Artifact 2: Making SMART goals

One of my goals for next year is to have my students keep digital portfolios.  My hopes are for students to become more involved in understanding the learning targets and teach them to set their own goals and have several opportunities to reflect on those goals and their learning plans.  Students would use their portfolios to document their goals and evidence of growth towards those goals.  They could also include showcase items.  Students would share their portfolios with their parents and hopefully be able to build upon them in the next school year.  I've included my goal setting sheet below.  Here is also the link to the reflection page that I plan to have student use to think about their preparation for tests.  By using "feedforward" conferences and having students revise and learn for mastery, I'm hoping that students will become more invested in their learning.  Reflecting on my own learning during this class, I felt that I discovered how technology can definitely enhance assessment from the ease of creating assessments and rubrics to the immediate data that technology can provide us through formative assessments. Digital portfolios are just another wonderful benefit of technology, and a great way for students to see their growth over time.

Artifact 1: Digital Badges

One of the things that I explored was the creation of digital badges and a pathway to earn them. I decided to think about communication and create three different pathways. When I reflected on the skills I wanted my students to earn, I realized that there are many components to communication, but I wanted my students to focus on safe, effective, and respectful ways to communicate when using technology. These are the badges that I came up with. I wanted them to be similar but yet different to represent the key ideas. As I used Google Draw, I became more and more comfortable with it and the power of what it could do. I will certainly continue to use it for badges and also infographics.

To collect these badges, the students needed to complete the activities for respectfully blogging, safe sharing online, and writing an effective email.  These are tasks that I want my fourth grade students to be able to do.  Here are the scaffolded activities in each pathway.  

 

Assessing and Improving Student Achievement with Technology Reflection

As with all of the classes along my journey to feeling more confident in technology and using it effectively in the classroom with my students, this class has taught me so much.  One of the greatest advantages in education, I believe, is the ability to quickly assess students so that the data provided can be acted on in a timely matter.  Technology has made this possible.  The classroom is such a dynamic place.  Teachers may be masters of the content and curriculum, but they just never know how their students will receive it, question it, use it, or understand it.  Formative assessments are now easily given and with the help of tech tools, they can be graded almost instantaneously.  What does this mean for the teacher and students?  Teachers can now use that feedback to form groups making them more flexible and fluid than ever before.  In the past, this process of grading a formative assessment meant either quickly trying to grade them while students were doing busy work, or taking them home at night which meant the data couldn't be used until the next day.  That's a whole evening of possible homework that maybe is too hard or too easy for students.  Formative assessments put an end to instruction that doesn't meet student needs.

To add to that, technology opens the doors to more personalized learning for students.  Just as teachers are able to tailor their guided group instruction to student needs, technology also provides teachers with many platforms that aid in individualized instruction.  There's no more "waiting to learn," for students.  A tech tool such as IXL or Freckle will assess students, fit activities to the needs of the particular student, provide immediate feedback, and offer examples and videos to help students who may need additional instruction.  These tools don't by any means eliminate the teacher, but when used as part of the instruction, open many doors to students with reteaching or enrichment opportunities.  It also means that students can learn for mastery.  There isn't just one path for everyone.  Some students will take longer or need different tools, but teachers have more options to meet these needs today than ever before.

And then there's the grading discussion...unfortunately, it will probably never go away because of how it's rooted in our society. But education is evolving and using performance-based assessments, rubrics, self-assessments, and portfolios just got easier with the use of technology. One of the main ways I see grading changing in my classroom for next year is bringing back the use of student portfolios.  Requiring students to better understand the learning goals, create goals for themselves and learning plans, as well as collect the evidence needed to prove that they've met those goals, puts the student in charge.  The teacher works as the coach alongside to help them reach their goals and redirect as needed.  I want to see my students as conductors in their education and not passengers.

Digital badges, learning games, and gamification also help to engage and empower our students.  As the world changes, so must education.  We are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet.  I want to make my students into life-long learners by letting them see that learning is fun.  Teaching content through games and having students practice in a way that is entertaining and rewarding keeps them wanting more.  Our students today have just begun their learning journey.  Let's make it a positive one that meets every kid where they are and opens the doors of possibility.

Artifact 2: Professional Development

This last assignment was one of the more challenging ones.  It made me pause and really consider the frustrations I have experienced with "one-size fits all" type sessions that have seemed a waist of my time. Also, to plan a PBL experience for adults while teaching them about it was involved, and I can now appreciate more the hard work that goes into the planning and preparation of our staff development days by district committee teams and coaches.  This also helped me to see that by teaching someone else how to do something, you really learn it better yourself.  I feel like after doing this assignment, that the the concept of PBL and the integral parts to planning and implementing it are within my field of competencies.  So I carry back to my class the strategy of having my students be teachers in effective ways.  They will concrete their own learning and others will benefit from their guidance.  It's a win - win all around!  Also, I will be doing the PBL I designed and can't wait to integrate even more PBL this year!

