I can see the finish line!

We are winding down to the last week of class. Three of our main assignments have been a work in progress. I still have some work to complete before the course is over. I have been keeping up with my personal website. I have been updating it with class assignments weekly. I enjoyed making the website and designing and formatting it. I have great respect for web site creators and designers. I did not realize how much work you have to put into it. I have also been blogging as often as I can. I really liked keeping a blog. It is like keeping a diary. You can reflect on your writing. If you wrote something down you can go back and see what you wrote. After some time you might think differently. My ICP project is coming along. My topic is podcasting and how it enhances 21st century skills. It is a topic that we have touched upon in class previously. I have been working on my PowerPoint presentation. After watching other students present, I realized that my presentation has too many slides and that I will not be able to complete my presentation in the 12 minute time frame. I have to go back and cut down some slides to make it shorter. At first I was confused on how I would make this PowerPoint into MSMC lesson plan format. After watching the presentations I saw that they had a clear introduction, development, guided practice, closure, independent practice and evaluation. Talking about all this work that I need to complete is getting me stressed so I am going to go work on my finishing touches.
Talk to you soon.

Day 1 of ICP presentations!

Monday night was the first day of presenting ICP projects. We had to pick a topic and then use a digital method to present our presentation to the class. The presentations were very informative. I present my ICP project next Monday night and the presentations gave me many useful ideas. Here are my reflections based on the student's presentations:

Caitlin-The Use of Digital Video and Media to Enhance Student Learning:
I enjoyed Caitlin's powerpoint. I like how she involved the class by asking questions. Everyone in the class was willing to participate. I think Caitlin did a great job for not having a microphone. Her powerpoint presentation was very informative. The only critic I have is to make sure if you use video that it enhances your presentation. The YouTube video that was posted I had a hard time hearing the sound.

Heather-Digital Storytelling:
I liked how Heather used a blog to assess our prior knowledge. I liked how she had many different examples of digital stories: narratives, historical themes and informational stories. I also liked the images she used I think it enhanced her presentation.

Steven- Interactive whiteboards in the classroom:
I liked how Steven asked question in the beginning of the presenation to get the class involved. This is a topic that most people are familiar with. I thought the presentation was very informative. I liked the resources Steven provided for interactive whiteboards. I also felt that Steven was very passionate about his topic.

Carolyn-Using Scrapblog and Glogster to Inspire Creative Writing:
This is a topic that I was unfamilair with. After Carolyn's presentation I would definately use scrapblog to create my own scrapbooks. I loved the visuals Carolyn used. I like how she put in the link of a tutorial on how to use the scrapblog program. Overall I think Caroyln did a great job I really enjoyed her presentation.

Mary- Facebook & Linked In:Professional Connections for Educators:
I think this is a topic that many of the student's in the class are familiar with. Many people use Facebook for social purposes. I have my own Facebook account. I really liked the cartoon that Mary used. I think it portrayed how relative this topic is to younger people who have a Facebook account. If you are looking for a job you have to be careful what you put on your Facebook or what your friends post on their Facebooks. I personally do not take pictures when I am out with my friends because I know they are going to post it on Facebook. Luckily I don't really like taking pictures. So this does not really affect me. I felt that Mary was very passionate about her topic. I also liked how she used a quiz at the end to assess what we learned.

Assessment Through Blogging

Tonight is our first day of presenting our ICP projects. Heather asked the class to write in our blogs about three facts we know about digital storytelling. One of our class assignments was to create a digital story. By doing this she is activating our prior knowledge.

Here are three facts about digital storytelling:
1. Story is based on a theme/subject
2. Use pictures, animation and sound to tell your story
3. PhotoStory from Microsoft Word was easy to use!

Heather also discussed how making digital stories increases our information literacy skills, media literacy skills and information communication technology literacy(ICT). To assess our knowledge Heather asked us to write how we utilized these skills in making our digital story.

Information Literacy- I told the story of the Hyrdoelectric Process.
Media Literacy- I used my media literacy skills and told this story through the use of digital storytelling.
Information communication and technology- I had to figure out a way to tell the story which is a boring concept in a fun,informative way. I tried to be creative by creating a H20 family. I thought students would be able to relate to the family.

I thought using a blog as a form of assessment was a great idea. She activated our prior knowlege of digital stories and blogging (as everyone in the class is keeping a blog to write their thoughts and reflections of the course). I never thought of using a blog as form of assessment. It is something different. It is a fun and motivating activity for students. I know I enjoyed writing a blog as a form of assessment. For teachers it is easy to check and keep track of student's blogs.

