Wrapping It Up!!!

In what ways have you grown as a professional while taking this course? How can you use the knowledge gained to increase your leadership within the corporation?

I have grown as a professional in the use of technology for my classroom through this online class.   I have learned how exciting technology can be when you know how to curiate information.  I find myself using my Symbaloo page daily and adding to it several times per week.  I find myself feeling more at ease and confident using technology.   

I feel better equipped to share information with other teachers who have questions about how to incorporate technology in their classrooms.  This summer I spent eight hours with a teacher from our elementary school sharing the tools I had learned in this class.  She was ecstatic to learn more about technology for her classroom and has taken the information to task in her classroom this school year.  She has built her own website and created Symbaloo pages for each of her students.  We worked on some projects together and it was exciting.

I enjoyed Module 4 New Tools = New Rules and Model 5 Adaptation and Engagement  the most because they gave me hands on tools and ideas to use and share.  I also learned the online protocols from our weekly Blogger activities in the Reflection Rubric. 

I have found the Blog entries enlightening and informative.  I feel that I have gotten to know my fellow teachers better through this activity.  That really is counter to what I thought at the beginning of our experience together.  I THOUGHT that face to face conversations were always the "BEST". I now see that online reflections give  everyone time to think about what they want to say, tweak it and publish what their thoughts really are rather than having a quick conversation and saying what comes to your head.

I have tried to do my best in this online class, as I do daily in my classroom, and I know failure will come.  BUT, through that failure I will learn and grow as a professional and as a person.  If I am not failing I am not doing anything new to challenge myself and my students, especially in the use of technology .  And with that I say "Let the Failure Begin"!  Happy School year Everyone!

Curriculum Design

Well, I have to admit, Susie and I have lots in common.  I too have found and created great lessons only to misplace or loose them.    But, not now!!!  Susie should take a lesson from me.  I am now curating lessons on My Big Campus.  I also have a killer Symbaloo e-learning account ready to start the school year.  I have been using Pinterest for several years and have found it very helpful in my personal and professional life.

I plan to have students curate their own information on their personal Pinterest and Symbaloo accounts this year.  I want my students to become as comfortable with these tools as the 7th grade girl was in our video.  I want them to color code websites for math and language arts as well as health on Symbaloo.  I also plan on my students using Pinterest accounts to pin their ideas for games, activities and crafts that could be used in the classroom.

Let the fun begin!!!

Adaptation and Engagement

Wow!  Dan Pink is quite the motivational speaker.  He can really get you fired up.  He makes total sense, but my question is...How do you help students find what is important to them and help them to become self directed in their interest?  Intrinsic Motivation is built within everyone.  You see that from an early age when a toddler tries to get their own way by throwing a "fit".   What happens when their autonomy, their desire to direct their own lives, leads them to not desire to be in school or to study the subjects the State as deemed necessary?

I can't imagine that just making assignments on My Big Campus and giving the students the freedom to do them at their own pace is really going to motivate my kids.  As a teacher of MOCD special needs students I don't believe my kids have the degree of maturity needed at this level to make all those decisions.

I think I could try using  personality test and interest surveys to help students discover their passions and then guide them as they pursue their own interest in accordance with our lessons.

 One project I am using this year is related to service to others.  We are making quilts and pillowcases to donate to the Linus Project.  In the project I will all autonomy through the freedom of letting them choose, quilt or pillowcase, boy or girl, young or older child and colors.   As we repeat the project I am letting them practice for mastery in their skills levels.  The sense of purpose they receive when they take pictures of themselves with their projects as we pack them up and send them off will hopefully be priceless.

I believe we have a small group of students who use Intrinsic Motivation to guide themselves and a large group of students who need to be guided.  Helping students develop these Intrinsic Motivations skills will be a challenge in itself, but well worth the effort for them and our society.

Paoli's Cool Tools!: Cool Tools

Paoli's Cool Tools!: Cool Tools: Tell us about a cool tool!  Add your entry as a comment below.  Please include the following information in your response... Name of the ...



