Source:
Scherer, M. (2014). The Paperless Classroom is Coming. Time, 184(15), 36-38.
Summary:
Michael Scherer begins by explaining a back to school night in a tech savvy teacher's classroom. Parents had many concerns and not enough time to voice them. Scherer explains that because of President Obama's initiative to get all students technology that this technology classroom would become more regular. This teacher is aiming to be paperless and started off his teaching career as a computer lab teacher. He is taking his activities from writing problems down on paper to doing things with the knowledge that they could not do without the technology.
In the next section, Scherer talks about some of the glitches that schools need to overcome when using more technology. Many schools think that if they simply buy technology, that something will happen. Teachers and parents may have steep learning curves on how to use them correct. He goes on to explain that increased blue light exposure could lead to eye problems, and that computer use could lead to other health problems as well.
After this, the article moves back to how devices in the classroom can help to personalize education, increase scores, and help to motivate students in new ways. The article ends with the explanation of how the teacher at back to school night is very excitedly sharing YouTube videos, work from his students, and explanations of technology use in college. One of the parents that was originally showing concern told the teacher, "I love your enthusiasm."
Reflection:
Our district, or school, I'm not entirely sure, has recently explained that we are short on paper. They have encouraged teachers to use less paper in their classrooms. I have been using the computers a lot in my room in new ways instead of paper pencil worksheets, sharing documents through Google, and posting to our learning management system, Schoology. Yet, I am not completely paperless myself. In some ways, I like the idea of being paperless - less mess, easier to find everything that I need, students and myself can have access to things more easily. Despite this though, I agree with some of the concerns the parents had and have more of a blended approach in my room. I share the majority of things with my students electronically in some way, but also print certain things for them. Trying to be semi-paperless really helps to make me think about what things should be printed and what things would work better or be okay electronically. Paperless is great, but sometimes I feel like we (teachers and students) still need to manipulate paper materials. This is the reason why I still have a plan book! I tried keeping my plans online and found that for me, paper plans were much easier.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Catlin Tucker - Tucker Time Station Rotation
Source:
Tucker, C. (2017). Stations: A Shift That’s Worth It. Educational Leadership, 74(6), 86-87.
Summary:
Catlin begins by explaining how the traditional classroom structure really does not allow for any personalized instruction and that many teachers have used a traditional "stand and deliver" model of teaching. She argues that technology with the use of stations will help to increase personalization of learning within the classroom, even if the stations span more than one day since secondary classrooms have more time constraints than elementary classrooms.
Catlin suggests a three lesson station design: one station being a teacher led station with small group instruction, a second being an online station, and a third being an offline station. The teacher station is time for the more traditional station that is used most often, grouping students by ability level and providing the correct amount and level of instruction needed based on those students. One way that she takes her one on one time with students and adds in technology is to use the time for synchronous editing in Google Docs. She gives feedback using Google's suggest mode and follows up in more detail. For the online station, Catlin explains that she uses online tools like vocabulary.com and NoRedInk to give students practice with the specific skills they need help with. She recommends that students not work with technology at every station. This leads into her final station, the offline once. She explains that they should "encourage communication, collaboration, and problem-solving." She explains suggestions of tactile tasks, interpersonal tasks, discussions, and choice boards with different activities for students.
Reflection:
After reading through the previous article on stations in the classroom, I've planned out a way to use them in my language arts classes this fourth quarter. I spent some time looking between articles on blogging (as this is what one of my stations will be for in my classroom) and just more information on using stations but also incorporating technology within them. In the end, I decided upon reading more about using stations with technology and liked this article because the author, Catlin Tucker, was someone I follow on Twitter, and I recognized the name!
As I have decided to implement them into my classroom, I really like the idea of using stations with my middle school students. I'm looking for ideas on more ways to use them, and although some of the ideas in this article were ones I had heard before, there are a lot of great ideas in here. I already have my students use Google Docs and have given them suggestions using the "Suggesting Mode" in Google Docs. Generally, I will do this at home and leave feedback trying to explain it to my students. I love the idea of suggesting in with them in class while I am working with a small group. It is so hard to sit down and talk with all students about their papers, and this would be a great way to ensure that we are having a good conversation, I am sharing what I want to share with them, and I am not taking over their computer to give feedback. I'm excited to try out stations in my classroom this week and see how they go. I plan to use the suggesting mode and comments capability of Google Docs while I am meeting with students as they plan their group websites out. I also want to re-look at NoRedInk and check out Vocabulary.com.
Tucker, C. (2017). Stations: A Shift That’s Worth It. Educational Leadership, 74(6), 86-87.
Summary:
Catlin begins by explaining how the traditional classroom structure really does not allow for any personalized instruction and that many teachers have used a traditional "stand and deliver" model of teaching. She argues that technology with the use of stations will help to increase personalization of learning within the classroom, even if the stations span more than one day since secondary classrooms have more time constraints than elementary classrooms.
