Revisiting the Beginning

I have been in many different teacher-leader roles role in the last several years. These include TAT Team, MED Committee, GLC, CTL, Mentor, and several other positions in my school community. One year I was on SEVEN different committees! What I never, ever thought I would be was a teacher-leader in technology. It's been very interesting and humbling having different teachers come to me asking for help with different technologies. But what's been even more surprising is the fact that I know, or can figure out, how to help them!

I think that being a teacher-leader is just that: a teacher who takes their time to help someone else. In the digital age, it adds to the responsibilities of the teachers; not only are we expected to do all the same stuff as always, such as teach, manage the classroom, make sure they learn, on and on, but now we have the added responsibility of adding technology to our repertoire. That means we can't get into a rut and teach the same things over and over and over. That means taking more time to learn things on our own time. For some teachers, technology is an easy thing to do. For me, on the other hand, it is a relearning process each time I do something with any significant amount of time in between sessions. This blog, for instance. Every single time I get on here I have to reacquaint myself with how to edit or create a new blog, or even get to the page that has the URL. Every. Single. Time. Heck, I even lost this blog once and spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out where to find it! But the good thing is, I CAN relearn, and I can figure things out that I couldn't before.

A big bummer about writing the scope and sequence/unit/lesson plan that I chose, science, is that in a year or two it will all be null and void. Our curriculum is completely changing. The only thing that we will keep from the science I have taught for the last 9 years is heat. That's it. And only thermal heat. No moon phases, microorganisms, space, waves, anything! I am so bummed about that! But, the good thing is that I have learned how to incorporate technology into my science curriculum. And, since we will be starting from scratch, I can build technology into it from the beginning!

That is what I can take from this course this semester.

It's Been a Piece of Cake. Not.

I am in the process of accumulating money to purchase iPads for my classroom. I haven't had much success with grants yet, and I need the iPads at the very beginning of next school year. Well, really I need them during the summer so I can get them ready before school starts. So, I have literally been asking people for donations. Oh man, has that taken me out of my comfort zone. I worked with a friend to get my speech just right. After repeating it to her probably eight or nine times, I called my first prospect. As soon as she said, "Hello?" I started bawling. For real. She thought something bad had happened! When I finally got myself together and got on with what I had called for, she was so impressed with what I was doing, and my bravery, she gave me $250!

This is how it worked: I called friends and neighbors first and let them know what I was doing. Then I asked them if I could drop by with more information. Each home I went to, I gave them a letter and a form for the Alpine Foundation (see below), both stapled to a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Foundation. I've only had one person mail a donation. Everyone else has hand delivered the money to me.  I also enlisted my daughter's help. She works for a group of spine doctors. I gave her some envelopes with letters attached and told her if she got me money from them I would take her lunch. So far, I have raised $735, with another $500 promised on June first. Not bad :)

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

As you (probably) know I am working on my Master’s of Educational Technology degree. Being in the technology strand, I am not only writing a thesis, but I am also doing a project. My project is Building Classroom Unity Through Building Web Pages.

I am raising money to purchase much needed technology equipment for my classroom to do my project. I am in need of 35 tablets, plus cases. I also need 2 carts to store (lock up) and charge the tablets, which are about $800 each.

I have been, and still am, writing grants, and have been promised a donation from the PTA. However, I still need several thousand more. I am writing this letter because I am looking for donors. It will all go to the Alpine District Foundation in my name, and will only be used for the necessary equipment for my project. A self-addressed, stamped envelope has been added for your convenience for the donation.

Mt. Mahogany is a low-income school and many students do not have access to technology at home. It is my hope to provide each of my students with a new way to be successful in the classroom. If you would be willing to help me fund this project I would be deeply grateful!  

Thank you!!!

Ginger Anderson

Alpine School District Foundation

Yes, I would like to make a difference in the life of a child by contributing

$_______________ to the Alpine School District Foundation.

I would like my gift used for the following purpose:

Mrs. Anderson’s 6^th Grade Class

Mt. Mahogany

ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE and will be promptly receipted.

Name_______________________________________________________________________

Address____________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip_____________________________________________________________

Make all checks payable to the Alpine Foundation. Thank you for your support of our students. Please call 801-610-8403 for additional information.

You may return your donation in the envelope provided to Ginger Anderson, OR Mail to: Alpine School District Foundation- 575 North 100 East- American Fork, UT 84003

I have been the teacher-liaison on the PTA board for six years. One day in a PTA meeting, I asked the board if they could approve a grant to me. They moved money around and found an extra $1500 that they approved! Oh, happy day!!!

