Reflections....

Wow, I can not believe that this semester is over! There was so much work and so much learned. This methods class has taught me so much that I don't think it is possible to fit every piece of knowledge in my blog, but I will reflect on everything I have learned about myself, as a person and future teacher. Academically and personally, I feel that I grew a lot since the beginning of the semester. Academically I learned how to create lesson plans, including Direct, Inquiry-Based, and Social Interactive Model. Before this class I never knew how to write a lesson plan, or even that there was a difference. Personally, I feel that I am different in the fact that I am much more confident with myself, and teaching. This was the first time that I created lesson plans and taught them in front of a class. I learned a lot about being a teacher this semester. It was amazing being able to see your lessons come to life, and how the students react to them. I realized that I am much more confident and comfortable in front of a classroom of students than I thought I would be. I realized that I can get the class in order when they become rowdy in group work. I was also always nervous about teaching a lesson in front of adults in the classroom. When I got in front of the class I completely forgot that other adults were in the room and taught the lessons with no worries. It surprised me that I could discipline the students. I have always been scared that I could not control a classroom and raise my voice at students. During my fieldwork, the students were getting rowdy in their groups and not listening to me. As soon as I gained their attention I told them that whoever is not listening to me and being quiet is going to get their flashlight taken away, which was being used in their project. After I said that, every student was silent and had their eyes on me. It made me much more confident that I was able to control a classroom of 28 rowdy second graders.

Being in the classroom made me think of when I get my own classroom. Looking around the classroom inspired me for what I want in my classroom. Seeing the students interact with the teacher, and how much they look up to their teacher for advice and help with their work. It made me realize how much I love teaching and how much of an impact that teachers have on students lives. I am also so grateful for my cooperating teacher. She allowed me into her classroom and to teach lessons to her class. I know that when I am a teacher I will have the door open to my class for any student who wants to come in and do fieldwork for class. It made me realize how teachers want to help others who are studying to become one of their own. The cooperating teacher also helped me feel comfortable in the class, and shared stories of her first times teaching. Having her share how nervous she was in front of the classroom to see how she interacted with the students made me realize that one day I will be in her shoes, with my own classroom, and made me realize that all the work I am doing now is going to pay off in a big way.

There is always room for improvement, and I have a lot more to learn. The more experience I have in the classroom and creating lesson plans will give me more knowledge than I thought I would ever have. I take everything I learn to heart and know that one day I will be using it in the classroom. I am still learning how to react when different situations arise in the classroom, such as "This student is crying etc." But I know once I have more experience under my belt I will be able to handle any situation as it approaches.

I had no idea what to expect from this class. Besides the fact that it was with Dr. Smirnova and I would be engaged in technology! All I knew was that we learn how to create lesson plans with Methods. I never knew everything else I would learn. I never knew that I would go into a classroom and teach lessons to students who after two times of being in the classroom knew my name and would come up to me with questions while I was just observing. I experienced being able to be in front of the class and what kind of teacher I am shaping into. I experienced students learning what I was teaching them and how excited they are to learn about new things. I got to experience the joy in the student's eyes when they were watching things be created, and how they felt when they understood something new.

Overall, I am so grateful for Dr. Smirnova and my classmates. I feel like aside from Dr. Smirnova, I learned so much from my classmates with group work and peer and self evaluations. No other class has had so much focus on evaluation our own work and each others. It is great practice for teaching that is for sure. I got to evaluate my efforts and focus on places where I could improve which was a great experience for me I never would have thought to do if I was not assigned it. This was one of my favorite semesters and one that I will never forget.

The takeover of technology

Technology is taking over beyond Dr. Smirnova's classroom! I came across this article and decided that it fit perfectly for my methods class and decided to share!

Here is the link

Enjoy! Hope you like it as much as I did!

Let's process this information....

I don't want to even believe that it has been a month since I have blogged! I do not even know where to start. Needless to say this has been the craziest semester yet. Taking three grad classes I have come to find is not the easiest thing in the world. On the other side, I have been learning to much. So as I look back on my blog I have not talked much since Direct Instruction. While I think that DI is great for introducing the lesson, Information processing model, and Social Interactive model has turned out to be two other great teaching models! In Information Processing, the teacher poses a question for the students, and the students have to find solutions on their own. A great example of this is the WebQuest! My WebQuest, "Adventure with Plants" was made for second graders to learn all about plants. I presented them with a problem that people did not believe that plants were living, and they had to research websites to prove that they were in fact, real! Information Processing allows students to practice their problem solving skills, and a chance for the students to take the lead in the classroom. In this model the teacher is there as a guide. They are there to answer questions if they come up, but for the most part the students are in charge of the classroom. This is a great model to use for science in particular. By providing students a problem and asking for a solution, you are giving students an opportunity to take charge and experiment. I will be sure to use this model in my classroom as I teach science lessons. I had an opportunity to use the IPM lesson plan in a second grade classroom this week. The students loved being able to experiment and find a solution to a problem. Being so involved in the lesson made them learn and understand the lesson more than if they were sitting in their seats listening to me lecture. Overall, I love this model of instruction, especially for science. This will be another thing I will carry with me to the classroom!

Making differences....

It is hard to believe that I have been in graduate school for a year now. Over the past year I have completed six classes and am enrolled in three as I type. Throughout these nine classes I have had the chance to participate in many hours of fieldwork. Even though a lot of these hours have been reserved for purely observing, there has been some where I had the pleasure of teaching/ co-teaching. I hope that I had made some sort of impact during my hours in school, incorporating all the lessons I have learned at Mount Saint Mary. I believe in taking everything I learned in my classes and incorporating them into my fieldwork hours. Even though all I have done so far is observe this semester, I have yet to teach...I would hope that taking the lessons I have put so much time in creating will stick with the students over time. I am very excited to be able to use technology into my teaching. I feel that students learn more when they are actively engaged in the lesson, and technology is the best way to do this, I feel. My cooperating teaching has been amazing with me, and helped me along the way. She allows me to have my freedom and take over class, I can only imagine how hard that must be! But it is so nice knowing there are teachers out there that are willing to hand over their classes to an education student and teach their students. Even though I can not comment on this Fieldwork yet, there has been a classes fieldwork that has stuck in my mind. In my Emergent Literacy class I was able to work one on one after school with a student at Bishop Dunn. It was probably so far one of the best experiences I had during Fieldwork. Week after week I created lessons to be done over the span of an hour to help with the student's literacy. I hope she had as much as I had creating the lessons, because it was quite fun for me! I got to create stories, posters, and drawings with her as we read tons of literacy, while introducing punctuation, and quotations. Seeing her grasp the information I was giving her was a great feeling. I loved seeing her enjoy these lessons I created and being enthusiastic about what we were going to do the next week. I feel like I didn't have to do anything differently and noticed that she was grasping the information by having her tell me what we did the week before in an activity. It was hard figuring out ways to engage the student week after week, but the easiest part was seeing her have fun learning, which is what I hope will happen many more times during my fieldwork experiences here at Mount Saint Mary College.

