tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44731975094239702272024-03-14T05:47:36.249-07:00From a Classroom to a Community of LearnersMartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049701520024154607noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-81363141002363139482013-04-23T13:03:00.001-07:002013-04-23T13:03:07.663-07:00This Little Piggy Went to the App Store<br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This little teacher went to the Apple Store. This little teacher stayed in her classroom. This little used lots of technology. This little teacher used none. This little teacher went wah wah wah all the way home.</span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp5KkWvVRfra0ZGNjo5K9zMHARTQc66rliGZz8SIIxPhRXBaBFf225na0Ew5hvA4ULxkPFq3o5XMoQGunWT2bUhwKxx8FT1PwXkh8A11WI9gD9Uvr78vOD6RkApimTnqN-aVVzFhZHXpy/s1600/little+pig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp5KkWvVRfra0ZGNjo5K9zMHARTQc66rliGZz8SIIxPhRXBaBFf225na0Ew5hvA4ULxkPFq3o5XMoQGunWT2bUhwKxx8FT1PwXkh8A11WI9gD9Uvr78vOD6RkApimTnqN-aVVzFhZHXpy/s320/little+pig.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">photo by<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/" target="_blank"> edenpictures</a></td></tr>
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</b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Which little teacher are you? Which little teacher do you want to be? These aren’t all the little teachers out there, just the number of toes on one foot! There are many many more types of teachers out there. In today’s world there can’t be much talk about teachers without the word technology popping its name up. So how important is technology and when integrating technology what’s really important?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Over the past year I have had the wonderful opportunity to oversee a few classrooms in our district where each student had access to a device provided by the district. Some had laptops, some had tablets. The teachers and I were truly excited about the opportunity for each kid to have a device. We spent hours in the summer exploring the devices, exploring classroom management of the devices, and also exploring new ways to teach. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s the most important feature in their classroom? In our field, Instructional Technology, we often look at the technology and train teachers on the technology. With these classrooms we tried something a little different. We looked at pedagogy! Although, curriculum is the place to start these teachers had just spent much of their time with the new Common Core and Essential Standards. They had the content knowledge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pedagogy!!!! That was the place to start. Or was it? We have stressed and evaluated over the year our different lessons and looked for ways to improve. Many of the teachers in the pilot have shifted from front of the classroom teaching to more authentic learning using PBL or a similar methodology. There have been many great successes in student learning and each teacher has grown tremendously in making their classroom more authentic. This change has led their technology implementation rather than the technology taking the lead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But is this really the most important piece? In a<a href="http://www.mcwowforeducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-it-were-quiet-what-could-we-hear.html" target="_blank"> recent blog post</a> I expressed how important listening, reflecting and understanding human needs are. In my opinion, there is no piece of technology that can replace this critical piece. Relationships are most important when motivating anyone about anything. So with that, positive relationships and building trust in the community should come first when it comes to technology integration in the curriculum. We must take this time! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is the critical first piece that we often times neglect. Sometimes we get so busy and hear the buzzwords technology yada yada that we forget the persons behind the technology integration. What if we first turned off the buzzing so that we could truly connect with the important people that could make this integration truly happen?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbvQxtWuzbuEttzUCrE3VtCIR4aceD14BCe6oEezmxSCoEX1LqVfmjyIgp45kFjWfAANVC6roHowQ9LQzItzqk_HYoADZtrCH4uDJ8Y5IuJ6zl9-YqbD-_twNb5_YQ6vu3RSvc1AZw_fs/s1600/sign+love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbvQxtWuzbuEttzUCrE3VtCIR4aceD14BCe6oEezmxSCoEX1LqVfmjyIgp45kFjWfAANVC6roHowQ9LQzItzqk_HYoADZtrCH4uDJ8Y5IuJ6zl9-YqbD-_twNb5_YQ6vu3RSvc1AZw_fs/s200/sign+love.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Photo by: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cinderellas_blog/" target="_blank">Cindy Andrie</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.mcwowforeducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-it-were-quiet-what-could-we-hear.html" target="_blank">The revelations from this past weekend and the experiences I had</a> come at a perfect time. Our district is moving to a <a href="http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/mlc" target="_blank">Mobile Learning Community (MLC) </a>environment. This is similar to many district’s initiatives of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bring_your_own_device" target="_blank">BYOD or BYOT</a>. With the movement of students bringing in their own devices there are many questions that arise. What if kids text during class? What if they are on different websites than the one I directed? The list of what ifs could go on and on and on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In thinking about these questions my big “what if” is, What if we build positive relationships with trust, respect, communication and forgiveness with our teachers and students? With these attributes, many of the questions and concerns that we have will fade away. Many of the issues we think we will have or have had in the past will simply become non-existent. Relationships are hard work but when cultivated and tended with care, the results could be plentiful and exciting. </span></div>
</b><br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2bcd79b8-3869-d905-20b0-b0698c38857b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just imagine a world where teachers and students go wee wee wee (with excitement) all the way to school and all the way home. </span></b><br />
Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049701520024154607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-20605030110924114982013-04-03T11:35:00.002-07:002013-04-03T11:41:17.875-07:00My First PBL!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ok, so I know what you're thinking: "Two posts in one day? Usually she doesn't even post every month! What's blown up her skirt?". Yeah, well, it's Spring Break and I have a lot of free time to catch up. I also quickly realized I wasn't going to get much done at home so I came into work and, as a result, you got 2 posts in one day! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyway, to get to my point, I finalized my first PBL today! Whoo hoo! This is pretty exciting stuff here. Some of you might be thinking "What is a PBL?". Well, to answer your question, PBL stands for Project based learning (or sometimes referred to as Problem based learning). If you've never heard of it, look into it and learn about it. <a href="http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/pbl5" target="_blank">Marty's PBL Symbaloo</a> was created by Marty Creech and was shown to me in a PBL professional development workshop. I found it to be very helpful and insightful. It's pretty fascinating stuff. The basic idea is to get students to learn information by creating projects or solving problems/scenarios. They are having to figure things out on their own, with some guidance, as opposed to us spelling it out for them. This is, from what I can tell, meant to replace your standard powerpoint lecturing and worksheets. FYI: I fell asleep just thinking about that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, if you are one of those teachers, don't feel discouraged or think I am putting you down by saying that. I have just been shown a new light and feel like it is an AWESOME approach to student learning. I'm a changed teacher. If that works for you keep chugging down that track. <u><b>But, may I present you this question</b></u>: How many worksheets does the average working adult complete? I can honestly say my boyfriend has never brought home a worksheet to do that must be completed by the next day and he works for a multi-billion dollar corporation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, please understand that I have not completely re-done all my lesson plans....yet. I still have powerpoints and tried-and-true worksheets I give out to my students. DisneyWorld wasn't built in a day. All I'm saying is that it's obvious that our standarized tests are moving away from the multiple choice format and more toward an open-ended problem solving format. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><u><span style="color: red;">MY FIRST PBL</span></u></i></b> has to do with understanding the lines of evidence that help support the theory of evolution. Instead of giving them fill in the blank notes, I am giving them a scenario in which they have to create a presentation for their fictious 12 year old daughters class. If you'd like to check it out, you can <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-fgTRHc5zxg4u_PykLQiFaJGHY7HpqL8nCgR0Z_lqU/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">click here</a> to be redirected to the google doc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I was researching trying to get some ideas, I ran across a pretty awesome rubric for an Evolution project by <a href="http://onlinehs.net/biology/unit-4-evolution/" target="_blank">Everett Public Schools Online HS</a> which helped inspire my scenario. I modified my rubric I plan on using to fit my scenario a little better (but still gave them credit of course) and feel like this could be a pretty solid start to PBLing. To view the rubric I created, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oGGF0BM22LAmvdbfJ0OIZCbbfaOt-ek_W9nQyU_sG3M/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">click here.</a> I also created a Symbaloo for my kids to use to help them find the information they need to create their presenation. To view the symbaloo my students will be using, <a href="http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/evolutionpbl" target="_blank">click here.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I plan on trying to do this over a 3 day period April 15th-17th so we'll see how it goes. I'll make sure to blog afterwards to reflect on it. Until then....</span><br />
MissDvorakNFHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530511206382657074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-88852687180670715802013-04-03T11:09:00.002-07:002013-04-03T11:09:12.044-07:00A Speech Never Given<br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I was asked to speak at a meeting on March 21st at our Education Building about my experience with the tablets this year. I took this opportunity & responsibility very seriously and spent several nights preparing what I think is a pretty good speech (of course, I'm slightly partial). Unfortunately, I never got to give it because my car battery decided to give out on me that morning and leave me stranded at a grocery store about 15 minutes from where the meeting was which left me scrambling for a way to get to work and left little room for anything else. Awesome timing right? Yeah, tell me about it. A new car battery and $100 later, I still have the speech and have decided that I would post it in the blog so that I could still get my message across. So, here it goes:</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
Before the tablets, I was a pretty standard run-of-the-mill science teacher. I did some labs, hands on activities, lots of notes, and lots of worksheets. All pretty standard stuff. Isn't that what they teach us in college? I can honestly say that having these tablets, has made me a better teacher. But before I get into that, let me start by saying that I applied for this technology with a few narrow-minded goals in mind:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Less time at the copy machine</li>
<li>More online labs and interactives</li>
<li>Easier access for student research</li>
</ol>
<br />
What I didn't realize was that this technology would totally change the way I think about teaching and student learning.<br />
<br />
Last summer, I researched all sorts of interactives & virtual labs & couldn't wait to let my students go crazy with them.. What I quickly realized, once the semester started, was that one of the biggest flaws with the tablets was that anything with Java or any interactive (including virtual labs) could not be done on them. I was <b><i><u>IMMEDIATELY</u></i></b> discouraged. I also realized there was going to be a lot of wifi connectivity issues. One class period the WiFi worked and 20 minutes later it wouldn't. Passwords and IDs would go back and forth between working and not working which, as you can imagine, became frustrating for eager kids & a teacher with a lot of ideas. It was also impossible for students to save work on a USB flash drive or their student ID numbers & quite a task trying to find work that got saved on the tablet itself. However, from those ashes came a few sparks:<br />
<br />
<b><u>POSITIVES</u></b>: I became much less of a control freak & much better at working on my toes. I always have a back up plan & my kids became much less impatient & much more flexible. The students also quickly figured out that they could find <b><i><u>ANYTHING</u></i></b> when their grade depended on it. Shocking. Even though it was much more difficult to save stuff, it could still be done.<br />
<br />
I feel like I got too easily discouraged with the tablets simply because they didn't necessarily work for everything I initially wanted them to every time I wanted them to.<br />
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<b><u>TABLET PROS:</u></b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Great for research & leads toward a student-centered class where they take an active role in their learning</li>
<li>Grade for portable access to technology and/or apps to get outside the class (Example: Geo caching to learn about latitude and longitude)</li>
<li><b><i><u>MUCH</u></i></b> faster boot up compared to the laptops, which take an average of 5 minutes to load up.</li>
<li>They allowed me to have a virtual classroom centered around Edmodo where they, as the student, take more responsibility for their learning. This also helped take the pressure of missing/make up work off me because everything we ever do in class in on Edmodo.</li>
<li>Allowed me to teach 21st century computer skills and fun new presentation skills (even my non-teacher friends have benefited from this experience!)</li>
</ol>
<div>
I was very worried that the constant WiFi and Java issues would overshadow anything positive my students could get from having the tablets in my class. It was quickly brought to my attention that even with all the flaws and issues, my students got a <i><b><u>LOT</u></b></i> more out of the experience than I ever expected. I have had so many of my students come up to me to get me to remind them of a website or tool that we used for a project in class that they want to use in another class. I can tell that it has boosted their self esteem because they are producing higher quality & more creative projects than students with less technology skills. I've also had teachers telling me how awesome one of my former students' projects are because they use websites and/or tools I had shown them or taught them in class. I could not have been prouder!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Having the tablets has given me back my lost motivation to create more project/inquiry based activities and to move towards a more student centered classroom. I may have had a lot of technical issues with these tablets, but I feel like for that motivation alone, if nothing else, is why these tablets have made me a better teacher. </div>
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MissDvorakNFHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530511206382657074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-23093868638709970272013-02-14T05:30:00.001-08:002013-02-14T05:30:31.765-08:00I love when teachers try new things!!!!I was recently at <a href="http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Domain/2172">Kennedy Learning Center</a> and observed Yvette Thiel trying mastery learning with her students. I was blown away by the research, preparation, implementation and reflection that she had done. I asked her to share her experiences as a guest blogger. Below is her experiences.<br />
<br />
"I have been experimenting with
technology in my 8<sup>th</sup> grade math class and am able to have one-to-one
with students and computers. Along with
this, I have also been experimenting with mastery learning. There have been some bumps to work out but,
overall, I am very excited about the results that I am seeing. My entire class
period is not all online. I tend to
think of it as a modified flipped classroom.
