Reflection

Today is the last day of our summer course. It's been a good learning experience. I have learned so much about what is available to me on the web to support my teaching, collaborated through PLN's, read interesting articles, and blogged! All of what we have done has led each one of us toward a inquiry. I enjoyed hearing my colleagues tell about their field study proposals. As always I am inspired, amazed, and proud of the hard work and passion teachers put into improving their practice and the compassion they feel for their students.
For my fall study I have decided to concentrate on developing a "boy friendly" classroom by incorporating activities that lend to the
potential differences in learning styles and thereby providing more equitable learning opportunities for both boys and girls. I am going to look at the research for how boys learn best and incorporate ideas into learning centers and into my reading activities.
My hope is to keep all my students engaged and motivated but more importantly to develop a love for learning and a feeling that they all can achieve.

Assessment

Today we read 4 links on assessment. Each one had valuable points about what we assess, why we should assess, when we should assess, and how. In my class, I spend some time doing formative assessment each day. Scanning the room asking students to explain their work, having students reflect in a learning log, or developing activities or questions that requires them to think of what they have learned and apply the knowledge to new ideas. I do feel I should be doing more. I also do summative assessment but only when I need it to guide whether the students are grasping the concepts and who needs additional support. Three ideas from my readings that I found interesting are: 1. some teachers are working too hard on the wrong things. 2. People who participate in a global community will show more advancement than those that stay on the sidelines. 3. Assessment is not an interruption of learning if and when it can positively and directly influence the current or future learning and work of students. The article on Technocontructivism talked about the difference between cause and effect learning and discovery learning. It challenged my assumption that both can be assessed in the classroom, however the article explains that cause and effect learning is assessable because it uses the process of trial and error, but discovery learning can not be assessed because it does stem from trial and error.

Today we read 4 links on assessment. Each one had valuable points about what we assess, why we should assess, when we should assess, and how. In my class, I spend a lot of time doing formative assessment each day. Scanning the room asking students to explain their work, having students reflect in a learning log, or developing activities or questions that requires them to think of what they have learned and apply the knowledge to new ideas. I do sometimes do summative assessment but only when I need it to guide whether the students are grasping the concepts and who needs additional support. Some ideas from my readings that I found interesting are: 1. some teachers are working too hard on the wrong things. 2. People who participate in a global community will show more advancement than those that stay on the sidelines. 3. Assessment is not an interruption of learning if and when it can positively and directly influence the current or future learning and work of students. The article on Technocontructivism talked about the difference between cause and effect learning and discovery learning. It challenged my assumption that both can be assessed in the classroom, however the article explains that cause and effect learning is assessable because it uses the process of trial and error, but discovery learning can not be assessed because it does stem from trial and error.

PLN Links

Today in LTT (Learning and Teaching with Technology) we explored 8 new sites to promote teacher collaboration and iGoogle. IGoogle is great. I prefer it to netvibes. It is easier to learn and set up. Our group looked at http://teachersconnecting.com/. It allows teachers from all over to buddy up for a wide assortment of projects. I found this site as well as some of the others interesting. I made an account for www.teachersconnecting.com for future use to collaborate with someone in a similar grade level. My goal is at some point to develop a project that promotes writing and oral language. I liked the feature on choosing your comfort level in using technology and participating in projects. It really is tailored to find the best match for each teacher. The projects stretch across the content areas learning about different communities and people, as well as give the students an audience. It would be an exciting learning opportunity.
The other sites visited were also interesting, (http://edupln.ning.com/, http://www.classroom20.com/, http://www.jenuinetech.com/). All these sites basically offer teachers the same opportunity to chat, find resources, connect, and view projects.

The article, Knowledge, the Disciplines, and Learning in the Digital Age" by Jane Gilbert looks at why Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) implemented to improve schools has had little effect on revolutionizing teaching and learning for the Knowledge Age. The one big idea from the article is that schools are still teaching knowledge for product, that is teaching practices have change very little and the learning is similar to busy work. The focus in schools has not shifted much from regurgitating information to develop a product toward learning by showing the process. Each grade level has content areas with their learning outcomes. Although the content areas are separate and generally taught separately, when looking at the learning outcomes, there are many overlapping objectives and connections to be made. The general belief that the purpose of education is to develop students that are critical thinkers who are able to generate new knowledge by making connections between subject areas and applying knowledge to new situations ties with the push toward project based learning. Taking knowledge and applying it to show your understanding applies across the grade levels. The use of technology is only one way to develop knowledge through "performativity". Students will not be adding or rehashing old knowledge but using it in a new way to show learning with many innovative digital tools. As well, technology will help as another tool to support teachers as well as allow students, in all content areas, to show their learning and successes in variety of ways. I have been doing some reading on PBL. There are a lot of sites on the topic. I hope to implement it into my classroom this year.

A New Year a New Goal

My goal for the new year is to Model Digital-Age Work and Learning by communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age material and formats. I chose this goal to continue building on last years goal of developing a class web site for the first time. This relates with capacity #3: Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies in my practice.
Developing and maintaining a class web site was a big learning curve for me, especially when I decided to incorporate a blog and a wiki. I realize now I may have taken on too much. My first step was to learn the tool myself and then teach it to my students. I was pleased with how I used the wiki to support writing in the classroom. My goal this year is to take it one step further and use the web site to improve communication with my parents by getting them more involved. My hope is to organize a time to have parents come in and have their child teach them about the website. I will need to continue to improve my ability to use the wiki and to better apply it to support students’ learning and provide feedback. Lastly, I did not get to incorporate a blog with my last year's class. This year I’d like have it part of my web site as another learning tool.