Week 12 Blog

Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds, by Gee Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds, by Gee item options This article is relative to integrating technology in the classroom because learning styles have changed and so should teaching styles. As teachers we are to be dedicated in making the classroom a learning environment. We have to be open to the idea of using technology to our advantage. As noted in the article, games can be designed to be as complicated as problem solving in a game. In my student teaching placement I was observing a 6th grade ESL (English as a Second Language) class and the students were using apps on an iPad to learn cite words in English. Another example is that I worked with a 4th grade class on introducing wikispaces and creating a virtual museum walk. I taught the teacher first until she got to a certain comfort level and then went on to teaching the students. So it’s like the article mentions, it’s not really necessary that the teacher is completely indulged in technology, but enough knowledge of it. Good Video Games and Good Learning, by Gee Good Video Games and Good Learning, by Gee item options I enjoyed the example this article gave to compare biology and video games. In many ways, school is a game, not a place where you learn all the facts and regurgitate them back on a test. What we should want to tap into is intellectual learning. As in education, video gaming has the potential to create certain characteristics needed to establish a love of learning. The students should identify themselves in their learning why should a student care about ‘virtual museum walk’ and not a ‘regular’ museum walk. Another thing is that students can interact with a video game; there is not a ‘doubt question’ in video gaming, you lose and try again. I think the biggest thing is that learning will mostly likely happened outside the classroom. Students can personalize themselves, have lower consequences in failing to do something right, and achieve higher level thinking by plating. As teachers, we have to be open to those ideas, we have to be welcoming. I like to think of it this way we are not reinventing the wheel we are making the wheel turn faster.

SMART Exchange lesson

My unit will be on learning about how music has shaped the American culture over time. Therefore the first search I did was to see if there were any existing files. This is what I found: http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?sort=Best+match&type=All+Types&q=music+changes+the+world&subject=All+subjects&grade=All+grades The lesson is "Music changes the World" I think this is a great starting point for me. I want to create a lesson explaining the effect music has on culture, trends, ideas of the audience, etc. This lesson has pull out tabs and this idea would work for me when trying to get students to focus on certain points at certain times. The notebook file also has people from the Beatles to Motown. I liked how the file also has the reflection of how music gets inspired. This shows that not does music influence the world, but the world also influences the music that can serve as a method of freedom of speech.

Open Source

http://www.bigbluebutton.org/ This open source allows for students, that are not physically in the classroom, to participate from where ever they are. It is like an enhanced Skype. The source has the capability of listening, to raise the hand for questions, desktop sharing, etc. I really like this source because it focuses on distant learning and the experience I had of distant learning when in high school. I had my daughter in senior year of high school and was on home for 8 weeks when Nube was born. To keep up with school, the district provided me with a tutor that would come once a week to my house and give me the work I missed in school. There were quite a few things wrong with this-but let's not get into that. The point is, I think I would have been better off had the Big Blue Button been available to me. I could have been part of my classes and participate without being physically there. As a student teacher I hear many reasons of an extended absence of a student and this could be a good option for families. If students are going to have extended absent periods than school districts could simply have a staff member set up this alternative for teachers and students.

Wk 6: Response to outside blog

http://shoemap.edublogs.org/

I read the "Return to Sender" blog and the article it referenced to. The reality is that technology is beginning to play a larger role in education and school districts have to be willing to take the risk of getting the technology to the school in the hands of teachers. However, I wanted to add on that by saying, if technology is added then the teachers need support to learn and integrate the tech into in the classroom. Therefore, before bringing in the latest gadget to the district, administrators must be sure that teachers are comfortable using the current gadget and is prepared to learn and integrate a new gadget. For example, the second generation of the iPad just came out, schools would need to make sure if the teachers in the district are comfortable using the first generation iPad. I have heard of many districts where the technology staff is being decreased, but the need of technology support is increasing. So, if the teachers want to integrate technology, but may need the support to become comfortable at using the device who is going to be there to help? How are our students suppose to excel in a digital environment when the teachers may not be properly prepared to integrate technology?

