Final Reflection

As I reflect back on this semester with CEP 810, I find that I’ve begun to incorporate more of a technology focused philosophy towards my teaching practices. I’ve always felt that technology is important to use in the classroom setting, but I think this class has showed the value of it and not just as the “cool new thing to do”.

The tech that teachers can use to evaluate student performance, help themselves, and engage students with all has an extremely positive impact on the classroom dynamic and can help increase a teacher’s own teaching practices. Especially since we all know that technology is not going anywhere and will most likely only continue to evolve and push the boundaries, students need to be familiar in these skills and be able to troubleshoot technology problems without someone there to help them. They need to be able to work these pieces of tech and interact with them effectively. As educators, it is important that we are teaching students skills that will help them later in life and these skills are something they will definitely need.

Because of this class, I will definitely be trying to add in more technology into my curriculum for next year and working with students via these platforms. I still need to work out specifically how I will be adding these things into my classroom setting. I have access to computers at my school, but sometimes it is hard to get the chromebook carts, or some websites may be blocked by the school filter (My students had trouble reading/listening to an NPR interview last year because of the filter. IT’S NPR!!) I also wish this class would have given a few more ideas on platforms or websites to use in the classroom.

Creative Commons License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Cooking with TPACK

This week in class, we thought about the value of TPACK in teaching. What is TPACK you ask? It is the framework of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge and how the three of those ideas work together in a classroom setting. Teachers must start to think about how technology has a role in their curriculum in order to enhance student learning. Not only does TPACK discuss the benefits of incorporating technology into curriculum but also “teachers also must understanding that technology has affordances and constraints for representing content ideas, and for affording and constraining the kinds of teaching approaches used to teach those ideas” (Kereluik, 2011).

Keeping with the ideas of constraints, this week we were asked to perform a little challenge in class. Without any prompting, ask someone in your house for them to get you a plate, bowl, and utensil. Then perform a simple everyday task with what they gave you. When I asked my husband to do this, he came back with a dinner plate, cereal bowl, and a knife. I asked him to select again because I pulled the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and didn’t think anyone would actually believe that I got that lucky. So, again without any direction, except for pick again please, he came back with a smaller plate, bigger bowl, and a spoon. A little better, and one that I could make my point with.

So what was the point of this activity? To show us that while we may struggle with adapting these TPACK methods into our classroom, we need to learn how to adapt and adjust the technology to fit into our curriculum. Just like we had to adapt and adjust the items in order to complete the kitchen task. Adapting and learning how to use new and exciting tools can be hugely beneficial to your classroom setting, but also student experience in the classroom. If using TPACK can help boost student knowledge and engagement with the material, than we should all be open and excited to use these methods in our classrooms.

Check out my full cooking video below!

PS. Sorry, I sort of start to ramble at the end….

References:

Kereluik, K., Mishra, P. & Koehler, M.J. (2011). On learning to subvert signs: Literacy, technology and the TPACK framework. The California Reader, 44(2), 12-18. download .pdf

Networked Learning Post #3

Over the course of the past few weeks I have been learning to crochet using only the internet for resources. My learning goal initially was to crochet a scarf and possibly a patterned scarf. Well, I never got to the patterns, learning the basics was hard enough. Either way, I used a Youtube tutorial and a few websites (links included in Post #2) that helped me figure out what I was doing in terms of crocheting. In the beginning, I struggled because I did not do the proper research about hook size or yarn. I bought random things and it did not work out well. I could not get the slip knots to stay tight enough in order to make a chain link, which is basically all crochet is. Once I started doing more research online, I found that I needed a thicker yarn and a smaller hook than the one that I had since I was such a beginner. Once I had the proper tools, it was a lot easier to get going and start making the slip knots and the chains started to develop a lot quicker. The more I practiced, the quicker I got with the rhythm and was able to better hold the yarn to keep everything tight. After these things were developed, progress was made a lot faster.

