Week 7 Reflection - Kayla Shandra

Week 7 Reflection

Throughout this course, I was able to generate two main goals that I wanted to accomplish as an educator. I followed the steps of the GAME plan and was able to accomplish those goals while helping my students develop essential 21^st century skills. I was also able to promote self-directed learning skills by giving my students an authentic learning opportunity where they were able to put themselves in the place of a scientist and investigate an environmental problem.

GAME Plan:

Just to review, my two goals included:

1.      Work together with my students to learn new technology that can be used in the classroom.

2.      Alter my lessons to best fit the needs of my students. 

Goal #1 Reflection:

After taking action to meet goal #1, it was amazing to see how much the students and I were able to learn. Not only did we learn how to use the new lab probes, but the students were able to learn collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. New (2005) stated that teachers should not spend a lot of time teaching technology, you should learn as you go, and this is exactly what I did with my students to accomplish this goal. I gave the student the equipment, and they learned how it worked by reading the manual and trial and error. Some students even experimented and found additional uses for the probes. To be honest, I was hesitant to do an activity like this, where the students were basically on their own to learn how to use a very expensive piece of lab equipment, but I let go of my control, and the result was highly beneficial. Since then, I have used this strategy with my students to explore the use of several other probes that I have never used before. I also learned that I can trust my students to stay on task and work together as a lab team to solve a problem. Learning together with students is a very worthwhile and rewarding experience and I plan to continue doing this in the future.

If I were to revise my plan based on my progress of this first goal, I would start the process of learning with my students at the very beginning of the school year. By doing this, students will become used to this way of learning early on in the year. I might also have the students do a mini-presentation in the front of the class and teach their peers one or two things about the new technology. After seeing how well this strategy works, my only regret is that I only got to use it towards the middle of the year.

Goal #2 Reflection:

After taking action to meet goal #2, I found that assigning the students roles during a group activity is a good strategy to give the students a few different options to do well with the activity (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). While completing the group activities to accomplish this goal, I ran into the problem of group members not getting along with each other. Before we started our next group activity I decided to have a little discussion with my classes about working together as a team and working through some differences they may have. I meant for it to be a few minute discussion, but then it ended up being a whole class discussion that took an entire class period. Students were sharing their thoughts and ideas about how to work through problems and the importance of team work. Although this took up an entire period, it was probably one of the best class discussions that any of my students have ever had. After the discussion, the next group activity went a lot smoother. After reflecting on this event, I decided to start the year off with a similar group discussion every year. If students set their own guidelines for group work at the beginning of the year, there might only be some small issues, instead of screaming matches during a group activity.

I really like how assigning roles to students worked during a group activity, and the students seemed to like it as well. Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) stated that when roles are assigned to students during a group activity, that activity is more “equitable and productive”, and this is exactly what I saw in my classroom (p. 90). I plan on adding a reflection component where the students reflect on how their group members worked together throughout the activity (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I then plan on having the students share the reflection with the other members. Of course the students need to understand that this needs to be done in a respectable manner, but I think it can teach the students how to collaboratively work as a group to accomplish a task.

Unit Plan Reflection:

After taking this course, I plan on integrating more inquiry and problem-based learning activities in my classroom. I have actually seen a great improvement in students work and attitude after doing my Chesapeake Bay unit plan. There are many areas where I can incorporate problem-based learning through lab experiments. I used this unit plan as a type of trial to see how the students would do throughout the process. I could not be more pleased at the results. I shared my plan and the benefits of these types of lessons with my colleagues and encouraged them to use them in their own classroom. I am in the process of working with our social studies teacher to do a collaborative project with her classes and mine. I showed the social studies teacher some examples of the digital stories the students made and she was absolutely amazed and asked me to show her how to make them. We plan on having our students work together and create a digital story on a topic related to debates and controversial science topics. This idea of incorporating science and social studies topics, while using technology, will serve as an excellent example of a holistic learning activity where students will be able to see the connections between different content areas (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

