Another Course Has Come to an End....EDUC 584 Course Reflection

End of Class Reflection by krista.a.beyer on GoAnimate


To be honest, this course has been one of the most enjoyable ones thus far. I have always loved technology and this course has energized me to incorporate technology in my classroom in ways I never thought would be possible.

One of the most beneficial parts of this course has been the blogging project. Allowing myself to become more familiar with blogging, and viewing and commenting on others’ blogs has opened my eyes to the power of online communication. As a result of this course, I plan to teach my students about blogging and have them create their own blogs by the end of the year (with school permission).

I also thoroughly enjoyed learning about the power of twitter, and how it can be used in an educational setting. While I have not fully immersed myself into the “Twitter World” I have started by creating an account and have begun to follow many educational leaders. As I have more time to explore the site and become more familiar with everything, it is my goal to use my account for classroom updates and daily happenings, allowing parents and families to stay updated with our classroom.

While I had been familiar with tools such as digital stories, Skype, and Animoto, this course strengthened my knowledge on how these things could be incorporated into the everyday routines of school. While I once thought these tools were good for big projects and rare occasions, I have come to learn that technology should just be part of a regular day. It shouldn’t be something that is an additional component of the day.

Overall, I feel that I could go on and on about all of the tools I have learned about (Wikis, weebly, google drive, google hangouts, GoAnimate, etc…). When I find spare time, I want to continue exploring these programs more in depth. I would like to strengthen my teaching by incorporating more up and coming technology into my classroom to meet the needs of my technology loving students!

"I Am" Character Poems

For my literacy project my students created digital stories. Since we were in our first unit for reading, we were working on character development. For guided reading, some students were working on creating “I Am” poems, allowing the students to put themselves in the shoes of their main character.

Students used a character web to chart different character traits, and to think about how the characters think, feel, acts, etc. After completing the character web, students were given an “I Am” template and completed it based on the main characters for their books. Students drew an illustration to represent the main character based on descriptions in the book.

Once all illustrations and poems were completed, students spent a lot of time practicing reading their poems out loud, allowing them to strengthen their fluency skills. When students were ready, we recorded them reading the poems aloud, and we worked using Microsoft MovieMaker to create a simple digital story.

Overall, students really enjoyed completing this project. They were very excited to see their final products and were proud of their hard work. As a result of this project, students became more aware of the importance of fluency and expression while reading, and also learned how to analyze character traits.

 

 

  

Teaching Typing: A Lost Art?

Lately I have found myself spending a lot of time thinking about typing skills. When I was younger we had classes in school that taught us the “proper” way to type, with our hands on the home row. I also vividly remember practicing my typing skills at home with the program Mavis Beacon, striving to become proficient at typing. 
 
Today, the majority of my students come to school with little to no typing skills, and resort to “hunting and pecking.” While I understand that times have changed, and students are used to having access to the world at the touch of their finger tips, I often find myself wondering if students should still be taught the “proper” way to type.

Now, more than ever, students are expected to work on computers accessing information online, publishing papers, and completing projects. There are certainly some students that manage to get by with “hunting and pecking” and have it down to a science, but there are students who truly struggle to type one word in a timely manner. How are students supposed to utilize technology when they can’t use the keyboard effectively?
 
I guess that leaves me with a couple of questions. What expectations should we have of our students? Do you think students should be taught to type the “proper” way, and if so at what age should this instruction take place?

I wish I could answer these questions for myself, but I go back and forth on the topic. After watching some of my students sit and type three lines during a half an hour on the computer, I find myself getting frustrated; however, I seem to be ok with the hunters and peckers who know what they are doing! As part of my centers I have implemented a typing center in which students use BBC typing, allowing students to pass through different levels of guided typing instruction, but at the end of the day I always find myself wondering if this center is really worth the time or should I scratch it and add another literacy center.

What are your thoughts?

Building on Each Child’s Strengths: UHMS

This year I ventured outside of my comfort zone and took a new teaching job at the University of Hartford Magnet School. I have always wanted to teach in a diverse school, and when the opportunity came about, I applied and here I am today, teaching at UHMS.

UHMS is truly unlike any other school I have ever been in. Being a magnet school, the main focus of our school is The Multiple Intelligences. Every teacher in the school strives to meet the needs of each individual learner, and tries to build on their strengths. All subject areas are workshop based, and students are constantly up and moving, working in centers, and exploring the world hands-on. When a student doesn’t seem to comprehend something one way, we try teaching it through a different multiple intelligence.

