Reflection

UDL and Differentiated Instruction Reflection

This course, Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology, has shown me the importance of determining what motivates and engages students through the use of surveys revealing a student’s interests, learning styles, intelligence preferences and learning profiles. By using this information, I can determine my student’s academic strengths and weaknesses thereby adapting the classroom learning environment to help students succeed and overcome learning difficulties that may contribute to less than optimal learning outcomes (Tomlinson, 2009).

The helpful resources and feedback that I received from other classmates through the discussions from the Differential Station site has been extremely beneficial to me as well as time saving and insightful. I plan to thoroughly review, adapt and then implement their resources and suggestions as strategies for curriculum development in my classroom.

As a result of taking this class, I plan to make immediate modifications to future lessons and my classroom learning environment. These modifications include steps to implement differentiated instruction using technology and different types of assessment in order to assure optimal success for students. I also see that it is important to engage, administrators, colleagues and parents about classroom practices that incorporate Universal Design of Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). Inclusion of all parties, including students, will further enhance and assure the success of my students in the classroom.

Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning profiles and achievement. School Administrator, 66(2), 28–33. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Game Plan with Students

This course has really helped me to realize how important establishing a GAME plan and setting goals really is in my classroom. I have set goals for continuing my education, saving financially for that “big ticket” item and even my every day “To Do” list is a set of goals. But I realize now that I need to teach my students how to set goals and achieve them. Having the GAME plan formula gives teachers and students a template to be able to plan, monitor and evaluate their goals. “As you set goals, take action, monitor your learning, and evaluate your progress, you take control of your own learning process.” (Cennamo, Ertmer, and Ross, p. 7)


ISTE has established the guidelines by which teachers can implement technology into their curriculum. By using the standards (NETS-S and NETS-T) as established by ISTE, I am able to create a GAME plan that will bring new learning experiences to my students. These experiences will enable my students to show their creativity, digital citizenship, communication and collaboration skills, as well as research and problem solving skills. AS I model my GAME plan, my students will also be implementing their own GAME plan.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Reflections on My GAME Plan

As I review my goals for my GAME plan, I realize that they are just goals; they can be changed, altered and discarded. These past few weeks I have been able to accomplish some of what I set out to do. I was able to become more experienced in working with my wiki in order to communicate with my parents. I succeeded in taking more pictures of my students and uploading them onto the wiki. I was able to find some apps for the new iPads that our school has purchased. I was able to briefly work on an iPad but I feel that in order to teach a lesson using them, I will have to become more familiar with the apps and the iPad. (Maybe I’ll ask Santa Claus for an iPad for Christmas!)

Last week, I spent a great deal of time finding some new websites that I hope to be able to use. Artsonia.com looks very interesting and I can see that I could easily use it to display my student’s artwork. Arted20.ning.com will help me to continue to collaborate with other educators.

I think I’d like to establish a new goal for myself. I think it would be quite feasible and attainable to set a goal of finding 3 new websites a week. Because of a previous class with Walden, I have created an RSS reader account. I subscribe to several RSS feeds that are valuable sources of information. I just need to create a certain time during the week to look at these feeds and gather more websites that would help me in the classroom.

Revising My GAME Plan

This week has been a challenge for me. All sorts of things "cropped up" that I wasn't expecting. I wasn't able to accomplish all that I set out to do. Oh, well. I still have this week!

Again, I was unable to reserve the iPads for class use. However, I was able to practice on one of the iPads using the apps that I was able to get. That was a lot of fun. One of the apps is very much like the computer program, Pixie, that the students are already familiar with. I probably will use this app in my first lesson with the students.

A new learning goal that I would like to achieve is ongoing: that of applying technology and concepts. I see this as continuing to find and become proficient in websites and software programs that I can implement in my classroom. Just like finding some new websites like:

www.artsonia.com ( website devoted to displaying children's art work in a virtual museum)

globalartproject.org (website that pairs teachers/students with other teacher/students in another country to exchange art work)

www.glogster.com (website where users can create a poster or web page containing multimedia elements including text, audio, video, images, graphics drawings and data) There is a fee associated with this one.

www.arted20.ning.com ( a website created for art educators to collaborate)

I am really excited about finding these sites. With artsonia.com I can create a virtual museum for my students. Come to think about it, I could probably do the same thing with our class wiki, couldn't I? (I'll have to give this one more thought.) The ning will enable me to continue to collaborate with other educators once my Walden classes are finished. (I do hope to keep in touch with classmates from Walden, too)

So, to sum it up, my new learning goals are to continue finding more internet resources that I can either incorporate into my curriculum, enhance my curriculum or continue to learn from others and apply it to my classroom.

Evaluating My GAME Plan

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
In reviewing my GAME plan and what actions I took, I believe that I have been quite successful in meeting my goals. I have been able to locate quite a few apps on art and drawing that I can download to our iPods. I have been working with our IT department and have received approval for the apps that I have chosen. As for improving communication with my parents, I have been working on my wiki. I have uploaded new pictures of students working on projects and have added captions to the pictures.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I have reserved the new iPods to be used in the classroom but have been unable to use them in a lesson. Since the iPods are new in our school, many other teachers have also been reserving them for their classes.
What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
To continue with my goal of improving my wiki, I would like to learn more about embedding video clips and audio to the site. I also need to follow up with the other teachers in my school to make sure they have a link to my wiki on their parent communication pages so that more will know about it.
How will you adjust your plans to fit your current needs?
I realize that I will have to dedicate a specific time in my weekly schedule devoted solely to update my wiki. I have found that updating the wiki takes a bit more time than I anticipated.

Monitoring my GAME plan

This week I have been working on my GAME plan. I have researched iTunes for educational art apps in order to install them on the new iPods my school has recently acquired. I found several applications that I think will be appropriate. Before installing them, however, I will need to contact our IT department for approval and permission to purchase the apps. One set back that I have faced this week is that I can’t access iTunes at school and must do the research at home. (This week has been an unusually busy week).

My second goal, improving my wiki for communication with parents, has been easier to concentrate on. I have installed a counter in order to monitor how many visitors have accessed the site. I have also taken more pictures of my students as they work. I have not added them to the website, but intend to before the end of the week.

Are you finding the information and resources that you need? My IT department has been very helpful in regard to policy pertaining to publishing students’ pictures and not their names.
Do you need to modify your game plan? At this time, I feel that my GAME plan is attainable and I do not feel that any modifications are needed.
What have you learned so far? I have learned that including technology into my curriculum is easier than I once thought. Art is typically performance-based and project based learning. However, with the rapid changes in technology, students can apply their drawing skills in a new and exciting medium.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Recently, our school was able to obtain three new iPads and a class set of iPod touch. I thought this would be a great chance to incorporate new technology into my lesson plans.

In my previous post, I created a new GAME plan to implement in my classroom. My goals for this GAME plan included developing and creating new learning experiences for my students using new technology and to improve communication to parents through my wikipage.

In order to be successful in my first goal, I will need to research respected websites for appropriate apps in which to install on the ipods/ipads. I will specifically look for apps that will enhance my curriculum such as drawing apps and puzzles featuring famous pieces of art. I believe that the use of these ipods/ipads will promote student learning and engagement. I am currently finding and installing these apps as well as becoming familiar with their programming.

My second goal is to improve my wiki in order to promote better communication with parents. During our Open House, many parents expressed that they would like to know about what activities the students were involved in the classroom. They wanted to know what projects were being worked on. I felt that by taking more pictures and adding audio would give the parents a better idea of our daily work. In order to showcase as many students as possible, I plan to keep a record of which students are featured on the wiki. I will also need to check with our technology department and review the procedures for putting pictures of students on the web.