The administration at our school recently asked the faculty to start incorporating more current events related to our content area into our lessons. Because state testing is coming up soon, I am running low on time and needed to find a way to incorporate current events without taking a lot of class time to do so. I decided to have one of my tech savvy students set up a class blog where students can discuss current events outside of school. Richardson (2010) stated that “blogs can enhance and deepen learning” (p. 20). I plan on giving students a weekly topic every Monday related to a current event in science and have them discuss the current event throughout the week. I would set up the guidelines similar to how we conduct discussions during this course. Students will need to post an initial response early in the week, and then respond to their peers throughout the rest of the week. Through blogging, students will be able to read and respond to the posts more critically and learn to write more clearly (Richardson, 2010). I took a poll to see if students would be interested and the students were excited to use a blog for class.

In conclusion, the skills and strategies that I learned by taking this course, serve as an invaluable resource. Not only did my students become better self-directed learners, but I was able to grow as a lifelong learner. My students learned essential 21^st century skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking skills. These are skills that students can apply to many different situations throughout their lifetime (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I can be confident that when my students leave my class that they will take these skills with them to their high school and college course, and eventually to a rewarding professional career.

Kayla Shandra

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

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

New, J. (2005, December 2). How to use digital storytelling in your classroom. Retrieved from the Edutopic website: http://www.edutopia.org/use-digital-storytelling-classroom.

Richardson, W. (2010) Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Week 4: Monitoring My GAME Plan - Kayla Shandra

Week 4: Monitoring My GAME Plan

January 25, 2012

I believe that I have made good progress with my GAME Plan.  I spoke with colleagues, tried the strategy of having students assign themselves jobs within a group, and learned alongside my students, a new piece of technology that will be very useful in lab.

So far I have found all the information and resources I need towards accomplishing my goal. I spoke with our librarian and she actually showed me how to use Prezi’s, so the students can use them in my class when we do presentations.  By playing around and looking at examples of Prezi’s , I could see that this could be a great tool for my visual learners.

To prepare for my second goal which was to alter my lessons to best meet the needs of my students, I had the students do a simple genetics activity where they taped the names of genes on a coin and then tossed it 50 times and recorded the results of which genes came up the most.  I had the groups assign jobs which included, coin tosser, number recorder, and a person to create a graph. This simple activity allowed me to observe the students in their group to see  how they worked together and which jobs they assigned to each other.

A small modification that I needed to make was a matter of just changing a few group members around. A few issues arose and some groups really were not working well together and it was becoming a real problem and distraction. I made notes of this and will make sure that those students are not grouped together anymore. Students need to learn how to support each other in their group and not get caught up in drama (Cennamo, Ross, &  Ertmer, 2009).

I realized also that I need to give the groups a job list where they sign their names and write down a small description of their job. This will ensure that all work is “most equitable and productive” and that “no individual takes a dominant role” (Cennamo, Ross,& Ertmer, 2009, p. 90). The other groups worked very well together and I noticed that the artistic students chose to graph the data and made very nice graphs.  The kinesthetic learners chose to toss the coin. The next and final step to my plan is to have the students carry out a lab investigation with their lab group. This investigation will have a variety of different activities where students can showcase their abilities.

After this activity I moved on to start accomplishing my first goal which was to work together with my students to learn new technology. For this lab I wanted to learn how to use the Vernier CO2 Gas Sensor. I went into the lab with just a basic plan, but not knowing how to use the gas sensor. Once we were in the lab I handed the students the CO2 sensor, a handout of the directions for calibration, and the lab handout with the procedure and some background information.  I then gave the students all the materials to complete the lab and had them start. I explained to the students that I never used this technology and I want to learn together. I then challenged them to properly calibrate the sensor and then start the lab set up.  Throughout this whole process I was walking from group to group and asking them questions about what they were doing. After visiting about 3 groups I knew how to calibrate the sensor.  I even learned from a few groups how to properly handle and store the sensor.  As students completed the lab I noticed that many of them were choosing to learn the equipment by trial and error. Students would do something with the sensor to see how it worked. For example, students started breathing on the sensor to see how the CO2 levels changed. I let the students do this, but monitored that they were on task and not just fooling around. They were actually interested in the results. Other groups were reading the directions very carefully and following the steps exactly, which is perfectly fine.  By the end of the lab I learned how to calibrate the sensor and how to use it in the lab. Although this seems like a simple task, I know I can trust my students to work with this technology and we can move on to more complex labs and technology.

