EME2040 Final Post

WOW!  What a wild ride this has been!  I had no idea when I signed up for this class just how out of touch I was with the technology teachers are using today.

I think my favorite assignments were the discussion posts.  It was interesting to read the other students' posts and compare their ideas with my experiences over the years.  I really hope I was able to encourage someone with my comments, and that I was able to share something they can use in their classrooms.

The blog entries were challenging from the technology aspect.  The reason my blog's background is a rainy window is that was how I felt after struggling to create the blog.  After FINALLY getting everything set up, when I went back to post the first reflection on the chapter, it said I was not authorized to post!  A little more drama, and I discovered the dashboard, where I was able to post with no problem.  Then I discovered that I could create the post in Word, and copy and paste onto the blog...and the rest was "easy-peasy".  This was a great way to get us to focus on the information in the textbook, also.  As I read each chapter, I turned down pages that had concepts I wanted to use in my blog entries.

Creating a rubric for the website evaluation was harder than I thought.  Deciding on the criteria, wording each one properly, then assigning the correct values is a huge job, and one that must not be taken lightly.

I have to admit, the Wiki assignment scared me to death!  First, although I had heard of Wikipedia, I had no idea what a Wiki was.  Then, doing a team project on-line? How in the world would that happen?  What a great experience it turned out to be!  Team members communicated regularly, helped each other with ideas and comments, and the whole thing came together really nicely.

When I started the WebQuest, I knew I wanted to focus on a math lesson, but when I started looking for web-based resources and components, I had to step back and re-focus on the end product.  I wish I was in the classroom again so I could do this unit much more thoroughly, and incorporate the technology.

The collaborative lesson plan was another "how is this going to work?" experience.  Again, my teammates really stepped up to the plate and worked together to produce a great plan.  And this time, the subject and grade level were out of my comfort zone, so I was able to stretch a little.  Next time I am asked to do a team project, whether in person or on-line, I will be a lot more comfortable with the idea.

Because of my own lack of preparation, the ePortfolio took longer than it should have.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to gather all of my experiences in one place; even though I do not plan to go back into the classroom, it's good to know I am prepared should it happen.

Well, this Grandma is ready for the technological advances in the classroom.  I ALMOST wish I could go back to work just so I could share all of this information with my fellow teachers and administrators.  ALMOST, but not quite!

Digital Badge #8--Chapter 9

Digital Badge #8--Chapter 9

If I had read the title of this chapter--Expressing Creativity with Multimedia Technologies--six or eight weeks ago, I would have thought, "I don't have a creative bone in my body, and technology won't help THAT at all".  What a difference a few weeks and a lot of patience makes!

The section on PowerPoint, beginning on page 220, was very timely, as a young man from Dunbar High School just won a prize for being the best PowerPoint creator in the world.  The WORLD!  That is pretty awesome for a high school student, and for the high school.  We have come so far since the days when PowerPoint was basically a bunch of slides tied together with some sliding type or flipping pages.  While visiting our grandkids one spring, we were able to see Brigham, who was in the third grade, present his PowerPoint on Bengal tigers.  I don't have to tell you, Grandma was IMPRESSED!  He understood a concept many adults forget:  the slides should be attention-getters, not a script for the teacher to read aloud to the group (p. 224).  And now, Grandma will have to share her PowerPoint with him; after all, Education is Everywhere!

Beginning on page 225, the section on video in the classroom really caught my eye.  The number of resources that are available is amazing, and it is easy to find videos that are suitable for children and also cover the content you are teaching.  I was not aware that YouTube had an Education channel; that will certainly save a lot of time digging through totally inappropriate videos!

The section explaining strategies for using cameras with students (p. 234) made some points I had not considered.   Generating, editing, and publishing student writing would not have occurred to me as an area where video cameras would be of use.  Having taught reading in summer school, I can attest to the fact that students don't consider setting or characters when writing.  What a great way to illustrate the necessity of these parts of a story!  Creating a video production area in the classroom would certainly help a teacher use videography regularly and not just on special occasions, and also recording events as they happen.  What a wonderful "diary" of the school year can be created when all the pieces are put together, maybe with some background music (depending on the sound quality of the original videos).

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Badge #7--Chapter 4

Digital Badge #7--Chapter 4

Looking at the student learning objectives on page 78 made me wish this had been presented as concisely when I was preparing to be a teacher.  Instead of acronyms (SMART goals) and fancy language (relevant, attainable), the bottom line has to be determining "WHO is going to do WHAT, WHEN, HOW much or how often, and HOW it will be measured or evaluated" (p. 78).  This is really what planning is all about: deciding what you want your students to be able to do at the conclusion of the lesson.

Once you have decided what you want your students to be able to do after the lesson, it's time to decide how you are going to determine IF they have met the objectives; this is where assessment comes in.  Many people do not realize that assessment is not just what happens after the lesson is completed, it also includes what happens during the lesson as the teacher monitors student performance (p. 83).  As a classroom teacher, I had a progress check at the beginning of each class.  Without going into all the details, there were a couple of review questions, a couple of questions from last night's work, one problem-solving question, and one question from today's work.  Students could earn up to 106 points, so there was really no penalty if they didn't answer today's new question correctly.  At the time, I had to write each quiz on acetate for the overhead projector; how much easier it would have been to use Kahoot! to create these quizzes!

Any discussion about assessment has to look at high-stakes standardized tests (pp.86-89).  I was saddened to see the consequences that have resulted from the overwhelming amount of standardized tests: focusing only on the information from the test, abandoning "teachable moments" in favor of teaching to the test, and adjusting testing conditions, even actually giving answers! (Popham, pp. 1-3)  It seems that every year we hear about another teacher or school being investigated for questionable testing practices.  With the stakes so high for students, teachers, schools, and districts, it's no surprise that students (and teachers) have upset tummies on test day, that administrators do not allow any extra activities that don't directly relate to the test, that districts cut budgets for field trips in favor of extra tutoring.  I wish I had the answer!

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Popham, W.J. (2002, May/June). Preparing for the coming avalanche of accountability tests.  Harvard Education Letter, 18(1), 1-3.

Digital Badge #6--Chapter 10

Digital Badge #6--chapter 10

This chapter contained so much great information it was hard to narrow it down to three ideas on which to comment!

I couldn't let the online language translation services (pp.247-248) pass without comment.  A teaching colleague of mine was given the opportunity to travel to Columbia as a representative of the local Rotary Club.  He was expected to give a speech to his host group in Columbia, so he carefully thought out what he wanted to say, wrote it down, put it through an online translation program (he was the school technology specialist at the time), then gave the translation to a bilingual teacher, who checked it for errors.  His expression of thanks to the "Rotary Club" translated into "gyrating cheerleaders"!  Needless to say, he decided to go low tech and have the teacher translate for him!  I'm sure programs have been updated and improved a lot since then, but I think I would still prefer a live translator.

When discussing differentiated instruction (pp. 248-250), I appreciated the comment about students who were NOT labeled ("normal" students?) falling through the cracks.  Early in the process of ESOL training for teachers, about half-way through my career, I kept hearing that all the strategies we were being taught for English language learners were just GOOD TEACHING STRATEGIES.   We need to find out how a student learns best; we need to take a look at our classroom for things that might hinder a student from learning, we need to consider a student's background, their prior experiences (or lack thereof), what they face when they leave school each day.  As a teacher, it is impossible to reach every child every day, but if that is truly our goal, think how many more kids will be reached, and will succeed.

Handheld calculators (pp. 257-259) used to be a much bigger issue than they are today.  I have to admit, I was one of the anti-calculator group--mainly because I taught seventh graders, many of whom had not yet learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fraction, and decimals.  Much of what I was teaching involved computation skills, not higher level concepts.  Once I moved into teaching Pre-Algebra and Algebra classes, I began to see the benefits of spending time on the PROCESS and not on the COMPUTATION.  When testing certain concepts, calculator use was not only allowed but encouraged.  To keep skills fresh, occasional tests and quizzes were given involving computational skills, and calculators were banned for those exercises.  Estimation and mental math were always encouraged to check for accuracy--"does your answer make sense?".  The key is to ask yourself what you're teaching, and what you're testing. Then ask yourself, "does it make sense to ban the calculator?".

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.