Final Tech. in Ed. Project

All of my project is in my DropBox but here are some links. 
MyRubric
StoryBird
The rest is on DropBox =) 

End of the Semester Reflection

What have you learned regarding technology in education this semester?  
I learned the importance of incorporating the right kind of tech in my future classes. There are a lot of things I want to replicate also many I want to improve on. I will use a lot of the lesson plan ideas I made for this class as well as the lessons that others made. 

 What progress have you made on the NETS for Teachers that you focused on this semester? 
I focused on these NETS:
 Student NETS
 5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
Teacher NETS 
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S

 I have learned to help students have a global world view and incorporate that into lessons. Students need to understand why they are learning what they're learning.

week 14 Reflection

In my Instructional Design class Camille did a lesson plan using her Gumball Math SmartBoard presentation. It was great. We were very engaged with her game and participating with the lesson. Her use of technology engaged her students. In the future I want to make SmartBoard presentation to engage my students. 

week 14 Response

Before Class:  Do research regarding the future of education and technology.  Post an entry regarding what you found.  Be ready to share in class.
link
Distance education is a major advancement in Education. Technology makes globalization possible. We can attend a school across the country now through the internet. This is the future of Education. This article in the Economist references the term "digital natives" and how student's "tool kit" now has smart phones, laptops, and ipads rather than paper and pen. I am sure that we will go paperless in the very near future.  

Week 13 Reflection

This week was shortened by our Thanksgiving festivities but I saw, in my Structures of English class, technology used very effectively. My professor posted a worksheet on the board for us to all read aloud together. It was a fun little poem to help us understand pronouns. Students gave their full attention and really wrapped their heads around Pronouns! Technology for the win.

Week 13 Response

Before Class:  Create an entry with a list of the features of Word, Excel & PowerPoint  that you use on a regular basis.  List 3 projects that you could have your students do to learn or use Word, Excel or PowerPoint

I use word almost daily. It is used to write papers for my classes mostly. The double space feature and the font, type size, and color features are used a lot. 
I never use Excel and I'm not really sure of how to use it...
PowerPoint is used occasionally. I'm not very good at using this either but I use the pre-made templates and move the text box around often. I have to change the font size a lot through the making of a PowerPoint presentation.

Word: The students would write a journal entry and email it to me.
Excel: The students would tally the amount of times students say "um" during our presentations.
PowerPoint:Students would create a PowerPoint presentation in a group project about their assigned reading.
 

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week 12 reflection

These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What?
While I have been working on my instructional plans for my classes I have been endeavoring to incorporate technology into these plans. I was super excited about the application of what I've been learning in this class. The Prezi and StoryBird presentations are my favorite. I am excited to use them in my future classrooms. 

week 12 response

Before Class:  Find one article written by Dr. Robert Marzano related to technology in education.  Write a blog post about the article and one new thing you learned about tech in ed.  Also include one piece of helpful information about applying tech to your future teaching

 http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Using-Games-to-Enhance-Student-Achievement.aspx

In Dr. Marzano's article he stresses the importance of using games for student's learning. He goes on to talk about his experience with education. He places high value on using games to teach. I appreciate his going on to explain how to best use the games to teach. 

Use inconsequential competition
Target essential academic content
Debrief the game
Have students revise their notes
 These specific notes are very helpful for practical application for teaching. I will strive to use these in the future.
   

Week 11 response

Before Class: Spend time reading an educational blog.  Add a comment to one of the entries.  Add an entry on your blog with a link to the blog entry where you added a comment.  What did you learn from the blog and how did your comment contribute to the community of learners?

http://guerrillaseason2008.blogspot.com/2008/04/final-projects.html 

I commented on this blog. Mr. Langhorst has to approve it before it can be seen though. 

His blog is very helpful to me because I got to see student's using technology in their project. Very cool.

reflection 10

In my classes here at Northwest there are many teachers who use technology well. But there are some who frequently misuse it. In one of my classes my teacher uses power points but the slides are always too wordy, too busy, and unattractive. Not only are the power points difficult to follow but the professor doesn't post them on discovery for further examination. This makes learning difficult.
In my future classes I want to make class content accessible to my students as well as make my power points both readable and attractive.