I don't foresee any major problems with classroom management having the iPads in my classroom. Sure, I am going to have to set new rules than I am used to, but I usually have pretty good classroom management. I can see, however, how things could get crazy if I am not very clear and firm from the get go. I guess only time will tell (hey! we just learned about cliches and idioms today in LA :)) if I can manage this easily or not. I generally start the school year pretty darn strict, so the kids know their boundaries. I am not afraid to dole out punishment right away for not following rules. This school year I gave out two Stop and Thinks on the first day of school. They learned real quick what was acceptable and what was not. And so did the rest of the class. And their parents.

Why use technology if you always need a back up? Well, who says you always need a paper and pencil back up? My Master's project is about building classroom unity, so, if the internet happens to be down one day, let's socialize and work on that community building! This time using an idiom, I just may eat my words...

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

I remember several years ago being in the education program and learning about something called "backward design." It really didn't mean anything to me. Not that the instructor didn't teach it well; my brain just didn't grasp the whole concept. We went on our Junior Pairs adventure ready to teach a unit in Social Studies, whatever the teacher wanted us to teach. Jana and I were assigned a 3rd grade class at a school in Pleasant Grove. The teacher handed us a packet about the American Flag and told us to go through each page and have the students fill out the answers as we taught it. What did this have to do with backward design? We didn't think it was similar at all to what we had been taught in our Backward Design class. This didn't help the fact that I was already confused. Some how we slogged our way through it and made some lesson plans out of what we would LIKE to have done.

Now that I have actually taught for several years (this is my 9th), I have a much better idea of what I want the kids to come out with in the end, so creating this scope and sequence in science wasn't too much of a difficulty. Probably the hardest part for me was finding cool tech things the kids could do for assessments that I wasn't too intimidated by. 

As I think about the specific unit I am going to write, Moon Phases, I know what I want my outcome to be, so now working backward only makes sense! After all: 

New and Old; General and Specific

I have really enjoyed learning about new technologies! Ok, new to me, anyway :) I'm excited to see what the students will do with Digital stories, power points, scratch, and glogster, to name a few. There are, of course, the basic things that we always use, but seem to still catch the students' attention and are a nice little change-up, such as YouTube, interactive websites, and such. Those are aways a nice change and keep things mixed up. And then, of course, we have "old" ways which include videos and DVDs, and pictures we can project on the Elmo.

Content-specific technologies are more like games and apps that are specific to content. Some apps are drill and kill, and some are really good. They can help drive a concept deeper. 

Funny story about technology and apps: My principal, Mr. Westover, decided he was going to do my final observation for the year the day AFTER I came back from my shoulder surgery. There I was, huge pillow sling and all, doing everything left-handed, beginning a new unit on the sun. I found some great interactive app I thought would totally impress him. I had everything ready to go. Taylor had even come in and helped me since I am NOT ambidextrous at all. Lunch ended and the kids came in all prepped and ready to be super good for Mr. Westover. We reviewed the unit we had just finished learning (seasons) which made a great hook for the Sun. I start this fantastic lesson, and turn on my iPad to start the interactive stuff, and what do you know:

The STUPID Apple TV kept shutting off! What??? I send someone to get Mr. Frampton, pronto, because I can only do so much one handed, besides the fact that I have NO idea what the heck is going on. Mr. Westover just smiles and says, "This is why I don't mess with that stuff." Conclusion: I could have done a total direct instruction lesson, complete with worksheets, and he would have loved it.

Letting go of the Old Ways

I loved class this week. I felt it was very helpful in showing how technology can be implemented and can cover so many core and tech standards in one shot! I hadn't really ever thought of doing covering so many in one swoop. It makes me wonder if I've done this many times already with out even really realizing it.

Every year I do an Egypt project that is mostly paper based. That's how I was taught it when I first started teaching. The kids did all their research from books I have in my classroom and from the library. The last several years the kids have looked up their info online and then write a paper about it, along with a few other projects we do, such as building a 3D object. I am now totally rethinking this. Why not make it a completely online project, for those who have access to the computer at home? I still have a handful of students who don't have have any tech at home, except maybe mom or dad's phones. Even then, they don't all have smart phones, either.

We also do a World Fair and Country Report every year. I usually have a few websites they can go to (ie, pioneer-library.org) and the kids generally get their info from those. Now the kids just want to google everything. They don't want to take the time to read through the CultureGrams on the pioneer website. I find myself getting frustrated with that, but this year, as I was getting frustrated, I remembered that it doesn't have to be "my way." The kids know how to find information. The don't need the restriction of one or two sites.

