LAI 590

I had never heard of the concept of "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants" until this module's readings. The second I started reading Marc Prensky's articles though, the whole idea clicked and actually made sense. Digital natives are those who have lived their whole lives surrounded by technology. Digital immigrants are those who have adopted technology and it's language later in their lives. I would consider myself a digital immigrant. I still remember growing up when my family got dial-up internet. My sister and I thought it was the coolest thing. I also remember having a MySpace profile, something that is completely irrelevant now. The first iPod that I got for Christmas--it was a brick compared to the iPod's children have today. All of these things may date me (even though I am only 23!) but I have adopted the new ways of technology and forced myself to learn them. Gee uses the word "practice" to explain how immigrants can learn th...

When thinking about our students and their level of engagement, we often only think about the direct instruction period. While that period of engagement is important, other ways of engagement exist. Podcasting is a great way to keep student's attention and also engage them in new ways of thinking and learning.  The Podcast I chose to learn more about is called Children's Fun Storytime. It is a Podcast that takes common children's books and records them into Podcasts. Students can listen to the Podcast on any device. The specific Podcast I chose to listen to is called "Peter Rabbit, By: Beatrix Potter". This is a common children's story that is also a part of my Language Arts curriculum.  When thinking in terms of my students and how I would use this to meet learning standards and goals, the possibilities are endless. I envision using Podcasts as a Learning Area during differentiated instruction. In one learning area, students would listen to the Podcas...

I was really excited to be able to create my own TED-Ed lesson in this module. I have completed TED lessons for not only this class but also other classes and I really like doing them. The idea of using a video to teach a concept is really neat to me. For my own TED-Ed lesson, I chose to use Parts of a Plant as my main concept. My main science objective is: Students will be able to name the parts of a plant and briefly describe what they do through an interactive video lesson and mini-assessment. The science performance indicator is 3.1b. These are the standards currently being used in Buffalo Public Schools. The science curriculum is going to be revamped for younger grades in the coming years so these will change. As with all lessons I teach, English Language Arts standards are incredibly important. For this lesson, I chose to focus on L.K.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standards English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. This standard fits this activity be...

The concept of a flipped classroom seems scary. Students doing the "lecture" portion at home and homework portion at school seems crazy, but it works. John Graney perfectly describes a flipped classroom setting in his article, Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer . He says "Learners gain control over their learning." I am a firm believer in that statement. When I first heard about the idea of a flipped classroom, I too, thought it was crazy and could never work. Once I was able to observe a flipped classroom in action though, I realized that by allowing students to do the "more cognitively demanding activities in class", the teacher was able to reach all students where they needed help most. It should not be assumed that students can go home and complete homework in a proficient manner. Not all students will be proficient. In my class, that statistic is closer to 25% proficiency at the end of a lesson. With a large ELL population, my students require more....

The more I delve into the world of social media and technology, the more I realize how much it can improve my classroom and also me as a teacher. At first, the thought of live tweeting from my Kindergarten classroom seemed silly. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my students do amazing things throughout the day but often get no recognition for it. Twitter could serve as that form of recognition and also a way to share information about my classroom and our school. Alan November and Brian Mull perfectly define Twitter as being "an organizational structure that makes it an effective tool for connecting with students and others online". Both authors go on to discuss how the use of a hashtag has changed the world. Just the other day, I used twitter hashtags to find out more about an educational program my school is considering. I was greeted with several thousand tweets about the program, many of which contained articles attached. Not only was I able to...

I was very skeptical about the idea of a Twitter chat. I was unsure of what it would be like to connect with educators around the globe all through Twitter. I chose to attend the #seesawchat on Thursday, September 28. My school does not use Seesaw but it is a program that some of my friends use in their districts and I was curious to learn more. Family connections are incredibly important and often hard to make when there is a language barrier. Seesaw allows families to connect with students through online portfolios, newsletters, daily photos and videos, and so much more. The Twitter chat that I attended was organized into different questions. The moderator posted the questions about 10 minutes apart so there was time to chat with the others in the chat. The first question asked where we were from and what grade we teach. It was so neat to see people joining in my halfway around the world and also people who lived close by to me. Seeing the different subjects people taught was also ...