They are getting the videos in school.
And during that time, I am free to support other learners as the work
out the tasks they are given.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The weeks work is prepared ahead of time and I create
individual packets for the students. The
front page of the packet details the tasks that the students are to complete
for the week. Each task lists an
Essential Question, how students may work (alone, pairs, group, with teacher),
and what checkpoints they have to complete.
Checkpoints are what I call my formative assessment prompts. Students check in with me at designated times
to be sure they are on the right track. At that time I can adjust any
misconceptions or confusions. I also provide a rubric for any work that will
not be expected to be perfect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Students are all working at their own pace, so often I am
able to conference with students one-on-one or in small groups. These conferences are very brief. But because students are all working I have
time to address their questions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I keep a checklist of where students are at in the
process. The best part is students who
are absent just jump in where they left off.
I do have some students who lag behind everyone else. However, these same students are the ones who
were not completing work before. My
demands for mastery have forced them to complete work and to a high
standard. I also keep these students for
tutoring times if I need to. As a result, their productivity has increased.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each packet begins with a PowerPoint that I have created and
uploaded into a Voice Thread. Students
access this video through Edmodo. The packet has a copy of the slides so the
students are able to follow along with me and complete the examples. Often times, students will re-listen to these
videos throughout the week or before a test if they are confused or want to
review. Some will even listen to slides more than one time. I love this.
I don’t find myself so frustrated for having to repeat myself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I found some other videos online that I thought were
fantastic. But some students really
struggled with them. They like when I
prepare my own videos better and have the handouts for them to follow along
with me. It is crucial I don’t get long winded on these videos. I have to be straightforward. If they need a repeat they can rewind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Videos are not the only thing I use. I use a combination of
many types of activities. I have
purchased a few aps from Edmodo and sometimes I have activities for the
students to practice using one of the Aps.
Or I locate something online that will help them practice the skill. I
am trying to use some tasks from Georgia and performance tasks from other
places for the students to complete in groups or with partners. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of the packet, I have an online assessment for
the students to take. I have discovered
that if I give them a practice assessment I can address, one more time,
misconceptions or any confusion they may have. As a result test scores are
better. Meaning I have less need for remediation. I have discovered that
frequent assessments are better than waiting to the end of a unit. I try to break each week into a mini-unit
with a quiz at the end. However, because
students work at their own pace not everyone is finished at the end of the
week. They carry over to the next
week. Therefore, the pacing is flexible
for each student’s needs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am still trying to work things out to make sure that
everyone is learning the most in each class.
Sometimes it seems a little chaotic with so much going on. But the productivity for individual students
has greatly increased. I think this is
more due to the mastery learning. Knowing
that they can get an A they just have to keep trying has been very motivating
for some of my more unmotivated. Using
the videos and the group work gives me the opportunity to facilitate student’s
individual learning." </div>
Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049701520024154607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-49962695835017983542013-01-15T06:41:00.000-08:002013-01-15T06:41:19.833-08:00Endings bring new beginnings!<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, another semester has come and gone and I can definitely say that I have learned more in this semester about teaching, technology, and classroom management than I have in previous years. Below I have listed some of the big things I've learned having these tablets in my classroom along with any solutions I came up with.</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 1:</span> </u></b>Always double check websites. Even if you have used them in the past and they worked, you ALWAYS need to double check websites!</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: #38761d;">Moral of the story:</span></u></b> Do your homework</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 2:</span></u></b> Technical difficulties will happen, no matter how much you prepare for them. It can happen all day or in one class period of the day, but they DO happen.</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: #38761d;">Moral of the story</span></u></b>: Be prepared for them. Have a back up plan. I've gotten pretty good at working on my toes.</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 3:</span></u></b> Even if you get students to sign contracts saying they won't download programs/apps/whatever onto the tablets, you will ALWAYS have a few rebels in the bunch.</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><u>Moral of the story</u></b></span>: It's good to have ALL your students sign contracts. That way, when disciplinary actions must be taken the students can't claim there are ANY surprises & neither can parents. You can view my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f8ixEOCvW4Mh1KS3Xezl70mpb9qgzODtgiBo0Dizcg4/edit" target="_blank">Anti-Bullying Contract</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-023lzFLaTu65wHYZmSeFIvt4eLGPS6-lk3ZkYwqpMw/edit" target="_blank">Laptop/Tablet Contract</a> I make my students & their parents sign before being allowed to get on any technology in my class by clicking the words above.</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 4:</span></u></b> Teenagers are smart. They know a lot about technology and might even know more about it than you.</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><u>Moral of the story:</u></b></span> Use it to your advantage & nonchalantly make them your "tech crew". If you're lucky, you can have them in each class. Then apply the "ask 3 before me" rule so they aren't coming to you every time there is a bump in the road.</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 5:</span></u></b> No matter how often you use a website, <i><b>EVEN IF IT'S DAILY</b></i>, you will always have students that will forget their log in information. </span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: #38761d;">Moral of the story:</span></u></b> I created a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IF-MG0zGG_M5WfeiT26tTfZnpqi0fzeSAm9hTLixM1I/edit" target="_blank">Website Log In Sheet</a> (<--Click to view)& gave it to each of my students. They were required to write down the websites we used often (Evernote, Edmodo, Glogster, etc) and then added any websites they used over the course of the semester. This was great because there were some students who learned and tried out a lot of websites from my wall of "Useful & Creative Websites" so they had room to write down their log in information and keep up with it. The students appreciated it too because it allowed them to take it with them to other classes and put their new technology skills to use in ALL their classes. This was a very proud moment for me as a teacher.</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">LESSON 6:</span> There will be lots of people on board, excited, and even asking you questions about how they use what you're doing in their own classes. You will also have those that think you let students text & play on computers all day long & never get anything done.