Virtual Field Trips

Here is a great link I stumbled upon with numerous videos that cover a variety of topics and subjects. :)

http://ldshomeschoolinginca.org/vft.html 

Behaviorism in Practice

This week our course resources focused primarily on the behaviorist learning theory.  Our assignment is to describe how the two instructional strategies, reinforcing effort, and homework and practice, correlate with the principles of the behaviorist learning theory. 

“A key element of the behaviorist learning theory is the rewarded response.  The desired response must be rewarded in order for learning to take place”  (Orey, 2001).  Students who are rewarded will continue a desired behavior or response, and those responses that are ignored or punished, will decrease.   This stimulus-response association can positively impact classroom behaviors, academics, and also reinforce study skills.  “Students can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief” (Pitler, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).

The behaviorist approach believes that, “frequent practice-and practice in varied contexts-is necessary for learning to take place.  Skills are not acquired without frequent practice”  (Smith, 1999).  Marzano claims that, “Typically, students need about 24 practice sessions with a skill in order to achieve 80-percent competency” (Pitler, 2007).  Reading this fact really made me stop and think about how often student really get that amount of exposure to material due to the race to meet the requirements of the high stakes tests.  As if the vast amount of skills we are required to teach weren’t enough, often times we also have to teach the prerequisite skills students are lacking, and now we are being told that students need 24 practice sessions or more to achieve mastery?  There simply isn’t enough time!  However, assigning purposeful homework assignments can help.  “Homework provides opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the content and to gain proficiency with their skills”  (Pitler, 2007).  

How then does technology play into all of this?  “Technology facilitates homework and practice by providing a wealth of resources for learning outside of the classroom, making it easy for students to work on collaborative homework assignments and providing ‘drill and practice’ resources that help students refine their skills” (Pitler, 2007).  The Internet is a wealth of information providing lessons, practice or application, and even games to enhance skills.  Online lessons are especially beneficial because students can watch them over and over until they fully understand, or they can simply search to find another method that makes more sense to them. 

“Technology makes it easier for students and teachers to track the effects of effort and facilitates more immediate feedback”  (Pitler, 2007).  Much of the software or programs that are available offer immediate feedback.  This lets the child know how they are doing, which will help to keep them from practicing or perfecting doing something incorrectly.  When the animated figure pops up with an encouraging word or tip, the students will begin to gain an understanding of the desired behavior or outcome.  When they are kept from moving on to the next level because of answering incorrectly, students will want to earn access to the next level and continue to persevere.  Students and teachers have access to reports that clearly state the students’ progress.   No longer will students be able to “slide under the radar” if they are struggling in a subject, the reports will indicate this. 

There are effective software programs that strengthen mathematical skills such as ALEKS (http://www.aleks.com/)  or SuccessMaker  (http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZk99).  However these programs cost a significant amount of money, and many schools simply cannot afford to purchase these licenses.  In addition, to these, there are many free sites that offer great remediation or practice.  I currently use www.edmodo.com to post assignments and to have students respond to math questions online, or submit homework or game results through our Edmodo site  Some of our favorite sites for math games are:  www.mathplayground.com, www.hoodamath.com, http://www.coolmath-games.com/, www.multiplication.com, https://www.acuityathome.com/index.jsp, and many more.  

“Parental involvement in doing homework should be kept to a minimum”  (Pitler, 2007).  I agree with this statement for a number of reasons.  First of all, many of my students who would need the extra assistance with homework are the ones who are home alone the majority of the night while their parents work to earn money to pay the bills.  The second reason I agree with this statement, is because parents have been out of school for a number of years and simply may not remember how to apply a mathematical formula, or never learned the content using the same strategies their child is expected to master.  By incorporating technology into the homework, students can access online tutorials if needed; they can see sample problems and revisit the information learned in class.  Social networking can allow the students to contact the teacher or even other classmates for clarification on what an assignment was or tips to successfully complete an assignment.  Students can also practice their basic skills by playing educational games and get feedback that would be missing if they were home alone. 

Homework and reinforcement go hand in hand with the behaviorist approach.  The behaviorist approach states that students need multiple exposures to content in order to master the skills, and reinforcement provides students with feedback based on their progress to promote desired outcomes.  Carefully selected homework can provide students with the opportunities needed to practice and develop mastery of skills.  “Having students practice a skill or concept enhances their ability to reach the expected level of proficiency.  Multiple exposures to material help students deepen their understanding of content and become proficient with skills”  (Pitler, 2007).  Incorporating technology into the homework assignments or projects takes homework t o the next level by offering immediate feedback and thus reinforcing the desired outcomes or responses. 

