Teaching Teens

http://voicethread.com/share/782110/

Cooperative learning is a great social learning instructional strategy when used with technology. Voice threads are an excellent way to engage students in working together. Students can create their own individual voice threads and then comment on their peers voice threads.  Dr. Michael Orey describes social learning as a way for students to actively engage in converstations about what they are constructing to help them better understand the concepts of a lesson. Technology like blogs, wiki sites, and power points when done in cooperative groups can really be successful when students are working with other students of different academic levels. It is important to use differentiated instruction to meet all of the different learning needs and styles of our students. Technology can allow this to happen. Other great technology sources such as a collection of images or having students look up statstics and then make graphs or charts to present their information can really create an awesome understanding of the material. According to Kevin Jarrett technology allows students to work with other people around the world. The interent is an excellent tool for this.

The instructional strategies tht I explored this week correlate quite nicely with the principles of constructivist and constructionist learning theories. Constructionism is the idea that students need to have a hands on experience such as building something to fully understand it. Dr. Orey encourages the idea of power point so that students will create an artifact with their project based learning. Constructivism is an idea that students  learn in an unique individual way that will make sense to them. This can also be done through project based learning, because it will relate information to their own minds and prior knowledge or experiences.

Spreedsheet software is an instructional strategy that I have never really thought about exploring with my students. Spreedsheets now have me convinced that this is a great way for students to learn and understand economic concepts. I realize now that microsoft excel is a great tool for students to use when creating some kind of problem solving tool. “We should note that by calling the spreadsheet interactive, we mean that the students will be able to manipulate it, consider graphical patterns, and test their predictions by receiving quick feedback on multiple scenarios” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 204).  Spreedsheets give students feedback within seconds so that they understand right away what works and what does not. Students can create tables and charts (constructing a project) to explain and present their findings.

Web resources allow my students to really engage and ellaborate on what we have learned in history class. For example the website making-history.com is a great tool to teach students what life would really be like if they were a leader of a country and had to make decisions for their people. Students are really enthusiastic and engaged when it comes to using technology in the classroom. Students tend to be more involved in a lesson if they are watching/making a video, making a spread sheet, doing a virtual field trip, or participating in an assimilation or creating a power point.  

Althougth spreedsheets are a great tool, I think web resources are the best thing for me to use when it comes to teaching history classes. I see myself using the spread sheets and data collection tools when I teach psychology and economics. All of these technology tools really help students learn how to constuct a project as well as doing so in a manner that will bring out their own unique experiences and prior knowledge.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

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

Dr. Orey explains that the cognitive learning theory goes through a process in which our brains understand and retian information. We begin with information coming into our brains through one of ours senses, then from their the information is stored in our working memories and then hopefully information is put into our long-term memory. Concept Mapping and Virtual Tours are great instructional strategies for retianing information into our long-term memories.

Concept mapping is a great graphic organizer that we can do on the computer or on a piece of paper. “Concept maps are graphical tools for ogranizing and representing knowledge” (Novak and Canas, 2008, p. 1).  This allows us to organize our thoughts and relate new information to our prior knowledge.  Concept mapping allows students to brainstorm and then figure out the important information of a concept. Although, this can be challenging for students it is an excellent way for student to grasp and understand the information as well as retain it into their long-term memory.

Virtual tours are wonderful activities for students to engage in and see visually historical places accross the world. I used a virtual tour of a concentration camp in Poland to show my American History students what a concentration camp looks like today. I also explained to my students that people can go through these camps and see them when they are in Germany and Poland. This really engaged my students and helped them retain the information into their long term memories.

Blogs and Wiki sites are other tools that can also engage students and help them receive a full understanding of the material covered in class. These types of assignments make students think and then present the information that they just learned. Instead of having my students write a research paper I sometimes have my students do a power point presentation. This is similar to the same concept as a research paper, except for the fact that students use technology to regurgitate the information. It always seems to work well and students appear to have a fantasitc understanding.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Orey.

Novak, J. D. & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008.

This week I explored two instructional strategies (reinforcement effort and homework and practice). Reinforcing effort can work well when you are giving positive rewards and also consequences to students who are putting effort into their classes academically. Technology has really helped teachers give students and their parents immediate feedback. “The instructional strategy of reinforcing effort enhances students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and achievemnet by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 155).  I believe that it is really important for students to be rewarded for effort. If students put effort into studying and classwork they will accomplish higher grades.  I love the idea of setting up an account for students on Microsoft excelto show the correlation of effort to grades for my students.  This would give them immediate feedback and show them that the more effort they put into homework and school work the better thier grades become.

Homework and practice also enhance students learning.  When students do homework outside of the classroom it helps enrich their experinece when learning new content material.  The more a student looks at and studies certian material, a student’s understanding of it will increase to a higher degree. Power points can be an excellent tool for students to use to present the information that they have learned.  This also allows students to be creative as well as more engaged in the activity.  It is not always good to give students a written test. In the past I have also used brainpop with my students which allows them to watch a video on a piece of material and then take a quiz at the end.  This again gives students practice and reinforces their effort right away to show students how they scored.

Homework and Practice along with Reinforcing Effort correlate quite nicely with the behaivorism.  B.F. Skinner is a behaviorist who beleived in postive and negative reinforcement.  There is a correlation here when giving students reinforcement for the effort they put into their school work.  For example, if a student does their homework, takes notes, participates, pays attention, and studies chances are this student will score high on a test.  If student keeps track of this on their own excel spreadsheet and are honest about it, they will see the relationship of effort equals good grades. This will then reinforce their attitude of hardwork will give me academic success. 

When students are doing homework and practicing skills that they have learned in class this will inturn show students that the effort they put into homework will give them good grades.   Technology can really help teachers and students be aware of how effort and homework relates to students academic success.

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

As this course is coming to an end in my master’s work, I have learned a tremendous amount.  This course has allowed me to increase my technological abilities and my knowledge has increased on how to effectively integrate technology into my classroom.  This course has helped me develop my own technology skills as a professionalteacher.  I have learned to manuever more effectively on the internet as well as learn how to create blogs, wikis, and pod-casts.  My skills and  knowledge as increased by a large amount.

I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process by learning exactly what a 21st century child/student needs in order to be successful.  This course brought to my attention how important it is that we train our children to operate our 21st century technology.  Our children need to know how to use computers and Internet successfully to be able to communicate globally within  their future careers. 

I have changed my persecpective from being teacher centered to learning centered.  I realize now how important it is for students to learn hands on.  Using technology in the classroom allows my students to self direct their learning and to stay engaged in a lesson.  I realize as a life long learner myself that I to need to have a learner-centered approach when I am taught something new. 

I feel that I can increase student achievement by teaching with technology.  If I can improve my skills as a 21st century teacher through training and other professional development, I can pass my knowledge onto my students.  The more familiar that I become with technology the better education I can give my students.

There are two long-term goals that I would like to set and to achieve within two years to transform my classroom environment. My first goal would allow my students to have access to the Internet and computer labs at least twice a week where my students can create and update a wiki site within their collaborative groups.  This goal would allow my students to post information that they have learned in the courses that I teach.  This would also be an excellent evaluating tool.  The second goal would include the use pod-casts.  I would love to see my students complete at least four pod-casts (1 per quarter) to present information they have learned showing that they understood the standards taught in Social Studies class.  This would also be a great evaluation tool and allow students to show what they have learned in a creative manner. There are many institutional and systematical obstacles that I will need to overcome in order to achieve my goals. The most obvious obstacle is money, but I believe that I could work with the school to do fundraisers and grants to get the equipment need to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I also need to be knowledgeable about what I am teaching, which can be done through professional development and trainings.

Overall, this course has helped me become more and more successful in my classroom this school year.  I look forward to incorporating blogs and wikis as well as podcasts into my curriculum.

I am now familiar with podcasts.  I have really enjoyed the experiece.  Due to summer vacation I interview three adults that told me their experience with technology in their classrooms when they were in school.   Please visit my podcast and let me know what you think.

http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts 

The 21st Century Skills is a website that is organized group to advocate for the incorporation of the 21st century into education.  This organization is made up of policymakers, the business community, and education leaders. It focuses on the importance of technology in the classroom and how it benefits students once they enter the workforce.  

After evaluating the web site, I feel that there is a lot of good information for educators and parents to pay attention to.  A lot of the information on the web site explains the importance of the latest technology being in our school systems.  The website mentions how important it is for teachers to build on the prior knowledge of our students.  Prior knowledge is the education that reflects how people learn.  Using 21st century skills such as laptops, videos, etc. would help us teachers keep our students engaged as well as build on their prior knowledge of topics and technologies that have been previously learned.

The information on the website that surprised me was the fact that the core subjects were emphasized.  The core subjects are believed to be a good foundation for a good education.  This is surprising to me because their is so much emphasis today on the Music, Art, and Sports Programs.  I have felt in the past that our core subjects have been overlooked by the communities in which we live.  It was comforting to see that the core subjects still matter to many people, for the education of our future children.

There was one statement on the website that I partially disagree with it.  The following statement was “Global awareness promotes understanding, tolerance, acceptence of ethnic, cultural, religious, and personal differences as they play out in communities and workplaces”.  Unfortunatley, with my experience global awareness is not enough to promote the acceptence and tolerance of other ethnic, cultural, religious, and personal differences.  Their are other outside influneces to our students beliefs and values that come from parents, friends, and social surroundings.  These are not always the most tolerant or understading influences, however they are some of the strongest infulences.  I do beleive global awareness is important and necessary for our students education and does help to promote understanding, tolerance, and acceptence, when combined with the same influences from outside sources.

I still believe that some of the implications for our students and teachers as contempory educators is standardized testing.  I believe there is always going to be issues with educators feeling like they should teach the test.  I know that assessments drive instruction and should incorporate 21st century skills when doing so, but I also believe teaching the test takes up too much time.  I would love to see teachers be more creative and take their time teaching some of the subjects instead of racing through all the content hoping that everything was taught, that could be on the test.

Overall, I think this website is very beneficial and a great tool for educators and parents to pay attention to. It is very informative and covers a lot of aspects on education.   

I teach 6thgrade Social Studies. There are many ways I could use a blog in my classroom to educate my students.  One way I could use a blog would be to do a weekly homework assignment/discussion every week with my students.  There are so many times class is too short. Using a blog for students to answer questions or discuss topics allows class discussion to continue after class ended. 

 I also think this would be a great way for my students to interact with each other in a non-threatening manor.   When students have a place to interact about content they will really gain a lot more insight to a topic.  I think blogging will enhance my lessons on Ancient World History, because students will always be thinking and discussion content. 

 Blogging would especially be useful when I am teaching on a block schedule.  When I only see students every other day, there is a period of time where my students forget some of the material we had already discussed.  This way students will be able to learn and discuss material the days I do not see their class.  I love the idea of having students post their opinions and ideas on the content we are learning.  I think this is really beneficial for everyone.

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