Click on the link below to view my webquest
http://bit.ly/1NpXVTo
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Why integrating technology is a necessity!
Why Integrating
Technology in the Classroom is a Necessity
By: Kristin Hassig
I believe that integrating
technology in the classroom is vital in today’s society. We live in a society that uses technology in
every facet of our lives, from communication, transportation to school and
work. Children today spend more time on
electronic devices than ever before. The question is why wouldn’t you integrate
technology into the classroom? I believe
technology should be integrated into our classrooms because it gives every type
of learner a fair opportunity to learn.
Technology today allows deaf people to hear, blind people to read and students
with disabilities the ability to connect with the information in a different
way. I have seen firsthand how open
minded students are to using Chromebooks, Smart Boards i-Pads in their
classrooms. It opens a whole new world of
knowledge and information for them, and helps solidify the information already
learned during the face to face time with the teacher. Integrating technology in lessons is necessary
because it allows children to really use their creativity and show themselves
as individuals. When students have the ability
to create something whether it be a research paper or an in-depth WebQuest, students
have endless possibilities on how to create and develop these projects. Technology is the way of the world now, and
it is our duty as educators to prepare our students for the real world. We must
build a foundation for using technology so when they get their jobs after they
graduate they will be ready for the workforce that awaits them.
I
recently did an observation in a classroom on technology integration and I was impressed
on how comfortable and confident the students were when using the Chromebooks
as part of their grammar lesson. When I walked
into the classroom the first thing I saw was the students sitting at their
tables which they shared with three other people, retrieving their Chromebooks
and setting up for the lesson. Mrs. D had the students go to the Brain Pop Jr
website for a lesson on Adjectives. She began the lesson by calling on students
to give examples of what an adjective is, then they had to watch a two minute clip
on adjectives and how they are used. I started listening to two boys who
watched the clip and were playing adjectives games. They were talking about “how cool it was to
do their lessons on the computer, “and how they “didn’t feel as though they
were learning because the games were so fun”.
They used Brain Pop Jr. for a total of thirty minutes and her students
were excited, engaged and discussing adjectives the entire time. It was
interesting to witness so many students on task and engaged because the Brain
Pop Jr. website was teaching them in a manner in which the teacher could
not. It was a moment of realization for
me that technology can be integrated into lessons as long as it is used
properly.
As
great as integrating technology in the classroom is, there are some barriers
when using technology in the classroom. One of the barriers include the fact
that not every school has the money to provide enough technology to every
student in every class. The fact of the
matter is technology is not cheap, and it is hard for schools to justify
certain types of technology when the money could be spent elsewhere. However, just because every student doesn’t have
access to their own individual computer doesn’t mean they can’t use them at
all. Students can share, and work in small groups, to build collaboration
among the students. Taking turns and
borrowing from other classrooms is always an option.
I
believe that integrating technology into the classroom is a necessity in the
twenty-first century. Being computer
proficient is a normal part of life, and it is unacceptable to send children in
the real world without firsthand experience with technology. Using technology in the classroom not only
helps keep the students engaged in the learning materials, it opens up a whole
new way to learn that teachers just can’t provide. As a future educator I can make say that I will
make sure I design my lessons to include technology into my lessons.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, LA 2005
I made a digital story about The devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, LA in 2005. Click below to check it out.
Click here for the Impact of Hurricane Katrina Digital Story:
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Technology in the 21st century Classroom Field Experience
Technology
Integration in the Twenty-First Century Classroom
Field Experience
By: Kristin Hassig
Throughout
this course we have learned ways to integrate technology into our future
classrooms. It has been very intriguing and eye opening experience and I have
really come to embrace technology. To
understand how teachers integrate technology in their classroom we were asked
to observe an educator to see how they utilize technology in their classrooms. I currently work at a school that is
kindergarten through eighth grade. Since I am going for an elementary education
certification, I chose to stick to with elementary level. I chose to observe a
fourth grade classroom because the teacher I observed is well known for her technology
integration in her lessons. Each
classroom is equipped with a class set of Chromebooks for everyone in the class
which makes integrating technology into their lessons much easier. The teachers
and students also have access to iPads. The
iPads have to be signed up for in advance since there is only forty for the entire
elementary school. The specialists and
special education department do have a few iPads in their classroom for
students who need them for their programs or communication. Unfortunately iPads
are not widely available to every classroom every day.