Let it go....

Core Standards for 6th Grade Science

In looking through the standards and thinking about the "good to know" vs. "must know" for better understanding, thinking about what I did and did not know before I started teaching, and what has made me a "better" person for knowing, I have to consider what makes me look more or less educate, and what has helped me gain a better understanding of the world around me. I remember in a professional development years ago watching a clip of Harvard (or perhaps another elite college) graduates being asked, "What causes the phases of the moon." Now, maybe for the dramatization of the video they only included people who gave clueless answers, but I was shocked at how few had any idea!

So, with that in mind, it has been my goal to make sure my students leave 6th grade knowing a few key things. They include: the phases of the moon, what the sun is made of and how far it is from the earth, that the sun is the main source of energy for most life on earth, why we have seasons, why we have eclipses, that microorganisms are EVERYWHERE and that some can be harmful and some can be helpful, that they understand the benefit of immunizations (I show them gory pictures :)), the importance of WASHING HANDS, and that heat, light, and sound all are in the form of waves. Since there are SO many lessons in learning these things, I have to be picky and choose what I think they should know to help them remember what I feel is most important.

My students next year will have access to tablets in my classroom. Modeling digital ethics is so important. First I have to explain to them the importance of being ethical. I will have to model this, and other things, as I introduce and demonstrate new activities. I already have planned a waiver they have to sign and have their parents sign that the students will NOT look up any inappropriate material, and there will be a severe consequence if they do. I will be explaining about the server in my classroom and their responsibility to use the media responsibly or they will be banned. Period. There are great lessons provided on the web, which we looked up in class last week, that are perfect for teaching ethics and responsibility. I already downloaded the Digital Literacy and Citizenship books into my iBooks.

We will also be learning about plagiarism (which we do every year). I loved the idea someone mentioned in class about having the students write a paper and then I use one of theirs as if it's mine. What a fantastic example! Every year I have students who copy/paste  things into their reports. As if I don't know the difference between their writing and Wikipedia.

Then there's the cyber-bullying issue. Since we will be building webpages for my project, and the students will be commenting on each others pages, this is something I will have to thoroughly address right away. There are some great videos about it online for this age group. Sappy and dramatic, just the kind of things these guys love :)

Plagiarism, inappropriate sites, and cyber-bullying are just a few of the ethical problems I will encounter. But hopefully through positive modeling and support, I can avoid a lot of it.

The Weaving of Technologies, Both General and Content-Specific

First: How can technology be woven into the scope and sequence of a course? Last week in class, the guest speaker (who, by the way, severely talked down to me and helped reiterate the fact that I am quite inept at technology, just when I was starting to feel a bit adept) showed us a website on uen.org/oer that has all the curriculum mapped out and tied to the core curriculum. I was quite excited about that! In the science lessons (I perused through the entire year's worth while she continued; I was no longer interested in what she had to say) there are many links to websites that can enrich the students' learning. There are videos, webquests, interactive sites, real time pictures, quite the array of exciting things. I am so excited to implement this into my science curriculum! This provides an easy way to weave tech into the curriculum, either with my computer or iPad connected to the projector, or on Thursdays or Fridays when I can actually get the laptops in my room and NOT be doing practice essays on utahcompose. Next year, with the tablets I will be using for my project in my room, I will really be able to implement this wonderful find and not have to work around the rest of the school's schedule :) Yay!!!

Next: How can both general pedagogical and content-specific technologies be utilized throughout the course? Well, this topic was a bit confusing for me, I will be honest. I had to break the two big ideas, general pedagogical and content specific technologies, and then put their meanings together. But I think I got it!

General pedagogical technologies would refer to the Bill Nye videos we watch on youtube that pertain to our science core, and the content-specific technologies would be the activities the students can do on devices to enhance their learning at their own pace. Right? If I've got this correct, then I think the curriculum outline I talked about on uen.org/oer is a perfect example of how to do this. If you haven't seen it (which I'm sure you have), you should, because I know you have TONS of free time between all the other things you are involved with (eye roll) :)

I am really excited to get those tablets into the hands of my students next year. I wish it was this year. I have so many ideas jumping around in my head that would enhance their learning and make it easier for them to learn at their own pace. Also, the backward design has me rethinking my end goals and how I would like to see them come about. With a bit of technology added in to the fun hands on activities we already do, the goal seems so much more do-able. And fun!