Reflection

• This course has helped me to develop my own technology skills as a professional teacher in that I have learned about some new programs that can be incorporated into my classroom and just how to do that. I have enjoyed putting some of these projects together. It makes me thing about how my students would react to projects such as these. There will always be some that balk at the assignment because it is something that they have to do but for the most part my students would enjoy these new and innovative approaches to do a lot of the same old things. I feel I have grown as a professional leader in that I can bring a lot of these ideas to my coworkers and help them to develop their own technology skills. In fact, I have suggested that our team of 6th grade teachers use Wikispaces to post homework, resource sites for class, and other supplemental materials so that our parents can find all they need in one spot. I have said I would design and set it up and then teach them how to use it. It is very easy to do and I think that it would be beneficial to our team of teachers, to our students, and to our parents. This could be something even the elementary school or middle/high school does for resources for parents. I know that our elementary school just set up a Facebook account to keep parents informed with the goings on at the school.
  

• The old saying goes that you are never to old to learn. I sincerely hope that that remains my attitude as I move along through the profession. While I am still young in the profession and have a lot to learn, my knowledge of the teaching and learning process has been deepened throughout this course. I have learned about 21st century learners as well as 21st century skills and the need to begin to really look at teaching these skills in the classroom. I have also learned that the students of today are labeled as technology natives while a lot of teachers that teach in the same building as me are considered technology immigrants. It is up to us to hone our technology skills and keep abreast of the new and innovative ideas to bring into the classroom. Technology is not something that should be fought, but it is something that should be welcomed with open arms. Our students are surrounded by technology almost their entire lives. Why should coming to school be any different? Our students are losing some of the necessary skills we used to hold near and dear to the old school way of teaching. It is our job to make sure they still learn these skills but add in the newer skills that the students will need when they are out in the workplace.
  

• While doing my undergraduate degree, I promised myself that I would never have a classroom that was 100% teacher-centered. However, when you get out in the real world and into a school district where there are not a lot of options as far as educational resources, one finds oneself doing just that. I do try to keep a balance in my classroom but I have began to lean more and more towards the learner-centered classroom after my first year teaching. Last year I incorporated a lot of teacher-centered activities as I was trying to find my sea legs in the profession. This year I have one year's experience and three graduate classes under my belt and have begun to do many more learner-centered discovery type activities with my students. I feel that when a student discovers something they will retain the information much better. For example, I had my students use the parts of a flower that we learned in class to create an adventure story. In this story they were to use the parts of the flower and their functions in the correct manner. I then set them out on their own with very little guidance. I monitored the activity but the ideas were purely theirs. I was very impressed with the way some of them turned out. I was not sure how it would work as there was very little guidance or rules in the activity. I let my students come up with a lot of their own ways of accomplishing the task.

• Workshops and professional development are great ways to continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology. Monitoring student progress will help me increase student achievement. By incorporating both of these into my journey as an educator I feel that I will grow in the profession and become a leader in my school. I enjoy learning about new technologies and read about them whenever I get the chance, whether it be on a blog (iLearntechnology.com for example), in a journal or magazine, or just in passing on the Internet or from a colleague. Blogs are great places to get information as it is a collaboration started by one person with the option to make comments that add to what has already been posted. Researching more on how students learn and the evolving student will help me understand how to increase my student achievement. Interventions that need to be implemented will be and research will be done on these interventions as well. Treating each student as an individual is key to an increase in student achievement.

• My two long-term goals for transforming my classroom environment would be to have my students do more projects that solely involve technology from research to final presentation and incorporate more technology-based lessons into my classroom for student-centered learning. The first goal overcomes systemic obstacles as some of my students have no access to computers or the Internet so I would have to provide them with the means of accomplishing the task at hand. The second goal would overcome institutional obstacles as I do not have any classroom computers and we have no available computer lab to take the students to in order to accomplish this goal. I plan to accomplish them by collaborating with the pre-engineering teacher at my school who does have a computer lab and doing some projects that integrate what he does with my students in class along with something I may be doing in my classroom. I also plan to give more projects where the end result is either a recording, either video or audio in the form of a Podcast, PowerPoint presentation, website, blog entry, or Wikispace entry. These projects can be the normal projects I assign or added resources that will allow students to review for tests and/or quizzes. I feel these are attainable goals an when accomplished will show great results with my students!
  

Technology and Our Children

I created a podcast that includes the demographics of my 6th grade class as well as my interview of four students. The link is here: Walden Application. Enjoy!

21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/) earned a top spot on the American Association of School Librarians for a good reason - there is a lot of information on here to help the educator in the 21st century try to bring these skills into the classroom when the curriculum falls short. I like how the authors of P21 have broken down everything in to the framework and further breakdown the framework into detailed ways of how these skills can be implemented into the classroom and even samples of what they can look like with the video snapshots. This information is vital to the 21st century classroom and all teachers and administrators should be aware of these skills that are so lacking in our classrooms. As educators, we are constantly talking about how to prepare our students for the "real world." The problem is that the "real world" has changed a lot in the past 10, 15, 2o years and the education world has remained the same in the ways that information is brought forward, the type of information that is taught, and when the information is taught. A lot of the problems stem from the fact that states have required standardized tests that teachers have to "teach to." It is a reality. Period. Unfortunately, it also creates a time crunch in which there is not much room to play with concepts and skills our students do need to learn that are not in the "standards" or "benchmarks."

One thing that surprised me on this website was how few states are on the list of state initiatives. My state, Ohio, is not on this list. I wonder what the criteria are for a state to be on the list and how to push for this in our own state. Before this week, I did not even know there was a partnership that involved teaching students 21st Century skills. I was also surprised the amount of information that is on this website. It links to resources, samples of how to implement this into the classroom, press releases to inform the latest news from the partnership, and best of all the skills framework that is very detailed and easy to understand. I really like and agree with the section on critical thinking. As a science teacher, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of problem solving and critical thinking. So many students cannot reason, make good judgments, analyze, and think critically about concepts or problems in life. This is important to know how to do. I use critical thinking skills frequently throughout the day with my job. If we can teach our students that this is something we don't just do when talking about science concepts but also something that is important in life, then we are achieving one of the goals of the partnership.

I feel that this will really aid in my student's learning and also allow me to become an educator who not only teaches the concepts that the students need to have to pass their achievement tests but also give them the skills they need to do well in the "real world." Even the college experience is different and being thrown into something you don't understand can be detrimental. I want to delve deeper into this website, as I suggest every educator out there that has a few minutes to spare, and learn more about how I can implement these skills into my classroom.

Mini Bloggers

Students today are surrounded by opportunities to express their opinions - more so than any other generation. They can reach millions in just milliseconds by the click of a button. Something this powerful should not be treated lightly but can create a world of opportunity and allow the quietest of all students share their thoughts in an almost private way (and by this I mean they don't have to physically talk to share their thoughts).

Journaling would be an ideal way to bring blogging into the classroom. Teacher posts question or prompt, students read at their leisure, think about what they want to respond with, and in just a few minutes have a reply posted so that the teacher and other students can read and reflect on what that student has posted. This is so much better than the old fashioned way of journaling as comments can be posted from other students sharing different viewpoints on the same question or prompt. Journals are no longer "diary-like" and secretive. Our students are so used to sharing their feelings with millions of people with social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. They give up-to-the-minute information on what they are doing, where they are going, and what they plan to do. I know because I am guilty of both reading what people do on my friends list and also posting these kinds of posts on my own Facebook account.

Blogging can also open up the door to further class discussion after the class is over. Students who may not have gotten to pose a question to the teacher, state a comment about the concept, or just make an observation because class time was cut short can now do this as an extension to what was discussed in class. This can then be printed out and used as a study guide for tests, quizzes, homework, and other classroom assessment strategies. This can also benefit students that are absent as they can see what was discussed during the day and even post comments as the discussing is taking place from home. It is almost like a weird version of distance learning.

The possibilities of blogging in the classroom are limitless and with teachers just starting to research how to use this great tool many more strategies will be added. Thinking outside the box will open more and more doors that allow technology - and bloggers - into the classroom.

Here we go!

Well, this is my first official "blog" and we will see how things proceed from here. I am a second year teacher at a small district. I teach reading and science at the moment but that changes from year to year in our district because it is so small. Our graduating classes range from about 40 to about 60. I live in the town that I teach in, which makes life very interesting to say the least, from students that come and plant acorns in my front yard when I am not home to walking around town and my husband calling me a "celebrity" because of all of the "Hi Mrs. Paisley"'s we hear. I really do love my job, however, and I am excited to embark on this adventure.

A little about myself: I was married December 15, 2007 in a snow storm in which about 4 inches of snow accumulated in the hour long ceremony that we had. I wanted snow, just less spread out over several hours. It was a beautiful day, however, and one I will cherish for the rest of my life. My husband really is my best friend! We have no children as of yet but we do have one crazy cat named Mocha. She sits up like a human and watches TV with us, runs around like a maniac (I often sing that song from Flashdance "She's a maniac, maniac on the floor" to her in the mornings), brings us her toys wherever we are in the house, and loudly complains for hours when she is hungry. She is by no means starving, just an attention grabber. Life is never dull around here with her around! I have two wonderful parents and two super brothers that live about an hour north of us but visit frequently. I think it has something to do with the fact that we live 10 minutes from Amish Country in Ohio and they benefit from all of the baked goods, not that they want to see their sister. :o)