Journal 9: How to do More With Less

Page, L., Sheehan, T., & Worrell, C. (2012). How to do more with less. ISTE: Learning and Leading,39(6), 18-20. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20120304?pg=4&pm=2&fs=1


Summary: This article, "How to do More with Less", starts out by discussing the governments expectations for students reaching and learning higher standards with less time and less money. The article then introduces the topics of flipped classrooms and blended teaching. Blended teaching is the mix of normal face-to-face instruction with online learning practices. In blended classrooms, teachers use digital resource in order to enhance the learning experience. On the other hand, a flipped classroom contains a teacher who uses technology such as videos and podcasts to give class lectures. Therefore, if a student ever needs extra help they will be able to review the lecture very easily. The good thing about both the flipped classroom and the blended teaching is that they both use free online resources. These online resources are beneficial in that they enhance students creativity and technology skills. Commonly used web based tools include wikis, social bookmarking and blogs. All of these are good for personal use as well as for group use. The article even offers examples of different teachers that use certain tools. For example, a teacher at Westfield High School has utilized a digital information organizer and created a LiveBinder for her sophomore language arts class. It was useful to the students because they could easily access information for their research projects. There are many free web based educational tools that everyone can use. 


Question 1: How could digital storytelling be beneficial for a class?


Answer 1: Doing activities that are out of the ordinary usually get student interested. In Jeanie Keyes-Plante's seventh grade literacy lab, she asks students from Westfield High School to write a story and create a story board. Each student then creates a digital story of the narrative event that incorporates text, graphics, music, and voice narration. Digital Storytelling transforms students stories into live showcases and is powerful in teaching another form of traditional writing (2012:20). Clearly, digital storytelling is a good way to express students creativity other then just the usual writing strategies. 


Question 2: What do teachers think of the idea of blended teaching or flipped classrooms?


Answer 2: It is fair to argue that not every teacher will like the idea of blended teaching or flipped classrooms due to their liking of traditional styles. However, Karen Bernier, and eighth grade math teacher at   Ashland Middle School claims that she has transformed her classroom and her way of teaching. Ms. Bernier was very new to the whole blended learning idea, but once she started into it she noticed an improvement in her students grades and learning strategies. As a good teacher would, she became more interested in the idea of blended teaching. She uses technology enhanced lessons as well as online notes and assessments to help her students out. She was surprised to see how much excitement she saw in her students about learning the material as well. Therefore, even if every administrator doesn't like the technology based classroom idea, they should still try something such as posting notes online to see the reactions and improvements they will get from their students. 

Journal 6: Fostering Creativity and Innovation through Technology

Vaidyanathan, S. (2012). Fostering creativity and innovation through technology. ISTE: Learning and Leading, 39(6), 24-27. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20120304?pg=26&pm=2&fs=1


Summary: This article offers the idea of using digital design programs in order to enhance students learning in the STEM subjects (science, engineering, technology and mathematics) as well as their creativity and innovation. Some teachers like Ms. Vaidyanathan in the Los Altos, Ca school district have used this technique in class and have found it to be successful. Programs such as Scratch, SketchUp and Seashore have been used in order to help children in their creative learning and innovation as well as the core STEM subjects. Students like the idea that they can do school work while having the option to easily edit or fix any mistakes (2012.25). A plus about using digital design is that many of the programs are free, therefore, there isn't an effect on the schools budget. This is also effective because students can then download programs at home and they can finish up any homework or just learn new things on the programs for fun. It is known that technology is an important aspect in today's society. With that said, digital design programs are an essential tool in expanding students learning.


Question 1: Why do students like using digital design programs in school?


Answer 1: As stated in the article, students like the idea of unlimited "paper". In most art classes, students usually have to add certain colors or start a project over in order to make it "just right". But with digital design programs, students have access to edit projects or make editions to projects whenever they please. They can also take away any added on editions if they decide they don't like the changes. Many students enjoy new activities that differ from the usual math and language arts type of work. However, digital design programs focus on those main subjects while making it interesting for students to learn in a creative way. 


Question 2: How does digital design reinforce STEM?


Answer 2: Digital design is a mix of art and technology (2012.27). It is built on a foundation of mathematics, engineering and science. For example, angles and polygons can be used in programs like vector graphics and different aspects can be changed along the way. Using different geographic elements on these programs is a fun and effective way for students to learn math. When students enjoy learning, they are more likely to want to continue learning on these programs. Therefore, they spend more time on the programs at home. As a result, the children are more likely to remember and recall the learned material.