Week 7

http://mohamedaminechatti.blogspot.com/2007/01/towards-personal-learning-environment.html

What I really liked about this blog post was that it emphasizes that when a class is completing a PLE, that the student's individuality must show as well. As we build our projects we should think about how we would individualize for our students not only for their learning experience, but for them to learn to be better digital citizens in the future. As mentioned in this blog we must aim for the use of different media sources in order to optimize the accessibility of our students.

Outside edublog

http://edtechlady.blogspot.com/2011/02/integrating-technology-in-elementary.html

In this blog the 3rd grade teacher has setup learning stations in the classroom while integrating technology. There were four stations and two had technology. One station was using the computers in the room to hand and had a drop box to put assignments in. I think this is very handy because as a teacher you can monitor the work students are completeing during their time on the computer. The other station was enhanced with the use of a SmartBoard. The students were playing Jeopardy with review questions. The student that would finish with the most money would get a reward. I am assuming it was something that was predetermined. My question for Ed Tech Lady would be during the Jeopardy is there somebody there to watch them play fairly, like a TA? Maybe this could be answered/or solved by making sure that the groups are assigned that way you don't get the super quiet child with the child that will take everything over. I think the stations that the teacher put in the classroom are good community builders.

iLife

I hope everybody enjoyed their Valentine’s day. Today I was in training for iLife and how to use it in the classroom. I think this is a great tool and now am totally convinced that my next purchase has to be Mac. I can’t wait to use this in the classroom and teach teachers how creating can be part of summarizing and demonstrating what students have learned in the classroom. There are so many ways that it can be used in the classroom. For example, teachers can use this for a science experiment. During the spring when classes learning about metamorphosis with caterpillars. The students can build their lab report on a podcast. They could use a Flip camera and make a film using iMovie. There are endless possible to give students the opportunity to show what they are capable of. I think what I liked the most is that there will be times when students will be able to do more tricks than we, the teachers, can do. Last week, I was working on creating an iMovie through PhotoBooth with third graders. I was looking under the “Effects” option, but couldn’t figure out how to go back to the ‘Normal’ screen and one of the students that came to me showed me. I was impressed; these kids know and need the opportunity to make that connection between the cool technology device and what they have learned in the classroom. The kids were making films about static electricity and I would ask questions about the project their group made and other groups. Majority of the students could answer me correctly. Even if it wasn’t their project, they knew enough to demonstrate learning.
So ok, there are these cool devices to be used, but the teachers don’t want to use it. The main reasons I get is “Oh, I don’t know how to use that” or “There isn’t time for that.” I guess my greatest challenge now is how can I teach the teachers without being the one that comes into the classroom in order for the technology to be used.

