Assessing My Experience With the Social Bookmarking Tool Del.icio.us

  Recently I was required to create a Delicious account as part of an assignment. I was apprehensive because that’s basically just my natural state, but I found that creating the account was actually pretty easy! Following the directions outlined in a YouTube video I simply went to the Del.icio.us website and logged in with my yahoo account information. It prompted me to create a toolbar button for Delicious and explained how (in my case I just had to click a button). Now, whenever I find a webpage I want to save I just click the Save to Delicious button on my toolbar. For each page I save I provide a brief note about the page and why it was useful to me. Then I label each saved page with tags or keywords to describe the content of the page. This way anyone looking for sites about “lesson plans” for instance can type in “lessonplans” and see every page saved with that tag. It’s pretty amazing! I think my favorite part about using Delicious or probably any social bookmarking tool is that it makes research easy! I can look to see what other people have found related to my interest and even see what have been the most popular sites. These sites are usually popular for a reason and usually it’s because they have been the most helpful. I guess my least favorite part about creating the Delicious account is just that it’s one more account to keep track of. I guess the idea is that Delicious will help me keep track of my various account pages but that’s thinking a little too big for me this soon. I think saving pages to Delicious could be pleasing to my OCD and maybe a little addictive! This site can be helpful in just about any course at FTCC. My class had to label the websites we are researching for this assignment with EDU271 so when I type in this tag to search for it comes up with what all of my classmates have found already. This is definitely easier than asking everyone individually or even going through a Discussion Board to read what each individual person has saved. For group projects my group members could agree on a unique tag to use on the sites we find for our research thus making it easy to see what each member has found and saved by simply typing in that tag. This helps to save us from hyperlinks that do not work due to typos or spelling errors because we have already tried our URLs out on Delicious. In my own classroom, I think Delicious would be an excellent reference for my parents. Any issue or question they have or anything they wish to expand upon that their children are learning in class can be easily researched by my providing information about Delicious. Either I can show them how to access information on Delicious and how to create an account or I can do all the legwork myself and provide them with what I have found. I always think it’s nice to provide parents with information on resources they can turn to for questions about appropriate child development or developmentally appropriate activities for their children so Delicious makes finding this information easier for me.

Crickweb.co.uk - primary interactive resources

<http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html#leckysfriends4>
  The website Crickweb.co.uk- primary interactive resources is an interactive site designed to provide activities on many subjects to enhance an educator’s lesson plans and thus student learning. The author of this site can be contacted via the Contact link provided in the case of any questions or comments. In fact, they approve some longtime users’ requests to share activities they have created on this site. Dan Bunker actually writes the resources for this site but he works with his brother to design the site. He appears to be more than qualified for this role. Bunker actually runs a business in the United Kingdom that hires trained, experienced tutors to work with educators in the classroom to learn how to use their technology tools correctly and how to include these resources in relevant ways to enhance learning. He is familiar with the standards for learning in the UK and provides resources (for free) on this site to enhance students’ opportunities to reach them. While the author does include links to his private business this does not appear to be completely for advertisement purposes. In fact, this appears to be more to validate the website by providing the user with his qualifications. The purpose of the website seems pretty straightforward. The activities are free as well as hundreds of links they provide to access more free material. The site uses technology to enhance learning! While no date is posted for the updates to the site it is clear that it is worked on routinely. For instance, each month they add the prior month’s most popular links. This can be very helpful to educators because often links are the most popular because they are the most helpful. All of the links to activities I tried are still active and easy to use. While there is advertising on the page they, themselves, do not have any product they appear to be selling. It really is a free service. This site is going to be helpful to me in developing my unit on Body Parts. The interactive activities allow the children to practice putting body parts where they belong and I can incorporate positional vocabulary into the activity by having them talk me through the activity. The children can create the body for an alien or apply appendages to a “scary spud.” This site seems fun, interesting, and helpful. As for reliability I can’t see how it could prove unreliable. I am using it to ENHANCE a lesson not necessarily use it as a lesson in itself. I have the option of picking and choosing the activities from the site I feel will most benefit my students and creating a creature by putting body parts on it allows for creativity (they get to choose earrings, nail polish, etc.) and the basics of identifying the proper locations for body parts.

