Assignment 5.4 Discussion: Analyze your collaboratively planned lessons

It is a natural part of my relationship with the art teacher that we collaborate so there weren't any issues in approaching her with the idea of collaborating. Sometimes we forget who had which idea because we work so closely together!
Technology played an essential role in this entire project. We use technology every step of the way. We need it get inspired by other groups videos, we need it to show examples to the students and the students use many different forms of technology to complete this project.
The positives of using a collaborative plan is that you have an extra brain at work on a project. It also provides great reinforcement of the subject for the students. They get the subject matter delivered to them in different ways by different teachers which helps the learning curve tremendously. I love collaborating because so often there are ideas which my colleagues come up with that I might never have thought of. Good teachers borrow ideas from great teachers. The only negative aspect might be that you as the teacher do have to give up a bit of the control over a project, but that is nothing compared to the benefits, in my opinion.
Student growth is much greater when they have reinforcement from several sources. There is also a larger network of accountability when teachers collaborate. Students are assessed on several different levels.
I am a huge proponent of collaboration. I think that there are very few drawbacks and the benefits are huge for both the teachers and the students involved.


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Activity 6.1 Discussion 2: Review of formative and summative assessment

I haven't tried much on line assessment, but the thing that I usually struggle with when talking about individual assessment is the time element. I don't get to see my students for a very long time (we average about 45 hours for the school year!) so I am often reticent about taking out several days of class time for individual assessments. If I could have the laptop cart and had some beneficial assessments, I could possible assess one class in a two day period. The problem often seems to be that there is a lot of concentration on the subjects for online assessments, but very little on fine art or performing arts. I did find some music assessments on Quia which I am excited to try out.

"Professionally" created assessments can be more or less valuable than the assessments I create depending upon what I need. Assessments have to be valuable to both the student and the teacher. Does the assessment actually assess the essential skills? Another consideration is that an engaging assessment method will most likely garner better results because student buy in is greater. Sometimes, to serve a purpose, a teacher may have to create an assessment with pieces from several different sources.

I like rubrics because they take the mystery out of grading for both the student and the teacher. Both parties know what the expectations are and there isn't any guesswork as to how a student gets his or her grade. Rubrics do need to be planned so that they are appropriate for the learning objective.

I believe that students should do self assessments. It gives a student the chance to reflect on his or her progress and accomplishments and also creates some ownership on the student's part. I think that students could be taught how to make their own assessment and would have valuable input if asked to give input into an assessment. Students would need some guidance on the process to begin with but could eventually make their own assessments.

Use of technology in the classroom is on our performance review in our district. I personally like this. It is an integral part of our young people's lives and we should be showing them the constructive ways in which technology can be used.


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Activity 6.1 Discussion: Review of formative and summative assessment

It seems that the most common form of assessment to be found on the Internet is a printable rubric. I haven't found any for my subject area that I like better than the ones which I have created myself. I have created rubrics for singing and playing and composition which are tailored to my needs, the district's needs, and the state standards. I have person all used a smart board with a software program for assessment, which gives me a good idea of the student's ability in certain areas, but is not time effective. I also have a recorder assessment software program which I like. It can be used for both formative and summative assessment. The students also really like it, because it is the computer which scores them and not me. They see it as more of a challenging game than an actually assessment, so I get more buy in from the more lackadaisical students with this.
I am in the process now of adding some iPads to my classroom and using these for individual assessment. For performance, I would like to use these tools with a microphone and have the students record themselves and give a self assessment. I would couple this with my own assessment. There are also some apps which will track progress. Right now I use an app for keeping track of student progress, which is also my grade book. I am looking forward to making some change to this in my classroom. I really want to put in a sound booth!


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B. Activity 5.1

I liked the Collaborative Planning Organizer the best because of the open format. I could fill in any objective and work out the details from this planner. Sometimes the premade planners don't work for some of the creative arts but this template leaves things open enough. It also follows the objectives of my district very well, with spaces open for assessment and outcome.