A question that has arisen is how I can teach students to work together as a group even if you do not get along with each other. This question arose from the incident I mentioned above. This one group did not get along at all and were fighting and arguing. I want the students to learn that you may work with something that you may not like but you need to overcome your differences and work through it. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) mentioned that teachers should “model effective problem-solving strategies and conflict resolution skills (p. 91). I usually try to do this, but I feel that my students need more practice. Any suggestions?

Kayla Shandra

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Week #3 Carrying out my GAME plan- Kayla Shandra

Carrying out my GAME plan- Kayla Shandra

Week #3

January 18, 2012

There are still a few things that I need to accomplish before I start my GAME plan. I need to consult with a few colleagues and collect some more data on my students. Once I have this information then I can start moving towards my two goals of learning along with my students and altering my lessons to better meet the needs of my students.

In order to carry out my GAME plan I will need support from the technology/computer teacher and librarian, who also works in our media center. These teachers are very good with computers and troubleshooting any technology problems that I may come across.  I will also need to access to different presentation software that my students can use at the end of their project.

Some additional information that I will need is initial observations of my students regarding their strengths and weaknesses. One of my goals is to alter my lessons to best meet the needs of my students, so I need to get more information on my students and try the find the key to motivation. In order to do this, I plan on observing my students over the next few days while I give them a variety of different activities. I may even do a trial run where I have the students split up into groups and have the students assign jobs to each other while they complete a mini-activity. I will watch for how they split themselves up, and how they work together as a group. I will be able to see the group dynamics, and any problem areas I will need to address. This will serve as a type of formative assessment, so I can see what types of problems may arise or if there will be anything that needs to be adjusted (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I will also be able to observe the groups dynamic. I will be able to see which students work best together and which students I need to keep separate.

I also plan on completing a few labs using new Vernier Lab software and equipment that I have never used before. I plan on having the students work with the equipment during a basic lab experiment to learn how to use the equipment. Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) stated that observing students during activities is a way to monitor the effectiveness of a lesson. I will be walking around to each lab group and monitoring their progress and I will have students report how they are using the equipment in their experiment. The students and I will be working together and giving each other feedback on the lab equipment. This will help me accomplish my second goal which is to work more with my students to learn new programs, technology, and strategies that can be useful in my classroom.

It is important for teachers to know the learning preference and the needs before they design a lesson (Naimia, Siraj, Abuzaid, & Shagholi, 2010). So far I worked with our librarian who made a wiki with all different resources for students to use. She showed me a link on the wiki that takes the students to a survey where they can see what type of learner they are. I had the students take the survey at home and bring their results to me a few days later. As I suspected, almost of the students were visual learners. I knew that many of my students were visual learners already, just from what they told me in class, but I never thought that almost all of them were. I know now that I need to start adding more visual activities in my lessons to appeal to the majority of my students. Knowing what types of learners are present in a class is also important when you have to decide what type of technology will be useful in your lessons (Naimie et. al, 2010). This information gave me a good jumping off point to start planning my lessons and accomplishing my goals.


Kayla Shandra


References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Naimie, Z., Siraj, S., Ahmed Abuzaid, R., & Shagholi, R. (2010). Hypothesized Learners' Technology Preferences Based on Learning Style Dimensions. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET, 9(4), 83-93.

My Personal GAME Plan- Kayla Shandra

Shandra, Kayla: My Personal Game Plan

Week #2

1/10/2012

Indicators:

1.      Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with the students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual knowledge.

Goal: Work together with my students to learn new programs, technology, and strategies that can be useful in my classroom.

2.  Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

c. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.

Goal: Alter my lessons so that they best meet the needs of all my students and motivate my students.

