Bringing It All Together...

As I reflect over the last 18 months, I have mixed feelings about the things that I learned.

There are many things that I have enjoyed learning about and using within my room. Some of my accomplishments have been:

• I have used Prezi to add some dimension and interest to some of my classroom presentations and project components.  
• I have had students use Voicethread to culminate a project and create a class book.
• Digital Storytelling was a tool that all students used to create their own version of a fairytale.
• One of my most struggling and uninterested writers grew to love a digital storytelling program and improve his writing and social skills.
• The use of blogging with students has continued to develop and enhance my students' learning.
• Knowledge of what kind of tools and opportunities are available has grown immensely. 

There are still areas that I am not secure or confident with:

• The more specific ins-and-outs of how computers and technology works.
• Understand more of the vocabulary concepts better so that I don't have as much to focus on.
• How younger age students can use technology more (seemed focused a lot more on middle and high school aged students)

Overall, I definitely feel as though I grew as a professional. There are many ways that I already have, and will continue to, enhanced my classroom with technology. Personally, there have been a few areas that I have grown, but much more in the professional category, as that was my primary focus.

The Beginning of the End...

The main focus of my final project is to set up the resources and processes for introducing student blogging into my classroom. I was hoping to actually have students working in their own blog for this project, however, with the group of students and schedule that is in place this year, that wasn't as realistic or appropriate as it may have been in previous years.

This school year I have really involved student blogging in my classroom activities and lessons much more than in the past, and the students really seem to be excited about it. I can only imagine that when they have their own blogs to post to, they will get even more involved and excited about it. Right now, I am using it as a platform to collect student feedback and responses that I can use for my own purposes, as well as to use to help guide discussion and lesson activities.

I will be spending the majority of my time creating resources for this plan and setting up the blogging sites so that they are ready for students as each one shows readiness.

A New Perspective...

After going through this course, and more importantly, the simulation activities, I have gotten a new understanding of the in's and out's of leading a school and/or district. It helped me see where all of the talk, talk, talk comes from and goes, but also, helps me see where it doesn't happen and should be. If I get put in the position to be a leader in the school, I have a greater understanding of how talk needs to be directed and who needs to be involved in the discussions so that progress is made.

The Power of Simulation

While frustrating at points, I really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with a lesson through simulation vs. having a traditional (however traditional an online class can be) lesson. I definitely took things away from the activity on how to build understanding and develop a team with work and effort, but it also had me doing some serious reflecting on my own classroom. For the last two years, I have had my students participate in an interactive simulation based around the trip across the Atlantic by the Pilgrims. Teams work together to complete tasks with determine their success with travel, food & harvest, and building shelter. It is a very powerful and meaningful activity that has seen a lot of success and enjoyment. I am looking to include more activities like this in my classroom to emphasis student involvement and community to accomplish academic understanding.

The Cheese

At the beginning of each new school year, my principal finds one or two clips or short videos that aim to inspire our school's staff and serve as a bolt of energy to get our engines going. After watching the cheese video, I thought about how our staff would react to that video. It would be a great motivator and reinforcer to those who are active and proactive, but would the people who sat back and waited really get the point? I am not sure if we have ever been asked to really self-reflect on our weak areas. In many ways, we have a very strong and positive school. We spend time reflecting as a staff and as teams, but I don't really think that we spend much time thinking about ourselves as individuals. The one time that does happen is during an administrative review, but it needs to happen more often, with focus on improvement. However, who really wants to hear about their faults?

Data…again (ugh)

Well, I can't say that I was looking forward to going through a bunch of data again, however this time, I did think about it a little differently. Since going through tons of RtI and Common Core assessment work all school year, it could be useful to help ensure student success (along with the other assessments that we developed). It was a bit refreshing to be able to note our school's strengths, related to the information we were looking at in WINSS. I also felt a little more empowered to say that I could actually point to groups that needed some focus and ways we could maybe think about improving their scores.

