Assessing meaningful learning

Rubrics are a type of assessment tool I am most familiar with. It is used in every class I rake currently, and many of the classes I have taken in the past. It outlines, in detail, what is expected of a student for success. It shows them how to be successful, and what it takes to get there. There are many websites that can be used to create a rubric for the classroom. Another assessment tool called clickers can be used for teachers to get feedback on a course from their students. This, again, is something I see used in most of the classes I take. I think it is important to get feed back from students so that courses can be sucessful. Using clickers, teachers are able to make adjustments off of recommendations of the students. Inspiration and kidspiration cover many different subject areas.

Everything I know about technology in the classroom, I learned from this class. I have mentioned many times we simply did not use these types of resources in my high school, so it has been an interesting experience to see all the opportunities I have to bring technology into my classroom. My favorite thing we have done so far is this blog. I know I will incorporste many of the things we haveused, but I think having students use a blog is a fun way to see howthey are learning, as well as get tp read some of their thoughts on what they are learning.  I liked all of the web 2.0 tools. I think that the tools learned about in this class will help me in my ultimate goal in my classroom: to be a successful teacher, and to be sensitive to the different learning styles of my students.

Technology Application Standards

I plan to teach 6th grade social studies, below is the information I have found, and copied and pasted, for it listed under Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills by chapter 

§113.18. Social Studies, Grade 6, Beginning with School Year 2011-2012.

(a)  Introduction.

(1)  In Grade 6, students study people, places, and societies of the contemporary world. Societies for study are from the following regions of the world: Europe, Russia and the Eurasian republics, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Southwest Asia-North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific realm. Students describe the influence of individuals and groups on historical and contemporary events in those societies and identify the locations and geographic characteristics of various societies. Students identify different ways of organizing economic and governmental systems. The concepts of limited and unlimited government are introduced, and students describe the nature of citizenship in various societies. Students compare institutions common to all societies such as government, education, and religious institutions. Students explain how the level of technology affects the development of the various societies and identify different points of view about events. The concept of frame of reference is introduced as an influence on an individual's point of view.

(2)  To support the teaching of the essential knowledge and skills, the use of a variety of rich primary and secondary source material such as biographies, autobiographies, novels, speeches, letters, poetry, songs, and artworks is encouraged. Motivating resources are available from museums, art galleries, and historical sites.

(3)  The eight strands of the essential knowledge and skills for social studies are intended to be integrated for instructional purposes. Skills listed in the social studies skills strand in subsection (b) of this section should be incorporated into the teaching of all essential knowledge and skills for social studies. A greater depth of understanding of complex content material can be attained when integrated social studies content from the various disciplines and critical-thinking skills are taught together. Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.

(4)  Students identify the role of the U.S. free enterprise system within the parameters of this course and understand that this system may also be referenced as capitalism or the free market system.

(5)  Throughout social studies in Kindergarten-Grade 12, students build a foundation in history; geography; economics; government; citizenship; culture; science, technology, and society; and social studies skills. The content, as appropriate for the grade level or course, enables students to understand the importance of patriotism, function in a free enterprise society, and appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation as referenced in the Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.002(h).

(6)  Students understand that a constitutional republic is a representative form of government whose representatives derive their authority from the consent of the governed, serve for an established tenure, and are sworn to uphold the constitution.

(7)  State and federal laws mandate a variety of celebrations and observances, including Celebrate Freedom Week.

(A)  Each social studies class shall include, during Celebrate Freedom Week as provided under the TEC, §29.907, or during another full school week as determined by the board of trustees of a school district, appropriate instruction concerning the intent, meaning, and importance of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, in their historical contexts. The study of the Declaration of Independence must include the study of the relationship of the ideas expressed in that document to subsequent American history, including the relationship of its ideas to the rich diversity of our people as a nation of immigrants, the American Revolution, the formulation of the U.S. Constitution, and the abolitionist movement, which led to the Emancipation Proclamation and the women's suffrage movement.

(B)  Each school district shall require that, during Celebrate Freedom Week or other week of instruction prescribed under subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, students in Grades 3-12 study and recite the following text: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."

(8)  Students identify and discuss how the actions of U.S. citizens and the local, state, and federal governments have either met or failed to meet the ideals espoused in the founding documents.

(Source: Texas Education Agency at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/)

I love the idea of teaching social studies to children.  I have this idea of what it means to teach this subject to kids, and after reading the essential knowledge skills, I feel the thoughts I had on it are in line with the Texas Education Agency.  I think it will be easy to utilize the skills for the TEKS in this subject area, especially with the help of technology and technology with visual aids in particular.  I think that I can teach about the people, places, social issues, and government of other places.  Using visual aids in technologies images of other places and diagrams of their government can be presented to students in a way that will hold their attention.  I can show pictures of the way a society works, and governs in a different country.  I want to open their minds to the WORLD, not just the united states, and I feel that through social studies, with the aid of technology, I can really affect their learning experience.  At least, that's what I think it means to teach this subject. 

