K12 Online Learning

Here's a link to a VoiceThread I completed for my Walden class EDUC 6715 on K12 Online Learning. Please feel free to leave comments/feedback. Thanks!

http://voicethread.com/share/1881013/

EDUC 6714- Final Reflection

Reflecting on the learning I’ve experienced in EDUC 6714, the Differentiation Station assignment stands out in many ways. The resources our group located will continue to be useful in implementing UDL and DI in the classroom. Not only is it a great tool for me, it is also something that I can share with my colleagues as I “spread the word” on ways to help all students make progress in the general education classroom. The social networking aspect of the assignment helped to ease my fears about upcoming assignments and brainstorm ways to integrate technology therefore benefitting all students.

As I begin to change the way I teach to a more student-centered classroom, the resources my group has located will help me tailor student learning to individual needs. The tools we found will open up a new world of learning for my students allowing them to learn based on their own unique learning preferences.

One way I plan to implement UDL and DI in my classroom includes having students complete learning inventories/surveys to help me better understand my their interests and learning preferences. Having more insight into student likes and dislikes assists me in designing instruction that will keep them engaged and motivated.

Another tool I plan to utilize more in my classroom is the use of a student response system to provide immediate feedback on lessons. Who understands and who doesn’t can be answered very quickly using this system. Small groups can then be created for more individualized lessons to enrich or remediate as necessary.

Finally, allowing students more choice in how they demonstrate their knowledge will be used. When students have multiple ways to express themselves, the likelihood they will be more engaged increases as well as the retention of material increases.

Overall, this course has opened my eyes to the many possibilities for reaching each of my students. Instead of continuing to teach to the whole class, I have learned that providing different opportunities for students to interact with the curriculum may actually make my job easier in the long run. Finding resources to support students may take the most time upfront, however, in the long run the effort will be worthwhile as students are more motivated and more engaged in learning.

Creating a social network with my grade-level colleagues would be a terrific place to begin therefore, lightening the load for all of us. A great way to start this process would be to take a few days over the summer to sit down together and divide the tasks so each of us can focus on one topic and then go back an add to the others as we find time and resources that could also be utilized.

My goal upon finishing this course is to share my knowledge with my principal and colleagues, spearheading an effort to locate resources that will help differentiate instruction for our fourth graders in all subjects, not just reading. If I succeed at that mission, I’d be more than willing to work with other grade levels to develop resources that will help them integrate UDL and DI techniques into their classrooms as well.

Universal Design for Learning Presentation

Here is a presentation I created to explain Universal Design for Learning as part of my Walden graduate class. Any feedback you leave would be appreciated. Thanks!

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/khartranft-804494-final-udl-presentation/

A Final Look at My GAME Plan

Throughout this course I have learned how to develop an action (GAME) plan that includes step-by-step activities describing how I will accomplish the goal. In addition, I have learned the value of monitoring my learning and evaluating my performance. Determining a goal is the easiest part since there are always new things to learn as an educator. Thinking through step-by-step how to accomplish a goal allowed me to have more of an active role in my learning. When I’ve done independent learning previously I’ve always had a goal in mind, but never really thought through how I might go about accomplishing it. Creating a general sequence that I wanted to follow helped me stay on track and know exactly what I wanted to do next.

Although I needed to revise my GAME plan during the eight weeks, I was still able to accomplish my goal of having my students use a blog to share thoughts, questions and ideas. My students are now ready to begin blogging on a more regular basis without as much guidance from me. We still have areas to tweak, however, I feel confident that my students can handle the task at hand. An area we will continue to work on is learning how to ask thought provoking questions of others as well as improving our own responses to our readings.

The most important idea I’ve learned from the course is the need to continually set new goals and work toward them. I don’t need to wait until I take another graduate class to set a plan into action. Actually, the best professional development is this type of activity, especially using the blog. Using the blog helped me keep a record of what I accomplished during the course. As things went wrong, I shared my thoughts and feelings. When things worked, that was recorded as well.

My goal is to now have my students learn the steps for implementing a GAME plan. Not only will this activity help them to be reflective thinkers, it will also document their learning it will also allow them to collaborate with others and receive feedback from a real audience, not just “the teacher.” Our goal as educators should be to guide students to be life-long learners and creating a GAME plan is one way to help students achieve that goal.