Follow the Leader

Currently, my leadership roles within my school take a more "behind the scenes" look. Some of the ways that I lead are by doing things such as professional development to improve my classroom and teaching, implementing technology, piloting new ideas and methods (which are then shared with others if they have shown benefit), I have been apart of several important committees that will help shape our school with new RtI and Common Core Implementation, and overall innovative thinking and willingness to change, grow, and improve. A large majority of these tasks were taken on without directive, but that can be said for most of the things that leaders do and take on. A few tasks have been given to me by administration, with expectation that there is feedback, input, and production. I enjoy having these responsibilities and opportunities to learn and grow as a professional educator.

Finalizing the Portfolio...

The task of creating our portfolio hasn't been as rough as I originally thought. I still think that being able to do it as we finished a course would be the best way to go about building the artifacts and more meaningful reflections. It also would have given us more time to really think and put together the proposal for the final project. The more time that I have spend developing the details of my final project, the more excited I am getting to see if I am actually going to be able to pull this off and get it established the way I envision.

Using Creative Commons in the Classroom

Before this Master's program, I never looked too much in to Creative Commons, beyond simple images. After looking a little deeper into the way that CC can be used in the classroom, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is quite a list.

There are two in-particular that got my brain thinking…The first idea was actually one that I found as I searched around to understand more about how exactly things could be used. I read through a presentation about ways Creative Commons can be used in a classroom and how a presentation that was licensed could be used, modified, and adapted to fit your needs. With some of the major changes that are going through the educational system at the current moment, I can see this coming in hand quite a bit. I have already found a few interesting resources that I will be looking at using in/with some of the new flipcharts that I am making to correlate with the new Common Core Standards.

I also came across some information about how to teach students about copyright and finding appropriate resources for reports. This is always something that I find a little difficult to teach younger students because of all the details that are involved in citing and acknowledging the source. Using some of the guidelines that were shared made it a bit less intimidating to address and for students to understand.

Here We Go...

Holy buckets! Get ready for a load of work!

I do have to say that one of the perks of this program versus another is that the final task is a portfolio and not a thesis. However, as a few of our cohort members have already mentioned, it would have been greatly beneficial to have some understanding and mention of how the portfolio was going to play into everything else. There were several tasks that I struggled with putting together, mostly because I couldn't see them having an immediate place (or any place) with my little kiddos in early elementary. Having the guidance of the standards that we had to select, or knowing how it would be used later on for the portfolio, may have helped give me a little more direction, which also creates a peace of mind and confidence that what I was doing had a place and focus. I pulled a bunch of artifacts and put them into my site already, but realized that most of them were created with an inspiration from the program, not necessarily for the program. I hope that at some point, there will be an opportunity to look through them with the class (not just teammates) and that the instructor will be taking a peek, so that if something isn't correctly placed, it isn't addressed on the last week, but sooner.

Wrapping Things Up...

My final thoughts on this course that I definitely came away with some understanding of how some form of blended learning could be fit in and appropriate for differentiation for certain groups of students. I also enjoyed creating a lesson that could be taught via online learning, so that I had the opportunity to make things that I already have fit into an online learning situation, and not have to start from scratch. I also was happy to talk more one-on-one with Kris and find out some answers of how this could work with younger students. That was one thing that hung over my head for most of this course, so I was grateful to get a better picture of what was realistic and appropriate.

The Future...

I have mixed feelings about online learning. I can see great potential, but at the same time, have a lot of questions. For the most part, I see much more blended learning occurring versus straight online learning. I can see huge benefits and possibilities for blended learning to help meet learning needs for all students, but still see a need for face-to-face teacher time. There are so many students who need instant clarification and assistance on things, and an online learning situation is a lot of work and comes with high expectation for individual responsibility and adjustment. I also wonder how a strictly on-line education would be possible for students who come from families who have working parents and how it all works. Where do the kids go during the day? When is the work done? What if they can't afford computer(s) and other services/materials? Once I have those pieces, I may have a different understanding for the whole process and how it can completely fit.  Until then, I will continue to feel as though online learning opportunities within a traditional school building and environment may be a reasonable direction.

