Reflect on your own digital footprint. What search results are returned if your name is Googled? How can you make your footprint positive (as opposed to neutral or nonexistent)? What role can we play in making sure our students have a positive footprint?
I don't have much of a digital footprint. When I google my name, I get the generic web search site, that gives the following information: name, immediate family, age, and cities/state of which I reside. I think one way to have more of a positive footprint would be to blog more to share my ideas and insights professionally. I think our students can be encouraged to develop a positive footprint by being mindful of what they post, and we need to make sure we guide them through the process when they first get started creating a digital footprint. It is vital that we teach them that once something is on the Internet, it is likely there forever, able to be searched. The most important thing we can teach students is to be a great digital citizen.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Introduction to Blending and Online Teaching: Post #5
Create a plan or provide suggestions for ways to make your curated resources a regular part of your planning.
I know I have been guilty of spending hours researching and tweaking a wonderful unit for my kindergarten students, just to find myself scrambling for new resources the following year, either because I didn't write down my resources or I have forgotten about them. This can be rather frustrating! Thankfully, with the increase of new technology available, this problem occurs less and less for me all the time! I frequently utilize Pinterest, creating a board for various units, to house resources and crafts I would like to use in my classroom. I love that it's easy, and I always have my resources at my fingertips. I can choose to add others to my boards, so they can search for additional resources to add as well. It has proven to be beneficial for collaboration, as my team doesn't have a lot of face to face time to collaborate with one another.
My school corporation also recently purchased My Big Campus, which is a great place to store websites, created resources, and just about anything else you may need! We are in the beginning stages of creating bundles to share with one another, but we have spent much time researching bundles that others have created. It's been and will continue to be a great tool for our teachers.
Symbaloo is another great tool to utilize. Tiles can be created of websites, that way you don't forget about them from one year to the next. My plan to is to create a Symbaloo for my students during our computer lab time. This way, I will know that they are working on an educational item, but they will have some choice over which website they choose. If they would like to work on math, they could choose iXL for some math practice. If they have a letter they are struggling with, they could do some of the free activities on starfall.com. If they have a topic they would like to learn more about, they could search for non-fiction books on myON. I'm very much looking forward to utilizing these resources more in my classroom. My students will certainly benefit.
I know I have been guilty of spending hours researching and tweaking a wonderful unit for my kindergarten students, just to find myself scrambling for new resources the following year, either because I didn't write down my resources or I have forgotten about them. This can be rather frustrating! Thankfully, with the increase of new technology available, this problem occurs less and less for me all the time! I frequently utilize Pinterest, creating a board for various units, to house resources and crafts I would like to use in my classroom. I love that it's easy, and I always have my resources at my fingertips. I can choose to add others to my boards, so they can search for additional resources to add as well. It has proven to be beneficial for collaboration, as my team doesn't have a lot of face to face time to collaborate with one another.
My school corporation also recently purchased My Big Campus, which is a great place to store websites, created resources, and just about anything else you may need! We are in the beginning stages of creating bundles to share with one another, but we have spent much time researching bundles that others have created. It's been and will continue to be a great tool for our teachers.
Symbaloo is another great tool to utilize. Tiles can be created of websites, that way you don't forget about them from one year to the next. My plan to is to create a Symbaloo for my students during our computer lab time. This way, I will know that they are working on an educational item, but they will have some choice over which website they choose. If they would like to work on math, they could choose iXL for some math practice. If they have a letter they are struggling with, they could do some of the free activities on starfall.com. If they have a topic they would like to learn more about, they could search for non-fiction books on myON. I'm very much looking forward to utilizing these resources more in my classroom. My students will certainly benefit.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Introduction to Blended and Online Teaching: Post #4
Do you believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area? Can students at every grade level demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment? Why or why not? It it practical to ask teachers to complete these types of activities in the current, high stakes testing environment?
I do believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area. Some areas will be a bit trickier and require a bit more creativity and thought than others, but I feel it is possible. As a kindergarten teacher, and an educator who has a little experience with other grade levels up through fifth grade, I feel as thought all students could demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment. At the kindergarten level, the logistics of it and creating an evaluation tool can be a bit difficult, but it can be done.
I enjoyed the video and article about the School of the Future (SOF) because I love the way it portrayed authentic assessment. It is about real-life, engaging and promoting critical thinking. If we work toward the majority of our assessments being just that, we are working toward creating better adults for the workplace. They will be prepared for life, and all the curveballs life throws!
In addition, I liked the point Michele Eaton made in her video, "Assessment Tools for Online Learning," when she stated that it was important to create an assessment where the answers couldn't just be googled. If we want to get a true read on the understanding of the students in our classrooms, we have to ensure that our questions require critical thinking.
In the article "Ten Takeaway Tips for using Authentic Assessment in Your School," my favorite tip was to permit the student to take charge of their own assessments occasionally throughout the course of the unit. Taking amongst one another, given thoughts and opinions can be a great indicator of the level of understanding. If they can talk about it and explain their point of view to another student - they get it!
In conclusion, while I feel authentic assessment is important, it isn't practical to ask teachers to make the transition this as the only method of assessment. I think it certainly has it place in the classroom, but teachers only have so much planning time. I think it would be reasonable to require a certain amount of documented authentic assessment each semester and work as a school district to increase that amount each year. I would love to see the standardized testing required by the state to be replaced by a more authentic assessment.
I do believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area. Some areas will be a bit trickier and require a bit more creativity and thought than others, but I feel it is possible. As a kindergarten teacher, and an educator who has a little experience with other grade levels up through fifth grade, I feel as thought all students could demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment. At the kindergarten level, the logistics of it and creating an evaluation tool can be a bit difficult, but it can be done.
I enjoyed the video and article about the School of the Future (SOF) because I love the way it portrayed authentic assessment. It is about real-life, engaging and promoting critical thinking. If we work toward the majority of our assessments being just that, we are working toward creating better adults for the workplace. They will be prepared for life, and all the curveballs life throws!
In addition, I liked the point Michele Eaton made in her video, "Assessment Tools for Online Learning," when she stated that it was important to create an assessment where the answers couldn't just be googled. If we want to get a true read on the understanding of the students in our classrooms, we have to ensure that our questions require critical thinking.
In the article "Ten Takeaway Tips for using Authentic Assessment in Your School," my favorite tip was to permit the student to take charge of their own assessments occasionally throughout the course of the unit. Taking amongst one another, given thoughts and opinions can be a great indicator of the level of understanding. If they can talk about it and explain their point of view to another student - they get it!
In conclusion, while I feel authentic assessment is important, it isn't practical to ask teachers to make the transition this as the only method of assessment. I think it certainly has it place in the classroom, but teachers only have so much planning time. I think it would be reasonable to require a certain amount of documented authentic assessment each semester and work as a school district to increase that amount each year. I would love to see the standardized testing required by the state to be replaced by a more authentic assessment.
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