Friday, December 18, 2009

Group Project Reflection by Stacey Thompson

Technology can be our friend or our foe. I have learned this the last couple of weeks. First my computer would not load my courseware and now a power surge has fried my home computer. Aside from those disasters, the last five weeks has been a very positive journey for me as an educator and parent. I was a little worried when I found out that we had to create a group project. I thought to myself, "How will we do this if this is all online?" I loved how it all came together. We had a great team leader and group members. I learned so much about collaboration through technology. I felt that my tam came together as a whole a created a unit with the help of all that will help each student succeed.

As a group we came together, with all of our experience and created a unit that we thought would benefit all students and the teacher. We researched the grade level and subject chosen and came up with a unit that would align with the TEKS. Using the Google Docs we discussed and help each other along the way to create lessons that show many technology resources that the teacher could used to intergrate a unit or lesson into her daily activities. They are resources that she/he can fall back on when they are creating their own ubuit and know that it will meet all students needs.


Our professional develpoment was based on what we, as educators, would find resourceful in developing our technology. We believed that the self report would help us know what the teachers strengths and weaknesses were and we could decide what were the most important and create our development from there. We thought that letting the teacher journal each day would help her/him reflect on what they have learned and it would give us, as technolgy leaders, and the administrator have access so that we can help build the teacher's confidence in technology and its positice benefits in the classroom setting.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Group Project Reflection by Julie Youngkin

This course has truly been a growing experience. I often shudder at the thought of “group work” in relation to anything that will be assessed. There are too many bad memories of being the only one doing the work and staying up all night to make sure I get a good grade in spite of everyone else’s lack of commitment. However, this was a much different experience. I worked with an exceptional group of ladies that each brought unique talents and exemplary effort to help everyone succeed. I believe the quality of your collaborators makes all the difference!

As our group worked toward a solution to help a teacher integrate technology into her classroom, we researched activities that would meet the needs of every student. We worked hard to plan accommodations for students with disabilities as well as gifted and talented students. Collaborative work was stressed to allow students to learn from each other as well as provide peer support for struggling learners. Additional supports were provided for the students with disabilities including a Braille keyboard, a projection screen to magnify information, multiple forms of text, sound, and video. A variety of strategies were employed to allow students several ways to master the objectives set before them. An interactive mimio lesson was provided for hands-on learning. Kidspiration was used for visual mapping. Multiple links were used to research information to build a group timeline. Presentation software was used to record groups’ findings. Students were given a variety of media for recognition purposes including video segments, sound effects, and online games. They were also given the opportunity to demonstrate what they learned in multiple ways, such as pictures, text, URLS, and presentation slides.

We felt it was important for the teacher to participate in professional development that directly related to her own classroom. She would meet separately with the technology expert to preview the learning activities and try out the new technology before it was implemented with her students. We recommended she reflect upon the new strategies she learned in a blog or wiki so that others could collaborate with her.

Group Project Reflection by Alicia Davis

It has been an interesting journey throughout this course. I've learned alot about teaching with technology and about working collaboratively with a team of Educators to address 21st century learning trends for a classroom of 30 students with diverse backgrounds. Personally it was a challenging task, but with a talented group of ladies we were able to complete our task. I was able to create a lesson plan based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to create flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments to accommodate learner differences. My lesson plan involved student's creating a K-W-L chart as well as a Venn Diagram in Kidspiration2 for a 3rd grade social studies unit on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Kidspiration2 allowed students to create a graphical organizer for a visual mapping activity. My lesson required students to compare/contrast life in the 1800s as well as the present time. They were able to work collaboratively in groups to gather the information, and were assessed independently for their work in Kidspiration2. Accommodations had to be made for two students with disabilities as well for the other student's in the class who had individual learning differences. I feel empowered at the end of the Teaching with Technology course because it allowed me to be in the role of the technology expert helping a teacher with a basic knowledge of technology to impact student achievement. The professional development activities I would recommend for the teacher would be to create a self-report so the technology experts can assess the teacher's strengths and weaknesses, provide a one-on-one meeting with the teacher to model the lesson plan and implement the technology, and to create a blog or wiki for the teacher to reflect on her daily class experiences.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Group Project Reflection by Vicky Creasy

I have to admit that I get very apprehensive when it comes to group projects. I usually am always the leader, and always end up doing all of the work in the group so that I can make sure my team (AKA me) gets a good grade. But, I decided to approach this project differently and hoped that I would learn more about myself and develop some much needed "Indian instead of Chief" skills. I am so glad that I ended up with the team I did. We had a great leader step forward in the beginning. She has prodded us along and kept us on task throughout the course. It has been great knowing that I can depend on her to help keep everyone on track and make sure we are doing the right thing project wise.
As far as the project, I have learned so much through this process. The brainstorming week was quite fun. Our team all answered the questions separately on a google doc. It was such good practice using google docs and google sites that I feel confident enough now to use them in my classroom while teaching. I was impressed with the ease of acquiring skills to use the tools. Everyone chimed in on their experiences, and we all were able to agree on what would we do. The hardest week, by far, was the third week. Quite a bit was asked of us this week- building a lesson plan and creating a UDL book online. But, it was well worth it in the end. Building the lesson plan allowed me to thoroughly think through what I would teach and how I would incorporate all of the needs of all of the different learners in the classroom.
The UDL book builder was quite a task. I can definitely see the benefit and have passed the idea along to my lower school teachers in my school. While alot of work, I can see how beneficial to diversifying education that the book could be in a classroom setting. I did enjoy the task.
Overall, our team came up with great approaches for teaching our class unit and allowed for the education of all students in the class. I feel we worked well together and got the project done with style.