Personal Learning Summary - Ah-hah Moments

Hi Everyone!

I began my Master’s Degree last summer.  I wasn’t sure if I had enough brains to handle the program, but I summoned the courage and followed the proverbial Yellow Brick Road to find my heart’s desire.  I have to admit that I haven’t exactly been skipping the whole time, but during this term, I have finally settled into the routine, and I feel like I am finally in the right place. 

There’s no place like home, right?

The following short video sums up my experience with Educational Technology thus far.  (For those of you who are not in my class, my professor is Dr. Kelvin Thompson and the Ed Tech Graduate Advisor is Dr. Glenda Gunter, who is my instructor in another class.)

Lyrics to Somewhere On the Computer

Somewhere on the computer typing fast

There’s a teacher in grad school writing about her past.

Somewhere on the World Wide Web is her blog

That she wrote all her musings and her assignments on.

Someday she’ll be back in a class

And show her kids the net en masse and teach them

The proper way to search for stuff

So they will know what’s good, not fluff

On Google and Yahoo.

Somewhere out on the web is her wiki

And the page that she made to write her biography.

My knowledge won’t just disappear,

I know I’ll use it, now and every year!

As my class comes to an end, I intend to keep adding to this blog.  I want to thank my instructor, Dr. Kelvin Thompson, for showing me what great online teaching is like. You were always available to answer questions and you went above and beyond to make your instructions clear.   In addition, thanks to my classmates who taught me, shared with me and encouraged me. Best of luck to you all!

~ Christi S.

Completed Digital Storybook Project

Hey everyone!

In my graduate class, we were given the task of developing a digital storytelling project with our students.  While we were not required to produce the final project, I decided to go ahead and complete the project with my niece and nephew, who are six-years-old, in first grade, and love school.  "First grade is great!" they say. (I am not currently teaching, and they are always happy to be "my students" when I need a class.)

So.... here is the final product of the last several week's worth of grad school lessons:  A Mischievous Monkey

Mischievous Monkey Show

It's fun to see the culmination of the project and to see the final product with their illustrations and voices.

I also uploaded the files and made a Prezi of the story.  I think I like the SlideShare version better.



Enjoy!

~ Christi S

Lesson Plan - and Link to Wiki

Here is my updated Digital Storytelling Project.  Click here to go to my wikispace.  In addition, you will find a lesson plan here: Mischievous Monkey Lesson Plan.

Enjoy!

Christi S

Activity Reflection #7 - Developing Rubrics

Hi!

This week, in my graduate class, we are exploring the world of evaluation, assessment, rubrics, and other means of seeing if whatever we are doing is effective. Sometimes it's hard to tell while we're in the teaching trenches if we are really getting the message across.  It is very important to self-evaluate ourselves as we are teaching, and adjust as necessary, depending on the students' responses, but it is also difficult to evaluate whether or not everyone is getting the concept.  Is the shy, quiet boy in the back getting it?  Is the chatty bubbly girl in the first row really able to focus?  Is the creative, out-of-the-box-thinking girl pondering the lesson or is she off in the world she has envisioned inside her head?  Is the athletic boy who can rattle off every MLB player's stats without a blink of an eye really grasping this concept?  Is the bright, inquisitive boy in the front row bored because this isn't a challenging enough lesson?  Is the girl who just found out her parents are getting divorced able to even wrap her brain around my words? Kids are good actors, too - they can pretend to "get it" while not having a clue of what the teacher is talking about. Their minds are off on other things, and as teachers we have to cast off, dangle the worm, hope they bite, and reel them in.  Hopefully we've chosen the right bait.  And, in a sense, evaluation and development of rubrics allows the teacher to learn if she really caught any fish. I mean, not all teachers are as competent as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off - his personality, brilliance, and delivery reaches all his students in the most effective and efficient ways - ummmmmmm....... doesn't he?

