Reflecting on CEP 811

When reflecting back on this course, I am amazed by how much I have learned in such a short time. For starters, I love FileZilla. I find it great that I can add everything to the internet in one easy step. FileZilla has been very easy to learn and navigate. Seeing my files online is a great feeling and a great way to connect with other teachers.

UDL has also made an impact on how I view teaching. I see UDL as a great tool to guide me to further success in teaching. In the activity in which we altered our lesson plans to fit UDL, I realized how much UDL makes teaching easier and more meaningful. Yes, I said easier! I truly feel that applying UDL principals will make teaching easier in the long run because we will be ahead of problems.

Wikis are amazing! Through one of the labs, I was able to create a Wiki and design it to fit the needs of my current job! I have been using it everyday and the feedback from my staff is excellent. They even asked for a training on how to use the Wiki better!

Webquests are another amazing tool I now have at my disposal! Webquests are something that I plan on making part of my teaching routine. I think teaching students the importance of using technology and showing them how to navigate technology is a powerful tool! I discovered some really interactive and educational Webquests this semesters and I look forward to making my own.

As this course comes to an end, I reflect on the goals I made for myself. I am happy to say that I certainly challenged myself. I met the goals I set, even when it was a challenge to get there. I struggled with the web page learning to navigate the process, but I now feel much more confident in the area. Now being done, I set new goals for myself. One major goal is for me to continue keeping up on the technologies I am learning about. I also want to make my own Webquest. I feel that this is a goal that will be great not only for me but also my students. Another goal is set is for me to really apply UDL to my teaching. I feel that using the UDL framework will truly help me be a better teacher. I know that UDL will challenge me and I look forward to that opportunity.

Genre Investigation

Genre Investigation

Check out the Stand-Alone presentation I made. This is a great way to review genres and story elements!

Online Teaching

In 2006, the Michigan Department of Education created guidelines for what online learning and teaching looks like. In addition to these guidelines, they created a Companion Document that helps teachers figure out how to meet these guidelines.

I started college in 2006, and in all my education classes, I never heard about these guidelines. Now seeing how helpful the companion document is, I feel it would be really helpful for students to see and use as a resource. The document does a great job of identifying online learning tools and evaluates them for how they can help your online learning experience.

One of the technologies that document presents is the online portfolio. Now, I have my own teaching online portfolio, but I never thought of using it in the classroom. I love this idea because I see it as a great way for students to evaluate their growth throughout the year and throughout their K - 12 education. My students loved showing off their work and I feel this is a great way for them to do so (and it may save paper).

The portfolio could be modified to fit all subjects. I can see the argument that this would not be effective for elementary students. However, I think the portfolio will be a great way for students to learn about technology. For example, start with a simple layout that students can follow easily and scaffold and evolve the process throughout the year.

Scaffolding will be key to having portfolios work. Students need to see how to upload documents, how to pick what they want to show and how to evaluate their work. However, if done right, this process will become second nature by the end of the year. Modifications may be made for students as well. Some students may depend on the teacher or another student to upload documents.

While I see the online portfolios as a great tool, I also see they could be a challenge. For one, it will take effort from the teacher to get students started, especially if they start at a young age. Another drawback would be getting other teachers on board. This could be a great tool is students used it throughout their school experience but it takes all teachers to be on board.

The World of Wikis

Wikipedia can be a great resource when used correctly. Many times I have looked up information on Wikipedia. However, I never added information because I always thought it was a challenging thing to do. Now, after adding information, I realize how easy of a process it is.

For this lab, I added information about the school Attwood Elementary in the Lansing School District. I taught at Attwood and loved being part of the school. I struggled with adding information to the site because I was trying to only add facts, not share my opinion.

Here is a snapshot of the Wikipedia page I edited.

I also created my own wiki. I designed the wiki so I could use it for my current job. I currently supervise a staff of ten and I wanted to have a way we could all collaborate when it comes to programming events for residents. Check it out!

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning is a tool and resource that all educators should be aware of. The idea behind UDL is that we should find ways to make the curriculum fit our students, not the other way around. By using assistive technologies and creativity, we can modify lessons to meet all of our students needs.

Earlier this month, I created a lesson titled, Menu Math. What I thought was a good lesson, is becoming a great lesson with help of the UDL checklist. The checklist allows you to look critically at your lesson. "The UDL Guidelines are organized according to the three main principles of UDL (representation, action and expression, and engagement)." By responding to all three principals, the lesson becomes student focused.