Rather than attending “specials” students go to “essentials”. In these essentials students create beautiful masterpieces in visual spatial, create music unlike anything I’ve ever heard, and get unique experiences that you don’t see in most schools. Every morning, students come to school and participate in the walking program, where they gather in the agora and walk laps while listening to music and talk to friends. Since our school is attached to University of Hartford two days a week college students lead a running team called “Flying Magnets.” Students also have experiences to participate in the Hart School of Music after school programs. The list of opportunities for students goes on and on.

One of my favorite parts of our school is the sense of community we build with families. Every Friday, we have a whole school assembly that is called Friday Family Meeting. We gather and celebrate our learning. Two classrooms sign up to be “Hot Spotlights” and they present a topic they are learning in their classroom and present it using one of the multiple intelligences. The assembly also includes a message from our principal and sing along songs led by one of the music teachers. Families are encouraged to come and celebrate the joy of learning.

Overall, I think making this change was one of the best decisions I have made to date. While I do miss my old school, UHMS has opened my eyes. I finally realize what it means to truly meet the needs of every learner.


 

The Use of Social Media in Education

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the list goes on and on. Social Media and the classroom are not two things that I ever thought would go together; however, my thinking has drastically changed in recent times.

As a result of this course I have created an education twitter account. Since I do not have permission to post pictures of my students, I use the account to make general updates about my classroom and post different information about units of study we are working on and daily happenings.
As time goes on, I plan to get more involved, and post more frequently allowing parents and other teachers to truly follow my classroom.

Even though I enjoy posting, I feel that the true benefit of Twitter comes from the people I follow. I am following teachers, principals, superintendents, authors educational experts, etc… Every minute someone is posting valuable resources, new ideas, articles to read, failures and success stories.

Allowing myself to step outside of my comfort zone has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for me. I get motivation from others and become inspired to try new things in my own classroom. I have learned that when you used appropriately, social media can in fact be a very beneficial teaching tool!



Click on the picture above to check out my twitter account!

Taking a Minute to Listen to Others: Intake Conferences

Quote from Sarah Dessen

When I was hired at my new school, I was told that we had parent conferences within the first few weeks of school. I was very confused how this would work since I would just be getting to know all of my students and wouldn’t have much to report on.
 
After asking around I quickly learned that I had nothing to worry about for these conferences. These intake conferences (that’s what we call them) are meetings where parents come in and tell the teacher all about their child. It would be my job to be an active listener and get to know my students from the people that know them best, their parents/guardians.

Parents/guardians could bring in artifacts that represent their child; pieces of old school work, pictures or just great stories to share. Of course I was a bit nervous before my first conference, as this would be the first time I was meeting many of these parents/guardians; however, once I sat down with the first parent I relaxed, sat back and listened and learned about the student.

Every conference was different and special in its own way, as every parent/guardian had a different story to share. I learned valuable information, not only relating to academics, but relating to each child as a whole.
 
Before coming to my new school, I had never heard of intake conferences, but I would highly recommend them to my colleagues in other schools. Parents/guardians are used to coming to conferences and listening to the teacher, but these conferences allow the parents/guardians to take the steering wheel and talk about their pride and joy. The teacher truly gets to sit back, listen, ask questions and learn a great deal of information about each child.   

Communication Board Project Introduction

As mentioned in a previous post, one of my favorite read aloud books is Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind. The book lends itself to powerful class discussions, and allows students to learn about differences and the importance of acceptance. While reading the book to my class last year I came up with a project idea, to create personal communication boards. Instead of jumping on the idea right away, I decided to discuss it with my class and get their thoughts on it.
 
I wanted students to put themselves in Melody’s shoes and understand what it would be like to live in a word where you couldn’t use your voice to communicate. Students were extremely receptive to the idea, and before I knew it students were working hard on creating beautiful masterpieces. Students thought long and hard about what they wanted to include. They had to decide what was important to them, what words they use the most every day, who they communicate with, whether they wanted more words or pictures, and the decisions went on and on.
 
When the final products arrived in my classroom I was shocked. Each student brought in a truly unique communication board to meet their individual needs. We designated some time one morning to have a “silent classroom” and we only used our communication boards to talk, no voices. It was one of the most powerful times I have had with a group of students.
 
As a class we learned how frustrating it can be not to verbalize your thoughts. We had to come up with ways to create words that were not on our boards. We had to stay patient and focus on each other to truly understand what was trying to be said.

Most importantly, we learned that there are many things we take for granted in our lives that we can’t imagine living without. Students reflected on how thankful they are for being healthy and living the life they do.
 
This Animoto that I created is to use with my new class this year. It will serve as an introduction to the Communication Board Project so they can get a basic understanding of the project and see samples. I can’t wait to see what students create this year!