Whenever I hear the word "rubric," for some reason, I think of two things - Rubik's Cube and Ruprect, from the movie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - neither of which has anything to do with rubrics, the evaluation tool.  A rubric can be defined as "An authentic assessment tool used to measure students' work. It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. A rubric is a working guide for students and teachers, usually handed out before the assignment begins in order to get students to think about the criteria on which their work will be judged" (Kennesaw State University).  I think that last statement is the KEY to rubrics - the student gets the rubric BEFORE they do the assignment so that they know what exactly is expected of them. They know ahead of time what they need to do, to what extent, and how well they need to do it to achieve a satisfactory grade.

So, my assignment this week is to create a rubric to accompany my digital storytelling project for my fictitious first grade class.  (I am not currently teaching, but I have a niece and nephew, twins, who are in first grade, so I have them in mind as I work on my project ideas.)  While I am pretty familiar with rubrics, and I have even created some, I have never made a rubric for first graders.  I wasn't even sure where to start on how to evaluate them so I checked with a friend of mine who teaches first grade.  Of course, kids at that age are all at different reading levels, so that was something that she stressed with me - make it easy enough to read for the kids who are pretty good readers, and let someone help the struggling readers.  (This advice was given for the rubric, not for other first grade assignments, I should note.)  

I found the Kennesaw State University site to be extremely useful.  Not only did they define rubrics, their purposes, uses, and features, as well as their advantages, they gave many samples of various kinds of rubrics for different grade levels.  I found this the most helpful area.  There was a section of rubrics designed for K-2 students, and this is where my "ah-HA!" moment happened.  Before I even started this research, I realized that many first grade children wouldn't grasp the whole scale of 1-5 thing or "Student showed adequate knowledge of the subject matter by listing at least three examples of how moths can cause harm both inside and outside of a home".  No, the language needed to be simple and, if possible, symbolic.  I was drawn to one that used faces:  

The rubric looked cute with all the little faces and it contained simple language....  but not really what I wanted.  I love the idea of the neutral face and the smiley, but the frowny one just kind of made me step back and think - Anyone who didn't do the assignment at all would get the frowny face for each question, in my opinion,  but if the student even TRIED, shouldn't they get something for their effort?  Am I being careful not to hurt their self-esteem?  Well, yes, but we are talking first graders here.  SIX years old.  Let's be happy for their attempt, at this point.  Perhaps later in the school year, we may revise that philosophy, but for now, I am content with not hurting their little egos.

So, I came up with my own rubric with stars as the symbolic rating system:  one kind of ordinary-looking shooting star has the lowest rating, one with a more elaborate tail represents the middle rating, and one with a lot of stars as the highest rating.  I included a key from not-so-good, to good, to very good. 

I went back to my curriculum page (on which I have done a lot of tweaking lately) and wrote my rubric criteria based on the instructions I had written there.  I thought that was the most logical way to create it, since those directions are what the students will have to follow anyway.  Here is what I came up with - a rubric for the students to do for themselves as well as one for me to evaluate each of them.

First, the student version.........

 

 

Now, for the teacher version....

I like what I created and I am not sure if I would change it.  I think I made a pretty thorough rubric that my students and I can use to evaluate their work. 

Comments? 

Until next time, keep reelin' in those kids!

~ Christi S

Resources:

Kennesaw State University. (2007) Assessment rubrics. Retrieved from http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm 

WOW! Check out Voki!

I saw this free site referenced in a classmate's blog and had to check it out.  What a fun site.  On Voki, I created this avatar, gave it a name, and "told" it what to say. I love how the eyes "follow" the cursor. 

The best part?  It's FREE!

Activity Reflection #6 - Here's the Story...

Hello Everyone!

WHEW!  This has been a CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY week!  It's hard to believe that I was in the heart of Times Square in NYC just 5 days ago, came home, went to work, acquired a nasty sinus infection along the way, completed my Digital Book Trailer for my other graduate class, and did all the coursework for this week's module for THIS graduate class - all since Monday!  (Well, I had been working on the book trailer since February, but I finished up all the editing this week.) 