I have chosen to use the Class Dojo in my classroom for this coming school year.  http://teach.classdojo.com/#!/launchpad
This program helps to monitor students behaviors and allows parents to view student behaviors at home online or on cell phones.

www.teach.classdojo.com/iso
www.teach.classdojo.com/android

1. I will send an invitation through Dojo and an introductory letter to the parents before the start of school and explain the Dojo program to them.  I will encourage them to access the website by ios or android apps.  (giving them the addresses)

2. I will use the introduction video provided by the web site to introduce Dojo to the students on the first day of school.

3.  Each student will be given the access code to the site and we will go over how the program works.  Discussing each area of behaviors to be evaluated all day every day.

Following Directions

On Time Behaviors

Being Kind to Others

Being Respectful

Following Good Personal Hygiene

Completing Work in a Timely Manner

4.  Each student will be given their personal code and then allowed to change their character to their liking.

Students will be able to access Dojo during the school day from their Symboloo page and see where they are needing to improve.

Behaviors in the classroom will be tied to rewards.  Each Friday there will be a craft and cooking time that matches our monthly theme.  Students will need to receive at least a 75% on their personal behavior to participate in the activities.  The % needed will increase as the school year advances because behaviors should be advancing to the positive.

Using the Teacher Dojo will also replace the way I have home contact with many of my parents.  I will be able to send direct e-mail messages to each parent that has internet service.  Of course, if parents do not have access to the site I will continue to use the daily contact by way of the school handbooks.

I am excited to use this site and have even sent the information to three other teachers in our school system.  One has already contacted me and thanked me for the information and she plans to use Dojo for student behaviors too.

Here is a testimony from a high school teacher who currently uses Teacher Dojo.

missmorgan810

12d

My experiences have been very similar to those who have already posted:
Initially, I disregarded ClassDojo as a childish app that my high school students would not only dislike, but also resent me for even trying to use. As the year came to an end, I reflected on my teaching practice and realize some of the random students I would call upon would would simply respond with "well my partner didn't say anything" or "I don't know". I realized I needed to set up some kind of a system for keeping track of classroom participation and ClassDojo was recommended to me by a fellow teacher.
After my first attempt at using it during Summer School, I realized that I had been completely wrong about the way my students would respond to the app. Within minutes, my students were hooked. They feared the ding of a negative point and celebrated when the received the ping of a positive point. They worked together in pairs or groups to ensure that no one would get a negative ding when they were called upon. If they saw behaviors I did not like, they would recommend docking that person a point. Suddenly the students were accountable for their behavior and the classroom dynamic quickly changed. Of all the classroom tools I tried out, students indicated that ClassDojo was one of their favorites.
ClassDojo allowed me to customize the behaviors I wanted to see, including ones aligned to Common Core standards. I gave students points using classroom vocabulary, asking higher level questions, answering in complete sentences, justifying answers, etc. With this success, I decided to try out the option of letting students log in to customize their monsters and check in on their points, something I figured they wouldn't care about. Immediately I caught students checking on their points on a regular basis and customizing their little monsters. They were insulted that I did not give them access to these features on the first day:

Screenshot_2014-06-23-13-27-20-1.png720x700 51.4 KB

Needless to say, ClassDojo is know an app that I will fully utilize next school year with my high school students. As Mr_Freeman mentioned "It doesn't matter if they were 19 years old or 50 years old, they loved playing with their avatar and seeing their points being displayed during class."
If you can learn anything from my experience, do not underestimate ClassDojo's ability to engage high school students.

Foundations

Where would you rate yourself in each area?
Where do you think you could reasonably be at the end of the next grading period?
What steps will you need to take in order to make the growth happen?

After this weeks lesson, combined with my first lesson for My Big Campus class, and the awesome help from Alicia Clark on Symbaloo, I feel renewed and ready to tackle anything.  Of course no one knows how long that feeling may last, but it sure feels good right now. 

Sadly i must admit that I believe i fit into the Entry and Adoption categories at this point, but, mostly into the Entry category.   I want to push myself and my students into the Adaptation category and I believe this will be a tremendous challenge.

