Reflection

Looking back over the course, I feel like we learned a lot of useful information. There were many different types of technology that came into play with the lessons we developed. Some of the types I found very adaptable to my curriculum, others I still struggle to think of ways that they would be viable lessons in my current position. Regardless of whether I can incorporate them into my current classroom, I feel it was worth the time to become more familiar with each type of technology because I do not know what the future holds in my teaching career.

I found developing the GAME plan around an entire unit very useful. One of the reasons I found it so beneficial is because it makes me realize things that I was lacking in my organizing and planning. While I do cover my curriculum, my lessons do not flow in a unit like the three I created this month do. They are very disjointed and don’t link into one another smoothly. Creating the three lessons that tied together where each one built upon the last was good start to being more organized with my year plan.

In addition to organizing my lessons better, the GAME plan made me stop and reflect more often. I have taught for almost 10 years. With so many demands and such limited time in today’s teaching climate, I sometimes forget to stop and reflect. Yes, as a teacher, we are always adapting and reflecting on the fly during our lessons but taking a few minutes out to sit and reflect for a longer time is definitely beneficial in that it makes me feel more confident and prepared the next day.

Another benefit I found is these lessons encouraged me to collaborate more with my coworkers. Having taught the amount of time I had and being on an encore team instead of a grade level team gave me the tendency to keep to myself when planning. Yes, I have my encore teammates but our team is different in that we each have a different curriculum to teach. In a grade level team, each member teaches the same curriculum. This process gave me an opportunity to make a conscious effort to collaborate with others and incorporate other processes into my daily norm.  I think any class that helps me think outside of my own personal box is beneficial to my teaching. When I get comfortable, I tend to fall into a routine or a rut that isn’t good for anyone in my classroom.  Yes, change is hard but this kind of change brings about good things. I look forward to learning more in future courses.

Monitoring My GAME Plan

As a part of beginning my GAME plan, I have been searching for iPad apps that could be used in my classroom. So far, the only app I have downloaded and put to use in my classroom is Classdojo. As a behavior management system, I give each class 10 points. I take points for off task behaviors. The goal is for the students to work together as a class and earn more points than any of my other classes. About 2 weeks before the end of the year, I average the scores each class has received. The class with the highest average earns a prize. For the prize, I conference with each student in the class to get ideas about what things they like and their favorite color so I can paint each student a glass with their name in a fancy font with logos or small pictures next to it. I started this points program last year and I was pleased with student response to it however, I feel utilizing Classdojo helps the students visualize their scores better. It makes the concept of points more concrete, especially for the youngest students.

In addition to beginning use of Classdojo, I have researched art related apps, both art creation apps and art history apps. I have found pinterest to be very useful to find blogs by other art teachers who have reviewed many of the art apps. I am in the process of reading the reviews to narrow down the list of apps that I would like to purchase. Some that I am currently considering are Frida’s World (learning about Frida Kahlo), Art Authority (more than 1,000 works of art with stories behind the art and the artists), and PhotoForge 2 (a photo manipulation app that might work well for a Warhol/Pop Art project).

I have not yet set up my page in My Big Campus (a county wide program that is used for staff and students to communicate information). My goal is to edit that page to make it more useful in my teaching in the next week. After I edit the page, I am hopeful that I can set it up so it can become an art gallery where students and parents can log on and see their own work from home.

I am finding that there are many more art resources on the iPads than I anticipated. The only issue I am finding is that it takes a good deal of research. Many pieces of artwork or facts about certain artists are not appropriate for my students’ age group. I need to be sure the app doesn’t contain anything inappropriate before spending, and essentially wasting, money on an app I’ll be unable to use.

So far, I don’t feel that I need to change my GAME plan. I think that I need keep working on this process and be patient enough to thoroughly research each app before spending money on it.

One new question I have based on my research is how hard is it to print the art that students will make on the iPad. I would imagine I would be able to save the art in a jpeg format and transfer the file to the school computers for printing but I am not sure. I plan to ask our technology coordinator in the coming week.

I have made some progress with my goal for standard 2 but have yet to make any progress on my goal for standard 3. I hope to remedy that this week.

GAME Plan

(G)OAL
My goal is to improve my skills in the following NETs areas:
2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.
3. Model digital age work and learning(International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

(A)CTIONS
It has been years since I have tried to make a lesson plan using digital media in art. Then, the only resource I had available was MS Paint. The students always seemed to like the lesson but between trying to get everything done and scheduling issues with the computer lab at the school, the digital art just fell by the wayside. The actions for NETs standard 2 that I would like to take are to research any free or inexpensive apps that my students could use as our school has recently acquired about 20 ipads for student use. Second, I will research any free websites or programs for computers that we might use and build a digital art lesson plan based on anything that I find. My action for NETs standard 3 is to make better use of My Big Campus. Our county has a program called My Big Campus where students and staff can communicate and share items. Almost like an educational facebook. Each student has an account as well as all staff. I have not explored it for much other than to access items our Student Achievement Specialist posted for the staff to view. I would like to better explore it to see if it would be a good forum for students to post their work, almost like a digital art gallery.

