I have always been a proponent of having a "national" baseline standard for academic knowledge and college readiness, therefore, I am highly supportive of the 2010 Common Core Standards that over 40 states have agreed to implement. In today's changing environment, very few people gain employment at one company and remain employed there for the duration of their career. It is more likely that employees will change companies several times and might even have to locate out of state in order to move ahead in their career. It therefore seems pertinent that students are educated using a national standard in preparation to apply their knowledge, no matter which state they find themselves working. I myself, was educated in Columbus, Ohio and yet have lived and worked in five other states. The important consideration here is that I was able to take what I learned from the Ohio state curriculum and apply it to my jobs in other states.
Not only should students be able to apply their education within various states, they must also be able to apply that knowledge worldwide. With the advancement of technology and most importantly the appearance of the Internet, most jobs today require workers to interact with others from around the world, specifically using computers. What this means is that in addition to having national standards, students should understand and be proficient in using technology in order to best help them in their quest to succeed at a career.
According to the article 21st Century Skills, students should be proficient at the following things in the 21st century: Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Life and Career skills and Media and Technology skills. The article further explains that one of the key ways to accomplish this is to tie these skills in with national standards. Some of these items might be attainable without the use of technology or more specifically computers, however, many of them are further enhanced through the use of technology. That being said, just like any tool that a person uses to help them accomplish something, technology needs to be specifically aligned with a standard and clearly defined so that students and teachers are able to see how and why technology is benefitting them.
In teaching students today, I will pay close attention to the Common Core Standards and the 21st century skills and make an effort to align the two so that students are able to perceive how technology can help them apply both the skills and standards to a future job. A large part of utilizing technology in an individual classroom will be directly linked to the availability within the school district where I will work. Often times teachers have to work within certain technology constraints which seem to ultimately be tied into budget considerations for the district.
As part of my technology assessment project, I evaluated the technology available within the Rockford Public School district. Within each classroom, every teacher had a personal working station that included instructional software programs, video streamlining and a document camera. If working in a situation similar to this, it would allow me the ability to show students educational videos, it would allow our classroom the ability to communicate and collaborate with another classroom in a distant location and it would allow me to project a lesson plan or use information directly from the computer in my lesson plans. Furthermore, within the Rockford Public School district, every class has specified computer access time once a week. This would allow me the ability to assign projects to the students in advance and then allow the students to conduct research and put together projects during the computer access time by using programs such as PowerPoint.
One of the best teaching tools that I feel that I acquired in taking this class and which will be beneficial, are the resource assessments that we researched and shared. There are many helpful resources that will be an asset in gathering ideas for lesson plans and ideas for integrating technology within existing lesson plans. A large barrier to integrating technology into lesson plans is not knowing what resources are actually available and not knowing where to find them. By sharing these with each other, this allows all of us the benefit of gaining a lot of resources without actually having to do hours upon hours of research individually.
In order to best keep up with technology, it is imperative that current and future teachers like myself, continue to take technology classes which provide us with ideas and information on what the latest application can mean for us. Often times local school districts will encourage and in some instances pay for teachers to take college or community classes that would help them in their career. A lot of these classes can be taken at night or online, thus offering teachers the ability to be able to work during the day in the school setting. Another way that I plan to stay in tune with and keep up with technology will be to collaborate with other teachers either within my own school district or outside of my school district. I think teachers can benefit from each other by offering suggestions of lesson plans that were successful by incorporating the Internet or another type of technology within a lesson plan.
I think the biggest obstacle to overcome in learning about technology is learning what currently exists within that realm and how best to make use of it. As I stated earlier on, a tool is only helpful if you know why you need it and how to use it. Successful integration with standards and helping students accomplish significant career and life goals are key here. If your objective as a teacher is to teach critical thinking skills, there can be many different ways to accomplish this task. The goal and challenge as a teacher is in determining the "best" way to help the student achieve this goal of critical thinking. Knowledge about all the choices available, including technology choices, further helps the teacher to make a sound decision in weighing all factors.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Reflective Blog #2
1. How can a teacher find balance between traditional knowledge-based content standards and more process-oriented skills?
It used to be that teachers spent a fair amount of time teaching children the "facts" about different subjects. This left little room for encouraging children to figure out any of these facts themselves. With the introduction and use of the internet now, most people are able to research things themselves if they are wanting to know more about a particular subject. Along with this ability to research information, a person must first understand what specifically it is that they want to learn and then how to go about obtaining that type of information. This requires a higher process thinking skill level because you are directing the learning instead of simply letting someone else tell you what you need to know. This also requires a higher level of comprehension.
