Friday, December 4, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Reflection
Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts are all things that I had heard of before this class, but I never really knew what they were. The materials in this course did an excellent job of explaining how each tool functioned and how it could be used as a powerful instructional tool. This course also gave me the opportunity to practice using these tools as I created my own blog, wiki, and podcast. I found these experiences to be most beneficial, as I was able to learn hands-on how to create and modify these web 2.0 tools. Also, the process of finding and following the blogs of peers has connected me to a whole world of resources that I will continue to use after this course is over.
One of the most important things that I learned from this course is the concept of the 21st century learner. The idea that students of today learn differently than students of the past will have many implications in my classroom. Because I am more aware of the skills that students will need to possess, I am redirecting my instruction to better suit those needs. My mission is for every lesson to strengthen the skills of collaboration, communication, or leadership. These skills are essential for anyone entering the 21st century workplace and I want my students to utilize them whenever possible.
As this course draws to a close, I plan to continue the positive habits that I have formed. The most important will be continuing to follow the educational blogs that I have been reading. This simple act of staying current will help me learn about new technologies as they immerge and provide me with creative lessons that others have already found successful. Another habit that I will be continuing from this class is my occasional blogging. I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts with the world and seeing what others have to say. I believe that staying connected to the blogging world, by reading and writing, I am keeping my professional skills sharp as strive to increase student achievement.
The first long-term goal that I have for my classroom is to increase the amount of technology that I use in the classroom. My district is well-funded in technology and I hardly take advantage of it. I am going to create more lessons that utilize technology and the Internet. I know that many of my students currently use the Internet for entertainment purposes and I want to show them what a powerful tool the Internet can be. The biggest challenge that this goal poses is that I must do additional work to revamp my lessons to include technology. This will require me going the extra mile and trying some new things, but I believe that my students will benefit from the change.
My second long-term goal is to connect with a group of other teachers from all over the world. I would really like for my students to work collaboratively with students from other classrooms across the world and to do that, I will need to make many connections with teachers from all over. This act of collaboration on my part will also act as an excellent model for my students as to how they should work with others to achieve a common goal.
Resources
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). [Motion Picture]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
One of the most important things that I learned from this course is the concept of the 21st century learner. The idea that students of today learn differently than students of the past will have many implications in my classroom. Because I am more aware of the skills that students will need to possess, I am redirecting my instruction to better suit those needs. My mission is for every lesson to strengthen the skills of collaboration, communication, or leadership. These skills are essential for anyone entering the 21st century workplace and I want my students to utilize them whenever possible.
As this course draws to a close, I plan to continue the positive habits that I have formed. The most important will be continuing to follow the educational blogs that I have been reading. This simple act of staying current will help me learn about new technologies as they immerge and provide me with creative lessons that others have already found successful. Another habit that I will be continuing from this class is my occasional blogging. I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts with the world and seeing what others have to say. I believe that staying connected to the blogging world, by reading and writing, I am keeping my professional skills sharp as strive to increase student achievement.
The first long-term goal that I have for my classroom is to increase the amount of technology that I use in the classroom. My district is well-funded in technology and I hardly take advantage of it. I am going to create more lessons that utilize technology and the Internet. I know that many of my students currently use the Internet for entertainment purposes and I want to show them what a powerful tool the Internet can be. The biggest challenge that this goal poses is that I must do additional work to revamp my lessons to include technology. This will require me going the extra mile and trying some new things, but I believe that my students will benefit from the change.
My second long-term goal is to connect with a group of other teachers from all over the world. I would really like for my students to work collaboratively with students from other classrooms across the world and to do that, I will need to make many connections with teachers from all over. This act of collaboration on my part will also act as an excellent model for my students as to how they should work with others to achieve a common goal.
Resources
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). [Motion Picture]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
One of my assignments for grad school this week is to check out The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Basically, this is an organization whose goal is to re-focus K-12 curriculum to accentuate skills that will benefit students most in the 21st century. My initial reaction to this site (and the organization) was this that it had a righteous goal, but they probably would not influence any real change. I read through their framework that included traditional subjects (language, math, science, history, civics, and the arts) and supplemental subjects like economics, geography. Economics and geography are topics that are usually covered in some kind of history or social studies class, but the partnerships identifies these two as stand-alone subjects.
Something that surprised me about the curriculum was the absence of rigorous technological training. I assumed that a 21st century skill-set would be filled with computer and technical classes. The biggest surprise I experienced was the impressive list of strategic council members the partnership has. This is what changed my view of this organization from a fly-by-night group of educators trying to create change to a true partnership capable of revamping the US curriculum. The list of council members includes: Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Ford, Hp, Verizon, and Disney. These companies are considered (at least by me) to be big players in the field of technology and add validity to the partnership's goals. With the support of these companies, I believe the partnership may have the ability to create real change in the education field.
The only issue I have with the partnership is that I am not seeing the effects of their work. I have never heard of 21st century skills until now. I feel like there must be more they could do to get their name/cause out to the educational community. It seems like teachers, principals, and school administrators would have to stubble across this website in order to know about it. I think the partnership should take a more aggressive approach to get their message heard. A direct mailing (or emailing) would help spread the word. Because they are not proposing radical changes to curriculum, I believe that most people in the education community would be likely to listen to the partnership.
