This past eight weeks have been very challenging. There have been so many things to learn and do. I must say, my anxiety level was on the rise quiet often and I was forced out of my comfort zone a few times. I also must admit, there were some times when I questioned why I was doing this class. I had to adapt to new ideas and new ways of doing something. There were times when I felt like I could not do some of the activities. I stopped to think about it one day. I thought about how some of my students must feel when they are being challenged and taken out of their comfort zone. I encourage them to continue on and to try their best. What made me any different from them. If they could adapt and complete the tasks that made them feel uncomfortable, then I also needed to.
I realized how fun and interesting technology could be after the work I did with Picasa. I learned how to download music and put it into my movie presentation. I also enjoyed the digital story telling. I felt like this was something was enjoyable, something that I could also use with my kindergarten students. I wanted to know how to set up my own blog, this class, too, made me accomplish that goal as well.
I have used these different tools of technology and have come to enjoy them and want to use them again. I have come up with ways that I could incorporate them into my classroom. I felt that I was using some technology in my classroom, but the experiences I can provide them as a result of this class are spectacular. I view myself as only beginning my journey into incorporating technology into my classroom and my students will get so much from these experiences. I am thankful for hanging with this class and persevering through the course and being taken out of my comfort zone. I will be a better teacher as a result. I will also be advocate for technology in the classroom. I will advocate for the 21st century literacy skills in our classrooms. I have only just begun.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Change is Hard!
As we have read this week, it is very difficult to change. You have to be on board with the change to feel somewhat comfortable. Change is hard for everyone. It is so easy to continue on with what you know or are comfortable with. Nobody wants to have to take risks and be taken out of their comfort zone, but that is a requirement of change.
I have recently gone through an organizational change within my school. We had a change of administration after 8 years with the previous administrator. This was very difficult. It caused a lot of anxiety and feelings of uncertainty. We were used to how things operated. The expectations were set. We all worked very hard to accomplish our goals and expectations. We had an open communication between staff and administration. Our school was staff run through our SITE team, made up of staff representatives from all grade levels. We wrote SMART Goals and implemented them. We collected data and used the data to drive our day to day instruction as well as to be sure we were on target with our SMART Goals. Our school had won a Maryland State Literacy award for our achievements in the way we were teaching our students to read. We felt like our school was on top and we as a whole staff worked hard to get us there under the guidance of our administrator.
When our new administrator arrived, we were fearful of change. Most of us tried to take a positive approach to the change that was beginning to happen, but there was a lot of apprehension. Our school, after all was on top and was a model school. What was going to happen now? Would we continue on the path we were on or would the new administration have a new vision with new goals and expectations?
As expected, our anxiety was not unfounded. Change was occurring rapidly. Understandably, the new administration wanted to make the school vision her own. We were about to make some changes and the resistance was building. It was a very emotional time and a very uncertain time of what the expectations were. We didn't feel communication was helping to clarify our function or roles and the new expectations being set. We all knew we needed to comply and accept the changes, but it was hard!
We are all learning how to work together and to meet the expectations required of us now. It is a learning process and a time for having to collaborate with others to build an understanding of the expectations. Yes, it is hard indeed, but through active learning and collaboration, we will all be able to adapt, take the risks as necessary, and we will become an effective staff who are back on top again.
I have recently gone through an organizational change within my school. We had a change of administration after 8 years with the previous administrator. This was very difficult. It caused a lot of anxiety and feelings of uncertainty. We were used to how things operated. The expectations were set. We all worked very hard to accomplish our goals and expectations. We had an open communication between staff and administration. Our school was staff run through our SITE team, made up of staff representatives from all grade levels. We wrote SMART Goals and implemented them. We collected data and used the data to drive our day to day instruction as well as to be sure we were on target with our SMART Goals. Our school had won a Maryland State Literacy award for our achievements in the way we were teaching our students to read. We felt like our school was on top and we as a whole staff worked hard to get us there under the guidance of our administrator.
When our new administrator arrived, we were fearful of change. Most of us tried to take a positive approach to the change that was beginning to happen, but there was a lot of apprehension. Our school, after all was on top and was a model school. What was going to happen now? Would we continue on the path we were on or would the new administration have a new vision with new goals and expectations?
As expected, our anxiety was not unfounded. Change was occurring rapidly. Understandably, the new administration wanted to make the school vision her own. We were about to make some changes and the resistance was building. It was a very emotional time and a very uncertain time of what the expectations were. We didn't feel communication was helping to clarify our function or roles and the new expectations being set. We all knew we needed to comply and accept the changes, but it was hard!
We are all learning how to work together and to meet the expectations required of us now. It is a learning process and a time for having to collaborate with others to build an understanding of the expectations. Yes, it is hard indeed, but through active learning and collaboration, we will all be able to adapt, take the risks as necessary, and we will become an effective staff who are back on top again.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Reflecting on New Metrics - It is time for Change!
It is time for a change! I have said this for a long time. How many times have we, as teachers, heard that learning must be authentic? Every year, our schools go into testing mode. We spend so much time preparing for the test then taking the test. How much authentic learning has taken place? How many high level critical skills have been taught or used? It is time for change.
We need to embed the 21st century skills into our daily curriculum and teach our students the higher level, critical thinking skills all through the year along with our core standards. Memorizing alone does not work. Not to mention, is boring. Students need to have the hands on approach. They need to be motivated to learn. Having students use their creativity along collaborating and communicating with others motivates them. They in develop problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, become self-directed and in turn become accountable for their learning.
If students are motivated and enjoy what they are learning, students are going to achieve excellence. We read this in our article, 21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?, where Ms.Salpeter highlighted a number of schools that were taking these kinds of approaches, getting students motivated through authentic learning and their test scores were consistent or improving. This was proof that authentic learning was working.
First we start by how we are teaching and we change how we are assessing. I liked how Ken Kay said it, "We have moral responsibility of making sure all children are able to master these skills in the safety net of our classrooms. We need to help them use the tools to be competitive and collaborative so they can compete with global markets". This has a been an ongoing theme throughout this course and will continue to be until all schools, educators, administrators and school board members get the message. It is time for change!
We need to embed the 21st century skills into our daily curriculum and teach our students the higher level, critical thinking skills all through the year along with our core standards. Memorizing alone does not work. Not to mention, is boring. Students need to have the hands on approach. They need to be motivated to learn. Having students use their creativity along collaborating and communicating with others motivates them. They in develop problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, become self-directed and in turn become accountable for their learning.
If students are motivated and enjoy what they are learning, students are going to achieve excellence. We read this in our article, 21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?, where Ms.Salpeter highlighted a number of schools that were taking these kinds of approaches, getting students motivated through authentic learning and their test scores were consistent or improving. This was proof that authentic learning was working.
First we start by how we are teaching and we change how we are assessing. I liked how Ken Kay said it, "We have moral responsibility of making sure all children are able to master these skills in the safety net of our classrooms. We need to help them use the tools to be competitive and collaborative so they can compete with global markets". This has a been an ongoing theme throughout this course and will continue to be until all schools, educators, administrators and school board members get the message. It is time for change!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
I Am Moving On
Unfortunately, I never heard back from "Teacher Tom", so I have moved on. I found another blog that had some fantastic Mothers Day ideas. I went ahead and posted on this site instead. This site is comical as well as full of ideas.
.http://www.whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/
.http://www.whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Visiting other Blogs
I found two blogs that I was especially interested in visiting. The first one was "Teacher Tom". He won an award for the "Best Teacher Blog". This blog gave details about his classroom and the students in it. He talked about how they work very hard to build social skills and take on the theme, "We are all in this together." His blog was great with the pictures he provided and the stories he would tell about his classroom. I sent him a message, but have not received a response back as of this point. I told Tom that I was very impressed with his approach to building social skills in his preschool. As a kindergarten teacher, I would cherish having children coming to my classroom, having those social skills taught in this way.
http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/.
The second blog that I found very interesting to me was "Chalk Talk". This blog provided lots of ideas to use in my kindergarten classroom. I especially like the resource she used on her blog to teacher about animals and their habitats. I replied back to her and told her, this is what I would want to see and know. She provided a great resource. Unfortunately, I am still waiting on a response.
http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/
For this class, I have posted on Lauren's, Nina's and Crystal's blogs.
http://kindereagles.blogspot.com/
http://capuanoland.blogspot.com/
http://teachingfirstgrade.blogspot.com/
http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/.
The second blog that I found very interesting to me was "Chalk Talk". This blog provided lots of ideas to use in my kindergarten classroom. I especially like the resource she used on her blog to teacher about animals and their habitats. I replied back to her and told her, this is what I would want to see and know. She provided a great resource. Unfortunately, I am still waiting on a response.
http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/
For this class, I have posted on Lauren's, Nina's and Crystal's blogs.
http://kindereagles.blogspot.com/
http://capuanoland.blogspot.com/
http://teachingfirstgrade.blogspot.com/
Risk Taking
As we have learned, it is important to become a risk taker. Risk taking is a 21st century skill. Our students are going to need to learn how to become risk takers as they learn these skills and to be successful in this new time of technology. I have been thinking about how much risk taking I have had to take during this course. I have had to step outside my comfort zone many times to accomplish what I have in this class. I have decided it is time to take another risk. My students have enjoyed the use of technology in our classroom, so I was trying to decide what we could try next. It then hit me! Following spring break, we will be working on an "All About" writing assignment. We are going to learn all about frogs and write and "All About Frogs" book. I enjoyed our digital storytelling assignment so much, why not take our "All About" writing project one step more and make it into a digital story. This would be a great way to expose my students to a new skill and they would enjoy seeing their work in a different way. I am so excited to try this!
WOW, How Far I Have Come
As I have reflected back on what I have learned over the past several weeks, I have done things that I never dreamed I would do. I began as a digital immigrant who knew enough to get by. However, this digital immigrant has learned so much more. I have learned why I am a digital immigrant and what makes a person a digital native. I have a better understanding of why my own kids can pick up any kind of technology and run with it and I am left sitting in the dust. Even my two year old granddaughter can get on the computer and "type", she can watch videos and understand how to load her DVD's and start her movies independently, and the shocking part, she picks up cell phones to go through the motions of texting and knows how to get to the pictures that she wants to see. How amazing! She is living proof that the knowing and understanding the 21st century skills are going to be important in life and that we as educators have be assigned with extraordinary tasks to be sure these students are instructed accordingly to build a good understanding. In order for us to do this, we need to have a good, strong understanding of 21st century skills. We have to be adaptable to change and we have to be able to take risks. We have to understand that is okay to fail. I always felt I could adapt to change, but risk taking was not one of my strong points and failing, that was never okay for me.
I have made the realization that I use more technology in my classroom than I ever thought. I utilize the web, I have used Google maps, I have used Audacity, as well as a document camera, powerpoints, a digital camera and many more technology tools. This class has introduced me to so many more ways of using technology in my classroom. I was so excited to make my movie and my digital storytelling piece and will use them again!
I have made the realization that I use more technology in my classroom than I ever thought. I utilize the web, I have used Google maps, I have used Audacity, as well as a document camera, powerpoints, a digital camera and many more technology tools. This class has introduced me to so many more ways of using technology in my classroom. I was so excited to make my movie and my digital storytelling piece and will use them again!
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