Google Sites

https://sites.google.com/site/foodchainwebenergypyramid/

My site is an informational site with class notes and interactive websites that my students could use for studying and practicing their new knowledge.  I found Google sites fairly easy to use but wish my site was more colorful and exciting, I think Google sites lacks in this area.  I would hope to eventually have multiple pages with all of the state standards and correlating notes, worksheets, and activities.  Absent students could easily catch up online and parents could use it as a support guide to help their children with homework or projects.

Week 12 Reflection

Week 12 Reflection

          Talk about relevance, I filled out my resignation papers today at my school and my husband and I will be making the move back to Michigan this summer.  My number one goal is to find a middle school science teaching position.  This chapter has reminded me of tips I learned in college and taught me a few new ones to help me on my journey. 

          It has been six years since I have gone through the interview process and I am already quite nervous.  Rejection is difficult for all but lessons nine and ten provide some reassurance, if you do not get the first few jobs you apply or interview for do not become discouraged.  Becoming discouraged will not accomplish anything, staying positive even in times of doubt is important when job searching.  Number eight is also a huge lesson in any occupation that is of utmost importance.  Developing a strong set of communication skills such as clearly stating your ideas or concerns and also being a good listener are key talents.  Communication is key, as they say.  Currently, I am communicating with and listening to students, parents, teachers, and administrators daily to ??????????????? I hope to communicate my strengths and qualifications as I interview and answer any questions clearly and confidently.    

          Lesson fifteen is one lesson that will require research on my part.  This lesson states when preparing for a job interview, find out as much as you can about your potential employers.  This will not only show my interest in the school and district but will hopefully leave them with a great impression.  I will be better prepared for questions which with any luck will make me a more appealing candidate.  I also felt lesson sixteen would fit right along with lesson fifteen; lesson sixteen encourages you to keep up with the literature in your areas of interest.  The school I currently work at constantly assigns articles and chapters from books to stay up to date on the best practices and current initiatives.  I will need to work on this lesson over the summer because without being assigned the reading, I can easily see myself choosing People magazine over a scholarly journal.  Keeping up on current issues, initiatives, and technology are three important areas I would enjoy reading about.  Even this chapter, which normally a teacher would not be reading taught me new relevant lessons and reminded me of old lessons learned.  These lessons will hopefully stay with me as I search for my new niche.

Week 11 Reflection

Week 11 Reflection

          After reading the last three chapters on instructional design and technology throughout business, p-12 education, and higher education I noticed a couple similarities with the different contexts.  I of course relate most with the p-12 education context but could easily see similarities in all three. 

For success, working together as a team is imperative in all three areas.  They discuss the importance of roles when working in the business world as an instructional designer(s).  Designating responsibilities or positions so that the job can be done successfully is key.  Whether you are the leader or a member of the team, the overall goal cannot be accomplished without everyone doing their part.  In an educational setting we are constantly working as teams to get the job done.  Whether we are collaborating with our instructional technologists on how to use a new piece of technology or working with our colleagues on coming up with ideas on how to incorporate the technology into a lesson, we are working together as a team.  My school has not received any new gadgets really since I started, but coming into a room with a SmartBoard, I needed all the guidance I could get.  I took professional development from our districts instructional technologists and teachers on how to use the technology to its fullest potential and since the day I started up to today I am constantly sharing and stealing ideas from my colleagues on using the SmartBoard.  If the overall all outcome in all three areas is to successfully reach a goal working as a team will get you there.  As they say two heads are better than one.

          Another common theme in all three areas is the constant change.  With technology always changing and improving and initiatives and programs being added all areas have to adjust appropriately.  The business world has gone through everything from cut backs to new and improved technology.  Having the ability to handle these changes properly will ensure their success.  If “better, faster, cheaper” is the new phrase, instructional designers have to prototype, deliver training, evaluate, and research technology to make sure the business is up to date and running smoothly and efficiently.  Looking at education, we are constantly given new initiatives to follow or programs to incorporate.  As educators and instructional designers/technologists we need to be flexible and open to change.  Here working as a team also comes into play when a new program is introduced working together to understand, explore, and use it will help everyone adjust to the new change.  Lastly, we all work very hard to make sure our clients or students are receiving the best technology, training, and education possible.

I created a concept map of South Carolina's 7th Grade Ecology Standards.  I would show this to my students at the beginning of the nine weeks to give them an overview/idea of what they would be learning over the next quarter.  I may also make one for the other 3 main units and show them as one large map at the end of the year looking at all we have accomplished.  By showing them an example, I could incorporate using concept maps throughout their units.  My students make multiple flow maps, tree maps, spider maps, and various other graphic organizers in science to show their knowledge on a topic or to help them remember an order of something.  I loved that bubbl.us was free but found myself wanting more bells and whistles.  I would have liked to add images to my concept map and see myself using a SmartBoard document to create concept maps in the future.

adfa

Week 10 Reflection

Week 10 Reflection

Chapter 21 Instructional Designers and P-12 Technology Integration

          After reading chapter 21, I understand that the three types of instructional design, system, product, and classroom are easily translated into our schools technology integration plan.  The chart on pg. 209 helped me understand the three types a little easier.  The systems portion represents the main programs or software used to track and monitor a student’s progress throughout their year, my school I know uses SuccessMaker and A+ Lab.  The product aspect is the software or programs practice work, drills, games, or quizzes that help the student understand and review the content.  The last type, classroom, is the integration models both of which I had never heard of before.  The ASSURE model and the NTeQ model are explored in the chapter.