Evaluating What Worked and Did Not Work For a Collaborative Wiki Page Assignment

  This past week I completed a group project for which I was responsible for researching and contributing my findings in the effort to collaboratively develop a reference page in the Teaching and Learning Resources wiki with my fellow group members. Our professor has stated that there were several purposes for this assignment. Obviously, one of the main purposes for this group assignment was for us to experience completing a project with a group. For some this may have been a first experience working in a group setting and for others this may be something they have experienced many times throughout the course of their educational or professional career. Also, and this was new to many of us I’m sure, was that this project served the purpose of giving us the opportunity to learn more about the functions of a wiki page. During the assignment we had to post information and revise it and to do so without repeating our group members’ contributions but instead by either adding to their contributions or creating new sections of information. The particular group I was in was responsible for researching and providing information about the learning theory of “constructivism.” Several of us assigned ourselves to the topic, so I can say personally that I was already interested in the subject and in exploring it further.

 The group in which I was involved had a lot of trouble getting started. I don’t think this can be contributed to any one person. One of our group members jumped right in and began editing preexisting information on the page. The rest of us, however, took a little longer to figure out what was going on. For instance, I think I was waiting to kind of get a feel for how the page was supposed to flow and unfortunately, I think others were doing the same. I think with more time we could have created a more comprehensive informational page but with the time we were each able to contribute I think we ended up with more information that I expected. Because we were slow to collaborate it made it kind of tricky to disperse roles for the group. I found an area that I felt worthy of expanding upon and kind of claimed it for my own but I never really got much feedback on whether that was ok with anyone. One thing that definitely did not work was creating the Discussion Page. We just didn’t use it. In hindsight, I probably should have just stuck with the comment section on the main page. I know one thing I did that was a hindrance to my group and that had to be my lack of time for the project. Very recently our little preschool suffered two tragic, completely unexpected losses. This required funeral visits, planning meetings for what we were going to do for the families and more than anything extra time in the office helping to keep everything caught up. I think what made this group project so difficult is that none of us were able to make the project our top priority at the same time to collaborate in a real-time situation. While getting a good grade is a definite priority for me, it’s funny how this second time around I just cannot always make my schoolwork my number one priority every day. The perfectionist in me wants to, but the adult in me says to keep up with my grown-up responsibilities. In the future I might reach out to my fellow group members as early as possible. I could tell that one of my group members that I thought was just ignoring the assignment actually contributed a lot to the page once she understood what was going on. Keeping this in mind, I will not assume anything about my group members and I’ll try not to be too shy to reach out. I was afraid to ask if anyone needed help because I didn’t want to come across as pushy or a know-it-all, especially since I know so little about anything in this class! At one point I asked if there was a time everyone could be available so we could discuss how to go about dissecting the various portions of the page and I did not receive any feedback. Again, I think this was possibly because I posted it to the separate discussion page.  In the future it would be nice to have some roles established early on and negotiate who will be revising what. At times I would start to edit something and then think I would be offended if someone just starting slashing through my work. Also, in the future I will just get started! It really didn’t work or make sense for us to wait on each other in order to understand how to do it. I think all of us were a little unsure of ourselves (or that’s the impression I got). If, in the future, we just dive in and start working it will give more timid teammates a stronger base to work from.

Identifying Lesson Topics

  Teachers should identify lesson topics to include in instruction based in large part on what the children are currently interested in. If the children are interested in the topic they have a better chance of understanding the material and applying it in future situations. The IRIS module also explains that while each topic taught should fit into the unit and its corresponding benchmark or standard, the specific topic being used for that concept has more room for being creative.  Of course, the lesson itself should be based on the standards set and fit into the curriculum set for the particular school.  For example, if the students need to be learning about addition there is nothing to say that they cannot learn to add their scores from a game the class likes to play. This is more exciting and more relevant to the students than just adding random numbers and it shows them how addition is applicable and useful to real-life.