Week 10 response

After Class:  Read an article related to Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Link it to your blog.  Write a post addressing the links you see between levels of Bloom’s and technology integration.

http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9905/blue_1.htm 

Lee's article not only explains Bloom's Taxonomy but also talks about its use in the classroom. Student's learning can be showcased through technology. Lee's main concern is to create a student centered classroom where students can go through Blooms Domains: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor. 
I think that technology is easy to use for Affective because if a student has a blog where they can talk about how they are feeling about the class and where they are struggling then they have an outlet. Cognitive growth with technology is about challenging students. Psychomotor could be watching a video with the class that involves movement to teach the students.  

Tech. Project

week 9 reflection

This week in my Instructional design class we have been working on lesson plans and I am going to use School House Rock grammar videos to help my students understand grammar better. What I am concerned about is if students will check out and disengage because there's a video.

week 9 response

I loved what Spankle said, "“picture is worth a thousand words” and therefore, video —or a thousand pictures— is worth so much more." It makes so much sense. I definitely will incorperate video into my teaching but I would like to point out the idealism in his blog. He says we can video every thing and email the video of class to parents and to grandma and tells a story of the whole family watching a video of a child solving a math problem. In my experience even the most devoted and loving parents don't have time to watch the child's entire day of classes when they get home from school. We shouldn't gorge ourselves on tech. because its available. We should use it in moderation and tastefully. Our culture is to record everything and post all information. This can be harmful so the tech. we use should be thoughtfully considered. 

Reflection #6

These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What?
In talking with my fellow students I got to thinking about being a technology native or immigrant in terms of turning in assignments. I like to turn in assignments in by paper and not online. My fellow classmate Joe Spychalski agrees with me. I think that my generation prefer not to do things digitally and I find it interesting. I will work on becoming more comfortable with turning things in digitally.

Reflection #5

These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What?
When talking with my little sister about the technology in her classroom I found out they use an ActiveBoard not a SMARTBoard. This made me concerned because we only have learned how to use the SMARTBoard in this classroom. I'm hoping that having learned how to use some tech it will translate to other tech.

Reflection #4

These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What?
In my Instructional Design class here at NU we have been talking about assessment, particularly student voice and the importance of it. It is pivotal to figuring out what students know and are struggling with in order to best teach them. When I teach I will implement technology but assessing student voice through a class blog.

Glog!

week 8

In an Elementary School setting this game could be played to help children learn how to rhyme. This kid friendly PBS site would be good for a free time exercise where the children are free to work on areas they are struggling with in reading. 
pbs kids reading game

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week 7

Before Class:   Spend some time looking at one or more of the blogs listed under the heading of “Blogs for Educators” on the Class Blog.  What interesting or innovative ideas did you find about tech related to math. 

Week 6

Using the information I learned from this article I would probably implement the first suggestion, student blogs for a science class room. The students would be assigned to post what they learned in class on their blogs as well as questions they have. These blogs would not be shared with other students to safeguard students from feeling the pressure to know everything.
The 4th idea occurred to me while reading the article. My science class might also look at the Wikipedia article about the subject we would be learning in class. Before hand I would have edited it to have blanks that the students would be asked to fill in as a check for understanding.
I love the 3rd idea, podcast, because it would be a great resource to kids who are sick or who's family vacations go long. Its used at the college level and I don't see why not in the secondary.
There were a ton of great ideas that this article presented that will prove useful as a teacher.

Week 5

Before Class:  Use the Internet to find some information regarding the Promethean ActivBoard and its impact on learning in the classroom.  Provide a link to the information you found and summarize what you learned.  Include at least one question you have about the ActivBoard and be ready to ask the questions during the classroom visit.

http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.3507

This website claims that the ActivBoard brings the classroom alive and keeps students engages.

Are students really undistractible if the ActivBoard is being used?

Assignment 2

Create a post called “Assignment 2” before the class presentation and include the following: (25 pts)

List of SMART Board features you will use during your presentation. (moves, sound, link)

            Animations for parts of slides

            Video Game video

            Highlighter feature

            Pictures

            Writing on board with marker

            Links to Websites      

List the specific NETS standards for Students & Teachers this activity covers (at least one for each) and discuss how this activity meets the standards. 

NETS for Students

1.      Creativity and Innovation

c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.