My first goal was that I want to work together with my students to learn new programs, technology, and strategies that can be useful in my classroom. I feel that a lot of times I do not have enough time to learn new technology and programs that can be beneficial to my students. It is very hard for me to find time to learn new technology and programs and plan meaningful, engaging lessons. I am a bit of a control freak and get very anxious when I do not know exactly what will happen throughout the lesson. I want to take a step back and go into a lesson, admitting that I do not know a lot about the program, and tell the students “let’s work together to explore and brainstorm different, creative ways that this new program can be used in our classroom”. I would also challenge my students to find aspects of the program that may be “hidden” and only a really tech savvy person would be able to figure it out.

My second goal was to alter my lessons so that they best meet the needs of all my students and motivate my students. I do try to do this with my students, but unfortunately I am inconsistent or there is so much to get through during my lesson, that it gets pushed aside. I have to be honest, when I wrote this goal, I sat and thought how I can do this without creating even more work for myself, so that I do not get overwhelmed and quit. I thought about having my students do more group projects, where each student would be assigned a job. The job would be specific for each student’s needs. For example, for the students who are visual leaners, they can work on the graphics and visual aspects of the presentation. For my kinesthetic learners, they can concentrate on actually completing the hands-on activities etc. It is really about knowing the strengths of the students and letting them showcase their talent to their group and the rest of the class. I feel that this would serve as motivation for the students. Sevinc, Ozmen, and Yigit (2011) found that students in a science class were more motivated when they actively participated in a laboratory activity they were familiar with, because students felt more successful when they worked on something they knew how to do well. I feel that this applies to any activity that a student does. If the students are completing something they are good at and interested in, they will work harder because they have a higher chance of being successful.

I will monitor my progress by completing a deeper reflection at the end of the lesson. I will be making notes on how successful the lesson was and the level of motivation and engagement of my students during the lesson. I will reflect on each strategy after I use them and try different ones if I need to.  I will also ask myself if any modifications will need to be made to my lessons and then make the appropriate adjustments (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

After I monitor my progress, I will evaluate and extend my learning by looking at my reflections and observation notes. I may even look at my students’ grades to see if there was an increase or decrease.  I will decide whether or not I reached my goals, or if there are any further modifications I may have to make. I will also ask myself “what will I do differently in the future?” (Cennamo, Ross, &Ertmer, p. 5). If I reached my goals and all the strategies worked, then I will do more research and continue using those strategies and any other that I come across in my research.

Kayla Shandra

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom        use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA:     Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Sevinc, B., Ozmen, H., & Yigit, N. (2011). Investigation of primary students' motivation levels    towards science learning. Science Education International, 22(3), 218-232.

Final Reflection EDUC 6711

Throughout the course, I have been exposed to various learning theories and different strategies that teachers can use in their classroom.  Before this course I have heard of these theories but have never learned strategies on how to apply these strategies in my lessons. I was able to expand on my personal learning theory, and incorporate new technology in my classroom that will greatly benefit my students’ education.

During week 1, I was committed to the constructivist learning theory. After this course, I remain committed to constructivism, but I also would also like to include the social learning theory and the cognitive learning theory. It is important to not only concentrate on the students working together to create an artifact, but it is also important to concentrate on how well the students work with peers and having the students understand their own thinking process. Team work and collaborative learning is very important in school as well as in the work force. Many employers look for prospective employees with these essential skills.

I will definitely be using SpiderScribe and VoiceThread in my classroom. In fact I am currently using both tools in a few of my classes. I believe that these two tools allow students to organize their thoughts and information they research to make connections between the information. These are essential skills to have in order to gain a deep understanding of the material. Tools such as VoiceThread allow students to work collaboratively with each other and learn how to communicate and discuss topics with peers. I would also like to start a classroom blog where the class can view and comment on discussion topics that I post. This will further promote the importance of being able to discuss information with others in a respectable way.

           My first long term goal is to have students work in groups more often. The social aspect of group work is very important. Students learn valuable skills when working with their peers, such as communication and collaborative problem-solving skills (Pitler, Hunnell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Students also learn to listen to their peers and respond in respectful ways, even though someone may not be pulling their weight or have a differing opinion. In order to achieve this goal, I will be rearranging my desks into small groups so that it will be easier to work with partners or groups during class outside of the lab setting. Instead of having students get up and move their desk if I want them to work with their peers, I can have them take about 5 minutes to discuss the topic with the students in their group, instead of adding the distraction of moving desks.

My second long term goal is to explore new programs and technology tools with my students. One thing I learned in this course is that there are many useful programs out there that can aid in students learning. I plan on challenging students to find new and exciting programs that can help them in class and present them to the class. I can even have students think of ways to use familiar tools, such as a social networking site, and have them brainstorm ways that we can use them in class. I plan on doing this at the beginning of the next school year so that the students may utilize these skills and programs throughout the year.

In conclusion, after this course I feel well prepared and well equipped with the tools I need to successfully incorporate technology in my classroom. I learned that the constructivist, cognitive, and social learning theories work well for me because they help prepare my students for the real world.  I will be using tools such as SpiderScribe to help students organize their thoughts, Voice Thread to help students present their thoughts, and blogs to promote discussions between my students.  I feel that I grew as an educator and that my students will benefit greatly from the skills I have learned in this course.

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

Kayla Shandra

Social Learning and Social Networking

Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) defined collaborative learning as when students work together in groups to enhance their learning. By working together with their peers, students can “make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge”(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007,p.139). I explored a variety of different cooperative learning strategies and a few social networking strategies. As I explored both types of strategies, I started to make connections between the two and how I can incorporate both in my classroom.

When it comes to using Facebook in my classroom, I tend to be cautious. Almost every student has Facebook, but the last thing they use it for is academics. I came up with the idea of having students design a class Facebook page. I would assign different roles to students to create the page. We could have a homework posting area, homework help, class discussions etc. I would need the students help to come up with more ideas. Students would also be responsible for maintaining and updating the page daily. I would of course need to set strict ground rules, such as no inappropriate posts or pictures. Although I am hesitant, I think it can be worth a try.

The second tool I would use is blogs. Students can work in small groups to design and maintain a blog related to science. I would run it similar to how we run our blog posts in this course. Each group would be responsible for posting early in the week and reading/responding to classmates blogs. Students will need to communicate and work with others in their groups to keep the blog up-to-date.

No matter what social networking strategy I would use, I would give the students a rubric outlining how they will be graded based on their participation. I would also give each group a sheet where they have to assign a role to each group member. The main goal for all these ideas is to have students work together to build something, communicate with their peers, and support each other, which is a main goal of social learning. It also allows students to see how the social networking sites can be used for other purposes, rather than discussing their social lives!

Here is the link to my VoiceThread:

http://voicethread.com/share/2498859/

Kayla Shandra

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

Constructivism in Practice

I use generating and testing hypotheses all the time in the laboratory portion of my class.  During my lab, I present students with a problem and they must work with their lab group and try to solve that problem. Once in a while, I give the students a list of materials and have them develop their own scientific questions from those materials. With the new developments in technology, students can use equipment such as, probeware, to gather and interpret data (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). In my Biology class, I use Vernier probeware.  A series of different probes came with the set along with a personal labquest computer. The students use the probes, which are connected to the lab quest computer, to collect and store data. Students can then go back and look at the data and start to interpret and analyze that data.  I feel this is connected to constructivism because students are working with their lab group to conduct an experiment, collect their own data, and finally, produce an end product. This relates to project-based learning because students are building their own knowledge throughout a hands-on projects and activities, and producing some sort of artifact which showcases that knowledge gained. In my case, the artifact is either a technology based presentation of results, or a lab report. The learners are also engaged in a complex activity that takes place over a number of class periods, which is a main aspect of project-based learning (Orey, 2001). Overall, constructivism is a learner-centered strategy where the teacher simply serves as a guide (Orey, 2001).  I believe that constructivism goes hand in hand with project-based learning. Through project-based and constructivist lessons, students work together to solve a problem or answer a question and then share their results with their peers (Orey, 2001).

Kayla Shandra

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

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