Sometimes the Digital Natives.....

Last year I became very tired that students could not locate information off our on-line grade book. I am going to change this. I want the students on the grade book daily. So I have been hiding secret words for extra credit, handouts and even typed notes for students to use. I also made one of the homework assignments a Scavenger Hunt. I tried to make sure that each of the tabs on the grade book had to be used. I was so excited.

Well I have received them back and found that they might be digital natives but do not have a digital vocabulary. I asked students which attachments you could find on a certain page and have received a list of the links on a totally different tab.

Alright so I need to help them with some of their challenges but what about the next question that I asked: "Where you can find my e-mail?" That should be easy, right. No, the students are giving me the schools web site. Oh well, I will make sure they know the terminology and where to find the information. It can only help as I continue to use the grade book all year long.

Technologies I use in My Classroom!

What kind of technologies am I using in my classroom right now?

During the start of the school year many of us are asked to analyze the DATA!

I think one way to trick some students into enjoying reading and writing is to find something they can get excited about. My students are excited this week because we are using Edmodo.com. I posted an assignment that we are working on for our September 11th poem. The requirements for the assignment are uploaded for the students to view. The students are checking the site and talking about it. I have a student who has posted a question and another student who posted the correct answer. They are being proactive and helping each other. The assignment, once completed by the student, it can be uploaded for the teacher to view right from the site. I no longer have to carry around a ton of papers to grade. I can view the assignments right there on the web site, without having to download it. Right now they are reading and writing. I am hoping to add more writing assignments as the school year continues.

What is Edmodo.com? It is a student safe, educational  “Facebook” page. The students can post messages to the classes “wall” and to the teacher but no messages student to student. The teacher is able to delete any comments that are inappropriate.

I look forward to using this site to encourage and excite my students to love learning.

The Hard-working Teacher (adapted from the Little Red Hen)

Once upon a time there was a hard working teacher who worked hard at her job. She knew there must be a better way to teach this generation’s students.
Who will help me find a new way to teach these digital natives?
“Not I” said the students
“Not I” said the Principal
“Not I” said the Parents
The teacher decided to teach herself how to reach these digital natives. She went and enrolled in Fundamentals of Technology for Educators.
The teacher was asked to create excel spreadsheets, blogs and on-line identity.  She was lost during many on these assignments.
Who will help me find a new way to teach these digital natives?
“Not I” said the students
“Not I” said the Principal
“Not I” said the Parents
The teacher decided to use Google, Microsoft help and the wonderful textbook to figure out the assignments.
The teacher needed to create and find a way to integrate technology into her curriculum.
Who will help me find a new way to teach these digital natives?
“Not I” said the students
“Not I” said the Principal
“Not I” said the Parents
The teacher decided to create a web-quest made to help her students understand the lives of those living colonial America.
Finally other teachers are realizing they need a way to reach their digital natives.
Who will help these students and teachers?
“I will” said the teacher who took Fundamentals of Technology for Educators.
I will teach YOU what I  know about ways to reach your digital natives that really work examples are: Prezi for notes, digital storytelling.

What did I do with my weekend?

Check out my improved web-quest, now with a lesson plan. Boy I hope I did this right :-) On to the next assignment I know I will start that now!

