learn more about technology in the classroom. With regards to the class wiki, I hit a home run. The wiki is up and running and the students are seeing it as a viable place to go for information and communication. I learned that instituting a new technology tool is a process. I needed to not only create the wiki but think of ways to utilize it and do much poking, prodding and cajoling to get the students on board. My students are working on a power point project and I am able to post the instructions for the project as well as have a page devoted to problems and a reflection page. These components are vehicles of communication that allow the students to connect to their peers in an unusual way. I have found that they will not turn to this form of communication unless reminded to daily. This is to be expected though as this is so new to the students. I am very pleased with the class wiki. I will incorporate this tool every year that I am in the classroom. I will also show my fellow educators the efficacy of using this tool and encourage them to use one as well.
Speaking of fellow educators, this brings me to my second goal. I have ear marked or subscribed to several blogs that I feel are giving feed back and good information on incorporating technology in the classroom. I had to hunt and peck to locate good sources. The GAME plan helped me to persevere with my actions until I felt I had some really useful blogs.
I appreciate the GAME plan process. It allowed me to stay focused. When a person has to generate a goal it creates an environment of learning. Having to articulate the action that must take place to achieve the goal gives wings to the goal. Finally, success can be felt as the goal is monitored and evaluated. Going forward, I anticipate using the GAME plan process as I continue to use wikis in my teaching practice and as I turn to the teacher blogs that I have subscribed to for useful information on technology in the classroom.

Using the game plan to promote NETS-S

Teachers need to use the GAME plan strategy with every endeavor in the classroom. GAME stands for Goal, Action, Monitor and Evaluate. It is paramount that educators strive to incorporate technology where it is possible in the curriculum. To do this it takes creativity. It is this creativity that we need to model for the students. We should not add the technology component just for the components sake but rather to enhance instruction. I believe if an educator shares the process and efficacy of having a goal, taking action, monitoring their progress and evaluating their success the students will incorporate this strategy as well. When we are talking about adding a new piece to our teaching repertoire it is especially important that we stick to the GAME plan so that we know our inclusion of technology is the right choice.
The NETS-S standards stipulate that the students need to be creative and innovative, collaborate with others from peers to those of other cultures from around the globe, develop research and information fluency, use digital resources and tools to identify and solve authentic problems and to exercise ethical behavior with their use of technology. These are skills that can be taught by the classroom teacher and using the GAME plan will ensure success.
The NETS-T standards dictate that teachers need to demonstrate creativity, design lessons that explore real-world issues while solving authentic problems, promote reflection using digital tools, model ethical use of digital information and technology, always strive to be a lifelong learner and to promote the effective use of digital tools and resources in the professional community.
Just as it is important to have a goal of incorporating digital technology for various instructional reasons, it is also important to be mindful of when technology is a good fit and when it is not. Going forward I aim to maintain vigilance to the ever-changing landscape of technology so that I can best meet the needs of my students and their NETS-S standards. I know that I will have to use the GAME plan to accomplish this.

Ruthie

Evaluation of Progress

Evaluation of Progress
The goals in my game plan have moved in the right direction. I have added some 21st century skills to my teaching repertoire and this is wonderful news. As with any new strategy or technique an educator adds to the classroom there is a time of adjustment and seeing what works and doesn’t work with the students. Thus far, I have not run into any problems with my GAME plan but that doesn’t mean problems won’t arise at some point.
What I have learned so far is that having a class wiki is not only convenient for me but convenient for the students as well. I have learned that the generation of a wiki should be done at the beginning of the year so that it can be built upon during the year. I have learned that some students take to visiting a wiki for class resources like a duck to water and other students do not. Finally, I have learned how to construct the wiki and this was not rocket science which is good news for promotion of this tool to other educators.
The goal that I am still working on is to encourage other educators to see the efficacy of using class wikis so they too can incorporate 21st century skills into their classroom instruction. As I shared earlier, my experience of creating a class wiki was innocuous and I will have my wiki to show as an example for other teachers.
There are so many technology tools out there that I can avail myself of that I will be kept busy exploring the possibilities for a long time. I want to use epals, ning, ming, do a flat classroom project and try to always be cognizant of where in my instruction I could use a technology based tool as either a collaboration component or as a means to create a product.

Blog Effectiveness

Old wiki, new uses... the utility of the wiki is growing. In terms of assessing how effective my actions were in helping me to meet my goals I would say I'd give myself an A. The wiki is up and running and the students are accessing it. I feel a sense of accomplishment and going forward I know that I could repeat the process for whatever my instructional goal might be.
If I had to think of a question I might still have or anything I still might need to learn it would be in the area of how many different uses the wiki could be used for. I am starting a PBL project and I will post instructions for the project and use the wiki for a journal reflection spot at the end of the project. I know that as my instructional calendar unfolds I will continue to pull in uses for the wiki. I wish I had started the wiki at the beginning of the year instead of at the end. It is exciting to think of class wiki's being a solid part of my teaching repertoire. I am telling other teachers how they could incorporate it in their classes.

Ruthie

How is the Wiki experience you ask....

All in all I'd have to say that this process has been fairly innocuous. I am happy with the site and have found it to be convenient on several fronts. Instead of putting my information up on the board I now pull up the Wiki and have it on the overhead. All the information is there and they will see it again on their home computer if they chose to access the site from home. They seem to like the word Wiki, it is kinda catchy. I end all my classes now with check the wiki!!!! Tomorrow I have a test and if a student doesn't do well I can say, "Why didn't you check the Wiki?". I can conveniently put reminders on the Wiki as well. I want them to do Teenbiz at home but of course I am not home with them but I can post it in large font on the Wiki and there I am in their home saying loudly, "Do Teenbiz!!", cool. I have figured out how to lock the home page so that students cannot edit it, nice. I had a student erase some information last week and I was able to bust him by looking at the updates tab to see he had deleted a lot of info but now I have the page locked, so yeah, that won't happen again. I don't have any questions yet but I am about to expand the use of the wiki as I start a power point project and I want to post information and possibly a page dedicated to ideas.
So far so good, I'm lovin' technology!

Ruthie

90 kids on Wiki

Just had to share...90 students on wiki and they are lovin' it!!