</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><u>Moral of the story: </u></b></span> I know you can never please everyone. I also know that if nothing else, my students learned a lot about 21st century technology and how to use it to their advantage. I know that these skills will help them in their future endeavors and I am glad that I had the opportunity to help them and be a part of that learning experience for them. </span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="color: red;">LESSON 7:</span></u></b> Tablets are definitely more tricky than laptops. Due to this, students prefer laptops over tablets under most conditions</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><u>Moral of the story</u></b></span>: Technology is great & I have become a firm believer in bringing technology into all classrooms. I was fortunate enough to get laptops at the end of this semester which allowed me to give the students the best of both worlds, then allowed them to pick which technology they preferred. Unless we were moving around, students ALWAYS preferred the laptops over the tablets. From what I gathered from the students, it is for the following reasons:</span></li>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Polaris program (the tablet's replacement for Microsoft Word) is not 100% compatible with Microsoft. We ran into the problem several times where students wrote papers or created powerpoints with the Polaris program and went to present them on my school desktop computer and pictures and features didn't show up. This was very frustrating for them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The battery life is significantly lower on the tablets than it is on the laptops. Since I tried to incorporate the technology into ALL of my class periods, this quickly became a problem. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any programs/virtual labs/interactives that use flash or java don't work on the tablets 99% of the time. The times that they do, either only certain parts of it work, or it will stop working and students will have to reload the page which in some cases makes them have to start all over again. This began to frustrate students very quickly. </span></li>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a HUGE problem for me because as a science teacher, most of what I wanted to do with the technology used the flash player (Examples include: Virtual labs, interactives on tough concepts, Glogster, Prezi, ReadWriteThinking Press, and USATestPrep). It quickly became that the tablets were used for internet research, edmodo, and a few apps.</span></li>
</ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Students are much more familiar with doing school work on laptops than on tablets/android products. One of my students put it perspective for me by saying, "Working on these tablets is like trying to do my homework on my cell phone. I wouldn't try to type a paper or make a powerpoint on it, so why would I do it on this tablet? It's pretty much the same thing." I thought it made sense. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since there was no USB outlet and students weren't signing on to their student account, it was difficult for students to save their work and then access it later. It also made it difficult for students to find a way to get homework they've been working on in class home so they can work on it their as well. This made it hard to try to implement my "paperless classroom" like I had originally anticipated at the beginning of the semester. Now that I have laptops I plan on trying to put that effort back into full swing for the upcoming semester.</span></li>
</ol>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There has been a lot of learning happening with myself and with my students. The difference in the quality of projects from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester was significant. They went from doing simple powerpoints to doing interactive & visually pleasing Prezis, Glogs, Wallwisher boards, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In my project based learning classes, it also gave them the opportunity to be creative in their own right which boosted moral and indirectly improved their public speaking skills. When the students are excited to share what they have created and learned it makes them forget how nervous they might have been and enthusiastic to show off their work. A lot of times they were showing me websites and programs I hadn't heard of before to fit the needs of whatever project I had assigned them which was excited for both myself and the students. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am overwhelmingly excited to see where a new semester of technology will take me. Now that I have both laptops and tablets one of the new challenges I face will be to find a happy medium in balancing the use of both. </span></div>
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MissDvorakNFHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530511206382657074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-14214167569933380312013-01-09T13:22:00.003-08:002013-01-09T13:23:15.442-08:00Come to our Colony!I gave my students an assignment to research the different colony groups (New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies). They used google presentation to create their presentations. I had used this before in a training I did over the summer, but I thought the students would enjoy this tool because they could all simultaneously edit the same presentation at the same time. <br />
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I created small groups in Edmodo and posted the different link in each of the small groups. This way, the only people that would be able to access the link to the presentation would be the students that were assigned to that small group. Well, the time came to start the presentations and Murphy's Law came into full force...Edmodo was down and not working! I tried to think quickly and decided to post the different links on the Symbaloo. I reinforced Internet etiquette and how we never access or change work that was not ours. I even demonstrated this to the students using the google presentations. I was so excited about this assignment and my students were too!<br />
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As I said, Murphy's Law...My students did great; however, being that other teachers in the county also have access to my symbaloo, they also had access to the presentations. As one group was working, someone started deleting their work and typing inappropriate things on the presentation. I knew it wasn't anyone of my students doing this so I only assumed it was a student from another school that was using the symbaloo. My kids did as much as they could, but it was difficult to finish the assignment when somebody was messing with their work. They were getting very frustrated. Once edmodo was working again, I had them create a post within their small group telling me about what they liked about this presentation method and what frustrated them. They had some very insightful things that will definitely help me to run this better in the future.<br />
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Another thing I had them create was a "Choose Your Own Adventure" video that had to do with their colonies. This part of the assignment was kind of thrown on them at the last minute because I wanted to see how they would handle it (plus I had only just learned how to create one of these using Youtube). I have created a link to their finished product. It is rough, but considering the little amount of time they had to do this assignment, I think they did quite well! When you pull up the video, you will be able to click on which colony group you would like to visit! I hope to do more of these in the future to work on our standard that deals with persuasion. I would love to hear any one's ideas!<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/vUpBT5fuX50" target="_blank">Colony group 1</a><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/MvL0UIVy3fg" target="_blank">Colony group 2</a>Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-61158868884491123462012-12-28T05:19:00.002-08:002012-12-28T05:19:10.207-08:00tech4teachI don't remember where I got this link, but I occasionally look at it for some new "techy" ideas. He has some great ideas that I would like to try. One is a choose your own adventure using youtube videos. Sounds really complicated, but it's worth a try!<br />
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<a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/">tech4teach</a><br />
