Final Blog Post

How This Class has Helped Develop My Technology Skills as a Professional Teacher

Over the years I have taken many technology classes. I am happy if I can walk away from a class, seminar, or conference with having learned just one thing. I am thrilled that I am walking away from this class learning several things that I can apply now. My Chrome RSS feed is set up on my desktop and loaded with several blogs I discovered during this class. This is already paying off at keeping me ahead of the curve when it comes to technology in the classroom. My feed is also loaded with blogs from the Photography industry. I have also discovered a way to use voice feedback instead of text via podcasting. This class succeeded in pushing me out of my comfort zone and gave me real tools I could use immediately in my classroom.

I also have a stronger background knowledge in the research and literature that goes with the technology revolution happening in our schools. I feel much more prepared to make arguments and defend my position when advocating for technology for my classroom and my students. I know that how you present yourself goes a long way when asking for funding!

How Have I Deepened My Knowledge of the Teaching and Learning Process

More than anything this class has confirmed what I have already knew. That failure is part of the learning process and that innovation comes from overcoming the obstacles that caused the failure. Students need to be given open ended assignments where they will need to experiment with different methods to find a solution that might not be immediately obvious. This is how I have always run my art classes. The article by Neal on questioning really confirms this idea she says :

Asking secondary students insightful questions has many benefits for professional teaching practice.  Whether the response is intended to be written, spoken, dramatized, or conveyed in some other manner, it will provide feedback on how successful the lesson was in stimulating their thought processes.  The students will reflect on their learning through higher-level thinking processes such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, or summation.  Finally, students are more likely to remember what they have learned when they explore the implications of their learning. (Neal, M.  2015)

I will look for ways to give students choice and open ended questions not only as a way to encourage innovation and creativity but, also as a way to increase intrinsic motivation (LaSalle, D., 2015). The most profound example is what my department calls the "teapot effect". I used to give an assignment called the "Whimsical Teapot" where students had to design and construct a functional teapot (out of clay) that demonstrated whimsical qualities. The students HATED this assignment even though it was a very wide open assignment that they could differentiate to meet their skill level. As soon as I added a choice to the assignment the student's attitude completely changed. I added a second choice called "Synergy" to the final assignment. This was also a wide open, student driven assignment. I thought all the students would choose this. However, as soon as the choice was given 99% of the students chose the teapot and were happy to do so! Just by giving the students a choice of the final project it gave them a stronger feeling of ownership and increased their motivation. Another teacher in my office put the "tea pot" effect to the test in her class room with a fill in the blank test. She gave the students the choice of answering #1-10, 11-20, or 21-30. The students were thrilled with this choice and no one complained about the test. Simply giving the students a choice increased their motivation,

In What Ways Have I Changed from Being Teacher Centered to Student Centered

I have pushed myself to let students explore options that I myself did not foresee as an option for an assignment. When my students ask me “Can I do X” for an assignment I stop and ask myself “would that meet the main objective for this lesson”. If it does, than I say yes. Previously I would have wanted their projects to stay in line with my own experiences. This leads to true creativity and innovation (Cramer, S., 2007).

In what ways can I continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?

I am very excited about google classroom and have signed up for another graduate class that specifically addresses all the tools that google offers. I am pushing myself to use new technology everyday to develop a fluency with things like google docs, forms, and sheets. I am starting to “flip” my classroom by video taping my demonstrations and loading them into the google classroom. I have created a day by day plan of what Photography will look like next semester and I am adding hyperlinks to each day to relevant articles and videos for the students to use so the plan is more meaningful for them. I am currently making a google forms evaluation of my class to gain student feedback to make next semester even more relevant for them.

In addition to my role as teacher I am also the Director of Art Education for DeKalb District #428 . In that role I am working to develop relevant assessments for the new PERA law. These assessments will utilize google forms.

2 Long Term Goals

My first goal to to flip my classrooms. I do not want to give up in class instruction all together, rather I want to make all my instruction available to students both in and outside of the classroom. With the roll out of the one to one technology throughout the district I want to have class time more for individual help.

Second, I would like to help all the teachers in the district access pod casts, google classroom, and flipped classrooms. It is my job as Director of Art Education to make sure that the Art teachers in the district have the training they need in both Art instruction and in technology.

Walden University defines positive social change as “a deliberate process of creating and applying ideas, strategies, and actions to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, institutions, cultures, and societies. Positive social change results in the improvement of human and social conditions” (2011-2012).I plan to apply the new skills I have learned in this class in my roll as Director. I will use my knowledge to broaden the experience of the Art teachers in my district. It is my plan to extend these new skills to not only my own students but all the students in the district through these Art teachers.

How have I changed my thinking?

Since the beginning of the class I have not changed my thinking very much.After all, I knew "texts books were dead" long before the publishers did. (Smith,F., 204) I have spend the last 21 years exploring technology, applying it, and teaching it. This is not my first class on technology or my last. I have always had very open ended, student centered, technology rich classroom (Cramer, S 2007). 

Mostly what I learned is that there is a digital divide among my own students. As we roll out the one on one initiative in my building I hope to see this divide disappear. I do hope that our district and building can support the enormous demand that the initiative will put on our infrastructure. I will continue to give my students very wide open assignments and I hope to use a flipped classroom in the future to further open up options to my students. I did learn how to do a hanging indent in google docs! This just proves that we must jump in with both feet and immerse ourselves in technology if we are to truly unlock it's potential. We must continue to give student assignments that stretch their experience and let them know that it is ok to fail it is just not ok to give up!

References  

Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.

LaSalle, D. (2015). Intrinsic Motivation and the Five-Paragraph Essay: Lessons Learned on Practitioner Research, the Role of Academic Research in the Classroom, and Assessing Changes in Student Motivation. Penn GSE Perspectives On Urban Education, 12 (1), 31-45.

Neal, M. (2015)  Engaging Students Through Effective Questioning. Retrieved from http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/engaging-students-through-effective-questions

Smith, F. (2014, October 6) EDUCAUSE 2014: Publisher Says ‘Textbooks Are Dead,’ and Adaptive Learning Is Rising from the Ashes, Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/10/educause-2014-publisher-says-textbooks-are-dead-and-adaptive-learning-rising-ashes

Turnipseed, Stephen (2015). 5 Things You Need to Know About 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://edtechtimes.com/2015/11/03/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-21st-century-learning

Walden University Handbook (2011-2012) Vision, Mission, and Goals. Retrived fromhttp://catalog.waldenu.edu/content.php?catoid=61&navoid=9236