References:

Orey, M. (Ed.).  (2001).  Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.  Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K.  (2007).  Using technology with classroom instruction that works.  Alexandria, VA:  ASCD.

Smith, K. (1999).  The behaviourist orientation to learning.  In The encyclopedia of informal education.  Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behaviourist.htm

Welcome Back

It's hard to believe that we are entering our 5th Walden course, that means we are almost half way through our degrees!  I have learned so much from my classmates and professors, and thankfully the time has been flying by.

This course, Bridging Learning Theory and Technology has a blogging component as well, so expect to see updated posts throughout this course.  Also, be sure to check out my classmates' blogs, they have great insight and ideas!  :)

Reflection

As the end of this course approaches, I would like to reflect on the impact it has had on my teaching.  This course has really introduced me to many new ways to add technology to my teaching repertoire.  I have learned how to create a blog, about RSS, how to use an RSS aggregator, how to create wikis, and podcasts, as well as other ideas on effective uses of technology in the classroom.   Although many of these were things I had not heard of until this class, I now have a better understanding of their capabilities and how to use them.

I learned a great deal about 21^st Century Skills through our reading assignments and videos, however, I truly valued the experiences that had us manipulate the technology to really gain a better understanding and to make connections on our own.   Without these assignments I probably would not have set aside the time to truly figure out the components of a class wiki, or how to subscribe to feeds to get information without countless hours of searching.  These activities were not easy but I loved the feeling of truly learning meaningful content to enrich my students’ learning experiences.  I have even implemented the use of websites I found while reading blogs for this class, a class wiki project that focused on March Madness data, and Edmodo.  Each and every week I was invigorated by the topics we were assigned in this course and I brought that excitement into my classroom as I introduced my students to these incredible learning tools. 

Although I am known in my school to integrate technology as much as possible (I’ve been known to “hog” the mobile labs or computer labs on a regular basis and the tech department eventually decided to just let me house the mobile lab in my room since everyone knew it would always be there), I did not fully understand which skills I should be incorporating into my lessons.  Everyone seemed to use the lab to make pretty posters or publish writing, and although these are valuable ways to create final drafts, I always felt there had to be other ways or reasons to use the lab other than simply researching or typing a story in Word, but didn’t know where to look for guidance.  Although my classes often went beyond the basic computer use, I was hungry for a guideline to help me focus on the necessary skills I needed to help my students develop instead of trying to cover everything.  I was thrilled to read multiple articles assigned in this course that focused on 21^st Century Skills and technology standards.  These resources helped me to realize that 21^st Century Skills doesn’t just mean using technology on a regular basis, it also includes skills such as inventive thinking, effective communication, prioritizing, planning, and managing for results, effective use of real-world tools, and global awareness (Partnership for the 21^st Century, N.D.).  They also helped me to gain a better understanding of which skills are necessary for my students to master in order to be fully prepared for the next grade. 

The statement that stood out to me time and time again was, “It’s their after-school education, not their school education, that’s preparing our kids for their 21^st-century lives-and they know it” (Prensky, 2008).   Students are so eager to use technology that they carry it everywhere with them.  As soon as they have a free moment, they pull out their mobile device and “play” or “mess around”.  But it is this time that they are learning truly beneficial skills that will help them to be successful in our technology filled future.  They are learning various shortcuts, how to change settings to customize it to their liking, they are communicating with others around the world, they are problem solving, and most of all, they are engaged.  They are driven to use and master this equipment, and this equipment is the key to making learning meaningful and interesting to our students.  We need to find ways to incorporate these new, invigorating technologies into our classrooms on a regular basis.  “Educating or evaluating kids without these tools makes no more sense to them than educating a plumber without a wrench” (Cramer, 2007).  However, we must be careful about how we plan to use technology in our lessons, Bull and Bull argue that, “Using technology to teach the same topics in fundamentally the same ways that could be taught without technology does not strengthen students’ learning and belies the usefulness of technology.  Furthermore, using technology to perform tasks that are just as easily carried out without technology may actually be a hindrance to learning”  (Bull and Bull, 2003).  The truly effective use of technology is one that strengthens core content while allowing students to do things that would not be possible without the technology.

