In considering how I may monitor and evaluate my two goals, the first endeavor of a class blog would be an on-going monitoring and maybe evaluating after a period of time to see if students are utilizing it in a effective manner. My second goal would be monitored according to how many pertinent blogs I can garner. The evaluation comes in with going forward with the blogs I have found or looking for new blogs. I would take a step back and look at the information I have gleaned and how useful it is. This monitoring and evaluating rounds out my GAME PLAN.
Ruth
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Game Plan for strenthening confidence with teaching technology
The National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers list 20 areas that effective teachers need to be able to model and apply. Some of the standards and indicators I presently use and others need some practice and polishing. Two indicators that I would like to strengthen my confidence in are 3.c. – Model Digital-Age Work and Learning, communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats and 5.a. – Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership, participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
With regards to the first standard, my Goal is to create a classroom wiki. I have created one in a previous course at Walden but have not pursued it further. I remember that the process was a bit daunting at first but towards the end of the course the process flowed easier. I admit to being nervous at the prospect. I would love to use the wiki at a place to store curriculum updates, share information with the students, and have them share information with me. The Action I need to take is to create the wiki. I will re-visit the course where I made the wiki to look for notes I took regarding the process. There are websites that host wikis and I remember liking wet paint so I will most likely go with that one. I do not anticipate this being painless.
The second standard involves participating in global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. My Goal is to subscribe to some teacher blogs that pertain to technology. I will start my quest at google. It will take some time to pinpoint some blogs that have good, creative ideas but it will be time well spent. I am a high school teacher and my subject is reading and research so that will narrow my search some. I believe that being creative is a pursuit that should be modeled daily by teachers so it is my goal to find teachers that are creative and look for new ideas to use in my classroom with regards to technology.
With regards to the first standard, my Goal is to create a classroom wiki. I have created one in a previous course at Walden but have not pursued it further. I remember that the process was a bit daunting at first but towards the end of the course the process flowed easier. I admit to being nervous at the prospect. I would love to use the wiki at a place to store curriculum updates, share information with the students, and have them share information with me. The Action I need to take is to create the wiki. I will re-visit the course where I made the wiki to look for notes I took regarding the process. There are websites that host wikis and I remember liking wet paint so I will most likely go with that one. I do not anticipate this being painless.
The second standard involves participating in global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. My Goal is to subscribe to some teacher blogs that pertain to technology. I will start my quest at google. It will take some time to pinpoint some blogs that have good, creative ideas but it will be time well spent. I am a high school teacher and my subject is reading and research so that will narrow my search some. I believe that being creative is a pursuit that should be modeled daily by teachers so it is my goal to find teachers that are creative and look for new ideas to use in my classroom with regards to technology.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Reflection on Information Literacy Skills in the Classroom
Reflection on Information Literacy Skills in the Classroom
At the end of a course surrounding information literacy skills I am asked to reflect on any striking revelation I have had. An issue that comes to mind is realizing how important it is for me to stress to the students that they need to be critical readers of the Web. What this means exactly is that I need to explain to my students that what they are reading, albeit published material, may be biased or, even still, untrue. This is a factor that they do not have to worry about with published books. The internet, however, is a completely different animal. The strategies I learned in my graduate course will go a long way towards helping my students properly evaluate a website.
When constructing an inquiry project for this course I was involved in helping the students to generate a question for the project, elucidate how to effectively find good sources, evaluate those sources and finally to synthesize their information into idea they could call their own. I will depend on the topic + focus stratagem to not only help the students better concentrate on what their question should look like but as a tactic that is useful to find sources on the internet when plugged into a search engine. This is a valuable skill that has helped me in the classroom and will be incorporated into every inquiry project I create both on line and off line.
Finally, I am passionate about sharing my new found information literacy skills with my colleagues. We have a Professional Learning Community meeting once a week and I would like to put together a series of lessons wherein I can pass along all the effective tools and skills that I have learned in this class. There are numerous handouts that I can share as well as putting forth the experience I have gained from completing an inquiry based unit that involved the students researching on the internet. I would not be surprised if some of my colleagues are in the dark regarding checking for the validity of websites. Unfortunately we live in a time when you have to demonstrate rigor towards safety and cannot trust information as easily as we once could. I am looking forward to generating these lessons and passing them along to my colleagues.
Ruth Crawford
At the end of a course surrounding information literacy skills I am asked to reflect on any striking revelation I have had. An issue that comes to mind is realizing how important it is for me to stress to the students that they need to be critical readers of the Web. What this means exactly is that I need to explain to my students that what they are reading, albeit published material, may be biased or, even still, untrue. This is a factor that they do not have to worry about with published books. The internet, however, is a completely different animal. The strategies I learned in my graduate course will go a long way towards helping my students properly evaluate a website.
When constructing an inquiry project for this course I was involved in helping the students to generate a question for the project, elucidate how to effectively find good sources, evaluate those sources and finally to synthesize their information into idea they could call their own. I will depend on the topic + focus stratagem to not only help the students better concentrate on what their question should look like but as a tactic that is useful to find sources on the internet when plugged into a search engine. This is a valuable skill that has helped me in the classroom and will be incorporated into every inquiry project I create both on line and off line.
