Online learning in K-12 schools

Here is my link to my presentation!!

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AQ4xfHc6Ym2DZGduc3RueHZfMmQ3NzJkcGhu&hl=en

Trent

Reflection on Differentation Instruction 6714

Thought out this course, the first thing that I would like to reflect on is how supportive, cooperative, and willing my group was when it came to helping each other. Within my group we were able to share our technology resources, ideas, and strategies with each other to help implement Differentiation instruction and Universal Design for Learning. Though these two strategies we should all be able to reach the learners who may struggle in our classroom, but also to help the students that are already showing proficiency. I enjoy the luxury of having a group of professions that would help each other when ever need be.

In our differentiation station we were able to share the idea that we found from each week that helped us to understand DI and UDL. These different resources ranged from lesson plans, websites, surveys, research, and our peers thought regarding each. With each of the resources in mind I thought that using the surveys would really help to get the ball rolling. This can be implemented at the beginning of the class which is going to help us teachers decipher how we can to reach the learner. Next, I feel that it will be very important to us the technology to reach the students such as interactive websites and interactive SmartBoards within daily lessons. As we use these in our lessons we will be able to reach each learner more effectively.

Some of the immediate adjustments that I am going to make to my instructional strategies is like I stated above is to use daily integrated technology within my health classroom. The other big change that I feel I need to make is the way that I assess students. I feel that I need to change and allow the students the opportunity for different options of assessment. We know that all students are different and should have options for different assessments. I now see how changing simple things in the classroom will help us to reach the different learning abilities. Using the DI and UDL will help my class become more productive and will provide better opportunity for my students.

Reflection of week 8 6713

I am excited to come off of summer break and use some of the things that we learned from this course. Things like the GAME plan I have developed and improved through the weeks of this course. I also believe the NETS-S, social networking and digital story telling will all become a large part of my curriculum and I am also going to try and involve my collagues as well. This will all be a big part of how I can help my students in the 21st century. We as teachers need to help them apply technologies that will help them become competitive in this technolgy challanged world. By using the GAME plan strategy in classes I feel that students will get more out of my classes. Using technologies and encouraging students to think deeper on their own will help them become better problem solvers.

Some of the immediate adjustments will be that I will have students learn and understand what online blogging and wiki sites can do for them and their education. I feel that showing the students from the skills of technolgy and stratagies of answering questions they will be stronger students. I want students to become more intrigued with questions and answers that will affect their lives and have them seeking knowledge.I think that using and showing technologies to them right now will help them time to become comfortable with the technology and also become more excited about the possibilities that exist. I would also like to do more cross curricular work with other teachers and form a bigger and stronger base for the students to work from.

Week 7 Walden

By combing GAME and NET-S to meet the needs of our students, we will help our students to become almost proficient in technology. I think the Standard 3,6 (select digital tools or resources to use for a real-world task and justify the selection base on their efficiency and effectiveness) will be a great focus to implement into my GAME plan because here students are using real-world experiences that will be forming what projects they create. By providing them with projects that they can relate to, they will become more intrigued and enjoy working on something that has meaning to them.

NETS-S Standard 1,4 (Employ curriculum-specific simulations to practice critical-thinking process) will allow students to understand that they are responsible critical thinkers. I believe we as teachers should provide guide them to self-discovery. I feel that by using more technology with students and doing more projects with them they will become more tech savy. This will also create a more comfortable enviornment for them and they will have the skill they will need later on in life.

NETS-S Standard 4,5,6 (Analyze the capabilities and limitations of current and emerging technology resources and assess their potential to address personal, social, lifelong learning, and career needs) This standard will assist me in helping the students learn about individual needs so they will become that life long learner. Also if the students are creating projects though online resources and social networking they will become more proficient with their personal and social needs.

By providing online resources to my students and helping them to understand what is expected they will be able to set goals. I think the GAME plan process is a great way to help students take accountability for their own actions as well as the needs of a group. I also believe that by monitoring them and evaluating their progress there project will get better and they will become more comfortable working online. I feel that the sooner we as teachers incorporate technology in the classroom and start our students in the technology direction they will become self motivated. I plan to use the GAME plan process with the intention of my studnets enjoying technology and becoming life long learner.