Many of the articles we read closely related the teaching of 21^st Century Skills to the Constructivist Approach.  My teaching during my undergrad (while volunteering in classrooms and working as the head teacher at the university’s day care) closely resembled the Constructivist Approach.  However, my teaching changed slightly once I landed my first teaching position and was handed a teacher’s manual (or 8 for that matter).  I’ll never forget the uneasiness feeling I got when I was expected to use the teacher’s guide to get my lessons.  The person who wrote that book did not know my students or their capabilities, so how could it meet their needs academically?  As time went on and I was forced more and more to use the teacher’s manual, I started to lose a little bit of the spark that had drawn me to teach in the first place.  To overcome this I’d throw in a lesson or two, created based upon my class’s interests while focusing and developing skills mandated by standards.  These projects rejuvenated me and my class (I had the same kids 3 years), and were the learning experiences we all still remember and value.  As a result, my goal is to become more of a facilitator and let students play an active role in leading the learning experience. 

This year my teacher’s manual is sitting on a shelf near my computer covered in dust.  Sure, I pull it out at times to learn other strategies to introduce a skill or to get a feel for which topics relate closely to one another at times, but I prefer to create lessons based upon my students’ interests and abilities.  Just recently my classes were busy talking about the basketball game the night before and spouting out statistics of various teams.  I was amazed by the amount of data they had memorized when some have a tough time simply getting their name on the their paper.  I used the knowledge from this course to create a class wiki project that focused on March Madness data.  Students researched, recorded, compared, calculated, made predictions, corrected predictions, and collaborated during this activity.  Suddenly using data that was important to them they were eager to learn how to change a fraction to a percent, and how to divide using decimals instead of just getting a remainder.   They focused on place value as they compared field goal percentages and finally, they understood mean (average) and how to calculate it!  This task not only got my students engaged but it made me excited to go to school each day as well.  I was eager to see what new information they had found, new connections they had made, to listen to their discussions, and to learn WITH them as we utilized wikispaces for the first time.

I find my best teaching experiences have been created working as a team with my students.  We create projects together and discuss how to make certain topics relate to our educational standards.  We truly make a great team and I love getting the opportunity to learn from them.  Our students bring a great deal of knowledge with them when they enter our classrooms.  “Encouraged to share their expertise, students can be a teacher’s best resource for suggesting better access to technology, defining the kinds of technology that teacher should be using in the classroom, and showing teachers how they can use specific hardware and software tools to teach more effectively”  (Prensky, 2005).

“Today’s teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students.  This doesn’t mean changing the meaning of what is important, or of good thinking skills.  But it does mean going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access, among other things”  (Prensky, 2001).  By embracing these new teaching methods we will find that students are more engaged and in charge of their learning.  We will spend less time trying to motivate them accept why they need to learn something and more time allowing them to apply their skills.  To keep current on these changes in teaching I will continue to collaborate with other professionals, I will visit blogs that contain relevant information to improve my teaching practices, and I will continue to seek out professional development.  The past two years I have had the opportunity to travel our state to visit other schools to see how they have incorporated technology.  My favorite part of these trips is talking with the students to get their real (and very honest) feelings about the various technology skills or programs they are using. 

My goal is to develop and incorporate more technology in my classroom.  I would love to find gaming applications that require students to use various math skills to master the game.  With the vast amount of gaming software and resources on the web I’m sure there must be something created already, it’s just a matter of finding one that meets my students’ needs. 

Another goal I have is to create real-life applications that incorporate technology and the math skills I’m mandated to teach.  “Students need to learn academic content through real-world examples, applications and experiences both inside and outside of school.  Students understand and retain more when their learning is relevant, engaging and meaningful to their lives”  (Partnership for the 21^st Century, N.D.).  To accomplish this I will continue to search the web for activities but I will also collaborate with other teachers and even business owners in our local area to develop tasks that are meaningful to the students and strengthen their understanding of core content and 21^st Century skills. (There’s nothing more upsetting than spending hour upon hour “creating” a new project to hear, “Oh, so and so does the same project!”)   

During the first week of this course we were asked to complete a checklist to assess our technology integration practices.  This week we revisited this same checklist and although some of my ratings are still the same, I now have the resources to incorporate technology more frequently in my lessons.  Two of the goals I have had all year, developing more activities that require student collaboration to accomplish a task, and designing learning experiences that require students to formulate questions for inquiry and engage in real-world problem-solving activities are still goals I will continue to work on, however I now feel I have a better idea of how to incorporate technology into my classroom and I have a better understanding of how to collaborate with other teachers to find already created tasks that I can tweak to my liking.  One practice that has increased during this course is my use of digital tools to collaborate and communicate with students.  I often use my webpage or email to communicate with parents or to simply make information available to anyone who accesses it but through out wiki project and Edmodo I have begun corresponding with my students more often about projects.  This feature has been great for the student who was out of town for a funeral, for the shy kid who doesn’t want to speak up in class, and even for the student who waited until the last minute and needed some guidance on the lesson into the wee hours of the night. 