Lesson Title:	Commercial For your Colony
Grade Level/Subject Area:	8th Grade U.S. American History
Performance Objectives:	After completion of the lesson, students will be able to: What were the reasons Europeans colonized in America? How was life in the colonies different from life in Europe? What are the best features to each of the colonies?
Sunshine State Standards	SS.8.A.1.6 – Compare interpretations of key events and issues throughout American History.  SS.8.A.1.7 – View historic events through the eyes of those who were there as shown in their art, writings, music, and artifacts. SS.8.A.2.4 – Identify the impact of key colonial figures on the economic, political, and social development of the colonies. SS.8.C.1.4 – Identify the evolving forms of civic and political participation from the colonial period through Reconstruction. SS.8.E.2.2 – Explain the economic impact of government policies. SS.8.G.6.2 – Illustrate places and events in the U.S. history through the use of narratives and graphic representations. Cross Curricular LA.8.6.2.2: The student will assess, organize, synthesize, and evaluate the validity and reliability of information in text, using a variety of techniques by examining several sources of information, including both primary and secondary sources.
ISTE NETS-S Standards	1. Creativity and Innovation- Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:      a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.      b. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.   2. Communication and Collaboration- Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:      a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.     b. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.   3. Research and Information Fluency- Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students: a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry. b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.   4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making - Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.  Students: a. Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. b. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.   5. Digital Citizenship- Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.   Students: a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology. b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity. c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.   6. Technology Operations and Concepts- Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students: b. Select and use applications effectively and productively. d. Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
Time Needed:	1 week or 5 50-minute class periods.
Assessment:	Students will be assessed using a rubric provided from iRubric.
Technology Connections:	Students will conduct research about the thirteen colonies on the internet. Students will then turn their findings into a short video.
Materials:	Students will use the provided handouts and computers to research their colony. Students will use camcorders, and computers to create a short video.
Related URLs:	Teacher created wiki: http://petersonusamerican.wikispaces.com/ http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/
Step by Step Procedures:	Day 1 –in classroom: Students will randomly be placed into groups  Groups will come up with “team names” for their production company name The Production company will need a illustration to symbolize them as a whole group.  Then they will draw colony names out of the hat. Explain the project and show example to whole class.   Day 2- Computer Lab: Each student will complete research of colonies on the computers. Students will complete research handouts. Students will be given time to find pictures for use in their movie. The group will come together to create a storyboard or a written idea of the infomercial.   Day 3- “on-set”: Students will have to pitch their storyboard to teacher. Students will be able to go out on to school grounds to film short live action shots for infomercial.   Day 4- Computer Lab: Students will work together to use Movie Maker to import their pictures and footage that they captured. Students will be able edit film in the sequence that they wanted. They will also create a script for the voice over.   Day 5- Computer Lab: Students will work together to put in voice over and music to help entice people to join their colony. Render the film to be shown during another class. Save all film to one easy location to be graded. Once all handouts have been completed, turn in to teacher. (Research, storyboard, and script)
Classroom Management:	Whole Class Instruction, Monitor Student understanding through Informal Questioning.
Accommodations:	One-on-one assistance as needed. Use visuals and explain vocabulary ahead of time.
Resources:	Scott Firenza Digital Book Talk Teaching Copyright Authentic Learning Creative Commons on Ted Currant EmergingEdTech

 

 

How authentic is my assessment?

I like to use a variety of assessments to assure that my students are learning in my classes. As a continuation of my thirteen colonies infomercial project, I knew I had to have a way to evaluate the products that my students created. I needed to create a rubric for this assignment that I am going to give my students. "What is a rubric?" you ask? According to Kenesaw State University, “A rubric is an authentic  assessment tool used to measure students' work. It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score.” I knew immediately that this is the way I wanted to grade my students.

I normally use a more holistic rubric, one where you list all the items which are in a category together; however, in this assignment I wanted to weight each category with a different percentage. In my research I found this would be more similar to an Analytic rubric (definition by Jon Mueller). I knew that I would have to be careful. After reading "Calculating Grades with Rubrics" by Tammy Andrew, I wanted to make sure that all students received a meaningful grade based on the importance of what I wanted them to learn from the assignment. I sat down to create a list of the most important items through which my students can demonstrate their knowledge of the subject.

In addition to having my list of important items, I wanted to find a website to help in developing a rubric. I chose iRubric, a website that not only will help me write my rubric but will also help in my grading of the students' projects. I went through the options that this wonderful website offered. I found this website very user-friendly and can see myself using this very often in the future. If you want to check out my great new rubric, I have added it below. Let me know if you see any changes that might be needed.

An Example or changed idea?

AR#6
I teach in a middle class school. My students have access to computers at school by using computer labs or in my classroom where I have 3 student computers. The computer lab is becoming increasingly difficult to get into because everyone wants time in there. Yippe! It seems like teachers are integrating technology into their curriculum, right? Actually, most teachers are going in to have their students take computerized tests. I teach U.S. American History to 8th grade students (most are 13 to 14 years old). Sadly, the students typically come into class with the idea that history is boring.