Based on the mission statement from the site, I feel like any changes the partnership would make would be very beneficial to students. I agree with them that we need to start teaching students the skills and mindsets that they will need to be successful in a global future. Students would have no trouble at all adapting to more relevant instruction. Teachers, on the other hand, would most likely resist any type of change. I try to be flexible in my classroom and use a variety of methods of instruction. In my own instruction, I have made an effort to focus on using current technologies and methods of communicating. Hopefully the ideas of the Partnership for 21st century skills will catch on in schools across the US and our students will thrive in the future.
Check out the site for yourself:
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
Something that surprised me about the curriculum was the absence of rigorous technological training. I assumed that a 21st century skill-set would be filled with computer and technical classes. The biggest surprise I experienced was the impressive list of strategic council members the partnership has. This is what changed my view of this organization from a fly-by-night group of educators trying to create change to a true partnership capable of revamping the US curriculum. The list of council members includes: Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Ford, Hp, Verizon, and Disney. These companies are considered (at least by me) to be big players in the field of technology and add validity to the partnership's goals. With the support of these companies, I believe the partnership may have the ability to create real change in the education field.
The only issue I have with the partnership is that I am not seeing the effects of their work. I have never heard of 21st century skills until now. I feel like there must be more they could do to get their name/cause out to the educational community. It seems like teachers, principals, and school administrators would have to stubble across this website in order to know about it. I think the partnership should take a more aggressive approach to get their message heard. A direct mailing (or emailing) would help spread the word. Because they are not proposing radical changes to curriculum, I believe that most people in the education community would be likely to listen to the partnership.
Based on the mission statement from the site, I feel like any changes the partnership would make would be very beneficial to students. I agree with them that we need to start teaching students the skills and mindsets that they will need to be successful in a global future. Students would have no trouble at all adapting to more relevant instruction. Teachers, on the other hand, would most likely resist any type of change. I try to be flexible in my classroom and use a variety of methods of instruction. In my own instruction, I have made an effort to focus on using current technologies and methods of communicating. Hopefully the ideas of the Partnership for 21st century skills will catch on in schools across the US and our students will thrive in the future.
Check out the site for yourself:
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Classroom Blogging
When I first started thinking about the idea of using blogging as an instructional tool, because I teach English, my mind immediately went to novels. I love studying novels with my 7th and 8th graders. One of my favorite things is hearing their reactions and opinions about the story. When I have class discussions, I usually don't get too many students who really want to share. I am constantly pulling teeth to get students to respond.
If I had students blog their reactions and feelings about the novel, I would get more responses. Students would be able to post responses to prompts and then leave each other comments. This would enhance my lessons because discussions would be a lot more in depth and would not be constrained by classroom time. Also, I think many students would have more to share because they would have had time to formulate what they want to say rather than coming up with something on the spot in class. I think blogs are a great way to make classroom discussions deeper and more meaningful.
If I had students blog their reactions and feelings about the novel, I would get more responses. Students would be able to post responses to prompts and then leave each other comments. This would enhance my lessons because discussions would be a lot more in depth and would not be constrained by classroom time. Also, I think many students would have more to share because they would have had time to formulate what they want to say rather than coming up with something on the spot in class. I think blogs are a great way to make classroom discussions deeper and more meaningful.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
it's a good thing technology is everywhere
I experienced a recent computer failure that has helped illuminate two important points about technology;
1. We have become extremely reliant upon technology
2. Technology is extremely prevalent.
So my computer stopped working and I started freaking out. I had no way to check my email, get information, or participate in my online class. Once the initial panic wore off, I started to be bored. Usually I spend a considerable amount of time surfing the internet, emailing, facebooking, and watching hulu. This experience really showed me how much I have been relying on my computer.
Now the good news. Because we live in a society filled with computers and other technologies, my boredom did not last long. I pulled out my itouch and was able to check my email and get my web surfing fix. That held me over until the next day when I was able to log on at school and complete some schoolwork online. It took my computer breaking down for me to remember/realize the fact that technology is everywhere. I tend to think of my computer as the only way to go online, but this experience helped me to see the technology all around me that I often take for granted.
1. We have become extremely reliant upon technology
2. Technology is extremely prevalent.
So my computer stopped working and I started freaking out. I had no way to check my email, get information, or participate in my online class. Once the initial panic wore off, I started to be bored. Usually I spend a considerable amount of time surfing the internet, emailing, facebooking, and watching hulu. This experience really showed me how much I have been relying on my computer.
Now the good news. Because we live in a society filled with computers and other technologies, my boredom did not last long. I pulled out my itouch and was able to check my email and get my web surfing fix. That held me over until the next day when I was able to log on at school and complete some schoolwork online. It took my computer breaking down for me to remember/realize the fact that technology is everywhere. I tend to think of my computer as the only way to go online, but this experience helped me to see the technology all around me that I often take for granted.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Welcome!
Thanks for checking out my blog. This blog is all about my experiences and views on education. Right now I am working as a teaching assistant who helps teachers intergrate technology into the classroom. Check back regularly as I am planning to update often.
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