Update

Just thought I would take a minute to update.  I've been extremely busy between two jobs.  Subbing has been going great so far.  I had a placement at middle school yesterday.  It was my first time at that level, I had been getting called for the elementary school prior to that.  It was extremely chaotic in the morning because there was an overflow of subs in the office due to a teacher training workshop going on.  Time was ticking and I was waiting to get my assignment.  I like to have enough time to prepare and read over the plans.  One of the most stressful things is only having 5-10 mins to prepare.  So, I was thrown into an eighth grade English class!  Not as scary as I thought, being that I almost look like a student myself.  First period went great and as the day went on, the students got more rambunctious.  I had a few challenges with students who were being inappropriate and just talking about things that weren't related to the lesson.  All in all, it wasn't bad; I was able to maintain control and get through what the teacher had left, for the most part.  I like subbing at the middle school level because of the way the day is broken up. I like having new sets of students and being able to refine my lessons if I know something did or did not work well for a previous class. 

 I've been trying to find more educational pages on Facebook to follow.  Here are some I will share:
National Geographic
The Teacher's Hub
Social Media in Education
Edutopia
Verizon Thinkfinity
Gateway to 21st Century Skills
I am Teacher

There are tons of great resources and information for teachers on these pages.  

First Day Called To Sub

My first day called for a sub job was yesterday.  I was more excited than nervous.  It was a nice first day because I was asked to sub for a teacher's aide.  Since this was the case, I was able to get a feel for the school and classrooms.  I worked mainly with one student and took the whole class to recess, lunch, and gym.  Overall, the day went good.  I was able to work well with the student I was assigned to and get him motivated to do his work.  I learned that recess and lunch can be chaotic times.. Unfortunately, I did not have a whistle like the other aides in the lunch room had, so it was difficult to draw all students attention when it was so loud.  Students definitely did try to take advantage, knowing that I was new.  Getting this preview, I know that one of the most important things is to establish rules early and clearly.  

Behavior Management:

I liked an idea that the classroom teacher used to monitor behavior.  She had a bulletin board in the room with all of the students' names on it.  Under each student's name, there were three index (sized) cards, one red, yellow, and green.  They were layered on top of each other in this order.  After being verbally warned more than one time, the student would be asked to change their card from "green" to "yellow."  Each day the students start off at green.  Then after students got to red, there would be consequences.  I like this system because it teaches the students that they are in control of their own behavior and they are physically moving something to remind them of that.  Students can visually see where they are and how the majority of the class is.  

A New School Year, A New Experience

I am both nervous and excited to start substitute teaching.  I have been reading a few books to help prepare myself:

• Substitute Teacher Handbook K-12
• Substitute Teaching from A-Z

I've also purchased some books such as Mind Joggers! 5-15 Minute Activities That Make Kids Think.  I want to be as prepared as I can.  I have looked at the district's website and printed out information on the school policies and also found some really neat web resources there.  This blog is full of resources :  Teaching 2.0  A Professional Development Resource Blog.  There is an infinite number of tech resources out there for the new school year!

Right now, I am in the process of making a binder to organize everything that I will need to carry with me, such as my assignment logs, teacher reports, student activities, school calendars and locations, etc.  I will be subbing mainly for elementary and middle school students and need to have a variety of plans.  If there is time to fill, I want to have something that I can implement and that is educational.  I've continued to build my book collection for different levels.

I have read tips for substitute teachers on management and organization.  I plan on going in with an open mind and getting the most out of my experience.  I will keep a notebook of different ideas I see in classrooms that I may want to use in my own one day.  I know that there will be good days and bad and will use each day to shape my teaching style.  I can read different tips and strategies but won't see the reality until it happens.  Being prepared and organized is the first step! :)

Continuing My Professional Blog

I really would like to continue to utilize this blog that I created with my Masters program for Integrating technology. I will be starting to substitute teach in the upcoming school year and would like to use this space to write about my experiences and put up any resources that I find or would like to share. I am going to put an effort into finding ways to use the web to benefit my teaching career.

As I probably have mentioned in earlier posts, I am unfamiliar with Twitter. Today, I logged in again (it has been a few months since I created it). I am going to use my Twitter site to follow educational posts. Here is a link to my page: https://twitter.com/Michelle0529. You can see who I have began to follow there.