Technology and Curriculum Integration

Our group was assigned chapter 6 Technology and Curriculum Integration. We were happy to have this chapter because it is something we found to be very interesting and a helpful resource for our classrooms. We also felt that it was something that the other students in our class will find interesting and motivating, as they will be integrating technology into their own classrooms. Our group worked very well together. We discussed what we thought were the major highlights of the chapter. From there we divided the work into sections and came back and collaborated our ideas into a PowerPoint presentation.
Classroom Management Techniques:


* Teachers need to ensure equal access. Not everyone needs the same amount of time to accomplish a given task. For example: if a class is divided into five groups, assign computer time one day per group per week. Teachers should also avoid periods that will be interrupted (e.g. by music).
* Teachers also need to vary the usage and types of access. Teachers can differentiate between: whole class work, group projects, partners, individuals, open-scheduling (e.g. 10 minutes per person X the number of people).
* Teachers also need to make modifications for higher ability and lower ability students. A printout of the results of the session is helpful.
* Have someone at the computer at all times. To track what student has been at the computer teachers can keep a log. Teachers can also schedule use during early morning, recess and lunchtime.
* Teachers need to arrange access to more computers: Send students out to use other computers: to the library, to the resource center, or even to a vacant classroom when those students are at physical education or music. Organizing aids are a must to keep a well-organized classroom.
* Use organizing aids: Use a journal to record usage, post sign-up (and sign-out) sheets next to the computer, and use a pocket chart with a card for each student; they turn their cards over after a turn and when all are done, they start over. You can also have a popsicle stick for each student and two jars, one labeled “Been There” the other labeled “Not Yet”. The students take the sticks out of one jar and put them in the other as they complete the work. I think that is a great idea. In the future, if I am lucky enough to have computers in my classroom I will use this management technique.

Integrating Technology into the content areas:
http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/intideas.htm
General Ideas:

* Power Point Presentations: lectures, school board and PTA presentations, open houses: info for parents and welcome to classroom, showing class rules.
* HyperStudio Stacks: welcome to the classroom and getting to know you (students fill in information about themselves), classroom rules and consequences, book recommendations, create and/or tell stories, present and assess information
* Web Pages: calendar of school/building/classroom events, school activities, faculty/staff pages

For each the content areas of Social Studies, Science and Health, English Language Arts, Math, Art, Music and Physical Education provided ways to integrate technologies of:

* Word processing Software
* Spreadsheet and Database Software
* Desktop Publishing and Graphic/Paint/Draw Software
* Multimedia software such as PowerPoint, Hyper Studio, or Web pages

As a group we also discussed interactive websites that can be used in the classrooms:

* Fact Monster
* APlusMath
* PBSKids
* BrainPop
* Starfall
* Discovery Kids

Assessment

Assessment is the process of acquiring information and making judgments about student learning. There are several purposes of assessment such as to assist in student learning, to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses, to assess the effectiveness of a particular strategy, to assess and improve the effectiveness of curricular programs, to asses and improve teaching effectiveness, and to provide data to communicate with parent’s about a child’s progress. Assessments are not only used to see if a student is understanding the concepts taught it also is valuable for the teacher to see how effective their teaching was and if not how to improve their teaching so that all student’s can grasp what is being taught to them.
Types of Assessments:
There are several types of assessment. Formative assessment provides continuous feedback to teachers and students, which enables them to monitor progress and identify and address errors and gaps in learning. Summative assessment is a larger test given at the end of the unit. Formal assessment is structured and recorded assessment. Teachers and students use informal assessment opportunities to make incidental and immediate judgments and provide feedback about student learning. Peer-assessment occurs when students provide feedback to other learners about their learning. In this course, we have used peer assessment. We give feedback on other group’s presentations by leaving comments on their blogs and wikis. Self-assessment occurs when the learner assesses her or his own work. We have also self assessed ourselves as we blog and reflect on what we have learned. Another type of assessment is authentic assessments, which are based on teacher observations of children as they are engaged in real meaningful classroom events. Some examples of this are students writing in a journal and power point presentations. Another type of assessment is traditional assessments, which focus on grades, and helps to rank knowledge through the classroom. Some types of traditional testing are teacher made quizzes, exams and homework assignments. I think that this type of testing is good to see if student’s grasped basic knowledge and it is good to evaluate the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Norm referenced assessments are formal assessments based on the scores of a particular group of students. One type of norm referenced is the SAT’s in which most high school students take. I don’t personally like this type of testing because some student’s do not do well in taking tests and this testing does not show their strengths in their knowledge. Criterion referenced tests is another type of formal assessments comparing the child’s performances to criteria. One example of this type of testing is the ELA exams that students take in the 4th grade. I have observed this type of assessment in a fourth grade classroom getting ready for the ELA exam. The teacher used ELA exams from previous years for the students to use as practice. The teacher worked on specific skills such as the reading the passages and the multiple choice questions that went along with the passage. I don’t believe that this type of assessment shows what students know. The teachers prepare them just for this test and this is not help the students in learning new cognitive skills. Most teachers have them memorize answers. Alternative assessments are a different way of assessing students other than the traditional authentic such as exams in portfolio. Portfolios are also used as a type of assessment. It is a collection of student’s work during the school year such as written, work, journals, self evaluations, and other samples of the students work. While I did fieldwork at Temple Hill Academy I worked with two students and we kept a portfolio of their work. I read with the student’s and then they would do various activities to go along with the book we read, such as responding to their opinion of the book, working on characterizing the main characters of the story, samples of their drawings and so on. This is a good way of evaluating student’s so you can see what they need work on and see how they have progressed over time.
I think that it is important to vary the types of assessments used in the classroom. Some students might do well on one type of assessment or do poorly on a different type of assessment. Teacher’s need to use different types of assessment to help them find the student’s strengths and weaknesses, by using only one type of assessment you cannot find out this information.
YouTube Video: A is for Apple: Grading Achievement in Schools
One quote that stuck out in my mind was about testing in education today “ Schools are preoccupied like doing well on the tests is the purpose of education". Many teachers are preoccupied to teaching the students to the test. Some believe that standard based education and frequent testing may impede student's learning.
A Look to the Future of Testing and Grading
As technology changes and advances everyday so does education. Schools are being held more accountable for students testing scores. Need to find a more consistent and valid way to test all types of students. Performance and authentic assessments, as well as the use of portfolios, are likely to replace the more traditional paper-and-pencils tests.
Digital portfolios
Digital portfolios (ePortfolios) are collections of student work that are stored electronically. They are records of student's progress throughout the year. They provide information to students, parents, teachers and members of the community. Digital portfolios can include varied media such as text, graphics, video and sound. The Department of Education Student Digital Portfolio (SDP) will enable strong links between a student’s planning, learning and the curriculum. This will help the collection of evidence of learning for assessment against the curriculum outcomes and standards.