This lesson teaches appocolypic theamed poetry which simulates critical thinking about the subject matter.

2.      Communication and Collaboration

b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

This lesson requires student involvement and understanding with and of the SMART Board to communicate ideas.

3.      Research and Information fluency

a. plan strategies to guide inquiry.

Students will have access to power point and can click on the web links for further investigation into author and themes.

4.      Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making

c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

Students research information on author and themes addressed in class

5.      Digital Citizenship

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

Students use computers individually and participate by using the SMART Board to share ideas.

6.      Technology Operations and Concepts

a. understand and use technology systems.
Students participate in SMART Board operations and use individual computers.

NETS for Teachers

1.       Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.

In this lesson students are introduced to the issue of humans dying but technology living on. Students brain storm possible solutions.

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

b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

Teacher has student use computers to do individual research.

3.       Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

a. demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.

Teacher fluently uses SMART Board.

4.       Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

a. advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

Teacher does not disrespect copyright for sources.

5.       Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

c. evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.

Teacher is taking this course to better her understanding of Tech.

EALR 1 – Integration

Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems.

1.2: Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Discuss how an interactive white board could improve student learning in your future classroom.

Using the interactive white board allows students to participate in active learning through the use of technology.Students would be able to share their ideas and research into new ideas easily. Also it is important for students to be up to date on technology because the World is changing very fast; touch screens are a part of everyday life. Having access to an interactive white board could prepare them for future technological advances.

    

Demographic write-up Redone.

Classroom Demographics

Students:

Middle School: 4 1 hour long blocks each day. Between 30-35 students in each class. 1:1 laptop to student ratio, Smartboard, document camera.

Classroom Demographics
Student Class Enrollment	Students: 33 Males:  17      Females: 16
Grade Level(s) in Your Class	7th grade
Subject(s) Taught	Reading & Writing
Parent Support	The classroom as 3 parent volunteers. They come into the classroom during the work time and help students. One student’s parent has a doctorate in American Literature and is willing to come in and give a presentation for the Huckleberry Fin. Most of the parents are highly educated (went to college) and all graduated from high school. They are enthusiastic about their student’s success.
Available Technology	·   1 to 1 laptop to student ratio           · 1 document camera          ·  1 SMART Board
Classroom  Mobility *your classroom	0% of student turnover within the school year
Race/Ethnicity *your classroom	Race/Ethnicity (October 2010) American Indian/Alaskan Native 1 Asian 5 Pacific Islander 1 Asian/Pacific Islander 5 Black 1 Hispanic 3 White 14 Two or More Races 3
Spoken Languages *your classroom	96% English as a first language  2% Fluent in English as a second language  1% English-language learner
Identified Special Student Needs *your classroom	4 Attention Deficit Disorder (diagnosed) 2 gifted students 6 students with vision impairments
School/Community Demographics:
School Location	Suburban
School Socio-Economic Status	14 % of free and reduced lunch
Population	May 2011 Student Count 558
Describe relevant aspects of your School & Community that influence and/or impact teaching & learning. (Examples: curriculum, reform models, school focus, community partnerships, community support level)	KJH is in a fairly efluent suburban neighborhood. The community ranges from upper to middle class. There are a lot of Microsoft employees living in the area. However 14% of the school is on Free or Reduced lunch. This class has one student volunteer from Northwest University as a classroom aid.  Lake Washington School District does not participate in any tracking programs. Microsoft has donated Word programs to the entirety of the school’s computers. Nintendo also has been a benefactor of our school by developing educational games for the students to use on school computers. Starbucks donates school supplies. Our after school study sessions have college student volunteers who help struggling students. KJH offers for future student teaching opportunities in exchange for the mentorship in this program. Local actor Wayed Goodall has done a theatrical reading for the classes. Kirkland Junior High is located in downtown Kirkland’s residential area. There are many cross walks in down town Kirkland but the school is somewhat lacking in sidewalks. KJH has a variety of sports facilities, these include a baseball, soccer, and a lacrosse field. The gym is used for our basketball games and P.E. classes. The district has passed levees with support from the community for these facilities.
Technology Standards	7th Grade EALR 1 – Integration Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems. Components 1.1: Innovate: Demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge and develop innovative products and processes using technology. 1.2: Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. 1.3: Investigate and Think Critically: Research, manage and evaluate information and solve problems using digital tools and resources. EALR 2 – Digital Citizenship Students demonstrate a clear understanding of technology systems and operations and practice safe, legal and ethical behavior. Components 2.1: Practice Safety: Practice safe, legal and ethical behavior in the use of information and technology. 2.2: Operate Systems: Understand technology systems and use hardware and networks to support learning. 2.3: Select and Use Applications: Use productivity tools and common applications effectively and constructively. 2.4: Adapt to Change (Technology Fluency): Transfer current knowledge to new and emerging technologies. (Grades 6-12 only)