I also spent some time evaluating the web sites I obtained my information from. I now see the need of developing a special way to evaluate these student technology based projects effectively, as explained in my textbook Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Shelly, Gunter and Gunter. The value of explaining to students the worth of a web site varies. They might need to do a few evaluations on web sites at the start of the year to understand everything they find on the internet is not accurate. I liked how the Office of information and technology described the internet as “The Web is not one large digital library. Libraries have trained professionals who carefully evaluate, select, organize, and index materials from credible sources.”

This week I was challenged to create an example of what I would like me students to do for a project using digital storytelling. The topic I want my students to focus on will be the thirteen original colonies. I really would like for them to learn what life was like for the people of the colonization time period. What might the person see, eat or do in a day?


I had a difficult time incorporating everything that I wanted my students to have in my “movie”. I am really going to have to dive deeper to what I want my students to learn. The objectives I listed in my assignment seem too complicated for the idea I have.

Objectives:
-What were the reasons Europeans colonized in America?
-What is the difference between New England, Middle and Southern Colonies?
-How was life in the colonies different from life in Europe?
-What are the regional differences?
-What are the best features to each of the colonies?

I was originally looking to have the students create their projects in photo story (a free program that our school already has). The project can still be done, but I always have grand dreams and high expectations. I want the expectation to be obtainable to my 8th grade students. Plus, I can only get the computer lab for about 1 week, sometimes less. I am going to continue to make adjust my expectations and make them a little more realistic.

Me, Create a Web Quest, Really?

AR#5

This week was one of the hardest for me. First, we are on spring break so all of my resources (including links I like to use) are on my work computer. Second, All the thunderstorms near my house has caused us to lose power. Once I have tackled those hurdles, I am feeling quite overwhelmed by the task I am to undertake this week. I was to create a Curriculum Page/Web Quest. In order to start this very daunting task, I needed to find out more about what a Curriculum Page/Web Quest was.

In completing research I found that a Web Quest is an inquiry-based lesson (webquest.org).  I found this to be a comfort since I use DBQ’s in my classroom (Document Based Questions). The students are provided a very open ended question that they have to look at multiple documents to form their opinion and argue the evidence to support the opinion. I also use History Alive to provide a real connection the past and how it relates to the student. I can do this I can come up with a Web Quest!

A curriculum page is a teacher-created document containing hyperlinks to teacher-selected Web Sites. (Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Shelly, Gunter and Gunter) Now I just have to decide what to research to be able to provide links for my students. I looked back on my last blog in where I wanted to do a Story of Us scenario.  This was just to broad a topic and I really wanted to be able to use this to get the students excited in the beginning of the year. Then it came to me, I have the students read a book called Blood on the River, Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbon and a DBQ on Jamestown: Why did so many colonist die? I could then ask them why would anyone leave England to come to the New World.  There is a lesson in my History Alive book that the students need to create a colony booth and have a colonial fair (much like a job or college fair). They are required to visit the booths to find out about each colony. What if I morphed it into…an infomercial with “personal” story on why they decided to move to the colony?

Although I had an idea that I feel very confident in and I have no clue where to start. Luckily for me I was provided a one page template to get me started. I started to try to fill in the blanks and get started. I also spent time looking at different web quest. I really enjoyed the one on Jamestown. I was off to find pages for my students to use. Since I have so much information on Jamestown, I decided not to allow groups to use Virginia as one of their colonies. I will instead use this as my example. Finding web sites was fairly complicated as most of my favorite links are bookmarked at school for this unit. I have since learned of Diigo and see the benefits of having web sites bookmarked on-line. I have to live and learn J

I am still playing with the different pages and adding links as I find them. There might need to be a few zipped files added at some point. I need to get a folder created so I can compress the entire folder I wish to upload and not each item at a time.

So did I make you curious, do you want to see what I have so far for my students to create an infomercial on their colony? Your wait is over! May I present you my web quest: Commercial for your Colony.

 

Just in case the Hyperlink does not work: http://petersonusamerican.wikispaces.com/