Time Flies....

Wow, it has been a month! I have no idea where the time goes, but it sure does fly when you are busy with three classes! Methods is continuing to be a huge learning experience with lots of new information being learned. Our latest adventure has been Direct Instruction. Remember all the countless hours you sat in class listening to your teacher lecture non-stop? Yup, that is direct instruction! And there is a point behind it! It is a great way to introduce a topic and promote automaticity! By repeating the basic information over and over again, you drill it into the students heads. It is actually a great way to introduce topics because it allows you as a teacher to deliver the information to students with no distractions. For example, I created my direct instruction lesson plan on Plants. I was sure to incorporate technology into my direct instruction plan. Just because you are delivering the basics, does not mean you can't have room for a little creativity! I incorporated using the SMARTboard by showing a picture of a plant.. Then slowly I showed each part of the plant and describe what the part's function is for. The students join in by repeating the parts of the plants and functions throughout the lessons.
Aside from my Direct Instruction lesson plan, I created a WebQuest. This allows the student to take the information they just learned and create a book on TikaTok. The students are on an adventure to prove that plants are living things. The students are split into groups and are assigned to research different aspects of plants. This Webquest is a great interactive lesson for students to get a hands on experience on learning. I hope that when I have my own classroom I am able to create tons of WebQuests on different topics because I believe in the students right to be creative.

One month down...

I can not believe that it has already been a month! There has been so much covered, and so much review. The more that it gets drilled into my head, the more I understand it and how it is important for the classroom. This website has probably one of the most viewed websites in my history lately. I think it does an excellent job in covering the Models, Strategies, Methods and Skills. I keep referring back to this particular reading because I still get mixed up sometimes on all the different types. I realize that this is a very important important of lesson planning, because you want to incorporate all of the different styles. Whether Direct, Indirect, or Interactive this reading has showed me there is a huge range or teaching methods out there. Another article , about direct instruction has also taught me a lot about this important style of teaching. "I do it, We do it, You do it" is the most important part I took out of this article. It put into my head that the I do it part is important because you are teaching the students new information. By having your students do it with you, you are taking a small step to independence for the students, when the "you do it" stage is occurring you are giving your students complete independence. You are letting them know that you have complete faith in them. These two articles plus the many more I have read over the past month have made me realize that my feelings about teaching and learning has changed. I never knew that when a teacher was standing in front of the classroom giving a lecture that they were actually direct teaching. I now realize that there was a point when the teachers would lecture, go over problems together, then let the students to problems by themselves. The layout of classes finally makes sense to me. This all hit me the past few weeks. By reading, class lectures, and group work I realize that there was a reason to everything. Group work has made me understand this even more. When I am talking to my classmates it makes me understand things more. When I hear other peoples views and thoughts on a topic it makes me look at something in a new light. Doing projects, such as the Direct Instrution lesson, shows that collaborating in education is very important. I feel that you will never grow as a teacher if you do not share views and ideas. Another way that I get to see what my classmates are thinking is by looking at their blogs. Sally's Blog is one that I enjoy reading because she really covers all aspects of what we learn in class. I also love all the side links and pictures throughout her blog, I wouldn't even know how to do half of that! Another blog that is great to read is Wendy's. She really reflects everything in depth. It is great reading how other classmates view the material. It is also a great review! Well I am glad that another semester is in full force, and another semester full of information is overwhelming my brain. I can not wait for the next few months! I can't imagine what is ahead.....but I am looking forward to it :)

Presentations Galore!

Group work! It is an important part of teaching and learning. This was a huge week for group work. The whole class took turns in teaching this week a different part of Direct Instruction.The first group to go was the Anticipatory set, with Dawn, Jessica and Heather S. They did a great job describing how to start up a Direct Instruction lesson plan by using a Voki. It was also great that they had us split into groups and had our create our own Anticipatory set. For example, our topic was rainforests. They followed the "I do it" "We do it" "You do it" model perfectly! The next group to go was "Explanation, Modeling, and Demonstatrion. Christina and Nicholas did a great job presenting. They started out with giving us spider rings and singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". They also showed modeled demonstration by creating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was a great example on how the teacher shows "I do it". Our group was next with "Guided Practice" It was me, Dennis and Laura. I feel like we did ok but could have done better. I know I would have spoken less from the PowerPoint and my paper. Overall, I think we did give all the information that covered Guided Practice. Guided Practice helps the students grasp and understand the lessons. There are three ways to check for understanding, Didatic Questioning, Reciporcal Teaching, and Recitations. Feedback is also very important in this stage. The next group to go was Drill and Practice with Pam, Wendy, Kelly and Sally. They had a great way of getting the classes attention by marching into class. They were very knowledgable about Drill and Practice by following the I do, We do, You do. Homework was up next with Bridgett and Brian. They did a awesome job going through the pros and cons of homework. Such as it gives the students a chance to practice, but a con is that parent involvment can be to much. I also like the 10 minute rule, by Harris Cooper. When the grade should determine how much homework they get. For example first, should get ten minutes. Fifth should get 50 minutes. I think its smart because of course the older a student gets the more homework they can handle. The last group to go was Closure and Evaluation by Kellie, Susan and Emily. I think they did an awesome job decribing how to close a Direct Instruction lesson. They had a great opener, they showed all these pictures such as doors, drawers, and gates. They got the point across that whatever you open you have to close.
Overall, I think that everyone did an excellent job and it gave us a great practice of teaching. It also really drilled in our hand the Direct Lesson Plan.

Way to be Direct....

