Reflections on Things #15 – 21
Wow. That’s about all I can say! What a ride. I have enjoyed playing and learning about all that is out there in the big internet world for educators and beyond. I have about 14 more years on the job and I can’t even begin to imagine how the educational process is going to be different then. I know our job as classroom educators is evolving and I can only hope that I have a head start on what’s going to be expected from us. Our students continue to come into our classrooms with more technology knowledge than us, the teachers.
Things 15 – 21 are great! I absolutely love the Google calendar. I am excited to create one for my two classes and I know that it will help keep me ahead of schedule with my planning. Right now, I plan for a week ahead and I’m thinking I’ll have to re-think that and plan for a whole chapter at a time. I know as a parent, I love the teacher’s calendars and I have mine linked to theirs so that I can keep up with my 14 year-olds homework. I figure that I will have no choice in the matter, but I am excited to start using some screen-casting software to create recordings for students to access from home. I know how much work it will be up front, but in the long run, it will pay off. My students will have access to what the missed in FST today as soon as I upload the recording, and I know how excited they will be to work on their homework even though they missed class. (Just kidding).
The strategies that I see these things effecting include summarizing and note-taking which I will be addressing in all of my screencasts. I am still trying to figure out the logistics of recording what’s on the board, but hopefully my little tablet that is attached to my computer will do the trick! I hope to record the lesson as I teach it in class, with some modifications due to time and space on-line. I am planning on checking with our technology gurus to see if we have Camtasia Studio in our building…maybe I should ask for a web-camera for Christmas? I have the one on the laptop, but that’s not going to work. I also think that the strategy for incorporating more cooperative learning is enabled specifically in thing #19. I plan on having small group discussions on nights before quizzes or tests. I think it would be great for the kids to use Skype as a learning tool. I’m sure most of them don’t see the educational value. Lastly, generating and testing hypothses will be taught daily. I will be providing models/examples for how to solve a type of problem in a recording while I will also be providing guidance by using a virtual classroom site.
I think I am most looking forward to recording a daily lesson and seeing how it gets used. My students do not know that I have a web-site yet, but I’m hoping over the next couple of weeks that I can get it up and running. It would be great to put a day of notes and examples out there for students to use. This will allow my students the ability to not try and “keep” up with the notes during class as they will know that I will have them available for them later in the day. I’m confident that students would be able to pay attention better to discussions in class if they were not always worried about writing everything from the board down. I also hope that parents would use these recordings to “learn” what their child is doing. I can’t believe how many parents just say, “Well I was never and good at math so I’m no help.” If the parent would sit down with the student and watch the recording, they both might learn something. I would hope that the student could “teach” the parent about the lesson. We all know that teaching is a great way to learn.
I am so very pleased to have been exposed to all the great things out there! Thanks to all who help make this class possible and I will keep my eyes open for “new things”.
Works Cited
Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. "Putting the Pieces Together." Gloucester County Public Schools. 24 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. <http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/index.htm>.
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