In order for a teacher to be able to find "balance" between the two, he or she needs to not only teach or explain the facts but also find ways to encourage children to analyze and apply those facts to real world situations and be able to understand how they could investigate similar information and use it.
One way of being able to incorporate these two or "balance" them is to use inquiry based programs in collaboration with existing lesson plans. If for example a teacher were to be presenting a lesson plan in English on writing a factual newspaper article, he or she could use an inquiry based program to help the students figure out how to successfully write an article. Rather than to simply give them the components needed in writing an article and then testing them on the facts needed, the teacher could explain the different parts included in a factual newspaper article and then set the students up using an inquiry based program. This inquiry based program could then guide them in the following ways:
1. Getting them to Create a list of questions that would be used up front to write the article
2. Hypothesizing or determining what the ultimate goal should be in writing the article (what the students hope the reader will realize after reading their article)
3. Investigate or research information for the article (have them decide what are they going to report, how are they going to get this information and then actually obtain the information)
4. Analyze or determine what is the best way to convey the information that they were able to find. What is the best way to write or convey this information.
5. Modeling (actually writing an article)
6. Evaluating (ask the students to evaluate each other. Have the students read each others articles and determine if they were able to come away at the end of the article with the hypothesis that was created. In addition, the teacher could evaluate the article to determine if it met the criteria of what an investigative article should include.)
2. Key Factors that help improve the success of inquiry-based lessons?
According to several critiques of the student led inquiry-based programs, these programs tend to net positive results only when there is a sufficient level of higher knowledge in a subject that the student possesses. This would seem to indicate that in order for these types of programs to really be successful the student must first have a solid higher level of understanding of the subject matter that he or she is trying to gain further insight into by using the inquiry based program. This would also seem to indicate that a teacher must first make sure to teach the student the basic facts around a subject before asking the student to then analyze those facts and manipulate them and hypothesis about what they think will happen.
Secondly the teacher needs to determine how the students knowledge and performance will be evaluated using these types of programs. If the teacher has a firm outcome determined up front of what he or she hopes the student will realize after using the program, then the inquiry-based program will be considered more successful, meaning that the goal of the lesson plan can be seen as being accomplished.
Another key factor similar to the knowledge understood and performance is aligning the standards expectations up with inquiry-based programs. What this means is that the teacher needs to determine up front how the expected state standards can be applied within the inquiry-based programs. Schools are not going to be willing to support inquiry-based programs unless they see the positive results between knowledge of standards being comprehended in conjunction with using these types of programs.
Lastly, another strong factor for success is to make sure that these inquiry based lessons are done in group situations. This encourages the students to be able to collaborate with each other on ideas.
3. What role can technology play in assisting those factors?
First technology can provide access to information that students need to research. For example, if students were investigating things that would affect the growth of grass or plants in science, they can research or look up information on the internet or specific science websites through their school district library system. This would help them to quickly compile a list of things that they thought might make an impact in the growth of their plant or grass.
Allowing students to create models, charts or graphs to show the results or the expected results related to an investigation they are questioning, researching and hypothesizing about. In the example from above, students could make a chart to show what the expected growth would be of the grass or plant when they introduced certain stimuli and they could also create a similar chart or graph to show the actual results. These two charts or graphs can then be compared.
Lastly, it also enables students to be able to collaborate with other students in different locations. They can review the results of similar types of experiments being performed in other schools not in their district or even in their home town. They can compare information, hypotheses and view other models that other students have put together.
It used to be that teachers spent a fair amount of time teaching children the "facts" about different subjects. This left little room for encouraging children to figure out any of these facts themselves. With the introduction and use of the internet now, most people are able to research things themselves if they are wanting to know more about a particular subject. Along with this ability to research information, a person must first understand what specifically it is that they want to learn and then how to go about obtaining that type of information. This requires a higher process thinking skill level because you are directing the learning instead of simply letting someone else tell you what you need to know. This also requires a higher level of comprehension.
In order for a teacher to be able to find "balance" between the two, he or she needs to not only teach or explain the facts but also find ways to encourage children to analyze and apply those facts to real world situations and be able to understand how they could investigate similar information and use it.