So this week, we are starting to put our digital story plans into action.  The story will be a question-and-answer-type story written by a class of first-graders - a group project.  The title of the story is "Mischievous Monkey" - about a naughty monkey who escaped from the zoo - and the students will write their answers to the question, "What will he do?" They will illustrate their story and record their voice reading it. Each student's work will be combined with their classmate's responses. In the last few weeks, we brainstormed ideas, created a wiki curriculum page for the activity, and researched appropriate websites for our students to visit.  This week brings us to the next level - creating a sample story (on SlideShare or Prezi)  for our students to view.

And this is where I sat.


For two days.


Neither program was what I was planning on using.  I had been planning on using PowerPoint - simple, accessible, user-friendly - to create the story. But, since we are learning new software and I shouldn't close my mind off to new things, I decided that I should get more practice with SlideShare and Prezi. 

Hmmm....  But, which one?  There are pros and cons for using both, of course.  I started with Prezi.  I uploaded all my pictures and added the text to each one.  I found that it was MUCH easier to create this time around - and I actually like my final product. I also love the graceful, smooth movement between the elements. That being said, I don't like that you can't add audio.  That is a BIG problem for me. I saw you can add a YouTube video - I wonder if I could somehow hide a YouTube video off to the side that only plays audio?  I guess the timing wouldn't be right because the user presses the next button. Or could I have multiple YouTube videos that played with each click?  Sounds like a hassle and much too complicated.


Here is my Sample Story "What Can You Do on a Rainy Day?" on Prezi.  (Note: I changed the topic of my book for the example - I didn't want them to copy what I did.)





The whole lack of audio issue really bugs me.  My activity is for a class of first graders, so I think that audio is extremely important - to reinforce the words on the screen for the readers as well as guide the struggling readers.  So, I most likely would not use Prezi for a first grade story project.

On to SlideShare....  I first created a simple PowerPoint presentation with the text I wrote and the pictures I drew.  I did not use any transitions or animations since they would not work in SlideShare.  Then I uploaded the presentation to the site.  I knew there were directions to upload and sync sound to a SlideShare show somewhere on the site, so I hit the forums and searched.  I found some great step-by-step directions. (I love forums!)  I used Audacity to record the audio as one complete file and then exported it as an mp3 and uploaded that to my account.  Syncing it was a little tricky at first, but once I figured out what exactly I was supposed to do, I had the sound attached to my presentation and to my liking pretty quickly.  I can definitely see myself using this site with PowerPoint, will use it for the digital story as well.

What CanYou Do on a Rainy Day?

View more webinars from mschrisann

So there it is... as Paul Harvey used to say, "The Rest of the Story"... I am looking forward to the final product.

I hope you are, too!

~ Christi S

Monkey Business - Activity Reflection #5

Hey Everyone!

I hope your week is going well.  I am on Spring Break from work, but I am not on Spring Break from school, so I am writing this blog entry from my hotel room in Times Square in NEW YORK CITY!  If anywhere in the world was technology driven, it is Times Square in NYC, that is for sure.  Bright, blinking, glittery lights sparkle from every building, flicker on signs and street lights, and glimmer on billboards and advertisements.  From the room key to the touchscreen computers in the taxis, we are totally surrounded with technology.  Even the American Natural History Museum was a technological wonder.

I am having a ball here with my 14-year-old niece, but we are in overload.  Everywhere we go, people are rushing around, lights are blinking, and we hear honking, sirens, and general traffic noise.  It can be awe-inspiring but also overwhelming.  My senses are on overload.  It makes me wonder if technology helps us or hinders us? Are our lives better with all this going on or will we suffer in the long run?  I don't know the answer to that.  I suspect that in the end, we suffer from the overload.  Well, in any case, we're EXHAUSTED.

It has been so hard to concentrate on my studies this week, and I know a part of that is because of this technology overload.  I don't especially want to sit down at the computer after all the over-stimulation.  I just want to close my eyes and THINK.  Which isn't to say that I don't WANT to do my work this week.  I am just struggling with gathering my thoughts and presenting them in a way that makes sense.....

