As a teacher, one essential aspect of my job is collecting and tracking data. Luckily, there is a modern and free tool that address my exact needs. Google Forms are a great resource that allow users to create a range of digital surveys with a variety of answer types, including written response and multiple choice. These digital surveys can be used as an impromptu way to collect information in a variety of scenarios. Students: There are many situations when Google Forms are the perfect tool for your needs, especially when working with students. I teach four different course and typically have around 120 students each year. This means, I have many students to track, and many categories to track them within. One simple example of how teachers can use Google Forms is for getting to know their students by creating a quick poll. Teachers can ask general open ended questions and allow for written responses. However, if you wanted to make your questions more specific to your content, you could easily create a multiple choice survey that focuses on students’ experience and interest in your subject. For example, I have created a Reading Survey that simply inquires as to my students’ personal reading habits. This is a quick and easy survey that I like to give at the start of the year because it provides me valuable information about my students. Furthermore, I could give the same survey periodically to see if my students have become more interested in reading throughout the year. Google Forms go well beyond simple interest surveys. They are great for collecting and computing mathematical figures. When my students take their mandatory reading assessments and are given their Lexile scores, I have them take a survey so we can look at our progress as a class and even compare that data to other classes, for fun competitions. Google forms takes the data, and generates a visual such as a pie chart, making the information even more accessible for users. More importantly, it allows me to track the progress of my students in a quick and efficient manner. Possibly one of the best applications of Google Forms is as an assessment. Teachers can create quizzes out of surveys. There is almost no limit to the length and type of quiz I could assign via Google Forms. Students could access a hyper link, be taken to a quiz and answer either multiple choice or short/long answer questions. Teachers can even insert graphics and videos to enhance the experience and better support the learner. Personally, I am a fan of the fact that when you create a quiz, you also create an answer key. This makes scoring the quizzes even faster and more efficient. Truly, the uses of Google Forms are limited only by the imagination of the user. Parents: As a teacher, it is also important to make connections with our students’ parents. Once again, Google forms may be exactly the tool needed for the job. Teachers can create and share surveys to learn about parents’ availability and or desires to participate in the classroom. Google Forms can be easily be utilized as signup sheets. For example, at the start of each year, teachers can create a materials “wish list” for the classroom as well as a corresponding form to sign up for specific items. The same approach can be applied for signing up chaperones for field trips and classroom visits. Colleagues: Another great use of Google Forms in school is for professional development purposes. For example, the English department at my site frequently sends out surveys as a means of collecting everyone’s input on various topics and can expedite our decision making process. Recently our department was asked to pilot two different curriculum. During this time, our teams would respond to polls and surveys regarding our progress with the materials, what was working, what was difficult. Ultimately, our department was able to gather a great deal of data from over a dozen individuals and help us make an important decision. Extending knowledge of new applications. Google is dedicated to meeting the changing needs of their consumers. As a teacher, I have many needs when it comes to digital tools. Sometimes I am not even aware of my need for a tool until that very need arises. Luckily, Google offers many new applications. As I progress through my Master’s program, I have realized that while I may know some things about educational technologies, there is still so much to be learned. I would like to attend a Google training to become more familiar with these newer applications. One specific add on I am interested in learning about is Flubaroo. Flubarro is an add-on for Google sheets and is designed to create detailed grading summaries for various assessments. After students take a quiz via Google Forms, Flubaroo can provide teachers a spreadsheet of the results, showing whole class and individual student results. This is but one of the many Google extensions and add-ons that I would like to begin utilizing in my own classroom in an attempt to become a more innovative educator.