One way of being able to incorporate these two or "balance" them is to use inquiry based programs in collaboration with existing lesson plans. If for example a teacher were to be presenting a lesson plan in English on writing a factual newspaper article, he or she could use an inquiry based program to help the students figure out how to successfully write an article. Rather than to simply give them the components needed in writing an article and then testing them on the facts needed, the teacher could explain the different parts included in a factual newspaper article and then set the students up using an inquiry based program. This inquiry based program could then guide them in the following ways:
1. Getting them to Create a list of questions that would be used up front to write the article
2. Hypothesizing or determining what the ultimate goal should be in writing the article (what the students hope the reader will realize after reading their article)
3. Investigate or research information for the article (have them decide what are they going to report, how are they going to get this information and then actually obtain the information)
4. Analyze or determine what is the best way to convey the information that they were able to find. What is the best way to write or convey this information.
5. Modeling (actually writing an article)
6. Evaluating (ask the students to evaluate each other. Have the students read each others articles and determine if they were able to come away at the end of the article with the hypothesis that was created. In addition, the teacher could evaluate the article to determine if it met the criteria of what an investigative article should include.)
2. Key Factors that help improve the success of inquiry-based lessons?
According to several critiques of the student led inquiry-based programs, these programs tend to net positive results only when there is a sufficient level of higher knowledge in a subject that the student possesses. This would seem to indicate that in order for these types of programs to really be successful the student must first have a solid higher level of understanding of the subject matter that he or she is trying to gain further insight into by using the inquiry based program. This would also seem to indicate that a teacher must first make sure to teach the student the basic facts around a subject before asking the student to then analyze those facts and manipulate them and hypothesis about what they think will happen.
Secondly the teacher needs to determine how the students knowledge and performance will be evaluated using these types of programs. If the teacher has a firm outcome determined up front of what he or she hopes the student will realize after using the program, then the inquiry-based program will be considered more successful, meaning that the goal of the lesson plan can be seen as being accomplished.
Another key factor similar to the knowledge understood and performance is aligning the standards expectations up with inquiry-based programs. What this means is that the teacher needs to determine up front how the expected state standards can be applied within the inquiry-based programs. Schools are not going to be willing to support inquiry-based programs unless they see the positive results between knowledge of standards being comprehended in conjunction with using these types of programs.
Lastly, another strong factor for success is to make sure that these inquiry based lessons are done in group situations. This encourages the students to be able to collaborate with each other on ideas.
3. What role can technology play in assisting those factors?
First technology can provide access to information that students need to research. For example, if students were investigating things that would affect the growth of grass or plants in science, they can research or look up information on the internet or specific science websites through their school district library system. This would help them to quickly compile a list of things that they thought might make an impact in the growth of their plant or grass.
Allowing students to create models, charts or graphs to show the results or the expected results related to an investigation they are questioning, researching and hypothesizing about. In the example from above, students could make a chart to show what the expected growth would be of the grass or plant when they introduced certain stimuli and they could also create a similar chart or graph to show the actual results. These two charts or graphs can then be compared.
Lastly, it also enables students to be able to collaborate with other students in different locations. They can review the results of similar types of experiments being performed in other schools not in their district or even in their home town. They can compare information, hypotheses and view other models that other students have put together.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Reflective Blog #1
After reading all three articles concerning different factors that played a role in ensuring positive results when integrating technology in the classroom, a few main themes seemed to emerge under which most of the individual factors would fall.
The first theme was access to computers at school. In one study conducted in 2005 by O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell and Tucker-Seeley, it was found that fourth grade students were likely to have higher language arts and writing test scores on state measured assessment tests after the students reported that they had greater frequency of using technology at school in order to help them accomplish such things as editing papers. In yet another school example, students in seventh and eighth grades saw significant increases by about 10 to 30 percentage points in state administered assessment tests, after being given access to wireless laptop computers at school. According to the Learning form Case Studies of Technology Integration article, "Without access to computers when students are engaged in a related project, technology cannot be considered integrated into the curriculum and instructional context." Lastly, teachers need to have reliable equipment and Internet access at school and adequate technical support in order to ensure that every student has computer access at school.
A second theme that emerged from reading the articles was the inclusion of all students in computer usage including students who speak English as a second language, special education students and students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas. One article included a study that was done in which the researchers measured the computer usage in public schools where there were more higher-income families and schools that included more lower-income students. The study found that 61% of teachers in public schools with higher-income students used computers in their classrooms versus 50% of the teachers in the lower-income schools.