(M)ONITOR
To monitor my development I will ask myself questions. Have I found any new apps or websites? If not, have I consulted anyone for help like fellow classmates or more tech savvy coworkers? Have I started making a lesson plan based on things I found? Have I logged on to My Big Campus and set up my page?

(E)VALUATE
To evaluate my progress, I will have to review any lesson plans that I have designed. I will have to teach them to students and see if they respond to the lessons the way that I hoped. If not, I will brain storm what did not go well and what I can do to change that before trying the lesson again with the next group of students.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers. Retrieved on September 15, 2013 from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Course Reflection

After completing the course studies, I feel that all of what I wrote in my Personal Learning Theory still rings true. I still feel it is important to teach to the abilities and intelligence strengths of all of the students rather than teaching in a way comfortable for the teacher. However, I would like to start changing the way I use technology in my classroom. For the most part, I use technology as a teaching tool (a way for me to present information). While that is a good strategy, it is not the most effective way to use the available technology. I would like to phase in more lesson plans that use technology as a learning tool (a way for students to get hands on use of the technology).

An immediate adjustment I would like to make is the use of group work. Nearly all of my projects are individual at this point. I would also like to get more of my technology into the students’ hands. One lesson idea I have been planning as a result of this course will put both of those adjustments into action. Very soon I would like to assign a research assignment based on styles of art. This project idea was addressed in a previous paper. Students are put into groups and each group assigned a style of art. In the group, they create a power point presentation that they will use to teach the rest of the class about their style. The assignment is essentially a jigsaw activity where the students use technology to both research and present their information.

One long term plan I have set for myself is to expand the art related technology that is available to me. I have looked into a program called Frames which is a way to make stop motion claymation movies. Another piece of technology I would like to expand is access to digital cameras. Our school has one very old camera. I would like to organize a fundraiser that will help me buy some of the updated technology that I’d like. As a second long term goal, I would like to give my students more ownership of their learning and more choices in their projects. I have a set curriculum of terms (I.e. Color families or elements of art) but not a set way to teach these items. In order to put this goal into action, I need to work on creating many more lesson plans. This way, I can give my students a choice of 2 or more projects for each element of the curriculum I am trying to teach. By giving my students these choices, they are more likely to find a project that will appeal to the strongest intelligence of each student.

Social Learning Theories

According to Dr. Orey, social learning theories state that students will retain information better if they are required to understand and re-teach the information. They also learn better if they are collaborating in groups and learning from one another (Laureate Education, 2009). We researched some activities and strategies to put this theory to use this week. Voice thread in particular is the technology based strategy for social learning. Voice thread is an interesting program to learn but I am unsure how useful it will be in my classroom. I teach art in an elementary school, which means I see the students for 50 minutes, once a week. Perhaps if I taught at the highschool level and had 90 minute blocks every day, this would be a more practical tool. It is a shame that time prevents me from fully exploring some of the resources that are available. However, this does not mean that social learning will never occur in my room. In fact, I have a lesson plan where students use a claymation process to make a short video online. It is a project that lends itself very well to social learning while still having the students use and think about art processes. A quote that really stands out in my mind this week is, "Cooperative learning is not so much learning to cooperate as it is cooperating to learn" (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., Malenoski, K., 2007, p. 143)

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Social Learning Theories. [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore, MD: Orey.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/903134/

Constructionism and Learning

Constructionism in learning is the idea that students will better retain information if they are required not only to learn the information, but DO something with is as well (Laureate Education, Inc. 2, 2009. Make something, build something, teach something, produce something. I believe this idea correlates well with the other research we have studied thus far because the creation appeals to many senses. Depending on the project, students could be filming, sculpting, writing, etc. This can not only appeal to several senses, it can also create memories of an experience, which would be yet another avenue of information retrieval. In previous weeks, Dr. Orey stated that students don't forget information, they forget how to retrieve it. The more avenues you use to store the information, the more ways you have to get back to it (Laureate Education, Inc. 1, 2009). Not only will constructionism aid in information retention, it will help the teacher with student engagement as well. I personally remember fighting to stay awake in lectures in (undergraduate) college and I was paying to be there because I WANTED to be there! How can we, as teachers, expect students to pay attention and retain information in the form of a lecture when, many times, they are FORCED to be there. If we liven up the information with projects and active learning, the students' attitude, as well was information retention, will improve. I am particularly excited to further explore a resource mentioned by Pitler and others in chapter 11. I feel that the By Kids For Kids: How to Invent website will effectively enhance my curriculum (Pitler, et al, 2007). Inventing lends itself to a unit on Leonardo DaVinci, an avid inventor. In addition, as I was exploring, I found ideas about creating ad campaigns (we explore graphic design as an art job option), fashion design, and many other ideas that can help me teach my students about art by using real world connections.

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. 1 (Producer). (2009). Cognitive Learning Theories. [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore, MD: Orey.

Laureate Education, Inc. 2 (Producer). (2009). Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories. [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore, MD: Orey.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.