Guiding Priciples Revisted

Below are my original guiding principles with comments, additions, and changes made!

• Address my 5 E's: Engage, Enhance, Excite, Explore, Express - this is really a guiding principle for my teaching (I have it up in my room) so it has to also guide my use of technology. I think the second and fourth (Enhance and Explore) and integral when incorporating technology. The technology has to be able to enhance the lesson and reach the students in a different way. Also, this class has reinforced the idea that the students need to explore on their own as much as possible. If technology can supplement labs (particularly to address time and equipment constraints) then it's definitely worth incorporating.
  
• Use "new things in new ways" when appropriate and applicable - still true
  
• Make the technology fit my lessons instead of making the my lessons fit the technology - I think this is the most important for me to remember. When I'm looking into new technologies no matter how cool it is - does it fit my objectives or am I trying to force it in because I want it to work?
  
• Address the needs of my particular students (with mild to moderate learning disabilities) particularly their various learning modalities - I need to always keep my student population in mind and take into account their accommodations and assess whether what I'm asking them to do is going to add to their learning or detract because other interferences are preventing them from utilizing the technology.
  
• Allow my students to become more independent thinkers - Always!
  
• Ensure that the content is still the focus and that the students are not getting bogged down in the mechanics of the applications - I also found that simplification is key. Incorporating technologies but making them accessible and user friendly will be key to mine and their success. If I'm having trouble with something or think it's too complicated, chances are at least some of them will have the same trouble - then how do I help them?? I need to think about my least technology proficient students - will they be able to use this effectively?
• Technology integration needs to be supported and understood by administration and other teachers. Without this my projects will get derailed faster than they got started. Luckily I have the technical support and equipment and I think as long as I can demonstrate how these integrations will benefit our students, others will buy in (and want to incorporate new things as well)

I think these princinples will continue to morph and change slightly but I think they provide a good foundation for my foray into utilizing more technology in the classroom.

Final Reflections

I signed up for this class at the last minute and felt (arrogantly) that I wouldn't really learn new things but really just improve on technology skills that I already had. It was a big blow to the ego when I discovered I pretty much knew nothing and was swimming upstream without a paddle. However, it was comforting to see and hear that many of us were in the same boat and that together we could navigate uncharted waters. Thank you to everyone in this class in my new PLN for providing guidance and encouragement when I needed it.

In looking back I think my key word this summer became balance; balancing classes, summer school, and life; balancing many new technologies coming at me from all new channels; balancing my desire to incorporate EVERYTHING with my understanding that it just can't happen; balancing my perfectionism with practicality; balancing my excitement about new technology with the awareness that there is going to be a learning curve for me AND my students. In the end I think I came out fairly even. Luckily I still have a few weeks to relax (vacation to the Adirondacks), regroup, and refine before starting back to school.

I look forward to school getting started and seeing how my projects as well as those of my classmates evolve throughout the year. I'm sure we will "see" each other in the virtual world soon!

All Good Things...

...must come to an end. With the end of our class approaching I'm left with the daunting task of incorporating some of the things that I have learned. Below are my technology incorporation project plans. I've been trying to really get A LOT of the leg work completed because I know once school starts, I will have less time to "tinker". Luckily, I now know definitely what classes I'm teaching next year (3 Algebra 1, 2 Biology --- Yay!!) so I'm better able do some real integration plans. So without further ado, here are my ideas.

1) The Catalyst - A class wiki for my Biology classes that will serve as a collaborative hub for the class. I created the wiki using Wikispaces. I've been pretty happy with their features (particularly quickly providing a complimentary educational upgrade that removed the ads from the wiki) and have found the editing features easy to use. One of my big issues with wiki's in general is the boring layout. Therefore, to spice it up a little, I used Glogster Education(another tool brought up in this course) to create a poster for my home page.

2) CA Teacher Resources - Another wiki created as a collaborative space for the teachers at my school. I think one of the most powerful outcomes of this course (second only to my personal development in technology integration) is passing many of the tools and tricks I've learned on to my fellow staff members. The wiki includes a lot of the information that we've discovered during the class. Teachers can explore this as well as add their own information. Hopefully throughout the year, teachers will add links that they come across.

3) Ms. Theobald's BioBlog - I decided to also create a blog for my Biology class. It will serve as a place for class discussion about articles, class topics, etc. My students have a lot to say but sometimes have trouble expressing themselves. I've used discussion boards before but I think this will open up so much more to them. There's link to my the blog on the wiki so they can easily get to it. I decided to go with Edublogs because of their focus on educational blogs and their numerous features for monitoring and moderation. Your account also allows you to set up student accounts that you can monitor as well as change student permissions. Later in the year (after the students have become familiar with the blog), I plan to alternate making them "contributors" to the blog which means they can go in and write a blog post but can't publish it. I can then edit it if necessary and publish it. I'm excited to give the students ownership of the blog as an assignment and think that will just further their interest in blogging.