The A B C's of Grading

I signed up for a free online grade book using Engrade software found at:
http://www.engrade.com/
It was easy to sign up and create an account. You can even watch a short demo, which was provided instructions on how to create your account and was very easy to follow.
Here is a snapshot of my gradebook, attendence and calendar.

Once you sign up you can create your classroom. It is broken into sections. The first section is class information. You can enter the class name, school year and grading period (by semester trimester etc). The next section is students. You can then put your students name and gave them an access number. This number is a secret and only you and the student will know the number. The next section is the grading scale. You can select how to grade students in your class. Engrade provides several common grading scales such as by 10 % A=90 B=80 or by 8% A= 92 higher B=83 and higher etc. You can also customize your own grading scale. The next section is the assignment categories. You can enter categories into which you can organize assignments such as tests, quizzes, homework, participation, etc. You can also chose if you want your assignments weighted. If you click no then the assignments are weighted equally. If you click yes then you can customize your own grading and percentages. You can also chose if you want to drop the lowest score. The last section is options. You can choose how you want to view grade book. You can sort by students, assignments, round student percentages and if you want to show students percentages in reports. You are now done creating your classroom. You can also create another classroom. Elementary teachers only have one classroom for those who teach middle school or high school you have multiple classrooms for each individual class.
When you are done creating your classroom you can then click on each individual classroom to input grades. You can then add assignments. Enter the assignments name; category and how many points are possible to receive. It is easy to fill in the grade. You can also enter if a student is excused from the assignment with an e or missing the assignment with an m. It is also very simple to change the grade if a student was absent you can just click the box and change the grade. You can even put if the assignment is extra credit and you can add points for students who did the assignment and it will not affect the grade of the students who did not do the assignment.
Some extra features of Engrade that a teacher might find beneficial are the: calendar, attendance, citizenship and student/ parent access. The calendar allows the teacher to post when assignments are due and what day a test is on. The teacher can also track a class’s attendance. The teacher can mark is a students is absent or late. Under the feature citizenship the teacher can comment and write a brief description of how the student is doing in class. The teacher can also communicate with parents and students. Students and parents have access to this software. Students can sign up and see their grades using the code the teacher provides for them. This is a nice feature for students and parents to see how they are doing in the course. They can see what assignments are missing, when tests are coming up etc. Parents can also monitor their child’s schoolwork, can see when they are absent, if they are late, if they are missing homework assignments etc. Some other options are the teacher can also print the gradebook, print individual student reports and you can even export this information into an excel spreadsheet.
Here are some suggestions for Engrade to make it easier for teachers. One suggestion is to view more assignments per page. You can only see eight grades a page. Engrade should make the columns smaller allowing more grades per page. Another suggestion is that when inputting assignments it would be nice if you see a calendar so you know what date the assignment was due.
Overall, I think Engrade is a great tool to use in the classroom. The software is free easy to use and easy to sign up for. It saves the teacher the hassle of having to figure out grades. Students and parents can access the software as well. When the report cards come out the parents can’t complain when they have the opportunity to see how their child is doing. Students can see grades so if there is a discrepancy say on a grade the student can show their work to you and you can easily fix their grade. Even for students who do not have access to the Internet at home you can print out the student report sheet for them to take home. The only downside to using this program is that you would have to be updating your gradebook everyday because parents and students can access it at any time.