The use of computers in helping English language students and special education students, enables these students to now learn by writing e-mail, conducting on-line research and adjusting the text styles and fonts. With the addition of these items, students are better able to understand the subject material and be tested in a manner easier for them to comprehend.
A final theme that emerged was the idea of the teacher's background and training with computers. These included such things as a teacher's demographics, his or her beliefs and attitudes and a teacher's training on educational technology and how to incorporate it in his or her classroom. In an article entitled Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a path model, the researchers found that a teacher's readiness, his or her beliefs and computer availability were the three most important factors with a significant positive effect on technology integration in a classroom.
Although the above listed themes did not encompass every factor influencing the success of computers in helping children achieve better learning results, they managed to address quite a few of the obstacles that teachers face when trying to incorporate an educational technology component into part of a unit lesson. With that being said, there are a few things that teachers can do to address some of the above issues.
In the case of access to computer usage at school, a teacher can request to have access to computers at the school even if they are not provided in the individual classrooms. This might require some adjustments to the teacher's own teaching schedule, to allow for adequate computer usage but certainly should take precedence into the lesson planning stages if this is considered a vital component to the overall unit lesson. In addition, teachers can assign students to groups to ensure adequate computer usage and might also contribute to the time factor. Often times students can learn from other students and the slower students would not negatively affect the overall time constraint given on the teacher in planning computer access time.
Another factor that the teacher can have direct control over is his or her own attitude and belief and in some cases training on computers. Certainly a teacher is able to control his or her own attitude and beliefs about computers simply by making a commitment to do so, or if necessary, attending a seminar or researching on line some of the benefits and ways to use technology in helping students. A teacher can also request to his or her school district to allow him or her to attend additional training either in person or on line as a way to help with training and exposing himself or herself to the different programs and methods that exist in helping to educate students. In the ever changing world of computers, it is important that everyone in their career keep up on new technology as a way to help them.
Once a teacher makes the decision to integrate technology into his or her classroom and is able to ensure access to all the students in the classroom, the next step is to incorporate the use of this computer technology into a lesson plan or unit. There are a couple of ways that I would go about evaluating the success of a unit or lesson plan that involved the integration of new technology. The first thing that I would do would be to present my lesson plan in a format that did not include technology. For example, if presenting a lesson plan on American Indians, I would teach the information without the use of computers and then give the students an oral or written assessment to see what information they retained. Then I would plan another lesson plan on American Indians and within that lesson plan I would either require the students to use the computer themselves in researching information or pictures or I would use the computer in presenting the information to them. At the end of this I would then assess them orally or with a written test. Lastly, I would present a lesson plan on American Indians and I would teach with some educational technology and some oral or hands on approach and I would assess them using educational technology. This way I could try to determine in which way did the use of computer technology seem to affect their learning.
I am a firm believer in helping others in their quest to be successful. Often times it is easier for a person to learn from several different people than to simply learn from just one person. This enables a person to compile different types of information and apply them in their own way. In disseminating my success and failures to my colleagues and others I would present them with the information from above that I was able to compile. Meaning that I would share with them the three different approaches to the lesson plans that I explained from above, and I would also share with them my results that I found in using the different methods. I would also try the same tactic on a different subject such as the study of the human body in science. This way the results would be less likely to be attributable to the subject material itself versus the medium.
The first theme was access to computers at school. In one study conducted in 2005 by O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell and Tucker-Seeley, it was found that fourth grade students were likely to have higher language arts and writing test scores on state measured assessment tests after the students reported that they had greater frequency of using technology at school in order to help them accomplish such things as editing papers. In yet another school example, students in seventh and eighth grades saw significant increases by about 10 to 30 percentage points in state administered assessment tests, after being given access to wireless laptop computers at school. According to the Learning form Case Studies of Technology Integration article, "Without access to computers when students are engaged in a related project, technology cannot be considered integrated into the curriculum and instructional context." Lastly, teachers need to have reliable equipment and Internet access at school and adequate technical support in order to ensure that every student has computer access at school.
A second theme that emerged from reading the articles was the inclusion of all students in computer usage including students who speak English as a second language, special education students and students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas. One article included a study that was done in which the researchers measured the computer usage in public schools where there were more higher-income families and schools that included more lower-income students. The study found that 61% of teachers in public schools with higher-income students used computers in their classrooms versus 50% of the teachers in the lower-income schools.
The use of computers in helping English language students and special education students, enables these students to now learn by writing e-mail, conducting on-line research and adjusting the text styles and fonts. With the addition of these items, students are better able to understand the subject material and be tested in a manner easier for them to comprehend.
A final theme that emerged was the idea of the teacher's background and training with computers. These included such things as a teacher's demographics, his or her beliefs and attitudes and a teacher's training on educational technology and how to incorporate it in his or her classroom. In an article entitled Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a path model, the researchers found that a teacher's readiness, his or her beliefs and computer availability were the three most important factors with a significant positive effect on technology integration in a classroom.
Although the above listed themes did not encompass every factor influencing the success of computers in helping children achieve better learning results, they managed to address quite a few of the obstacles that teachers face when trying to incorporate an educational technology component into part of a unit lesson. With that being said, there are a few things that teachers can do to address some of the above issues.
In the case of access to computer usage at school, a teacher can request to have access to computers at the school even if they are not provided in the individual classrooms. This might require some adjustments to the teacher's own teaching schedule, to allow for adequate computer usage but certainly should take precedence into the lesson planning stages if this is considered a vital component to the overall unit lesson. In addition, teachers can assign students to groups to ensure adequate computer usage and might also contribute to the time factor. Often times students can learn from other students and the slower students would not negatively affect the overall time constraint given on the teacher in planning computer access time.
Another factor that the teacher can have direct control over is his or her own attitude and belief and in some cases training on computers. Certainly a teacher is able to control his or her own attitude and beliefs about computers simply by making a commitment to do so, or if necessary, attending a seminar or researching on line some of the benefits and ways to use technology in helping students. A teacher can also request to his or her school district to allow him or her to attend additional training either in person or on line as a way to help with training and exposing himself or herself to the different programs and methods that exist in helping to educate students. In the ever changing world of computers, it is important that everyone in their career keep up on new technology as a way to help them.
Once a teacher makes the decision to integrate technology into his or her classroom and is able to ensure access to all the students in the classroom, the next step is to incorporate the use of this computer technology into a lesson plan or unit. There are a couple of ways that I would go about evaluating the success of a unit or lesson plan that involved the integration of new technology. The first thing that I would do would be to present my lesson plan in a format that did not include technology. For example, if presenting a lesson plan on American Indians, I would teach the information without the use of computers and then give the students an oral or written assessment to see what information they retained. Then I would plan another lesson plan on American Indians and within that lesson plan I would either require the students to use the computer themselves in researching information or pictures or I would use the computer in presenting the information to them. At the end of this I would then assess them orally or with a written test. Lastly, I would present a lesson plan on American Indians and I would teach with some educational technology and some oral or hands on approach and I would assess them using educational technology. This way I could try to determine in which way did the use of computer technology seem to affect their learning.
I am a firm believer in helping others in their quest to be successful. Often times it is easier for a person to learn from several different people than to simply learn from just one person. This enables a person to compile different types of information and apply them in their own way. In disseminating my success and failures to my colleagues and others I would present them with the information from above that I was able to compile. Meaning that I would share with them the three different approaches to the lesson plans that I explained from above, and I would also share with them my results that I found in using the different methods. I would also try the same tactic on a different subject such as the study of the human body in science. This way the results would be less likely to be attributable to the subject material itself versus the medium.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Introduction of Myself
My name is Sally Nelson and currently I am a stay at home mom and a student at Grand Valley State University. I have two children ages 8 and 12 and a dog that is 3 years old. I am married and live in Ada.
I have a degree in Journalism and a major in Advertising and in a previous life, I worked for advertising agencies, a video production company and most recently a direct mail company.
I am looking to enter back into the working world but am wanting to change gears and become an elementary school teacher. I am currently working toward the Graduate Teacher Certification program. I have volunteered in many different capacities in the past working with kids of all age levels.
In addition to taking care of my children, my dog, my husband and my house, I am taking 3 classes this fall. I also teach preschool age children two times a month, plan the assemblies at my son's school and volunteer at different schools where I can by helping to tutor kids.
I have a degree in Journalism and a major in Advertising and in a previous life, I worked for advertising agencies, a video production company and most recently a direct mail company.
I am looking to enter back into the working world but am wanting to change gears and become an elementary school teacher. I am currently working toward the Graduate Teacher Certification program. I have volunteered in many different capacities in the past working with kids of all age levels.
In addition to taking care of my children, my dog, my husband and my house, I am taking 3 classes this fall. I also teach preschool age children two times a month, plan the assemblies at my son's school and volunteer at different schools where I can by helping to tutor kids.
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