Teaching in a moderate special needs classroom presents its own set of problems.  My students enjoy using the computer, but the biggest problem I have is keeping them on the directed site.  They all know how to surf and I don't mean in the water!  

When they are given assignments behaviors often occur because they are redirected back to the original site time and time again.  If it happens today it will happen again tomorrow.  Most of my students do not have access to the internet at home and feel like it should be a toy when they are allowed to use it.   I don't see this as being any different than regular education students, the problem is my students may be a bit more stubborn (to borrow Mrs. Brewster's word) about follow directions.  Their desire to do something for the good of learning, or earning a grade is just not there.  By the way, I do remove students from the computers after they are redirected two times.  It is not a pretty site to see their fits.  i also have tried letting students use the computers before school and during break times.  This activity has shown very poor results and has caused many extreme behaviors. 

I feel with the empowerment I am getting from this class I will be able to present more meaningful lessons that include the use of technology.  Currently I use a Smart Board in my classroom and I am proficient in doing so.  However, the whole group instruction is usually not ideal because students choose not to pay attention, stare off into space or bug each other.  Typically I will have one and maybe two students who really enjoy the Smart Board presentations and are able to answer questions about materials covered.

I have also used the Smart Board in small group settings letting the students do learning activities.  This has worked better, but often times leads to someone getting upset and having a meltdown.

I feel that the main thing I can do to engage my student with technology is to prepare more lessons that meet their personal interests.  With my new Symballo site and quizlet, along with some "read to me" sites I am armed with much more appropriate options to present.  i am excited to see just how far i can push myself and my students.  

if you hear someone screaming in room 207 don;t assume it is the students!  :)  

Moving Mindset

Well, week two is completed and I feel defeated.  I have reviewed each video and written assignment multiple times to make sure I was doing the assignment correctly.  I have been so stressed, wanting to get it "right" that I believe I have made it ten times harder than it should have been.  I am beginning to see a bit of OCD creeping into my character.  It may have actually been there all the time, but I believe I can control it most of the time.  

I have found that the characteristic of e-learning I both love and hate is the fact that I can review each article as many times as I need to do so.  I have found this to be a blessing and an obstacle.  I find myself reading into the assignments things that may or may not be there.    

I enjoyed Will Richardson's video "Waiting for Superman" and especially his story of his daughter using technology to advance her piano skills.  It seems that she was bored with her current assignments and took the initiative to teach herself.   That is what we can do with technology.  The information is available and we as teachers are not the only people who  hold the keys to knowledge.  Sadly, out students hold the key to technology.  The video "Engaging Digital Natives" was a great analogy of who is comfortable with technology.  I remember seeing my 1 year old grandson sit in my hallway with the I-Pad.  I didn't even own an I-Pad at that time, but I sure received a lesson from him.  He turned it on, scrolled through the pages to find the icon he wanted, PBS Kids, pressed the icon, waited for it to load and then selected the show he wanted to watch, Sesame Street.  I was amazed and quite intimidated by this little ones knowledge of technology.

I feel that I am learning a great deal through this e-learning class, but I still feel like I have a long way to go.   Last week I thought I was at the low end of effective.  This week I see myself at the low end of evolving in all areas.  The old saying " The more you know, the more you realize you don't know" surely applies to me.  I am, however, excited to be learning more about the use of technology in the classroom.

As I prepare for the coming school year I see myself having a "moving mindset" in allowing my students to access the computers more in their assignments.  Instead of having students make flashcards by cutting out pictures from magazines and glueing them to the back of the word card I plan to allow students to make their own flash cards using Quizlet and having them copy and paste their pictures to their cards.  It maybe a small step, but one I am very excited to start.

Reflections on Module 1: Introduction to Blended & Online Teaching

I believe I fall into the low end of the effective category in all areas of the rubric.  My goal for this class is to become highly effective in all areas on the discussion rubric for technology use.  I have not had any experience in blogging, but I do read several blogs of educational and personal interest.

Collaborating is one of my favorite things to do in the educational field.  I feel like I am an "ideas" person and always want to share with others.  I may however need to make my ideas more focused on the topic.