I believe that one of the most important concepts that I have learned in this class as well as 810 and 811 is to have a purpose of using technology, not to just use it for the sake of using it. I believe that this idea is why some older teachers can't wrap their heads around the idea of using technology. They can't think of problems within their room where technology can help. They have used all of their other tricks to help in these problem areas in the past. Why would they need to learn about technology when they have been successful with their jobs in the years that they have been teaching?
It's important for me to remember that there is so much technology out there, all I have to do is search for it. Having easy access is one positive for technology, but making sure that it is cohesive to the students learning is an area to be concerned about. It's important for a teacher to make sure that sites that they have found are school appropriate, age appropriate, and will benefit their student's learning rather than becoming a hindrance. "The new technologies provide opportunities for creating learning environments that extend the possibilities of "old". (Bransford Article) Technology makes it possible for students to learn by doing, build upon previous knowledge, refine their understand, and receive feedback, these ideas all build upon their education and help them to become better learners (Bransford Article).
My personal goals were simple...learn more about technology and how I could integrate it into the classroom to provide my students with a great learning environment where they would be successful. I believe that I have met that goal. This was my first year of teaching where I had taken CEP classes and was able to take those ideas that I have learned and incorporate them into my students environment.
I still have a personal goal of creating a website where my students would participate in a reading challenge. This technology would allow students to take tests on books that they had read as well as tally their points earned from their books and add their points to their team points. This website would have my students in groups that would be racing towards a goal, which team would get there the fastest. Reading becomes a mundane subject in school and I think that a website like this would encourage my students as well as give them some pride on what their groups were accomplishing. Of course the winners would be rewarded with something little and once the goal was met the groups would be redefined. This is a long term goal that I eventually hope to reach.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
TechQuest Project Evaluation
With the year winding down my TechQuest project will also be coming to an end soon. The kids in North Carolina take their version of the MEAP at the end of the year. In speaking with my colleague I know that she wants to end the blogging earlier than the school year ending so that she has time to work on her end of the year test.
I believe that this activity went really well for myself as well as my students. We were able to use the N.C. student's blog to evaluate their use of the writing process as well as learn new information from those students that we may not have had a chance to learn. For example, my students know now what the natural resources are in North Carolina.
Going into this project I thought that I would assign the blogging topics to my students, but as we were working on the blogs it seemed more natural for them to come up with topics themselves. They work collaboratively every Thursday morning and create a list of about 7 topics that they would like to blog about that day. They don't have to use everything from the list but I do want them to use the list as a guide.
I also started to, randomly, assign a topic that was mandatory. It's an easy assessment for them to accomplish within their blogs. If they don't remember the topic then they take out their books and they re-read on that topic. That has turned out to be a great research and learning opportunity for my students. As I reflect on my blogging experiment, I realized that there aren't many areas that I would change within my project. This is due to the fact that I changed them already while we were working on the project. One area that I would change is how I choose the students who get to blog. I don't like the idea that only one gets to blog at a time. I worry with the classes that will be coming into my room, would that choice work for the next class? I don't think that it will always work the way it did this year.
I think the most important lesson I learned in this experiment was to have the students as involved as possible. They get so excited about having ownership over their blogs. They like the fact that they get to pick their topics and it's never a fight to get them to challenge themselves in writing more paragraphs. I believe this is due to fact that they are involved in the topic process. It's also important for others to understand that my students got so excited when it was time to blog. They liked the process of it and they liked to be learners of the N.C. students and be teachers to them as well.
I will be putting blogging into my classroom for next year. I will be keeping in contact with my friend in North Carolina and I will be branching out and finding another teacher whom we can start another blog with. I am hoping to add a blog a year until I have about four blogs so that my students can be put into groups to blog. This is a little scary for me to think about and it's exciting at the same time. I really feel that my students improved their writing skills this year as well as learning how to add more detail into their writing. I hope that they can retain that information to help them on their 4th grade writing MEAP.
I believe that this activity went really well for myself as well as my students. We were able to use the N.C. student's blog to evaluate their use of the writing process as well as learn new information from those students that we may not have had a chance to learn. For example, my students know now what the natural resources are in North Carolina.
Going into this project I thought that I would assign the blogging topics to my students, but as we were working on the blogs it seemed more natural for them to come up with topics themselves. They work collaboratively every Thursday morning and create a list of about 7 topics that they would like to blog about that day. They don't have to use everything from the list but I do want them to use the list as a guide.
I also started to, randomly, assign a topic that was mandatory. It's an easy assessment for them to accomplish within their blogs. If they don't remember the topic then they take out their books and they re-read on that topic. That has turned out to be a great research and learning opportunity for my students. As I reflect on my blogging experiment, I realized that there aren't many areas that I would change within my project. This is due to the fact that I changed them already while we were working on the project. One area that I would change is how I choose the students who get to blog. I don't like the idea that only one gets to blog at a time. I worry with the classes that will be coming into my room, would that choice work for the next class? I don't think that it will always work the way it did this year.