New and Emerging Technologies - Final Reflection

During this course, I've learned a lot about the transformation of digital tools and the stages that technology passes through (McLuhan's Tetrad). I've also learned how to be a teacher leader and the different steps or approaches I can take to advocate for technology programs at my school. One of the themes of this course that I came across several times was that student learning styles are changing and as teachers, we need to consider that and be open to trying new things in our classrooms. Almost all students interact with some form of technology outside of school. In order to make learning relevant to their everyday lives, we need to bring some of that technology into school and show students how to use those tools in an educational way. By showing students how to successfully manage and organize the large amounts of information that are available to them, they will become better self-directed learners. With technology, students need to know that they can customize their own learning experiences. This course has provided an unlimited number of ways to customize curricula. We have studied different virtual environments, such as online learning modules (Moodle), multi-user virtual environments (Second Life), digital games, and creating personal learning networks. Teachers can be unsure about using certain virtual environments because they are unfamiliar with them. From my own experience, I was unfamiliar with MUVES, like Second Life, and was unaware of all of the educational benefits. I learned that there are many resources for teachers in Second Life, including professional development opportunities. Teachers can also meet in Second Life from different places around the world to share ideas and have conferences. Students are able to create avatars, build worlds, and collaborate. According to Will Richardson (2009), we should "be proactive in educating about social networking." Using MUVES creates opportunities for students to learn in a multi-sensory environment, problem-solve, and view content through multiple representations. A major benefit of using online learning tools is that it reduces student's threat of failure. In virtual environments, students can experiment with trial and error. Several software provides immediate feedback. What more could a teacher ask for?

In demonstration of my learning, I created a lesson that integrated digital mini games and other interactive web sites. The content area the lesson focuses on is Science, specifically, human body systems. Students watch a video clip from Brain Pop and discuss familiar systems as a class. During the explore phase, students work with a partner to interact with these web sites: Kinetic City - All Systems Are Go!, Inner Body, and Kids Health. While gathering information from these sites, students are asked to record notes on a graphic organizer. At the closing of the lesson, students take an online quiz. Through these web sites, students are able to navigate the body systems and focus on what they feel they need to. At the Kinetic City site, students play a mini game where they match body parts to their body systems. This game is very content centered, but gives students a fun way to learn. I was able to demonstrate my learning in this course through creating this lesson because I successfully integrated educational digital games that were goal-directed. Using these web sites, provides an example of how technology can enhance student learning and focus on multiple learning styles. I also constructed a report on influencing adoption and explored grant resources. I found several great grant resources and programs aimed at technology integration.

According to Fullan (2001), "change is a process, not an event" (p.40). Adjustments I will make to my efforts and teaching will focus on this thought. Change is ongoing and should be managed in steps. When I have a classroom of my own, I will create a mixed learning atmosphere. I will integrate the technologies I have learned about in this course based on the needs of my students and my own readiness. I will look into more professional development opportunities for myself and other teachers to learn about new and emerging technologies. I also now have the knowledge to locate funding and defend my choices of technology to administrators and parents.

Resources:
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009) Virtual worlds. New and Emerging Technologies. Baltimore: Author.

Emerging Technology: Online Learning in K-12 Schools

My Voice Thread presentation on online learning:

http://voicethread.com/share/1180623/

Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology: Course Reflection

The course, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology, has taught me a lot about UDL, differentiation, and integrating technology to make it all come together. Teachers can use technology as a tool to organize and implement differentiation in their classrooms. Differentiation is a way of thinking. Every student has his or her own way of learning. There are several different classroom elements that teachers can differentiate, including content, process, product, and learning environment. Throughout this course we have had the chance to practice creating differentiated lessons and plans to use in our classrooms. We have also created a Ning web site to share resources and work. Creating the Ning was a positive experience for me. I am glad I have had the opportunity to create different web sites with my classmates at Walden. Doing this has helped me become more familiar with them and how they can be beneficial to learning. I will be more prepared to use educational sharing sites with my students.