When thinking about the Facebook filter bubble controversy, it instantly made me think about my own Facebook account. I have noticed that on my own account, many of the suggested articles and links, all have to do with things that I have previously clicked on or looked at. For example, I recently read articles on better ways to teach guided reading. I noticed that many of my suggested articles were about guided reading and education for a few weeks following. The idea that Facebook is "shaping my opinion" on things is scary. Pariser perfectly outlines this when he talks about the balance between "information vegetables, dessert, and junk food". When thinking in terms of my own Newsfeed, I have noticed that it is often filled with "information dessert and junk food". Many times, it is not my choice. I am an avid reader of the "information vegetables" but I do occasionally read articles considered "information junk food". For example, w...

I had never heard of ePals until this module. When I first explored the site, I was amazed. I had no idea that a site that allows educators to connect and students to complete global projects like this, existed. My current classroom population is very diverse. ePals would give my students an opportunity to connect with students from their native country and learn more about their culture. My favorite project that I learned about is the Pen Pal Exchange. Last year my students were pen pals with a soldier in Kuwait, but it became difficult to send and receive mail. The ePals program connects students with other students their age around the globe. I would use this project in collaboration with my Step Up To Writing Assignments. My students work on writing all year long but never have the opportunity to apply it something unique and different. It is always the same few district approved assignments. I like the idea that the Pen Pal Exchange program would not only meet the Step Up To W...

The social networking site I chose to join is The Educator's PLN . The Educator's PLN, or Personal Learning Network, is a place for educators to come together and share sources, connections, videos, blogs, and discussions. It acts as a support network for educators. I chose this site because I really like the idea of collaboration and each person bringing something unique to the table. When I first joined The Educator's PLN, #Edchat. #Edchat is a place for educators to quite literally, chat with each other. It is a network of educators with similar questions, ideas, problems, etc. I followed the #Edchat discussions via my Twitter account. I plan to use The Educator's PLN as a place to gather new information and ideas, learn from my colleagues and connect with other educator's around the world. I also plan to stay connected with the #Edchat discussions. I find that the topics they cover are things that I often have questions about or need more clarification on.

When I first thought about this analogy, I was lost. Today's learner is not typical. Today's learner is evolving and thinking in ways never possible before. The more I thought about my students in my classroom and myself as a graduate student now, a learner is like a flower. I chose to a flower because flowers are always growing and also dying and evolving into something new. In George Siemens article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age" , Gonzalez says: "The 'half-life of knowledge' is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago." I felt that this quote perfectly described today's society and also today's learner. We are constantly evolving and changing what we know and the way we learn so that we can keep current. For example, I just attended a training on using my Promethean Board last year. I just received an email that the software has ch...

When I first read the assignment guidelines, I instantly knew that I would love this module. Pinterest is one of my favorite websites as a teacher. I have found fresh ideas and unique activities for my students. We live in such a creative world when we take a moment to look around. I was also very intrigued at the idea of Diigo. I had never hard of the site and after a little bit of time, quickly learned how useful it is. It is very much a convenience tool. All of the articles and important websites that I read are organized by tag and also highlighted with things that I like to read. I began to see how different the sites were as I delved deeper into them. I was very familiar with Pinterest prior to this assignment, but after reading more about it and watching some online videos, I learned new features that I did not know before. In comparison with Diigo, the inability to highlight is a major letdown in my opinion. When I am looking at different articles, I sometimes only need a sma...

Technology is moving faster than most educators can keep up. I am included in that group of educators. My students come to school with a diverse knowledge of technology and how it works. The switch to this new kind of education was highlighted very well by the schools in New Brunswick, Canada.  The school district explains that "Education as we know it may be obsolete". My biggest concern still remains; what does this mean for educators like myself? I will be the first to admit that my students are much more tech savvy than I am. They know what to do when the computer freezes or the tablet is not working properly. They can diagnose just about every problem on an iPhone and can easily list a plethora of websites and game sites. When I was in Kindergarten, I learned how to color. I knew my letters and numbers and I began to read and write. My students can do much more than I can in some aspects, but they miss out on others. When thinking about my Kindergarten experience, my tea...

Blogs present a unique opportunity to engage students in technology based learning. Van Olphen, Hofer and Harris presented interesting points in their article "Grounded Tech Instruction: Languages". Their idea of matching technology integration to existing lesson methods is exactly what I currently do in my classroom. I teach Kindergarten with about half of my class being ENL students. These students often times are brushed over because "they do not understand", but these students yearn to learn and are often very bright. I try to engage my ENL students using unique methods that not only get them thinking about English but also allowing them to speak in their own language. Blogging in my classroom would open a whole new window of possibility. One way that blogging could engage my students would be in Step Up To Writing preparation. Step Up To Writing is the writing initiative and assessment in Buffalo Public Schools. The program is very comprehensive and througho...