Neil’s Blog

Word Document: Wetherbee_Reflection

The lesson I planned for this class dealt with students using video cameras to create short skits or presentations explaining what happens when the big number is subtracted from the littler number.  The plan stated that the lesson began with students watching two YouTube videos.  The first video was relatively dull, but it was a man using a number line explaining how negative numbers work.  This was to provide students with background information on the subject.  The second video was similar to the first, but it was presented by a young girl in a kid friendly manner.  This video acted to reinforce the skills learned in the first video, but it also provided a concrete example of what the students were to produce.  Students were to watch the two videos on the first day and begin planning with any remaining time.  On the second day, students were to film, edit, and present their videos.  The Flip Digital Camcorder has very simple software built in so the editing could happen very quickly.  This lesson plan identically mirrors the lesson plan submitted earlier.

This lesson was taught using my fourth grade class.  I had 15 students in my class for the lesson and four Flip Camcorders.  That meant there were three groups of four and a group of three.  The students were very excited about the concept of negative numbers because they wondered why you couldn’t subtract the big number from the little number.  The students were also interested in the use of YouTube.  They were captivated by the presenters, even the boring old man.  Finally, students were motivated by the use of the camcorders.  Overall the lesson was a big success.  The only issue was that some students lost focus of the purpose of the video.  These students still made videos explaining how negative numbers work, but there was too much emphasis on being funny.

I learned an important lesson through the implementation of this lesson.  I learned that it is important to have students be comfortable with the technology prior to using the technology in a lesson.  This seems obvious, but I was not cognizant of it.  My students would have benefitted from playing with the cameras and editing equipment on a day prior to the lesson so that on the day of the lesson the only learning that was happening was the math.

I also learned that this format of video production worked well with all of my students.  I cannot say that this will always be true, but my shy students, my students with ADHD, my artsy students all took part in and learned from this lesson.  It was very rewarding to walk around and hear students, working in groups that I picked, discussing the merits of each others’ ideas.  It was possible to actually hear the learning happening.  The students were constructing the learning socially, and I was able to hear it.

In addition, I liked that I was able to easily assess my students formally, informally, formatively, and summatively through this lesson.  As the lesson was unfolding, I could walk around and listen, informally, to what my students were thinking and learning.  However, in the end I had a final product the concretely represented what the group learned.

As mentioned before, I wish my students would have had time to practice with the equipment before the lesson.  The Flip editing software allows for students to easily and seamlessly stitch together clips.  My students struggled with the idea of filming in short takes and then editing them together.  This would have made the final products better, and it would have been easier to produce.  My students wanted to film their whole skit in one take, but if there was any mistake they had to film it all over again.  I think the students understood the idea of filming in small clips after they edited their videos, but this reinforces the idea that they needed to learn this first.

Overall the lesson was way more of a success than I expected.  My students had fun with the lesson, and they learned something in a memorable way.  Any day where I can have these two outcomes occur, I consider it a good day to be a teacher.

Please enjoy. Sorry about my cold. =)

Wetherbeelongdivision

Please check out my podcast.

http://twetherb.edublogs.org/files/2009/09/wetherbeepodcast.mp3

What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

• I haven’t exactly learned anything new in regards to effective teaching strategies when integrating technology this semester.  This does not, however, mean that I have not improved during this class.  CEP 810 and CEP 811 did a fantastic job laying the foundation for integrating technology with effective teaching.  In these two classes I learned lots of new strategies, but in this course I refined my knowledge.   I’ve improved in two main areas.

1. I’ve learned about the importance of implementing plans that have valid research behind it.  This is not to say that there must be research for a strategy to be effective, but if research shows that an idea has worked before, there is a better chance that it will work this time.
2. I’ve also learned about the importance of a plan, both short term and long term.  If I want to be able to successfully implement effective teaching strategies in the future, I will need to continue to grow and learn new strategies.

How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

• As with previous CEP classes, I was reminded that not all, perhaps hardly any, of the material on the Internet is poorly made and nearly useless.  It is extremely important to make sure that the web-based technology being implemented is actually soundly designed.  I was also aware that using other people’s pictures and drawings was wrong.  I previously didn’t really care.  I would never plagarise some elses writing, but I couldn’t find a way not to steal pictures.  In this course I learned about Creative Commons, more specifically flickrCC.  This has made me feel better and has helped me be a better teacher.