          I thought the ASSURE model with its six step approach sounded fairly reasonable.  I myself would say I use this model to an extent.  When I plan for a unit or topic, I try to incorporate multiple websites with interactive aspects and plan computer lab time for projects or webquests.  I may not follow the steps in order or write the information down as I complete them but I plan ahead, execute it to the best of my ability, require all students to participate, and always reflect and adjust for the next class or even the following year.  The NTeQ model in my opinion felt a little more overwhelming with its ten step process but again many of these I do in my thought process and do not necessarily write them down or check them off.  I do my best to incorporate and use technology as much as possible and hopefully do it in a standards based relevant way that my students can benefit from.

          It was interesting to read about the three states that were given an opportunity by EdTech to implement technology initiatives.  I had never heard of this and would be interested to find out more about it.  I was most surprised to read that the “student gains on high stakes tests were inconsistent.”  They go into reasons why but the entire time I read this I could only think about the students at my school who we are failing by putting them through a computer program for “credit recovery.”  We are sending these students on to the next grade level unprepared.  My school is one of the few in our district to use the A+ Lab for credit recovery.  I am expected to place a student into the lab if they fail a nine weeks or they come from another school with a failing grade.  Once they have completed a few lessons on the standards they failed I am to replace their score with a 70 percent.  This is solving our problem of having 16 year olds in the 8^th grade but I do not believe we are setting them up for success.  Many of my students have now realized that this is an easy out and are relying on this program to pass.  This is using technology for an easy out; the students are simply not increasing their achievement.  They are watching a lesson and taking sometimes up to 60+ tries to pass the test at the end to complete the standard.  If we as educators know how important technology is we need to be using it appropriately, however in this example we have no choice.

Technology integration into our schools and classrooms is improving our students learning and preparing them for the real word when done efficiently and appropriately.  Some schools may have more availability of resources or better technological professional development but it comes down to teachers, parents, students, and support staff working together to use technology to increase our students’ achievement.    

Screencasting

I have watched screencasting multiple times to learn how to use a program or website but never knew that was what it was called.  I decided to make my screencast on how to use Glogster to create an online poster.  My students could use Glogster in science to create a project on a famous scientist, an organ, a disease, an element, or an organism's niche.  The possibilities with Glogster are endless.  Instead of always doing a boring poster board project, Glogster has created an online poster that can have sound and images added to it.  I could also use this as an assessment tool at the end of a unit.

After downloading Jing, I watched the main tutorial video and got right to work.  The program was user friendly and any questions I had were easily answered by other tutorial videos.  I was able to use a microphone with my video and hope it turned out well.  After listening to my own voice over and over I don't know if I will be using screencasting too often but I do see myself using it in the computer lab with my students to help them get set up or guide them through directions or a new program.

Google Maps

View Top 10 Deadliest Battles of the US Civil War in a larger map


After showing my students how to use Google Maps, I would show them the map I created on the Top 10 Deadliest Battles of the US Civil War.  Then I would encourage them to choose 10 battles of their own choice during the Civil War to research.  We could brainstorm ideas like Confederate battles won, battles by the state, battles by year, etc.  By giving them a choice they will take more initiative and ownership in their project.  They would be required to do the following: 

- Include 10 Battles
- Where the battle occured
- Casualties
- Date
- Winner
- Image


 

Week 8 Reflection

Week 8 Reflection

Chapter 18: Instructional Design in Business and Industry

          One of the biggest connections I saw between an instructional designer and a teacher are the multiple “hats” we both have to wear.  In the chapter, they discussed the variety of roles that an instructional designer may have.  They may be the sole designer of a project and be responsible for hiring others or absorbing other responsibilities because of budget cuts.  They could be part of a team working on a project or even a virtual team if necessary.  If they are hired as an external designer, they will use their custom expertise to do their specific part of the project and do their best to work with others on the team.  As teachers we are first and foremost educators but at any given moment could double as a lunch monitor, guidance counselor, copy machine repairman, or janitor.  We perform many jobs throughout the day.  Most teachers are part of a team of teachers where they are also expected to uphold certain duties; my team has split up detention duty, morning duty, and homework letter duty.  We also work together as teams to make sure our students are being successful.  My professional learning community, which is made up of 7^th grade science teachers, works together to make lessons and activities for our students that align to the standards.  We are constantly doing our part to complete the task at hand whether we are in our classroom on our own or working in a group.

          An easy connection between the instructional design industry and educational industry are the fact that both have constraints.  The main constraints I thought both industries deal with currently are the time and resources issue.  Budget cuts seem to come up daily whether we are dealing with a lack of copy paper, students complaining about not going on field trips, or not having enough textbooks.  We also worry about fitting in our entire curriculum before our state wide test.  Instructional designers have to worry about time and money also as most industries do.  When creating a proposal they must take into consideration their clients wants and their necessities to complete the job.  Another constraint that both industries have is the effect of level of expertise.  Whether someone is in their first year or twentieth, can make a difference.  However, I have been lucky enough to work with a range of expertise and seen the benefits of those who have been in the profession for many years and newbies.  Working together with these people has given me the expertise and knowledge I have today.  The old saying two heads are better than one comes to mind, when working together no one has to recreate the wheel or take on the entire load.