Wrapping Up

Well, the semester has come to a close, and with it, the continuation of this particular blog.

I have learned so much through this class that it's all a little overwhelming in retrospect. I came into the course thinking that SmartBoards, overhead projectors, and PowerPoint were about as tech-savvy and interactive as any classroom could aspire to, but I was dead wrong. The amount of tech tools that are available and useful to an educational setting is phenomenal. 

In today's society, so much of what our students are doing outside of school revolves around new, ever-evolving technology, so why shouldn't our schools catch up and bridge the technology gap? It's a question I've been asking since my first post.

Now that I've (more or less) achieved the goals I've set for myself in this course, I can't wait to put my knowledge to use in the classroom. I honestly believe, as I predicted at the beginning of the semester, that my new skills in using and adapting technology and web tools for the classroom will make me an incredibly valuable asset to my school and to my students. 

Although I've reached the end of this course and, thus this blog, I don't plan on ending my education in or use of technology in the curriculum. As technology is constantly changing and improving, so must my knowledge of it, and that is why I will and encourage everyone else to,

Keep on Clicking!

-Kristen

Creating and Using A Class Website

Over the course of the semester, I have been building a "class website." This is, of course, just a sample since I don't actually have my own class to create a website for just yet, but the practice was awesome, and I'm sure that my project could easily be adapted perhaps to use for real in a future class. 

One of the resources that I think I have really taken for granted during my college career is BlackBoard (an online portal that allows students to communicate with faculty, access grades, use online library services, etc.). Not until I step back and consider how many times a week I frantically log in to BlackBoard in search of answers do I truly realize how much I rely on this service. 

Then I start to think, "Wow, I wish I had had something similar while I was in high school."

Although my website obviously does not have all the bells and whistles of BlackBoard, I believe it would definitely serve as a strong online resource for my students. This would be a great place to store documents that students who were absent could access while they were absent instead of having to wait to pick up missed work and fall behind. Also, I see my website as a treasure chest of resources. Instead of asking, "Where can I find the answer to..." or "I need help using MLA style," students could go to the Resources page of my website and find helpful links there. If students want to have an idea of what books we'll be covering, they can check out the Reading List. And of course, parents/guardians everywhere will most likely appreciate the Supply List come late July when it's time for back-to-school shopping. 

I also love the idea of the website serving as an extra communication point. With the commenting function available to parents and students, I can always be aware of needed improvements or circulating questions. 

Check out my website here: Ms. Long's English Class

**Be aware that the site is still under construction as of this posting date

Using iMovie for Digital Storytelling

For my film making debut, I (semi) proudly present to you, my Scarlet Letter Book Trailer:

Honestly, this was exhausting to create, but overall a pretty fun experience. Would I have my students do this for a class project? No, not as a requirement. Too many areas for major malfunction and confusion. If they're familiar with the process, then by all means, I would gladly give them creative control and the opportunity to use this as a form of alternative assessment. 

On the other hand, I will most likely use this myself as an instructional aid. Probably at least once per semester. I think students really enjoy this type of presentation, and it really engages their senses. People are so visual, and this helps grasp students' attention and excite them about reading a book that, otherwise, they'd turn their noses up at thinking, "Ew, Puritans."

Click here to access the video via YouTube: 
Scarlet Letter Book Trailer

Digital Diagrams/Inspiration

First of all, I want to start off by saying that I absolutely love graphic organizers. I think that they are great teaching tools since so many different styles of learning and students with special learning needs can benefit from them. The visual aid alone is going to help so many. 

With this in mind, you can imagine my excitement when we began using the Inspiration software to create digital diagrams. I loved that everything is so customizable! Not only could the diagram itself serve as a visual aid, but the software would also allow you to make individual "bubbles" or sections of the diagram into pictures to represent words or ideas. I think that this would be a great way to encourage memorization of facts, or just help students form connections between a picture and new information. Also, this software could be used to make a diagram that is as "complete" and detailed as you like, or even as bare and skeletal as you like if you were going to be using it to create some guided note-taking sheets, etc. 

This activity was immediately following the interactive whiteboard activity, and I can't tell you how much of a breath of fresh air it truly was. Instead of having to literally create every single shape and line on every page, Inspiration has a seemingly endless stock of pre-made images and shapes. Navigation was fairly easy to figure out, and I think that this is definitely something that students could actually use within the classroom to create their own diagrams in any subject area. 

Here is a screen shot of my digital diagram (saved as a .jpg so feel free to open in whatever photo viewing tool you have for a better look) on different sonnet types. This would be ideal for a high school English class (probably seniors, as British Lit was taught in 12th grade at my high school): 

 

If you have access to Inspiration 9, here is a link to my website page where you can access the actual file: Digital Diagram

Resource Wiki

Early on in the semester, I posted about using Wikis in the classroom as a great way to incorporate collaboration and teamwork while using web-based tools. A little later on in the semester, I was able to take part in a project using a wiki to create a resource space with other future English teachers. 

In our Resource Wiki, we included links to outside resources like Purdue Online Writing Lab and similar sources that we think would be useful to both ourselves as English teachers and to our future English students. We also included links to some online activities, inquiry-based activities, and other prospective lesson plan goodies. The Resource Wiki was separated into different categories to make navigation easier for the users.

As we each worked on the Wiki and posted our contributions, the thing became this truly great wealth of materials for both us as teachers and our future students. This is definitely something that could be recreated within a department at a school. I think that using a resource wiki with colleagues would be an excellent way to coordinate and share lesson plans and outside resources. Since everyone had so many different things to bring to the table, I was really impressed by how useful this tool was and could be.

More Blogception...

Another metablog...

As a continuation of sorts from my last post, I would like to share a fellow blogger (one of much higher blogging caliber than I could ever aspire) and his method of using a blog as an educational resource.

Richard Byrne's blog, "Free Technology for Teachers", wins over educators the moment they read his title. If the concept doesn't convince you, then the blog's accolades should. This is just a snippet from the "About the Author" page:

About the blog:
The purpose of this site is to share information about free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.
In 2008 Free Technology for Teachers was awarded the Edublogs Award for "Best Resource Sharing Blog."
In 2009 Free Technology for Teachers was again awarded the Edublogs Award for "Best Resource Sharing Blog" and was awarded the Edublogs Award for "Best Individual Blog."
In 2010 Free Technology for Teachers was awarded the Edublogs Awards for "Best Resource Sharing Blog," "Best Ed Tech Support," and "Best Individual Blog."
In 2011 Free Technology for Teachers received the Edublogs Award for Best Ed Tech Blog. Free Technology for Teachers is read by an audience of more than 45,000 daily subscribers (current as of April 1, 2012).

As a future teacher, I think I speak for teachers worldwide when I say that there are never enough free (and reliable) resources out there. Hey, sharing is caring, especially in the field of teaching. 

After just perusing Bryne's most recent posts and site map, I can tell you, this one's a keeper. Byrne has links to tons of apps for Apple and Android technology, Web 2.0 assistance, and other guides and resources that he has found valuable. Talk about one-stop shopping! 

Here is the link to this fabulous resource:

Free Technology for Teachers

Blogging About Blogging...Metablog? Blogception?

Throughout the semester, part of my responsibility as a student in the TPTE486 class has been to upkeep this blog. Blogging about our projects, blogging about technology, blogging about teaching, etc. Well, now I'd like to take a minute to blog about blogging. 

But not just blogging in general. Of course I will be talking about blogging as an educational tool and resource!

I will be the first to admit, I am not the type of person who can sit down and post on a regular basis. However, if there is one thing I have learned about the teaching profession, it is that reflection is one of the best ways to better your teaching skills, and blogging about those moments of reflection could be quite useful. 

That being said, I don't think blogging is for everyone, but I do think that I would personally benefit from committing to a blog about my reflections in teaching. I would love to make this something that I did at least monthly, or even perhaps by unit. I think it would be an even better investment of time and effort if I could make this a collaborative effort with parents and other teachers. Being able to post my reflections, thoughts, ideas, etc. and then have others comment and provide their input and responses to my posts would be a great way to grow as an educator. 

I can see some potential pot holes in this plan though...

I have several friends who blog regularly about various topics, mostly just their daily experiences. On several occasions, though, their blog posts have turned into a rant or complaint article rather than having much of a meaningful purpose. In my case, I would have to be oh so careful to not let my blog become a place to complain about standards, evaluations, stubborn students, etc. I would want my blog to be a place for positivity and purpose.

Interactive White Boards

I would like to begin by saying that the projects we've done in class using ActivInspire software for use on interactive white boards have been my favorite yet in the TPTE486 class. I absolute love having interactive activities to use in classes, and with this type of technology use, students will see lessons as more of a game and less of lecture. I think the visual aspect of the interactive white boards is great for different learner types, and it can be a great tool for differentiation and for learners who might have special needs (hearing impaired, e.g.). There are so many great tools and abilities within the software, so the possibilities for activities and ways to use the program are endless. I can definitely see myself using this type of project in my own classroom, especially since it provides an opportunity to use some cross-curricular learning as well. I think that because of the nature of the white board activities that I would be able to create, the interactivity would also lend itself well to multiple checkpoints throughout the lesson (formative assessments). 

The only problem that I can foresee with the use of interactive white boards is that the 2 main "servers" or providers in this industry (SMART Tech's SMARTBoards and Promethean) are obviously competing for business. Because of this, there is very little compatibility in the way of moving from one system to the other. In other words, taking an ActivInspire (Promethean) project to a SMARTBoard is nearly impossible, while moving a SMART project to a Promethean is a little easier, but still not so practical considering some formatting and interactivity may be lost. The problem then becomes, "What do I do if I move from a SMART school to a Promethean school?" or vice versa. Well, basically you've got your work cut out for you. This would probably involve a lot of starting over with interactive white board activities or some major adjusting of your current projects. This is a daunting thought since simply creating an original project in either system is very time consuming and involves a lot of steps.

Basically, I think that aside from the technical kinks that could very well be worked out in the next few years (technology is an ever-evolving thing, as we all know), interactive white board activities are a great way to engage learners of all types of intelligences and ability levels. 

Here is one I've created that might be worth checking out! 

---> Interactive White Board Activity (for Promethean)

Picasa and Google Presentation

Continuing from the Scavenger Hunt post...

After our scavenger hunt activity, we learned how to take those photos, put them into online photo editing venues (Picasa was used for this class), and then publish the album in the form of a slideshow. We learned how to do this with both Picasa slideshows and Google Presentations.

I think I could definitely find a place for this type of activity in my classroom, whether or not this was a student driven activity. One example I can think of for how to use this photo-sharing technique is with showing off student projects. Anytime I was assigned a project for classes, I always wanted to see some samples from former students. This would be a great way to compile photos of past projects to share with a current class. Of course, I think this tool would also be great to show off the current class's activities (e.g. field trips, performances, projects, etc.). And like I've done with the Scavenger Hunt slideshow, I would be able to put those photos onto a class website for parents and students to see. I think that the photo sharing options we've learned about are just more examples of new, innovative ways to promote communication and collaboration between teachers, their students, and the students' parents.

Attached is a link to the page in my "class website" where I've uploaded an example of the Picasa slideshow as well as a Google Presentation version of another "scavenger hunt"-- this one web-based...

Picasa Slideshow & Google Presentation

Scavenger Hunt

One morning in our TPTE486 class, we were assigned to go on a scavenger hunt...but this was no average scavenger hunt. After being placed in groups according to content area (mine was the Literacy group), we were told to go around the education complex and nearby on campus to take pictures of things that were on our hunt list. The hunt was somewhat challenging, as not everything on our list was something concrete like "water bottle." Instead, we had prompts like, "a misspelled word" and, "a synonym for 'huge.'" However, being the English-major champs that we are, we were able to come up with some pretty creative snapshots. Here are the pictures we took from our hunt (captions tell what item on the list the picture's subject fulfills):

Scavenger Hunt Album

On its own, I thought the activity was great for team building and for waking up our creative minds. However, when used as a hook/set/what have you, it was a great introduction for using Picasa Web and Google Presentations, which I will be blogging about separately :)

Overall, I think this would be a great activity to have during the first few days of class to help foster a class community vibe. The scavenger hunt could be adapted to fit subject area, or just meet/greet topics for the start of the year.

Going on a WebQuest...

As I've mentioned in several other posts, one of the biggest challenges I see in implementing technology into curriculum is the issue of accessibility. Not all of my students will have the same experience with or access to computers and internet, so I strongly believe that it is important to use activities in the classroom (or at school during class time) that level the playing grounds and give each learner an opportunity to comfortably use the available technology.

I feel that by using a WebQuest with my class, I would be able to accomplish this goal. One of the greatest aspects of WebQuests, in my opinion, is that they are internet based and rely on some use of internet sources, but at the same time, they can feature activities for the students that are either internet based, computer based, or neither one. The WebQuest that I found (link attached below) was for use in a literature unit on American Realism. Links to outside sources with information about the unit content was provided, but the activity, or "Task", was something that could be worked on and completed out of class if necessary. I think that this makes the activity something easier to break into separate parts, each respectively reserved for class time and homework. The Task featured in this WebQuest involved two major journaling activities, one of them a Double-Entry Reading Log. My favorite part about this particular WebQuest was that it allowed students to engage with technology and internet research, and it also teaches several different writing skills while still engaging the students with the literature. 

I would definitely recommend using WebQuests in the classroom as I will definitely be using them in mine. The fact that they are so versatile and flexible makes them easily adaptable for a variety of lessons and subject areas.

Check out this example!!...

American Realism WebQuest

IBA (Inquiry Based Activity)

This week we have been working on creating Inquiry Based Activities. My IBA involves students answering questions (in this case, in the format of a question sheet)based on evidence from the primary text and from outside, Internet sources. Since my subject area is Secondary English (grades 7-12), I created an activity that would likely be used in an eleventh grade English course. The topic is on irony and symbolism in Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour." In the activity I have students read the short story ahead of time (This could have been the previous night's homework, or the students could read at the beginning of the class since it is considerably short). Then, they are required to use their own knowledge of the story combined with information from 2 internet sources that I have provided the links to in order to answer some comprehension and critical thinking questions. 

The aspect of this project that I like most is that it teaches students how to draw conclusions from several sources (primary text and secondary sources)while at the same time, making their own inferences. I thought this particular lesson would work well maybe as a follow-up homework assignment after a class session on different types of irony. The sequence I had in mind would be Night 1, read "Story of an Hour"; Following Class Day, discuss what irony is, the different types, and how they function, then symbolism in the story; Night 2, perform IBA at home to turn in next day. 

The only major issue I see with this type of activity is the same problem with many tech projects. If a student doesn't have regular access to a computer with internet and specified software/applications, then the activity would have to be modified to fit his or her needs. I think, however, that this particular project could very easily be modified. For students without necessary accessibility, print outs of the online articles could be provided instead of having them use the links. Another way to alleviate this problem would be to instead make the assignment an in-class project. If there are not enough computers in the classroom, the assignment might require a pre-scheduled trip to the library or computer lab. 

Overall, though, I see this as an excellent tool that is a little more engaging than having students read a chapter then answer summary questions at the end. Although it didn't apply to the particular lesson I designed, other multimedia would be another great addition to an IBA (YouTube video, audio, etc.).

Using Wikis

 During our unit on Wikis, I learned not only how to create one, but also how I could use it in a classroom. Overall, I think that the Wiki tool is a great way to create collaborate, learning opportunities that allow students to work with partners or whole class in order to complete a project. This is also an excellent tool for communication through a shared forum in which everyone involved is allowed to make necessary changes and additions to the conversation. I especially enjoyed the video on how to use a Wiki that demonstrated how a Wiki can be used for planning a camping trip. I think that puts Wiki use in real-life terms and makes Wikis more relateable and approachable. More people (students and the non-student population as well) would be excited about using Wikis if the tool was introduced to them as an "easy button" type function. Overall, I can definitely see myself using Wikis in my future classrooms, as well as in my daily life (planning parties, trips, etc.).

Evaluating Websites

As a future high school English teacher, I anticipate that I will be assigning research papers pretty regularly. Part of assigning a research paper is making sure that the students are familiar with the research process. Since technology and web-based research have become the most popular method of research, it is so important that students be able to accurately judge the sources they are using. This Website Evaluation activity was a thorough checklist for finding quality, reliable sources. I would even consider giving a form of this evaluation to my students at the beginning of an assigned research project. Most of the "standards" were review, and I think a lot of students know to look for those standards, at least by their sophomore years. However, there were a few that I had not considered. One of those was site accessibility. Also, I was not aware that not every site is compatible with every browser. This would be an important reminder to give students if they plan on doing some of the research at home.

Purposeful Posting

Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Kristen, and I am a student at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville in the Teacher Education program. I will be licensed to teach English in Secondary Education (7-12th grades). I can't wait to begin my career as a teacher! Helping others has always been a passion of mine, and that includes helping others better understand English/Language Arts. I want to help my future students realize their potential to its fullest, and I want to make a difference in their lives in doing so. 

Most of my current coursework revolves around ways I can be a better resource for my students, and one of the most sophisticated ways I can do that is by using technology in my classroom. Technology can provide additional learning tools, teaching methods, classroom activities, and communication opportunities that schools and teachers really didn't have much access to in the not-so-distant past. It's so exciting to learn how to use new technology and how to apply it to an educational setting. 

This blog will serve as a reflection site for the new things I'm learning on how to use technology in the classroom. It will be directly related to my TPTE486 (Integrating Technology in the Classroom). My expectations for this course are high since I am aware of how much more schools are relying on technology nowadays than what they were even when I was in elementary, middle, and high schools. I expect that at the conclusion of this course I will have a mastery of the web tools and equipment that are being used in the classrooms so that I will be able to guide my students in their own discoveries of how technology can be used for so much more than updating their statuses on Facebook and posting pictures of their lunch on Instagram. While those sites are an excellent way to socialize and share ideas and thoughts on the Internet, I want my students to find out that there are ways to further their educational experience with other technological, user-friendly sources-- just as I am currently finding out!

That being said, I hope you enjoy my blog and find it informative. 

Keep on Clicking!

-Kristen