Finally, I am passionate about sharing my new found information literacy skills with my colleagues. We have a Professional Learning Community meeting once a week and I would like to put together a series of lessons wherein I can pass along all the effective tools and skills that I have learned in this class. There are numerous handouts that I can share as well as putting forth the experience I have gained from completing an inquiry based unit that involved the students researching on the internet. I would not be surprised if some of my colleagues are in the dark regarding checking for the validity of websites. Unfortunately we live in a time when you have to demonstrate rigor towards safety and cannot trust information as easily as we once could. I am looking forward to generating these lessons and passing them along to my colleagues.
Ruth Crawford
Monday, June 22, 2009
21st Century Classroom
As I reflect on the educator that was in the classroom prior to immersion in technology and the educator that will stand in my shoes come the new school year I am very pleased. I am pleased because intrinsically it is every educators' desire to hone their craft and improve pedagogy and I believe this technology course has done this. I have felt a swift kick in the right direction. I have seen how the roll of the teacher can be transformed from lecturer to facilitator. This creates a classroom that is learner centered as they move their ideas from their heads to the world. What an important concept that will help the students see that what they have to say will move beyond the teacher's desk to the world outside of the classroom and is relevant to others. I hope to create a link between my own urban students to other urban students in the country to see how many experiences they share and to create a sense of community. It has always been my contention that people have much in common we just need to get a dialog started to elucidate this.
One glance at my favorites tab will leave no doubt that this is a road with no u-turns. I am following blogs, twitters, and wikis of educators I have never met but whose council I seek. I can commiserate with my fellow colleagues in my course to see how they are progressing. This collaboration was stressed throughout the course and the efficacy of this skill is felt in my own endeavors so I will pass this along to my students.
It is an important goal as an educator to increase critical thinking skills and it is more than apparent to see how learning through the medium of technology satisfies this goal. With this in mind, one long term goal I have with regards to technology is to develop a unique and challenging project. The students will have to problem solve and collaborate on this project but the conundrum is to find a problem that is relevant to their lives and that will produce high interest to better bring their motivation on board. I will have to realize greater proficiency with the workings of a wiki site but I have all summer to hone that skill.
Another goal I have is to bring the educators at my high school into the arena of using 21st century skills with their students. This will no doubt require voluntary workshops but I believe that my excitement generated through my own use of blogs and wikis will garner the enthusiasm needed to bring other educators to the table. I have several one on one meetings scheduled with the principle this summer and if I can win her over then my battle is half won.
As this course comes to a close, I am grateful that I have the rest of the summer to investigate the inner workings of technology to get a grasp on best practices with regards to technology in my classroom. My goal is to keep the focus on learning standards and student achievement. Technology is an efficient tool to facilitate this learning.
One glance at my favorites tab will leave no doubt that this is a road with no u-turns. I am following blogs, twitters, and wikis of educators I have never met but whose council I seek. I can commiserate with my fellow colleagues in my course to see how they are progressing. This collaboration was stressed throughout the course and the efficacy of this skill is felt in my own endeavors so I will pass this along to my students.
It is an important goal as an educator to increase critical thinking skills and it is more than apparent to see how learning through the medium of technology satisfies this goal. With this in mind, one long term goal I have with regards to technology is to develop a unique and challenging project. The students will have to problem solve and collaborate on this project but the conundrum is to find a problem that is relevant to their lives and that will produce high interest to better bring their motivation on board. I will have to realize greater proficiency with the workings of a wiki site but I have all summer to hone that skill.
Another goal I have is to bring the educators at my high school into the arena of using 21st century skills with their students. This will no doubt require voluntary workshops but I believe that my excitement generated through my own use of blogs and wikis will garner the enthusiasm needed to bring other educators to the table. I have several one on one meetings scheduled with the principle this summer and if I can win her over then my battle is half won.
As this course comes to a close, I am grateful that I have the rest of the summer to investigate the inner workings of technology to get a grasp on best practices with regards to technology in my classroom. My goal is to keep the focus on learning standards and student achievement. Technology is an efficient tool to facilitate this learning.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Podcast on Students' use of technology
http://teacherruth.podbean.com/2009/06/04/prevelence-of-technology/
After much anxiety I have managed to upload my pod cast to a hosting site. Podbean. I can copy and paste my audio into another website but the url is 10 lines long so I posted a link to my podblog if you will and you all can listen to it there.
I neglected to mention the demographics - Title One School. I look for my student's names in the local section of the paper every day, most days they are not there thank goodness.
Enjoy the podcast, it was made with blood, sweat and tears :)
Ruthie
After much anxiety I have managed to upload my pod cast to a hosting site. Podbean. I can copy and paste my audio into another website but the url is 10 lines long so I posted a link to my podblog if you will and you all can listen to it there.
I neglected to mention the demographics - Title One School. I look for my student's names in the local section of the paper every day, most days they are not there thank goodness.
Enjoy the podcast, it was made with blood, sweat and tears :)
Ruthie
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Link to the short movie....
http://www.schooltube.com/video/36281/A-Brief-History-of-Technology-in-Education
Give this a look see, it is very interesting. We have come a long way baby, now let's avail ourselves.
Give this a look see, it is very interesting. We have come a long way baby, now let's avail ourselves.
A Brief History of Technology in Education
This short video is an interesting look at where technology has traveled in the last 20 years.
It is written by Adam Scott Bellow. What will we, as educators, be using in the next 20 years I dare ask.
Ruth
It is written by Adam Scott Bellow. What will we, as educators, be using in the next 20 years I dare ask.
Ruth
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