Take a look at how I used it to identify the needs of my lesson.

Thinkfinity!

MERLOT is a great resource that I am so happy to have finally discovered. Since being introduced, I have spent hours looking for lessons, articles and ideas. One of the great sites I found is called Thinkfinity. I had never heard of this site before, but I am happy I have. By clicking through the site, I found a great lesson idea that I would love to do! The lesson is called,"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Someone a Letter." The lesson focuses on the lost art of letter writing. Most students today do not understand how important letters were to generations before; how private, heartfelt and crucial they were to peoples' lives. Students are able to experience the power of letter writing first hand by reading letters from important people throughout history.

All teachers know the importance of evaluating a site or source before we use it. Using the MERLOT system, I evaluated the site Thinkfinity.

Quality of Content:

1. Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills? Yes! Not only does Thinkfinity have a variety of resources, the site also connects you to other great resources.
2. Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline? Yes! The site is full of educational resources. The tagline for the site is, "Thousands of free lesson plans and educational resources for teachers."

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:

1. What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used? This site is a link to a wide variety of resources. Not only does the site offer a great variety of lesson plans, the site also offers interactive and a standards alignment section. The site can really help you build the best lessons possible, from the ground up. In addition to in classroom teaching, the site also provides teachers with information on professional development. This is a very holistic website as it covers all areas of education.
2. What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials? After using this site, teachers should feel more connected to other resources to help them as an educator. While this is not a site for students, students will certainly benefit from the resources found on this site.
3. What are the characteristics of the target learner(s)? Target learners for this site can be anyone, simply depending on what learners you are working with.
4. Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials? The site is full of lessons, audios, media and interactive that are free for teachers. The lessons also outline how to best use these resources.

Ease of Use:

1. Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct? The layout of the site is very clear and easy to navigate. I was able to figure out what I was doing very quickly. The search bar on the right side of the homepage is very helpful and easy to understand as well.
   
2. Does the user get trapped in the material? It is easy to spend a lot of time looking for information because of how much is available.
   
3. Can the user get lost easily in the material? There is a lot of material, but the site does a nice job of organizing everything. For example, lesson plans are organized by topic and by grade.
   
4. Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses? The site has a "Get Connected" tab which helps keep you in touch with the site creators. There is also a blog that users can follow to get even more out of Thinkfinity.
   
5. Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use? Yes.
   
6. Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software? No, it does not. The lessons and all other resources are very straightforward in implementation.
   
7. Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? All of the lesson plans I have looked at have been very student friendly. Users can also write reviews for the lesson plans and how they have modified them to fit their students.
   
8. Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students? The site has a section devoted to student interactives. Interactives are a great way to incorporate technology and attract students to different subjects. In addition to interactives, there are media resources available, which are always a great way to grab students attention.

I hope you take advantage of this great resource, Thinkfinity!

Education Prezi

Check out the Prezi I created about technology and education.

Where Am I Now?

Where am I now? Well, after seven fast weeks, wow! I feel that I have learned so much in a short period of time.

It's important to reflect on all the things I have learned in this class:
- The article about learning styles helped remind me how important it is to be aware of how different out students are from one another
- Twitter! I never would have gotten interested in Twitter if it was not for this class! I now see it as an excellent way to connect with other teachers and even students!
- RSS READERS! LOVE MY READER! I have been hooked ever since I created it. It is so helpful to have everything I am interested in, in one spot.
- Blogs! I never paid much attention to blogging. Not only do I love blogging (and I can't wait to use it in the classroom), I learn a lot from others' blogs.
- Learning about Copy Right laws and how to stay safe was very helpful. I never really knew what I was doing in that area and I now I feel confident.
- PC Maintenance and Security. I will definitely continue to use what I learned in this lab. Since performing some of the tasks from the lab, I have noticed an improvement in my computer speed and performance.

Our last project, The Personal Technology Plan, helped me reflect on what I learned in this class and my use of technology. Because of this class, I feel that I now look at technology in a new way. I see it as an opportunity as well as our job to prepare and teach students. Technology is going to continue to advance, which means new jobs for the future. We have to prepare students for these new opportunities. By using technology on a regular basis, students will become comfortable with it. Incorporating technology to our daily lessons will also make learning more interesting and engaging for students.