Using a GAME Plan with my Students

My experience creating a GAME plan has helped me understand the need for my students to develop action plans as well. Not only did I begin experimenting with blogging for our district, my students began using it as well. My goal now is to introduce the NETS-S standards to my students and take some time to learn about each one and what they mean. A good way for me to do this with my fourth graders is to first put them in “kid friendly” terms. Since my class enjoys using online thesauruses, I may give different groups an individual goal to rewrite using words they know and understand. Each group would then be responsible for “teaching” their classmates about that particular standard.

Once the students were familiar with the standards, I would introduce them to the concept of a GAME plan by working through it step-by-step. One day I would introduce the G: goal and show them what my original goal was. Students would then select a goal from the NETS-S that they would like to improve. The next step will be for them to determine how they will go about achieving this goal. To do that, I would have them work in small groups based on their particular goals. Students could then collaborate different strategies how to meet their individual goals. Recording the steps involved in the process would be done using Word so it could be uploaded to our class website or our class blog.

The next step involves having students monitor their progress. It was very helpful for me to have a timeline in which to accomplish my plan and believe it would be beneficial for my students as well. Therefore, every Friday during their center time, students will need to post on their blog what steps they’ve taken towards meeting their NETS-S goal. After six to eight weeks, the students will submit an evaluation of what they accomplished and what they have gained from using the GAME plan. Ideally, it would be nice for the students to develop a GAME plan for the first, second and third trimesters like they do for their other subjects. Their final work would be great to show parents during spring parent/teacher conferences.

GAME Plan: Goal Evaluation

So far I have learned to always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. I was fortunate that my Director of Technology was already working on having someone "experiment" with a blog and wiki using our district Moodle site. Had he not been "playing with the idea," I would have needed to start a new GAME plan from scratch.

I'm still working on learning how to best use my blog and wiki. My students and I tried it out last week during guided reading. Some of them are eager to dive in, while I'm more hesitant since I feel like I don't know if what I'm doing is "right." For example, when the students use the blog, they can't respond to any one particular person; their post just appears next in line after whatever was last posted. So, if student X wanted to comment on student Y's response which happened to be the first post, they won't link together and the students will need to reread all the posts. I could have them try something like we do with our discussions where we post our name first and who we are replying to. At least then they could look for their name and eliminate the need to read all the other posts repeatedly.

Since I only began blogging with two groups of students one day last week, I don't feel I'm ready to set new NETS-T learning goals just yet. I still need to introduce the blog/wiki to two more guided reading groups and teach them how to write though provoking questions and responses. Right now all they are writing is a basic sentence that doesn't allow for others to provide feedback or ask questions. Once I introduce the tool to my other groups, they need a few weeks to practice this new tool before we branch out into other areas.

As I was teaching science today, I thought using the blog would be a good way for the kids to blog outside of school. Since we are currently learning about rocks and the rock cycle, students could take pictures of different rocks they see in and around our town and then post them to the blog with a description. I think it would motivate the students to do some work outside of school that gets them engaged in the content.

I've learned that our Moodle blog/wiki site allows individuals to post video, audio, photos as well as text and links. I can't wait to try out these features as my students become more adept with this Web 2.0 tool!

Evaluating my GAME plan progress

• How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
  
• What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
  
• What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
  
• How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I did receive an email from the woman at ePals answering my question about the SchoolBlog account I created last year. As I feared, the site has been changed, and although I could have continued to use the site for the remainder of the school year, my Director of Technology, thought the email was "junk mail" and never notified me; I therefore missed the deadline for opting in to the freebie year. With that being said, I was able to explain my dilemma to my tech director who kindly suggested I "experiment" with a blog and wiki site available through our Moodle site. I'll be the "guinea pig."

I've learned a lot about perseverance through this project. When something doesn't go as planned, the best thing to do is reach out to others and ask for advice. Evaluate the advice you received and take a detour. Who knows, maybe using this suggestion will be easier for my fourth graders since it's all on our own network. They already have login names and passwords so we won't have to worry about creating unique usernames and passwords for other public sites.

Since I've taken a detour from my original plan, I have scheduled a meeting with my Director of Technology as well as our Technology Coach for tomorrow morning. Together we will work through this new tool available for classrooms. I am hopeful that my efforts will meet the district expectations so others are able to benefit from using blogs and wikis as well.

New questions: Will the public be able to comment on our blog and wiki posts or only others within the district? If it isn't a public site, am I able to at least invite parents or other administrators who can write back and forth with my students? Is there a way to get students from the high school involved? For example, if we are blogging about rocks and minerals, receiving feedback from a high school student would be very inspiring to a fourth grader.

Since my meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, I'm not certain how I may need to modify/adjust my current plan. I'm hoping that some of the questions I've posted will be answered and that someone will agree to join me in this adventure!