Voice Thread

Here's my voicethread. It is meant as an introduction on a problem solving unit based upon how to help with beach pollution:
http://www.voicethread.com/share/657477

Connectivism and Social Learning

I truly believe that Social Learning theories are excellent tools for the classroom. I put it in use as much as is possible. This year we use blogging and small cooperative groups often. I have future plans for group multimedia projects such as Flipvideo camera productions and, now that I've learned them myself, voicethreads.

There's a part of me that thinks that the ultimate benefit of social learning occurs most in the higher grades. It's not that I don't think it isn't valuable in third grade, it is. However, the Social learning must be very controlled. While I have some students who are fully capable of practicing self control, the truth is, most are not. Using technology in such situations may be chaotic, not to mention expensive. I almost think that the job of the lower grade teachers is to introduce the Social Learning in bits with the ultimate goal of having students able to fully participate and benefit by 5th grade and up. My 4th graders were capable, but again, only in small doses. This school year has been challenging, and my hope is that I can get my 3rd graders involved in more small groups as maturity allows.

Constructionist Learning

This week's resources have talked about many project based learning sites. I have already spent tons of time scouting out the libraries on the sites getting more and more ideas. I have used Webquests with my students from time to time and they are always excellent teaching tools. The students are always so proud of themselves for finding their own information. Having students actively participating in their own learning cements the learning so much more. All the resources this week are clear illustrations of that.

I know at times I shy away from major projects such as these for a number of reasons. First, it's difficult to ensure that all group members participate equally. I liked the "role assignment" in the text book that had "Script writers", "Researchers", etc. Giving each student their own role in the group will allow them to have their own voice and not shrink behind the voices of the ones who automatically appoint themselves leaders. Also, with third graders, sometimes it's difficult to manage group projects. Unless it is something they are all completely involved in it leaves room for off task activities. I would think for project learning I would definitely need parent volunteers available.

I've seen, first hand, how powerful group projects can be. As a fourth grade teacher I would always do an Interact unit on California Missions. The students were put into groups of traders coming to the missions. They had to learn trivia in order to earn hides for their boat. As a group they had to decide upon the best materials to bring to trade. They also had to make group decisions at certain points along the journey. In addition, it involved lots of accounting and bookkeeping. This week has shown me how much more I could add to it by adding in some technology. Whereas before they only used the internet to research the missions, I can also envision making graphs, using Excel, videotaping reenactments and so much more. I love the idea of taking an already existing unit and adding technology to make the learning that much more powerful.
Tonya

Cognitivism in Practice

All of the instructional strategies of this week are interesting to me because this is definitely the way I learn myself. The idea of graphic organizers and note taking are all essential tools for all educators regardless of grade. Our school has been using Thinking Maps, which are essentially Concept Maps by a different name. It has been very beneficial and our test scores are showing that it is working. These correlate to the principles of cognitive learning theory because it gives the students a visual, concrete link and connections that enable them to transfer the information into long term memory. A great example of this is the idea of getting readers to make connections. We spend lots of time trying to get the students to make Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World connections in order to more cement their learning or understanding of whatever text we are reading. It definitely works!

The tool I found the most interesting from the resources was the idea of virtual field trips. I use Google Earth a lot to go to places we are learning about that the students do not have knowledge of. In a sense, this is a virtual field trip in that it gives the student a concrete visual rather than some abstract idea. For instance when we read "The Mysterious Giant of Barletta,” I hop on the computer and we travel to Barletta, Spain via Google Earth. It gives them one more connection to make to the story. After reading the resources this week and watching how powerful the virtual field trip on the video was to Ford’s Theater, I discovered a website that did basically the same thing with Alcatraz Island:

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/alca/overview.html

I will use this when I read Al Capone Does My Shirts with my class. It is a story about a boy whose father is a guard on Alcatraz Island and his family lives on the island. To be able to virtually take them to the Island, tour the cells, mess hall and other areas of the island will make the connection so much stronger. In addition, this site even has audio clips of prisoners talking about how they would do time. One inmate describes closing his eyes and covering them real tight until he could teach his mind to make up movies on his eyelid screens. I think adding this to the unit will make Alcatraz Island during the same timeframe come alive for the students. I can’t wait to give it a try!

Behaviorism in Practice

I’ve heard over and over from different sources that Behaviorism has no place in the classroom today. In theory, I can see where they are coming from; however, as a primary grade teacher, I absolutely believe that Behaviorist instructional strategies can be very beneficial. Behaviorists believe that behavior is learned or changed due to a stimulus response. While I wholeheartedly agree that the ideal reward would be intrinsic, teaching third grade has me using extrinsic rewards throughout my classroom. For instance, this year I use a “Move your clip” system that is very Behavioristic. Last year, with a completely different make up of kids, I did not have to use this because the students did not need it. By the second day of this school year I was digging for my Rick Morris chart and my clothespins! I have also used contracts for major behavior problems as well as for my Mainstreamed students. Bottom line is, it works. I don’t know if this holds true for the older students, but I know it works for third graders. Of course, the hope is that they will mature and be able to police their own behavior by the end of the year.
The resources this week regarding homework and effort seemed a bit too complex for my students. I do not think they are capable of charting their own effort in the way described in the book. In some very simplistic ways I suppose I do this. For instance, we do what is called “Six Minute Solution” which is a reading fluency program. The students read to each other, and then they chart their progress each day. This is not done on computers, although it could be adapted to track technologically. In the text book it talked about all the students pulling out their laptops. While that would be a dream come true, I think that scenario is so far from my own classroom reality that I cannot even begin to relate. I do use technology to chart effort and progress of my students to show their parents. For example I chart their reading comprehension and fluency and it is a very helpful tool.
The websites found in the resources were helpful. They were a bit high level in some instances. I loved the Social Studies Tutor but I don’t think I could use it for my own students. Also, the site for keyboarding practice was good; however, I have found www.nimblefingers.com to be a bit more third grade friendly. Perhaps I find it that way because it takes a bit more of a Behaviorism approach which my students respond to. On my classroom website I have links to many internet instructional games that my students love. There are too many to name, but if you go to my website and click on “links” it brings up many primary technology games. http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/TBorns/
I'm interested in knowing if the high school teachers find Behaviorism as beneficial as the Elementary School teachers.
Tonya

Reflection

Taking this technology course has been amazing. I always thought I was okay with technology and teaching it. It wasn't until now that I realized how much I'd been missing. Being forced to dive right in has helped develop my skills in ways simply reading a book would never have done. Also, the mere fact that I was forced to dive in showed me the best way in which to teach technology to my students. Although I realize I will need to model every new step, I also now realize that the teaching and learning process is best cemented by doing...not simply watching. I saw this first hand with the few lessons I was able to do with my students this year before summer break. They were so excited to learn new technology and could barely wait to dig right in. They had a hard time focusing on the entire modeling lesson because in their heads they had already jumped right into the "doing" part. Through blogging and creating wikis with my class this year I was clearly able to see how the shift is taking place from teacher centered to learner-centered. We all were learning from each other. I'm sure this is how technology will be. While I can introduce it to my students, I know that they will soon be teaching me new aspects of each tool as they are more fearless in their quest to "know it all" and "try it all." It's an exciting time to be sure!

I know my learning will not stop with just this class. There are many more classes to come. I think the best way to expand my knowledge and learning is to keep myself on this path of moving forward and bringing as many students along with me as possible. I will have to shift my thinking and my planning of many lessons in order to incorporate these tools. I am sure there will be a lot of learning what works and what does not work. Many things I will need to learn and finesse will be the management of it all and making sure that the technology is a means to improve the lesson, not just add technology for technology's sake.

The long term goals I set will be two fold. First, I will do what I can with what I have. I will not focus on what I don't have, but instead work with what is available to me now and find ways to make this work with my students. In two years I want my students to know what it is like to blog and to create wikis. I will replace written reports (some, not all) with wikis in which groups collaborate together. I feel it will probably take two years to get this process to run smoothly, with lots of trial and error, I'm sure. Another goal would be to deal with the institutional and systemic obstacles. Fortunately, there are four of us taking this program together and we are now all at the same school. I think that will truly increase our ability to overcome some institutional barriers simply because there is power in numbers. We four are spread out amongst grade levels and will be able to help bring others into the fold of technology. We are also blessed with a principal who seems willing and excited to make the shift along with us. In two years I would hope that we would have most grade levels on board with the use of technology to increase our lessons and bring our school and our students into the skills necessary for the 21st century.
Tonya

Podcast of Technology Through the Ages

I recently created a podcast using my own children. I have a child in elementary school, middle school and high school. It was interesting to see the differences in technology use. Interestingly enough, the high schooler was probably the one who uses technology the least actually at school, yet she is the one who uses it the most for school assignments at home. In fact, if the high school server is down it creates panic because assignments cannot be seen. In many ways they are oblivious as to how much their life is ruled by technology because it is simply what they've always known. Enjoy the podcast and try to ignore the middle part of my oldest laughing so hard she could not talk. Thank you dead air! Technology or not, teenage girls will never change.

http://tborns.podomatic.com/entry/2009-06-03T19_54_45-07_00