How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

• I never meet my goals.  This does not mean that I am unsatifisied with my growth, but there is always more to learn.  When I run out of things to learn, time will have passed me by and I will need to find a new profession.

Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

• I have two long term goals.  First, I want to create/find a more comprehensive list of technologies that may be integrated with my teaching.  I know that there is a lot more out there.  My second goal is to stay current with the newest technologies available.  Technology always changes more quickly than expected.  I will use four resources to continue with these goals.

1. Continue to monitor my ed tech RSS feeds
2. Continue to collaborate with my colleagues who are also involved in ed tech
3. Continue learning how to create web pages
4. Continue my membership in ISTE

I have enjoyed these first three CEP courses.  I learned way more than I ever expected.  I look forward to all that I am going to learn in the future.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

I have learned two lessons from implementing this project. The first lesson is to seek funding for this project through the school or an outside source. Although blogging should be free, and I am a strong advocate free/open source solutions, there are many more options for useful blog plug-ins and features if you are willing to pay for an account. A few dollars a month could make this project run much more smoothly and efficiently. The second lesson is that it is difficult to turn a situation around once the problem has grown too big. This project, I assume, would have been implemented much more smoothly and efficiently if it had been implemented at the beginning of a school year, rather than the end of a two year loop.

What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

In addition to the two lessons I learned, there are two lessons that others could learn from this project. The first lesson is to not make assumptions about students or their families solely based on their files. I assumed that most of my parents would not have email or Internet access since most of my students receive free lunch. This assumption was completely wrong. The majority of my parents have at least one email address. My students also report significant Internet usage at home, too. The second lesson that others can learn from this project is perseverance. I have not yet gotten very much positive feedback from this project. However, I still believe in the merit and eventual success of this project. I am going to stick with this project because I believe in it.

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

Next school year I plan on implementing the project exactly how I planned phase two. I strongly believe in my plan and the importance of this project. To date, I do not have enough information to make changes in the implementation plan for next year. However, this project will continue to evolve and grow as technology changes, my needs change, and from input from students and parents.

techquest-blog-3

Let me know what you think.

The results of your search…

Communication is good.  Blogs are good.  Parent-teacher blogs are useful.  These were relatively uniform opinions.  This was not a surprise to me.  I did find several useful postings though.

1.http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2008/08/increasing-teacher-parent-communication_15.html breaks down four different blogging sites.  From this information, and from my experience, I will stick with Edublogs.org.  However, I am still looking for a site that allows for free use of Feedblitz or some other email notification system for parents.

2.http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=736 gives several good pointers for setting up a classroom blog.

• Don’t simply cut and paste newsletters into your blog.  This will make the blog too long and parents won’t read that much
• Post more often.  Perhaps a subject each day.
• Use pictures.
• Add personal touches.
• Keep stats of how many visits you have (Google Analytics is one way).

3.http://www.slideshare.net/rbyrnetech/every-teacher-should-have-a-blog-corrected-presentation is a cute cartoon explaining the benefits of using a blog.  Basically, it says that parents will look at the blog rather than bother you.  Sign me up for that.

4.http://www.sometechsense.com/?p=99 talks about a blog more from a parents perspective.  This person strongly encourages teachers/schools to help parents set up their own Netvibes page so that they can monitor all of the blogs for their students’ teachers.

I am still searching for a way to easily (and freely) directly notify my parents of an update to the blog.

What you learned from performing this search.

As a default I went directly to Google to search for information on this topic.  I began by using Google Scholar, but I decided that I didn’t want research on this topic.  I wanted to hear directly from people using blogs in their classroom.  Therefore, I switched back to regular Google and searched for “parent teacher communication blogging” (minus the quotation marks).  The biggest flaw with my search method was that I only looked for information that cooraborated my thinking.  I did not search for any opinions that did not like blogs for classrooms.  I am sure they are out there, and I am sure I already know what they are going to say.  Everything I found supported what I was thinking.  I am very confident in my ability to seach for information on the Internet, so if I had to conduct this search again, I would use the exact same method (minus the detour into Google Scholar, which I simply think is really cool since it didn’t exist when I was in college before).

Educational Need (from previous post):

Relevant Research and Resources:

TBA on April 14, 2009

The plan for the portion you will implement during this course:

Given that there are only 9 weeks of school left, and the lack of efficiency in my current parent-teacher communication, I will create an email list from the email addresses I currently have for parents.  I will be updating my new blog every day or so with homework, events, etc.

