Connectors, Content Creators, Collaborators, Coaches, and Change Agents

As I was reading Chapter 10: What It Really Means, I started listing out ideas as they popped into my head for new lessons and ways to improve old lessons.  I was amazed at how excited I was to get back into the classroom and incorporate these freshly revamped lessons!  As an educator in the public school system, I often struggle to stay motivated when faced with near impossible state mandated tests and standards that are near impossible for my struggling students.  This course in accordance with Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson has refreshed my approach to the classroom and my students.  Above all, I am helping my students grow into successful citizens no matter what career path they choose.  As our readings have elaborated on the changing term of what it means to be “literate” in today’s society, I recognized the need to design more lessons that allow my students to practice all aspects of this revolutionized term.  This motivation even led me to develop a big shifts handout that I plan to post next to my desk to help me keep a clear vision of the importance of joining in and being a leader in this current educational shift.  Though our course moved quickly, we were able to evaluate and critique a variety of web-based tools and software that would allow us to move our professions toward a more focused 21^st century learning environment and community. 

I think perhaps the most important thing I learned from this course was to create a wider network of professionals to follow.  Whether I expand my network through following educator podcasts, Twitter feeds, or a variety of other avenues, I need to update my resource pool and look to other professionals to improve my craft. 

I think the skill I have most improved has been the ability to take previously developed standard-based lessons that are aligned with current curricula and adapted/integrated new web-based tools and software technologies to better prepare 21^st century learners. 

Chris’s work in the classroom to integrate technology and better prepare his students with 21^st century skills has inspired me to transition my classroom to Google Classroom.  This course has pointed to a plethora of valuable online resources for me to incorporate into my curriculum, but the easiest and perhaps most crucial to my journey as a “change agent” is to operate through an online platform.  I look forward to this transition and hope to encourage others at my school to integrate more technological opportunities for our students.

I do believe that this has been one of the most rewarding classes I have taken thus far in my IDT coursework, and I thank you all for your ideas and suggestions! 

Resources, Resources Everywhere!!!!

The required readings from Module 3 really allowed me to reflect on time; time I spend searching the internet seeking out resources and new ideas for my students, time I wish I had in the classroom to devote to greater technology implementation, time to devote to expanding my personal learning network, time, time time!  Unfortunately, this is a challenge that affects most of us.  Then I thought about my students.  How can I impact their education the most?  How do I meet their educational standards and provide them the opportunity to practice and master 21st century skills?  One step at a time, right!  I have been looking for ways to bring more opportunities for my students to work with and create digital images and more opportunity to communicate orally.  Again, with limited class time and resources, how could I cram in more activities into the curriculum?!  Well, thanks to this week's readings, I have found the tools!  First, Flickr captured my attention immediately! I can't wait to copy David Jakes's idea of creating an imaged version of famous poems with my students, especially since middle schoolers love poetry (sarcasm).  I really hope to engage more of my students in our writing lessons and units with the assistance of digital images!  I also am interested in using podcasts in my classroom but will need to investigate my options and do a few trials prior to implementing.

Recently, I have been working to improve a unit in my curriculum to make it more engaging for my students.  This unit used to center around one topic, Titanic, and offered a scavenger hunt type approach for students to uncover factual information surrounding this historic event.  Students would then answer a few additional questions that would require them to take their thinking to a higher level and extend their understanding of every aspect of the event.  The revamp of this unit has left me with three topics for students to research and analyze.  I decided to keep Titanic as one of my topics specifically for my struggling students because they already have a great deal of background knowledge on the topic.  This knowledge then allows them to focus their attention on each of the primary sources' purposes rather than the content.  The two new topics are the Triangle Factory Fire, for the intermediate students, and the Hindenburg disaster, for the above average students.  All students will be exposed to excerpts of informational text and historical fiction from their textbooks regarding the Triangle Factory Fire.  This will assist the those students assigned this topic in building their background knowledge prior to their research.  The Hindenburg disaster will not be taught in the classroom but additional texts will be available for those students to build their understanding prior to analyzing their primary sources.  After the students have completed their research and analysis of primary sources, the groups will discuss and debate their findings and conclusions in a Socratic circle.  The remaining groups will then evaluate and discuss the shared information in a private online chatroom.

R.M.S. Titanic

On April 14, 1912 this luxury liner sideswiped an iceberg and sank to the ocean floor hours later on April 15, 1912.  More than 1,500 people lost their lives in this disaster.

The Triangle Factory Fire
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory caught fire and burned, killing 145 workers.


Hindenburg
On May 6, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, N.J., on the first of its scheduled 1937 trans-Atlantic crossings, the Hindenburg burst into flames and was completely destroyed. Thirty-six of the 97 persons aboard were killed.

Socratic Circle
The Socratic circle is divided into an inner and outer circle.  The inner circle discusses a topic orally while the outer circle listens and critiques the discussion. 

I am also adding two K12 educational podcasts to my blog:

The Cornerstone for Teachers:  Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers

I was able to find this podcast by searching the education and K12 podcasts through iTunes. 

Truth for Teachers is designed to speak life, encouragement, and truth into the minds and hearts of educators and get teachers energized for the week ahead.

As education continues to present struggles for educators, this podcast strives to motivate educators and refresh negative mindsets.  Angela offers great tips and tricks for the classroom and is determined to help educators face all of the challenges the educational environment presents.  This will be a great addition to my weekly routine, and I look forward to improving my mindset!

Middle School Matters

http://middleschoolmatters.com/?page_id=29

I was able to find this podcast by searching the education and K12 podcasts through iTunes. 

Middle School Matters is designed for and focused on Middle School Educators.  They provide news, conversation on relevant topics, and links to other great sites, and want to reach out to other middle school educators. 

This podcast is great for middle level educators.  Through their light hearted banter, they share great resources for and are constantly discussing the latest technology.  Their website contains links and other resources discussed in their podcast for easy access.  As an educator, I need quick access to resources and appreciate humor when discussing middle school students.

Connective Writing

For the time being, this blog space will act as a forum where I can seek out new resources for classroom use, collect greater insights into the field of IDT, and house a collection of new web-based resources to strengthen my teaching craft.  I would love to eventually devote a greater amount of time to transitioning this blog into a professional teaching blog where in which my background in elementary education and instructional design and technology can create a space for my colleagues, peers, and I to communicate and develop powerful and engaging lessons for our students.

My recent reading of Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has uncovered the term “connective writing.”  This was a new term for me to explore and proved to be of great concern for my current and future middle school students.  Connective writing is a new writing genre where in which the writer’s purpose in writing on a digital platform is to elicit responses from his or her audience in a digital conversation using digital tools, process, and publication mediums.  This conversation essentially turns into a collaborative effort to strengthen the piece of text and build the understanding of the topic/subject of the text to all involved.  This type of writing must also include openings and opportunities for the intended readers to respond and generate new and interesting insights regarding the topic so that further collaboration can occur.  By building this network of readers and writers, the connective writing process flows continuously through the elements of reading, thinking, writing, reading, thinking, writing, etc.  This continuous process requires that the readers and writers constantly synthesize the original ideas with those brought forth through responses and reflections.

The following links are short videos of Will Richardson discussing connective writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpAKWHQonyw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dNEDI3RFrw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfEXkZW3KtU