Reflective Essay

The new literacies are essential skills students develop and understand in the classroom today. Teachers need to be aware of technology policies and safety for students including teaching them curriculum. The digital skills are engaging to middle school students and incorporate relevant skills for their futures. Students need to be aware of ethical usage and not just present information as their own. If students learn to be digital citizens they will incorporate a strong sense of locating and evaluating information, by developing essential questions and putting it all together to share with others.

The Fair Use Policy that teachers have some leeway in the use of online material for instruction helped reassure my use of articles and other resources in the classroom (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). Teachers should help ensure that students will use the materials in an ethical way. Before this class, it seemed that there are some stipulations on work created by others, but teaching this to students was not completely part of each assignment. The use of the websites for clarity and teaching students about ethics in informational literacy is valuable for the 21st century. Students need to be taught to respect an author’s photo or published information and give them credit for it. Students need to learn how to synthesize information from multiple resources that contains accurate and appropriate facts after they evaluate a website for credible information. Getting students to go beyond the facts is an important literacy skill of using critical thinking skills to process the facts in sources and then create their final products that represent what they have learned (Jansen, 2005). Teaching students those transferable skills is something that will benefit students’ learning in the future, so creating writing, technology, presentations and performance assignments helps students learn material, but also associate it with other interests and digital media.

As technology becomes embedded into the classroom, students must learn the appropriate ways of sharing and using everything that is available online. There is a strong need to educate students and teachers on how to navigate the Internet’s vast amount of resources responsibly, safely, and productively by establishing a clear set of rules and expectations for usage. The specific focus for having rules shields students from finding inappropriate or sharing unsafe material, but when it does happen students should know what to do. This enlightened my teaching practices of digital citizenship and made me more aware of what guidance should be provided in the classroom for students’ safety.

The professional goal I would like to pursue would be to incorporate better essential questions into the curriculum to guide students’ inquiry. There needs to be a balance between students choosing their own topics as the focus area and the teacher selecting a central theme for research. Then after topics are selected questions are necessary to guide the process, but learners need to be skilled at asking the right questions while reading online (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 82). As the teacher developing and determining researchable topics and not topics with questions that students have too little or too much prior knowledge. The steps to improving students’ essential questions includes keeping students’ interests and prior knowledge in mind along with assessing students’ understanding of good research questions by using a research questions assessment as a tool to begin a class discussion. Improving this step of the inquiry process should increase the effectiveness of projects and student motivation to complete assignments with vital and relevant information as they evaluate and synthesize the information into a comprehensive project.

If class instruction and student awareness is extended to increasing the new literacies the potential for continued success is available not just in the classroom, but globally. The new literacies require students to be more sophisticated in their technology usage and broaden their digital understanding. Giving students a worthwhile purpose for inquiry will improve their questions and make a difference in their online success, as I continue to work on my professional goal. As Jukes (2007) states “The primary task of the educational system must be to give learners the right tools and provide them with a critical mind, so that they can ask the right questions and make the right connections.”

REFERENCE
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.
Jansen, B. (2005, October). Meaningful products: Making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Library Media Connection, 24(2), 27–28.
Jukes, I. (2007). 21st century fluency skills: Attributes of a 21st century learner. Retrieved from http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/twca.pdf
Laureate Education Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Warlick, D. Program: 7. Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom [Educational Video]. Los Angeles: Solution.

A New Perspective about Technology

As a professional, I have improved my technology skills throughout this course. The practical and effective media taught and implemented in applications gave me the confidence to learn new skills. To be effective as an educator, we need to learn to create blogs, podcasts and wikis to present to students (Richardson, 2009). This technology increases my network of professionals to access and discuss issues with to enhance student learning. Being new to the English Language Learners (ELLs) field this course provides a connection where language skills are lacking.

There are so many ways to incorporate new technology into the curriculum, which has made it a little overwhelming. I appreciate the videos, readings, and interaction with peers to make sense of the knowledge. The wealth of information on blogs by teaching professionals puts the teaching process in a new perspective. The aspect of delivering the same information with a paperless trail and creating a notebook on the Web for student work sounds more efficient. This gives students the opportunity to continue to work on projects throughout the year and not just over a few weeks. The lessons in this course allowed for me to practice new methods and receive feedback from other teachers before incorporating the assignment into the classroom.

Thornburg (2008), stated technology affects the classroom from being teacher-centered to a more effective way of focusing on the students (Laureate, 2008). The teacher should prepare students not just for high school success, but for the rest of their life through enriched activities in multiple digital medias. Another way teaching has changed would be the collaborative aspect of learning. Usually students are tested on skills that should be mastered by an individual. Instead they can work with peers and create stories, websites, and projects over periods of time for others to read and provide feedback. My mindset has changed from being the answer person in the room, to guiding students to find and solve problems using different strategies on the Web. Students now become involved in projects they care about and not just something presented by me.