The portion you will implement after this course completes:

Over the summer, if not sooner, I will find a more efficient way to notify parents of changes to the blog.  When I receive my new students in the fall, I will create a survey for the parents to fill out.  The survey will ask for their email address, what their Internet comfort level is, their ease of access to the Internet, how they prefer I keep them updated, etc.  I will then use this information to set up a more long term communication system with my blog.

How your project addresses the four common places of education:

I have no training, formal nor informal, with Schwab’s four common places of education, so I will do my best to address this portion.  This project seeks to bring all four common places of education to the same table.  If the teacher is teaching some subject matter, the students are learning some subject matter, the parents know what subject matter is being taught, then the teaching and learning can happen both at school and home.  This project seeks bring school and home closer together.  In the process, making the parent’s equal partners with the students and teachers in the children’s learning.  It also helps to remove the students as the middle men, so the parents can do more to help with the teaching and learning.

One of the keys to successful teaching is the partnership between parent, student, and teacher.  If this partnership has a failure to communicate, the learning process suffers.  The quality of the education is directly related to the quality of the communication.  Communication allows for concerns to be addressed, information to be exchanged, and for there to be consistency.  I think there is a problem, a deficit, with the communication in my classroom between the parents and me.

Communication between teachers and parents allows for concerns to be addressed.  These concerns include academic, behavioral, or social.  When concerns are not addressed several problems arise.  First, the problem tends to grow.  Second, the party dealing with the problem becomes increasingly frustrated.  Third, the other party has no idea there is a problem.  Four, the problem will be difficult to resolve.  Communication helps to work to sovle school problems at home and school.

Communication also allows for information to be shared.  There is a constant information that needs to be shared between home and school.  Parents need to know about up coming field trips, when report cards are coming home, when there is no school, etc.  Additionally, parents need to let teachers know when their child is going to be absent for a few days, when they want to celebrate their kids birthday, etc.  The sharing of information helps to keep everyone on the same page.

Finally, communication helps to create consistency between home and school.  Consistency is a cornerstone for children feeling safe and in turn being successful.  Consistency includes homework expectations, displine routines, methods of instruction, etc.  When parents, teachers, and students are on the same page, students learn more and do better in school.

Communication is one area that I think could be worked on in my class in order to boost student achievement.  Communication in my class between the parents and me usually runs through the students.  My students are not very reliable in their transmitting of messages.  I would like to improve the communication in my class.

What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

I learned that it is important to think about the fact that there are different strategies when integrating technology in teaching.  Prior to this course, Internet learning was simply Internet learning.  It did not occur to me that there could be inductive and deductive instruction using technology.  Obvious I know, but not intuitive to me.  I also learned about using technology to scaffold.  Most importantly, it made me cognisant of different teaching strategies and to be on the lookout for them.

How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

Integrating web-based technologies helped me think about and evaluate uses of technology in several ways.  It first made me realize that it is easy to create bad, relatively useless, pedagogically unsound web-based activities.  It also made me realize that the Internet needs regular updating.  I found numerous WebQuests that were made in the mid-nineties with out dated information and broken links.  Just because someone else made it, doesn’t mean that it is good.

How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

I have not met my personal goals for learning about technology integration.  If I had met my goals, it would be hard for me to continue in the program.  However, I have definitely made significant progress towards meeting my personal goals.  My main personal goal was to learn how to use html code to create webpages.  I am definitely more knowledgeable than I was at the beginning of the trimester.  I still have a lot that I want to learn about this subject, which I will address in the next section.

Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

In order to further my study towards meeting my new goal, I need to learn more about databases.  I am interesting in integrated database software, such as MySQL, with webpage design.  I have several projects I would like to setup for my students, but I need to know more on this topic.  In order to reach this goal I will look for opportunities in other classes to learn about this subject.  If this is inadequate, I will talk with several people I know and research the subject on my own.  Understanding how html and MySQL can be integrated is my newest quest.

A second goal that I have is to have my fellow colleagues become interested and active in designing and locating WebQuests and creating and locating StAIRs.  As a team, we will be stronger than me alone.  I have several colleagues who are already on board, and it will only take showing other colleagues what we are talking about to get them on board.