For this Blog entry I chose to incorporate elements of the blog,Teaching Miss Cheska, and the "7 Ways to Increase Teacher Technology in the Classroom". Even though I chose teachers as my stakeholder group for my discussion post, the stakeholders I am really interested in convincing that I need a textbook program are the administrators and the parents. First, I believe that I need to "create a clear vision of what an ideal classroom with integrated technology looks like (Teaching Miss Cheska, 2010). I do not want technology in my classroom to be an afterthought, or addition. I want it to be a seamless part my everyday lessons and classroom culture. Second, I believe that stakeholders need to see the technology in action and know that using technology the correct way will seamlessly incorporate the academic standards necessary for a well-rounded foreign language education directly into the lessons. Third, I think that it is important to establish rules and regulations for electronic device use, especially in my room, since I want to know what my students know, not what they can type into Google Translate. This area is the most difficult area for me to get around. It seems that no matter how many sites are blocked there are just as many that the students can gain access to. As much as I would like to trust them, most would choose the easy way rather than relying on their own knowledge and skills.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Stakeholders
What are the top three things to communicate when introducing the
concept of technology integration to a specific group of stakeholders?
You can think of this as your learning objectives when preparing a
presentation, website, article, etc. In other words, what three things
must your audience understand in order to be fully supportive of the
school's mission to integrate technology?
For this Blog entry I chose to incorporate elements of the blog,Teaching Miss Cheska, and the "7 Ways to Increase Teacher Technology in the Classroom". Even though I chose teachers as my stakeholder group for my discussion post, the stakeholders I am really interested in convincing that I need a textbook program are the administrators and the parents. First, I believe that I need to "create a clear vision of what an ideal classroom with integrated technology looks like (Teaching Miss Cheska, 2010). I do not want technology in my classroom to be an afterthought, or addition. I want it to be a seamless part my everyday lessons and classroom culture. Second, I believe that stakeholders need to see the technology in action and know that using technology the correct way will seamlessly incorporate the academic standards necessary for a well-rounded foreign language education directly into the lessons. Third, I think that it is important to establish rules and regulations for electronic device use, especially in my room, since I want to know what my students know, not what they can type into Google Translate. This area is the most difficult area for me to get around. It seems that no matter how many sites are blocked there are just as many that the students can gain access to. As much as I would like to trust them, most would choose the easy way rather than relying on their own knowledge and skills.
For this Blog entry I chose to incorporate elements of the blog,Teaching Miss Cheska, and the "7 Ways to Increase Teacher Technology in the Classroom". Even though I chose teachers as my stakeholder group for my discussion post, the stakeholders I am really interested in convincing that I need a textbook program are the administrators and the parents. First, I believe that I need to "create a clear vision of what an ideal classroom with integrated technology looks like (Teaching Miss Cheska, 2010). I do not want technology in my classroom to be an afterthought, or addition. I want it to be a seamless part my everyday lessons and classroom culture. Second, I believe that stakeholders need to see the technology in action and know that using technology the correct way will seamlessly incorporate the academic standards necessary for a well-rounded foreign language education directly into the lessons. Third, I think that it is important to establish rules and regulations for electronic device use, especially in my room, since I want to know what my students know, not what they can type into Google Translate. This area is the most difficult area for me to get around. It seems that no matter how many sites are blocked there are just as many that the students can gain access to. As much as I would like to trust them, most would choose the easy way rather than relying on their own knowledge and skills.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
21st Century Skills
For this blog entry, we were asked to answer the following questions:
Choose the 21st Century Skill you believe is most crucial to students' lives outside the school walls.
1. Why is this skill most important?
2. How might this skill be used in your Technology Infusion Plan?
3. How can this skill be assessed?
Choose the 21st Century Skill you believe is most crucial to students' lives outside the school walls.