I think the most important lesson I learned in this experiment was to have the students as involved as possible. They get so excited about having ownership over their blogs. They like the fact that they get to pick their topics and it's never a fight to get them to challenge themselves in writing more paragraphs. I believe this is due to fact that they are involved in the topic process. It's also important for others to understand that my students got so excited when it was time to blog. They liked the process of it and they liked to be learners of the N.C. students and be teachers to them as well.
I will be putting blogging into my classroom for next year. I will be keeping in contact with my friend in North Carolina and I will be branching out and finding another teacher whom we can start another blog with. I am hoping to add a blog a year until I have about four blogs so that my students can be put into groups to blog. This is a little scary for me to think about and it's exciting at the same time. I really feel that my students improved their writing skills this year as well as learning how to add more detail into their writing. I hope that they can retain that information to help them on their 4th grade writing MEAP.
Monday, April 19, 2010
TechQuest Implementation
Podcast of my the implementation of my TechQuest: Blogging for the writing process
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Internet Research for TechQuest Project
It was surprisingly easy to find Internet research to support my TechQuest idea. 1. Teaching Technology Today http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47 is a helpful website because it explains what a blog is for those that do not know. It also explains some of the 'blogging' terminology. It explains some educational benefits for using blogs within the classroom i.e. Highly motivating to students. It explains that a blog can be used as an educational tool and that blogs can serve four basic functions: Class Management, Collaboration, Discussions, and Student Portfolios. This article was written by an educator that had 22 years experience within the classroom.
2. Why let our students blog? Rachel Boyd, New Zealand. This is a YouTube video that is just over 2 minutes long and gives short snippets of why we as educators should let our students blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whm3pxqkvB8 This is a video that shows photographs of young children using the computer and has words come up explaining why it is important to let our students blog, words like; communication, literacy, sharing, ownership and engagement.
3. The Edublogger http://theedublogger.com/about/getting-started-with-edublogs is a great website for those teachers that are interested in blogging but they are not quite sure of how or where to get started. It shows how to get started and what to do if you are in need of help. As well as supplying sites about using blogs with students.
4. Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson http://www.nea.org/tools/EW-Blogging-Its-Elementary-My%20Dear-Watson.html is an article through the NEA, National Education Association. This article is not just for blogging but for elementary blogging. It gives safety tips on elementary students using a blog through their school.
There are a few ideas that are prevalent throughout these sites that I found on blogs. Blogs help students, especially elementary students, hone their writing skills. It makes writing exciting and different. The students get a change of pace with their audience and this idea gets them motivated and engaged.
I used Yahoo as my search engine. I searched more than once and used different terminology each time I searched. I think that it would be very easy for a teacher interested in blogging to find websites that would be beneficial to them. Blogging is a very hot topic right now. I would like to use some of the websites that I read about in the Valenza article to expand my search.
A good portion of the websites I found were of people's personal experiences as well as ideas of how to blog, these are helpful to those teachers looking to blog for the first time.
I did find that the sites I found solidified my thoughts on blogs as well as what I learned about blogs in CEP 811. Blogs are helpful to students of all ages as long as they are used to expand on education and not used just for the purpose of using technology.
2. Why let our students blog? Rachel Boyd, New Zealand. This is a YouTube video that is just over 2 minutes long and gives short snippets of why we as educators should let our students blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whm3pxqkvB8 This is a video that shows photographs of young children using the computer and has words come up explaining why it is important to let our students blog, words like; communication, literacy, sharing, ownership and engagement.
3. The Edublogger http://theedublogger.com/about/getting-started-with-edublogs is a great website for those teachers that are interested in blogging but they are not quite sure of how or where to get started. It shows how to get started and what to do if you are in need of help. As well as supplying sites about using blogs with students.
4. Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson http://www.nea.org/tools/EW-Blogging-Its-Elementary-My%20Dear-Watson.html is an article through the NEA, National Education Association. This article is not just for blogging but for elementary blogging. It gives safety tips on elementary students using a blog through their school.
There are a few ideas that are prevalent throughout these sites that I found on blogs. Blogs help students, especially elementary students, hone their writing skills. It makes writing exciting and different. The students get a change of pace with their audience and this idea gets them motivated and engaged.
I used Yahoo as my search engine. I searched more than once and used different terminology each time I searched. I think that it would be very easy for a teacher interested in blogging to find websites that would be beneficial to them. Blogging is a very hot topic right now. I would like to use some of the websites that I read about in the Valenza article to expand my search.
A good portion of the websites I found were of people's personal experiences as well as ideas of how to blog, these are helpful to those teachers looking to blog for the first time.
I did find that the sites I found solidified my thoughts on blogs as well as what I learned about blogs in CEP 811. Blogs are helpful to students of all ages as long as they are used to expand on education and not used just for the purpose of using technology.
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