Journal 5: How to do More with Less

Pape, L., Sheehan, T., & Worrell, C. (2012). How to do more with less. ISTE: Learning and Leading, 39(6), 18-22. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/DigitalEditionMarch-April2012.aspx

Summary: In the article, "How to do More with Less", the issues teachers have with fitting in all the needed curriculum in a school year was introduced. However, the article offers two innovative online learning strategies: the bedded classroom and the flipped classroom (2012.18). The authors claim that both of these strategies maximize learning time by increasing student-to-student time as well as student-to-teacher time as well as more personalized instruction that focuses on individual learning needs (2012.18.) Making time for these learning strategies also fosters the development of individual learning skills like any online class would (2012.18) Students have to be responsible in seeking out educational resources on the web and learn at their comfortable pace. Throughout the article, there are a variety of different benefits to both the blended classroom and the flipped classroom.

Question 1: What is a blended classroom and what components are included in this classroom. What are its benefits?

Answer 1: According to the article, the term blended refers to mixing traditional face-to-face instruction with online learning practices (2012.18). Within a blended classroom, teachers use digital resources, content and tools to enhance and transform the learning process (2012.18). This learning process includes whenever/wherever learning, specific help for students learning needs, and access to tools to fully engage students in the learning process (2012.18) The blended classroom process clearly has many benefits; not only does it save time and money in the classroom but it also enhances student learning as well as introduces digital tools that students can use throughout their lives.

Question 2: What is a flipped classroom? What does it include and what are its benefits?

Answer 2: In a flipped classroom, teachers use technology, such as videos and podcasts, to deliver class lectures (2012.18). Therefore, if a student is absent or a student needs clarification about certain content in the lecture, they can replay the technology driven demonstration. Like the blended classroom, the flipped classroom relies on open educational resources. These include free online tools and materials designed to support instruction (2012.19).  Different tools used in both a flipped classroom and a blended classroom include blogs, wikis, social bookmarking like diigo, creative expression tools like comic strips and social networking (2012.19-21) Flipped classrooms and blended classrooms share a lot of benefits that include enhancing students learning and introducing digital tools that will be useful to them throughout their lives.

Journal 4: If you Give a Kid a Video Camera

            Campbell, L. O. (2012). If you give a kid a video camera.ISTE: Learning and Leading, 39(5), 30-33. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/DigitalEditionMarch-April2012.aspx

Summary: Laurie Campbell starts off by explaining the title "If you Give a Kid a Video Camera" by relating it to the children's book, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. She does this to explain that if you give a child a mobile device, he/she will want to learn more. (2012:30) Throughout the article, examples and ideas on how to use a video camera among different subjects, to enhance the learning experience, are given. For instance, on page thirty of the article, language arts is the first subject given. The author explains that using a one-minute video could enhance children's learning by preteaching vocabulary and then reinforce it by assigning the students to create their own vocabulary video. Clearly, by actively doing this assignment, remembering the vocabulary words world most likely be easier. Another subject given on page thirty-two is science. In my opinion, this would be the most valuable use of making videos because you could record lab steps and analyze them by watching your video afterwards. Math video ideas and Social Studies ideas are also given in the article. On page thirty-three the author also points out that students could video experiences on field trips not only to reinforce their own memory, but students who could not go on the field trip could then watch the video and witness the experiences. The author makes a valid point in that videos could be a big part in helping children learn in a variety of academic areas.

Question 1: How could video be used effectively in math?

Answer 1: According to the article, a former math teacher Dan Meyer incorporated video into his math lessons to make story problems more relevant. I know for me that story problems were always a struggle and if visuals were used, it was usually easier to find the answer. The article also states that video can be used in math to record the students thinking. I think it would also be effective to video the students doing problems on the board so that the video could be posted on a classroom website. Therefore, students could review before a test and absent students could see what they missed.

Question 2: What are some ways video could be used in a classroom that isn't necessarily academic?

Answer 2: Lesson plans could be recorded for substitutes, lessons could be recorded for absent students, digital records of field trips and classroom activities could be made, and videos of instructions could be made for those who need to view/review instructions more than once (2012:32) I think it would also be effective for the students to video each other because then they could hear information more than once. When students hear information more than once in a variety of different ways, they are more likely to remember information.

