Wiki Reflection

http://jeffersenglishwiki.wikispaces.com/

I would like to incorporate this wiki into my future classroom. I would modify the wiki to the grade level and exact subject I will be teaching. For example, if I am teaching a seventh grade language arts class, the wiki would include links to support the stories and novels that we are reading as well as scaffolds for homework, projects and classwork. If I am teaching a twelfth grade AP Contemporary Lit class, the scaffolds would be more like a syllabus and links to outside research materials. I would like to spend more time working on the layout and look of the wiki as well, to make it as appealing and simple as possible.
With students creating a wiki, this would need to be a long-term project. It would be an excellent and authentic learning experience, but because of the time involved, it would need to spread out over time, with benchmarks to ensure that students are making appropriate practice. This would be a good activity to assess for mastery over a quarter or half-year.
My view of instructional technology has completely changed over the semester. Prior to this class, I had used PowerPoint a few times for presentations, but had never used a wiki or a blog, and had not attempted to create a wiki, website, movie and podcast. Now I feel comfortable taking that knowledge into the classroom and working on some of these projects with my students. Instructional technology can be scaffolded to support learner differences, it can be used collaboratively, for research, for assessments, for projects and for presentations. The possibilities are many and the benefits for the classroom are obvious to me. I will be incorporating everything that I have learned into my future classroom.
I have created a website, a wiki, a screencast, an internet workshop, a movie and a podcast. All of the projects were appropriate for the assignments. I wish, in some cases, that I had more time to polish my projects. The benefit of the technology is that one can return time and again to tweak the projects. In the case of the wiki and the website, these projects are now tools for the classroom that I will keep with me and share with my students. To that end, the creations go on and the quality will be checked and improved upon going forward. I am confident that as my abilities increase even more with the use and implementation of these tools that the quality will be even better.
Surprisingly, my comfort level with technology is much higher than it was when I began this course. I cannot believe that things that I had created in the short time. It makes me confident that I can handle and employ new technologies that will benefit my students and enhance my instruction.

Making and Editing Internet Privacy Video

I could do the video all over again, I would shoot more footage so that I had more of the raw footage to work with. There were scenes that I would have liked to been able to work with more, but they were too short. Also, transition length was related to clip length, so having some short clips was a hindrance and could have been avoided with extra footage. I showed this video to as many people as I could convince to watch it, so that I could get a lot of feedback. They all said that they liked it, but that some transitions were choppy, which I realized.
My reaction to the video recording and editing process is positive. The colleagues that I filmed with were very positive and we had an easy time coming up with a script and executing what we wanted to do. The editing process had a really long learning curve, but now that I have some mastery of the imovies, I would use it again. I ran into some problems when I was trying to move the audio that was recorded with the original movie and place it with another clip. I know that we did it in class but I was unable to figure that out, and could not find any tips online that helped.
I would definitely have students create movies in a future classroom. There is a large time component as well as a learning curve, so the movie project would have to be a long-term project, scaffolded with benchmarks to ensure mastery. I think creating a PSA or recording a role playing exercise would be good collaborative and creative work that would engage students and provide opportunities for differentiated instruction.
As I had never edited a movie before, I learned about the editing process and how it requires patience and time. I like that I feel confident about making and editing a movie now that I have gone through the process and I would feel comfortable explaining and coaching my students through the process as well.

I respond to the idea of the ten big shifts in education with enthusiasm. I originally wrote tempered enthusiasm, but amended it because although I am aware of the risks of open learning, there is so much content and such varied tools that strict enthusiasm is my gut reaction.
Students have access to infinite resources from which to gather information. This access allows each student a unique learning experience where he is constructing knowledge. Instead of using the same textbook, each student can access a unique primary source. Richardson (2010) also sees the teachers job to “find biochemists, scholars of Faulkner, and Civil War reenactors to bring into the classroom” (p. 150). These real sources will provide a genuine learning experience that could not be duplicated with a watered-down textbook. This will be the easier aspect of the big ten shifts to incorporate into my classroom. Providing authentic teachers and authentic materials from which to learn will wholly enrich the learning experience.
Students can work collaboratively with their teachers, fellow students and really, anyone! Finally, students can reach authentic audiences for their work, to receive germane and valid feedback. In the same way that students can learn from primary source teachers and materials, students can receive real feedback from audiences that specialize in the work they are creating. These artifacts “can have real purpose and meaning for the audience that reads and consumes it. [It] requires us to think about what we ask our students to produce, not as something ‘finished’ but as something to be added to and refined by those outside the classroom who may interact with it” (Richardson, 2010, p. 151). By providing genuine feedback from experts, we can inspire students to consider their work in new ways, not as assignments, but as collaborative processes that live outside of the classroom.
A harder shift to integrate into the classroom is the concept of know “where” learning. While open resources provide students with broad and deep access to infinite information sources, open resources also provide students with some easy access to knowledge that they have not constructed for themselves. Richardson (2010) sees a benefit in the fact that “factual answers are only a few clicks away” (p.151). This is great for research, but less so for information that students will need to develop for themselves. There are some skills that’s students will need to have in order to function, skills that will be needed when they do not have immediate access to online information. Students need to understand math concepts in order to be able to perform higher math. The internet may provide a quick and easy answer, but the student has not accomplished the task herself, she has just located the answer. So, while quick access to information is handy, it must be handled judiciously to ensure that students are using it for learning, not for answers.