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Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas break!Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-44491225076155784062012-12-06T03:02:00.001-08:002012-12-06T03:02:24.637-08:00Sometimes, it's just that simple.My last post "A day without laptops" had me in a quandary pretty much all afternoon. Then, the words of Steven Anderson, our WSFCS Director of Instructional Technology came to mind: "It's not about the devices, it's about instruction." So the simple answer to why my students didn't ask about the laptops? Because my lesson didn't "call" for it - it wasn't missed. Sometimes it is just that simple.Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-55864214103078924452012-12-05T11:41:00.002-08:002012-12-05T11:41:24.578-08:00A day without laptops..So, I wanted to try something different in my classes today... I decided to NOT use our devices. They remained in their cart all day - out of sight, and apparently, out of mind! Not one student asked, "are we using the laptops today?", or even "how come we're not using the laptops today?" I'm surprised. I thought they would be, like, indignant with doing things the "old" way, but they just took it in stride. Hmmm.. Not even one student. Not one. Interesting.Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-91440295432260794762012-11-30T17:46:00.000-08:002012-11-30T17:46:14.050-08:00Hey, I think this might be useful...We all discover those gems of sites that seem to offer just the right thing at the right time. The following link is just one of those. It's called Internet 4 Classrooms, and you can click on the link below to visit it.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm">http://www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm</a></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div align="center">
</div>
Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-65918583654609708622012-11-30T17:29:00.001-08:002012-11-30T17:29:20.681-08:00The return to normalcy...I've discovered a comfortable compromise between all-out tech and teaching/learning with tech. With the beginning of second quarter, I laid out a plan to rotate daily work with our devices. I vary my "bellringers" between edmodo assignments, socrative quizzes, polleverywheres voice recordings, old fashioned "paper" bellringers and non-graded activities like online language games, and realia. It keeps things less robotic and routine and each application has individual benefits and reaches/appeals to different students. I still use edmodo as the vehicle to link to the other sites. It's just so direct and easy. It's also simple to post, check work and give feedback.<br />
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Our devices are daily - just not every class and I'm finding it easier to integrate technology now. Surprisingly, that came when I allowed myself to relax and "go back" to my style of teaching. I just wasn't connecting with my students because I was doing TOO much technology. Yes, Marty and others said "start slow", "ease into it" - but, I felt very strongly compelled to use the devices 24-7 - to model their effectiveness and because I felt compelled to demonstrate my commitment to the Pilot program, (oh and yes - I do love technology!!).<br />
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A big help was that our systems technicians worked their magic and now we're up and running in much less time. That's helped immeasurably. And finally, I moved the students' seats from groups of four to pairs of rows. I can see all the computer screens from the back of the room at one time, yet they can still partner up to help one another while I keep more of their attention. Even though I'm feeling less than successful instituting what I perceived the Community of Learners ideals to be, I believe we've in fact become a real Community of Learners because of the bond, affection, respect and positive atmosphere we share together now that we've settled into routine and "normalcy". Come see for yourself - Room 401 - Kernersville Middle School!Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-6475232846865593312012-11-19T18:42:00.001-08:002012-11-19T18:42:16.988-08:00Having Fun with Problem Based LearningI have continued with PBL and things are getting better. Last week my students worked of a science PBL which I titled "Willy Wonka's Candy Challenge". The premise was that New Line Cinema enlisted the help of Wonka's Candy Co./Nestle to market and advertise for their new movie, Journey <em>to the Center of the Earth 3</em>. Students had to create a candy that resembled the structure of the earth and also develop a candy wrapper. I used a few movie video clips to engage as part of the 5E model and I hooked them right off the bat. As part of the research students used videos, a Powerpoint, and a <a href="http://www.mentormob.com/" target="_blank">Mentormob</a> presentation. <br />
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My math PBL for the week was on ratios and required students to determine a fairer way for Nike to price their shoes, than one standard price (sizes 7-23 = $160.00). I wish that I could take the credit for this awesome PBL but the credit should really go to <a href="http://www.mathalicious.com/" target="_blank">Mathalicious</a>. I must say that this is by far one of my best finds this year. This resource provides teachers with a lesson guide, students blackline masters, and presentation tools which are aligned to the Common Core curriculum. Each lesson takes 50-75 minutes which is perfect for what I want to do. I have never been a teacher to buy teacher guides or spend money on resources because I have always written my own. With that said, I signed up for $15.00 per month. This may sound high but if you consider what you get in return and the time that it would take you to create something of the same caliber, you would also agree that it was money well spent. <br />
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My next Mathalicious PBL lessons are on rate, unit rate, and proportions. I found two that I really like which deal with hybrid automobiles and when they would be considered an ideal purchase. The other is about the aspect ratios of movie and television screens. I'm really excited to see how my students do with these.Mr. McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18020339547217705528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-8448327080232642932012-11-15T07:37:00.002-08:002012-11-15T07:37:20.656-08:001st QuarterAs I look back on 1st quarter, I am noticing some things that have gone really well and some things I need to improve on.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">Strengths:</span></strong><br />
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The students are very comfortable using the laptops. They respond quickly to directions and they are willing to help others. Establishing a specific routine in the beginning has definitely helped my class run smoothly.<br />
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I think I have done a decent job at giving the students projects where they can create something from what they have learned.<br />
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I have showed the students a variety of sources they can use to create presentations from topics they have researched.<br />
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I thing I have kept the students more engaged in school using the computer.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: cyan;">Room for improvement:</span></strong><br />
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I need to do better in giving them activities that are higher levels in Blooms Taxonomy. Common Core calls for students to think logically at a higher level so I need to find activites that incorporate a higher level of thinking. <br />
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I have a handful of students that always forget to charge their computer. I need to come up with an effective method to help those students remember to charge their computer.<br />
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The internet is also an issue sometimes. These laptops are very tricky to get onto the internet. Even though the students are very familiar with the routine, if a problem arises, they don't know what to do. Sometimes, I don't know what to do other than tell them to restart their computer. Of course, they get frustrated and they get further behind in completing their assignment for a reason that is not their fault. <br />