There are several ways that I can use the Differentiation Station (Ning site) to implement the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction. I can always look back at the UDL/differentiation presentations my group members and I created to refresh my memory. I could also use the ideas from these to show other teachers that I work with. Our Ning site has been an amazing tool for sharing resources. I will most definitely be returning to the site to use resources that have been posted. I like how on the Ning site there is the option of contacting someone individually or the group as a whole. We can also use the chat feature to discuss what we are learning or how we are using differentiation in our classrooms. The Ning site itself is supportive of differentiated learning in that it offers multiple ways to share information. For example, there is a blog feature, option to post photos or video, and a discussion forum. I will use this site to connect with my Walden classmates and perhaps even more colleagues in the future to share resources and experiences.

Adjustments I will make in relation to integrating technology to customize instruction as a result of this course include: matching technology the closest I can to learning outcomes or students' personal needs, using technology to differentiate assessment, and looking in to different types of technology (digital cameras, Ipods, response systems, different types of assistive technologies, etc..) that I am not as familiar with. I think a lot of our focus in our class at Walden was different resources offered online or from a computer, such as wikis, Ning, blogs, screen recording software, photo story and creating videos. I want to try to extend my knowledge to other types of technology. I'm glad that I now have a better understanding of how to design and organize educational resources, projects, collaboration, and assessments online.

Implementing UDL and differentiation strategies, while integrating technology as well, requires a teacher to be flexible and have a flexible classroom design.

*Links*
My group's Ning at Walden: http://waldengroup2.ning.com/

Dare to Differentiate (a wiki with tons of useful resources!) http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/

UDL Presentation

Student Survey

Here is a link to a student survey I created using different resources I found on the web.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/259771/student-learning-profile


Resources I used include:

http://surfaquarium.com/MI/inventory.htm
http://home.att.net/~clnetwork/co-op/misurvey.pdf
http://www.spannj.org/BasicRights/appendix_b.htm
http://www.oswego.edu/plsi/plsi48a.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17020655/Student-Interest-Survey
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Final Reflection: Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

As my 8th course at Walden comes to a close, I will take some time to reflect on my learning. This class, along with my classmates, has taught me how to appropriately and effectively integrate technology into the areas I teach.

Learning the GAME plan has been beneficial for me because it gave me a way to organize my goals and constantly evaluate the progress of them. This simple system for managing goals can be used by anyone and would be good to pass on to students. By using the GAME plan in this course, I learned how to connect with teachers in different countries and about different assessment strategies using technology. Having the GAME plan and this blog to record in, gave me the motivation to reach out and accomplish my goals. Having learned these new things with my first experience of using the GAME plan, it will definitely have a positive impact on my instructional practice. Now that I learned new ways to connect with other teachers, I will always have access to sharing information with them and learning from them. Learning about assessments has given me more options for assessing my students and their differentiated needs.

Adjustments I would make to my instructional practice regarding technology in the content areas would be to try and best match up technology with the purpose of my lessons and to provide as many options to students as possible for creating final products of their work. I think it's important to use technology appropriately and it is the teacher's responsibility to make effective decisions when deciding what type of technology to incorporate into lessons.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

Now that I have successfully used the GAME plan process, I feel that I can more effectively use it with my students. In order to help students meet the NETS-S standards, I could use the GAME plan to structure students' goals. One of my goals for the students would be to have them eventually implement this plan on their own. Once students are familiar with the steps, they will become custom to doing it on their own and applying it to different areas in their life. The NETS-T and NETS-S are very inter-related because because they both focus on similar core ideas, which include creativity, digital age learning (collaboration), information fluency and digital citizenship, engaging in growth and transfer of knowledge.

There are different ways that you can use the GAME plan with students. I think it is important to make sure students are aware of the process of learning. It's also important to remind students that if they didn't fully meet their goal, it is not necessarily a bad thing. They will just continue the cycle by evaluation and determining how they will modify their plan until they meet their goal. The GAME plan can be easily applied to almost any lesson. Every lesson we teach should have a goal. We are also always monitoring student learning and evaluating it. The key is to get students more involved in the process. We've learned about many different tools on the internet that can help students with accomplishing their goals and staying organized. For example, blogs are a wonderful tool for student reflection. Implementing the GAME plan will help students become more self-directed learners.

Revising My GAME Plan

When thinking about how I would revise my GAME plan, I realize that I have learned a lot that I can apply in my instructional practice. I've learned more about reaching out and connecting with other teachers. I got to try out some new things on the internet that I wouldn't have if not for this class.