Link to Professional Development 

Artifact 1: Flipped Classroom

I choose to include this infographic with an embedded screencast, because I learned so much from creating it, and also because I can see creating more of these for use in my 4th grade classroom.  In order to create this, I used the Piktochart application which I had never used before.  It is an amazing tool for creating infographics.  I decided to use it because I had read somewhere that you could insert videos and I thought- what a great way to combine the use of an anchor chart by making infographic and a screencast.  What a perfect flipped tool!  This has inspired me to create more and really try to use some flipped learning in my math class. Next year I can envision having students read the infographic and watch the screencast as homework.  I will take the time to teach them how to take  structured notes so that they are accountable for doing it and then I will be able to more effectively use class time to help students. The switch for me from being the sage on the stage to a guide on the journey will be refreshing and hopefully impactful to my students and their learning.

My Flipped Learning Anchor Chart with Screencast

Effective Technology Integration into Lessons and Curriculum Reflection

Through this class I have stretched myself and learned many new things.  Understanding the different philosophies behind technology integration was key and really helped me to confirm as an educator that just using tech in your classroom isn't enough.  We must be deliberate and thoughtful about when and how we use it so that students are learning content, along with technology skills and critical thinking and problem solving skills in order to be effective in this ever changing 21st century.  Preparing student for jobs and careers that don't even exist yet can be an overwhelming task, but knowing that I am empowering my students to be life-long learners with the skills to read critically, think deeply, collaborate, and communicate effectively with technology helps me to know that they will be successful.

One of the ways that I will continue to learn is through the Applied Google Skills.  I had no idea that this existed.  In this class we tackled one, but now I know a place I can go to for ideas for my students, and also just to learn new tech skills for myself.  I even think that these applied skills lend themselves to professional development use.  What a great find!

I also really began to understand what flipped learning is and how I could see myself using it in my own classroom.  Before this class, I really thought it could only be used and effective at the middle school level and above.  But when thinking about math class in particular, I really like the idea of having videos that students can access outside of school for learning and review.  I think parents alike will appreciate this too, so I'm making it a goal of mine to try it out next year.  Seeing others' videos and screencasts from this class were inspiring and having to make one of my own, got me over the fear of hearing my own voice.

Exploring The Grid Method

          I decided to explore The Grid Method since I was unfamiliar with it.  I visited the resource website and watched the video of the Spanish teacher who has tried it in her classroom.  The Grid Method website states that it is student centered, competency based, and allows students to learn at their own pace.  The teacher's role is that of facilitator and guide.
         As I watched the video, I found that the grid method, at least how this teacher was doing it, was just a way to organize the assignments for a specific class.  Basically, the teacher sets up a table or grid with the assignments that students should work through.  Her grid had dates and links to videos, slideshows, online quizzes, and tests.
        The pros included that students could work at their own pace and had check in points to see how they were doing such as quizzes.  They could wait until they felt they had mastered the vocabulary or grammar skills before they took the test.  I think this is highly motivating for your conscientious and advanced students.  There is no more waiting to learn.   The cons, however, are that students could get behind if they do not use their time wisely and in this particular class, the activities did seem very worksheet orientated with no chance for oral practice.  Because students are working through content at their own pace, class discussions and group projects were not included which I think are essential.  To me this seemed like an online class and better suited for junior high students and older.
             With that being said, I do find value in possibly using this method in my classroom for certain subjects.  As this Spanish teacher stated, it is more difficult to use with content such as Social Studies because there can be more than one right answer, so I think this method lends itself to subjects like math and vocabulary.  I can definitely see the value of implementing The Grid Method for math where there is flipped learning happening.  In my fourth grade classroom, we have daily math homework, so I could see assigning students a video to watch and take notes on and then setting up a grid with assignments to work through for the unit.   During class, I would work as a facilitator to help students with concepts and check in to answer any questions. If I set it up with self-grading formative assessments, students would get immediate feedback and know whether they needed to review or move on.
               I would definitely like to try this for a unit in math and see how it goes.  My only hesitation is the responsibility that it takes.  Some fourth grade students simply lack the maturity to manage their time effectively.  I will have to know who these students are and monitor them closely to make sure they don't get behind.

Citations

Settanni, Sarah, director. How to Use the Grid Method in Your Classroom. Mr. & Mrs. Social Studies, Youtube, 11 Nov. 2018, youtu.be/p4kTquq9g5k.

“What Is the Grid Method?” Teach Better, teachbetter.com.