Week 8 Reflection

As this class comes to an end, I am reflecting on my GAME plan. As the new year begins, I plan to continue focusing on Internet safety. As I mentioned before, each of my 8th grade students has access to a laptop for use at school and at home. While this provides great educational opportunities, it also presents a few problems. Our school has struggled during the process of making sure that each student has proof of insurance before taking their computer home. While this does not sound like much, the paperwork can be quite a hassle. Also, each teacher must check at the end of the school day to make sure that students without insurance have returned their computers to the cart. The reason we have to be so strict on this policy relates to the number of broken computers and parents who would not or could not pay to fix them. It is unfortunate that not all students can take their computers home. Because of this, the learning experience is extended for only a portion of our students.

Since many of our students are able to take their computers home, we do need to have a technology management plan in place for students who misuse the technology. We have had a few students loose computer privileges due to accessing inappropriate material or intimidating or bullying other students. This can be very difficult to monitor. For this reason, as teachers we must teach our students about internet safety and responsibility. This is a daunting task, one that I will continue to focus on with my students.

My GAME plan

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to teach at a technology magnet school. Last year was the first year that our 8th grade students had the benefit of participating in a one to one initiative. Our current 8th grade is also part of this initiative. Each student has access to their own laptop for use at school and at home. While this is a great opportunity for students, it requires teachers to make sure that students are safe when using their computers at home or at school. We have had a few instances where students have been the victims of online bullying or have made bad choices as to what they posted on the Internet or viewed on the Internet. Since there are filters at school, this has become a problem that occurs while students are outside the school walls. This course has helped me to set goals for protecting my students by teaching them some basic Internet safety strategies. In the past our school has offered a workshop for parents to learn about the dangers of the Internet. I think this is important, especially when it comes to middle school students. As the new year approaches, my goal is to continue with my GAME plan.

Revising My GAME Plan

Before winter break, I still plan on sharing the online resources I have found about Internet safety. I am currently looking at some additional resources based on the suggestions of my classmates. I strongly believe that middle school students need to be taught the importance of Internet safety. Each year we have encountered a few students who have made bad choices when it comes to social networking sites. In some cases, students have added inappropriate pictures to their MySpace or Facebook pages and then were upset when those pictures were posted or shared elsewhere. I have also heard of students actually meeting with people that they “met” online. This is such a dangerous situation. I am hoping that by sharing these resources, my middle school students will think twice before they make decisions about the use of social networking sites.

Since I teach United States history, my students conduct research throughout the year. One goal that my students are becoming quite comfortable with is research and information fluency. Even though we have been working on this goal all year, I am finding that some students need additional help in this area. Some of my learning disabled students seem to need the most help with locating organizing, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and ethically using information from a variety of sources and media. These students still struggle with identifying reliable and valid information on the Internet. They also struggle with the concept of putting the information into their own words to avoid plagiarizing. I am continuing to work with small groups of students to help them find great resources and take notes on the main ideas. I feel that for some students this will be an ongoing struggle.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

I still need to get approval from the administrators to use the videos in my classroom. I am hoping to show these short video clips before my students leave for winter break. I know that my students will be spending a great deal of time on their computers during their time off of school. I am hoping that after viewing these clips, my students will be more careful when using the Internet.


What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I have learned that there is a wealth of resources on the Internet to teach middle school students about Internet safety.


What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen? How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I am still working on my plan to have students be "experts" and help with troubleshooting issues. Today was a perfect example of the need for "experts" in my classes. Throughout the course of the day, students had trouble logging into the server, adding printers, opening Word documents in Pages, etc. Since every student has access to their own laptop during the school day, it can be quite overwhelming when technical difficulties arise. I would love it if a few students were trained by our district technology staff to support teachers in the classroom when these problems arise.

Following through with my GAME plan ...

I have been searching the Internet to locate some online resources to effectively teach Internet safety to my middle school students. I found this website http://www.mcps.org/admin/Technology/TRTWebpage/middle_school.htm It has several short videos on Internet safety all told from the perspective of teenagers. The first video I viewed was of a young girl telling her story of how she met a man in an online chat room and ran away with him. He was later put in jail. Another video described a situation where some mean girls convinced a classmate to tell them her best friend’s email password. These mean girls then sent embarrassing emails to other classmates from her email account. Several more videos caught my attention. They are engaging and I believe middle school students would relate well to them. I need to check with my principal to make sure that she approves the videos and lesson plans. Hopefully I will be able to share these with my students next quarter.