Game Revision Week Six

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

I have learned that after watching the social networking video, that incorporating it more frequently into classes will be more intriguing for students. I feel that by continuing to work towards meeting my goals for my GAME plan I will be able to correct and change ideas and ways that social networking will affect both my students learning and my teaching. I feel that social networking will help my students become more independent and once they are comfortable with the blogging, the wiki, and the online classrooms, they will take more responsibility for their learning and understanding.

What goals are you still working toward?

I am still working towards developing my professional relationships. I feel when teachers collaborate and connect with one another and share ideas that the students benefit. I feel that by allowing other teachers to help influence my ideas then I will develop a larger spectrum of ideas and assessments for my students.

Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?

I think by reflecting on the NETS-T standards I have learned that the more technology my students are used to using the more comfortable and confident they will become. I also believe that by creating authentic learning experiences for my students and allowing them different learning opportunities we as teachers are giving them more opportunities to develop on their own and seek their own understanding. Also it is very important to monitor student progress and continue to assess how students are performing. If they need to be guided to change directions we as teachers are there to help them understand how to solve problems that have been provided to them.

If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?

I am not ready completely to set new goals. I would like to work on the ones that I have set for myself and then continue to assess and modify them. What I have learned over the past 6 weeks has helped givin me new ideas that will help change how my classes function and perform to meet standards. I look forward to helping them learn through the use of technology, and I'm encouraged to help myself seek professionals that enjoy collaborating to help improve the classroom.

What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?

I will continue to seek support and research new information that will guide the classes I teach. I think social networking is a great tool and I plan to use it frequently. I also enjoy using the wiki sites and would like to involve myself more in them.

Week 5 Game Plan Update

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

This is really something that I cant accomplish at this time because I am on summer vacation right now. Howevery through the application process I am learening more each week about the different resources offered . By leraning abour the PBL I am understand that there is more meaningful and exciting ways to teach my studnets throught the different technologies. One way this is going to help my students learn is they will understand the process of PBL and they will become more efficient learners and problem solvers.

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

I have learned that the way we present the ideas and problems to the students is what will encourage them to become better problem solvers and thus become more involved in the content that is delivered. PBL will also help my students with curriculum cross-over, by bringing in more content to the problems presented, the students then will begin to start becoming more efficient at cross curricular discovery themselves. This will help with my first goal and have students develop more of a responsibility for their education.

What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?

I still have a ways to go with making sure my GAME plan will help the students and myself and learn more about the PBL process. I think that the problem based actions will help students understand more of how they need to accept and learn what they can do for themselves. I haven’t developed any new questions.

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I am not sure what adjustments I will need to make until I apply this approach in class. I am hoping that with the PBL process I will be able to learn along with the students and we will work through the process together. I want to make sure that I adjust assessments to meet the needs and understand what the needs are in full and how each student is affected.

Monitoring my game plan progress

Do you need to modify your action plan?

I don’t believe I need to modify my action plan because, I think that I have a broad plan for my action steps and will be able to reach my students if I take the proper steps. I believe that if I have students take responsibility for their own actions and taking appropriate steps to helping them succed they will be self sufficient. This will also help them in become life long learns after my class. I also believe that allowing the students to participate in class blogging sessions they will find their way around the internet and they will use it to become understanding with topic and with the assignments.

Another part of my action plan will be to continue developing my professional community which will in turn help with the learning purposes. I plan to reach out to my collagues in the state and regionally, so I am able to network monthly with them on current issues.

What have you learned so far?

I have learned that there are multiple approaches to meeting my GAME plan and helping students meet there goals. I believe that by being a good student myself and allowing for learning and positive growth I will become a better teacher. I think that by giving them different assessment in various ways that the students will understand the topic and feedback that I provide for them.

What new questions have arisen?

Some questions that I have are how will I make sure I am using the right assessments with my students to fully understand whether or not they fully understand what is being taught in class. And how many different assessments for each unit should I complete? I need to make sure I am in constant contact with my co-workers and also with teachers around the state that teach Health and PE to make sure we are all staying up to date with the latest information that the students need.

