End of Course Reflection

Over the past several weeks, I have gained so many new ideas for how to incorporate new technologies into my classroom. I have always been on board with learning new technologies, but I often struggle with coming up with creative ways to utilize them in my classroom. Specifically, I have learned about ways I can use blogs, wikis and podcasts with my students. Though I was not concerned about a lack of skill, I do feel more confident now having used them all myself for academic purposed. 


The greatest insight I have gained into the teaching and learning process is knowing the difference between doing things differently and doing different things. Using technology to complete the same task or activity does not provide the same benefits as taking advantage of a new and different opportunity made accessible through technology. This requires a great deal of creativity for us as educators, but fortunately there are a number of resources out there to give us ideas. 


I have also learned that the way I like to use technology may be different from that of my students. Some of my students prefer to use computers, some do not. Every student has a different learning style. In this way, my perspective has become more student-focused in recognizing that students have different interests and skill levels in technology just as in everything else. 


One way I plan to expand my knowledge in this area is to continue following the resources I have discovered through my coursework. There are a number of blogs I am now following that share information about new resources and how to implement them into the classroom. Following these will keep me abreast of what is new out there and help me come up with ways to use it effectively with my students. 


I have set two long-term goals for transforming my classroom environment. The first is to have students create blogs and write blog posts. This will require a great deal of setup on my part as well as verification with my district as to what sites are allowed and what precautions we will need to take. However, I learned in this course that I enjoy writing much more when it is in blog format. I have a feeling many of my students will feel the same way. In addition, this format allows for interaction between students outside of the classroom. I will need to make sure I can monitor what students post. 


The second goal I have is to fully implement the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework into the standards I currently teach. Many of the pieces are there, but I want to formalize it and make sure I include all areas. I will start by determining which standards best align with each area of the framework. Then I can re-work or re-create lessons in order to accomplish both goals. This will take time and will need to be taken on one piece at a time. 


After completing my goals checklist in the beginning of the term I was made aware of several areas I had not considered when it comes to technology in the classroom. After completing this course, I have been able to most some "rarely" checks to the "sometimes" column and even some "sometimes" checks to the "often" column. Mainly I plan to use this checklist as I reach goals and set new ones for myself. 

Student Technology Usage Survey and Podcast

This week I had 14 of my 9th grade homeroom students participate in a survey about their usage of different technologies. I have created a podcast to narrate the results below. 

Please click play and then scroll along to hear my thoughts on the information I gathered. 

You can click on any graph to view it larger. 
I have to admit I had way too much fun analyzing data and recording my podcast...
Thanks for reading/listening! 

21st Century Skills

I spent quite a bit of time this evening exploring the website belonging to the organization The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I was reminded of my district's Student Profile, which describes many of these same skills.


I also made connections to the Benchmarks for Science Literacy produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), although their work focuses on specific sequenced learning goals rather than overarching skills. 


Overall I found the website interesting and was able to answer many of my own questions using the resources available. I do not disagree with the ideas presented, rather I found myself wanting to focus on how to better implement the teaching of these skills into my classroom. I would like to highlight a few of the resources I found particularly interesting:

• Framework for 21st Century Learning --"When a school or district builds on this foundation, combining the entire Framework with the necessary support systems—standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development and learning environments—students are more engaged in the learning process and graduate better prepared to thrive in today’s global economy." 
• This document provides a succinct overview of the goals and mission of this movement. I particularly liked the explanation quoted here because it describes the way these skills are meant to be used in combination with support systems already in place. 

• Assessment of 21st Century Skills --"Most K-12 assessments in widespread use today—whether they be of 21st century skills and content or of traditional core subject areas—measure a student’s knowledge of discrete facts, not a student’s ability to apply knowledge in complex situations. High stakes assessments alone do not generate evidence of the skill sets that the business and education communities believe will ensure success in the 21st century." 
• Whenever I plan lessons, I use the method outlined in Understanding by Design, which requires beginning with the end in mind. Therefore after reading more about the skills themselves I wanted to find out what the skills would look like and how we could assess them. One particular example that I feel I could implement in my own classroom without help from outside resources is the example from Coventry high school in Rhode Island, where students post online portfolios "demonstrating not only their mastery of a content area, but how they mastered it". I love this idea! Has anyone seen or tried something like this before? 

• 21st Century Skills Science Map -- "This document is neither a set of standards nor a comprehensive sequence of activities, but rather a starting point for ideas and discussions that begin with current practice and look forward." 
• There are maps for many curricular areas, but I chose to focus on science since that is what I love and teach. I was pleased to see that this was designed in cooperation with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). This document provides a description of each skill along with outcomes and examples for various grade levels. This reminded me again of the Benchmarks I mentioned earlier. This is something that would be helpful to keep with my planning materials as an easy reference. I highly recommend checking out the map for your content area! 

• Curriculum and Instruction: A 21st Century Skills Implementation Guide
• This document outlines the actual steps in implementing the teaching of these skills into an existing curriculum. This is another one that I plan to reference often as I move forward. 

Overall I feel excited about what I have gathered and learned from this website. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other resources you discover while exploring. 

Chain Notes

Have you read this book? It is full of awesome techniques to measure student learning.

One of the activities in the book is called "Chain Notes", and would work well for a discussion board and maybe even a blog. Normally this activity starts with a question written at the top of a piece of paper, such as "What is matter?". The paper is passed around and each student adds one or two sentences to the list; adding a new thought or building on previous statements.

This could easily be adapted to a discussion board or blog. As the teacher you can pose a question, and every student can add a comment that expands on the answer. Students may also correct any false information. This would be a good way to review a concept at the end of a unit.

Idea for incorporating "real world" science

One way I would like to use a blog in my classroom is to post about and discuss current events in science. Classroom time is mostly spent doing lab investigations and it can be hard to find time to tie in connections to what's happening right now in the world of science. A blog would be a perfect venue for students to locate, research, and post about topics. Students can then respond to these posts with questions, comments, or connections to the classroom. 

How this could work: A different student in each class period is in charge of posting about a current event in science each week. I teach six class periods, so this would mean there would be six new postings each week. Every student would be required to comment on one post each week, so the 170 resulting comments would be spread out across the six posts. 

What do you think? Could this work? Have you tried anything similar?

Welcome!

As part of my masters program, I get to blog. I have been blogging for a few years about daily life, so I could not be happier about using this particular format for educational purposes. I am trying hard to limit my use of exclamation points, and I already used up my quota in the title of this post...


This blog will be dedicated to three things: science, technology and education. I am excited to document my journey into exploring new ways to use technology in my classroom.