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MATH! That is the subject where I find it very difficult to incorporate the computers. I am so accustomed to thinking/teaching math in one way. I really need to work on getting myself out of that mindset.<br />
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I also want to do more PBL. My goal is this quarter is to incorporate one PBL unit per subject this quarter.<br />
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Hopefully I can wrap my mind around all this. I am blessed to have a great class, but I know from previouses experiences that establishing a firm routine is necessary to help everything run smoothly. Sometimes, I feel like I am being way too strict. However, this has definitely helped me to keep my level of sanity!<br />
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Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-38215944953703900092012-11-12T06:28:00.001-08:002012-11-12T06:28:26.570-08:00Reflecting on the 1st Quarter<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Looking back on 1st quarter, here are some positives and negatives. As I reflect more, I'll edit the post. The sequel to this: what are my plans for 2nd quarter will be a followup.</span><br />
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<u><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">POSITIVES</span></strong></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Students comfortable with laptops: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Very few locking themselves out now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Routine settling in: read bellringer on monitor, Edmodo? log-in link?: Get your computer up and running.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Computers logging onto the network faster. (yeah C. Corbin and crew!!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Students being student leaders - helping one another with problems.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Independent learners - accessing Edmodo from home to complete work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Involved parents using parent codes; calling, emailing to support students & technology</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Creatively incorporating technology into lesson planning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ Giving students time and opportunity to learn basic, and necessary computer skills, copy, paste, open, close, locate...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">+ community work helping with differentiation: Wallwisher, Primary Wall, Edmodo, Polleverywhere, Today's Meet. </span><br />
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<strong><u><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">NEGATIVES</span></u></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Used devices too much for menial tasks causing waste of teaching time. (ex: labels on shared drive)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Used it just to use it (see above) so I didn't feel like I was wasting the gift of having them on a daily basis!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Lost instruction/connection time. With laptops, time with teacher is lost. I see this as a minus, some might see it as a plus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- activities low on Bloom's Taxonomy. - Question is with beginning languages, how far can I go up? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- students struggled with Edmodo steps, didn't complete work due to slow log in time, distractions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Group setting detracted from my introduction of my courses, routines and rules - should have followed by first inclination to begin as individuals and "grow" into community of learners.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Focused on mechanical use not creative use. Need to use WWW sources for students to benefit from OTHERS using their languages.</span><br />
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Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-74344418543634006932012-10-28T16:47:00.000-07:002012-10-28T16:47:16.143-07:00Pleased..<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My 7th and 8th grade students were given the assignment to create an introduction presentation of a randomly picked verb they had learned last year, develop a classroom practice activity and issue a quiz to support their lesson. I charged them with choosing methods that would be inviting and help students retain the reviewed information. I asked them to consider what had been especially appealing and useful when being presented with information by their own teachers when being introduced to new/review material in their classrooms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One group chose Animoto to present, another group chose Wallwisher for practice, and yet another chose Socrative as their method of testing. All three applications I've introduced to my students this first quarter. I'm pleased they feel that these three apps met the qualifications and that they chose them to apply them to teach their lessons.</span> Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-91031574254600605402012-10-28T16:32:00.002-07:002012-10-28T16:32:51.645-07:00Gotta Smile...I overheard one of my not-interested-in-foreign-fanguage students this week as he was writing the verb conjugations for "ecouter" on the dry erase board, setting it up for his classmates to play "fly swat" as a verb review before issuing a quiz that he and his partner created, say, "I'm working here!" - In this amazed, incredulous tone - as if it was a novel experience, (which it has been!) to him.<br />
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I followed up with, "yes, and when you take your quiz, you'll know all the answers! Can a day get any better than that!!??" He laughed and agreed with me that, no, it really couldn't. What a positive learning experience it was - for us both.Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-67254501214755443082012-10-22T17:49:00.001-07:002012-10-22T17:49:35.062-07:00Did I waste my time? I have spent the past week and a half working on two PBL lessons in class. The first was a lesson on multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. My <em>Top Chef Challenge</em> was taken straight from the reality show and the students bit on the idea. The idea was to take a few recipes that fed 4, 6, or 8 people and use it to feed our teaching staff of 75. We started with a KWL chart, downloaded three apps (recipes, converting, and substitution), drew knives to pick teams, and threw in a mystery ingredient....an apple. There were a few twists along the way. All three chefs ran out on an ingredient and had to find a substitute ingredient (used an app) for their dish. Paula Deen pops by and the chefs had to take an original recipe and cook for her in a Quickfire Challenge (dividing fractions and mixed numbers). There was a writing component where students reflected on the experience and wrote about the math and apps used.<br />
My second PBL required students to write a picture book using the <strong>Storybirds</strong> program. The topic was what makes Earth unique and able to sustain life. We watched a video of <em>Goldilocks and the Three Bears</em>. From there we watched a few short videos on Goldilocks Planets. Students transitioned to research using a few links that I provided. Additional research was to move beyond what I included on the handout. The book was to teacher the reader about 5-7 unique features of Earth that are different when compared to the other seven planets from our solar system. They were to discount the possibility of colonization on the other seven planets using the plot from <em>Goldilocks and the Three Bears</em>. The book was to conclude by taking the reader to a Goldilocks Planet where students explained the possibility of colonization based on the traits mentioned earlier. Students sent the URL code of the book to <strong>Edmodo</strong> where I copied it and posted it to a <strong>Tizmos</strong> dashboard program for others to read. I titled this page <em>New! Student Artifacts</em>. <br />
