Field Experience

General Observations:
Throughout the school there was very limited technology use, by both teachers and students. There was a clear "no cell phone use" policy throughout the school that was being enforced by some teachers and not by others. Those who were allowing the use of phones seemed to have better control over their class and more respect from the students. The only obvious use of technology that I observed was by office staff and students taking computer based classes (Multimedia, Digital Publishing, etc.). When asked about this observation, one teacher said that technology resources were limited in the school and therefore integration into the classrooms was difficult. However, another teacher, when asked the same question, said that while it was difficult, there were also tools out there that he found useful with his students. Many times he used a bring-your-own-device policy which was challenging for students, but made integration easier. He also is one of the few teachers who actually encouraged cell phone use in class.

The teacher who does tend to use technology in the classroom (Mr. Ballou) talked to me about examples of technology that he uses. He also told me that when it comes to technology in the classroom, one of the hardest things is that students expect that you (the teacher) will do the work for them and often forget due dates. To work around that problem, he uses further technology, a program called remind101 to alert students about due dates. He also said that he does not think about incorporating technology into his lessons. This is because he knows that no matter what the lesson will be, there is a tool out there that he can use. When asked what he thought the most important type of tool was he responded by saying "Social. Everyone is expected to have a professional profile that represents who they want to be."

Interview with Mr. Ballou

Q: What negatives do you find with using the technology that you use?

A: First it needs to work, and it doesn't always. Also, students tend to think that using technology means that they don't have to remember due dates and that you'll do the work for them. There are also interruptions. We have phones in the classrooms and other teachers will call during classes or the office or guidance will call and ask for a student.

Q: What technology do you use in your classroom?

A: Schoology, Wix, Quia, Remind101, RebelMouse, Prezi, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office.

Q: What types of technology do you use in the classroom?

A: Presentation, interactive, assessment, student creation, and communication.

Q: How do you incorporate technology into your lesson plans?

A: I don't actually think about it much. I think about the students and what I want them to get out of the lesson. There will always be tools that fit the lesson. The key is to be objective based and to find the tools to fit the objectives.

Q: If you were to choose what technology is most important to your classroom, what would you say?

A: Social, everyone is expected to have a professional profile that represents who they want to be.

Q: How has technology changed how you have taught over the years?

A: It has become more widely accepted, we can't fight it. It's reshaping both teaching and learning. No longer are we teaching the novel, instead we are teaching the skills to read and understand the concepts of the novel.

Q: Do you use technology to help students with learning disabilities? And if so, how does it help them?

A: Yes, I do. But it is not catered to just those students. It is open to all, in an inclusion program it is important to find tools that are good for all students.


Interview with Mr. McDonough

Q: What types of websites are blocked?

A: There is a very wide filter on the school Internet. Those with things deemed "inappropriate" (drugs, sex, violence) are blocked, as are many social media sites. Some email servers (such as AOL) are blocked but not all. Teacher's computers are not blocked.

Q: How has technology use in the classroom changed over recent years?

A: Students can now access their student hard drives (H-Drives) from home. They have also been given school email accounts--underclassmen can only email within the school, and Seniors can email to anyone. There are technology classes offered for teachers and smartboards are available for use in some classrooms. The school installed phones for better communication among staff during the day, and they have invested in a portable computer lab for students.

Q: If the technology isn't working, what do you do?

A: Improvise. Teach in a lecture format, do a class discussion, or even arts and crafts!

Glogster

Inspirational Hero

Lesson: Research a person who has been inspirational to you and create a digital story about them using Animoto.

Objectives:

• Students will be able to research another person on their own
• Students will be able to create a digital story summarizing their research findings
• Students will apply digital citizenship while doing research and citing findings
• Students will be able to communicate information in a visual manner
• Students will be able to effectively write short summaries of information

Common Core Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2
  Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2
  Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

ISTE Standards:

• Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
• create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
• Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
• plan strategies to guide inquiry.
• locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
• evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
• process data and report results.

The Lesson In Action

I chose to do my project on John Green because he has gone after his dreams, no matter what. He is an amazing author, and leads a fan group devoted to changing the world for the better.

