To my MAET classmates,

I cannot believe that we only have one week left together.  I would like to take this opportunity to express how much I have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each of you this summer.  As the three weeks have passed, I have marveled at the fantastic dynamics of our group.  We came to Plymouth representing different lifestyles, interests, experiences, cultures, and expectations, however we all came together as one conglomerate of brilliance.  Each of us bringing our own important element, which I see as the following:

Alfred an easy going roll with the punches kind of a guy, who always has a great story to share.
Ashley has the energy of her fourth graders and loves to learn as much as they do.
Camilla is always thinking of others including those grandchildren she is working hard to be closer to with tech.
Eliza is no bullshitter, just straight up honesty!
Jacquie has the patients and optimism of a saint.  All of us wishing we could take a page out of her book!
Jason, a man who always reminds us to cherish the conveniences of that past and challenges us to think about our futures.
Jon one who makes us listen close for those one liners under his breath.  Their real ZINGGERS!
Johnny is here to keep us chuckling and pick up any song references that I might miss.
Kelley doesn’t let life pass her by and gives the rest of us a run for our money when were hitting the town.
Lauren always has a smile on her face and  is ready to put Eliza in her place!
Liberty brings a refreshing reminder of patriotism and always a lovely complement too!
Rawad a love for ANGEL and reminders for break time.  Always going the extra mile for his angels!
Rehab the workaholic, who has seems to have experienced at least 1,953,839,299 of the 2 billion web pages out there!
Shaza who is thankfully here to remind us that not all tech staff are bad people!

A friend once said to me that she thought of life as a puzzle and that as the years go by you pick up different pieces, some represent people, some represent events, but as you go you add them to your puzzle until it is complete.  I want to thank you all for adding a piece to my puzzle and making my life a little more complete.  I have learned so much from each of you both in the classroom and outside of it.  Thank you all for being you just the way you are!

Please watch my vodcast and then use the rubric to evaluate our job.

Simple Machines Video

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stair_sweeney

I have selected to create a non-linear PowerPoint for use in my English class.  In the past, I have facilitated our grammar lessons as an entire class focused on one topic together and moving at one pace, however as in any classroom my students are at a variety of ranges in their knowledge about the parts of speech, parts of the sentence, phrases, and clauses.  It boggles my mind that in sixth grade I can still have one student asking what a pronoun.  I feel that by creating a unit of STAIR presentations on the different lessons I will be able to allow student to work at a level that will challenge them comfortably.  I will be able to work with small groups independently while other students are moving onto different levels.  I plan to use a formal assessment to conclude each STAIR to see if a student is prepared to move on to a new level or if they will need additional practice in that area.

graphexampls

I have created this piece for use in my science classes.  Prior to 6th grade students have taken data given to them and put it in a graph and have looked at graphs and made data tables, but they have never had to create a data table and then have to graph it.  With this in mind, I wanted a resource that would not only help instruct them on the tools of Excel, but also explain what graphs they should use and when.  Upon working with the data and information provided within the sheet students will discuss and decide which method of recording data and graphing data would be most important to the goals of their scientific investigation.  They would then be able to refer to the document as they created their own original data and graph.

nounsfriends

I will use this PowerPoint to first instruct the class on nouns and the parts of speech that are most closely related to them. Students will then be able to access this file online as they practice using the content that they have been taught. This PowerPoint is setup so that it will first refresh the students of the content and then provide wait time before it gives the examples. This wait time is important to help give students a moment to process the information and begin formulating an example of their own. It is not designed to allow them to click through the content since often students will become “click happy” and not digest the information that is being presented on the page. It is also using short pauses to maintain the interest of the user, so that the student doesn’t have time to loose focus. To also assist in maintaining the children’s focus I did not include graphic images in the PowerPoint. I want them to be associating with the text since that is the medium they will be applying the skills through. If I had a younger group of students this would not be the case, but by sixth grade should be using their text decoding skills instead.

I find this to be a fantastic asset in my classroom for several reasons. Since students realize the resource will be posted online for them to access later, they can focus on participating in the discussion as the content is being delivered instead of busily scribbling down information. It also allows them the independence of answering their own questions instead of waiting on me as the teacher who might be working with another student.

cpmag

We do not have publisher at our school, but I wanted students to report their scientific findings in a realistic way. My goal was for students to create a page to submit for our class Consumer Product Reviews magazine. I however wanted this completed in an reasonable amount of time. The goals of the project did not concern advanced formatting in Word, so I created a template for them. I was even able to include the instructions of what they were to do right in the document, which allowed the students to work with less teacher help. To assess this assignment, I confirmed that the students had used the format correctly and that their data matched what they had sited in their lab findings.

professional-growth-plan

USING TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN EDUCATION

If you reflect upon the definition of technology, it didn’t always mean computers and electronic gagets. Once upon a time, technology in education was transitioning from slate and chalk to lead and paper. As crazy as it may seem, this too could have been a questionable integration. No one likes the idea of paper cuts do they!