I think the most important TEKS for 6th grade social studies is the first one listed.  I think this because it is the very definition of social studies, and it is an age appropriate guideline.  I will make sure this particular area of the 6th grade social studies TEKS requirement is fulfilled, because it is the most basic thing that they need to learn about social studies.  I intend to have them use technology to understand how societies differ from place to place.  I want them to understand that each place has a different government, educational systems, and religions beliefs and practices.  I want them to walk out of my classroom feeling wiser about the world, even at a young age, I feel like it is important to make students understand that there is a whole, diverse, wonderful world out there that they can learn from! 

Visualizing with Technology

I think using visual technology in the classroom is a great idea.  It is a way to make the things you are trying to teach stick with the student longer because they can actually see the lesson, as opposed to just trying to follow along with what is being said.  This is also a good idea because so many people have different learning styles, having a visual aid is very helpful in regards to this.  I think a really good example of why visualizing with technology is a good idea was found in the chapter we were to read for this lesson.  There was a picture of a visual aid used in a microbiology class, and it reminded me of my transition from high to college classes, where technology was implemented more.  I have always struggled with biology.  I am  a very visual learner and for years at my high school, I had all the complicated terms thrown at me and I could never fully grasp what I needed to know.  Then, my college biology teacher implemented technology with visual aids, and it really changed my understanding of biology.  I could see this picture of a cell and using his computer, he could show us different parts of the cell, and different terms were shown what a time in relationship to where the were located on the cell, and I was finally able to SEE it.  It became more than just a mash up of complicated terms.

Visualizing with technology has had a major impact on the learning process.  You can use it tom improve lessons in every subject that can be taught.  There are many different types of technology that can function as visual aids to improve the learning process. As I mentioned above, in a biology classroom setting, i twas helpful to me to see projected images of the subject I was trying to label, and it helped me to understand the concepts.  Another example of using different types of technology in the learning process, that in my opinion has majorly impacted the learning process, is the use of excel sheets in math.  By using excel sheets, we can apply mathematical principles to real life scenarios, and see how they affect things.  Google Earth is an example of visualizing with technology.  Thanks to it, we can see parts of the world we might have never fully understood before.  Technology in the classroom is such a useful tool, and when you think about all the visual aids than can assist us in the learning process thanks to technology, you can really appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a technologically advanced time.

Podcasting

The lesson for this week was about podcasting.  I can honestly say I knew nothing about the term.  I learned that podcasting is creating an audio file that you can listen to on different devices, such as ipods, mp3 players, and even cell phones.  The files are meant to be used on portable devices, which is why it is called podcasting.  To be honest, I have never really considered podcasting for classroom use.  When I weigh the pros and cons, I think I would consider podcasting a good education tool.  I think it is useful in the event that a student has to miss a class.  IF a student is in an online class it sometimes helps to hear the teacher explain something, rather than trying to read and comprehend something that they don't understand.  I know first hand this can be frustrating because if you do not understand the material all the words will just blur together and you do not learn anything.  So, I think that in those situations podcasting would be very useful in a class and could help to improve overall grade point average.

I think that podcasting differs quiet a bit from other web 2.0 tools.  Other types of web 2.0 tools would be wikis, social bookmarking, and voice thread.  I think one of the biggest differences is level of interaction.  For all the other tools there is much bigger level of interaction for students.  For wikis they can even go so far as to update information themselves.  They have a bigger voice with the others. Even if they can't alter something or ask questions, I would think the learning experience would be better with other tools, simply because you're providing more information.  If you use a voice thread, they can not only hear your lecture, but they can see diagrams or pictures or whatever you need to enhance the learning experience.

I actually do not own an ipod or an mp3 player.  I do have a cell phone that I am able to stream media on, but to be honest I do not use it much.  I liked learning about podcasting in this lesson because it is not something I would have normally considered as a tool for education.  I think that I would definitely use podcasting in my classroom.  As I mentioned above, I think it is particularly useful in the even that someone misses a class, or takes an online course.  I also think that the biggest reason I think I would be interested in using podcasting in my classroom is because all students learn at different speeds.  I think there would be a major advantage to have an audio file they can review on their own time before completing homework.  I think that there are both advantages and disadvantages to online communication tools.  While I understand that they are useful in the classroom setting, I think that we run into the danger of a teacher being obsolete. Students may learn to rely more on technology than on face to face communication with a teacher.

Web 2.0

 Web 2.0 is all about collaboration and interaction.  A web 2.0 site allows people to interact with each other and get together to change the content listed on a website.  Examples of web 2.0 are blogs, wikis, video sharing, bacebook, twitter, or any other social networking site. When you think about a web 2.0 site, it means you are thinking about a webpage that is more than just going to a screen and staring at the information.  I think that in most cases these websites are websites where you have a username and password and you can contribute to a site.  An example of this would be commenting on a blog posting, or something like a wiki – which would be mean you get to contribute to the information other people are seeing!