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A. Activity 5.1: Class Discussion

Collaboration is working together to create the best learning environment possible. Collaboration means that teachers and students work together to reach a learning goal, using each others' expertise, knowledge and pooling resources. Teacher collaboration means that teachers are exchanging ideas and working together, possibly in teaching different subject areas, but toward a common goal of understanding. For instance, my art teacher colleague and I collaborate often, choosing a common theme. We might choose to study South America. She would open up the customs, culture, political atmosphere, and so forth for South America through the study of art and I would do the same through music.
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Activity 4.2 Technology Integration in Lessons

I watched the Edutopia video Tech-Fueled Differentiated Instruction Engages Elementary School Students and was really impressed by their use of technology. I would say that the issue shaping the use of the technology at Forest Lake is NCLB. They mentioned twice that they were pushing for higher achievement and also mentioned in the commentary that they had watched "achievement soar" since they began using this system.

What impressed me was the fact that they maximized the technology they had available, but they didn't seem to be using the technology just for the sake of using technology. The technology was used appropriately for the activity and for the student. Students were able to set goals and work at the pace which worked best for them. Students were using interactive white boards for learning activities and also for interacting with other school children and their NASA mentors. Computer aided keyboards were used in music and handheld devices were used by the teachers for testing.

I noticed right away that there was a lot of activity in the school rooms. Students were not all working on the same activity at the same time. Some students were doing independent work, some working in groups and some one on one with the teacher. I really liked the feel I got from that classroom environment. It felt very productive. A little like a beehive, with every worker knowing his or her job and working toward a goal.


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Activity 4.1 Discussion

I chose to look at the Animal Research Report. The coverage of the project and the information about the demographic was fairly thorough.

Reading about this animal research project has inspired me to do more planning for a composer project. The students could do a report on a composer and use many of the same techniques used for the animal research project.

What makes this project a successful learning experience is that the students have to take ownership of the project from the very beginning to the very end, from choosing the animal to putting together the final presentation in the form of a slide show. This is a project that also incorporated many activities. The students created their own goal, did their own writing, and had to organize their own presentations. This project is also exceptional for its integration of literacy, writing, social studies, science and technology in one project. The class is learning much more than just about an animal.

What I want to accomplish when it comes to using technology for learning is to get the technology into the students' hands as much as possible. I want them in the driver's seat.

I could use most aspects of this project for my classroom. I think how the teacher gave the students some previewed and tested websites to go to is a very good idea. The students created a flip book first, which acted as a sort of draft and then put the ideas into a power point presentation. All of these things could be tailored to use in the music room.

This school has some similarities to my school in their socioeconomic status. The Idaho school is 50% free and reduced lunch and our school is 100% free and reduced lunch. However, the Idaho school is 90% caucasian and my school is about 17% caucasian. As with many schools, it seems as though the teachers do as much as they can with the resources available.

Char Soucy uses the technology she has in different ways and likes the students to get hands-on experience. She uses the digital camera for visual representations and likes to get the students to use the computers for creating their projects to get them as much experience as soon as possible to build their skills. I also like to get the students using technology as much as possible to create. In order to create the best learning experience the students need to get in and take ownership and do it themselves as much as possible.


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Activity 3.3 Whole School Technology /Classroom Viewpoints

Scenario 1
$42,000

Hardware recommended:

Apple iPad 16GB
4 iPads per classroom x 20 classrooms k-5. Total =$40,000
80 iPad covers, www.hdaccessory.com. $400

Applications recommended:
IBooks - free textbooks
PBS phonics 1 to 3 - free
StoryKit - free
Pocket Phonics lite - free
Skill builder spelling - free
Rocket math - free
Stack the states - free
Grammar Up - free to $4.99.
3rd through 5th grade = 60 iPads $300.00
Flashcards+ - free
Popplet - free
Math bingo
Shake a phrase - $1.99
K-2nd = 44 iPads $88.00
IWriteWords (kindergarten only) - $1.99
16 iPads = $32.00
Dragon dictation - free



Scenario 2

$3,000

$2,500 - 4 iPads for check out from the media center, cases and necessary accessories.

$500 - misc. repairs/replacement

This activity was a little more difficult than I anticipated. Spending the large technology budget was definitely easier than spending the small budget. I do think that the budgets should be spent equably, or spent to make the resources equable in the school if there are imbalances of resources. I did think about making some of the smaller budget available for repairs. Especially when used by many students hardware will inevitably need repair or replacement. I know that one of the things that get used that people don't often thing about is the headphones in the computer lab. I use them in my own room and, even when the students treat them gently, many of them get worn out by the end of the year.

The use of technology funds is decided by a group made up of the principal, district technology TOSA, and the district tech person.

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Activity 3.3 Internet Safety

Top ten Internet safety issues:
1.  Internet predators
2.  accessing inappropriate content
3.  Viruses
4.  Botnets (phishing scams)
5.  Privacy/posting personal information
6.  Advertising scams
7.  cyber bullying 
8.  Social media
9.  Identity theft
10.  False information

Social technologies can be helpful to allow both students and teachers to connect with other individuals to gain insight into other areas or to connect with experts in other areas.  The harm can come when people connect with strangers or allow personal information to be public.

As a general rule, I think that teachers should be able to use their own discretion when it comes to "friending" parents on social media sites.  I do believe that most often it is not a good idea.  If a parent becomes upset with the school or the teacher it could become awkward at the least and falsely incriminating at the very worst.

Unless there is gross negligence involved, I don't think that teachers should be held responsible for students accessing inappropriate content.  There should be guidelines that the teacher goes over before the class begins Internet work so that in the case of accidental access of inappropriate content the student knows that he or she should inform the teacher right away.  If this happens, the teacher should make a phone call to the parents and explain the situation.

All districts generally have fairly strong filters in place, but even these can't catch everything.  The teacher should spend time with the class at the beginning of the project or activity going through Internet safety rules with the class.  It would be helpful if the school had someone knowledgable in Internet safety gives some guidelines to teachers which could be presented to a class.  Even some teachers are not aware of the pitfalls of Internet usage.
I learned that hard way that a "free search" for students is not a good idea.  The teacher should give the students search terms ahead of time, terms which he or she has already searched and checked, or a list of sites.  There are also kid-friendly search engines which are very helpful.

I think that the trick, if there is one, to find what you are looking for the first time is to be just specific enough.  There is such a thing as being too specific, however, depending on the topic.  Entering search terms in the correct order can make a difference too.

EDTC614 Activity 3.1

I generally have two setups for working in my music room.  When we are rehearsing for performance or I am demonstrating a skill, students sit on a small set of risers in my room.  Group work is done is smaller groups of 2-4, and then students have to spread out on the floor and the risers.  I don't keep many chairs in my room because of space issues.  Because I only see the students for 50 minute periods, I don't have too much transition time.  Generally transition is getting lined up, which sometimes entails some cleanup.  

I noticed that in the Travel USA project, Jane used the computer lab down the hall and split the class in two.  The information said she relies on parent volunteers and extra help from student teachers and other adults.  That would be really tricky to do on a regular basis for days at a time if a teacher didn't have a paraprofessional or a student teacher.  

I find that then students are really doing something which they find interesting, classroom management problems rarely exist.  My students love the composition project and I very rarely have behavior issues.  My rule is that they are not allowed to get up and wander to other people's computers during the class.  I give them the rubric at the beginning so they know exactly what they will be graded on and I do frequent conferencing with them so that they know I will be checking in on a regular basis to see their work.

It seems that Jane's computer lab only has 9 computers which doesn't seem like very many to service a good number of students.  This is most likely a common issue. We have a full computer lab with about 25 computers, but using software sometimes requires more in licensing fees than what we have.  I make do with a laptop cart of 15 and one desktop in my room and that has worked out well.  Some of the advantage is that is forces them to work cooperatively and build more relationship skills in the process.