4) Screencasts - I had never thought of using screencasts for class before taking this course. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm very interested about exploring their capabilities particularly because of my student population. Many of them have trouble when dealing with a task that has many steps and therefore may struggle even trying to use some of these technologies. I think screencasts would be a great way to introduce these tools (How to navigate the class wiki, how to comment on a blog, etc.) and then they can reference them when they are having trouble. Also, as I said before using them to present to students who are absent or to serve as a review for tests could be a very useful tool. I will definitely be using the screencast I created for class to allow the students to review concepts outside of class.

5) A little more - I plan to actually pare down the number of simulations I use (I think I use them too often without really examining their value and effectiveness) and bring in more inquiry based activities. I plan to use the CIESE: Human Genetics Project and a few projects on the WISE site. I also plan on using Glogster and Voicethread as alternative ways for students to express themselves and as alternative ways to assess understanding.

Please take a look around at my plans and let me know what you think. Thoughts? Modifications?

Week 7 PLN

As I mentioned last week, I'm excited to see how my PLN will transform once school gets in full swing. Hopefully, it will become a place where I can get quick, helpful to answers as I try to incorporate my new tools in the classroom. I got more into the Classroom 2.0 groups this week. I think that's another place that will open up many doors once school starts.

My other big triumph (which is not really a triumph at all) was to actually join the Biology listserv on the NSTA website. Several people had mentioned it here and I kept meaning to do it and then would forget. So now I'm set up and ready to go and even though it's still summer there are some valuable things coming through and I think it will prove to be a great source of information.

I know for most of you this isn't your medium but does anyone know of good PLN resources for teaching students with learning disabililties. My school caters to students with learning disabilities and I was looking for some PLN resources to tap into for that. Any thoughts??

****Edit: Just opened my Google Reader and there was a post about a website for teachers of students with special needs. My PLN coming to help again. However, if others have resources, I would still greatly appreciate them!!! Viva la PLN!!!!****

Webinar

Well, I finally attended a webinar this weekend. As I mentioned on the class wiki, I participated in the Classroom 2.0 Live session called "How to Create a Great PowerPoint Without Breaking the Law". The archived session can be viewed here.

This session was my first foray into webinars and Elluminate. Because I was paranoid about having trouble, I watched a screencast about the features the night before. Logging in and getting set up was very simple. I found Elluminate very intutive and easy to navigate. It provided a very good platform for the session.

In regards to the content, it was pretty good. Having worked with PowerPoint quite a bit, some of the tricks I was already familiar with. There was a lot of information about ways to best draw in (and not lose) the attention of your audience. Working with mostly ADHD students, retaining attention is key to my success. The other focus of the presentation was copyright. Every time I've tried to hash out the copyright situation this summer, the same pattern has emerged. About half through, I have a moment of clarity where it all makes sense and by the end that clarity is a distant memory that has been clouded by what appears to be contradicting and confusing information. However, I do believe that each time I'm exposed to it, I pick up something new that sticks. The presenter did a little "is it legal or not" series of polls at the beginning and then explained the answers. These real world examples were very helpful for me.

Overall, it was a very good experience. I love that all this information can be so easily accessed now. I don't have to find the time to attend a seminar or be constrained by where something is taking place. From the comfort of my home (in my pajamas if I so choose) I can participate in a live session on topics that interest me. Love it!

Powerpoints, Screencasts, and VoiceThread

Well one thing that was reaffirmed this week is that I'm a perfectionist who hates the sound of her own voice! Luckily, I found the screencast, made through screencast-0-matic, very easy to create (particularly to redo or edit when necessary). I'm curious what applications this could have. Here were just some ideas that I've been batting around.

1. Using screencasts for pre-arranged absences. I'm planning to attend the NSTA conference in Florida this fall and would be missing two days of school. Typically (because we are a small school community) we just cover for each other when there are absences and those days would probably be spent doing seat work or independent work. This would allow the class to move foward without me there.
   
2. Using screencasts for students who are absent (particularly ones who are chronically ill and out for many days). This would allow them to stay current with class material.
3. Using screencasts for students with presentation anxiety. Along with learning disabilities that my students have often comes a presentation anxiety that prevents them from comfortably making class presentations. Allowing them to do a screencast would allow them to do it until they are happy with it and present to the class without getting up in front of them.

I think VoiceThread is a really interesting tool. It would allow for some interesting discussion and conversation and I look forward to using it.

All my materials can be viewed on the class wiki.

Week 6 PLN

One of my biggest issues with my PLN this summer is that my use of it was all centered around how I could use it, what applications it could have, and how it could fit into my guiding principles throughout the year. While I have identified many positive aspects over the past several weeks, it's all been hypothetical as I'm not currently in school. I think that over the past few weeks I've learned to manage my PLN and and use it effectively in my current situation (of being out of school) but that will all change once school starts. So now I really need to think about how I can best utilize my PLN to it's and my fullest advantage once the busyness of school has kicked into full swing. I don't want to abandon it as I think that a network of people with common threads is a very powerful and helpful tool but I also don't want it to become another thing on the to-do list that I have to deal with or that distracts from other objectives. I think PLN management will need to be incorporated into my guiding principles as I think the shaping of that over the next year will need to be a focus if it's something I want to maintain and effectively utilize (which it is - at least at this moment!)