Digital Blog Post #J

While reading Chapter 11 Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning, I received a bunch of information on the role of assessments in teaching and learning. As a senior in high school currently, I am not a big fan of standardized testing especially when they determine a bunch of factors such as graduation, college acceptance, and even scholarships. However, after reading this paragraph on the role of assessments I see the advantages and the disadvantages. For instance, one of the roles are new teacher assessments which is how the supervisors will assess the work for the teacher. This meaning that before a teacher accepts a full-time job in the teaching profession there are certain standards that have to be met. The new teacher has to pass a state teacher license and go through observations and training. I agree with these type of assessments because a person should not be thrown into a classroom full of children without any standards. Just because someone went to college does not mean they actually learned or absorbed the information. Also, book work is different than real life experiences. A new teacher should be observed teaching into a classroom and trained in a classroom because the experience is totally different than reading about the experience in the textbook. The second role is student assessment which shows the effectiveness as a teacher. On the down fall, I disagree with this because a teacher can not prevent if a student wants to learn or not. It is irrelevant if the teacher is great or not, some students are either not good test takers due to anxiety or just do not want to learn. I also disagree with how tests and assessments can determine major aspects in the profession such as salary and the job itself. However, it is also important to make sure that the students are learning what they are supposed to and it is important to keep all schools at a standard. This topic is very controversial which shocked me because before this chapter I was unaware on the positives of assessments. The last role that was described in this paragraph is student self-assessment. Whether the student is taking a state exam or a classroom test, a student should be active in their own learning. This allows the children to be on track with what they need to know and what they already know. All in all, assessments have positives and negatives.

Rather than the teacher running the classroom there are democratic schools and classrooms which I have never heard of until this chapter. Democratic schools and classrooms are places where students and teachers work together to make decisions about how the learning in the classroom happens and how evaluation is conducted. As said above, before this chapter I was unaware of these type of classrooms and schools however the idea at first seemed scary but after thinking about how that would work I began to enjoy that idea. The curriculum and assessing the students successfully is still responsible for the teachers but how they will be assessed and how they will learn is discussed among the students and teachers. In my opinion, incorporating the students into their own learning. Also, with the students discussing how the material will be taught will only help them learn more. After all, the students are the ones who are ideally supposed to be absorbing this information so why not allow them to pick the best ways that they learn. Teachers are working hand in hand with the students which does not only create a enjoyable classroom but creates a small family. Instead of the teachers just looking at her class as students learning or the students just looking at her teacher as a teacher, they are working in union to create a better learning atmosphere. However, there is a down fall to this because the students will pick little homework, spend lots of time in groups and select few hard problems to solve but the teachers still have a say which requires them to negotiate which means the teacher should not allow the students to pick such little homework and group work all day everyday. All in all, the democratic schools and classrooms is an interesting thought that could be beneficial in regard to student learning and teaching.

Teachers need to incorporate pre-assessments, prior knowledge-based learning and online surveys into their lessons. In the past I have had some teachers who have used these techniques. Pre-assessments are introducing a new lesson, topic, or unit to determine what students need to know or what they already know. Most of my prior teachers used pretests to determine what the students need to know or what they already know. This is a really good technique because a teacher will know what lessons need to be more focused on and what lessons just need to be reviewed. This can save time and can stop students from being bored in lessons because they already know the material. Prior-knowledged based learning go hand and hand to pre-assessments because prior-knowledged based learning is when the teacher incorporates what the students already know not their new concepts. This helps the students remember the information and it also helps the students in reviewing. Reviewing past concepts will only help them actually absorb the information rather than learning about a concept, studying it for the test and then forgetting about the concept after the test. Some of my prior teachers would incorporated material that we already knew on current tests just so the class would keep remembering the information. Online surveys are also very helpful. An online survey is a poll that is delivered online. This helps teachers receive data about the students progress and learning. Fortunately, students like online surveys because there are not right and wrong answers, it is simply reflection. For this technique not many of my past teachers have used however some of the did in regards to how well we learned the topic and how comfortable we are with the topic. I think online surveys would be extremely helpful because the students feel heard and they are collaborating. Students are not the only ones learning, teachers also learn from the students so online surveying is a great reflection on how well the materials the teacher used work and what the teacher needs to do differently next time. 

Below I have created a Canva on the numbers of assessments to demonstrate how important it is to assess students since testing is a huge role in their learning.


References:
Website- Bowman, S. (2014, March 30). Latest breaking news from Hilton Head & Beaufort, SC | The Island Packet. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/03/30/3026373/education-testing-day-2.html

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

Blog Post #G

Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media is a very crucial part in communicating with parents and students outside of the normal school day. Although communicating with students is very important but communicating with parents is needed too. Communicating with parents with help keep them on board with their child's education and will allow them to support their children to their best ability. However, communicating with parents can be very difficult. For example in the textbook it states that more than one in three families use the internet to communicate with schools, if only once or twice a year.  On the bright side research says that online information may promote family involvement in the students success in learning. Teachers will only benefit themselves and the students by posting the grading policies, assignments and notes online for many reasons. By students have access to online information, the teacher does not have to spend as much time explaining assignments in class because there is a description online. Parents will have access to all of the work that their children will be doing so by doing this, they are informed with the work their children are being presented with. Parents will also be allowed to access when their children have homework. Communicating verbally and electronically will benefit the parents, teachers and students in all sorts of ways. I believe that parents should be involved electronically with their students assignments because they will be able to access all the classwork and homework. Due to this, the parents will already know how much homework their child will have ahead of time as well as projects, class work, etc. Most parents now a days focus on the system called Gradebook because all of their children's grades are on this website as well as absences and a description of the assignments.

Grades, assignments and communication can be done electronically however so can learning how to spell. In the book there is a paragraph in regard to using text messages to teach about how to spell. There can be some issues with this because most students use slang when they are texting and do not use punctuation. Surprisingly in the text book it states that text messages can teach students how to build better relationships, meaningful educational experiences, and a more cooperative environment. By using text messages students can learn the patterns of word sounds and the structures of word spelling. I was very shocked by this paragraph because I was unaware that text messaging could teach something. Most teachers and schools band texting/cellphones. I always knew that technology should be used in the classroom more because this generation grew up around technology and that is how we learn best however, teaching children how to spell while texting was a new fact for me. Technology in the classroom does more good than bad. 

Not only was text messaging teaching students how to spell a surprise but so was twitter for teachers. As I read about twitter for teachers I realized that there are some good advantages to this social media. Teachers can follow other teachers using the hashtag to organize information in regard to similar topics. Teachers can also search different hashtags to search general conversations about education or instructional technology. Teachers can also post about upcoming assignments or new resources for parents to see which would tie back to the huge component of communicating with the parents. However, teachers take some risk when using social media especially like twitter. All posts need to be highly professional and there should never be any personal information shared. I think that teachers reaching out to students and parents through social media such as twitter is very helpful because the majority of students have twitter so they will most likely see the post and the students will be most likely to look at the post. All in all, communicating with students and parents regardless if it is on the internet or social media is very important. Without the bond with parents, teachers, and students there will be no involvement or support. 

I made a Gliffy down below!(:

<script src="https://www.gliffy.com/diagramEmbed.js" type="text/javascript"> </script><script type="text/javascript"> gliffy_did = "7563053"; embedGliffy(); </script>

References: 

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

Blog Post #H

Expressing Creativity with Multimedia Technologies is very important in the classroom because students need to learn how to create things with the internet using the content that they are currently learning. For example, powerpoint is a well known tool for teachers and students. During lectures most teachers use powerpoint and for presentations the majority of the students use powerpoint however, are the teachers using powerpoint correctly? In this chapter they discussed strategies for using Powerpoint which I shocked to find the littlest details mean the most. For instance, using images to generate class discussions help students response to the visual images that relate to the content they are learning. The visual content can create discussions within the classroom and keep the students interested. Another aspect in creating a powerpoint for students is promote visual analysis of discussion topics. This meaning that a teacher should show an image or another source of visual aid that can promote critical thinking to the entire class. With the critical thinking, the teacher should then ask questions in order to create discussion. The teacher should also display questions or comments for short writing assignments. The book gives a great activity with this which is a strategy called the 50-word sentence which is when students create a 50-word sentence the summarizes the main idea of the lesson. This gets students involved and critically thinking. The teacher should also use the slides as attention getters. This meaning that the teacher should tell stories, explain concepts, ask discussion questions so that the class can understand that main purpose behind the lesson that day. The last strategy for a powerpoint is develop your own powerpoint learning game, this will help get the students involved and interactive. The students are creating their own questions and thinking critically while having a good time with their classmates. Using these strategies for powerpoint will help the students understand the lesson better because there isn't just bulletin points on the board and this will help the teacher get the students involved with the lesson more.

Photo from Google 

Not only are there strategies for using powerpoint but there is also strategies for using videos with students. Although, videos should not be used in every single lesson plan they are a great tool to use to get students interested and involved. If a teacher picks the correct video, a lesson can be explained very well and understood very well if a video is incorporated. In this chapter, they gave plenty of examples of different resources that teachers can use to access content related videos. One example would be PBS Learning Media which is information that is visually engaged through interactive timelines and resources to help visually engage the students. PBS has a bunch of helpful resources for teachers in regard to video resources. Instead of using Youtube which can be unreliable and is now blocked at schools, there are websites that have videos which are school appropriate. With these resources, students and teachers can create a fun learning environment.

Videos create a fun learning environment but so does photo-taking and movie-making with students. Photo-taking and movie-making with students is a fun activity that help engage students, document learning, create active learning and incorporate information creation. Creating the videos help teachers incorporate the interests of students while engaging them academically. Documenting learning will help show students their progress and help remember classroom learning activities. Active learning includes filming, acting, viewing and editing which is great skills for students to learn. Information creation deals with the students being creators of their own visual masterpiece which explores their creative minds. All in all, movie-making and photo-taking with students is a great and fun learning experience for the students especially since these activities explore their critical thinking.

Photo from Google 

I created a Padlet check it out!(:

<iframe src='//padlet.com/embed/8slq653iaaq4' frameborder='0' width='100%' height='480px' style='padding:0;margin:0;border:none'></iframe><div style='border-top:2px solid #a7d23a;padding:8px;margin:0;font-size:12px;text-align:right'><a href='http://padlet.com' style='color:#41555f;text-decoration:none'>Created with Padlet<img valign='middle' style='margin:0 0 0 10px;padding:0;border:none;width:16px;height:16px' src='http://padlet.com/favicon.ico'></a></div>

http://padlet.com/tlhamilton97/8slq653iaaq4

References: 

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

Created with Padlet

Blog Post #I

Designing Lessons and Developing Curriculum with Technology is a very important skill for teachers to be aware of. Technology can do way more than help students learn, technology can help the teachers as well. After this chapter I was very shocked at how many helpful tools there are out to help teachers create lessons plans. For instance, there are many teachers as stated in the book who need help with organization for their lesson plans. In order to keep students interested after awhile doing the same routine or lesson plans will only make the class distracted due to boredom. However, with the updated technology that is available today there are websites and applications to help teachers with this issue. Specifically in the book they mention a website called Thinkfinity which is a store house of thousands and thousands of curriculum ideas. The ideas are organized well by grade level, subject matter and can be easily searchable by key words. Using these key words, teachers have access to an endless amount of resources and lesson plan ideas that will be interesting for the entire class. This caught my attention because I was fully aware about the applications that are available but I did not realize the applications that are available to teachers. With applications like this the teachers can be creative and make all the lessons regardless of the subject matter interesting. I think that websites and applications such as Thinkfinity is extremely beneficial to students and teachers because it only helps the learning environment. 

Image from Google 

Websites and applications such as Thinkfinity is wonderful for teachers however they are not helpful if the teacher does not know how to use the tools and lesson plans. In the text book, I found the three components to make a perfect lesson plan for all. A lesson plan should have goals, methods, and procedures to make sure that the lesson plan is well organized and planned out. Goals are defined as the reason why a lesson is being taught. Methods are the instructional strategies the teacher is going to present the content. Procedures is the organization of the lesson plan, for instance a procedure is the grouping and scheduling of the students. Reading this part of the chapter I realized that there is a bunch of components that fit into a lesson plan which is why applications such as Thinkfinity is so important because it helps teachers create these intense lessons. After I read this chapter I realized that there are a lot of thinking and work that goes into a lesson plan. However, without the organization of the lesson plan, the classroom would be too disruptive. 

Although there are applications and websites such as Thinkfinity and there is an organization pattern that goes into lesson plans, teachers still have to make sure that their children are understanding the content. The problem with this is teachers end up figuring out who is not understanding the material on the day of the test which is also the last day of the section. Fortunately, this chapter also exposed me to the finding of applications for teaching. One application is called Cram which provides a content review through customized flashcards and short quizzes/tests. I immediately thought this was a perfect application with keeping up the students because instead of printed quizzes and tests, the class could take unique quizzes throughout the entire chapter. Also, they could take class quizzes, as a class they could create or make their own flashcards. Due to this, teachers can have a more interesting way in keeping track of where their children are at in the chapter. There was also a website that stuck out to me which was Teaching Channel, it is an online video resource that contains lesson planning, student behavior, assessment strategies and meeting the Common Core State Standards. Although the students can not do anything with this site, this is extremely beneficial to the teachers because it is a guideline. Teachers can go onto this website and learn new ways to teach their children to take assessments or new ways to teach the Common Core State Standards which is pressured heavily on teachers now a days. All in all, this chapter was very informative in regard to the basics of teaching. 

Check out my summarized chapter review on Gliffy!(:

<script src="https://www.gliffy.com/diagramEmbed.js" type="text/javascript"> </script><script type="text/javascript"> gliffy_did = "7562239"; embedGliffy(); </script>

References:

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

Blog post # D chapter 5

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/6b74b7ac-e434-4f99-b9c3-22fcc4dde8a1

Blog post #C chapter 3

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/2a94fba8-7642-442f-b313-fa96d9f9f2b1

Blog post #B chapter 2

Being able to understand educational technology issues and trends is very important for a teacher because a teacher should be able to experiment new ways in teaching a lesson. As specified in previous chapters there are applications for teaching and learning for all subject matter. For history they have "Back in Time" which presents a timeline of the history of Earth. On the other hand, for math they have Tanzen which features engaging mathematical puzzles for students to solve. Apps are a great educational tool that offers exciting ways to engage all the children and to also inform teachers of new ways. I believe that applications can help teach the children skills in a fun, new way.















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