When
walking into Mrs. D’s classroom the first thing I noticed was the huge Smartboard
in the front of the class. When I looked
to the left of the room I saw a hub of Chromebooks charging on their docking
stations, and a moving cart next to them that contained the iPads. Each Classroom should have enough Chromebooks
for everyone in the class however,
this year Mrs. D has a very large class so they are short two Chromebooks. When the students have assignments that
entail using the Chromebooks, the students either borrow two from the computer
lab or from one of the other fourth grade classrooms. I
asked Mrs. D if she has a system in place for retrieving the Chromebooks to cut
down on long transitions times and confusion. She explained to me that she tried a couple
of different ways at the beginning of the year to see which method worked the
best. First she tried having two
students of the week pass out the Chromebooks, she said it was a good idea in
theory because the students knew for one week who was supposed to pass them
out, however after about two weeks of this, the students started saying “I don’t want this Chromebook, I want
Chromebook number twelve because that is the one I had last time”. Or “Eww
Travis had that Chromebook yesterday, I don’t want to touch that”. Apparently in fourth grade they still believe
in cooties. So Mrs. D decided that each
student would be assigned a number, and that number would correlate to the
Chromebook number. Now since she is
short two computers she chose the two students that were responsible to be the
students who have to retrieve the other Chromebooks from other classes. Mrs. D said it cut down the transition times
and bickering drastically.
During
my observations in her classroom I was able to see four different uses of
technology. The first observation I did
was really interesting. It was a “Google Hangout” called google talk
with another teacher’s daughter who is studying abroad in Europe for a
semester. The website is www.google.com/hangouts.
The students read a story called Good-Bye
382 Shin Dang Dong by: Frances Park.
This story was about a little eight year old girl and her family who
lived in Korea and moved to the United States.
The students read the book aloud, then Mrs. D played it over the
smartboard so they could listen to it together as a class. After the class was finished reading and
listening to the class she had them discuss some of the things the story talked
about. A big part was comparing the
cultures, landscapes and food. Mrs. D
used the Smartboard to compile the list so they students could copy them down
into their journals. The students were
then told they were going to have the opportunity to talk with a former student
of the school who is living in Belgium for a semester to study abroad. They were told to get their Chromebooks and
open up a Google Doc that she had Shared
with the class and come up with four questions they would like to ask
Kathryn, the student who is studying abroad.
They only had about ten minutes to compile their lists because Kathryn
called at 10:00am our time to discuss her experience in a foreign country. She talked about her experience for about
fifteen minutes before the students were able to ask their questions. Most of the questions the students asked her
were about the same thing’s they discussed in class about their reading. For example, one student asked “What
type of foods do they eat in Belgium and what’s the grossest thing you have
tried”? Another student asked “What is the terrain and landscape like in Belgium”? The students were so engaged and
loved listening to her experience, especially since they could see her and she
could see them. She spoke with the class for about thirty-five minutes before she
had to take off to catch a plane to Spain for about a week. Once the session was over, the students had
to do a Venn diagram about Kathryn’s experience and Jangmi’s experience in a
new country. They did the Venn diagram in
their notebooks.
Another
way Mrs. D integrated technology in her class was through a grammar
lesson. The lesson was about verbs. She briefly asked the students about what
they had learned about verbs the day before.
Then she had the class open up their Chromebooks and go to jr.brainpop.com.
When the students got to the website they automatically knew that they
had to login. The school has a trial so
they all use the same login information.