I would still like to continue to work more towards the goals I have been reflecting on and some others as well. One of my goals for my GAME plan was to learn more about assessment with technology. I need to experiment more with different programs to use for assessment. I've gone as far as finding out some different options, but haven't has an opportunity to put them into action. One that I used for my unit lesson is http://www.proprofs.com. This is a free online tool for creating quizzes, polls, flashcards, games, blogs, and wiki's. I just used it for creating a quiz, but I liked how it gave the option of writing in an explanation for the correct or incorrect answers.

In reference to the NETS-T standards a new goal I would like to work on is finding ways to promote student thinking through reflection using online collaboration tools. I chose this as my next goal because reflection in learning is important and students should be aware of how technology can help them reflect on their work. Online collaboration tools also provide teachers with different ways to assess students.

Some ways that I can improve my learning for next time are to set aside a designated time to research information for my goals, take time to reflect more often, and continue to keep record of things that I find that I could use in the future.

Evaluating my GAME Plan

I am going to evaluate my GAME plan and the meeting of my selected goals by answering the following questions:

*How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?*
I feel that my actions were somewhat effective in meeting my goals. I was able to use my resources to begin to find the information I was looking for, but did not receive as much feedback as I had hoped for. I got a few responses from people, which created a deeper interest for me. I think that although I did reach out, I needed to reach out more. My classmates from Walden have been very helpful in their suggestions. I think I effectively tried new things. I had never had any motive or interest in wanting to use twitter. I didn't see the point in it, but now it seems as though it could be something very useful. I created an account and plan on using it just to follow educational posts. I also liked that there is a whole category named "technology." I found out some more information about assessment from my Walden classmates, which was helpful. I also was able to look into some online applications.

*What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?*
I have learned that if you take the time to search for resources, there are usually several others who have similar interests. I thought that it would be hard to find ways to connect with teachers in different countries, but there are quite a few ways of doing so. I also learned that social networking sites and discussion boards are more useful than I had originally thought in communicating with other teachers. I'm really starting to see how professionals can use different internet tools to communicate effectively. I would like to start more discussions on discussion boards and possibly even create something of my own (a blog, wiki, or other type of web page) to invite other teachers to join and share ideas on different topics of interest.

*What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?*
I still want to learn more specifics of what types of technologies are being used by teachers in different countries. I feel that a lot that I want to learn will come with experience and willingness to try new things.

*How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?*
I don't think I need to adjust my plan, as much as just continue it. I just need to continue reaching out and connecting with others.

*Monitoring my GAME Plan Progress*

I have made some progress in beginning to achieve my goals of connecting with teachers/students in other countries and updating my knowledge on formative and summative assessments using technology.

So far I have had luck in finding resources and information. I'll start with my goal of connecting with other countries. I have been able to contact some Ilex workers at my school, one who lives in the Netherlands. She said she would be happy to help. (Ilex, again, is an international learning exchange program.) People from other countries come to our school to work for a period of time. Usually, they work in a related field back home. I am looking to converse more with the Ilex individuals I have met and see what more I can find out about learning and technology in other countries. I have also been using my social bookmarking site to keep track of different websites and organizations that will be helpful in making and maintaining my connections. I am really excited about one application that I have actually found on Facebook! It is called, "I Am Teacher." It is an application used to connect with teachers from around the world. (http://apps.facebook.com/iamteacher/home) You can click on teachers finding teachers and select what areas you teach and where you are interested in searching for other teachers to connect with. I don't think all aspects of the application are working correctly right now, but there are still ways to message other teachers, which I have began doing. I contacted a teacher in Indonesia and am awaiting a response. I have also found a Twitter page where teachers share ideas. (http://twitter.com/WeAreTeachers) I haven't had any experience with Twitter before now, but have heard a lot about it. I think I will look into these Facebook and Twitter options for connecting more thoroughly because I think they are good sources that would give me live updates and make it easy to connect with others. I had also stated that I was going to look more into ePals, which I did and found a way to connect to teachers on there. (http://www.epals.com/forums/t/27975.aspx) There are many other teachers that have the desire to learn with teachers from around the world and I will contact some of them. ePals can also be used for making student classroom connections. Unfortunately, I cannot experiment with that now because I do not have a classroom of my own. Something else I have looked into is Skype connections with other classrooms. (http://theedublogger.com/want-to-connect-with-other-classrooms/) There are different countries that you can click on to find classrooms. What I have learned from searching so far is that you just need to push yourself to go out and do it. Don't be afraid to message other teachers because chances are they want to connect with you too.