*School demographics data was found off the OSPI State Report Card from a school in the area I grew up in. All EALRs and GLEs were copied from the OSPI website. All other data is fictionalized.*

Assignment #1 – Mock school demographics write up (including tech) Due Date:  9/13 Points:  50
Create a blog entry called “Demographics write-up” and include the following:
Four paragraphs about each of the following areas:  1.  Classroom demographics:  students, parent support, and available tech (15 pts)
2.  School demographics: location, population, services and support (10 pts)
3.  Community demographics:  support of students and tech, volunteers, financial support. (10pts)
4.  Tech Standards for your grade level (10 pts)
EXCELLENT POINTS: 5

Reflection 3

6 Reflective or Informative Entries regarding technology and/or teaching labeled “Reflection #1 - #6”.  These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What? (5 pts each)  

I am T.A.ing for my Structures of English class and I learned how to use the document camera. I had to figure it out all on my own and to my surprise it wasn't that difficult to figure out. This is exciting for me because now I know how to use it and have confidence to figure out other Tech.

Reflection 2

6 Reflective or Informative Entries regarding technology and/or teaching labeled “Reflection #1 - #6”.  These can be observations from a visit to a classroom, from NU classes, or reflections on something related to technology & education. Each entry should answer these questions: What? So What? Now What? (5 pts each)  

I have been so frustrated in a few of my classes because of teachers who don't use  technology in their classrooms to engage the students with the material.  I wish that we could have a seminar for NU for our professors to learn how to use tech. well. It would really help students to learn better.

Week 4

What did you learn about the SMART Board this week?    
 I have learned how to navigate SMART Board this week. I learned how easy it is to download a lesson and tweak it to meet your needs.
What questions do you still have about using an interactive white board?
I have yet to figure out a lot about SMART Boards. I don't know how to turn it on and I haven't calibrated it before. 

Week 3

Prensky's main message of this article is clearly stated in the first paragraph. Students have changed.
He is not just talking about a physical change but a mental shift. They "think and process information fundamentally differently" because of their lifelong exposure to technology. It is fascinating that my Brain has formed differently physically then my mother's because of technology. I am a Digital Native and my mother and my grandmother are Digital Immigrants. My mother has adapted very well to technology, such as Facebook, while my grandmother struggles greatly to post a new profile picture. Interestingly enough I have what Prensky calls an accent because I prefer to have things printed to reading them off a screen but I do know how to do things such as email urls. I feel stuck between native and immigrant because I do blame teachers for not holding my attention in class if they are "boring" but I can still learn from these immigrant teachers. So I wonder what kind of teacher I will come off as to my students.

Classroom demographics:

Assignment #1 – Mock school demographics write up (including tech) Due Date:  9/13 Points:  50
Create a blog entry called “Demographics write-up” and include the following:
Four paragraphs about each of the following areas:  1.  Classroom demographics:  students, parent support, and available tech (15 pts)
2.  School demographics: location, population, services and support (10 pts)
3.  Community demographics:  support of students and tech, volunteers, financial support. (10pts)
4.  Tech Standards for your grade level (10 pts)
EXCELLENT POINTS: 5

1)      Classroom demographics:  (a) students, (b) parent support, and (c) available tech

a)      This year in my 7^th grade English classroom I have 33 students. 17 are boys and 16 of them are girls. My students are very passionate about recycling resulting in an over flow of the recycling bin. Students also, in an attempt to live greenly, bring their own reusable water bottles to class.  
All of my students are proficient readers. Their understanding of English grammar is however sadly lacking. They enjoy reading fictional works but struggle with non-fiction works. Most students’ handwriting is nearly eligible. Often times student’s spell words incorrectly and have to look up that misspelled word in the dictionary.

b)       I am very blessed this year to have a hand full of parent volunteers. They come into the classroom during the work time and help student’s when they get stuck. Luckily one of the student’s parents has a doctorate in American Literature and is willing to come in and give a presentation for the Huckleberry Fin. Most of the parents are highly educated (went to college) and all graduated from high school. They are enthusiastic about their student’s success.

c)      Because my students’ parents are well off financially all my students own a laptop. This makes work time substantially easier because my students can work on their papers in class. I am blessed with a Smartboard which allows for students to diagram sentences in class. Also we have document camera which I have a good working knowledge of which allows students to bring up books or papers and they are on the screen.

2)      School demographics: location, population, services and support

a)      Kirkland Junior High is located in downtown Kirkland’s residential area. We have wonderful cross walks but are somewhat lacking in sidewalks in some areas. The sports facilities are wonderful. We have a baseball, soccer, and lacrosse field. The gym is used for our basketball games and P.E. classes.

b)      Population: Students here at Kirkland Junior High are fairly diverse. In a given classroom there are between 30-35 students. Typically the gender ratios are 1:1 male female but this past year we had 48 more boys than girls. We have a variety of ethnic groups here:

·         American Indian/Alaskan Native 4. 0.7%

·         Asian 49. 9.0%

·         Pacific Islander 4. 0.7%

·         Asian/Pacific Islander 53. 9.7%

·         Black 10. 1.8%

·         Hispanic 46. 8.4%

·         White 402. 73.5%

·         Two or More Races 32. 5.9%

c)      We have Free or Reduced lunch programs here but they aren’t used by many students given the fact that we have a 1:1 ratio of laptops to students in the classroom.

d)     The school has a lot of support by the community. We’ve passed many bills to get funding to our school. We also are blessed to be located in the same town as Microsoft, who generously donated Word programs to the entirety of the school’s computers. Nintendo also has been a benefactor of our school by developing educational games for the students to use on school computers. Starbucks donates school supplies and has hired some of the older students for their first jobs.

3)      Community demographics:  support of students and tech, volunteers, financial support.

a)      Parents of students are very involved but there are a few students who’s parents both work and thus need a little extra help. Our after school study sessions have wonderful college student volunteers who help struggling students. We team up with the volunteer’s schools for future student teaching opportunities in exchange for the mentorship in this program. Many teachers also invest in their students outside of class by attending sports activities as well as academic help. Every student has his/her teacher’s school email and can ask questions if need be.
As mentioned before we have a lot of support from technology in our school. Our students love the copious use of technology in the classroom. Through the use of our smart board and student’s cellphones we have been able to involve students in class participation like never before. Students can text in their answers an in anonymously. This provides a safe environment to ask questions and not feel singled out.

b)      Our technology department has a few Apple employees who volunteer and help trouble shoot. The full time employee we have is constantly up to date with upcoming software. He tries to keep us as up to date as possible but doesn’t exceed our budget.

c)      Financially we are one of the few school that is very stable. Due to our supportive community and savvy budget makers we do well. We could use more money to expand our parking lot. It is not sufficient parking. Also we would like to build a third floor because we are growing to the point of over population.

4.  Tech Standards for your grade level: At the 6^th-8^th grade level the Technology Standards are as follows on the OSPI website: http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/Standards/TechStandards.aspx .

EALR 1 – Integration Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems. Components 1.1: Innovate: Demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge and develop innovative products and processes using technology. 1.2: Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. 1.3: Investigate and Think Critically: Research, manage and evaluate information and solve problems using digital tools and resources.

EALR 2 – Digital Citizenship Students demonstrate a clear understanding of technology systems and operations and practice safe, legal and ethical behavior. Components 2.1: Practice Safety: Practice safe, legal and ethical behavior in the use of information and technology. 2.2: Operate Systems: Understand technology systems and use hardware and networks to support learning. 2.3: Select and Use Applications: Use productivity tools and common applications effectively and constructively. 2.4: Adapt to Change (Technology Fluency): Transfer current knowledge to new and emerging technologies. (Grades 6-12 only)