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