I haven't had as much excitement with my second goal of learning more about assessments and technology combined. I did learn a lot through our class resources this week, especially Chapter 6. I was able to read about the different types of assessments and how technology can be used with them. Technology can also make collecting, analyzing and reporting data more organized and efficient. Recently, we just finished testing our students using the PEP-3. (Psychoeducational Profile: Third Edition). These tests do not involve computers or technology, but I found out there are computerized test options. There are CD's available that can be used to administer, score tests, and print out results. I need to work more on this goal. I might also be able to connect it with my other one and ask teachers from other areas how they assess their students with and without technology integration. Has anyone used an electronic grade book? The web site (www.orbissoft.com) allows a demonstration version to try.

I don't feel I need to modify my action plan at this time. I am just going to continue to make connections and ask questions. I will be recording my progress here on this blog.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Last week, I discussed the NETS-T standards and which ones I felt I needed further development on. Two goals that I named were becoming more familiar with different types of assessment, especially in relation to technology, and connecting with other teachers/students from different countries online. I'm going to be writing about what resources and information I will need. The steps I am taking so far are reading feedback from my Walden classmates and researching online.

"Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching."

Resources for finding more information about assessment will probably be any information, articles, or reviews I can find online, my colleagues and classmates, and software programs. Diane responded to my previous post with a few suggestions for assessment using technology, Examview and aplia.com. Assessment is important because it shows how effective your teaching is and can also provide students with feedback about what they are doing well and what they need improvement on. Using technology for assessment offers more flexibility and student engagement. I will also want to look into what types of online assessment different schools are using. To do this, I will research different school districts and record the assessment strategies that appeal to me.

"Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning."

In my previous post, I also spoke about connecting with teachers/students in other countries. A step that I will be taking is finding out more about the ilex exchange program at my school. I may be able to get some contacts or advice from the people who came to work at our school from other countries. As far as different resources, here are some sites that I am going to continue to research:
http://www.hotchalk.com
http://www.epals.com/
http://teachercorners.com/

Most of the information I will need will come from researching and reaching out to colleagues and classmates.

*My GAME Plan*

For my GAME plan, I will need to:
1. Set Goals
2. Take Action
3. Monitor my Learning
4. Evaluate & Extend my Learning

I plan on following these steps to help develop professionally and to keep up to date on new things in order to help my students learn better. The NETS-T standards describe the ways that teachers should guide student learning experiences when integrating technology. Honestly, before taking these classes at Walden, I wasn't very familiar with these performance indicators for teachers. I'm glad that I am looking more into them so that I understand them. I am going to use these standards to determine what indicators I feel I need more confidence in.

The first standard/ indicator I am looking to improve on is Standard 2: "Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experience and Assessments." The indicator is D: "provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching." My goal would be to become more familiar with different types of assessment. Especially assessment when working with technology. The action I would take would be to talk more with other teachers about what types of assessment tools they use and why they like certain methods. I would also like to collaborate with other technology teachers from different areas to see their perspectives on student evaluation when integrating technology and content area learning. I would have to monitor what I learned by keeping some type of record of different assessment strategies that I have collected. Finally, I would evaluate my learning by actually putting some of these strategies into play and reflecting on the results.

A second standard/indicator I would like to gain more confidence in is Standard 5: "Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership." The indicator is: "participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning." This also is similar to Standard 4d, which includes modeling cultural understanding by engaging with colleagues & students using collaboration tools. I am choosing this standard because I have not had an opportunity to connect with other teachers or students on a global level. It would be nice to connect with others to see what they are doing and what types of technology they are using. My first goal is to find some way to connect with teachers in other countries online. I would like to gain cultural insight and share what I know. Does anyone have any good ideas for connecting with teachers from another country? My course of action would be to find blogs, sharing communities, or teacher collaboration sites and become a dedicated visitor. In order to monitor my learning, I would have to make a set time in my schedule to collaborate with others. I could evaluate my learning by sharing information I learned with teachers that I work with.

I need more confidence in all of the standards because I have not had experience in a classroom all my own, besides student teaching. The GAME plan can be applied to all different areas and I am going to try to use it more to be sure that my goals are successfully met.

Resources:
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf