Reflection

At the beginning of this course I was rethinking about whether a Master’s in Integrating Technology into the Classroom was really want I wanted to go back to school for. After reading many articles about 21st century learners and the different ways to use technology in my own classroom, I came to realize that this is exactly what I need to go back to school for. Students in our classrooms are bored, or at least that is the way it seems on a day to day basis in the classrooms that I walk past during my conference hour. Sitting at their desks, taking notes, listening to a lecture is not the way that they learn the best at a young age. Marc Prensky was the first person to coin the term digital natives and digital immigrants, but I believe that he understands our students more as people and not just a label. Prensky has stated many times that we need to “give students the opportunity to use technology in school” (Prensky, 2008). For this reason, and also for many others, is why I am happy to have chosen this as my Master’s program.

This course has raised my awareness of the different types of technologies out there for us educators to use in our classrooms. I was familiar with the terms blog and wiki, but was very cautious in using them because I was unfamiliar how to use them correctly. I very quickly learned how easy they were to edit and also began to come up with ideas on how to integrate them into my everyday classroom routine. This course has given me many ideas on how to use these in my very own classroom and has also given me the opportunity to share with my fellow educators at my school how great these technologies can be for our students. If you would have asked me 8 weeks ago how to create a podcast, wiki, or blog I would have told you that I would never know or use one of them in my classroom. Now, 8 weeks later, I have come up with at least 5 different lesson plans to share with my colleagues and integrate into my own classroom immediately.

There are many ways that I could still expand my level of understanding technology. One way that I can do this is by doing exactly what Prensky says that we should do, “find out how students want to be taught.” If our students voice to us that they would rather learn by lecture, then teach by lecture. However, you will find in the classrooms today that they would rather learn by exploration and create a sense of ownership over their work. It gives them pride to find it on their own and be able to share it with each other. As I continue my coursework I will hopefully find other ways to integrate technology into my classroom, but the resource that I will use until then is this course and my students. “Our brightest students, trusted with responsibilities, will surprise us all with their contributions”(Prensky, 2005).

The first goal that I plan to accomplish next year is to create a Geometry Wik-tionary in one of my Geometry courses. I will put this plan into action at the beginning of next year with one of my classes and hopefully watch it grow the following year. Students will create a dictionary of our Geometry terms online using a Wiki. Students will be broken up into groups of at least 3 and will be given a chapter from the book of which they will be responsible for the vocabulary terms in that chapter. For their terms they must include a picture, the books definition, any formulas that may be related to their term, and also, their own definition of their term. This will be a year long project so I will give them at least ten days in the computer lab at school to work on it. I am very excited to see this put into action. I hope to report back with positive feedback from my students.

The second goal is to create a podcast when I am going to be away at a conference for my students to listen to so they do not miss out on a day of learning. By creating a podcast it will seem like I am in the classroom teaching without really being there. I can record myself a few days ahead of time, create a CD to give to the substitute teacher, who simply puts the CD in the computer to play it for my students to listen to. This will help students to not only see the visuals and definitions in the book, but also to hear my own explanation and step by step instructions without me actually being there. I am planning on trying this next month while I am away at a conference. I have created other podcasts that are not linked to this blog and have found them to be very resourceful. Again, I hope that this will be a positive experience for my students.

This course was very intimidating to me at first, but after 8 weeks and great collaboration with my classmates, I am coming away much more aware of the technology out there for me and with a better understanding of why it is important for me to use these in my own classroom.

References:

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8–13.


Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.

Students and Technology

This past week I surveyed 30 of my 10th and 11th graders regarding the different technologies that they use at school and at home. Here you will find the podcast of the results of my survey. Enjoy!!

Podcast of Survey

21st Century Outcomes

Preparing our students for the 21st century workplace is not an easy task. As an educator I find it hard to get my students to see how important the little time that they have in my classroom will be important to them outside of school, especially once they leave high school. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has done a great job by providing other examples, besides that ones that I already use, of what is important to know in order to succeed these days in the workplace or simply in the real world. Their website was designed to inform educators, community and government leaders, and business people about what skills are necessary for the 21st century work place (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). The website also gave names of businesses that were already included in the partnership. These businesses included everyone from textbook companies to computer companies. As an educator this is exciting to see that these companies also see that there is a push for students to be ready for the 21st century.

I was very surprised that the partnership pushes for standardized test and assessments and that there were already states that implemented those. In order to become a 21st century leadership school, they must have commitment from the governor and chief state school officer (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). Seeing this made me cringe because our governor would never push for anything like this in the state of Michigan right now and that’s disappointing because our students could really benefit from it.

The disappointing aspect of this page does not come from the partnership itself, but for me, as an educator that I cannot choose to be in the partnership for my students, my governor has to. However, seeing that they have put all of their goals online, I feel that I can find some ways to implement these goals on my own. In order to use their professional development services, you must be a leadership school (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). Again, this only disappointments me because as an individual educator who wants her students to succeed, I cannot make the most of this opportunity for my students without the support of my governor.

Since the website has done an amazing job of outlining all of the outcomes, I feel that although my whole school may not be able to get involved, I can at least get involved. I can get involved by using the “21st Century Student Outcomes” that are posted with special links to explain further what is actually needed for that outcome (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). Many of these outcomes are already used day to day in my classroom, but one that I will begin to try to implement is “Working Creatively with Others” (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). I find myself too often pushing my students to work independently, but I have seen now that they need to learn to work together towards a goal. I will try to find more project based problems for them to solve as a group. Students need to know how to communicate with others and I have found that this is something that they all struggle with.

Overall, I would say that this website is very beneficial for our students. If we do not push these outcomes, our students may not be as successful as others once they leave our classroom.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, (2004). Retrieved November 27, 2009, from The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

How to Use Blogs in my Classroom

I think that there are many ways to use blogs in my math classroom. I think that the best way to use it would be to make it a sounding board for students, just like Kathy Martin's 7th graders are doing after they leave her classroom. I would allow students to use it as a tool to say what they are struggling with in class and allow other students to comment back to provide insight as to how they understand the topic.

Another way that I would use blogs is to communicate with other schools either in our area or in another state or country even. Since I teach Mathematics, I know that most schools will be covering the same material throughout the United States as I am in their Geometry classes. It would be very interesting for my students to see and learn how other students their same age are learning the topics that we are covering in class.

Teenagers are already using networking sites, such as facebook or myspace, so getting them on board to use a blog for educational reasons would not be that difficult in my opinion. I have put serious thought in starting a blog site for my 2nd semester Geometry course to let them see and learn how other students are spending their 2nd semesters around the county or even State wide.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society [Motion picture]. Teacher as professional. Baltimore.

Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog! This blog is intended to help me and other teacher's learn how to integrate technology into our classrooms. Whether it be using powerpoint or using the new SmartBoards, we as teachers are always interested in learning new ways to integrate technology into our classrooms.

I currently am a Secondary Math teacher at Davison High School in Davison, MI which is near Flint, MI. I absolutely my job and enjoy my students and staff members even more. This is only my 2nd year teaching and I am already anxious to learn new ways to present information to my students! I hope that this blog can help teachers and give us new ways to present material to our students using technology.