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other

Powerful Tools for the Classroom. Thousand Oaks: Corwin

Week 5 Theory to Practice

If students are cared about and that care is nurtured and attended to, and students return the relatedness of care to their teachers, then readiness to learn and higher understanding can take place because a pedagogy of care breaks down barriers to learning. Ok, so this is all well and good in the ideal, but what does it look like in the classroom? As an educator I believe in the power of the pedagogy of care and I will attempt to develop caring, nurturing relationships with each of my students. To begin the year, I will first learn their names as soon as possible and address then by name in a greeting as they enter the room.
Secondly, the first homework assignment that I give will be a survey for the students to fill out about favorites, some “would you rathers” and other questions that will help me ascertain some of their interests, maybe some passions and hopefully provide some insight into who they are.
Thirdly, I will have the students work on an “About Me” poem that delves into aspects of Me-ness like ethnicity, culture, background, musical interests, hobbies, sports, and anything else that makes me, me.
More generally, I will be open about myself, I will create an About Me poem to allow students a glimpse of who I am. I have a bio page on my website and I will direct students to that. I will make myself available for help when I have free periods and at scheduled times after school. I will attend their sporting, music, drama and other extra-curricular events. I will teach with humor, humility and the realization that the students are also teachers. I will scaffold the learning by providing tolls for reading and writing, like grammar rules, rubrics, checklists and graphic organizers. I will also scaffold understanding from knowledge to understanding, synthesis, empathy and analysis. This can be accomplished by working through Bloom’s Taxonomy, beginning with knowledge questions about a text and loving upward, encouraging the students to stretch.
I will begin each week with a Philosopher’s Café where the discussion, starting with an inquiry about the text under consideration, can go any where that the students want to take it.
Further, that this care is not passive in the giving or the taking means that both sides assume a responsibility to the ongoing attention of the relationship, which makes each accountable to the other and allows for the individualized understanding of the student. This means, I will offer real, constructive feedback, not just final grades. I will encourage revision and rewriting until the final product is excellent. I will tell the students if I do not know he answer, then I will find out the answer and get back to the students
Finally, I will embrace teachable moments that may appear disguised as interruptions. These “opportunities” for unplanned instruction are invaluable as they allow students to see your flexibility and ability to teach on the fly.

Website Reflection

I really liked the whole process of designing the website. It was easy to see how beneficial this would be to a teacher and to a classroom. Weebly made the process simple by providing templates and features that are easy to understand and use.
I had a hard time finding links for the literature page that made sense for 9th and 10th graders. But, once I had found web links and Youtube movies, I thought they made a significant difference to the webpage, and were an interesting addition to the novels that the classes would be reading. In the end, I was happy with the overall look and usefulness of the site. It is helpful for both students and parents. Students can access the various links as well as their homework assignments. Both students and parents can use the contact me feature to reach me outside of school hours.
I will definitely use this site in my future classrooms and I am actually excited to do exactly that. I would like to continue building the site so that the site is fully informative for both students and parents. I would include vocabulary lists, additional links, and project and paper rubrics and timelines. I think scaffolding students’ work is very important, and I would have a page with checklists, rubrics, grammar rules, and other useful tools for writing.
When I tested for 508 compliance, I found errors such as low contrast text, low luminosity contrast text, use of color cannot be the single method for indicating important information and images must have sufficient contrast. As these errors all seem to be related to the colors and contrast, I would use designations other than color to indicate important information, maybe add borders or shading and different font size. Also, I would make sure that the contrasts were stronger and therefore more easily read. Check out my website here: http://jeffersenglish.weebly.com/