Meeting the Needs of All Students

  The IRIS module mentions six guidelines or principles that should guide teachers’ planning in order to meet the needs of all students: Big Ideas, Conspicuous Strategies, Mediated Scaffolding, Strategic Integration, Primed Background Knowledge, and Judicious Review. Big Ideas corresponds with the idea that all students learn differently and so flexibility should be built into the timeline from the very beginning of planning a learning unit. Conspicuous Strategies lends itself to our planning, implementing, and making clear to our students which steps are expected to be taken in completing a task or lesson. If there is a way to help the students be successful on project then they need that information and the how-to from the beginning. Mediated Scaffolding is the idea of providing students with assistance necessary to be successful on an assignment or assessment and slowly reducing the amount of assistance provided and theoretically needed until the assistance is no longer required at all. Strategic Integration is where teachers get to be creative. Including outside, relevant ideas into the topic being taught is a great way for students to explore the topic more thoroughly. For instance, if we are learning about primates, asking a local animal rescue to bring their baby spider monkeys in for a visit is an effective method for increasing the students’ interest and fascination in the topic. Strategic Integration is again making content more relevant to the students. If we can tie into the lesson personal testimonies about the subject at hand we are increasing the students’ ability to relate academic content to real-life. Judicious Review is essentially including review at any and all appropriate times throughout lessons beyond the one where concepts are first introduced. We do this all the time in Sunday School by asking the children to recall other people in the Bible who had similar experiences to the one being discussed.

Instructional Cycle

  The three stages of the instructional cycle are identifying the intended instructional outcomes, planning the instruction, and assessment. In the first step the teacher must identify what the students are supposed to learn, how they learn it, and how they will demonstrate that they have learned it. When creating the unit the teacher must identify which of the content standards and specific benchmarks the unit is addressing. From the very beginning, the teacher should know how they will be testing the students’ knowledge both throughout the unit and at the end. The planning stage requires the teacher to work on lessons for a unit that will teach their students in the most appropriate manner. How will the lessons be delivered, assessed, adapted? The third stage is the assessment portion. This is when the lessons are actually being carried out and the new knowledge and skills are being applied. Assessment is involved in both formal and informal assessments delivered and collected by the teacher but also in how the students carry out the projects implemented in the lessons. The teacher has already decided which instructional outcomes should be demonstrated so now it is time to observe and collect data. Based on the assessment results the teacher has a strong indication of whether or not the lessons were effective or the instruction important.

Components of Good Assessment

  Three components of a good assessment are that it uses more than one way to measure progress, it is teacher or grader friendly, and it should match its purpose to the skills actually being assessed. Not all students learn the same and likewise not all students test the same. Some students may be wildly successful on a multiple-choice assessment but struggle with essay questions or vice versa. It is important to not always test in the same styles and to provide more than one type of assessment throughout the unit. For an assessment to be teacher friendly it really just means that the teacher can handle it in an appropriate amount of time from the creation of the test through grading and returning it to the students with appropriate feedback.  The IRIS module mentions that in order for feedback to be of any use to the student they need to receive it back in a timely manner. Otherwise it’s not really going to benefit them in that particular class anyway. So if the teacher has 300 students in a lecture hall and three other classes added to that, he or she may give out a lot more multiple choice or computer generated assessments rather than grade 900 essay assessments. The third component is one that the module explained to be that if the teacher is checking to see if the students have memorized rote facts a multiple-choice test may be more appropriate than an essay test where the students can kind of weave all sorts of irrelevant information into their explanations. Likewise, it is very difficult to see if the students can apply their knowledge using only multiple-choice questions (even if they are everyone’s favorite)!

Adapting Instruction

  Adapting instruction is important for several reasons. For one thing, schools are seeing more and more classrooms with a large number of children with special needs included. Educators need to be able to adapt their lessons to accommodate a large span of abilities and academic levels. It is important we have an understanding of how to best do this because we need to be able to adapt a lesson to suit the purpose without “giving away the grade.” For instance, Johnny may need the test presented orally because he has a visual disability. Depending on his cognitive delays or lack-there-of I will still ask him the same questions I am asking the other students. I just need to prepare for this. Can a volunteer conduct activities with my other students while I give Johnny and maybe several other students their test orally? Or can he take the test at the same time as the rest of the class but with a recording and headphones?  My goal is to give Johnny the closest thing to a “typical” classroom experience while not causing him failure due to his disability. Another reason that adapting instruction is important is that teaching is not a one-size-fits all delivery. While in one class having all the material for a project spread out on the table is the most efficient, effective way to accomplish our goals, in another class I may have the students get their own materials out. Students in that first class have already accomplished the motor skills they need and my focus is on the actual project. For students in the other class, the act of their reaching up for the materials may be their ultimate success for that project. Perhaps watching them glue on paper will not be the point of that project because they can already work the glue stick. Surely it might have been easier for me to just lay the materials out but I would have deprived them of the challenge and the ultimate success.