Journal 3: Infographics More than Words can Say

Krauss, J. (2012). Infographics more than words can say.ISTE: Learning and Leading, 39(5), 10-14. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/DigitalEditionMarch-April2012.aspx 

Summary: In the article "Infographics More Than Words Can Say", Jane Krauss discussed good learning experiences that involve using infographics in order to build on the traditional learning and teaching strategies.  The author explains that infographics cause students to ask for an active response such as, "What am I seeing?" or "What does this mean?"(2012:10) Infographics offer both information and pictures which causes students to both analyze and interpret the information. Krauss also lists different standards and teaching methods such as computational thinking in order to show the importance of infographics. Pages 12-13 offer different lesson plans that incorporate infographics as well as projects that students can participate in. Jane Krauss lists a few simple rules on page 13 for making infographics. These include tell a story, be clear, use good data, and pay attention. Infographics can be very useful in a speech therapy setting because charts and information about each child's struggles could be displayed and explained more clearly.

Question 1: What can computational thinking help students practice?

Answer 1: Computational thinking can help students practice with data sets of any size, manipulate that data, and represent it in an infograph (2012:11). Some may wonder what computational thinking is: it is a problem-solving process that includes but is not limited to:

• Formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a computer and other tools to help solve them.
• Logically organizing and analyzing data
• Representing data through abstractions such as models and simulations
• Automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (a series of ordered steps)
• Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with the goal of achieving the most efficient and effective combination of steps and resources 
• Generalizing and transferring this problem solving process to a wide variety of problem


Click Here to see this definition from its source as well as more information on computational thinking.


Question 2: What are the simple rules for making an infograph?

Answer 2: Tell a story about the context you are trying to present, be clear in explaining the different elements of your main idea, use good data from reliable sources, and pay attention to other infographs (2012:13). Infographs are a visual representation of data which is why it is important to present it in the best way possible. Infographs would be very useful for teaching students who are visual learners. 

Technology Self-Assessment: School 2.0

NETS 5- With this assignment I engaged in professional growth and leadership.

In order to improve Module 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity, I took a look at the link labeled "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners". In visiting this link I learned that there are many well known educational websites as well as not as well known educational websites. The "Top 10" link offered a few links to websites such as Kerpoof which offers a variety of creative tools, Voki, a text to speech generator and Create-A-Graph which allows students to easily create graphs. This link on School 2.0 opened my eyes to a variety of educational websites that are good for educators of all kinds. Even though I do not plan on being a teacher, I do plan on being a speech pathologist in elementary schools, therefore, these web-based learning tools can be very beneficial to the learning and teaching experience. It also contributes in helping me construct knowledge and improve creativity skills while working collaboratively with the students.

Journal 1: 100 things that make me happy

1. Family-Mom, Dad, Sister, Grandparents, etc.
2. My Boyfriend
3. Friends
4.The beach
5.Traveling
6. Shooting Stars
7. losing weight
8. Fruit
9. Mexican Food
10. Starbucks
11. Smoothies
12. getting good grades
13. Zumba
14. My pets
15. Helping People
16. Helping Animals
17. My iphone
18. Teen Mom 2
19. The Bachelor
20. The Buckle
21. Victoria's Secret
22. Sephora/ makeup
23. Dancing
24. Music
25. Facebook
26. Meeting new people
27. going to church
28. being tan
29. Puppies
30. Vacation
31. When Finals are over
32. My laptop
33. Reading good books
34. Being lazy on rainy days
35. Snowboarding
36. Learning new things
37. Baking
38. Buying gifts for others
39. The biggest loser
40. Working with kids
41. Having a clean room
42. Organization
43. Iceskating
44. Bowling
45. Seeing Plays
46. Concerts
47. Supercross
48. Glamis Sand Dunes
49. The river
50. Amusement Parks
51. Movies
52. My mom's cooking
53. Christmas
54. Family Reunions
55. Hiking
56. Kayaking
58. Hawaii
59. Alaska
60. Inter-tubing
61. Coloring Pictures
62. Having a new outfit to wear
63. Manatees
64. Pole Position
65. Sparkles
66. Smelly Goods
67. Lists
68. Having Money
69. Going out to eat
70. Getting a Pedicure
71. Getting my nails done
72. Getting my hair done
73. Happy endings
74. Being successful and seeing others succeed
75. Dogs
76. Bridesmaids the movie
77. Working at a Kids Club
78. Dressing up
79. Relaxing
80. Sunsets
81. Coke Zero
82. Making Memories
83. Pictures
84. The Dallas Cowboys
85. Being Productive
86. The Mountains
87. Calculators
88. In In Out
89. Clean Teeth
90. Jacuzzi
91. spell check
92. Basketball
93. Speech Therapy
94. completing semesters
95. massages
96. parties
97. my sisters laugh
98. Sleep
99. Warm Blankets
100. My Body Pillow