Once everyone had logged in, she had the students type in “VERBS” in
the search bar. They were told to watch
a short video that was posted about what verbs are. One student was out of the room when she gave
instructions and another student went over to his desk and helped him get logged
in and set up. The students were asked
to bring in their own headphones at the beginning of the year, so Mrs. D asked
them to take them out of their desks, plug them in and watch the video. Mrs. D told me that for her class this year “it’s better when they can listen to it on
their own than through the smartboard, because they have a lot of different
types of learners and it is easier for them to watch it at their own speed and
pace.” After the video was done they
had to take a quiz that the website offers about the video they just
watched. Mrs. D likes it because it helps
the students see if they understand the material, and it could be used as a
formative assessment because there is an option to print the scores out after
it is completed. Once they were done
with the quiz they had time to poke around the verbs section. This section had eleven different activities
that involved verbs. This was very fun
and engaging for the kids. One of the
questions I asked her was “Do you think
that technology keeps the students engaged in the materials longer”? She said “Yes, especially if they are
games and activities because they don’t feel as though they are learning”. After about fifteen minutes of freedom on the
verbs section of the website she asked them to log out of their accounts and
close the Chromebooks.
The
final observation I did in Mrs. D’s fourth grade class was a science
lesson. The class is doing a unit about
observations so the Auburn Audubon came in and did a presentation on Fiddler
Crabs. This year the fourth grade
teachers decided to do an online journal, instead of doing it in their
notebooks which they had done in previous years. This part of my observation was very useful
to me because she gave me a brief synopsis of Google
Classroom while the students were at their special. I asked her "Why she thought Google Classroom was so helpful in her classroom? She explained how Google
Classroom worked and how she has integrated it into some of her lessons
and why she thought it was such a great tool to utilize.
Why Google Classroom Is Helpful:
·
The ability to Share lessons and activities with
not only the students but with the parents as well.
·
Accountability. Mrs. Duffy is about to keep her
students more accountable with assignments because it displays who has or has
not “Turned in” assignments.
·
Editing.
She is able to make comments on the student’s papers. Mrs. D explained that the comments don’t fix
the errors, but helps them see the areas that need to be reexamined.
·
Suggesting. The suggesting tool on Google
Classroom allows Mrs. D to show the errors that the students made and how to
fix them.
·
Sending messages. There is a way to send comments to the students
about their papers or assignments. She also
said that there is a way for the students to communicate with one another
however, she said the students are too young to give nice constructive criticism
and they were hurting one another’s feelings so she disabled that option.
When the students got back from
their special she told everyone to login to their google
classroom accounts. Once everyone was on she told them she was going to “PUSH” a
website through to them. When you “push”
a website to the students you have to make sure everyone is in google
classroom, then the students can click directly on the link she sent and it takes
the students directly to that website. If
a student didn’t make it to Google Classroom in
time before she pushes the links through, the students can just click on the Green Chalkboard Icon and it can be accessed
through there. Once the students were on
the website they were able to explore and investigate the website. They had to write down or type up on a google
doc a list of things they learned from the website in order to generate a class
list at the end of the activity. They
also had to find a picture they wanted to use as their cover of their
journals. One of the students showed
Mrs. D how they could do an image search and literally drag the picture from
the website onto a google doc to save the picture. Mrs. D used this as a
teaching moment and had the student go up to the Smartboard and Do it for the entire
class to see. I was so impressed that a fourth grader was that well versed in
Google Classroom in fourth grade, and she was completely comfortable teaching
two adults and twenty-five other students.
This was such an eye opening moment for me as a future educator because I
was able to see how good students really are with technology.