Information-Processing Model

 The information-processing model of learning is broken down into a series of continuous steps. The first step to processing information is simply receiving it. Now for most of us simply hearing words spoken in the background is not enough for us to be able to recall what was said later. In order for students to really remember what they are learning they must be paying attention to it and usually in order for them to pay attention it has to be interesting. Once the information has been received or attended to it is placed in the short-term memory. The IRIS module explained that some refer to the short-term memory as the “working memory.” I really like the imagery this gives me. I am thinking this is the stage where we go in and tweak the gears, oil what needs oiled, reboot a few misperceptions, and put those gears to work. Likely, most educators learned a little something about memory in their very first introductory education course. I am no expert but I even I know that information stored in the short-term memory will not stay there long. It’s time to move it on to the long-term memory so let’s get those gears moving up there. Not all of our students will recall information in the same way. For some, putting information into a song will be the best way for them to mentally playback what they need to know for future use. The module mentions that some students really benefit from the use of a key-word strategy. Another suggestion it mentions is that grouping like items into categories is helpful for many students. When I was in third grade my teacher drew a picture of a potato and a tomato on the chalkboard complete with faces, arms, and legs. She drew ridiculous looking toes and said it was because all potatoes have “toes” and tomatoes have “toes”. Third grade was a long time ago and I still remember how to pluralize potatoes and tomatoes! Another method this same teacher used was recitation. When practicing our times tables we would always say, “Seven times seven is 49ers!” I think I will always have an image of a burly football player mining for gold and I will not forget that seven times seven is 49! We have stored the information in the long-term memory but how do make sure it will still be there for next year? Application seems to be the best way to keep the memory in good working order. The IRIS module explains that information received in an organized fashion is more easily retrieved. This means that when we take the time to help our students memorize important keys in a way that suits them such as with key-word associations or through categorization we are helping to ensure that they will have this information to pull from. Additionally, applying this knowledge to real-time, real-life events or interests is a great way for students to remember items through association. My son can relate just about anything to Star Wars (even the relation doesn’t make much sense to me). He remembers sight words he reads out of his Star Wars readers because he remembers the picture on the page where he saw it last. He can then point those words out anywhere. I know Ahsoka and Anakin are swimming around his gears up there but he’s reading and relating and learning more vocabulary thanks to them! I think really, the hallmark of a good curriculum is when review is a regular part of the lessons. Applying our knowledge is, in even my personal experience, the best way to keep it from becoming irretrievable.