One thing that would have been helpful for me is for me to see some of the great ideas we learned in lesson plan form or in action. A lot of the videos and articles talked about using things like blogs, social bookmarking sites and Twitter, but there were not many examples of these tools in action.

I look forward to my future with technology. In regards to teaching, I am excited to use all of the things I learned in this class. For example, I want to use blogs in the classroom. I have loved blogging and I think it is a great resource for students. I also want to use social bookmarking sites for research or an on going class site. Everything I have learned can also be used to streamline my life and making teaching easier. I have founds ways to be more organized through Google Docs and Google Calendars. I also feel that a class wide Google Calendar would be a great way to keep everyone on track.

Have I met the goals I set? Definitely! I feel that I have taken advantage of this course and I have challenged myself to go above and beyond. But, I am nowhere close to being done. In my original growth plan, I stated the importance of me keeping up with everything I learn in this course. I will continue to use the resources and tools I learned in this course, in addition to exploring what else comes my way.

Creative Commons

Wow! This is a whole new world to me! I have always been aware of copyright, but I must say I never really knew if I was following the rules. Of course, I knew duplicating movies was a no-no, but I admit I didn't know much more than that. I know feel much more aware and prepared in regard to following copyright rules. And now, I know how to protect my own work!

Flickr is also a new resource for me. I have heard a lot about it but I never took the time to investigate. Now, I am glad that I did. I used to spend hours on Google Images looking for pictures that I probably did not use correctly (: /). Flickr makes finding great photos so much easier and I know how to properly use them because of Creative Commons. Check out my Flickr and some of the photos I added!

Bella by Kelly Mahoney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I found this great image on Flickr that I would love to use in class. The image is property of the Michigan State University Archives. I am constantly looking for old photos that bring history to life. This image is titled, Students study in the Zoology lab, 1918. This image captures how far science has come, but also how things have stayed the same. For example, these people are not unlike men we would see today. They may dress differently but I bet they still had thoughts that we have today, like "how am I going to get this project done?" I feel that using old photos in the classroom reminds our students that the past was not so long ago. After all, didn't someone say, a single picture is worth a thousand words?

Image Attribution:

Original Image of "Students study in the Zoology lab, 1918."

by Michigan State University Archives (http://www.flickr.com/photos/msuarchives/5704642584/in/photostream)

Learning Styles

It's funny to me that I am so aware of how everyone else learns, but I don't really know what my learning style is. I have loved learning about the ways people learn. But, can I be a great educator without knowing how I learn?

So, I took a few quizzes and read a few articles to find out that I am an auditory learner. An auditory learner is one that learns best through listening. I was a bit surprised by this because I live by my planner and I love to take notes, so I assumed I was a visual learner. A visual learner is someone that learns best by seeing, taking notes, writing things down, looking at pictures, etc. However, after doing research and thinking about my habits I realized I do learn better through spoken word. With my online class, at first I thought it would be easy to simply read directions and prompts and complete assignments. However, I quickly found that I had many questions that I wanted to ask someone. I wanted someone to explain to me how to do things. In addition, I have found that I enjoy watching videos and clips more than reading articles. I also take more from the videos than I do the readings. These characteristics help define what an auditory learner is.

One style that can be a challenge for me is kinesthetic learning. It is not that I do not enjoy doing things, however, I do not like to fail. So, I would rather have someone show me and explain for me how to do it before hand. Once I have the ground rules, I am ready to get my hands dirty.

Want to learn more about learning styles? Click here!

I think that we are all a mix of each type of learning style; it's just that one is more dominant than the others. I think it is important to remind our students that. It is easy to become dependent on one way of learning, and it is important to know what works best for you. However, it is also important to learn how to make the other styles work for you. For example, even though my preferred style is auditory, I still enjoy writing things down and I am learning to be successful with only reading material. As teachers, we need to guide our students so that they become comfortable with their learning style. I think it is important for us to give students chances to learn how they learn best. In addition, it is also our job to challenge students to learn all learning styles so that they can be successful in the future.

Keeping it Clean

Tutorials make my life so much easier. Earlier this week, when I was in a rush to get tasks completed, I found myself incredibly frustrated by the speed my computer was operating at. How lucky am I that this weeks session are about PC Maintenance and Security. I love my computer, however, I don't know the first thing about keeping it running well.