“The time has come to reject incremental
change and to radically transform education to reflect the current global
community. Teachers must learn to model
connectedness and enable students to develop personal learning networks, made
up of people and resources from both their physical and virtual worlds- but
first teachers need to become connected collaborators themselves.” (Nussbaum-Beach,
Ritter Hall, pg.4) I believe this quote sums up the quality
of my observations. I believe I chose an
excellent educator to observe. Not only is she a great educator in general, she
really wants her students to be a part of the global education community. She is more than willing to learn about new
technologies and try them out with her students. She allows the children to
explore learning websites and be as creative as they can. She is not only an educator with her students
she is a learner also. When I was
observing her class, a student showed her and the entire class a short cut on
how to add images to their journal articles. Mrs. D was so willing to listen
and learn from her students. Mrs. D is a
collaborator which is something we learned about throughout this term. She agrees with the studies done on “collaboration
focusing on teacher practice overwhelmingly suggesting that collaboration
having a strong effect on instruction and student learning.” (Nussbaum-Beach, Ritter Hall, pg.13). I learned a lot from my observation and it
has really motivated me to want to integrate technology into my lessons when I am
an educator in the future. I saw first
handed how engaged the students were, how fluent they were with Google
Classroom and how open they were to using technology. Mrs. D told me “I believe that most children
have become visual learners because of all the technology already incorporated
into their lives. I think that it is an
easy connection for them to use it during school as well.” I was also able to
connect this class to my observation of Mrs. D by showing her some websites on
shortening the URL addresses and easel.ly website. She was grateful for the websites, I also
told her I would share my portaportal.com
website with her so she can grab some ideas off my lists. I am
grateful for this opportunity and it has really opened my eyes to how important
integrating technology is in our classrooms.
Resources used during Observation:
v The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in
a Digital Age. By Sheryl Nussbaum- Beach and Lani Ritter Hall
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Natural Resources: Renewable& Nonrenewable Resources Lesson Plan (integrating technology lesson plan)
Natural
Resources:
Renewable
and Nonrenewable
Grade
4 Lesson Plan
Big
Idea:
It is important
for students to understand the differences between the different types of
natural resources. It is also important for them to understand why it is
important to the environment.
Title:
Natural
Resources: Renewable and Nonrenewable
Education
Standards:
Science
Stem and Expectations: Earth and Space Science (ESS:4)
Social Issues (ESS:4):
ESS:4:3.1
Environmental Change (ESS:4)
ESS:4:3.4
ISTE
Standards:
Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and
Creativity:
ISTE:1.B
ISTE:1.C
Design
and Develop digital age learning experience and assessment:
ISTE:2.A
ISTE:2.C
Objectives:
1.)
Students
will recognize that natural
resources can either be renewable or nonrenewable.
2.)
The
students will differentiate between
what a renewable and nonrenewable resource is.
3.)
The
students will apply their knowledge of
the content by executing a digital T-Chart
using Google Docs. This will prove the students understand the differences between renewable and nonrenewable
resources.
4.)
The
students will design a Google
Presentation Slide on the natural resource of their choice.
5.)
Students
will discuss which type of resource
is interesting to the individual student, and develop the Slide on that resource.
6.)
Students
will navigate and investigate student approved websites
to construct information about their
resource.
7.)
The
Students will assemble the Google
Presentations into a slide show as a class, in order to present it to the school on Earth Day.
Materials:
1.)
Lap
Top Computers, IPADS, Chrome Books. (Whichever is available to the class).
2.)
Smartboard
or white board.
3.)
Printer
4.)
Our
Resources Crossword Puzzle
5.)
Google
Docs T-C
6.)
Handout
with Jumbled nonrenewable and renewable resources the students will use to
create the T-Chart.
7.)
Pre-made
Bulletin Board
8.)
Glue
9.)
Construction
Paper
10.)
Crayons
11.)
YouTube
Anticipatory
Set:
Begin
the lesson by having the students watch a short video. The video is titled “SC.4.E.6.3
Dirty Jobs” By: Summit Training. After
the song has completed turn it off and have the students do a “turn and talk
about what they learned from the video.
