Emily’s Digital Story

Here is the digital story I made about my life and what means the most to me!!!

Online Math Class

After learning about SCORM and eXe, I approached a fellow teacher who is also in the CTER program but not in my current class (he needed a semester off) about an idea.  We both teach math and are very interested in educational technology.  He is definitely a huge step ahead of me but that’s ok, he’s pretty awesome with his tech gear in the classroom.  We have decided to (next semester) try to design an online version of our Algebra I course by using SCORM and eXe.  We are going to collaborate on this together and try to design a whole unit that could be learned and accessed via the web.  We feel that this would be valuable for those students on homebound and/or who have truancy issues related to outside problems.  This can also be valuable for students who are suspended for extended periods of time.  After we design a whole unit, we are going to write a proposal and propose our course to our curriculum coordinator and see what we can get.  We have no idea what kind of response we will get but if anything, we will gain experience in designing this course which can benefit us probably somewhere in the future.  I’m really excited to work on this project with him.  I’m a huge fan of online self-learning.  I do not think it is for everyone but classroom learning isn’t for everyone either.  The main skeleton of our unit will have a lesson recorded of one of us teaching, then there will be practice worksheets, self-checks, quizzes, and assessments.  We will probably also make one of us available for “office hours”, well, it was just an idea anyways….

With that being said, I’m really looking forward to working on this with him and if you have any suggestions or ideas, I’m very welcoming of them!!

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

The best blog that I found to be most useful and relevant is Cool Cat Teacher Blog.  I also follow this teacher on Twitter at this account.  I find this valuable because of the resources that she discusses and provides in her blog.  She also uses a lot of technology and teaches a technology incorporated curriculum and shares these experiences in her blog.  The articles she posts, she also discusses her thoughts on them from a teacher standpoint and gives user suggestions.  It can be overwhelming but it’s full of great resources =)

Technology and Education

About a week ago, I was asked to attend a district wide meeting as a technology representative of my school.  I had no idea what the meeting was about when I attended.  It was a 2 hour meeting that seemed to go on forever, and it wasn’t until the end of it where my attention was grabbed.  They person who ran the meeting was the technology director of our district; his background was technology but nothing truly related to education.  He shared with us that he did not know much about technology use in the classroom and how there is a huge disconnect between the curriculum need/use for technology and how they use their budget to provided the essential technology in the schools (networks, computers, SMARTboards etc).  His job is to manage the budget and make sure that the networks are working and that people are getting what they need (if possible).  What he wanted to put together with these meetings is to create collaboration between the teachers and the “techies” and work on combining curriculum and technology.  Developing plans for HOW to integrate technology into the classroom where it actually transforms student learning.  I think if we can really put this together and focus on this collaboration, we can really make a change at least in this district, or in a school in the district.  I left the meeting with hope but also questioning how this is going to happen by just meeting once a month.  I don’t really know what is going to happen from here on out but I am remaining optimistic =)  Finally, I’m happy to be a part of something like this!

Desire to change the education world….

I’ve often been told that I am not going to change the world alone nor do I think that it is possible for a single person to make a tremendous change or influence on something as big as the education system.  However, taking this course honestly makes me strongly dislike the current education system and they way we teach and our curriculum.  I want to do more, I want to be involved in changing education entirely.  Those of us that are aware of how every aspect of life and society has transformed because of technology and web 2.0, understand that education has not changed but desperately needs to.  Education started with the teacher being pretty much the sole source of knowledge in the classroom walls.  She/he had the information and passed it on to the students, so that they can be successful in their career.  With all the resources we have at our finger tips, and how in a matter of seconds, I can find out pretty much anything I want, students do not need to simply absorb mass amounts of information about various subjects/topics.  As a high school math teacher in the CTER program, I honestly am bored out of my mind of simply lecturing information and then having students practice the problems.  I might as well record all the things I say and just play it for my students on repeat.  Unfortunately, I work at a district that just seems to be losing money by the second.  Our budget is more than cut in half, we lost most tutoring opportunities among other things.  I need to get out of here because I know that we are not teaching these kids what they need to know and we are not teaching them they in a way that actually benefits them.  I want my students being active participants in the learning process.  I want them collaborating across curriculum on projects that actually matter.  I want them to discover the learning.  I want to give them the tools they need to become independent learners.  I really want to teach an iPhone based classroom.

If 5 years, I do not want to be doing what I’m doing now in the classroom……….and I don’t want to simply use fancy technology to teach the same material the same way only perhaps it “looks cooler”……..

Future of Learning

When I think about the future of learning initially what comes to mind is a classroom highly equipped with technology.  The technology I picture is a laptop cart, SMARTboards, student response systems (“clickers”) and graphing TI-nspire calculators.  I also see students collaborating and using reflective practices through blogging and wikis.  The teacher takes a secondary role and acts as a facilitator to the learning process.  Moodle is a great tool that can bring blogging and wikis together and act as the class hub.  I truly think that the future of learning is not primarily technology driven but creative collaboration through the technological tools.

I think the approach to teaching and learning will be different.  I think that learning will evolve from working with peers.  I see the students working physically together in the classroom, collaborating on cross curricular projects (who are not necessarily in the same class hour either) using wikis, and reflecting about what they learned not only in class but after assessments in their own personal blog[ideally their blog would transform into a portfolio of their overall learning experience].

There is some amazing technology out there that has the potential to truly change a math classroom that can truly revolutinize the teaching of mathematics for all level learners. Every student has a Ti-nspire, which connects wirelessly to a hub, and the teacher has access to every calculator screen in the hub through his/her computer.  The teacher can create a problem which gets sent to every calculator, then the students can send back their response. The learning is hands on and discovery based and perhaps even fun!

Final blog!!

The first thing I feel is almost relief at this point.  I’m about to submit the final draft just after looking it over one more time and I’m writing my final blog.  I really did enjoy this class, though what we learned wasn’t what I thought we were going to learn.  I really enjoyed the content of this class and felt like it was worthwhile and practical.    I’m really thankful that we put the project together throughout the semester, it definitely made it easier to hammer out this final project.

All I have left to do at this point is my powerpoint.  I’m grateful for those that have posted theirs already because now I have an idea of what mine should look like.  My favorite part of the class was learning about appreciative inquiry.  That method really goes along with my personal philosophy and I jsut wonder how good things would be if almost everyone was evaluated using that method.  Like I have said in previous posts, I’m really trying to find a negative or a downside to AI but still have yet to find one worth noting.  That will be a continuous search for me =)

I enjoyed this class but I’m looking forward to another break from school.  Good luck to everyone!

Chug a Chug

My paper is coming along very nicely.  I’m very appreciative of the feedback that I have receieved on my rough draft.  I kind of wish it was magically perfect but that’s a long shot =)  I’m suffering from “almost to the end” laziness =)  I have to implement all the formatting issues that Kona has mentioned in my forum comments for the rough draft and make sure that it aligns with the APA style.  I’m not so used to APA style but I know that is big in grad school so I will learn as I go along.

I still am looking for sources for my paper too!  The last thing I need to do is work on the powerpoint presentation.  That won’t be worked on until my Final draft is complete.  Only 16 more teaching days left for me =)  I’m excited!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The end is in sight!!

At this point, I have officially finished a majority of my rough draft for this class.  I just discussed with Prof. Bullock about my meeting the requirements of the project.  She gave me great feedback and it really made me feel happy and relieved.  I was really struggling with the Results and Discussion section because it was a different way of thinking.  I really had to dig deep into thoughts and imagine what the evaluation would be like as if I were really doing it.  I almost think it would have been easier if I just could have just done the evaluation and write about everything that happened and occurred.  Thus, it took me a long time to get my draft completed.  Also, I’m really glad Prof. helped me out and reminded me about having references.  I really want to be successful on this project!

Now, all I have left to do is find some references and write a conclusion section for the project.  I’m going to try and get that done soon so I can post a good complete draft next week in the forum.  Then, over break I’ll start working on my powerpoint.  I’m feeling very good though, better than I’ve felt about this project in the last two weeks =)

No Christmas music til Thanksgiving

This course is not what I expected.  I remember thinking it was about how to assess different learning technologies and how to use different technologies in the classroom.  However, as we went through the course and I learned about evaluation and AI, I am very thankful to have learned what I did.  I am especially fond of AI and cannot wait to continue to use it beyond this class.  I really think it is such an effective way to evaluate and improve programs and organizations.

I kind of wish we had to actually complete the evaluation.  I know we couldn’t because of the IRB but it almost seems harder trying to predict and play around with hypothetical results.  Since our district is evaluating this curriculum it kind of will come into play because we need to see if we are going to implement this curriculum or not.

In terms of the final project, I am going to compile all that is complete and has been submitted.  Then, I will be making and corrections as I see necessary.  I appreciate the samples that were provided; they proved to be quite helpful.  Once I get the big picture put together, I am going to work on the results section and make my powerpoint.