Research Resources

Reflections
Creating this story felt a lot like creating a PowerPoint presentation, without all the fun colors and shapes it offers. Animoto did not give many options for editing, and would probably be best used with younger ages such as elementary and early middle school. This particular project would work especially well with the middle school ages because it asks for some basic research but is not overly complicated. It also asks for the works to be cited, which allows for students to practice citing where they got their information at an early age.

The actual execution of the project was very simple. The process of selecting images and rearranging them was one that a student of any age could easily grasp. Having a project plan with this simplicity provides a teacher with the ability to adjust the directions for any age group and for any subject. While this particular example focused on an inspirational figure, a teacher could ask students to research a historical figure from a war or a former political figure.

Technology Integration

Teachers cannot do everything on their own, sometimes they need help. Below is a list of things that technology can help them with and a tool for each subject.

Word Fluency and Vocabulary Development 

Source

Brainpop is a site that allows students (and educators) to interact with it. They can choose the subject and then the subset of each subject that applies to what they are learning. Each section allows the student to see the words as images to better learn and understand them. This is best used with middle and high school students,while Brainpop Jr is much better suited for elementary users.


Video Source





Comprehension and Literacy Development
StoryCenter connects students to others around the world while also teaching them about literacy. Not only does this fit into the English section of common core, it also encompases the global aspect of learning. While this site may be difficult for younger students, those in seventh grade or above would benefit from its use.

Source

Writing Instruction
Having students brainstorm ideas prior to writing can be very helpful to the process. By using concept map (or building one in a site such as Popplet) helps students to decide what they'll be writing about and where in their writing it will go. This tool is useful for all ages. In elementary school, having the students draw out their own would be easier for the students, while an interactive online tool could be more useful for middle and high school age students.

Source

Literature Learning
FamousPeople can help students learn about authors that the teacher may not know much about. Not every teacher is going to know everything about every author that their students are reading books by. Through using this site, students (primarily at the middle to high school level) are able to gain information through a reliable source without their teacher having to worry about the reliability of the websites they are using. 

Global Webinar: Study Abroad

listen to ‘Summer Abroad Webinar’ on Audioboo

The webinar that I based my podcast on can be found here.

What We've Learned (so far)

Objective:  explain why technology integration into curriculum is essential for 21st century classrooms

Source

Over the course of the past 7 weeks we have discussed this topic many times. It has been an important part of our ePortfolio, which is shown by the tools page on our websites. We have also seen how technology integration is effecting how material is taught. For example, in the TPACK model (shown on right) technology is a primary section. This shows us that technology is an important part of education today. We have also discussed how Web 2.0 can be integrated into classrooms today and how tool designers are working with educators to create the most useful tools possible. Because Web 2.0 tools are interactive they allow students to learn in multiple ways, and the teacher controls how the tool is used by their students. A classroom without technology is one that is not yet in the 21st Century.


Objective: continue to be a  reflective practitioner through an ongoing blog and other writing

Source

We have worked on this objective through our blogs, our Vision of Technology Paper, and discussing the TIP model (shown at left). The TIP model's phase 5 is all about reflecting on a lesson and how effective it was. We have used this to reflect on lesson examples from our text and examples given in class. Through our Vision of Technology Papers we are reflecting on how we will use technology in our classrooms as teachers and why we think it is important for students to use in today's society. With our blogs we are reflecting on various topics such as Web 2.0 tools, problems with technology in schools, and our own digital footprint. As part of the class we have also had chapter review questions that have asked us to reflect on topics from the text and to analyze how the ideas can be best used in classrooms today.


Objective: evaluate technological resources for professional and classroom use

We have had many projects that fall under this objective. We had a tool challenge project in which we each had to research a tool and present to the class on it. This assignment had multiple functions; we not only had to research our own tool enough to present it, but we also learned about the tools that our classmates did research on. This gives us a toolbox that we can use in our own classrooms during student teaching and once we become certified teachers ourselves.

Objective: Turn theory into practice by completing 5 hours of related field experience.