As I started my journey in furthering my education, I realized that I needed to develop my skills in technology. I also wanted to help my students become successful citizens and to do that I would need to bring in 21st century technology skills into the curriculum. In order to achieve this goal, I need to develop a GAME Plan as described by Cennamo, Ross and Ertner (2009)as a self-directed learning plan that I will be able to set my own Goals, take Action to meet those goals, Monitor my progress toward reaching those goals and then, reflect or Evaluate the effectiveness of the learning process and learning outcomes. In order to identify the areas in which I need to improve, I referred to ISTE (the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers. I chose tow areas in which I would like to focus and create a GAME plan for myself.


I. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S.
A) Teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

GOALS
My goal is to develop learning experiences using new technology tools such as the ipod to promote student knowledge and creative thinking.

ACTION
I plan to explore new web applications that can be used in conjunction with my current curriculum to promote better comprehension of curriculum concepts.

MONITOR
In order to monitor myself and track the number of times I use the ipad, I will circle IPAD on my lesson plans.

EVALUATE
An evaluation of my lessons using the ipad will be to use a rubric to rate student comprehension of lesson, interest and activity.

II. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

D. Teachers communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

GOALS
I would like to improve the communication tools that I already implement. I want to add audio and video clips to my wikipage.

ACTION
I will review and and become proficient in enbedding Animoto and Audacity into my wikipage. I will take pictures of two classes a week working on their projects and showcase them on the wiki.

MONITOR
As a form of monitoring my wiki, I will keep a record for ten weeks of which classes were featured on the wiki.

EVALUATE
I will ask parents for feedback to determine how often they looked at the wiki and whether they found the site to be informative and interesting.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. (M. Staudt, & M. Stranz, Eds.) Mason, OH, USA: Cengage Learning.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf on May 12, 2010.
Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the Lights. Educational Leadership , 65 (6), 40-45.

Reflection

Technology is changing the way we interact with others as well as providing accessibility to more information than ever before. Staying up to date with the changes will require continual learning on my part. I believe that it is necessary for me to create an environment that will also enable the student to be a continual learner.

In reflecting on my most recent Walden University class, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (EDUC - 6712I - 3), I have learned how to prepare effective lessons using the internet for research activities by my students. By demonstrating and modeling safe and evaluative methods for searching the internet, I will be teaching life skills to my students. I also learned that citing sources is necessary and important and that I must actively discuss and demonstrate the proper ways in which to give credit to an internet author.

This summer I plan to take additional technology courses through my school’s IT department so that I can continue learning how to integrate technology into my class curriculum.

Critical Evaluation of a Website using a Screencast

In my class on Information Literacy and Online Inquiry, we were assigned to evaluate a website on its validity and reliability. I chose the website on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Using Jing to create a screencast, I used the "think aloud" process to walk my students through the process of critical analysis of the site. I had viewed a screencast presentation before and this exercise gave me the opportunity to create a project, that in the future, I will be able to implement in my classroom. As I went through the steps in making this screencast, I realized that I needed to create a script so that I was sure to focus on the important aspects of the website that I wanted to show to my students.

In "thinking aloud" while creating this screen cast, I didn't realize the many thought processes that went on in evaluating a website. the author of Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008), explained the thought scaffolding process using the acronym REAL to evaluate the validity of a website. The first step of the acronym is to Read the URL. The URL address provides clues about a site, its creator and its information. The second step in the process is to Examine the Content of the site. Carefully evaluating the information and cross checking with other sites helps the reader to judge the quality of the website. The next step is to Ask About the Author. By thoroughly examining the site (looking in the fine type), one can often find out who authored the site. However, sometimes the author's name is not listed. November (2008) suggested using the website www.easywhois.com which "collects information from the Internet to track who owns and is responsible for a domain name". By following these steps of evaluation, a reader can carefully determine the validity and reliability of a website.

November, A. (2008) Web Literacy for Educators.Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Corwin Press.


This is the link to my screen cast for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

http://tree_octopus_jing

Screencast for class

My assignment for my Walden class was to create a screencast describing my thought process to students about how to critically analyze a website on its validity. I chose the website Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.