I am so glad there is a name for all those years of lecturing that teachers have given over the years...Direct Instruction. Direct Instruction is a teacher centered strategy of learning. Teachers give the basic skills and knowledge of the topic being taught, by astep by step process. It is a very structured and organize way of teaching. Five steps are usually involved: 1) Setting clear goals for students 2) Presenting sequence of well organized assignments 3) Give students clear outlines of the subject matter 4) Asking students frequent questions 5) Student practice what they learn. Also known as, "I do, you do, we do". There is a lot of criticism about Direct Instruction. It is not student centered, does not promote creativity, and focuses on the lowest level of Bloom's Taxomony, Knowledge. There are also positives involved with this. It guarentees specific learning outcomes, uses time effectivily, and easy to implement. Overall, I think it is very hard to avoid using this way of teaching, but while lecturing the class about a new topic the teacher should try to make it fun to keep the students from not listening. Plus it is importatnt to incorporate other strategies of teaching which is student focused and incorporates creativity, such as indirect.

Hello, Hello, Hello.

It is crazy to think we are already in week four of class and this is my first post of the semester! I need to get into blogging mind-set again! The first few weeks have been a great review of Curricular Planning. I have to say, I am so glad that I learned so much in Curricular Planning, because it is coming in use for Methods! So far we have reviewed goals and learning concepts, Bloom's Taxonomy, CBC objectives, and Models, Strategies, and Methods. I am excited to use all of these concepts and incorporate them into my WebQuest! I had a really good time looking through WebQuest last semester and can not wait to create my own. They seem like they are a lot of fun to create, and encourage lots of creativity. Another thing that I have enjoyed this semester so far is learning more about SMARTboard. When Dr. Smirnova showed us some ways to incorpate the SMARTboard into morning meeting I was amazed how interactive and fun it makes
learning for students. It is a fun way for students to learn and want to participate in class.
Another thing we have been talking about in class is Lesson Planning. Spring semester was Unit Planning and this time around we moved to lesson planning. Basically, a forecast of goals, and organization of teaching and learning. It will be useful to learn ways to create lesson plans which makes it fun and educational for the class.
Well, that is enough for today, but I will be sure to update every week so I don't miss a thing!

Farewell...until next month :)

The use of digital video and media to enhance literacy learning

View more presentations from Heathmae36.


I can not believe it is all finished! These five weeks sure did fly by. I can't even believe how much material we covered this summer, I do not feel as overwhelmed as I thought I would be. I think that it helped a lot that I took Curriculum Planning last semester. I remember how overwhelmed last semester, so I am very thankful that I had experience with Moodle and some of these websites.

The presentations tonight were awesome! As you can see above, my WoW (Wonder of the Web) project was on the use of Digital Video and Media to enhance literacy learning. It was a pretty open project so I decided to focus on how to make a video in an elementary school. Instead of reading books then writing up a book report students now can make a video project of what they learned in the book. They can just review or act out the book. I put up steps for how to make videos...I don't have personal experience but I have watched videos and visited websites, it is something that I look forward to doing in my classroom! Everyones topics were sites that everyone can use in their future classrooms. Everyones PowerPoint was very engaging and everyone did a great job presenting! Of course I had trouble with my microphone..but I kinda expected that. Just glad I was able to speak through Dr. Smirnova's phone :)

I will take so much out of this course. There are so many great new sites that I have learned about. I am now aware of grade books online, web 2.0, and information about Internet Safety. I learned that it is so important to use technology in literacy. There are so many sources out there that are free and fun and will keep your students entertained. I am very excited to put these into use :)

Until next semester..have a good rest of the summer!

Get your news here!

Below is the Lit Tech Sextet's Parent Newsletter made in Glogster. As you can see in many posts before this one, I used Glogster for my event poster. I am a little upset I didn't know about this sooner! I had so much fun making my event poster, so I was really happy when my group decided to use it! Unfortunately, I did not get to help create this Glog. I was stuck at work during this weeks group meeting and missed the design of it. I contributed as much information as I could before hand, but I must say, I do not think I could have done a better job! My group mates did an amazing job. Everyone in that group is so talented, I got very lucky.

I love the idea of a newsletter to parents. Communication is key between parents and students. You are teaching their child, so of course you are going to want to talk to them! Parents want to know how their child is doing, and being the teacher you are very aware of how their child is doing. Even though keeping in constant one on one contact with every single parent, twenty times a day is impossible, there are ways to make it work! Websites are a great way for parents to be able to keep up with what is going on in the classroom. I will create a website through a site such as Webs, to make sure parents are aware of homework assignments, class projects, and up to date news on events going on in the classroom. I also think its a great idea to use Glogster to create Parents Newsletter. Creating one once a month and sending them home to the student's parents are a great way to keep in contact. If parents do not have Internet access I will also make sure that I am available through phone calls, and be available for meetings. I know it is a lot of work being a teacher but I think that communication to parents is important for the student. I think that fun communication software are free programs such as Webs! It is a great way to categorize what is going on in the classroom, and is easy access for the parents. One place for all the classroom information!

Once again our collaboration on this project was amazing! Our group did a great job keeping constant contact with each other through G-mail. Corey and Kari did great jobs as co-facilitators as well! Once again using Glogster for this newsletter was the best think we could have done! It is fun and colorful and allowed the group to incorporate tons of different information. I would not change a thing for next time!

Glogster

Just keep on swimming...

As Dory says in Finding Nemo, "keep on swimming, keep on swimming..." That rings so true to this summer, Just have to keep on going and never slow down. I feel this class was perfect for the summer. I never did the whole online thing, but I am really glad I experienced it in the summer time first. I learned so much new information, but at the same time it was not overwhelming. Each week I have looked forward to what new technology will be introduced next. Before creating the Literacy 21 toolkit I never realized how many beneficial websites are available online. These benefit children so much because these are activities that could never be done without the resources the Internet has.

One great way that I got to experience all these websites was with my group, The Lit Tech Sextet. I enjoyed this group very much, I don't think I could ask for a better one! We all collaborated awesome through G-mail. We created the Literacy 21 toolkit above, along with a Powerpoint presentation, created a newsletter on Glogster. I enjoyed working with this group, and along the way learned great new websites!