Procedure:
Begin the lesson by having the students
watch a short video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIm1cPAuWkU The
video is titled “SC.4.E.6.3 Dirty Jobs” By: Summit Training. After the song has completed turn it off and
have the students do a “turn and talk about what they learned from the
video. After the students have had about
two minutes to discuss what they
learned with their neighbor, ask the children “if they can formulate a definition for renewable and nonrenewable
resources, based on what they learned from the video and the turn and talk?”(Hot
Question #1). Write the definitions on the board and discuss the video with the entire class for about five
minutes. Once the class truly understands the differences between the
two, ask them another question. Ask the
students “if they can compile a list of
renewable and nonrenewable, and classify which type of resource it is?” (Hot
Question #2). At this point in the lesson have the children go get the
Chromebooks/IPADS or whatever form of technology they have available. Once everyone is logged on, give them
instructions to go to their google classroom accounts and access the Google Presentation File. The file is titled “Natural
Resources”. Use the website: http://www.randomizelist.com/ while
the students are getting logged in to enter the student’s names to figure out
the order the students will be on the Google Presentation. This will make it so it is fair and there is
no confusion about whose slide is whose.
Once
the students have gotten their numbers for the slides, have them formulate the list of the different types
of resources. Give them ten minutes, some
student need more time to type than others. Once they have finished their
Charts, ask them if they can “Analyze
the Charts they just constructed and have them distinguish their top two
resources they would like to learn more about, and why they find them
interesting”? (Hot Question #3). Have the Students go around the room one by
one still in the same order as their Google Presentation Slide and tell the
class which one they would like to do for the class Earth Day slide show. Make sure it is written down on the white
board so the students can see if their choices were already picked or not. Once the Students have narrowed it down and
everyone has their choice, have the students go one the internet using student
approved websites to do the research.
The student approved websites were discussed
at the beginning of the year, so the students know which websites they can navigate and explore. Write down either
using the white board or smart board of what they should be looking for. Things that should be investigating for their slides for the Earth Day Slide Show
include; The name of the resource, what type of resource it is, a picture of it
and why they chose the resource they did. This part of the lesson should take about
twenty minutes. Once everyone is done with their slides, have the students print
them out and mount them to colored construction paper. If they don’t have color
on their slides have them use crayons to make it colorful and bright so that
when it is displayed on the bulletin board.
Closure:
For
the closure of this lesson have the students work together to assemble the class slide show. This
will allow them to collaborate on
how the slides should be arranged. You can
also use this as a form of assessment,
by listening to how they classify all the different natural resources. Once the slideshow is arranged, have the
weekly paper passer pass out the Our Resources Crossword Puzzle. This paper will be used to wrap up the lesson
and have them reflect on what they learned.
Assessment:
To
assess the knowledge gained by the
students throughout this lesson, there was a paper distributed during the closure
part of the lesson, titled; “What I Learned about Natural Resources”
paper. This worksheet will allow for
another form of assessment. This paper will be used as a note sheet for
the students during the individual slide presentations. Once the papers are passed out have the
student with the first slide come up and present their slides, using the ones
they printed and added color to. As the
students are listening to their classmate’s presentations they were given
instructions to write down a few things.
The worksheet explained that the students had to write down information about
their classmate’s projects. When all the
students have presented their projects collect the papers and use it as a form
of assessment to see if they learned
anything, also to make sure they were paying attention. Another way to assess the knowledge gained throughout
this lesson is to individually grade the slides they printed and constructed. This can be assessed for knowledge gained, participation
and a project grade.
Modifications:
All
modifications/accommodations identified on Individualized Education Plan or 504
plans are addressed.
Resources:
Attached to the paper copy is the “Our Resources”
Crossword page.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Creating Collaborative Cultures!
Building a Collaborative Culture:
I broke down the methods of creating and sustaining a collaborative group. This Infograph summarizes The two types of relationships that should be happening among the group in order to thrive. Then it goes onto the Four stages of Collaboration.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Bookmarking using Diigo
DIIGO is a great way to bookmark all the educational websites you could need and you'll never loose a source again!
Here is the link to my Bookmarking Hot List:
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