Holocaust PowerPoint

This PowerPoint is an introductory lesson for a unit revolving around Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. As the novel is historical fiction and deals with the Holocaust, resistance and what makes people hate other people, the lesson serves to introduce students to concepts in the novel with which they may be unfamiliar. The PowerPoint poses the Essential Question for the unit: How do people discriminate against other people? (How do they decide who is “us” and who is “them”) Why do they do this? Students should be thinking about this question throughout their reading of the novel and reading primary source documents to understand the historical context of the novel. The PowerPoint defines the Holocaust, again because seventh graders may have not been exposed to the topic at all.
The lesson then proceeds to the actors of the Holocaust. At this point we would discuss what it meant to be in any of these roles. Proceeding, we would talk about the historical context of the Holocaust, looking at social, economic, religious and political factors and exploring examples of each. We will look at the location of Denmark on the map (Number the Stars is set in Denmark) and discuss Denmark’s role in WWII and the impact on its citizens.
We will review a timeline of the Holocaust that we will match to the timeline of the book as the novel follows historical events accurately. We will define and discuss resistance, and hear audio and video clips of survivors and resistance fighters. We will discuss implications of the Holocaust today. The students should understand the broad context of the Holocaust as well as understand some of the micro-implications of the Holocaust on individuals. These understandings will inform their reading, comprehension and analysis of the novel.
I used transitions between slides. I tried not to use transitions that we cartoon-like as the tone of the lesson is somber and the material required respectful consideration. I used hyperlinks to connect to two websites that would be invaluable for student research and for deeper understanding, especially of the Holocaust’s impact on individuals. The first hand accounts are authentic representations of the history. I used images of children at the camp, a beautiful memorial in Miami and of the Star of David as that became a symbol of “otherness” and was very divisive in and of itself. The only challenge feature that I used was Smart Art graphics to represent the actors. I liked all of the smart art options, but had trouble fitting them to the theme of my presentation. I would probably use these more in a presentation about a simpler topic.
I learned that a PowerPoint can be enhanced by the judicious use of features like transitions and smart art graphics. I have used PowerPoint in the past, but I have not used many features and this is the nicest presentation that I have created and it is due to the advanced features.
A lesson can be enhanced using PowerPoint to view documents, present information in a differentiated manner, and engage visual learners. As well, the teacher can provide instruction while the PowerPoint is running, it is easy to stop and follow a discussion thread or take part in an activity, and then move on when the class is ready.

Online Activities and Social Networking

All teachers should be encouraged to create online activities for their students because this is a way of meeting students where they are. Students are already using the internet for personal interests all the time. As teachers, we can tap into an interest that is already strong, and use that interest to develop engaging lessons. From the experiences of online schools, there is much that can be applied to online activities in the traditional classroom. First, online courses have shown that, “some students feel safer expressing themselves online” (November 2010, p. 88). For students who are not comfortable speaking out in class, an online activity would provide a safe space for speaking their minds. The perceived anonymity of the web and the allowance for time to respond allows students a comfort level to freely express themselves without fear of ridicule from their peers. (November 2010) Second, the online courses serve to provide collaborative learning opportunities. The students feel that, “they are all in it together” (November 2010, p. 89). The students work together in ways that would be more difficult in a face-to-face classroom. Students can be paired up to perform an activity based around the internet; having to work together to negotiate the activity and complete the task. Having to work together to solve a problem informs an atmosphere of cooperation and joint problem-solving that is empowering to the students and to the classroom as a whole.
Twenty first century learning need not be hampered by social networking; teachers do not need to fear that students in the classroom are using social networking sites instead of learning. Instead, teachers can use social networking sites to facilitate learning. Will Richardson (2010) sees social networking sites as the means by which, “we’re willing to share our ideas and resources with the network for its betterment, because we get back just as much if not more” (p.85). I see social networking used in classrooms as a means of collaborative student and teacher space. As we use Facebook to connect with out network of friends, classrooms can use social networking to connect classmates to each other and to their teacher. Richardson (2010) sees this space as stressing, ”cooperation, interactivity, mutual benefit and social engagement” (p. 133). The great thing for students, then, is this space is personalized, published and involves reading, writing, exchanging ideas and sharing thoughts. For students, this covers a great deal of the literacies that we want them to acquire: digital literacy, social literacy, reading and writing literacies, and so on. The vision is that schools will realize that we must capitalize on the technologies that students are already using and that they want to use to enable a comfortable and successful learning environment.

References
November, A. (2010). Empowering Students with Technology.
Thousand Oaks: Corwin
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks:
Corwin