I did my field experience at my former high school. I was there for approximately 4 hours and had the opportunity to talk to not only the primary computer teacher, but also a social studies teacher, the technology director, the family and consumer science teacher, and an art teacher. During these discussions I learned about how integrating technology into every classroom is important. Students need to be learning about and using technology in every educational discipline. By using technology for art and psychology and sociology they are learning how to function as a member of society and are learning how to use tools that may help them at a job later.

Objectives Web

Source

Digital Footprint

What I Am Proud Of
Google my name and you will get past many pages before you'll find me. You won't find my Facebook, my Twitter, my LinkedIn, my Pintrest, my Instagram, or even a news article remotely related to me. Anyone who wants to find me is going to have to do some serious work, or will have to know a lot about me. I am proud to say that finding me online is difficult. In order for someone to actually find a picture of me, they would have to search for where I work during the summer and find the staff photo, and even then they would have to know what I looked like already since there are twenty-seven people in the photo.

What I Am Surprised To See
I was surprised to see that when I finally did find myself, I could get the location of my parents house. While it only showed an approximate location, there was an option to pay just under $4 to get my phone number, email, and parent's address. I was also surprised to see how many other people in the country (100+) shared my name. I knew that there were historical figures that shared my name, but I had no idea how many people in the states did as well.

What I Will Change
Nothing. The information that could be found was information from public records that I have no control over. Because of how many Google pages it took for me to find myself I am not worried about what others can see when they search me (I even had a friend search on their computer to see what came up). I am also aware that I have not been the subject of any news articles and that the pictures of me online do not put me in bad light. If a potential employer were to find me online, they would see me for who I am; a person who has some close friends, works at a summer camp, and whose favorite season is summer, and that's if they can find my Facebook profile. If they find my LinkedIn, they will get basically the same impression, minus the close friends and summer. They will find that I sell lotion to make some extra spending money, and have worked at camp under various job titles.

Digital Citizenship Prezi

Lesson Plan with Padlet

Lesson Seven: Todo el Mundo Hace Juegos con Cuerda/The Whole World Plays String Games

Age/Grade Range 2nd-6th Grade

Lesson Objective/Learning Goal: Immediate: story sequencing and oral language fluency
Near-term: manual dexterity for keyboarding
Long-term: global empathy

Description of Lesson The teacher demonstrates and explains how to do a simple string game (e.g. the Karok Fish Spear from Northern California) and explains its cultural context. Instruction is repeated until at least 1/3 of the group has mastered the figure. Those with mastery are then enlisted as teachers of those who have not learned the figure. At the conclusion of the session, one or more students are given the opportunity to become the teacher at the front of the room, be recorded, and receive feedback from the class on their instruction.

The Tip Model Applied To This Lesson: 

Phase 1: The relative advantage of using an online tool for this project is that it allows students to practice typing (the near-term goal). The advantage of using Padlet for this project is that it allows students to type the story sections into blocks and then drag them around into various sequencing to find the one that makes the most sense.

Phase 2: During this lesson students will be given the paper with pieces of a story in a random order. They will then go to Padlet and type in the sections of the story and then arrange them in the order they believe they should go in. They will then present their story to other students and those who choose to will present to the class.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

7. Demonstrate the safe and cooperative use of technology. (5) (source)

Phase 3: While Padlet is a great tool for this because it allows students to drag text around in sections to reorganize the story, StoryboardThat would be another great option because it would allow students to visualize and draw out the sections of the story that they are having difficulty placing within the sequence. For students who are more visual rather than auditory learners, StoryboardThat would be a much better tool.

Phase 4: In this lesson, the goal is for students to gain better understanding of story sequencing. The environment of the classroom needs to be set up in a way where students can work together to teach each other (another goal) and help each other understand why the story goes in the order that it does. Perhaps students should work in groups instead of just individually so that they can discuss the reasoning behind decisions, groups would be a mix of high, middle, and low achievers.

Phase 5: For this lesson in the future I would have students sequence the story using Padlet and then have them draw the story into a comic using StoryboardThat. This would help reach more learners and make the lesson more fun for students. Students would be able to work together to sequence the story and draw it out. To make it even more fun I would give each group a different story and ask the students to print out their stories and present them to the rest of the class.

Story Source
Image Source
Padlet Wall