Formative Assessment Tool

As my class has been working through the roles of a literature circle, I wonder if Voicethread could be used in place of the typical worksheets that individuals fill out to carry on a group discussion and show their comprehension?  I could see using Voicethread as a tool to have students share their thoughts on a certain role by setting up slides and having the students comment their thoughts on their role and have other students comment back on the original comments.  This could be a nice way to "hear" all the group discussions without being there.  I don't think it would be something I would do all the time, but it could be an interesting way to spice things up and have more "contact time" with the students, even though it may be at a later time.  Then, individuals could be pulled as needed for extra instruction.

Being an Online Educator

This was a bit of a frustrating blog post for me.  Not because it is difficult, but I have no interest in being an online educator, so I would much rather be putting my time into something that I could possibly take away for my classroom.  Yes, "Never Say Never," but I would much rather be asked to look at my students and think if I could see any of them benefiting from online education vs. the traditional setting.  Even though that may not be an option right now for them or myself, it could be something to keep in mind for the future and help me think about my instruction for them and if I could integrate some sort of online experience.

Delivering Instruction

Because I was curious to see how much I actually knew about these three delivery methods, I choose to compare and contrast all three formats (blended, online, face-to-face). Once I got 5 minutes into it and started writing things in the spaces, I found the answer to how much I really understood about their differences.



The face-to-face instruction contrast space actually gave me the hardest time.  Obviously, I am fairy familiar with face-to-face instruction, but I felt like I include a lot of technology in my teaching. This made me really think about the "how" it is used, so that I really understood the difference.  Face-to-face uses technology to enhance and assist.  Blended uses it to guide, instruct, enhance, and assist, all depending on the learning situation.  Online, of course, relies on technology to guide, facilitate, and provide a lot of the instruction. Looking at learning this way, blended seems to be the much more balanced and student friendly method for students.  So now that we see this, what do we do about it?

A New Beginning...

After the first meeting of our new course, I find myself going away from it much more refreshed about my level of comfort compared to the last course.  I am hoping that there are things taken from this course since I don't see myself ever teaching an online course…but never say never, right?  It will be interesting to see what I end up taking away from it to apply to my standard classroom.

Not Sure What To Say...

The majority of my feelings stay the same about the current material that we are covering.  I am trying to have a positive attitude about why we are even taking this course, but still don't understand WHY we are taking this course.  It isn't to say that I am not aware of how this could be used…but just because it can be, doesn't mean that I will be. When in the world am I actually going to use this stuff?

When our group originally met for our weekly guided practice, we were quite stumped about using a z-score table.  However, with persistence, we did figure it out and got through the work. That definitely made me feel better about being able to get the stuff done.  However, I still have to go back to, if I only understood how this would be used or where I would use it, it might make it easier to actually understand.  I try to get my students to connect to what we are doing by pulling in real examples that they may see, or analogies so that they can compare and put into perspective, what we are talking about.  I don't mean to be rude or harsh about the instruction.  I think the removal of pressure to have the week's work perfect for our grade is very nice and helps me stay more calm about what I need to do, but just because the scores relate to a spelling test, doesn't help me see where that works into my brain and classroom.

I still can't get past feeling very overwhelmed by the material with this class.  I hate not feeling like I have much to contribute to the group activities.  However, I do like working through the material together because it has given me a chance to talk through things and get better understanding of ideas, or possibly confirm my own thoughts.  I am also at a place with work/teaching, where there is a lot of "revamping" occurring due to the Common Core and Essential Outcome work and the all powerful RTI focus.  This has gotten me in the mindset of staying focused on things that I can use and need so that I keep myself focused so that I can be most productive and efficient.  That being said, as much a data will be driving a lot of the things that we do (for RTI), I feel like data is different than statistics (with all the options for how to look at the numbers/scores).  For all I know, what I just said is ridiculous, but that is where I am currently at.

Not So Excited About This One

I am really nervous about this new course.  I was never the best math student, no matter how hard I may have tried.  The amount of vocabulary that needs to be understood and applied is one of the biggest things that intimidates me.  I hate feeling as though I don't know what is going on (but I guess no one really likes that).  There are a few places and instance where stats come into play for me, but very little and in the most minor of degrees.  For this reason, I also have a hard time understanding the need for learning this stuff and having this course. Hopefully, during the class sessions, it will become more obvious on why we are going through a course with this focus and it helps me gain a better understanding and appreciation for statistics…because right now, all I have to say is YUCK!

Another One Down...

I don't have too much to share after our final class, but am happy with the amount of new things that I was able to take away and apply to my classroom.  So far, this course was the most worthwhile and gave me things to use.  However, I did feel like it had quite a bit of redundant and busy work.

My class is currently in the third day of going through the webquest activity that I put together for our final project.  It is going really well so far and I love using this activity to help put more accountability and power into the hands of my students.

I felt a bit overwhelmed with this class and the work, but I think that has more to do with the coincidence that I was having my students work on digital stories and that required a lot of my attention and time outside of school, as well as some of the other school expectations that happened to come during this class block.

A WebQuest Adventure!

I am not sure yet if I bit off a little more than I can chew with the GoogleSites assignment, but we'll see.  I really wanted to make sure that since I am spending time making something that it be something that I can actually use with my students.  For my GoogleSite, I decided to take on the challenge of creating a Webquest.  We have a social studies unit on Native Americans, with a focus on three specific area groups (Northwest Coast, Great Plains, and Southwest).  The unit can get quite long because of the constraints on our classroom schedules and things that come up, so I thought this might be a nice way to slim down the unit a bit and still keep the main learning points as the focus.  I am using it similar to a "flipped" classroom style.  I will be having the students split up into small groups, but have teams within the group.  Group A will study a Native American group through the webquest, while the Group B uses the class text book or other supplemental readings or videos to learn the same material.  Then, the two groups will come together and compare findings of how the Native Americans from an area use natural resources to survive and what the main resources used are.  The groups will take turns working/learning via the webquest and text book/other material, and continue to meet, compare, take notes until all three Native American groups are covered.  The assessment will be a final project where the group complies and presents their findings (along with rubric).  Each group will have a choice on the format and style that they share and present (paper, digital story, poster, etc).  There will also be group and individual evaluations along the way.  Fingers crossed this works!

My Continued Thoughts

For the last week, my students have been working on completing digital fairytales.  I came across a very kid-friendly site, Little Bird Tales, that I decided on having my students use.  I liked that I was able to set up an account that gave me "admin-like" privileges and create accounts for each of my students and have access to what they are working on.  It has been a bit more of a process than I had expected, mostly the art-work portion, but it is all working out as we continue on with the final days.  

I have continued to enjoy using Twitter to grow professionally.  I definitely retweet more than writing my own messages because of the great things that I have come across.  The RSS feeds aren't getting as much of my attention as I thought they might, due to it being a "one-stop-shop" for staying up current.  However,  right now it just seems like one more thing to add to the list. At some point, when things slow down (yeah, right) I may get more into checking my RSS feeds, but it is between Twitter and RSS, my vote is Twitter.

Filling Up on RSS Feeds

I wasn't a stranger to seeing the little orange icon located on many of the blogs and websites that I visit, but also, didn't pay much attention to looking into what it really meant.  There are so many technology tools that were created to make it easier, quicker and more efficient to use technology, with only slight tweaks and differences with how they work.  RSS feeds fall into that category for me.  A few courses ago, we set up some sort of filtering system that would inform us whenever a topic was written about on the web.  We also have set up social bookmarking which accomplishes a similar purpose of narrowing down and simplifying.  The RSS feed tool is one that I actually feel like I could use because I don't think that I would follow a site that I didn't want to stay updated on.  At this point (which could be basically due to feeling way overwhelmed with the exposure to so many new things out there), I don't keep up with using them after the course expectations expire.  This one I find to be potentially different. It is also funny because most of the feeds that I have subscribed to are due to finds from Tweeting, which I NEVER thought I would do!