I could go on an on about the numerous things this course has taught me.  At this point I really feel it has been the most beneficial of all of the college courses I have ever taken.  Not only did I get great feedback and ideas from Dr. Calvin, but I also had an opportunity to work on a project with my classmates.  The wiki project allowed us to get to know one another and learn from one another as we worked to complete the project.  I truly value my classmates’ opinions and experiences as they have helped me to improve my own instructional strategies through our class discussions.  I leave this class with much more knowledge than I started with, and I feel reinvigorated once again. 

References:

Bull, G., & Bull, G. (2004). The digital disconnect: A recent Pew study. Learning and Leading with Technology, 31(4), 28–31.  




Cramer, S. (2007, January). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf

Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8–13. 


Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.

Math Simulation Activity

While searching for great math ideas to incorporate into my classroom I stumbled upon http://mathbydesign.thinkport.org/  This site allows students to do various math calculations to design a park and there is another option as well.  They can sign in and save their progress.  From the few minutes I played with this site, it would be far to challenging for my 5th grade students (many of them anyway, might high ability students will LOVE this) but I wanted to share the site so those of you who teach higher level math can benefit from the site.  :)  Enjoy!

Podcasting

This week we had to create a podcast!  At first I thought, "A Pod-wha?"After reading the resources and allowing myself time to play around on my computer to really learn what I can do with it, I think I've figured this thing out.  I first downloaded Audacity.  This came at the perfect time because I also had to create a custom CD for our jumprope performance so our songs would match the exact amount of time needed for each trick.  I took my laptop to school and interviewed two groups of  four students in my middle level and high level math classes.  I asked the students questions to see how their technology use at home compared to their use of technology at school.  I asked them to share the kinds of things they are able to do with technology.  At the ages of 10 and 11, they can do amazing things.  I also asked them to share what they would like to learn to do and their thoughts on technology.  

After interviewing my students I played around with Audacity to edit the tracks.  I cut, pasted, merged, and added other recordings of my voice to tie it all together.  I then exported the file and uploaded it to a hosting site.  I used PodcastMachine.com to upload  my podcast and I will include the link at the bottom of this post for you to listen to my final podcast.  

At this point my students are fairly happy with the amount of technology they get to use at school.  In January we got class sets of netbooks for each 5th grade classroom and the 5th grade teachers have eagerly been incorporating these into lessons and projects as often as possible.  The use of technology really can engage students in their learning.  One student in my high class said it best, "With the netbooks, we actually learn new things."  

Podcast Interview

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

This week one of our requirements was to visit the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21)website.  This is a national organization that advocates for 21st Century readiness for every student.  I have to admit, that initially, I was surprised that such an organization exists but then found myself questioning why this surprised me in the first place...I guess it just seemed surprising because in this technology filled world we live in, education is lagging far behind and many schools do not have the funding for equipment or personnel to incorporate such technology based lessons.  


The website is a wealth of information with numerous links for further resources.  It lists specific skills students will need to be successful in the workforce and offers links to access additional information.  The site breaks these skills down into six key elements:  Core Subjects, 21st Century skills, Learning & Thinking Skills, ICT Literacy, Life Skills, and 21st Century Assessments.  


As I clicked on link after link I began to feel somewhat overwhelmed by the number of links and information.  I assume it would be easier to navigate if I had a specific topic I was looking into instead of trying to get an overview of the entire site.  


One key idea that stood out to me was the concept of adding an assessment piece to determine students' mastery of 21st Century Skills.  This has intrigued me to look into this further.  Exactly what skills are being assessed, and most importantly HOW are they assessed in an efficient and timely manner?


Although I found this website initially to be slightly overwhelming (and lets be honest, that could just as easily be a result of being a week away from Spring Break, having weather that is 50+ degrees higher than normal temperatures for this time of year, and a combination of too little sleep and too many irons in the fire) I see how the site could potentially be beneficial for the classroom teacher struggling to fully understand how to incorporate 21st Century Skills in the classroom.  I will be looking more closely at the maps, but wish they had one specific for math, to help me determine which skills I really need to invest time on in my classroom to ensure my 5th graders are getting the skills they need to be ready for the following year.  I also will check back to the blog section and visit some of the links over the summer to better acquaint myself with what this site offers and how I can improve the use of technology in  my classroom.  