The ways to build upon my current knowledge of technology to teach my class for better achievement would be to model, design and implement digital technology throughout the curriculum. Students can continue to utilize the different methods and strategies for research and problem solving to develop critical thinking skills. As an educator, the value of constantly learning from peers and my students will provide more confidence in my abilities. The access of technology in this course with colleagues and their ideas helps with my professional development along with the research journals. The aspect of becoming a leader in my building, reminds me of what barriers I may face from others. As a change agent, I will look to be creative and resourceful about aligning certain tools to accomplish student achievement among peers (Richardson, 2009).

One of my long term goals would be to allow students to develop their own website tutorial for other ELL students to follow throughout the year. This includes a video and audio assignment connected specifically to my classroom. This assignment encourages the students to take ownership of the class, collaborate, and see development of skills from the beginning to the end of the year. The challenge comes from our technology department and what is allowed to be attached to the school website. I will look for outside resources to attach as a link to my class website. This project provides the parent connection that is missing from current access to my website. The student can translate and inform parents about what happens in class by accessing the site at home or at the library, but currently the school will start providing parents with computer access during the week.

My second long term goal involves a clear understanding of the 21st century skills necessary for student success. This comes from being familiar with the technology standards and incorporating it in the classroom. My expectation of student’s increasing their decision making skills and communication skills will be valuable to their success in the future. My awareness of developing all the diverse needs of my students by guiding them and not providing as much linear instruction. The challenge will come from some students who are accustomed to being told what to do and adjusting to thinking outside the box to accomplish tasks. Some students struggle when little direction is given and there is not a clear answer to the assignment, especially my Asian students.

All of this information has led me to reflect on my teaching experience this year. I look forward to changing and improving curriculum to meet student needs for digital media projects. I see a need to step up and work with colleagues to accomplish further technology usage in my school building. Technology can connect the classroom with global networks and expand the learning opportunities for my students which will open their eyes to the possibilities of their future.




References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Changing Role of Teacher Part 1.
Baltimore: Author.

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Podcast Survey: Profiling Today's Student

To listen to my podcast of the student survey, click on the blog title above. Then click on the green "play" button located next to the Type of File line.

This assignment provided me a new experience in creating a podcast. It would be remiss of me if I did not say that it was challenging at first to go through the steps of creating, editing, saving, uploading and linking everything. Now having gone through the process, I feel confident in my ability in creating additional podcasts in the future. I am looking forward to finding and creating ways that I can use them in my classroom to enhance the lessons that I teach. This survey brought to the surface how valuable the educational experience is for my students. Most will not have the same expose to technology at home, so their academic exposure to technology in my classroom is important for success.

Discovering 21st Century Skills

My reaction to the 21st Century Partnership is positive. I was unaware of an organization being designed to inform educators and others about what is going to happen in education. There is an abundance of resources in the tools and resources menu including online publications, online resources, and guidebooks for implementation of the framework. The organization is focused and driven through the vision and mission statements explained in the about us menu. I agree with the position of a stronger connection between the community, schools, businesses, and government. This site allows for influential partnerships among all invested parties in the success of our graduates being prepared for the future. This brings rigor and most importantly relevance to curriculum in the classroom for students across the country and among states.

The information included in this site that surprised me the most would be the large number of states involved in this process. I was disappointed to find that Indiana is not at this time, but there has been discussion of developing a particular school to covering this need. Being interested in this topic, I found professional development available for teachers to become educated about the process. Many times these types of initiatives have ideas for how teachers can teach better but rarely provide the necessary training to implement changes at the building and classroom level.

The one stakeholder not addressed in this overall plan would be the vested interest of the parents and their involvement. In the mileguide it discusses the administration and teachers assessment, but the support at home is lacking. Parents are often not included in the decision making process, but we need their support for this framework to be implemented in the schools.

Some of the implications for my students revolve around the high standards and skills required of them for graduation. One concern of my ELL students is being able to pass the state tests. Several of my students lack basic skills entering high school and constantly are trying to catch up to their peers. There should be more support for these students, instead of just keeping them in school longer. A benefit of teaching 21st century skills would be students remaining on-task and engaged in the classroom more often. Another positive for the framework, students are developing the necessary skills to be successful citizens in society. For contemporary teachers, there needs to be more training, resources, and technology than what our school currently provides to make this happen for students. I am concerned about the lack of funding for all states, especially ALL at the same time. Since as educators, we want what is best for our students.

Building vocabulary and digital literacy for the ESL student

I teach an ELL class of grades 6-8. I am constantly searching for ways to increase their vocabulary knowledge and usage. I thought a blog would be good to use as a way to have students interact digitally and build their vocabulary and digital literacy. The idea is to create a continuing story. Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each week, require students to add to the story, using a logical sentence that both fits the story and uses one of that week’s vocab words. The hope is that the stories will become lengthy and outrageous as the year goes on. My students will be re-reading the words over and over to reinforce them, creating a meaningful story and laughing as they do! Tell me what you think?
-Heather

First Time Blogger

As the title states, I am a brand new blogger! I am looking forward to learning how to blog and use this technology tool in my classroom. My purpose for this blog is to learn more about how to connect technology to students learning a new language (ELL - English Language Learner). Should be exciting and challenging at the same time. Please post ideas that you have for me as we go along. Thanks.