I do not feel the need to modify my action plan at this point. I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of resources available online to teach middle school students about Internet safety. Also, I do not have any questions. I am just waiting for approval from our administration to continue with my GAME plan.

GAME plan

In order to carry out my GAME plan, I need to spend time researching available curriculum that focuses on Internet safety. Even though my students grumbled about participating in our school wide Internet safety activity, I think they all benefited. The activity that we participated in was good, but a little elementary for 8th grade students. I would like to find some resources and lessons that are geared toward middle school students. I would also like to invite a representative from the police department to speak to my students. Listening to an expert describe the potential dangers of the Internet will have a powerful impact on students.

In order to implement my “student expert” plan, I need to gather additional information on our district technology policies. I need to clarify whether students are allowed to troubleshoot different issues on another student’s computer. My goal is for these “student experts” to help troubleshoot problems when our technology support staff is not available. There are days when we spend a good deal of class time trying to troubleshoot some basic computer problems including trouble logging in, saving to the server, adding printers, updating software, etc. Also, I would need to find out who would be willing to train these “experts” and when the training would take place. It seems like a great idea, but I need to gather more information before I can implement it.

Currently I have not had the opportunity to put these plans into motion. In my classes I have continued to focus on helping my students to locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources. My students have been diligently conducting research to complete their Illinois History Fair papers and projects. To do this effectively, I have been guiding my students through the process of locating reliable and valid sources on the Internet as well as teaching them how to properly take notes to avoid plagiarism. This process is extremely important and time consuming.

ISTE Standards

After reviewing the ISTE Standards for Students, I realized that there are some areas that my students and I are doing a great job with. However, I also realized that there are some areas that definitely need improvement. One area that I consider to be a strength is #4 Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making. As a history teacher, I have been fortunate enough to purchase several of Tom Snyder’s Decisions, Decisions computer simulations. My students absolutely love using these in the classroom. Each simulation is based on a real world problem. To solve the problem, students must set priorities or goals and make informed decisions with the guidance of advisors. These simulations allow students to identify a problem, create a plan to solve the problem, collect and analyze information that can be used as possible solutions, and finally, discuss and debate with their classmates as to which choice should be made. These simulations encourage critical thinking skills and help middle school students gain confidence when it comes to forming their own opinions as well as discussing and debating with their classmates.

Another area that my students and I have experienced success is with # 3 Research and Information Fluency. Each year my 8th grade students participate in the Illinois History Fair. Every student writes a 5-7 page research paper on a topic relating to Illinois. To complete this project, students must conduct research. Using their laptops, students gather, evaluate, and use information on their topic. Once students finish writing their research paper, they either create a display board, podcast or iMovie. By the end of this project, students become quite comfortable locating and evaluating reliable information using the Internet.

One area that I feel needs improvement is # 5 Digital Citizenship. My students use their laptops nearly every day in my classroom. Many students are also allowed to take their computers home. While our school district has filters in place to protect students, this is obviously not the case once students leave school. Because of this, I need to spend more time working with my students on the importance of being safe on the Internet. Just last week, our school participated in a school wide Internet safety activity. We discussed the benefits and dangers of social networking sites. I found this to be very helpful to my middle school students.

Another area that I need to continue working on is #6 Technology Operations and Concepts. My students are very comfortable with technology but are not always the best at troubleshooting when problems arise. Our building does have a computer technician, but he is only here part time. It would be great if interested students were trained in troubleshooting so that when problems arise, we would have “experts” that could help other students.

In order to improve in these two areas, I plan on creating other activities that could be done school wide to promote Internet safety. I also intend to discuss legal and ethical issues that apply to Internet usage. Also, after talking with a co-worker this afternoon, we came up with a plan to train students who could act as technology troubleshooting “experts”. Our plan is for several students to voluntarily attend after school trainings as sixth graders. These students would then be able to serve as “experts” throughout their middle school career.

Week 8 Reflection

Dr. Douglas Hartman discussed the need to better prepare our students when he stated, “We really need to prepare them for their future not our past. Our past was rooted in book culture. The future will be rooted in online and digital media” (Laureate, 2009). As educators we must strive to prepare our students to be successful in this ever-changing technological society.

One striking revelation that I had during this course was my realization of the importance of teaching my students how to safely and effectively search for information using the Internet. In my history class, my students use the Internet on a regular basis to gather information. I usually provide links on my webpage so that students are not wasting class time searching. However, there are times when my students are conducting research on a variety of topics, and it would not be feasible for me to find resources for all of my 8th grade students. Because of this course, I have a better understanding of the need to teach students to think critically about the information that they find on the Internet. Being able to recognize and analyze key pieces of information included in the URL will help my students narrow down which sites are reliable and which ones are personal opinions (November, 2008). Because of this course, I now have the skills to help my student identify valid and reliable sources on the Internet.

In the future, one goal that I have is to spend more time modeling for my students how to conduct effective searches using key words that are not too broad or too narrow. I will also model how to evaluate the usefulness as well as the reliability and validity of each site (Eagleton and Dobler, 2007). To accomplish this goal, I will show my students the iMovie that I created where I recorded my thoughts as I analyzed the website www.martinlutherking.org/ which was clearly created to mislead and confuse students instead of providing them with factual information. Modeling using this teacher think aloud strategy will provide my students with an effective example of how to find reliable information on the Internet.

As an 8th grade teacher, I have the unique responsibility of teaching United States history to students who think history is boring and not relevant to their lives today. This is a real challenge. As an educator, I try and bring history to life for my students by showing them the relationships between history and today. Project based learning helps me to do this. Project based learning is described as fostering creativity and critical thinking skills while encouraging responsibility by allowing students to express their learning in different ways (Laureate, 2009). By the end of each school year, I believe my students have a better understanding of United States history as well as a better understanding of the need to continue learning.

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Reflection: Week 8

This course has reinforced my personal theory of learning. I still believe that as educators it is our job to tap into the different learning styles of our students and provide a variety of strategies that will allow our students to demonstrate their knowledge. Throughout this course, I have learned some new techniques to accomplish this. I plan to use voice threads as another way for my students to communicate their thoughts and ideas. My students respond regularly to our classroom blog, but this format will provide students with a different option. Another tool that I cannot wait to try in my classroom is the idea of a virtual fieldtrip. This resource will be amazing for my students. Students will be able to visit locations using their computers that they would otherwise not be able to access. One long-term goal that I have for technology integration in my classroom includes finding new ways for students to communicate with other students in other districts or around the world. I have heard of Skype, but have never used this application. I think this could be a great tool for my middle school students to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Another goal that I have is to create more units of study that allow students to choose the application that they feel most comfortable with to share their knowledge of United States History. It takes a little more planning on my part to create rubrics that can be used to fairly assess different programs, but the benefit is worth the effort. Students are more willing to complete assignments when there is choice involved and they feel as if they have some ownership of their learning.

Voice Thread

Check out my voice thread which focuses on parent involvement at the middle school level.


http://voicethread.com/share/518639/

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning plays an essential role in the education process. In my opinion, students need to be presented with information in a variety of ways. Students need to learn how to successfully read a non-fiction passage and pick out the main ideas. Students need to be able to listen to a lecture and stay focused. Students also need to be able to watch a short video and see how it connects to what they are studying. Lastly, students need to be taught how to effectively work in a group setting.

From my experience, middle school students are very social. They really love working in cooperative groups. While this can be a good thing, it can also be a struggle. Middle school kids often settle into cliques and are not friendly with all students. This can make it difficult to work cooperatively. Some students at this age are also not motivated by grades and do not work hard to achieve success at this level. It can be very frustrating for an honor roll student to be asked to work with a student who has yet to complete an assignment on time.

To avoid some of these issues, I usually randomly assign my groups. I pull names out of a hat while students are present. My students are not allowed to comment positively or negatively during this process. Also, students are given specific tasks within the group. Students are graded on their piece of the whole. No student is penalized because someone in the group is slacking. Students are provided with detailed instructions, rubrics, links, student examples, etc. This information is also posted on my webpage. I have found that when I am organized, my expectations are clear, and I provide support throughout the collaborative process, my students are able to be successful in a cooperative learning situation.

Systems analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making are the six tasks that teachers can use to help students generate and test hypotheses (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K..2007). Decision-making is a task that can easily be incorporated in a middle school classroom. Over the years, I have found that middle school students love to formulate their own opinions and then discuss and debate them with their classmates. Using Decisions, Decisions computer software from Tom Snyder productions, students can participate in a real world problem based simulation. For example, earlier this year my students took on the role of President of the United States in a simulation. Our country was facing a severe energy shortage. Students had to use their knowledge of colonization and apply it to the simulation in which they were faced with the prospect of colonizing space.

Several years ago, I wrote a grant to purchase several of these simulations. They are amazing and my middle school students love them. They are thrilled that someone wants to hear their opinion. As the year progresses, they are able to articulate and prove their point of view often swaying classmates in the decision making process. With the use of simulations such as these, students are able to problem solve and develop critical thinking skills. It takes more time and effort on the part of the teacher to organize the simulation and manage the class, but it is worth it. When students actively participate in their learning, it will be more meaningful.


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cues, questions, and advance organizers are great tools to help students get focused at the beginning of a lesson. One strategy that was mentioned in the reading for this week focused on preparing for a field trip. Providing students with the opportunity to research and create a brochure that includes maps, facts, pictures, and an agenda will help students to be more focused and learn more from the experience. Another strategy that was mentioned focused on providing students with a preview of what they are going to learn during a chapter or unit. Several teachers in our building use this strategy by setting a goal for the day, week, month, and quarter. Students are well aware of the expectations and what they are going to learn during the time frame. Using programs like Kidspiration to create an organizer will help students by providing an essential question to guide their learning. The primary focus at our school is responding to text and using higher level questioning. An organizer like this will help students with both of these goals. Throughout the lesson or unit, students could add and organize information as it is taught. Using multimedia resources including web sites, BrainPop and United Streaming are great ways to help students get settled in and focused while allowing teachers the opportunity to teach from bell to bell (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K..2007).



Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Reinforcing effort can lead to greater student success. After completing the reading for this week, I have decided to incorporate the idea of using spreadsheet software to help students see the relationship between their effort and their successes. The eighth grade language arts teacher in our school creates a class chart which shows students the correlation between the number of zeros on homework assignments and the number of students failing at midterm and the end of the quarter. This is a great tool to show middle school students the relationship between failing grades and a lack of effort. While this is effective, I think having students track their individual effort in relationship to their successes and failures would be even more beneficial. Our school is lucky enough to be a part of a one to one initiative which allows each of our students access to their own laptops throughout the school year. Students would easily be able to use their laptop to track their progress. They will see the relationship between working hard and doing well.

As a history teacher, I do feel that homework is an effective assessment tool. I never give assignments as busy work. If I assign something, it is because the work is important and has value. My homework policy is clearly communicated to my students at the beginning of the year. Throughout the year, the format for assignments is varied so that students are able to tap into their different strengths and learning styles. The majority of the time, homework is graded and I provide evaluative feedback only. I have made it my goal, however, to provide more descriptive feedback which I feel is more beneficial.

The district that I teach in uses primarily Apple computers. When I began teaching, we used ClarisWorks for word processing. We then graduated to AppleWorks and now Word. This summer we are being trained in Pages. The reading for this week provided me with several new strategies that I would like to try in the future including using different aspects of Word including having students check the grade level of their writing and using the AutoSummarize tool.

"In addition to learning from multimedia such as educational games and interactive simulations, students can learn with multimedia by creating their own projects at home or at school to develop their understanding and practice skills" (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007). I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. Since our school is a technology magnet school, we try very hard to integrate technology into ever lesson and provide students with a variety of ways to demonstrate their learning. In my own classroom, students participate in simulations, create podcasts, design iMovies, produce comic books using ComicLife and create iPhoto books.



Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Reflections Week 8

This course has helped me to develop new technology skills including using blogs and wikis in my classroom. My students have always enjoyed responding to my classroom blog. They love sharing their opinions while discussing and debating with their classmates. Because of this class, I am now thinking of new ways to incorporate blogs into my classroom discussions. I am also looking forward to incorporating Wikis into one of our collaborative projects. My students enjoy working in cooperative groups. I think the Wiki format will be interesting and engaging for my students.

I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching profession through the required reading for this course. I have a much better understanding of the students that I teach and how to communicate with them. Even though I am comfortable using technology, I did not grow up immersed in it. My students are programmed differently than I am. Realizing this allows me the opportunity to bridge the gap with my students and create new and exciting activities that will keep them focused and engaged.

I have always believed that a classroom should be learner-centered as opposed to teacher-centered. This class has helped to reinforce my beliefs. In my opinion, teachers should be facilitators in the classroom and support and guide students as they learn.

Throughout this degree program I hope to learn new skills that will help me to continue to grow as an educator. I also intend to continue with the technology trainings provided by our district. The knowledge that I gain will help me to create activities that my students will enjoy and benefit from. Student achievement will hopefully increase as a result of my efforts.

One goal that I have is to find an effective way to communicate and build relationships with my students. Our school has access to Gaggle. My students are familiar with this, but I am not. I would love use this tool to break down the communication barrier between teachers and students. To do this, I plan to attend trainings provided by our district.

Another goal that I have is to continue creating engaging projects that involve technology and integrate curriculum. The language arts teacher and I are currently trying to integrate our curriculum and design projects that bring history and language arts together. Over the summer, the language arts teacher and I intend to plan units of study that link language arts and history in meaningful ways.

Technology Podcast

Here is the link to my technology blog that I created for Application 5.



http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/teachers/jlong/projects/2501/?b=15

21st Century Skills- http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

I enjoyed reading the information provided on this website. I agree with the information shared on the importance of the learning environment in relationship to students' education.  I believe that it is the role of each school to create an inviting, engaging, and relevant learning environment that will help prepare students for life in the 21st century.  Improving our learning environment has been a focus for our middle school this year.  Teachers have been encouraged to display exemplar student work as well as provide opportunities to use technology to enrich their classrooms. 

One thing that surprised me in the article was the belief that finding time and money was not the greatest challenges in creating a successful technology rich learning environment.  I truly believe that these are two key challenges that most educators face on a daily basis.  Finding the funding necessary to incorporate and maintain technology is not easy.  Providing teachers time to learn new skills and create new technology rich units is definitely another obstacle in our school. However, I do agree that finding ways to adequately support these skills is a major obstacle.

This website proves to me that my school is on the right path to providing students with a quality education in the 21st century.  However, we still have a lot of work to do.  

Blogging

All teachers in Springfield School District 186 in Illinois have their own teacher webpages.  These webpages are a great way to communicate with students, parents, and the community.  Each day, the teachers at my school are expected to update their webpages.  In the News section we include what was accomplished in class that day as well as any homework given.  In the Projects section we include direction sheets, rubrics, etc.  My favorite section of our webpages is the Blog section. In this section I ask higher level thinking questions that relate to our current subject of study. Students then respond giving their opinions.  It is an open forum for discussion and debate.  My middle school history students enjoy the opportunity to let their voices be heard.  On many occasions my former students even respond to my blog postings.  It is nice to hear their perspectives as high school students.  My classroom blog has helped to foster discussion and encourage my students to think for themselves and defend their opinions.  

Technology in the Classroom

I am an eighth grade United States history teacher at a technology magnet school.  I am always looking for new and exciting ways to integrate technology into my classroom.  I would love for teachers to post great ideas that we could all benefit from.  One project that my students have enjoyed is creating an iPhoto alphabet book.  At the beginning of each school year, I review the American Revolution with my students.  After our review, I assign students a partner and a letter of the alphabet.  Each partnership must choose a word relating to the American Revolution that starts with their assigned letter.  Students then write an alliterative sentence that includes their chosen word.  Next, the students draw an illustration that ties it all together.  Students then scan their pictures and put them into Comic Life.  These Comic Life documents are then compiled into one iPhoto alphabet book that we publish and keep in our school library.  It is a great way to review the American Revolution.