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“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt Back To School! I enrolled in Touro’s Innovative Learning Master’s program because I love what I do and I want to do it well. The Innovative Learning program was designed to help teachers reimagine the concept of school and learning from considering open and collaborative approaches to learning, to exploring entirely new models of performance. So what impact will this program have on my pedagogy and what changes will I make next year to educate in a more innovative way? To begin with, the knowledge I have gained thus far has already allowed me to begin rethinking and reevaluating how I have done things in the past and how I will do differently in the future. While I am only halfway through this program, I have been exposed to several great courses, each focusing on a different way that I can innovate my personal pedagogy. Each course has opened my mind to new strategies and ideas of how to better serve my students. Equitable classroom One essential element of any successful class is the clear presence of equity. The course I took on the Dynamics of the Equitable Classroom challenged me to rethink the ways I can make education accessible to all students. Equity, of course, is not about giving every student the same thing, but rather whatever is needed by each individual in order to be successful. Equity is about providing each student an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or mastery of a skill. For my future students, this will mean more options. As an innovative educator, I will recognize that there are many ways to demonstrate mastery of a concept. Students will be encouraged to demonstrate their skills in a variety of forms. For example, some students are more comfortable creating engaging graphics than speaking publicly. I will provide my students a range of mediums to choose from and allow them the opportunity to decide how they will demonstrate their abilities. New Literacies Another important skill for an innovative educator is the ability to gather and interpret data. My research course has taught me the importance of looking for patterns of issues that students may be facing, whether with content or behavior. Once I think I have identified an issue, I should then look at the issue through different scopes. How it occurs and affects not only my class, but beyond. Is it an issue with the whole grade level? My whole site? What about at the district and state level? By examining the scale of the issue, you can better determine your response. For example, if it is an issue occurring at the district level, what is my district doing to address the problem? Whereas if it is something only occurring in my own classroom, I will need to create my own solutions. One specific example was when I addressed the need for improving critical thinking skills in my ELL population. The course also helped me rethink my approach to seeking solutions. I have become much better at conducting thorough research as well as designing my own research study. I am better prepared for designing assessments, treatments, and analyzing student results to determine larger implications. Sense Making Another enlightening course I am currently taking as part of the program is Sense Making. Sense making is a student centered concept in which educators try to consider a concept from the perspective of the learner. It is important that students become aware of their own metacognition and unique learning strategies. What will be their context for the new information they are receiving? It all depends on their own unique experiences and prior knowledge. Students use the context of what they already know (or think they know) to integrate new ideas and experiences. As an innovative educator, I will pull from the works of Brenda Dervin in my attempt to “bridge the learner’s gap of understanding”. I Another way I will think outside the box will be to incorporate more visual strategies. Specifically, I am referring the work of Dr. Baggio regarding Visual Thinking strategies. Dr. Baggio’s work has helped me to understand how valuable strong visuals can be for student learning. Today’s students live in a world full of screens. Graphics and Icons are everywhere. Baggio suggests that this is not necessarily a problem. In fact, there are many ways that educators can utilize visual strategies. I have already begun planning how I can redesign and relabel components of my physical classroom, as well as within directions of activities. Digital Tools Being and innovative teacher today would be impossible if we did not address educational technology. My course on Digital Tools has helped me rethink the role technology can and should play in my classroom. Today’s students are bombarded by the demands of modern technology. While they may think they are “naturals” the truth is that students need to be explicitly instructed in basic digital literacy. The Master’s course on leveraging digital tools has helped shift my focus to developing my students’ digital citizenship skills. I am already planning how my students will earn their digital “driver’s licenses” by demonstrating that they can navigate the internet safely and appropriately. At its core, innovating with digital tools is really about turning students into digital leaders. If digital leadership is the goal, then purposeful integration of technology is the “how”. As an innovative educator, I will find engaging ways to explicitly teach students how to effectively utilize technology. They will need more than just the basics of Gmail, Google Drive and Docs. Technology is ultimately just a tool, granted a new shiny one, but a tool nonetheless. A tool is only as useful as the imagination of the person wielding it. I would like to challenge my future students to become digital leaders. This will mean not only accessing digital resources but actually creating products. My students will need to use their products to create positive change in the world around them. Educational technology is about allowing every student the opportunity to make an impact on a potentially worldwide audience. Feeling Ready! While I still have more classes to take, and a long way to go before I earn my Master’s, I am already very excited about a new year and a fresh batch of students to teach. It will be a great chance for me to explore the many new approaches and methodologies that this program has taught me. Baggio, B. (2011). The Visual Connection: You listen with your eyes.
CH 1 & 2 Key Ideas: 1. Only you can construct your thoughts.
In my last course ED 790, my driving question focused on improving the critical thinking skills of English Language Learners. Specifically, I researched the impact of guided practice with specific strategies such as Close Reading strategies and Visual Thinking Strategies. While many of the students in my study demonstrated improvement, I am aware that the process could have been improved upon.
During my new course, ED 791, I was introduced to Brenda Dervin’s concept of “Sense Making” a unique perspective of teaching. As a result, I have realized how I might evolve my original driving question. There are two specific adjustments I would like to consider. First, as I am also taking a class on digital tools, I would like to integrate technology into my study. Challenging students to utilize digital tools as means of solving problems could better prepare them for the demands of future careers. Secondly, I would like to focus on students’ own meta-cognitive processes. With those adjustments in mind, I have redesigned my driving question: “How might technology be leveraged to help students’ make sense of critical thinking?” Dervin’s approach to education suggests that teaching is all about supporting the information seeker (Students by providing them the means to bridge their “gap of understanding”. The tricky part, is that every information seeker is different, and two students could be seeking to understand the same concept or idea, but require different types of support. The concept of sense making is unique to each learner, as people learn in different ways. In the future, I would like to investigate how students make sense of their own critical thinking. What is their process of approaching difficult problems? And can the integration of technology help bridge the gap of successful critical thinking? In addition to Brenda Dervin, I have also encountered the work of Dr.Bobbe Baggio. In her book, The Visual Connection, Dr. Baggio explains one of the 4 major learning theories, Constructivism. Constructivism is a learner centered paradigm. It’s really about how an individual learner constructs knowledge by integrating their unique prior knowledge to their current contexts. So what is the Impact of Baggio’s work on my driving question? Well, evidently, Constructivism is very compatible with technology. Specifically, through the use of hypermedia. Hypermedia is the combination of video, audio, text, graphics and animation. The visual component of Hypermedia allows for teachers to potentially design more individualized instruction for their students. As I stated earlier, I rewrote my driving questions to integrate technology in order to develop critical thinking skills. Dr. Baggio’s analysis of Constructivism has greatly influenced this decision. I look forward to my future research. Before I became a full time teacher, I spent two years as a substitute. My time as a sub allowed me the opportunity to visit nearly every school in my district. During my visits from school to school, one thing that became immediately obvious was the sheer quantity of technology. Whether forbidden or encouraged, today’s students are clearly accessing technology at school. Many schools and teachers have come to this undeniable conclusion and therefore, have attempted to embrace this new digital paradigm. This transition has lead to many changes to the traditional classroom. Teachers are now supplied with laptops, digital document cameras and projectors, even smart-boards. Students are also provided computers or encouraged to bring their own devices. A second, more important change that this paradigm transition has lead to, is the skills required by students to succeed in class.
During my short years as a teacher, I have also realized that many educators, myself included, have given students a generous benefit of the doubt with regards to technological proficiency. Admittedly, today’s youth is highly experienced with digital devices. There is a whole generation of children who have grown up with screens in front of them. But are our students truly digitally literate? They have experience using devices for texting and posting to social media and are of course avid gamers. However, their experiences are primarily as consumers. The average student does not necessarily have experience with utilizing technology as creators. Students do not typically use their devices to innovate so much as for entertainment purposes. Students have been lead to believe they know everything about technology when in fact digital literacy is something they must be explicitly instructed. How are educators supposed to teach students how to utilize technology responsibly and successfully? The same way we teach them everything else. Through engaging activities and assessments. The first step is to determine what skills your students will need in order to be successful. Will they need to conduct research? Will they need to cite their sources? Will they need to communicate and collaborate with others from far away? How will they create and present their various products? The skills that students will need for their future jobs are the skills they should be practicing in class every day. At the start of each school year, teachers should explicitly communicate to their students all the different skills they will eventually acquire and perfect. Then, different skills should be introduced through engaging activities that allow students the opportunity to explore freely and come back with their findings. For instance, I like to begin the year by reminding students how important their Email and Google Drives are. I challenge students to send me professional emails, share Google Docs with proper share settings, and create mini lessons to teach their peers how to effectively utilize various digital resources. Still, more must be done. Throughout the year, it will become evident which skills students are developing, and which they are lacking. It is the teacher’s responsibility to track student progress and present them with challenging opportunities to further develop their abilities. It is not enough to use technology simply for replacing other tools, it should be used to enhance learning. Students typing their drafts as opposed to writing them is minimally different, unless the teacher requires that students truly master all that modern word processors have to offer. An example of this might look like requiring that students share their rough drafts with three other students with the commenting feature, and give critical feedback on each draft. The teacher could then access drafts containing feedback, project them for all to seec, and together discuss the quality of the feedback as it pertains to the assignment. This is but one small way teachers can strive to teach digital literacy alongside their content. Obviously much more can and must be done. The demands our students will face in their future careers are unknown to us today, and thus we must prepare them as best we can. On my path to becoming a teacher, many people advised that strong classroom management is the foundation on which everything else is built. As a result, I began to focus on classroom management strategies. I’d come to the conclusion that the key to successful classroom management is keeping the students engaged in a positive setting. A teacher can not expect students to give them the benefit of the doubt, and blindly participate in learning, teachers must first engage the students and convince each of them that this is a beneficial use of their time. Simply put, we need to make students care. What an interesting concept. How can you make a group of strangers CARE about the objectives of another? You reward them of course. It really is one of the oldest strategies, so simple and effective. If you want someone to do something, you give them something. Payment. Well how do you pay 36 students? You pay them with points! Dojo Points to be specific. ClassDojo is a new take on an old strategy, an equally simple yet effective digital tool that has become a fixture in my classroom.
To begin with, it is free. Teachers inevitably spend money out of pocket for the sake of their students. So it is important to recognize and share free resources with one another. All you need for ClassDojo is internet access and a digital device like a laptop or tablet. Basically, it is a digital system for awarding and or deducting points to and from students. The website comes with a tutorial that suggests assigning each student their own avatar to award points to, which would make more sense in an elementary class, where you have the same 36 students all day long. However, as I have several classes each day, that would be a lot to keep track of. My student desk arrangement is 9 groups of 4. So I align by creating 9 avatars in each class, one for each group of 4. The purpose behind this resource is to improve student behavior. Now this requires that teachers first determine and communicate their expectations clearly. Users have the option of creating categories for positive or negative behavior. The site comes with several default categories but teachers are free to create their own. So a common example might be one or more students clearly getting off task. I can click the “Off Task” icon and deduct one Dojo point from that group. This is all made viewable as it is projected on the screen for all teams to see. Essentially it is a giant score board. This is where things get interesting. This resource is unfortunately underrated and underutilized. This, I believe is because it is only limited to creativity of the teacher using it. For instance, when I started using this point system, I thought I would have the groups compete against each other. While this was relatively successful, it gradually became clear that this essence of competition would inevitably lead to prizes of a more tangible nature. So, I rethought my approach, and remembered the superior power of teamwork. I explained to the class that they were now working together for class points that could lead to a class party. The condition, was that points would be solely be awarded to groups where each member completed their work. On days when HW was due, we would go group by group, asking if each member had their work completed. If so, that team earned one point for the whole class (the larger team) If a member of the group had not completed their work, that team simply would not earn a point towards the class party, but they would not be deducted any. I never deduct class points once they have been earned (unless it was revealed that a student did not in fact have their work completed.) Each trimester, I reset the points and we start all over. Which means students have the opportunity to have 3 parties. The catch, is that everyone has to do their work. It is not enough for 3 of every 4 students to participate. So, and here is my favorite part: The students motivate each other. When one group member gets off task, the others remind them that their behavior will affect the rest of the class. This free and simple digital tool has allowed me to teach students to cooperate with others and recognize that their actions can have positive consequences. All that I have said, and I have only covered the part about giving points. This resource also comes with a series of Growth Mindset videos. It also includes free homework assignments that can be printed and or downloaded for future use. Oh, and did I mention that parents can have access to classDojo? A teacher can invite parents to see how their students are doing, what points they have earned or lost. The site can track for patterns of behavior which teachers can address to improve behavior. Honestly, I could go on and on about this digital tool. I think it is a wonderful resource. I know many teachers that use it and agree. Any teacher not using it should give it a try, at the very least to use the digital countdown timer. Trying to make sense of Brenda Dervin’s Sense Making was no easy task. Fortunately, there was a video on the topic which I chose to watch before reading the article. In my own classroom, before I introduce a new concept, I like to provide my students an image or preferably a video on the topic, as a means of providing context and building interest. While the video did succeed in providing some context and background for the concept of Sense Making, I must admit, it did little to engage me as a learner. When I reflect on my efforts to process the video’s content, I concluded that my biggest issue was the pacing. I had a difficult time processing all that the speaker had to share, granted, they were covering a large concept which is very new to me as an audience.
One thing that I did find effective from the video was the visual aid. Dervin’s concept is illustrated by an “information seeker” on one end of a cliff, which represents their “situation”. Next, there is the “Gap” which prevents the patron from making their way successfully to the other side. The “Gap” represents the learner’s lack of information. Finally, the visual metaphor is completed by “Bridging” the gap for the information seeker, providing them with the necessary information and perspective to successfully make it to the other side. This portion of the video was very helpful to me in digesting the concept. This is most likely due to the fact that I am a visual learner. Having new or complex concepts presented within a familiar context, or personal experiences, can help with the transfer of ideas. That’s when I had my “Ah ha!” moment. The Sense Making video helped bridge my own learning gap by providing me with the means to consider the concept in a different yet familiar way. After watching the video, I felt prepared to begin the actual reading. As this was a lengthy read, I applied many of the reading strategies that I share with my students. For instance, I began by previewing each of the headings in order to map out where this was headed. There were also certain chunks that I needed to reread in order to better understand the information. Possibly the most important strategy I applied in order to process this new concept, was note taking. Whenever I read anything informative, I take notes. Especially when dealing with new terms and meanings. The combination of the introductory video and my various reading strategies, supported my attempts to grasp Brenda Dervin’s educational approach. So, from what I can tell, Dervin’s main idea behind successful learning, is that instructors should first seek to understand how different individuals make sense of information. While the humans are very similar in a biological sense, individuals process information in very different ways, depending on their unique experiences. Dervin includes a few sense-making methodologies to support this process:
If I were to teach this concept to my own students, well, I wouldn’t. Not yet at least. I honestly don’t feel I’ve fully got a firm grasp of the HOW part. Though, if I were to try, I would certainly need to break it into sections, possibly several classes to thoroughly explain it all. I think I would begin with a class discussion on “Perspective” and try to create the foundation that everyone is different and therefore everyone can think differently. I might introduce my one of my favorite theories by philosopher Rene Descartes, in which he questions the reliability of his own perception of reality. I would also implement visual aids such as diagrams and video. As I mentioned, I still have much to learn before I begin teaching on this subject. Class: Accelerated Language Arts
Grade Level: 7th Grade Time: 85 minutes Topic: Digital Citizenship - Relationships & Communication Common Sense Media Link: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/digital-citizenship/relationships-and-communication Materials:
I teach at a school that strongly advocates the use of technology for educational purposes. We are a BYOD school or bring your own device. We also provide laptops to certain students who do not have access to the internet at home. Our school utilizes the website Echo as a means of disseminating and collecting student work. Students and parents alike can access Echo to see how a student is progressing in each class by checking grades and even specific assignments.
This being said, students are expected to demonstrate technological proficiencies on a regular basis. My students are expected to successfully navigate Echo to access their assignments. Google Docs to complete their work as well as Drive to store their various assignments. My students must also learn to navigate the vast internet through appropriate lenses while avoiding distracting material. When I began teaching at my site, I was initially very impressed by the level of ability and comfortability that many students showed towards technology. However, after two years of teaching, I have begun to see the cracks forming. For example, one common issue that many teachers experience at my school, is the consistency with which students take advantage of their technology. Whether it be the issue of using Google chat at inappropriate times or cheating on assignments by sharing Google Docs and simply changing the name on the assignment. Our recent achievements of ever expanding technology can provide our students new and amazing options that has never been seen in the history of education. There are certainly advantages to utilizing technology in the classroom, such as the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with anyone from anywhere and anytime. Unfortunately, many students have not been taught how to make appropriate decisions when faced with so many different digital communication options. So the question becomes, how do we prepare our students to utilize such an immense resource as the internet. We as teachers must educate our students about digital citizenship and what it means to navigate this second world that we have created. Students need guidance in determining the norms of appropriate and responsible behavior with regard to technology use. At the start of each year, I ask each of my students to successfully access a Google Doc that I created which contains several Ice Breaker questions. Students need to create a Google Doc on which they will answer these questions, and then submit that document to Echo, with the proper share settings to provide me editing rights. This is one example of teaching students some of the more technical norms of digital citizenship. In addition to being a BYOD school, we are also a Project Based Learning school. One of my favorite projects to teach is the “Antisocial” project. We spend about a month investigating the effects of social media. Specifically, students investigate the impact that social media has had on people’s social skills when offline. I have students consider how vastly different communication between online users and offline interactions are. Many students ultimately agree that heavy online use can lead to issues such as online bullying or extended isolation. Which prompts my students to have conversations about how to avoid and rectify these issues. Students determine ways to intervene when they see online bullying and recognize the need for offline time. While certain projects lend themselves to teaching digital citizenship, it is certainly something that I need to continue exploring and explicitly instructing, as it will only become more and more applicable to students educational experiences. The key is to not only provide students the tools to successful digital citizenship, but to help them recognize the need and purpose of it. Many of today’s students will one day acquire jobs that do not yet exist. In the meantime, these students will need to acquire and master a variety of skills. So how are we to prepare today’s students to excel in our ever changing world?
According to Katie Varatta, Competency-based education may be the answer. Competency Based Learning or CBE is an approach to learning that flips the structure of traditional education. In a typical classroom, “seat-time” is held constant while the quality of learning may vary from student to student. However, with the competency-based approach, students are at the center of their learning. While the specific mechanics of this approach to learning are still very new to me, the gist of it is that students determine their own learning goals, and then work to progress at their own pace until they have reached their goals. Varatta also assures teachers that this approach would not require thirty some odd individualized lessons. Though, I am unsure as to the compatibility of whole class lessons coupled with individualized progression. So how will students know when they have reached their own learning goals? Competency based education has an emphasis on authentic assessment, which evaluates what students know and can do through real-life demonstrations and projects. I do not have precise examples of such assessments, however, as a Project Based Learning instructor, I am well aware of the range of ways in which students can sufficiently demonstrate mastery of their abilities. Competency based Learning appears not only well suited to leverage educational technologies, but also dependent upon them. That is to say, the benefits of Ed Tech equal the need. For one, I can not fathom an efficient mode of tracking the individualized progress of hundreds of students that did not involve modern technologies. I assume minds greater than my own have already created such tools designed to track and store this data while making the learning process more transparent to teachers and students alike. There are many digital platforms that could allow for the intellectual creations of our students to be open to other learners. Students of CBL should have the opportunity to participate in various scholarly communities of discussion which many educational technologies provide. I look forward to learning more about this interesting approach to education and the implications for educational technologies. |
AuthorThe best teachers never cease to be students. Archives
December 2017
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