Aside from my blog, I have taken a look at others as well. I visited some of my group members blogs. Jessica's blog entitled "Jessica's Blog". I have been reading Jessica's blog for the past two semesters now. Jessica's blog mirrors her personality, in a good way! I can read her blog and imagining her saying what she is writing, I think that is a way a blog should be. It reflects her personality, and I think that it is great! I also took a look at Kayleigh's blog entitled, "Learning to Teach for Tomorrow". I love all of the great images she has posted to go along with her entries. She covered every aspect of the course and did a great job communicating her thoughts on the material. I am very proud of Deanna for her blog! She was a great group member! I knew she was a little nervous about using all of the different technology but she caught on quick! My favorite entry might be her shout out to the Lit Tech Sextet ;) I browsed through other blogs and all were great. The cool thing is that even though everyone covered the same course material, everyone's blog was different! It showed their personality with the images and links. Blogging is something I have learned to love!

Can I evaluate you?

Once again I have consumed lots and lots of information over the past few days! Everything I learn in this class are topics that you can not avoid as teachers. I feel that everything I learn in this class is so important and will come in handy one day. This week reading up on assessments and rubrics and safety are for sure three things that are unavoidable as teachers. As soon as I hear the word assessments my mind goes to evaluating performance. Authentic Assessment goes hand in hand with web 2.0 in my opinion. It is obvious that as teachers you are evaluating student and their work. They aren't doing all the work for you not to notice. By having rubrics to evaluate their performance, the students are aware of what is expected of them. At least it is one of the ways. Traditional Assessment, with the reading from the textbook, write an essay about what you read, and then let me give you a multiple choice test to make sure you understood what you read, does not interest students anymore. Traditional Assessment is no longer in the question if you want to lead a productive, fun, yet educational classroom. Students need authentic assessment to keep engaged in their work. As teachers we are preparing students to go into the "real world". They are going to need to learn how to do tasks which will make them productive citizens. To learn these tasks they need fun! Of course standards can not be forgotten, so you have to create tasks around these standards. For example, Dr. Smirnova gave us a website to read up on assessments,
one of the examples within the website is a lesson teachers gave to their elementary students about fairy tales. They have the students think of fairy tales, something they are interested in, and incorporate it into the standards. One example, is to write a letter to someone in a fairytale from another character in the story. It incorporates the standards while making them feel like they are not forced to do something boring.
Rubrics are obviously very important parts to assessments. You need to evaluate students, obviously is an important part of teaching. There are so many different rubrics for every type of activity, including web 2.0 activities such as Glogster.
Here is a rubric I created from Rubistar.

Making A Collage : Who you are!

Teacher Name: Ms. Lease


Student Name: __________________________________

CATEGORY	4-Excellent	3-Very Good	2-Good	1-Poor
Quality of Construction	The collage shows considerable attention to construction. The items are neatly trimmed. All items are carefully and securely attached to the backing. There are no stray marks, smudges or glue stains. Nothing is hanging over the edges.	The collage shows attention to construction. The items are neatly trimmed. All items are carefully and securely attached to the backing. A few barely noticeable stray marks, smudges or glue stains are present. Nothing is hanging over the edges.	The collage shows some attention to construction. Most items are neatly trimmed. All items are securely attached to the backing. A few barely noticeable stray marks, smudges or glue stains are present. Nothing is hanging over the edges.	The collage was put together sloppily. Items appear to be just "slapped on". Pieces may be loose or hanging over the edges. Smudges, stains, rips, uneven edges, and/or stray marks are evident.
Design	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged well, some in front and some behind. Care has been taken to balance the pictures across the canvas.	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged with some items in front and others behind. The canvas, however does not appear balanced.	Graphics have been trimmed to an appropriate size and shape, but the arrangement of items is not very attractive. It appears there was not a lot of planning of the item placement.	Graphics are untrimmed OR of inappropriate size and/or shape. It appears little attention was given to designing the collage.
Creativity	Several of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect an exceptional degree of student creativity in their creation and/or display	One or two of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect student creativity in their creation and/or display.	One or two graphics or objects were made or customized by the student, but the ideas were typical rather than creative (.e.g, apply the emboss filter to a drawing in Photoshop).	The student did not make or customize any of the items on the collage.
Titles and Text	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read from a distance. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. There was little variation in the appearance of text.	Titles and/or text are hard to read, even when the reader is close.

This site is so simple, it allows you to pick out a subject and gives you the outline of the rubric and allows you to modify it anyway you wish. It also provides interactive rubrics to give your students more detailed feedback. This rubric is the text they fill in for you. It is very detailed and lets you pick what categories you evaluate the students on. It is such an easy website, and once I get more experienced I will be able to write in the boxes more detailed outlines of particular projects.
The last very important topic I used this week is Internet Safety and copyright issues. It is very stressful knowing that you have to watch out for every piece of information that you are teaching is not copyrighted. It is hard when you want to show a video that fits your lesson perfectly but the material is copyrighted. Reading these articles gave me so much information I did not know about guidelines about the laws. It is also so important for students to know their safety and copyright laws, because when creating their work they can run into copyright issues they may not know about. Policy This letter is a great thing to send home with the students so that parents can go over the rules and laws of Use Policy. As teachers it is also your responsibility to let the students know about these policies, but it is also good for parents to understand and go over it with their children.

Overall, once again I learned lots and lots of valuable information this week I will be taking with me along the journey!

Keeping the books in check!