ED tech and ESL

Last week was an emotional roller coaster to say the least. In my student teaching placement, the district happens to have a good amount of ELL students, predominantly from Ecuador. So one of my goals for this semester was to reach out to the ESL classes and integrate technology, the best I could. I was able to touch base with a middle school ESL teacher whose students were doing a biography on a musician and she wanted to use technology. What an awesome coincidence (the ride starts off)! On my first day with the students I told them we were going to be learning about Glogster. Nervous of course because they are new to me and I am new to them (little bit of butterflies like you’d get on a ride when you know the adrenaline is going to start rushing).Once the students knew that Ms. Zhinin knew and spoke Spanish, it went from 'Who's this lady?' to 'O ok, it's Ms. Z' and they were even more comfortable when I said my family is from Ecuador, even better.(The ride is fun again) When I was teaching, the teacher answered a call and told a student that he was wanted somewhere. When he came back he came with another student, a boy. The room got quiet; I mean you could hear a cricket quiet. Turns out the boy is a new student (I could tell by the scared look on his face) and everybody started smiling and small side comments. The teacher says who the new student is and wanted everybody to introduce themselves, first in Spanish then in English. As the students introduced themselves, I observed the new boy and slowly my heart started to break (the ride is officially not fun anymore), his stare seemed so distant, so scared, so...lonely. He would look at the other students and nod in acknowledgement, but you could see his expression, it still leaves me speechless, he was scared, he was new. When the students asked him to introduce himself all he could say was his first name and his age in Spanish, but you could tell that it was because he was shy, that something was not comfortable in him at least not yet. Later on in the day I told the teacher how I felt so bad for him being new and seeming so scared in the new school (trying to control this ugly gut feeling I had at this point). Then she told me that when the student was coming to this country he was caught at the border at was detained in Arizona for 4 months. 4 months, my jaw dropped (the roller coaster was in its part) and I was flushed with pain of sadness and anger at the same time. Sadness because I felt 'Of course this kid is scared he already knows what jail is like, what traveling illegally is like'. He has experienced things that the rest of our students who are born here will never have to experience and will perhaps never appreciate how lucky they are being born in this country and having the 'American dream' in their hands without as much sacrifice as this kid has. Sadness because of the pain his parents must have suffered knowing that their son was detained for 4 months, that perhaps they couldn't pay bail because of the economic situation now. Anger because of our government system. If immigration knows that this child is illegal, why not just send him back to his country instead of keeping him detained for 4 months, avoid traumatizing him, giving him this blank stare that I saw. Anger because this child is not at fault that his parents are bringing him to this country, why wouldn't our government pass the Dream act, perhaps this child will one day have the potential to have the American dream, to be a great inventor, to discover the cure for the deadliest diseases, but will he ever have the chance to do so?, because if he does not have a social security number, he will not get into a higher education or apply for financial aid to go to school.
An update: On Monday when I went to the same class to continue working on Glogster and the project. I was able to stay a bit more to catch up with the teacher as far a planning, since there was a quiz. The new student was exempt because he did not know the material, so the TA in the room said, “Oh, can he go on Rosetta Stone?” What a great idea, I thought. Ends up he couldn’t because it takes the district at least a week or two to set up a new child in the system. I mean c’mon really, 2 weeks! It’s February we need this kid to hit the road running, but how can we if we can even get him on a program to start learning the language.
I guess what I want to get out of this is: what do you guys feel/think? What have your experiences been like when a new child comes into your classroom? Because I don't know about you, but this was heartbreaking for me, how do you move on? how do you help? where do you start? it's February! how do start this new student on track? How can you even think of introducing him to technology when he doesn’t even know the language? Here I am introducing him to Glogster, trying my best to use Spanish without passing my boundaries because I am the student teacher in the room. How, how can I help this student when my forte is ed tech, not ESL at least not on paper?! I know this question may not have a simple solution, but I feel technology is great, but perhaps school systems need to be better at integrating in classrooms that are not general education, like an ESL class.

Why could blogging change, or not change, the traditional classroom?

I thinking that blogging is definitely changing the traditional classroom. (and not for nothing, it’s about time there was change in that place) As one blog said, we have always seen that quiet student in class and that really loud kid that won’t stop talking in the class. The class discussions were run by the students that said the most or who could raise their hand the fastest. Blogging does allow for the freedom of expression. However, as mentioned in the ‘Educational Blogging’, it needs to be done in the correct way. Because blogging could lead to other problems like the incident at Harvard were the student and the institution were almost sued for comments posted on a blog. The school where I am doing my student teaching I was part of a meeting of media specialists regarding internet safety, wikis, blogs, etc. and it’s effect on the different grade levels. One third grade teacher, had a good option for blogging, I think she said the website is kidzblog.com, where there was a discussion open for her students, but the teacher had to ‘Approve’ the post before it could be posted on the website. I was first impressed that third graders were blogging, but in a way down because that meant more work for the teacher.
As far as changing the way assessments are done, I think they should be as rushed as the school year 2014-2015, as mentioned in the ‘Are we ready for testing under common core standards?’. I say this because in my student teaching placement I am called to help teachers in technology quite a few times a week. Technology like using an Elmo, smartboard, senteo tools, and various web 2.0 tools is what teachers want help with. These are the kind of tools that students should be exposed to the majority of the time, but they’re not. As the reading said, if we teacher our students one way, assess them another, how can we expect them to succeed. If teachers are not supported in learning these devices then how can they work with these tools with their students. There has been research stating that if teachers have professional development and support afterwards, then teachers are more likely to integrate technology in the classrooms. The article is:
Does Research-Based Professional Development Make a Difference? A Longitudinal Investigation of Teacher Learning in Technology Integration By: Chrystalla Mouza (2209)
If school districts show support and offer training in technology then teachers would interate it in the classroom and our students would be prepared for assessments as mentioned in the article, ‘Are we ready for testing under common core standards.’