ZooWhiz

A site my kids are loving right now is  ZooWhiz. It is a free site that reinforces Math, Reading, Word Skills, Punctuation, and Grammar. I found it on iLearnTechnology.com, check out the link to learn more about this great resource and for ideas on how to integrate it into your classroom.


Students must answer questions (they pick the age level and content) to earn points. Most questions are worth 10 points even if they must answer 4 things in that one problem. Students can then buy animals for their zoo to help their zoo popularity and worth go up. In just two days I had a student who was so motivated he accessed this game at home before AND after school. He bought a dinosaur, some mythical creatures and more. He spent at least 5000 points/coins on animals, and with only earning 10 points per question, that proves it is a very motivating site! The site is still in its beginning stages but soon there will be features to allow teachers to access their students' activity reports. I have created class usernames for three of my four 5th grade classes and they all love it. I also love it because it presents math questions we haven't gotten to yet, or simply in a new way that makes students think and make connections. I monitor my class while they play this game and their questions have really activated great mathematical discussions.

Blogging in the Math Classroom

As a part of my school's technology committee, I recently had the opportunity to visit schools that have gone to 1:1 technology to see effective ways to incorporate technology in the classroom.  Most of these classrooms used blogging primarily in their reading and writing classes to give students an audience for their response to literature or writing samples, and to provide a place for collaboration for the class.  As a math teacher, I must admit, that I really had hoped to see more ways to use blogging in the math classroom, or at least that I would have taken the time to ask these amazing teachers if/how they use blogs in their math courses.  

To answer these questions myself, I reflected on this week's resources for my graduate course and I also conducted searches online.  

Some of the ways I could use blogging in my math classroom are:

• to provide links to videos, lessons, or supporting websites
• hoodmath
• to provide links to games that allow students to practice and strengthen their mathematical thining
• to provide class notes, study guides, or assignments
• to provide collaboration with classmates or students in other math classes  (My math classes are leveled, so having an opportunity to interact with students at various levels provides students with a number of different perspectives on mathematical approaches.  It also allows students to ask for clarification/assistance from other students if they are stuck on a topic.  This collaboration also allows students to offer help to others who need it, causing them to think about the topics in a different way.
• to keep the class updated on schedule changes, due dates, field trips, and other class events
• to ensure all students have the same access to information and that they won't miss out on an update or piece of news due to being absent
• to keep parents updated on class assignments and activities
• to allow students to create math problems to challenge their peers
• to post a weekly math challenge or math problem for students to respond to
• Timed Tests
• mathquiz.biz 
• Links to virtual manipulatives
• Homework help

Some of the great ideas I found at http://eport.education.illinois.edu/view/view.php?id=267 

• Math Journaling
• Today I got stuck on......
• How would you use ____________ in the real world?
• What I liked most about today's lesson was_________________.
• Explain to a student in the third grade what you learned about __________________ in class today. 
• Give a Problem to Solve
• Have students solve a problem using numbers and symbols and then explain the reasoning in words.
• Math Autobiographies
• Allow students to write about their experiences with math (personal struggles and successes).  Autobiographies help students see that they are part of the learning process
• Resources
• Students find resources on topics
• videos, games, lessons, worksheets, manipulatives
• Students explain why they selected their posted resources.

The schools I visited used Edmodo which is a social networking site for the classroom.  Schools can get a personal domain to increase the safety/security of this site.

I found other great features of this site listed at:  http://stanford.edu/group/pace/EVENTS/edmodo.pdf

• Class Calendar
• Post reminders
• Due dates and assignments are posted
• Teachers can see who has turned in each assignment and when (it has an easy feature that says "Turned in....18"
• Teachers can assign discussion topics and assignments to multiple classrooms
• Quizes-these can be automatically graded

I would love to learn about other ways teachers have used blogging effectively in their elementary math classrooms.  If you have any suggestions, please post them here.  

EDMODO-Looking for suggestions on how to use in the math classroom

I recently was able to visit a school who has implemented 1:1 technology K-12 through the use of IPods, IPads, and laptop computers.  I was amazed by the things they were doing using Edmodo in their Reading and Writing classes.  Have any of you used Edmodo in your math classrooms?  I currently teach 5th grade math and I'm looking for a way to use this site in my class.