Hello again! Once again I have been introduced to many new websites this week! As you can see in my last post I used Glogster for my last assignment. I looked around a few sights before I tried this one out. Needless to say, I LOVED it! I spent a few hours playing around with the site before I created the final poster. I had a lot of fun playing around with all the materials they give you to put on your piece of work. I will be using that again. So, I signed up for yet again another new website. I better start keeping track of all these things I am apart of before I forget! Engrade is a free website where you can create your own grade book. I don't have my own class so I had to create my own. I didn't know making fake names could be so hard! Anyway, I loved this website! I can't imagine the ones that you have to pay for, since this one is free and is so nice. I think one of the things that I was worried about going into teaching was keeping track of the grades. When I think of grading, I always think of my teachers having their books and pencils, doing the math averaging out the grades. I am not the best at math so knowing there is something out there that will help do the grades makes me very happy. There are many things I liked about this website. I like how you can say what weight of the grade each assignment will be. It is nice you have the option to create each category and say how much each is worth. Another thing I love is when you score the students it gives you the chance to put down if they are excused from the assignment or missed it. I also love how it gives you the class average for every assignment that you grade. It is also great that there is a calender and attendance option. It helps the organization of assignments, also lets you have everything in one place. Having something like this online is very helpful for a teacher because it gives them that much less paper to keep around. It seems like it would really help the desk clutter! I really could not think of a thing that I did not like about this website. That also may because I never had to go through having my own class and a grade book.
Some features that might be cool on this website are options for different color. It might be easier to be organized when you can group things in color, use different fonts, etc . It might make it more interesting. Another thing I would consider changing is the attendance. Maybe have a different setup so it is easier to read. When it is in columns like that all the days seem to collide together. I would probably have more suggestions if I had experience using grade books, but I do not. This website looks pretty amazing to me!
I feel like this software is good for teachers because it seems like it makes grading easy. This site is very easy to navigate, and when you put the students and their id numbers in, it is very simple to put the grades. How the software automatically averages out the grades for each assignment is very helpful for the teacher. This software is a really good organizational tool. Having a grade book, attendance sheet, and calender all in one website makes is easy for teachers. Instead of having more paperwork then they already have, this eliminates some of the clutter off of their desk!
One of the best features of this website is the parent/student access. It is nice that parents are able to go on the website and see how their child is doing. By monitoring their child's work, they are able to know what the student needs to work on at home, and they get to see if the student is doing their homework. I think it is also a great way of communication. It is a good way to keep in contact outside of class if the student has any questions. It also does not give the student excuse that they did not know they had homework due!
Overall, I loved this website. I can not even imagine the sites you have to pay for. They must have magical powers to out-d0 this one!

Glogster

Picasion

Here is my Picasion! Yet a whole new website I have learned to use! This is another pretty cool website where you can show off all of your pages in one slide show! I don't have many websites, I have a Facebook, Blogger, WDYDWYD, and our group's Wiki site on WetPaint. So I don't have many sites to put on this page. I did enjoy making this. I had some issues with getting this up on the blog, but I feel accomplished that I figured it out!

Continuation....

Photo: Education World



Literacy and Technology is my first online class. I was a little nervous at first, but after taking Curriculum Planning and Development I figured I already had a dose of the online world of learning. Needless to say, I love online classes. If it was not for my experience last semester taking a class with Dr. Smirnova, I would not be as calm as I am, but everything I learned last semester has smoothly transferred over to this class. It is only the second week of the class but I have already learned so many new ways to incorporate the Internet into teaching. So many new websites such as WetPaint, Picasso, and WDYDWYD has been brought to my attention this past week, and I love EVERY one of these websites! There are so many ways to be creative, and these websites show so many ways to bring creativity.

Taking Emergent Literacy last semester introduced me to the world of literacy, but this class takes it to a whole other level. Learning has changed a lot over the past few years. Students live in a new world of a digital age. Computer Literacy is the knowledge and ability to use computers and technology efficiently. It is knowing how computers work and operate. Students today are the prime example of knowing computer literacy. With video games, Facebook, and Twitter students are in a world which is run by technology. Students are teachers when it comes to how computers work. They are teaching their elders a whole new way of life. Information Literacy is the ability to find and use information from different sources, and organize it into a form that allows users to make decisions. Integration Literacy is the ability to use computers and other technology combined with teaching and learning strategies to enhance student's learning. There is a difference between the three terms, even though they all have to do with technology. Computer Literacy is the simple knowledge of how technology works. Information Literacy is bringing Computer Literacy to the next level. It is using technology to gather information that would once be found in textbooks. It is using the Internet to bring the best learning materials together that allows the user to make the best decisions with its information. Integration Literacy is the next level of these three terms. This allows using technology with teaching to make students learn to the best of their ability. The literacy of the future will hand in hand with all three of these terms. Teaching will involve combining technology with teaching strategies. Students will use computers to enhance their learning by experiencing a whole new level of creativity.

The digital students today are different from the previous generation of students. Digital students have a completely different way of learning. The way that students think and learn are different than previous generations. Students today live differently, they multi-task better, they receive information faster. Students grow up thinking that learning can not be fun. They are growing up on computers, and playing video games. They are used to be connected with their friends with texting, Twitter, and Facebook. When textbooks are given to them, they don't want to spend their time reading them. They would rather be on the computer communicating with the world. Teachers need to learn new ways to reach out to their students. Teachers need to find resources online which will reach to the student's attention. Teachers need to present material differently. Using websites such as WebQuests will let the students be more hands on with their learning. By getting more involved in lessons, students today will be more willing to learn.

After looking at the National Education Technology Standards for Students, number three stuck out to me.
Research and Information Fluency. "Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information." I feel that this is the best implemented because students are well aware of websites such as Wikipedia and Google Search to find information. Even though Wikipedia is not the most reliable website, it goes hand in hand with this standard. I feel that my readiness to meet this standards have grown after taking Curriculum Planning, and this class. I have been introduced to many new websites that I can show my class, including Tikatok, which is a site where our class can create digital storybooks which can be printed into real books. This site can be use to fulfill Standard One-Creativity and Innovation. Students can create their own PB Works which can fulfill Standard Two- Communication and Collaboration. Another site, WetPaint, is a great site where students can create their own webpages about subjects they are learning in school. This is a sight which my group has been working on for our ToolKit. To meet these standards these websites, plus many more need to be incorporated into the lessons. Internet access and computers must be available for all students in schools.

There has been a clear shift of paradigms from 1.0-2.0. The Internet is the prime example of this shift. Textbooks are being replaces with Webpages such as WebQuests. Journals are being replaced with Blogs. Videotapes are being replaces with Podcasts. All of these new forms of teaching and learning is new information for teachers who are used to 1.0, but it is normal life for students coming into 2.0. Teachers need to learn how to teach to the students needs. Students will learn easier when they are familiar with the tools they are being taught with.

Lastly, I love Google Tools! After watching the tutorial on it, I have become addicted. I was already a fan of Gmail, and Google Docs. Our group has been using GoogleTalk for all our group meetings, and it has been such a great and easy experience. One thing I have loved from Google Tools is igoogle. I have been introduced to this, and I love how it keeps everything in one place. It is now my current homepage, and I love how I have my email, news, weather, Blogger, notepad, calender, and games all in one place!