Learning Characteristics

  Teachers should familiarize themselves with the individual learning characteristics in their classroom. For starters, teachers should be knowledgeable about their students’ current working knowledge and skill level. What have they already learned in grades prior? In what areas are they struggling? Are all of the students coming from this school or are some coming from schools with fewer advantages and resources? The resources available to each child in their home, school and community greatly affects their life experiences and what they have learned from them. Teachers can glean this knowledge by assessing their students at the beginning of a new unit and then at the end. This tells the teacher several things. The teacher has an idea of what has to be covered because it hasn’t been covered before or what they can simplify in their lessons because it is already understood by the students. No two groups of students will be alike so the lesson plan for a unit that worked well a year before will still need to be adapted for the current group. The assessments also tell teachers at the end what, if anything, the students have learned. This is a great way to evaluate whether or not presenting the unit in that manner was successful. Teachers should also familiarize themselves with how their students learn best. Some students learn best through visual presentations, some through auditory lessons, and others through movement or doing it themselves. The IRIS module explains that while all students have their own, unique way of learning, lessons that incorporate more than one way of learning are the most successful. For instance, in addition to reading the lesson in the textbook, the lesson could also be presented on an audiotape for the students to take home. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the students in a particular class? It is important not to play to the same strengths every lesson. If all lessons are presented through a lecture, the students who learn best through auditory stimulation will have an advantage while students who struggle with auditory processing will struggle all year. In addition, knowing where the strengths and weaknesses lie can help the teacher to creatively present some material. For instance, if I know that math is just not a forte for some of my students and that glazed over look comes into their eyes at the very mention of “numbers” I will need to get creative! Let’s act out a story problem using props or Oreos or whatever does pique their interest. They will be doing math and it can be relatively painless! But I need to be aware of this before I make my plans for the lessons so I have the right amount of time, resources, space, etc. The teachers’ feedback to their students is incredibly important in that students cannot improve or even understand what they did wrong without a clear breakdown of their assessment scores. Through this process, teachers also have the chance to see how students respond to their feedback. Do they heed and make the necessary changes? Are they sensitive to even constructive criticism? It has become a challenge to me to figure out how to give feedback to some children. Some children really do just stare back at me like they wish I would just be quiet and others are instantly emotional and defensive. Another area to be familiar with is how students work with others. When planning lessons one needs to be aware of how they might best situate students for group work. While many teachers may shy away from placing students in groups if they are too rowdy, too timid, or too bossy, etc , I think it is important to recognize these characteristics for what they are and then USE the group work to improve upon them. The timid child may not ever become comfortable working with other students in the classroom if they are not presented with the opportunity to do so repeatedly.  For the unit to have the most effect on the students’ understanding and application of the knowledge presented, it has to be relevant. The material should either be concurrent with events in their own lives or stimulate them to want to rise to the challenges presented. It’s always surprising to find that some teachers have no real idea what their students can do outside of the classroom. I love to hear a teacher praise a child for something they were able to do on the playground because it shows that child that they are interested in more than their academic scores. We can use these outside interests, hobbies, or even dreams to create interesting material. When my son was learning his ABC’s we would play ABC Bingo with whatever small snacky food I had on hand. This was so much more effective than just me holding up flashcards. If he followed through with the game he got to eat the snack! This is my example because my family seems to hold food as dear and precious, but all students have something that is relevant to who they are and that will spur them on. Another consideration that is extremely important is whether or not our students are speaking English at home.  Their culture and their home life do not exist in a vacuum and we shouldn’t expect it to. When we invite their families into our classrooms we are really only giving ourselves more options on how to present material.

Content Standards

  Content standards are basically a criteria outline of what students should understand and be able to actively apply throughout their educational career between Kindergarten and graduation from high school.  While many states have adopted content standards in all subjects taught, all states have adopted content standards in the core academic subjects such as Language Arts and Mathematics. In fact, the push for states to adopt one core set of standards across the country has been led at a state level by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and The Council for Chief State School Officers. All but eight states in the mainland United States have adopted this uniform set of standards. The push has not been for a uniform curriculum but only for uniform standards. With this system students can move anywhere in the United States and still be expected to know the same criteria to be successful graduates. Since the panel that designed the standards was informed in large part by countries around the world, this also ensures that graduates from United States high schools will be ready to compete on a global scale for education and careers.

  Benchmarks are more specific than content standards. Benchmarks break down a particular standard into measurable, manageable components. For instance, the state standard may require that students explore geometry but a measurable benchmark would be that in using geometry the students can demonstrate their understanding through the use of positional vocabulary. 

  Content standards and benchmarks are used in a number of ways. Teachers can use them to measure whether or not their students are learning what they should be to be successful at their grade level and in the grades ahead. The point is not for them to memorize rote facts but for the students to be able to build upon their working knowledge of the subjects areas as they progress through their K-12 educational career.  Teachers should be able to look at the grade the students were in the years prior to ascertain what they should already know and whether they actually know it and look ahead to see what needs to be taught before it is built upon in the coming years. Students, especially in older grade levels, use benchmarks as a way of measuring their own progress. When the outline is clear for what should be achieved by when, the chance for success is increased exponentially.  In addition to this, parents can use the benchmarks as a way to supplement their children’s school work at home. As a parent, I don’t want to find out at the end of the year that my child should have learned something but struggled when I could have researched it ahead of time and helped at home. Also, when parents empower themselves with the knowledge of what their children should be learning they are better able to ask the important questions during conferences with their children’s teachers. When teachers are not forced to start from scratch with every question but instead are able to build upon the parents’ understanding of what their children are being taught they are better able to find working solutions to the students issues in class. I stumbled upon a couple of websites that I (surprisingly) found really interesting:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?Page=3&TopicRelationID=1696&Content=88482

http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards