The two NETS-T indicators I have
chosen in order to strengthen my confidence are:
1d. Model collaborative knowledge
construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in
face-to-face and virtual environments.
3b. Collaborate with students,
peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to
support student success and innovation.
I chose these two indicators because
I feel I have room for improvement in the areas of facilitating and inspiring
student learning and creativity, and also modeling digital age work and
learning. The goal I would like to set for strengthening my confidence and
proficiency in the first indicator is to establish a collaborative partnership
with the other middle school within my district. I would like to collaborate
with another class through blogging, utilizing a wikispace, a social networking
site such as Twitter, or even through e-mail. To achieve this goal, I will
begin my own collaboration with another eighth grade teacher from the other
middle school and discuss different ways our students could utilize technology
to communicate with each other, and to help each other with the math we are
learning. I might also ask how they utilize technology with their students in
class in terms of collaboration. I will also research other ways different
teachers and classrooms engage students, colleagues, and others in learning. To
monitor my progress, I think it’s important to keep in contact with the teacher
and develop a plan for how the students can utilize the technology as a collaborative
learning experience. It is also important to reflect upon how the students are
responding to the collaborative efforts put in place. In order to evaluate and
extend my learning, it is important to maintain a collaborative relationship
with this other teacher so we can continue the developed partnership. I also
think we should examine the effectiveness of the collaborative knowledge gained
by the students and teachers during the experience if we do set something up
between our classes. This would be my first experience with collaborative construction
with technology so I would be open to any suggestions as to how other teachers might
utilize this within their own classrooms.
The second indicator I chose
concerns collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members to
support student success and innovation. I currently have a classroom website
where students can access basic classroom information such as homework, notes,
announcements, etc. I would like to extend this piece and incorporate some way
of collaborating with the students in the event they want to reach out to
others while they are at home. There are two options I was thinking I could
take action with. The first option would be to set up a classroom blog. The
second option would be to set up a classroom Facebook page. I feel as if the second
option would be best only because so many students are on Facebook daily. A
student might see a math-related question posted on the page by a classmate or
peer, and would easily be able to respond to them. I have considered giving my
students a survey for which networking tool they would find to be the most
beneficial for them in their success. It would also be fun to post a challenging
problem and having the students interact with each other to come up with an
answer. This would be something done on their own time. I do have two concerns with
this idea. Some of my students do not have access to a computer at home. However,
most can access Facebook on their cell phones. Secondly, I would want to make
sure their responses to one another are appropriate and on task. Addressing
this up front would be essential. In order to monitor their progress, I would
be able to see who is posting and encouraging ALL students to post if they can.
To evaluate and extend their learning, I would make sure the Facebook page or
blogging tool is being used appropriately. I would ask or survey students
within the class to find out what components they feel to be the most helpful. This
will be good for me because then I can make adjustments to what I can post in
order to help the students or what actions I can take to appropriately meet
their needs.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of utilizing a blog or Facebook in your classroom to help promote even more communication and collaboration with your students. Another idea to enhance this even more would be to connect your students to the community, including professionals that are applying the things your students are learning in class. These community members and professionals could also get on the blog or Facebook to help assist and provide even more knowledge to your students. This could also help in your efforts to use constructive collaboration both in your classroom and with other teachers.
Mark
Emily,
ReplyDeleteYou have really laid out some great strategies for working on the NETs you have chosen. Having a collaborative partnership is a great way to share ideas and network with other students and teachers outside of your school walls. By first collaborating with another teacher, you could brainstorm the best way for your students to communicate – whether it be through blog, wiki, etc. I think a blog would be an easy way to get students involved, while wikis would be an awesome way for students to collaborate on projects. As you mentioned, a technology preference survey may be a good way to find out what tools your students find the most engaging. The more motivated they are with the technology, the greater the chance that they will be motivated to complete the tech-related tasks you assign them. In order to prepare for this goal, I would do some research on wikis and similar online collaboration tools. See which ones you like the most (and are user-friendly!) and try them out with your own students before moving on to collaboration with the other middle school. If the other teacher does the same, you may be able to test and trial even more tools.
Your have also outlined some strong strategies for your second goal. I think that having a classroom website is a great way to get your parents involved and informed. I have my own website and have seen the difference it makes! Again, I think that the tech survey is a great place to start with your second goal. Having a way that students can ask questions and work together (Facebook, blog, etc.) on problems outside of the classroom would be beneficial in many ways. First, students who may forget to ask questions in class (or may be too shy/nervous) can ask them in a format that for them, is probably less daunting. Second, as you mentioned, you would be able to see the dialogue that is happening between them. I think that as long as you laid out the guidelines for this type of communication beforehand, you would get positive results. You could even post extra credit problems every so often so that students are even more motivated to check out the site.
Overall, I think that your goals and use of the GAME plan for each is right on. Being able to identify the areas that we need to work on can often be the hardest part… but you’ve already done this! I think that as you address these goals, you will find even more ways to extend the learning that is taking place. Be flexible, open-minded, and confident (as stated in our videos this week!) and both you and your students will benefit. Great post!
-Rachel
Mark - That's what I was thinking too with the Facebook page or Blogging. Community members could incorporate their thoughts onto the class page. I have always wanted to do a project that incorporates mathematics in jobs and somehow encourage collaboration with businesses and the students to show the students the importance of learning and knowing math. Of course I always tell them they will need to know it, but if they hear it from the business community members, maybe it will start clicking! :)
ReplyDeleteEmily,
DeleteThat is a great idea! Last year I actually put a post on my class blog dealing with the real world applications of mathematics, etc. and then had my students all post a comment to the post sharing a job they are interested in and use for math in that job. I tried to get some local business professionals to comment back to the students too, but I had a little trouble my first time. I did not get much more than my sister (a nurse) commenting back to a few students that wanted to be nurses. But it was still a great experience that I think I could build off of.
Mark
Rachel - Thank you for your post! Your suggestions and input is really appreciated! I have my own class website so the blogging or Facebook page would be an extension to that. However, I wanted to get your opinion on how you utilize your class website. What are some things you include on there? Do you have a check-in where students let you know when they go to the website?
ReplyDeleteIn the past, I have offered extra credit, but it seems that only a few of them really get into it.
Thank you for your support and suggestions!
Hi Emily,
DeleteBecause my students have more significant disabilities, it is their parents who access my website. My website is run through our county's site, so unfortunately there is little I can do to make it more interactive (I am lucky that I am able to change fonts or add pictures! LOL). On my site, I include weekly announcements regarding upcoming school/class events, contact info for all of the therapists/staff that work with my students, a calendar of events, pictures of our class, and links to great resource sites. I also include "Home Connections", that allow parents to see what content I'm focusing on in the classroom, so that they can reinforce it at home. At the bottom of my page, there is also a folder that has important documents that they can download and print (ie. classroom newsletter, supply lists). I can't see exactly who visits my site, but I am to view how many "hits" it gets. I am working with my supervisor on having another way for us to create more functional classroom websites. What program do you use?
Thanks for the response to my response! :)
-Rachel
Emily,
ReplyDeleteHave you considered a Voicethread for your class? I can't remember which class we experimented with them in, but I felt it to be a great multimedia tool that allowed for much more creative collaboration than a simple text blog. It would also make communication with parents and the community easy and show your innovation as well!
I also like the idea of Facebook, because as you said almost every student is already familiar with it. It would be awful hard to moderate though, technically near impossible since you can't approve posts before people use them. I shudder to think of the fight you'd have with your IT administrator to get it approved to use in school as well.Good luck, I hope I gave you some food for thought!