This week we are reading and discussing curriculum pages.  Our instructor defines curriculum pages as such, "Curriculum pages help keep students safe and where they belong while on the Internet. They also assist teachers in focusing their students' learning. Creating and utilizing curriculum pages provides students with high quality and appropriate Web resources. Curriculum pages also encourage independent thinking and working skills in students, as well as developing higher order thinking and problem solving skills" (Thompson).  Curriculum pages provide students with a condensed web experience, in my opinion - meaning, the instructor brings together the resources that she wants the students to access, and from there, the student can read, view, explore, listen, etc. to the appropriate educational examples without having to do a lot of searching, which can waste time.  The instructor can use the curriculum page as a guide to assist her students in getting the most appropriate information in the most efficient manner.

Last week, we created a wiki that we could use as a collaborative site in our classroom, so that students could contribute to the site as well as gain knowledge from it.  According to dictionary.com, a wiki is "a web site that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content by using a web browser" (dictionary.com).  This concept lends itself very well in an educational setting, since a teacher can guide students to certain websites and present various examples of multimedia all in one place. A student doesn't have to be at school to access the wiki, and the student may add their input to the site as well.  Group projects work well in this forum.  We will be using the wiki as a curriculum page in this class, for this project.

In addition, last week we also began brainstorming story ideas for an individual or group story project for our students.  I came up with a collaborative story, a question-and-answer-type story to do as a class project for first graders. The title of the book is A Mischievous Monkey Escaped from the Zoo! The format of the story is as follows:

Students will add their contribution to the following scenario. "A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?"  Then each student will answer the question of what they think the monkey will do.  The "mischievous monkey" phrase will precede ever student answer.  For instance,

• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 1:  The monkey will hang from the trees and giggle.
• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 2:  The monkey will eat one hundred bananas.
• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 3:  The monkey will roller skate down the street.

I am not currently teaching, but I have twin 6-year-old niece and nephews who are willing, active, and eager participants in whatever project I am currently working on.  I also have a good friend who teaches first grade and she gives me feedback.  However, first graders aren't as technologically savvy as say..... any other higher grade, so my challenge has been how to create this assignment for the appropriate technological level of 6-year-olds.  I mean, my nephew knows how to "accidentally" move all the icons around on the desktop of a computer and my niece knows how to color inside the lines in a digital coloring book, but typing skills?  website navigation skills?  and basic reading skills?

This activity has been a challenge for me - to make one easy enough for first graders to do while still creating the wiki interface as assigned.  I decided that this digital storybook activity would be best suited for students to do with their reading buddies (presumably in 4th grade or above) or a "Special Grownup" (the politically correct term, I have heard, instead of saying "parents" because you never know what your student's home life is like, and of course, you want to include all....).  This project could also be done with the help of parent volunteers - those parents who are always helping/hovering in the classroom and who would be very eager to help out with this sort of thing.  In other words, this is not a project for a first grader to do alone.

Here is the link to my wiki's homepage:  hitechedcheck.wikispaces.com and the link to my Mischievous Monkey Digital Storybook Page.

Looking at my Mischievous Monkey page, there are a few things that I would adjust:  I think I would create separate pages for each of the activities - meaning, I would have one page for the monkey facts and photos, one page for monkey stories, and another page for the drawing tutorials.  I think that it is too long of a page to have all the links together.  I did have some links that were to pages of lists of links and, after reviewing them, I actually linked my site to the best sites directly, rather than linking to more links.  I think that simplified things.  In addition, I would include more graphics on my page - it looks pretty bleak right now.  I might even include some sounds or embedded videos, since these are small children who probably don't get around online very easily.  But, as this is a work in progress, I am satisfied with where my wiki is at the moment, and in the next few days, I can spend the a little time retooling it to where I want it to be.

In the meantime, there's Lion King and Mary Poppins to see, as well as a behind the scenes tour of the show Wicked - all before we fly home on Monday.

Happy Spring Break, INDEED!