1. Why is this skill most important?
2. How might this skill be used in your Technology Infusion Plan?
3. How can this skill be assessed?
However, I will get to that in a minute. There is something I would like to talk about first. Technology throughout history has been developed to make our lives easier. Technological advances often take a difficult, time-consuming task and make it much easier, leaving much more free time for humans to enjoy. However, what I have experience in integrating technology in the classroom has proved the opposite. Rather than making my job easier, less stressful, and leaving me more time to create inspiring and effective lessons, my life has become harder and more stressful with little or no time to be creative at all. It seems that teachers are given the technological devices along with a mountain of tools, but are given little or no subject-specific professional development. We are told to we can find everything we need on the internet. I did a search yesterday for "Spanish 1 curriculum". I got 2,000,000 hits. Who has time to search through 2,000,000 sites. There are some wonderful tools out there, yet I do not have the time to search through them all and learn how to adapt them to my particular subject area. I have never in my life felt more stress or more overwhelmed than I do right now. I feel like I have been asked to design and build the space shuttle with a million LEGOS and no directions. I wonder if anyone else feels that way?
Anyway, here are the answers to the questions:
Choose the 21st Century Skill you believe is most crucial to students' lives outside the school walls.
Ways of thinking. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning.
1. Why is this skill most important? Without the ability to apply knowledge to real-world situations, surviving in the real world is very difficult.
2. How might this skill be used in your Technology Infusion Plan? Utilizing the concept of inquiry infused with technology, I believe, would help to develop my students reasoning and problem-solving skills.
3. How can this skill be assessed? Assessing the students' finished projects using a detailed rubric would be the best way. Also, asking students to apply knowledge with on-the-spot questioning would also check whether students can utilize these skills.
Ways of thinking. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning.
1. Why is this skill most important? Without the ability to apply knowledge to real-world situations, surviving in the real world is very difficult.
2. How might this skill be used in your Technology Infusion Plan? Utilizing the concept of inquiry infused with technology, I believe, would help to develop my students reasoning and problem-solving skills.
3. How can this skill be assessed? Assessing the students' finished projects using a detailed rubric would be the best way. Also, asking students to apply knowledge with on-the-spot questioning would also check whether students can utilize these skills.
Monday, April 14, 2014
My Philosophy of Education
"LOGIC WILL GET YOU FROM A TO B, IMAGINATION WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE"
(Albert Einstein)
"Education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.” (Steve Irwin)
My education philosophy is based on the idea that I want to be an inspiration for my students not just a fountain of information.. I want to be able to talk to them like creative, thinking, thoughtful human beings and not be afraid to learn from them. I want to be a teacher that a student cannot only learn from, but learn with . I believe that the most important skills I can teach my students are the ability to think, to imagine, and to become lifelong learners. I do not want merely to teach them facts, but to inspire them to be curious, to inspire them to cultivate their own voice and to inspire their own confidence. I do not believe that teaching them to memorize facts for a test makes me an effective teacher. Knowledge is useless without the ability to apply it to the real world and solve real-life problems and investigate real-life mysteries. Facts are useless without the imagination and confidence to apply them in new and creative ways.
When I think about what kind of teacher I wan to be, I find myself, quite often, looking to my heroes for inspiration. Albert Einstein once stated that "education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think". Thomas Jefferson once said that "we should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers". Lastly, Mr. Nelson Mandela may have summarized my true philosophy of education when he said, "education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world".
As far as technology and how it relates to my philosophy of education. Some of the main components of a great teacher are the willingness to try new things, the ability to adapt, and the desire to learn and improve. I am excited to incorporate technology into my classroom. However, unless I am given the appropriate tools and resources in order to make technology a natural part of my daily lessons, then it will always be just an addition, not an integration.