Emily,
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of Edmodo? It is the education form of Facebook. It looks just like Facebook, but allows for classes to communicate and for teachers to watch over what is being said. You can also post video and web links, as well as upload documents for the students. There is even a parent code so parents can see, but not post.
Just like Facebook, there is an app that students can download for free to their phone too.
Whenever I post something online for the students to do, I always give two nights for the assignment to be completed. This allows for students with no internet to make arrangements to stay after and use the school computers, or seek out a friend's internet. Do you happen to have extended hours at you school that allow students to stay and work on online assignments? Our media center typically stays open one hour after the end of school just for this reason.
Great post - looks like you have some wonderful plans to work with!
Danielle
I was thinking the same thing, Danielle! Edmodo looks very similar to Facebook and is much more "secure" for classroom use. It also has a Smartphone App which notifies students of new posts--which would be helpful with the "homework help" kind of questions. It also sends students email notifications of posts if they submit an email address during sign-up.
DeleteI also find I have to give two nights (or more) for an online assignment as many of my students don't have online access at home. (Maybe 10% of them do not.) Unfortunately, our Media Center is closed because we don't have a librarian, so our students must make do in other ways. I have one student who types his work on his laptop, then goes to McDonald's to submit it because he has the laptop but no Internet access at home. The nice thing about Edmodo is that if they are making posts, most of the time they can complete and submit their work from their phones (which most of them do have).
Thank you for this suggestion! I have set up my Edmodo account and will be looking further into how to set it up! :)
DeleteLoved the suggestion!!!
Emily,
ReplyDeleteLike Danielle suggested, Edmodo is almost exactly like Facebook, but it's in a more controlled environment. Although Facebook would be great because most students are on it daily, Edmodo can easily become a part of their daily routine, too, since there is an app and easily accessed. Furthermore, Facebook posts may be overlooked and passed by depending on the amount of posts from others on student timelines. I know I never see everyone's posts on my Facebook.
I am planning to implement it at my school starting next school year (April 2013). My school frowns on Facebook being used as an educational tool, but Edmodo is great because only those you allow can enter the classroom. It keeps the your class active and connected beyond the limited time at school. I cannot wait to use it. I feel the students will be involved and interactive with it constantly.
In addition, I believe you can set up a classroom between schools as well with more than one teacher as the admins. This may help with your collaboration efforts.
As for a blog, I am using one right now and plan to continue using it so students realize that their work can be seen by anyone in the world. I have never set up a collaboration with another school using it, but I believe a blog can be very helpful in that department, too. The blog is similar to our discussion posts, where I post a topic of discussion and students must post their opinion and come back and reply to two other students' posts. So far it has been a great example of authentic learning and it occurs outside of the classroom.
Good Luck with your quest!! It sounds like a great plan!
Jeremy
Thank you, Jeremy!!!! I will be looking further into Edmodo! What a great program!!!
DeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI love how you are actively looking for ways for your students to communicate through technology. I have found that students are very excited when using technology and expressing their thoughts. I mean think about it, this is what they do all day everyday with Facebook and Twitter. I have recently been given iPads for my classroom, and before that I was using the computer labs or smartphones for students to communicate. Either way, a great tool that can be used in a the small scale or large scale for students to communicate during a video, project, class discussion, or even as daily bell ringers is Today's Meet. Today's Meet is a online classroom discussion board that the teacher can control. All of the posts and comments can be monitored and appear in real-time. I used Today's Meet this year as my classes watched the Presidential Debates. I was amazed at the quality of questions and and responses that I was viewing. Technology seems to open the minds of our students and allows them the freedom to get their thoughts and ideas out easier. Today's Meet is just one small suggestion. There are many more out there that can be used effectively. I just wanted to let you know that you do not have to be limited to classroom blogs.
Thank you for the suggestion! I will be checking this out! I like the idea of being able to monitor the posts, etc. This is really important to me as I know kids are naive, however some students don't realize that once it's out there, so many people can see what they post!
DeleteThanks!!!