Catlin suggests a three lesson station design: one station being a teacher led station with small group instruction, a second being an online station, and a third being an offline station. The teacher station is time for the more traditional station that is used most often, grouping students by ability level and providing the correct amount and level of instruction needed based on those students. One way that she takes her one on one time with students and adds in technology is to use the time for synchronous editing in Google Docs. She gives feedback using Google's suggest mode and follows up in more detail. For the online station, Catlin explains that she uses online tools like vocabulary.com and NoRedInk to give students practice with the specific skills they need help with. She recommends that students not work with technology at every station. This leads into her final station, the offline once. She explains that they should "encourage communication, collaboration, and problem-solving." She explains suggestions of tactile tasks, interpersonal tasks, discussions, and choice boards with different activities for students.
Reflection:
After reading through the previous article on stations in the classroom, I've planned out a way to use them in my language arts classes this fourth quarter. I spent some time looking between articles on blogging (as this is what one of my stations will be for in my classroom) and just more information on using stations but also incorporating technology within them. In the end, I decided upon reading more about using stations with technology and liked this article because the author, Catlin Tucker, was someone I follow on Twitter, and I recognized the name!
As I have decided to implement them into my classroom, I really like the idea of using stations with my middle school students. I'm looking for ideas on more ways to use them, and although some of the ideas in this article were ones I had heard before, there are a lot of great ideas in here. I already have my students use Google Docs and have given them suggestions using the "Suggesting Mode" in Google Docs. Generally, I will do this at home and leave feedback trying to explain it to my students. I love the idea of suggesting in with them in class while I am working with a small group. It is so hard to sit down and talk with all students about their papers, and this would be a great way to ensure that we are having a good conversation, I am sharing what I want to share with them, and I am not taking over their computer to give feedback. I'm excited to try out stations in my classroom this week and see how they go. I plan to use the suggesting mode and comments capability of Google Docs while I am meeting with students as they plan their group websites out. I also want to re-look at NoRedInk and check out Vocabulary.com.
Tech Time Savers
I enjoyed watching David's Top 10 Time-saving Tech Tips and found myself reading the transcript to be sure that I didn't miss anything since he went through them so quickly. I didn't know that you could use the spacebar to scroll down a webpage. My school laptop has a touchscreen, so normally I would use that to scroll up and down on websites. I was also not aware that hitting the B or the W keys would black out or white out the screen. Definitely something I'll use in class!
I oftentimes use a lot of control+____ shortcuts on my computer. The basics, ctrl+c for copy, ctrl+v for paste, and ctrl+z for undo, etc.
I really like using ctrl+f to find specific phrases or words in a piece of text as well. Combing ctrl+f with the replace option in Google Docs or Microsoft Word is also a major time saver for me. I use it when I am creating multiple copies of very similar documents that have a few minor words that need to be changed, like names for instance. I use it to in a matter of seconds, change all of the copies of the same word, even if there are 50 with just a few clicks on the keyboard.
I'm sure there are other shortcuts I use as well, these are just the ones that popped into mind first!
I oftentimes use a lot of control+____ shortcuts on my computer. The basics, ctrl+c for copy, ctrl+v for paste, and ctrl+z for undo, etc.
I really like using ctrl+f to find specific phrases or words in a piece of text as well. Combing ctrl+f with the replace option in Google Docs or Microsoft Word is also a major time saver for me. I use it when I am creating multiple copies of very similar documents that have a few minor words that need to be changed, like names for instance. I use it to in a matter of seconds, change all of the copies of the same word, even if there are 50 with just a few clicks on the keyboard.
I'm sure there are other shortcuts I use as well, these are just the ones that popped into mind first!
Future Ready Framework - Collaborative Leadership
After looking through the Future Ready Framework, one that really seemed to stick out to me was the collaborative leadership gear. It appealed to me because it encompasses all of the other gears and is important to the success of digital learning. It focuses on having the district leaders believing in the framework as well as the students, teachers, administrators, parents, etc.
This is something that is definitely important in all aspects of life, but especially in school. If you want to have success in something, you need to have support and help from various sources. Being part of the technology pilot in my district and now being right across the hall from someone else in the pilot has helped myself and my co-worker collaborate together to help create and share new ideas. There are other teachers that I work with on writing curriculum and discussing curriculum and because we have been a part of the tech pilot we are able to help support each other as well as help other teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms.
The district is also in the process of creating a technology steering committee to gather evidence on implementation of the technology in the pilot, plan for the future of the district in regards to technology and help to create and alter policies as well. They have invited members of the technology pilot to join the committee as well as other administrators and teachers. I like to see that the district seems to be moving towards and fitting with the collaborative learning ideology of the future ready framework.
This is something that is definitely important in all aspects of life, but especially in school. If you want to have success in something, you need to have support and help from various sources. Being part of the technology pilot in my district and now being right across the hall from someone else in the pilot has helped myself and my co-worker collaborate together to help create and share new ideas. There are other teachers that I work with on writing curriculum and discussing curriculum and because we have been a part of the tech pilot we are able to help support each other as well as help other teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms.
The district is also in the process of creating a technology steering committee to gather evidence on implementation of the technology in the pilot, plan for the future of the district in regards to technology and help to create and alter policies as well. They have invited members of the technology pilot to join the committee as well as other administrators and teachers. I like to see that the district seems to be moving towards and fitting with the collaborative learning ideology of the future ready framework.
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