The video attached below is a summary of my experiences with this way of learning. While I did learn to crochet, I still don’t think this is necessarily the BEST way to learn something. It took me a long time and many views of the Youtube tutorial in order to understand how to twist the yarn, hook, and my hand in order to thread things properly. While a great supplement, I still think that learning from someone is the best way to learn things, especially crafts. The ability to ask questions directly and for them to adjust and fix your mistakes instantly is something that learning something via the internet can not do. The internet is a great tool and I will continue to use it to learn many things in the future, but you can’t beat the face to face interaction. I would encourage my students to learn this way, or again use this method as a supplement or review for what has already been taught. It is an effective way to learn something new and is a great resource to have so we should take more advantage of the connections that it allows us to make.

View my video for more of my struggles with crocheting and thoughts about how I will continue with my new found hobby. **Disclaimer: My dog had to go out about halfway through my recording…so I’m gone for about five seconds! Sorry! ***

21st Century Lesson Plan

The link to my lesson plan can be found here. This lesson plan has to deal with students create infographics using the website canva.com, which allows students to make any kind of poster or infographic with their own data and information. This lesson plan comes at the end of a unit I use in my 12th grade English class where A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is our anchor text. We talk a lot about Beah’s journey into darkness as a teenager in a brutal civil war and how he was able to find redemption again in the unit. We also discuss how these atrocities are still taking place over the world and that we can work together to change some of these problems. This is when the lesson comes in. We read the UN Human Rights Doctrine and then students are responsible for finding and researching another Human Rights Violation in the world. They are to do research on the topic and then create an infographic on Canva that will inform the class about these issues. They also need to find a legitimate way that we can help the cause whether that be through donations, letters, volunteering, etc. This lesson supports 21st century learning because students need to do all of the project online. They must research the topic from real and legitimate websites, they need to create the infographic on an online medium, and then they also must present this information to the class. Students in my classes this year learned a lot about the problems of the world through this project and did great work with the infographics and technology.

Networked Learning Project Post 2

 

When I first read this project description I thought about what I wanted to do. One of my friends had just recently crocheted her twins two baby blankets and I thought, I’ll learn to do that, how hard can it be? The answer? Hard.

 

Well, maybe not hard, but if you’re not coordinated with your hands like I am it was definitely difficult. But, I’m slowly getting the hang of it. The problems began when I did very little research on what I should buy before I went to Joann etc and bought just any yarn and a cheap crochet hook.

Mistake #1. I started watching the first Youtube video “How to Crochet for Absolute Beginners” (link here). She was using a smaller needle, but I didn’t think it would be an issue. I really liked this video because she repeats steps multiple times, goes VERY slow so you can follow along as you’re doing it too, and it is easy to hear and understand what her in the video. A few other videos I watched were dark and it was hard to understand the speaker, or they went so fast it was hard to follow along. (Examples: Link and Link) After consulting multiple videos, I stuck with the first one (linked above) and got out the yarn and hook I bought. The girl in the video made this look extremely easy, but for some reason, I couldn’t get the tension in the yarn right and it just wasn’t coming together. It took me almost an hour to do this much. 

I figured it had to be how big my needle was and how small my yarn that was causing the yarn to keep slipping off the hook and out of the slip knots that make up crochet. After that I consulted the internet once again and found a website that said for beginners you want to start with a medium size 10mm needle and a larger yarn. (Link and Link). I returned to Joanns and returned my initial purchases and bought a thicker yarn and thinner needle. Once I got home, the process became a lot smoother. The needle was able to easily hook my yarn better and it wasn’t sliding off the hook. It was also a lot easier to handle and control what was happening. I started getting the hang of it and it began to move faster. The progress I made is shown below, but then I ran out of yarn. So back to Joanns I go for the final product! See this link to my twitter profile for my 15 second video (I couldn’t get it to upload to the post)

Get Things Done!: Organization through Technology-Week 4 Post

This week in class we have been testing out and using organizational tools that will help busy teachers stay organized in their hectic lives. The two pieces that I tested out where Google Keep and Pinterest. Both of these technologies I had used before, but I never really used them in terms of keeping things organized for an educational and professional purpose. Overall, I found that my experience with them was widely beneficial. Google Keep is basically Post it notes for your device. I know many things like this exist, but the good thing about Google Keep was that it transfers and updates instantly across all devices that have the same Google account signed in, much like any document on your Google Drive does. This helped me because I could jot down a note on my school computer, then relook at the to do list when I got home. I could also add in reminders and alarms to alert me to do something at a certain time (i.e. Grab this item to take to school in the morning). It allowed me to lose some of the many postit notes that I go through in real life and I didn’t have to try to remember the note that I wrote to myself during first hour at eight o’clock that night, because it was on my phone or computer. I loved it!

The second piece of technology I tried out to get stuff done was Pinterest. I have used Pinterest for a while now for home, party, and recipe ideas, but I haven’t really dabbled in their educational section. I was so surprised. Overall there are a ton of ideas for all grade levels, and it helped me discover and organize the ideas for different units and concepts I cover in my class. The only problem is, it just shows a brief picture and then it can take you to the larger link, but sometimes the links no longer work or the cool activity or lesson is not available any longer, or you have to buy in order to see what it is all about. But, it did help me organize ideas and find new activities for my classroom.

Professional Learning Network Popplet

Here is my popplet representing my personal Professional Learning Network. http://popplet.com/app/#/4103942

My professional learning network reflects the twenty first century young teacher, in my opinion. Most of the resources that I learn from or use in my classroom come from the internet in some fashion. Whether it be from Facebook, stealing a lesson from other teachers, or reading something off of twitter or a blog somewhere, or buying something off of Teacherspayteachers.com, the internet is usually my first stop when I try to find something new and creative to use in my classroom. I usually take the ideas that I find online and tweak them to fit my students and classroom setting, or I’ll build upon these lessons if they spark my creative side in some way. If I am still struggling with a problem or lesson after consulting the internet, I then turn to my colleagues. I think I go to the internet first because this is the first year that I am in this new school and I don’t want to come off as not knowledgeable. So then I consult my colleagues at work or think about strategies or lesson ideas that we learned in professional development. Finally I use my MSU work as a supplement to these two networks because I find that while I do learn a lot about teaching from the program, most of the knowledge has been more theoretical, rather than practical application. I value thinking about and reflecting on teaching through the MSU programs, but sometimes you need a practical approach or advice, so that is why I turn where I do first.

Networked Learning Project: Post 1

I have decided to learn how to crochet. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do this task that I see so many people doing. I want to be able to make the big fuzzy blankets and scarfs, maybe eventually even mittens! I would love to hand make Christmas presents for everyone! My goal for this project is to learn how to make a scarf and potentially make a two color scarf or a scarf with a pattern. I plan on using mostly youtube videos to develop a basic understanding of the process of crocheting and then How to guides to work on patterns and designs once I understand the concept of crocheting.

Resources to begin with:

How to Crochet for Absolute Beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAxGTnVNJiE

How to Crochet a Beginner’s Scarf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n0n0EQaMHU

Beginner Crochet Scarf Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6oEOxOekI

How to Crochet a Scarf: https://www.thespruce.com/easy-basic-crochet-scarf-pattern-979069

How to Crochet a Scarf for Beginners: http://www.wikihow.com/Crochet-a-Scarf-for-Beginners

CEP Week 1

In this first blog post, we have been asked to think about our definition of learning and the teaching methods that support learning. This question was interesting to me because it seems so obvious what learning is, but once I started thinking about how to define learning and what it looks like in the real world, it became a difficult thing to define. As teachers, we think about learning in the context of our classrooms, but that isn’t truly the only type of learning. Learning happens in many places and consists of thinking of many different topics. Teachers need to be aware of what learning is and how to effectively create and nurture learning experiences in their classrooms.

Read more about my ideas on learning here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/19yLFynR1wlBV4Ud4J0yl-vBUnIth2Ofb7aoU2F2_U2Q/edit?usp=sharing