Overall, this class has been another great learning experience so far, and can not wait to see what is to come in upcoming weeks!

New Beginnings

Hello again! I feel like I was just here wrapping up my feelings about Curriculum Planning. I can't believe it has been over a month! Literacy and Technology seems like it will be another adventure! I am so happy that I took Curriculum Planning before this class. A lot of what I learned from that class is already being carried into this class. I am very familiar with Moodle, so I don't feel overwhelmed with that aspect of the class. I feel very comfortable which is a great place to be. Another thing that I am carrying over is my knowledge of Gmail. It has been a great tool to communicate with my group members. I just can't wait to learn more about literacy and teaching with technology during the next five weeks!

Fireworks!

Well we just had our last class for Curriculum Planning and Development :( I can't believe it is all actually over! It's actually not as sad since I know next semester we will have Dr. Smirnova for methods. I have a feeling that that class will be just as challenging, educational, and informational as this one! That Russian dinner was amazing! I never had Russian food before but I really enjoyed it! I'm not the biggest fan of meat so I was happy to see that it was made of mostly greens! I also enjoyed the wine part of the dinner! It was a perfect ending to this semester. Eveyones Unit Plan looked amazing during their presentations! I know everyone worked so hard on them this semester so it was nice we got to present them to the class. It made it more special that we got to do it at Dr. Smirnovas hosue.

I feel like I did my field work for this class so long ago but it was actually only a month ago! I did my field work in a first grade classroom, and I have to say it is probably one of my favorite grades. I prefer the younger grades for a few reasons. I love the activities you get to do with them, I love how they are so excited to learn, and I just think they are so fun to watch! The teacher let me look through all the books that the school district gave her to plan her lessons around. It is nice to know that they give you outlines and that you don't have to create the whole year step by step. The class was very structured, and followed the same routine every day. It was nice because the students knew what to do next so they could just transfer smoothly into the next subject. I think my favorite part was their morning meeting. I went four mornings and each morning they had different fun activities. Something I saw which I loved was watching them go over their spelling words. Each student would say a letter and when the word was done the next student would say Sparkle! and then the next word would start. I just loved the interaction and team work of this activity, plus every other activity I saw in morning meeting plus throughout the day. Overall, I loved observing first grade, but maybe next time I will observe the older grades to get a feel for them.

Overall, I enjoyed this class. Aside from all of the hard work and long nights, I took so much away from this class and have enjoyed every class. We have learned so much and have had it taught to us so that it is drilled in our heads so I highly doubt I will ever forget the material!

Communities!

I figured I would split up my posts so they don't all drag on! So the past few weeks in class aside from Microteachings we have been focusing on creating our Unit Plans. I am very happy that for the past weeks Dr. Smirnova has let us work on our Unit Plans in class. It is nice knowing that you have her plus fifteen of your classmates there if you have any questions. My Unit Plan Wiki is all about learning about Communities. I focused on first grade since I love the younger grades. At first I was overwhelmed because by looking at all different curriculum planning websites I noticed that 1st-3rd grades all learn about communities. I was nervous because it seemed like they all ran together in the areas each grade covers. My first intention was doing my Unit Plan on communities around the world, which moved to Communities around the United States, but then after even more reserach I realized that I would rather focus on the Individual Community. Boy, am I happy I did. I am really enjoying researching all these fun activities that students can do in class to learn about their communities. I am looking at all these websites such as Webquest, Discovery Education, and Brainpop. These websites are great ways to find out what students are learning in these grades and what type of activies these grades learn through. For my starting activies I have also been making books through Tikatok and videos on Xtranormal which are awesome websites which allows you to make your own digital books and movies, two websites that Dr. Smirnova have brought to my attention for group presentations and my microteaching. All in all I am looking forward to going over to Dr. Smirnova's house for our group presentations and our big Russian dinner! It should be fun, can't wait!

Wikis, Vokis, Diigos and more!

Wow, I have not posted in a month!!! I have been so consumed with my Unit Plan that I haven't had the chance! Well since last time I posted there has been a few Microteachings which everyone has done an amazing job on! First off Veronica and Heather S. did a great job giving their Microteaching on grabbers and anticipatory sets! I loved the Voki that they played. I think it is a great way to grab student's attention since it is something more then just the teacher lecturing the class. The next person to Microteach was Amy who talked about resources. She showed us a website called Diigo which is an awesome site which keeps track of all the websites you use. The one thing that caught my attention on this website is that you can use stickynotes and highlighters on the page itself. I think it is awesome that you basically have a notepad on your computer. The last people who gave their Microteaching was Sally and Kelly M.! Sally and Kelly talked about our Wikis pb works and our presentations! I can't believe that the semester is almost over! I feel like all the information that we learned in this class is going to help all of us in our future teachings. Every piece of information we have learned is already helping us with our Unit Plans. I can't believe how much planning goes into a Unit Plan. I knew it was a lot of information but before this class I had no idea how many little pieces of information come together for the big picture! This class has made understanding this whole process a lot easier than I thought and I am very grateful for that. I am also grateful for everyone who is in the class. I feel like we all get along so well and help eachother out and that is soemthing that is very important to have in a class. I am just glad that I didn't have to go through all of this alone!

I know we are getting close to the end when Jessica's Micro teaching is about reviewing what we have learned thus far! It is amazing to look back on all that we have done and how it all ties together so smoothly. I think Jessica did really good having us go back and think in categories. It made me really think about the different theories, concepts, skills, and experiences and how they all tie together. For example, a concept is Aims, Goals, and Objectives, a skill we learned was writing objectives, a theory is Bloom's taxonomy which is used in writing objectives and an experience we learned is writing a unit plan. It is comfortable knowing that everything I learned in this class is going to be carried with me the rest of my teaching career. So after Jessica's microteaching Dr. Smirnova shared a very informative PowerPoint about Models, Strategies and Methods. There are four types of models. Behavioral which is a broad approach to teaching, which develops the basic skills and knowledge. Information Processing is through questions and exploration . Social Interactive model focus on social skills, that students learn better when they interact. Personal Model is focused on developing the student's self esteem. Strategies are a set of steps you have to follow. Direct are aligned with behavioral, very teacher focused. Indirect/cognitive are aligned with information processing, there are specific steps. It starts class with a problem or a puzzle type situation. Indirect/interactive aligns with social interactive, learning through exploration. Indirect/Individual is aligned with Personal, which focuses on the individual student. Methods are more specific ways of reaching goals. There are hundreds of methods. Each model has methods/activities that can fit into them. Lecture is a form of behavioral model, Problem solving can be used with information-processing, Field Trips used in experimental model, Homework used in Personal model and Think-Pair-Share in Social Interactive Model. Learning the models, strategies and methods was interesting because it makes you realize that there is more to teaching than just lecture, which I feel was a big part of the education I had. It is important to incorporate all of the different behaviors because it focuses on the student learning by themself, the teacher, and their classmates. After the PowerPoint Dr. Smirnova allowed us to work on our Unit Plans in class. Which was really nice to be able to be in class working on our unit plan design because if you get stuck then you have your classmates or Dr. Smirnova right there to help you out. Overall, this class just confirmed to me how fast this semester is coming to a close!!!

Practice, Practice, Practice!!

As Dr. Smirnova says, "Practice, Practice, Practice!" Which rings very very true for learning how to write out objectives! For me, it was very confusing how to write out these objectives for my Unit plan on Communities around the United States , but I think I finally got it down!
1. Pick a standard, such as History of the United States and New York 2. Pick a key idea from that standard, such as "important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of perspectives". 3. Pick goals you want the students to achieve in the lesson, Student will know about the history of the community they live in. 4. Pick out a performance indicator from the standard, "Students gather and organize information about the traditions transmitted by various groups living in their neighborhood and community." 5. Write out an objective, Given books on their community, have the student create a timeline following a rubric and scoring at least 3/4. An important thing to remember when writing out your objective is you have to follow CBC. Condition-Behavior-Criteria. The condition is the setting of the tasks and materials. Behavior measures what the student is expected to do and criteria is important because it says where a student should be performing at a certain time. These are important to be included in the objectives because it focuses on the student and on getting them to a higher level of learning. There is so much information coming in to help develop this Unit Plan, and each piece of information that is coming in is making me realize how much goes into making a Unit Plan. And with each thing I learn I get more and more excited to see the Unit Plan come together and to see the finished product. I feel like this class will be coming in handy for many, many years to come!

Bloom's triangle of thinking!!!

It is finally here! Time to buckle down and start getting a move on with this Unit Plan!!! I picked the topic of Communities Around the United States for a few reasons. I love the younger grades and since the beginning grades focus on learning about communities I figured that would be the most interesting topic for me to focus on. On NYLearns.org website it describes the curriculum of second grade social studies as looking at communites around the United States. I am looking forward to designing this unit plan and am excited to start looking at what activities should be incorporated, along with thinking of a good culminating project. It should be a great learning experience. A major topic of class has been Bloom's Taxonomy. The chart on the left represents the six levels of Blooms taxonomy...the revised version. The old version had Evaluating and Creating switched. Along with the words being replaced from nouns t verbs. The chart basically represents a learning tool in the classroom. It focuses on six levels of thinking, from basic to higher levels of thinking. Lower levels of thinking are Remembering and Understanding and the hgher levels of thinking include the top four. Remembering- involves recalling previous learned information. Understanding involves grasping the infromation just learned by interpreting it. Applying involves taking the information just learned and using it in a new way. Analysing is breaking information into parts. Evaluating involves the students making in depth reflection and making decisions based on these reflections. Creating is the highlest level of thinking and has the student creating new ideas from previous learned information. All of these levels of thinking should be incorporated into the classroom activies. The culminating project should involve the highest level of thinking, creating. It was good that we had lots of practice with using these six levels because it is a good guide to follow when creating activities.

Aims, Goals, Objectives

Even though we had off from class for Spring Break doesn't mean that there wasn't any work to be done! Webquests and Microteaching sure did keep me busy over break!! Looking through the Webquests was actually pretty interesting and fun. It is amazing how many teachers go out there and are willing to share their lesson plans. It is great knowing there is a place to go where there are so many ideas you can borrow from other teachers. Some of these lesson plans were really cool and included a lot of fun resources from the Web! Webquests.
There is the sight and it allows you to search any subject and grade level, it's very easy!

After searching around Webquests for a while it was time for me to start thinking about my Microteaching on Aims, Goals, and Objectives. Dr. Smirnova introduced me to this really cool site Xtranormal.
Lesson Gone Wrong Here is the video I made for my microteaching.


This site is pretty cool, the websites motto is pretty much the point of the website, "If you can type, you can make movies." It was really cool to make a script then pick the setting, characters, and camera angles to go along with it. It also made me really think about the difference of Aims, Goals, and Objectives.
Aims are the most general statements are basically refer to National standards and are statements about general learning outcomes.
Goals are more specific then aims which include state standards. They are statements of educational intention.
Objectives are specific statements which teachers can formulate.

Before my microteaching Bridgett had her microteaching for content analysis. I thought she did an awesome job. She made her peanut butter sandwhich and really had the class tell her every little thing to do to make the sandwhich. It made us understand that content anaylsis really makes you think of every single, little step that is involved in planning and teaching. I thought my microteaching went well, aside from the video having no sound. I felt comfortable in front of the class and glad I could still carry on introducing Aims, Goals, and Objectives without my video!

Standards in action!

Once again, standards!!! This time instead of just reading up on standards are we got to research standards of a certain area with our group! Our group's mission: ELA (English Language Arts) standards. Once again thanks to Google Docs communicating with my group was super easy! I am in love with the Powerpoint portion of Google Docs. I still can not believe how easy it can be to work on a group project. I really wish I knew this throughout college! But anyway back to ELA standards. My section of this project was to find out ways to bring ELA into the classroom. Well, I found out there are plenty of really fun, simple ways to teach to the ELA standards. Thank you internet! There are countless websites where teachers post lesson plans that you can use with your own class. It is very comforting knowing that teachers love to share their brilliant ideas! Digitialwish.com is an amazing website that Jessica found. It has all these lesson plans that are simple, cheap and fun to do in class. For example, one was a twist on a classic book report. Instead of doing a boring old report this lesson plan has students create their own movie review of the book. It lets the student learn while at the same time have fun with the lesson! I think the highlight of doing this project was finding the website tikatok.com. This website is simply amazing! It lets teachers create a FREE account and allows them to put students on under their account so they can keep track of their work. The website allows student's to write their own books, along with draw their own pictures. You can then order hard or soft copies of the book the student's started from scratch! I love this idea so much and it is a great way to bring ELA standards into your classroom. Anyway, I am happy the way our group presentation went along with everyone else. Everyone always does such a great job on their presentations, it makes it very easy to watch! Dr. Smirnova then took over to teach us about Social Studies Standards! Very important to know for our big Unit Plan!!!!! It was really cool how she had us get into groups and figure out a fun way to remember the NY state Social Studies Standards. Everyone had such great, creative, fun tricks to remember them! History of NY and US, World History, Geography, Economics, and Civic, Citizenship and Government!! Ok, I cheated and looked up the last one but the tricks did help me with the first four! Well that was what we left off with for Spring Break: next quest- Webquest!!!! Very confused on Webquests but crossing my fingers I will be a pro in the next few weeks!

Snow, Snow, Snow!

It's good to know that snow can't stop Curriculum Planning and Development!!! It's pretty awesome having a tech savvy teacher who can continue on with class through a snow storm!! Elluminate Live was pretty cool. Who knew you could have such an interactive class through the computer? I had no idea! But I am glad I have this class to learn things like this. I really did love Elluminate Live. I really felt like I was in class seeing Dr. Smirnova on the screen and hearing her voice. It really felt like class when we got sent into our groups! I didn't really catch on to how to make a text box and start writing. I made lots of mistakes but the experience was worth it! I think Nick did an awesome job with Microteaching online. I for one would never ever know how to accomplish that. It would probably help if I had a microphone and webcam in my computer. But onto Assessment, the topic of the week! Another important area of education. It was great reading up and learning about assessments, because my idea of assessments before this class were standardized tests, or what I learned in the readings, summative assessments :) I really like the idea that assessments give teachers the chance to see where the student is in their learning. Since it is really important to remember that all students are at different levels of learning, and each student processes information differently, it is important to give students Diagnostic Assessments. I think that KWL charts are an awesome way to go to see what each student already knows, and ideally self-evaluations of each student would be a good way to see what they know. I have always thought that the students are the center of the classroom and that teachers should plan their lessons to student's best interests. With formative assessments it lets the student be student centered and allows them to grow in strength as a student. By providing the student feedback it allows them to know and understand what they are or are not doing so they can improve. Teacher-Student Interaction, I feel, is a vital part to any classroom. If the student feels that the teacher is on their side and wants them to learn it will help the student focus more on learning. Overall, I learned a lot about assessments, and experienced a virtual classroom. Both of which I will take with me in the future!

Standards, Standards, Standards!

Standards. A word that you hear hand in hand with education with much critique. Before reading up on standards all I knew were the basics. That teachers teach to the standards. I pretty much have a different concept the more I read up on them. My concept of learning standard is they are the overall goals of what students are expected to know by the end of the lesson or the unit. Every state has their own standards except Iowa. State and local standards are more common and more specific and grades four, eight and twelve are important years for standards. The first subject which introduced standards was mathmatics in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathmatics, and in the same year Congress adapted eight educational goals. Soon to follow were history, geography, science, the arts, and civics. There are two standards: Content and Performance. Content standards are what students should know and be able to do, while performance standards measures the student's work. It is important for schools to have standards because it is a unified goal and focus for everyone to look to. Teachers, students, parents, and the community all have one clear idea what is expected of schools. It is a way of teachers to keep track of how students are performing and where areas they need further assistance in. It also lets students know what is expected of them and what they should be able to accomplish at the end of a lesson or unit.

Whether people are saying standards are a good thing or just makes teachers "teach to the test", I believe that standards are an organized goal that can put everyone on the same page. It lets teachers and students know what is expected of them in each grade, and lets parents in on what is going on in their child's classroom. Even though it can make a class cut and dry, teachers can find creative ways to teach their students to meet the standards. It should not have to fall all on teaching by the textbooks. If a teacher can make teaching fun and interesting I do not see any problem with standards being an ultimate focus and goal for everyone to share!


This is the website that my professor Dr. Smirnova gave us for a reference, and where I got most of the information to guide me through my standards journey!
Standards Website

Theories, Wordle, and Lesson Plans

Last week in class we covered a wide range of topics. To start off, two weeks ago we divided into groups to venture into Teaching/Learning Philosophies. Our group's goal: Behavorism. A very cut and dry theory, information gets poured into student's brains and the student is expected to give the information back. Positive and Negative Reinforcement is a main aspect of this theory. It is a very popular theory that is commonly used with trainingd dogs. My job was to research the theorists of this philosophy. It was pretty interesting to learn about the history since I was never fully aware of how it came about. I can't say I was surprised since Aristotle, Pavlov and Skinner was involved with creating this philosophy, so it was very interesting to reseach! Overall, I think that our group did a pretty good job. It all came together quite nicely thanks to Google Docs. I developed a love for Google Docs while doing this project. I have never even thought of creating a Google email before this project but I am so glad I did! I don't have PowerPoint on my computer since I never really thought to download it when I first got my laptop a few years ago so Google Docs is soooo nice! It lets you do PowerPoint which is amazing news for me since it is the only way I can access it on my computer! Without Google Docs, this project would have been a lot more difficult. I think we had pretty great teamwork and really interacted a lot during the week we had. I think our presentation went pretty well, it was nice being the first group to go. One downfall was we didn't think we had enough time to go over the quiz with the class. We were pretty focused on making sure our presentation was only seven minutes. Aside from the quiz, I think it went well! Also, I think that all the other groups did great with their presentations!! It is always nice to learn from your classmates, and they all made it very easy to understand their theories.

One thing that I loved about class was Dawn's microteaching and the fact that she introduced us to Wordle. I think that is such an awesome site to use both teaching, and in everyday life. That is one thing that I love about class. It has only been about a month, and Dr. Smirnova has introduced about fifty new websites that I never knew existed!

A little overwhelming was the introduction to Unit Planning. It seems a little scary, but after hearing Dr. Smirnova's past student talk about at the end everything will come together, I am very excited to start this journey! It seems like it might be a difficult one, but I am ready for the ride!