Now, after watching the tutorial section (4 short clips all together) titled "Clean Up and Speed Up your PC," I can take better care of my computer. The section suggests three things to clean up and speed up:

1. Un-install programs that are not used
2. Perform Disc Cleanup
3. Perform Windows Cleanup!

I completed all three steps and I can already tell a difference in my computer's speed. I always knew how to un-install programs but both Cleanup programs were new to me. What a helpful tool to have learned!

And of course, I watched the tutorials about organization. RoboForm! Awesome program I just discovered! This session has made me very aware of how "unsafe" my passwords are. RoboForm is the perfect program to help me make that change and keep track of my new passwords. I have already shared this with my father and he has downloaded it as well. I am continually surprised by all of the helpful sites out there that I need to take advantage of.

These tutorials are a great resource and I am excited to go through all of the tutorials. I have realized that I really have not taken the best care of my computer as far as maintenance is concerned.

RSS Feeds...the next chapter

Well, I must say, RSS Reader's can be a bit addicting. Over the last week, I spent a lot of time looking for blogs and professional sites that will help me as an educator. I followed four sites closely over the last week and a half - and I must say, it takes quite a bit of work.

Teaching History
One of the professional sites I discovered was Teaching History: National History Education Clearing House. What I loved about the site at first was it had a blog that was updated frequently in addition to a frequently updated site. My first couple of days following, I spent a lot of time getting caught up. I found a lot of great ideas but I didn't know what to do with them. For example, there was an article about Constitution Day. The article had great ideas for connecting technology (blogging) into Constitution Day which can sometimes be a challenging topic to get through.
As I continued to keep track of this site through my Reader, I started thinking about ways to sort and store all the information I am finding. Luckily for me, one of the articles posted last week was about a new tool called Dropbox (http://teachinghistory.org/digital-classroom/tech-for-teachers/25164). Dropbox is similar to Google Docs, however, it lets you save a file on any desktop that can be accessed without internet.

I am happy I stumbled upon this site because it is turning out to be a great lesson plan tool and a great technology tool.

GTD
At a meeting last week, one of my employees mentioned that I would like an article she refereed to as GTD. She was right, I loved it and I added the site to my Reader. I am constantly looking for new ways to make my life my streamline in and out of the classroom. I was even more surprised when this weeks session asked us to read material from Getting Things Done. The website is full of helpful hints and articles to read about GTD. This site is a great tool for educators because it gives you a guide for balancing everything. These tools can be taught to our students as we work to prepare them for their future (organization, accountability, time management, what student doesn't need this?). This site also has Podcasts! What an awesome resource. The Podcast about accountability to a must!

NPR - Education

Another of my discoveries is one that I can't really claim. My teacher suggested we subscribe to this site, and I am crazy about it. I have always listened to NPR on the radio, but never checked out the website, let alone a site just about education. On Sunday, they published a great anti-bullying article. Working to create a bully free environment was one of my passions as a teacher and I loved reading this article. As I continued to follow, I found amazing articles that caught my attention. I recently read an article on the site about what teachers make. It was a great article and it is nice to read things in support for teachers. This site helps me stay current on the world of Education. I also like it because the site has positive articles as well, which can be a challenge to find.

A Year of Reading

Another awesome blog I found for elementary teachers is called A Year of Reading. It is a great resource because the blog is edited by a variety of teachers and it keeps us updated on great literature. As a social studies teacher, I struggle to find books that bring history to life. I find this blog helpful because it highlights great children's books and then shows ways to connect it to different subject areas.

The blog also acts as a great resource for other sites; connecting us to other authors and teachers. For example, one post had short clips with a variety of teachers and authors talking about connecting literature to everything we do. I feel that great literature is a powerful tool in social studies because there is so much more than the textbook.

My thoughts now?

By tracking blogs and sites of interest, I have gained insight into new lessons, projects and ideas that I never even fathomed – and it has only been a matter of days. Through one site, I found resources that will help me tweak a project and I did last year and make it that much better. My RSS Reader will make connecting and learning so much easier than I ever thought possible. I am very excited to continue to use this and learn new ideas.

My mind continues to be in overdrive thinking of all the ways I can use this in school. It would be amazing to see students using their own feeds when conducting research or just learning about the world around them. For example, I have been playing around with a unit about Africa. My vision is to have each student learn about a country and create a blog about it. Students could subscribe to a variety of sources about Africa and have all their information in one place. Eventually, students could subscribe to each others' blog to continue to grow their network. I am also excited about all of the new tools and ideas I have just because of my checking in on my Reader.

Follow my Reader!