Overall, I expected some excellent artifacts. Surprisingly, I had to return half of the <em>Top Chef</em> group projects because the math was wrong. Ughhhh! I planned to use a rubric to grade the <strong>Storybird</strong> but had to throw it away three books into grading because I quickly realized that all of my students would have failed. The books lacked strong research and mimicked a free writing exercise. I am sure that I have plenty of room to adjust and stengthen the two of these but I can't help but feel deflated. Have I wasted my time? Is this what I can expect after investing a huge chunk of time into an assignment? Mr. McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18020339547217705528noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-69095846696302515572012-10-20T19:33:00.000-07:002012-10-20T19:33:07.572-07:00Was ist das?<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Das ist ein video about Classroom Items a couple of my World Languages students compiled using Animoto.</span><br />
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<a href="http://animoto.com/play/7gvezmIZe12lGmExzZfkyw" target="_blank">Im Klassenzimmer by Kate & Chelsea</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">G<span class="hps" closure_uid_mi3jak="152">enießen Sie!</span></span></div>
Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-82898878562531303932012-10-13T10:10:00.000-07:002012-10-13T18:01:07.259-07:00Next step...<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Monday</strong></span> started with classroom visits from Steven and Evan. Professionally, I welcome visitors to my classroom, but personally, I'm always anxious. Is my lesson strong? Are my students on task? Am I using the devices in the most beneficial way? Monday was a "B" day too. On "B" days, I deliver five (5) different lesson plans over three (3) grade levels through six (6) classes. "A" days are easier - four (4) different lesson plans - three (3) levels - five (5) classes. - And it was ... Monday. Looking forward, when classroom devices become a reality throughout our District, juggling/managing preps, student population, classroom location, administration, and teacher personalities will all factor in. The human side of technology.<br />
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Strong strides came from Steven and Evan's visits. I've been struggling with slow start up time because I was having my classes log off/shut down after each class. I've been ten - sometimes more - minutes just trying to complete the bellringer portion of my class lesson using side lessons for those quick finishers. From Steven's visit, (followed by Marty's the next day), we decided to try just logging off - not shutting down between classes. I'd been trying to save the battery, but with the Lenovo x130's, it's just not necessary. (hoorah!!) That's helped.<br />
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Evan's suggestion to put my Wallwisher links on Edmodo to cut down on the time it's taking for students to type in the quirky web addresses is helping me make my start up time more manageable too. I'm also considering starting the class differently. More on that later.<br />
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From their visits, I've recognized that I need guidance and recommendations to improve instruction, flow of classtime schedule and how to maximize my devices' capabilities to get good "bang for the buck". It's time. Marty affirmed just that. It's the next step in his implementation plan. First quarter was the "burn in" time - working out the mechanical and introductory "problems". Now, it's time to work on lesson implementation, structure and guidance to support strong program delivery.<br />
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Step by step by step.Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-11400069729751110822012-10-09T13:56:00.001-07:002012-10-09T13:56:43.621-07:00Idioms<a href="http://animoto.com/play/1FJ41MbVHxgKmV0lM7sRiw">Idioms</a><br />
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Here is the other video my kids created. I can't wait for them to see it!Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-20628893256679371902012-10-09T13:46:00.001-07:002012-10-09T13:48:38.935-07:00Similes<a href="http://animoto.com/play/x3cppSNjcpBaabOOYLyw8A">My Animoto Video</a><br />
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So here is the first video. A little rough, but the kids enjoyed it. At first, I had them post their pictures to edmodo thinking I could pull the pictures from there. However, it would not let me save any of them! So, I had to go to each child individually and save their photo to a flashdrive. I thought it was pretty successful, but had I done it differently, I need to find another way for them to post photos!! Any suggestions?Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-78719908315296314592012-10-04T16:57:00.001-07:002012-10-08T14:27:19.455-07:00More Dog Training...Journal Entry: <br />
The second day of training...<br />
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I went back the tech training and tried to have an open mind. It was another hard morning. <br />
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My grandfather always said to step back and to take a good look at the things that are going on around you, to scope things out, to try to learn everything about a situation, and then to take action. He said to migrate toward positive open-minded individuals, to watch them, and to learn from what they do. He said to do a lot of listening.<br />
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I spent the next hours watching others and tried to learn as much technology as I could from the groups around me. I took notes. By lunch time, I felt that my note-taking was not much help, but I continued to do what my grandfather had suggested years ago. (He was a great man of intellect and wisdom.)<br />
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After the second day of training, I sat down once again and chatted with Mr. Creech. I began to weigh the pros and cons of the situation. I was still very frustrated. Was it time to throw in the towel and call it quits? I knew that I was in over my head from the beginning...but this was a pilot...wasn't a pilot a time to learn, grow and try new things?<br />
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Before I left for the day, I voiced those concerns to Mr. Creech. I was prepared to quit. Mr. Creech told me to reflect.<br />
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That afternoon, I went home and reflected. I decided that the knowledge wasn't going to come quick enough. I prepared a written statement to the program leaders and planned to meet with them Friday afternoon. The last day of training would be completed.<br />
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On the way home, I stopped to get gas at a local gas station.The owner knew that I was piloting the program and asked how things were going. When I responded "very rough", he reassured me that everything would come together because everything I needed would come, and that I would learn it. This gentleman was from Egypt and, through hard work, had overcome obstacles that brought him to America. <br />
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Still, I left the station with lots of doubt. As I pulled into my driveway, a friend called and asked about the tablet. Her comment to me went something to the effect of ..."You're not giving up, are you?"...<br />
The call ended.<br />
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I walked out to get the mail, carried it into the house unopened, and went walking, thinking about my friend, Mrs. Moore, and how Mr. Moore had talked about walking the fence line on their family farm the morning of Mrs. Moore's funeral. Walking the fence line is something my grandfather used to do when he needed to think clearly. So I got in my car and drove down to the family farm where my grandfather had walked so many times. I walked the fields and the fence lines. I reflected...Rose Ann Throckmortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00448753851285124205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-1190077511391758352012-10-03T17:38:00.001-07:002012-10-03T17:42:51.572-07:00Just because you can... doesn't mean you should..I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's posts. Each entry brings feelings of relief, hope, comradeship - and absolutely, competition. There are so many great uses of technology appearing in this blog that I feel inpired and desirous to add to the growing list of the great learning opportunities occuring. I question how I'm using these awesome - and I do mean awesome - tools - (hoping that I NEVER take them for granted!). But, last week, I took a step back from technology. Most of my students grumbled, (loudly). The reason is the purpose of this post. <br />
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I have said before, I love Edmodo. It's got pretty much all a teacher could ask for, (and probably has those too - I just don't know how to access them yet.) After two weeks of using Edmodo daily for my students' classwork, I was faced with a mountain - a Kilomanjaro actually, of assignments that needed grading! Of course I knew I was creating Assignments daily, but over the course of the ten day period, I had amassed a total of over 600 "turned in" assignments to grade!!! - Yes, I had been whittling them down, but you know that "out of sight, out of mind" addage? I must have been out of my mind! And progress reports were coming due!<br />
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So, back to paper/pencil we went. We still used our laptops; Audio Dropbox, Tagxedo, Symbaloo, and of course, Powerpoint, as well as Word, Voki, BBC for Kids, other Foreign Language learning sites, but I stayed away Edmodo and I told my students what I had done and that we would return when I had cleared the decks, so to speak.<br />
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I can now report, I am almost at sea level again, but I've also found another consideration!! (Close a door.. Open a Window!) Today, I used Wallwisher for my bellringers! - Talk about a community of learners! I posted questions for each class, and the students, in the target language, responded. The ones who "got it", were done quickly, those who struggled - as they realized they'd been given the "pattern" by their peers' answers, they were able to complete theirs as well! And it was a great way to see at a glance who didn't "get it"!<br />
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It was a "village"! I had the students identify themselves with their last names, and took a screen shot of the site for a grading reference later. I'm looking into other "boards" as well. So far, Corkboard Me, Pindax, (more feature/complex), Popplet, (have to log in). Any others that you've found successful?<br />
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Cathy Muscihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362578208037947105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-85717426556328381582012-10-02T16:43:00.002-07:002012-10-08T14:58:27.220-07:00Dog Training and more...Journal Entry:<br />
Early August<br />
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Today was the beginning of a new month. Summer was quickly fading away. Today was also our first day of real training. I was beginning the technology with lots of excitement yet some uncertainty... could you really teach an old dog new tricks? We'd soon find out.<br />
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It was great to see our team face to face. <br />
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Our training was not the normal every day technology training where you went in and sat at the computer and people spoon fed you what you hoped to learn, needed to learn, or wanted to learn. <br />
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I think that we were all taken by surprise. I know that at least I was surprised. We didn't sit behind the computer screens and listen to the average lecture-type jargon. It was a <strong>real hands-on </strong>experience!<br />
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The training was geared toward problem-based learning, inquiry, and teamwork. I knew all about problem-based learning, having been trained in it several years ago, and having used it on a regular basis in my classroom. I used inquiry all the time in science and math. No Problem! Then came the teamwork part. In most of the situations that I had experienced, roles or positions were appointed. Not in this case.<br />
The trainers were waiting for us to jump in and go at it.<br />
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We spent the first half of the morning trying to get know each other and how we fit together as a team. Most of the team fit perfectly together...their common tie...the knowledge of technology. I was the weak link. The lack of technology was holding me back, and therefore, it was holding the team back. This was not what I had anticipated.<br />
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We were given a problem-based assignment and expected to produce a final product. I approached the task with more confidence as this was real-world learning much like lessons that I used in my classroom.<br />
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I realized quickly that I was not a tech-savy teacher. All of my other team mates were rolling out those technology talents. I had little-to-no skills at this point. My future did not look good!<br />
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By lunch time, the team was meshing, and I was frustrated because I didn't know what I was doing and was confident that that feeling would remain. I ended the day on a down note.<br />
<br />Rose Ann Throckmortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00448753851285124205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4473197509423970227.post-9132867278391005772012-10-02T13:23:00.002-07:002012-10-02T13:23:06.906-07:00So much to do!I constantly am feeling overwhelmed but having a great group of kids definitely helps! I am trying to integrate technology everywhere I can, make sure I am "going deeper" and becoming more rigorous, and trying to incorporate some systems thinking in there too!<br />
I think there have been some very successful projects. We have been communicating with a classroom in Canada via epals and skype. We have sent out emails and have met a few times on skype (when technology has allowed us to). I think this will be a great collaboration for the students to have. Hopefully, we can tie in parts of our curriculum together and the students can do projects together. How cool will that be to do a project with a student in another country?! I am pretty excited about it and I know they are as well.<br />
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Glogster has also proven to be an effective way to present a project. The students have completed glogsters on a famous scientist (one that ties into the common core of course) and they have also completed a glogster on a famous explorer to the Americas. Once the students finished their presentations, we were able to compare explorers and document where explorers from different countries went.<br />
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We have also used the laptops to take notes. I have posted sheets on edmodo for the students to download and fill in during a presentation (well actually, they have to save the document to their desktop, go to open office, re-save the document in the odf open office format, then delete the original-they have gotten very good at this process because they have to do it every time I post a document!). These forms help them to have an idea of what material they need to pay attention to. It also significantly reduces the chances of them losing it or the dog eating it since it is saved to their computer!<br />
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Edmodo has also been awesome! The kids have been able to turn in assignments and I am able to grade them quickly as well. I can also post links for them to use as well. I was worried about them not having a student shared folder at the beginning of the year, but edmodo has helped alleviate those fears.<br />
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Tomorrow, I am going to allow my students to create pictures of different types of figurative language like similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, etc. We will then create an animoto video for each type of figurative language. Once the videos are completed, I will post them to edmodo so students can make comments on the videos. Hopefully everything will work out. I will blog about it tomorrow or before the end of the week :)<br />
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Finally, I found a way for my students to use twitter! It's not exactly on the computers, but the students enjoy it at least! Plus they can keep a record of everything they write about what they learned throughout the year. If anyone has another way for them to keep a record of their thoughts, please let me know!<br />
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<br />Ms. Howehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01626044283048329541noreply@blogger.com1