Carring out my "GAME PLAN "

To carry out my game plan and reach my goals there will be a few resources needed that will be critical to my success. I believe the most important resources will be that students start to take responsibility for their own actions and understanding what is expected. I also believe that the help of my colleagues and their opinions will help in conjunction with my goals. They will also help when it comes to my 2nd goal of learning what is taking place in classrooms around the state and around the world. I think keeping an open mind and being open to suggestions will help in my success.

Additional information would be on how to motivate students to take full responsibility for their education. I would also like to take class that are offered on latest classroom behavior and how maintain the positive learning environment.

I will not be able to take any of these steps however until school resumes after our summer break. However, I am a member of our State AHPERD (Alliance, Health, Physical, Education, Recreation and Dance) chapter that has helped form great relationships with people around the state. I believe by being involved with this I have learned what we as teachers can expect out of ourselves and other colleagues.

BIG IDEA

After reading and going through the standards in ISTE and NETS-T, I found many standards that I need to use to improve my skills as a teacher. However I will focus on two I feel I lack the most knowledge in. The first one that I decided to use applies both to PE and Health class. It is standard 4 sub-standard “b” (teachers allow and encourage students’ to take control of their own time management and skill development) and Standard 4 sub-standard “d” (collaboration with teachers and other classes around the state and country). Both of these standards will both benfit my students as well as myself and create a better learning environment.

Goals:
By looking at my first goal of having students take control of their own time management and skill development they will become more self-directed in their learning skills and take more responsibility for their own learning. I feel this goal is important so my students can develop and become more rounded learners. This will as help to relieve me of managing their time, because if they are responsible for their effort they will then understand the consequences of not working hard, or working hard for the grade they earn.

Secondly the goal I will focus on will help students understand what other students in the same city, state, and country are doing to advance their knowledge. I think the more students understand who is learning what they are learning, the more interested they will be in performing at a higher level. This will also help me understanding what other teachers in different places are teaching and what their students are expected to learn.

Action:
I will make sure the action that I take is done in steps. I want students to learn correctly how to help themselves and to be self-sufficient learners. When students can take responsibility for their actions they will be able to then engage more in learning and understanding. I will provide multiple opportunities during class that will help students understand how they need to take control of their learning and how to ask questions and participate in discussions. I would like to provide a blog site for my classes so that periodically in class they will be required to talk about a topic we are discussing in class. This will give the students more time in class learning and exploring and the discussions posts will be done to further their learning's.

The action step for collaborating with other teachers will help me to be more aware of what is going on around the community and the state. I try to stay up to date with what is changing so the students understand what is being learned and they can then understand the importance of their knowledge and how powerful their decision making and understanding of current events will be. I plan to converse more frequently with community teachers and also teachers in the state. I will do this through email and through conference meetings and workshops. I feel the more I know, them more my students will know.

Evaluate:
I will evaluate my students on how they begin at the start of the year and then how they move forward during the different units. I feel the way to see whether or not they are progressing and taking control of their management and skill development will be shown through projects they complete. I will also evaluate through assessment via a worksheet that will ask questions on whether or not they are understanding the information and how they are processing it. The blogging will also help determine whether or not they are taking more control of their learning and how they will advance. I will also ask students individually how they feel they are doing and what they would be further interested in learning and how they will try and advance.

I will evaluate the 2nd goal by reflecting on how often I meet and talk with other professionals in the community and around the state. I will look at my reflections and determine also when I get new information if I am using what I have learned. I will also have other teachers help me go over what they have taught and possibly watch me teach to see whether or not I am doing things correctly and the students are understanding what is taught.

I feel by assessing and setting these 2 goals for myself I will become a better teacher and educator for my students.

6712 Reflection

One of the most striking revelations that I had in this class was the importance of teaching my students to use the Internet correctly. In my health class we already had an assignment that the students took a worksheet and assessed the validity of certain websites against questions and other websites. I knew it was an important tool, but after taking this class there is so much more I can add to the assignment that will really hit the Accessing Information standard we use in our class. With the knowledge I have gained from this class I have learned how to expand the literacy to my students. I am unsure on what kind of practice my students get in other classes so I will now be sure to spend more time. To do this I will take sever class periods and use several of the worksheets that come from our book.