I had to write a philosophy of leadership essay for one of my graduate school classes earlier this semester. As part of that assignment, this is what we had to describe a learning experience that changed our lives. This is what I wrote. It is as true now as it was then and helps to shape my education philosophy to this day:
"It was the first day of Spanish 1, my freshman year. I came into class and my teacher started rambling on and I could not understand a single word. I was terrified. Then she picked up a guitar and started to sing. She sang the most beautiful song. I still could not understand the words, but the music made me realize that the words did not matter, the music is what mattered. The fact that I could enjoy something beautiful that I did not understand mattered. It was the beginning of a wonderful time of discovery for me. After the song, she went on to describe her adventures in the Peace Corps, hitchhiking through Central America with a backpack and a buddy, hosting tours to the Galapagos, and climbing mountains in Peru. She wove all of these stories into a mesmerizing tapestry of adventure and excitement. I did not realize it at the time, but that moment, thirty years ago, sealed my fate. That was when my thirst for adventure was ignited and my need to explore was born. I have never really thought about it until now, how important that moment really was; how significantly it has affected my life. In all honesty, if not for that moment, that teacher, I probably would not be here today; a forty-five year old Spanish teacher/ graduate student having experiences others only dream about."
This is how I want my students to look back and remember me. :)
(Albert Einstein)
"Education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.” (Steve Irwin)
My education philosophy is based on the idea that I want to be an inspiration for my students not just a fountain of information.. I want to be able to talk to them like creative, thinking, thoughtful human beings and not be afraid to learn from them. I want to be a teacher that a student cannot only learn from, but learn with . I believe that the most important skills I can teach my students are the ability to think, to imagine, and to become lifelong learners. I do not want merely to teach them facts, but to inspire them to be curious, to inspire them to cultivate their own voice and to inspire their own confidence. I do not believe that teaching them to memorize facts for a test makes me an effective teacher. Knowledge is useless without the ability to apply it to the real world and solve real-life problems and investigate real-life mysteries. Facts are useless without the imagination and confidence to apply them in new and creative ways.
When I think about what kind of teacher I wan to be, I find myself, quite often, looking to my heroes for inspiration. Albert Einstein once stated that "education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think". Thomas Jefferson once said that "we should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers". Lastly, Mr. Nelson Mandela may have summarized my true philosophy of education when he said, "education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world".
As far as technology and how it relates to my philosophy of education. Some of the main components of a great teacher are the willingness to try new things, the ability to adapt, and the desire to learn and improve. I am excited to incorporate technology into my classroom. However, unless I am given the appropriate tools and resources in order to make technology a natural part of my daily lessons, then it will always be just an addition, not an integration.
I had to write a philosophy of leadership essay for one of my graduate school classes earlier this semester. As part of that assignment, this is what we had to describe a learning experience that changed our lives. This is what I wrote. It is as true now as it was then and helps to shape my education philosophy to this day:
"It was the first day of Spanish 1, my freshman year. I came into class and my teacher started rambling on and I could not understand a single word. I was terrified. Then she picked up a guitar and started to sing. She sang the most beautiful song. I still could not understand the words, but the music made me realize that the words did not matter, the music is what mattered. The fact that I could enjoy something beautiful that I did not understand mattered. It was the beginning of a wonderful time of discovery for me. After the song, she went on to describe her adventures in the Peace Corps, hitchhiking through Central America with a backpack and a buddy, hosting tours to the Galapagos, and climbing mountains in Peru. She wove all of these stories into a mesmerizing tapestry of adventure and excitement. I did not realize it at the time, but that moment, thirty years ago, sealed my fate. That was when my thirst for adventure was ignited and my need to explore was born. I have never really thought about it until now, how important that moment really was; how significantly it has affected my life. In all honesty, if not for that moment, that teacher, I probably would not be here today; a forty-five year old Spanish teacher/ graduate student having experiences others only dream about."
This is how I want my students to look back and remember me. :)
Friday, April 4, 2014
This is the first blog of my continuing Techno Journey. This course is entitled Technology Integration 101. In this class I am most excited to learn how to integrate technology seamlessly rather than treating it as a separate component of a lesson. At this point I do not feel that I am an expert in any areas of technology. However, I do have a keen interest in Citizen Science programs and the integration of citizen science into the classroom. I am not really sure where I will need to spend the most time. I look at this class as dynamic, so I will adjust as and explore as I go.
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