Every step I take towards my learning, a new piece of clarity is added to my complex puzzle piece AKA my prototype. So on Friday I had a lightbulb turn on in my head for the first time. As I was in my plc with my colleague looking over the data from a quiz our students took in math. Admin came in and said 5th grade teachers wanted to know and were very curious of all the new things we were doing with technology! A few teachers had been hearing of all the wonderful tools the kids are using in their education and they also learned that we are using Google forms and getting quick feedback through them. Right at that moment, boom! I knew who my audience were and what they wanted or better yet, what they needed. My prototype will be a tool where teachers that want to bring about change and get the most out of their instruction will want to use it to move forward with me and other innovators. Hopefully I can come to a more concrete answer if technology tools can help increase student achievement or increase student agency? I'm still not set concrete on my DQ. Learning about TPACK I realize that technology is not the sole responsible component around innovative learning and teaching. Good learning begins or is made up of the content and the pedagogy knowledge first. Content knowledge is the "what" where we cover the facts, the concepts and theories. Pedagogical knowledge is the "how" we teach. This is where teachers get to incorporate all the instructional strategies we think will fit and work, the scaffolding and teaching styles. Once we have this and feel good about it, then we can see where we can incorporate the technology piece. We use the technology to deepen and make the learning last. I feel this is where I am at right now and I am feeling really successful with my teaching, and my students are feeling successful too, I know it and I feel it. Now I just need to find the right way to collect the data and prove it!
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"Can we do must-do's and may-do's please?!" is a question I get almost everyday with the start of reading. This school year, I have been giving my 4th graders more options in their learning. Student agency has made a good connection to the learning of new technology tools. I still remember the day I demonstrated how to do a presentation using google slides. I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off helping kids here and there. Then little by little they started learning new features on their own, pretty soon they became more and more comfortable with the program and then they were helping each other. It would only take me to show one students, and then that students would show another, and pretty soon, they were all 21st century collaborators. Seeing them work like this, makes me feel like a million dollars. About a month ago, I introduced "Story Bird" because a group of girls were writing a little comic book about a cherry guy? I went online to see what I could find that my students could use to write their own comic books or stories. When I introduced "story bird" they did not seem into it at all. It was really frustrating because kids had to go and make up a user name and password, and I thought I need to continue looking for something else. then a few days later, two students, Raul and Brianna, came up to me and said "We have created a story, could we share it with the class?" As soon as my students saw the power of "story bird", they all wanted to create their own. Now many of my students have gone out to other classrooms and have narrated the stories they have created and love sharing with other students. This fever of excitement has now spread to two other classrooms! I think the next step will be that my students record their stories using screen cast o matic or flip grid.
so this takes me to my new adventure... I was talking with my 4th grade partner and told her I was thinking of having students create learning digital portfolios and possibly have them ready for open house. Doing a little research I learned of many platforms out there that my kids could use, but I think for the purpose of privacy, I am just going to have them save everything under their google suite. I am so excited because the possibilities are endless!!! I can almost see them creating timelines or story mapping using Popplet. Maybe doing book review on novels we've read using Canva or other creative platforms! Like I said, the possibilities are endless, I can't wait to see where this takes us. I |
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May 2018
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