In order to use technology to make a difference in education it must be used efficiently. It could very easily be a tool that hinders learning, if students are not properly guided in their use. It seems easy that, “kids like technology, so if you use it in your classroom they will like school and learn more” but this is a dangerous misconception. It is applicable to the interests of the younger generations and very important for building their 21^st Century Learning Skills, but it is only a tool for learning it is not the golden answer. You don’t hand a five year old a pencil and paper and then expect that they will be writing you 5 page paper on elephants. Just as you need a skilled individual teaching students the art of writing, you must have a skilled individual teaching students the art of technology use.

Technology is a difference that needs to be made in education, because it is our job as educators to prepare students for their futures. It is fair to say that technology is very much so in their future. But technology can only make a difference in education if it is implement well by a skilled individual, whom recognizes that just like in any other area of learning we must teach the skills needed for learners to build on and problem solve with.

INCREASING MY SKILLS IN USING TECHNOLOGY

I have spent the past several years gathering resources that would be helpful in a one-to-one classroom environment, but since these was not yet how my classroom functioned I did not take the time to go in depth in training myself in the use of the diverse group of tools I have acquired. My goal is to take the breadth of resources that I have accumulated and develop my depth of knowledge. I wish to be efficient in the tools I plan to use with my students next year.

Specific items I wish to learn could be as simple as finding out yesterday that by using tags students can maintain one blog for assignments within several different classes. By using a tag for each class their teacher will be able to subscribe to only the tag that is meaningful to their class. This saves time of the teacher who would have to root through to find the posting that aligned with an assignment. However I also have more technical goals, which are more involved. I am interested in learning more about are writing macros for Microsoft Office applications in addition to becoming more fluid with the new layout of Office 2007, which is new to me. I would also like to expand my knowledge of CSS and XHTML script writing in Dreamweaver. I am the web master for our school and there are elements I would like to implement into my work, but don’t have the experience to accomplish the tasks I want to. This will also be the only web developing software for our students and I want to be more efficient and confident in my understanding of script, so I may help my students better. Finally I would like the ability to construct interactive Flash web pages and images. There are elements of science that are very abstract for students and I would like to support their learning with interactive demonstrations of a concept they couldn’t see in everyday life. An example of this is the rotation of the Earth on its axis, around the sun, and the moon around it. Students would benefit from an animation that they could manipulate and see from a variety of angles.

What has brought me to where I am today as an educator?

I feel that I have only begun my journey as an educator, but the adventure to date has been grand all together. I am not like many teachers had known since they were young they wanted to be a teacher. I started my college years with the goal of being a pediatric occupational therapist. So though I wanted to work with students in schools, I had not intended to teach. During my first year of university I volunteered with students who were struggling in school and found myself having just as much fun finding new and interesting techniques to teaching concepts to the students as I had working with them. This is when I decided that I wanted to plan curriculum and reach a larger number of students each day. I saw that learning could be more then the bland techniques I had been subjected to as a student and suddenly I realized I wanted to be a teacher that could reach the students like me, who had not always enjoyed school.
While studying to be a teacher, I found a variety of technologies to be helpful in delivering content or supporting students of special needs, which motivated me to procure a minor in educational technology. Half of my student teaching experience was spent as a technology coordinator for a k-6 building and I loved it. I was able to co-teach with teachers, create cross-curricular projects with several grade levels and the art teacher collaborating to help students design, write and publish their own books, and work with struggling students one-on-one to strengthen their skills. It was fantastic fun!
I love my current position as a sixth grade teacher and work to integrate technology into my curriculum on a daily basis. I also often try to help other staff more leery of teaching with tech to become more comfortable with it and develop integrations for their lessons. To help both teachers and students, I want to learn more about technology in education.
To wrap up this long winded, bland explanation, I am getting my masters in educational technology because I find technology to be a drug for me. I just can’t get enough. There is so much out their and so many possibilities that I don’t want to miss a resource that could potentially make a child’s learn experience that much more powerful, where learning then becomes their drug.

What helps me learn best, both individually and with others?

What helps me to learn best as an individual is time and a quiet environment. I will guaranteed be the last one done with any in class assignment. It will be done and the work will be of the best quality I am able to provide, but it will not be quick. If I am working by myself and there are others around I will most likely be listening to headphones so that I can more easily focus on what I am doing and process the information I am working with.
When working with others I enjoy the collaboration and the element of multiple perspectives. I am a more effective group member when we are able to discuss our assignment, agree upon a goal, and then devise a plan of action where each person has their role for reaching the set goal.

I am very excited about using this as my students daily journal entries. They can get feedback on their ideas via friends and teacher.