I think that Web 2.0 tools are very beneficial to today’s educational systems.  I know that I personally would want to utilize them in my classroom.  Students can use blogs, wikis, voice threads, and social bookmarking, just to name a few.  I think that voice threads are very important, because it is a way for teachers to continue to teach students when they can’t physical be in front of them.  In one of my favorite classes this semester, my teacher uses voice threads to teach lessons.  He has still pictures and he explains what is going in each picture, or slide, and hearing him speak is very beneficial in the learning process.  Another great tool that think is positive for education are wikis.  By allowing people to be able to collaborate with their classmates, or others, we are encouraging learning.  I do not think there are any negative impacts. 

Copyright & Fair use, Netiquette, and Cyberbullying.

Once again this week I find myself learning something I had no clue about.  As I think about my career as an educator, I consider all the ways I want to inspire my students, I have all these plans about the type of teacher I want to be, and I know that technology will play a big part in that.  Once again in this class I find myself learning information that is completely new to me.  Copyright & Fair Use.  I do not know why I've never thought about these issues before, but to be perfectly honest, I just haven't.  I can see myself in my classroom, using powerpoints, blogs, webpages, etc to teach my students.  Using powerful quotes by famous politicians, educators, philosophers, and the like that have inspired me, but never once have I stopped to think - is it legal for me to create such things using their speeches, quotes, lyrics, etc?  I did find that the basic guidelines in an article I read are very helpful in helping me to understand what I can fairly use in teaching. From these things, I think I would be able to make a good decision on what to use in the classroom.  I know that using copyrighted material is ok, given that:
- I am in a place that is for learning, and the material will not leave that facility.
- I have to use a legitimate copy of whatever I am using, obviously some bootlegged copy of something is not under any copyright of fair use law.
- I can use it so long as what I am using is not available for sale for classroom use.


As you can see from above, what I really learned about in this lesson was copyright and fair use, however, I do feel that netiquette and cyberbullying are very important topics. I just think they are more common sense than education copyright laws.  Netiquette is that same thing as traditional etiquette, when you go online you treat people the way you want to be treated, and you treat them the way you would if you were in a face to face situation with them.  It is no different and I will definitely teach my students about netiquette considering my stance on technology in the classroom.  Cyberbullying is a major issues in today's society.  Kids are using the internet as a hurtful instrument.  From playing terrible games on social media, to posting derogatory and slanderous statements about other students - it needs to be stopped.  After learning about all these things I definitely feel that netiquette and cyberbullying are issues that should be addressed in the classroom, and I think it is important for teachers to read up on copyright a fair use so they don't break any laws, and so they know they using the full range of resources provided to them.

MAPping Information

I have to start this post by again saying, the high school I attended did NOT incorporate technology at all in it's subjects.  Other than my college English class, this is basically the first time I have had to extensively research things on the internet.  Prior to today, I would get get on to Google and type whatever I was looking for.  It's extremely frustrating because as we all know you get tons of hits no matter what you type, and sometimes if you are looking for something very specific you have to trudge through tons of trash to get useful information.  It's hard to trust a website, so finding a way to make searches more efficient is very important, especially now that technology plays such an important part in the classroom setting.  All the information I have read about MAPping is brand new to me.  I had no idea that you could use different search techniques to aid in what you are looking for. I will definitely need to spend a few weeks going over everything, but I am very excited to work with these techniques.

I must admit that all of the information I have been going over for MAPping is a lot to take in.  I want to practice with it more, and maybe look up more articles on the subject. I can honestly say that I want to change my habits in the future, but I as I am very new to this I will need to practice, and practice often.  I think one of the nicest tips was learning that you can search, and just bring up information from specific websites, such as: education (edu), organization (org), military (mil). To be honesty, this is the first time I've ever stopped to think about what those things means.  I have already utilized this knowledge in one of my other classes to search for a specific topic on educational websites, and I was amazed at how different and how much more successful my results were!  The way I have searched things have definitely changed.  I feel much better about using the results I get as a source in my papers now.  As a teacher, I want to incorporate this into my classroom because I do believe in technology, but I know it is easy for students to become confused by all of the false material there is out there, and MAPping will definitely help eliminate that.

Just for fun, I looked at some up the past things I have searched on Google.  I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I saw the results.  I would start with a one or two word search, and it gradually got longer, as I got more desperate in my search for information.  At times, there would be two or three sentence searches!  I was very surprised to learn that Google does not even give you results based on relevance.  This lesson has definitely changed the way I view search engines.  As of right now, I do think these techniques are complicated, but I plan to continue to better myself with MAPping, because I think it is a necessary skill before I go into teaching!