For the last six weeks I have been taking an online class through GVSU. This was an Ed. Tech class; very fun. Over the course of these past six weeks I have learned many new things, and revisited some things that I already knew about technology and how to utilize it in the classroom.

One of the main things that I started in this class and would like to continue to use more often is this blog site. Before the class I had often fiddled with the idea of starting a blog; however, this reason or that came up and I never did. Now that I have started it though, I'd like to work with a little bit and decide what I'm going to do with it. I guess I need to figure out a direction that I'd like to take it in. That being said, the blog is one of the things that I will continue to use, that was new to me (meaning I had not personally set one up).

I also enjoyed finding the technology plan for my school/district. While it was not available on the school website, it was located in the main office, I just had to ask the right person! ;) All in all, I was happy we had one, but I was disappoint with the amount of “meat” that the document contained. To me, it seemed very weak, and more of something that was put together simply for the fact that it needed to be done, not because it was something that they wanted to do or saw a purpose for doing. Now that I have my own copy of it, as we move forward with technology at our school, I am going to add notes to the document, and ask that it be updated at least once a year. I'm hoping that the document will eventually become a true reflection of who we are as a school and our use of technology within it.

The project experience was helpful for me as well because I've never developed a web quest before. This was a daunting task for me to complete, and it required a lot of well thought out and appropriate tasks for the students to complete. To create a lesson that is completed entirely on line requires the designer to look at it from many different views. The normal view of a lesson is that of the teacher or the student perspective. When planning this web quest, I had to think about the outside viewer, the community, the internet (did I find the best fits that I could). It was interesting to plan it. I won't know until I run through it with a class of students in the fall if I like how I have it designed or not.

The future of technology use in my classroom is only going to increase as time goes on. Not only are more and more classroom based practices available through some type of technology now, but also the students are more and more experienced with many different types. I am hoping that students will learn to use iPads this next school year. I also hope that by doing that they also learn how to navigate the two different interfaces between a Mac and a PC. I also hope that over the course of time students become familiar with other types of writing software (other than Microsoft Word), and that they can move easily from one to the other. I also hope that students continue to challenge themselves and me to be on the cutting edge of what's out there to learn and use to improve their education, and possible that of others as well.

I hope that by being a member of MACUL that I am able to keep up with some of the things that are going on in the classrooms with new technologies that are available. The main conference that they offer every year is something that I plan to attend for the foreseeable future. However, I also plan to take advantage of many of the other smaller conferences and forums that they sponsor. I also plan on using my Twitter account to keep up to date, and utilize more as a professional learning network, than as a social site. In the future I plan on completing some more training/classes that are geared towards technology. I would like to take “21 Things for 21^st Century Educators” training when it starts again this fall. There are many possibilities out there to keep up with what is going on in education, it'll be up to me to apply it in my classroom.

A New Unit?

For a current college class that I am taking I need to develop a curricular integration project that utilizes the use of technology. While I have been thinking about this project during the whole class time (about 5 weeks now), I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to tackle it. Actually, I'm still not 100% sure. However, with that I think I will venture into the area of a webquest.

Students in the 9^th grade English will read the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and concentrate on the essential question of: Is honor inherent or bestowed? I think that the web quest will be framed around the book but also places that can be explored while students are reading the book to help them determine the final answer to this question. I plan on having students read about “The Scottsboro Boys” trail from the 1930's. I feel that this will provide a connection that students will be able to relate to, and yet connect to the essential question being asked as well.

Students will also explore art and photographs from the time of the Great Depression. While looking at the art and photographs students will study the artists behind the pieces of work. All the while they will be looking for the connection to honor being inherent or bestowed.

Finally students will study the impact that the Jim Crow south had on the people of the time. How did these laws and practices contribute to honor?

I am just starting to piece this together, and maybe after some exploring I might find that this would be a great novel to do as an online Moodle type of class. I'm not sure. I do hope that as this project develops that I can utilize what I have learned and make something that when it's done, I can confidently hand it over to my classroom students and see success.

During the school year my students study themes rather than novels or topics. I feel that students today do not get enough exposure to ideas like honor and self respect/self worth. They are ideas that we use in life all the time, yet, when are they truly explained to the students? Sure, students are given the definition and the word to memorize at some point and time in their education, but we need to make sure they know how to “own” words like honor. We also need to teach students that they are worthy of having and helping give honor to others.

Blog Comment #2

I have a classroom set of iPod Touches that I have been using all year with my students. They are easily underestimated and offer up many great apps and programs that truly help students learn. You just have to be willing to think outside the box a little bit! I tend to utilize them for the area of literacy more than anything else - but the new ones with the camera - can make a great microscope (by adding a cheap cover that you have super glued a mini-magnifing glass to) - super cheap - super cool pics to share with students or for students to share with you! :) So much fun! Enjoy your research - there is so much yet to learn!

http://lemonadeandwhimsy.blogspot.com/2011/05/games-weekends-and-lake.html?showComment=1306634317323#c4406958920746026744

iPods in my room

Michigan Educational Technology Standards for Grades 6-8 include the topic of Technology Operations and Concepts, and under that heading is this standard that all students need to understand before they leave the 8^th grade and move into ninth.

6-8.TC.9. understand and discuss how assistive technologies can benefit all individuals

In my classroom I do this by having students use the iPods for listening to assignments and having text read to them. The iPods are also used for calculators and quick note taking. Students enjoy it when they are able to text their answers into www.polleverywhere.com during class while using the iPods as well. The goal of this last year in the classroom was to introduce many different ways that students could use and apply the technology available with the iPods to help them in the classroom and beyond. It has been really nice to have a print and audio copy of an assignment for students to view and/or listen to on the iPods. This makes catching up a student that has been absent that much easier.

By having many of my assignments recorded and loaded onto the iPods it takes away the stigma that generally accompanies students who need an assignment read to them. When using the iPods in this way the student looks like any other student using an MP3 device. Most students only associate music and games with iPods, and don't realize that students are catching up on missing work or re-listening to an assignment, or watching a podcast that goes along with the day's lesson. It's amazing how students using the technology that is available when they know that they can have access to it, can and do use it. While originally the idea was to help our low reading students gain more confidence with the text being used in the classroom, the idea has actually helped all the learners become more confident in the material that they are expected to master.

Because this technology has been available this year to the middle school students, most of them have learned how to use the program Audacity. Audacity is simply a free audio recording program, that can be saved and transferred to many different types of formats, MP3 being the most popular in my classroom. Students have also learned how to save documents in PDF format, and then store them in their email accounts to access and use later on. These documents are easy to pull up and view on the iPods, which easily allow students to zoom in and out while they scroll through the document.

My view on technology in the classroom is this: if it's good for one student, then surely another student will benefit from it somehow. I never limit the technology resources available to just one set of students or another different set. The same technology is available for all students in my classroom. It is explained to all of the students how to access and utilize what is available and how to ask questions when they are unsure. Needless to say, that since I have in a sense made them the owners of their technology, I have absolutely no issues with vandalism or theft. Considering I have twenty devices that can easily slip into a pants pocket and walk off unnoticed, and they are not locked up, that's saying quite a bit. My students respect the devices and what they can offer them. They are actually very protective of them, and when other classes borrow them, they frequently will go over a list of do's and don'ts with them (unprompted by me – just our general expectations in our classroom). All of my students use the technology, and respect it. When they don't respect it and abuse the privilege that it offers, then they get busted (so to speak) and they expect it. By the way, all twenty devices that I started the school year with, I have ended the school year with.  

My Technological World

     My technological world starts at home.  In my home we have several technology devices that make my life easier and, what I hope is more efficient, although I think somedays technology makes my life more complicated and stressful.  But I digress, that is for another post, on another day.  Currently at home there is a tie between two devices for the top spot.  I'm not sure I could live without my smartphone, or my laptop which is tapped into the home wifi network.  Well, actually I could live without them, but they both make my life much easier.  The phone is an instant way to connect with me no matter where I am at.  It acts as a telephone, a digital message center (text, email, and voice), a calendar (when I remember to put stuff into it), an access point to all my social media friends, and many more things that I don't even use it for on a regular basis.  For instance it's a mini gameboy for one of my sons on a long car ride or as they wait for me to finish an appointment.  The laptop offers similar functions but on a slightly larger, easier on the eyes, type of scale.  The laptop is also great for processing documents and providing typed communication of all types.  It also acts as great warehouse to store photos, and music that I love.  These two devices offer me the convenience of many, but built into small portable packages that work for me.
     At our home we have many of the modern day convinces that many middle class Americans enjoy.  Which when you actually think about it, are just to numerous to mention.  We all know what technology has changed and improved for us over the years.  We are slightly different from many of our neighbors and peers, in the fact that we still have a landline phone in the house that requires wires and electricity to operate it at all times.  For some reason we continue to hang on to this out-dated piece of technology.  Probably more for a sense of stability than anything else.  After all, the line, in theory, can't just get up and move as easily with you where ever you go.
     My classroom offers a large amount of technology to use with my students in many different ways.  I am blessed to have a classroom set of iPods and a MAC laptop to sync them with.  I also have document camera that is hooked up to a projector (which can also project my laptop screen if I choose).  I do have a Mimio contraption that hooks up to my white board and magically "turns" it into a smartboard - however, the device sits, unused, in my filing cabinet.  Maybe one day I will receive enough training on it to finally understand how it works.  I also have digital cameras and a camcorder to use as needed (they are not stored in my classroom, but I do have access to them if I should need them).  A computer lab is located right down the hall from my classroom and provides my students with the necessary equipment to write, edit, and publish their writing, power points, and various other types of presentations.
     I'm very lucky to have an administrator who understands the need to be up to date on technology in the classrooms. He is constantly seeking our opinions on new technology and how it could work for us, and asking us what we need in our classrooms.  At this present time I would like to see iPads in the classrooms.  That is not something that we have, but it is something that we are trying to work towards.  We are also working towards trying to write a technology policy that allows students to use their  own personal devices on our wifi.  Both pieces that we are working toward provide many new opportunities for our students that are different from what they currently have or are using.
     My administrator is also aware of the benefits that can be gained by attending conferences and training specific to the area of technology and education.  Our school has had the opportunity to send several teachers to large technology conferences, which benefits the whole school when those same teachers bring back new ideas and a renewed sense of what they can do with what types of devices that they already have.
     I'm hoping that the current class I am taking at GVSU will assist me in many ways.  I'm hoping that I am able to learn about things that I can use, and then turn around and apply it not only in my classroom but with other staff members as well.  For instance, when we created a collections folder in Google docs, I showed it my principal right away, and it is already being implemented as a way to conveniently share lesson plans and curriculum maps between the two of us.  I am also hoping that this class will make me more comfortable with using the internet as a learning resource for my students, for more than just informational research.
     Overall, I can not imagine going back to way my life was before the "Zack Morris" style phone hit my life back in the '90's and forever changed how I communicated with people.   My life is now operates in more of an instantaneous response for a need for information, or gratification of some kind, only because I can get it by using technology.  I no longer need to wait to take care of paying a bill, sending flowers, or finding out a fact until I get home - I can do it all from my smart phone while out walking my dog if I want to.