As I go forward as a teacher I am definitely going to focus on the synthesis aspect. After this class I understand that students need the practice of synthesis the the information and why it is important. Also that the students find the information, formatting it so they understand it, then taking the most valid information and synthesizing the information. I will use the process that the book went through:

· Questioning- What am I trying to do, where is my end point?
· Understanding the Resources- How will I find it?
· Evaluating-Is this what I need, does it answer my question?
· Synthesizing-What does the information mean?
· Transforming-What will I do with it?

I will take this circle and apply it with my students and have the students understand their material from this circle. The students often don’t understand where they are headed and/or how they get there and what does the information mean in the end. I will teach the circle in the beginning of the year next year and students will grow as they moves along.

The biggest step I will take to accomplish this I mentioned above. One think that we usually do is use graphic organizers to help record their thoughts. At the beginning of each unit I will have the students get out their graphic organizers and record the question. Then as we move through the unit they will answer each of the sections in their graphic organizer. I think this will help the students to understand and gain knowledge from my class that they might have missed before.

This class has added a dimension to my teaching that I think will provide a bridge for learning. Another thing I could do, is have my students use a blog that they can use instead of the graphic organizer. This depends though if they get the technology working better in our school. If they do I will make sure to incorporate it because of the importance of technology.

Resources

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

Trent

I plan to determine if technology that is used in a Physical Education setting will increase the activity levels of junior high students compared to those that do not.

For my qualitative approach my research questions could be as follows:

1. Would you be interested in physical activity more if you could use technology during class and outside of class?

2. Do you think that technology is a motivating factor for physical activity?

Quantitative approach:

1. Are there ways to improve student activity levels through the use of technology? If so what kind?

2. What technologies are available that will allow school to home collaboration?

Methodology

As a result of the different questions I will be researching I will be using the mixed-method approach. This will help me to introduce technology into the gym and see which students have improved activity levels or not.

General Problem Statement

Problem/ Purpose Statement

I plan to determine why students in junior high are becoming obese and/or why they have a lower activity levels, also I could research what they would like to do to increase their activity level and if technology could play a role in this (eg.. pedometer, Ipods, Wii, Iphone apps, heart rate monitors).

Who: Junior High Students
What: what they would like to do differently and if technology would play a role in this
Why: students becoming obese and have lower activity levels

Reflection of Bridging Learning Week 8-6711

When I started this class I felt as thought I used both the cognitive and behaviorist theory in my teaching practice. During this course I have found out some great ways to strengthen the way that I teach, it also has open my eyes to some different ways other may teach. I found that it is very beneficial that if i give both consequences for positive and negative behaviors students will understand what is expected. Also I believe that it is important for the students to work together and teach each other information thought different assignments.

Some adjustments that I plan on making will be to incorporate different technologies into my assignments. This will help the students to familiarize themselves with different technology and also prepare them for what is to come. One resource that I can't wait to incorporate into my teaching are voice threads. This is a great online tool that students can us both in groups and alone and there is endless creativity. Secondly I will have my students create a jigsaw that will help them with gathering new information and sharing there knowledge with one another. I believe that this will create a learning environment that is conducive to a more hands on environment with technology as well as team work.

My two-long term goals are for my students and myself to us more technology so we are gaining the different knowledge, as well as working more hands on. I want to be able to challenge them with technology and see how creative they can be with different assignments like PowerPoint's, voice threads, blogs, and pod-casts. I will be able to schedule more time in the lab, so they will have more opportunities to work on the different projects with other classmates.

Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/share/893513/

Social Theory

One of the great social theory approaches that we learned about in this weeks resources is the jigsaw strategy. This described by Dr. Orey and he states, that students learn about certain subjects and then they are able to teach them to the class. This helps the students to do their own research cooperatively and find a ways as a group to present to everyone else. I believe this is an effective way to use the social theory as long a the perameters are set by the teacher and each group follows them. According to Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, there are a few strategies that they talk about where blog sites and wikis are used and students can interact socially through the different technology (p. 150). they also said that when allowing studnets to work together they are allowed to share ideas to create better sites that would include more valid information compared to them creating their own. Blogs and wikis are a great technology tool that helps the students to strenghten the assignment as well as to furture the discussion topics.

Trenton

Constructivism and Constructionist Learning Theories

Dr. Orey explains that we as teacher must prepare ourselves and our students for technology. He also talks about specific mechanisms that help the learners to get involved in this process. The first one he talks about is the assimilation, which he states is external reality that is made to fit current beliefs. The second mechanism is accommodation, which suggests that the meaning is fit externally to connect with reality. And the last one is equilibration, which explains how balance is achieved. When we as teachers can get students actively engaged in using their creativity they will create something that is unique and makes sense to them. I believe we are responsible for teaching students what they is expected and the knowledge so they can create their own project which allows for them to be creative and construct the assignment. I think allowing a student to learn on their own will help the student to understand the process and they will remember the information. This will also help the students to engage in higher learning. The idea of having the students to create spreadsheets and power points that will help them to understand information they have learned as well as past experiences.

Trenton

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES

Cognitive learning theorists believe learning is a process that begins with information entering through our senses!! After this information enters it is processed and then storied in short-term or long-term memory. As educators, it should be our goal to ensure that information that we teach reaches long-term memory. The best way we can ensure that it reaches this stage is to directly relate the information to that of existing information. The better connection we can make with that student, the more likely they are going to retain the information!!
During this week’s resources they gave several examples that help me to better understand the principles of the cognitive learning theory.

The first example that I really like was the use of brainstorming with inspiration rapid fire tool. This could really help with our school because they are really encouraging all subjects to focus on writing. When using this tool students will really be able to use visual representation of their main ideas in the form of a web. This would be a very valuable lesson to use concept maps in my Health classes to help the students to remember and visualize the information.

The second example given in our text is the AutoSummarize tool by Word. This tool helps the students to reduce the amount of information and chunks it together into a manageable summarization. After they have chosen the key words they will need to summarize the information that the computer automatically summarized.

The last example that I am going to give is virtual field trips. I myself find this to be the most interesting because this is a powerful tool that can create a superb learning environment. This tool is great because the field trips allow the students to develop great long –term memory for the information. All of the above are great examples of cognitive-based tools that will help the students to will expand their knowledge, increase their cognitive thinking, and increase their abilities to recall and apply the information from the their long-term memory.

Tkeller

Behaviorism

Behaviorism I believe still has its place in the classroom. Whether it is by way of classroom management and getting desirable behaviors from students, or technology such as tutorials, we want students to understand there are expectations that directly correlate with learning. We as teachers have set an understanding of what we require the behavior to be if the students don’t follow the behavior plan they understand what the consequences will be. This will create a superior classroom environment that is safe, organized, and enjoyable for the students and my self.

One strategy that correlates with the behaviorist learning theory is reinforcing effort. Reinforcing effort as stated by Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski in Using technology with classroom instruction that works, “The instructional strategy of reinforcing effort enhances students understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning” (2007, p. 155). This is important because students need to understand how the effort of studying directly correlates with the grade that they are receiving. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski also state two generalization that “not all students realize the importance of believing in effort and students can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief” (p. 155). As I stated above we have to help our students to understand how this works. Also we need to evaluate whether the students are putting forth the effort. This will allow use to talk to the students about the assignment and come to an understanding about why they got the grade they did. Some of the things we will be able to discuss with them are, are they taking notes, do we have there attention, are they doing there homework, ect..

According to Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski, “as an extension of the classroom, homework provides opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the content and to gain proficiency with their skills” (p. 187). I believe that assigning homework is a reasonable way for students to practice what is being taught in class. However, there are some teacher that choose to give a student busy work for homework. I disagree with this. Students should be required to do homework that is going to benefit them. Another good quote I found that supports this is again from Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski. They stated that “Having students practice a skill or concept enhances their ability to reach the expected level of proficiency. This shows that students gaining knowledge for the work. Also, students will understand that they will be reinforced for good behavior and punished for undesirable behaviors. Both the instructional strategies of reinforcing effort and homework and practice have a positive association that relates to the behaviorist theory.


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