Clark_Reflection CEP 800

CLICK HERE for Clark_Reflection

CEP 800 Audio Podcast

Click here to listen to my interview with two students from my Web Technology class, answering "How Email Works".

CEP 811 Final Reflection

     This class has been very informative and I am taking away things that I want to implement into my classroom now. I have learned that when it comes to teaching effectively, you must think about alot of factors that come into play. Not only with your students, but with the resources that are available to you. You must be able to reach every student in your class and be able to provide some sort of modifications for those who need it. It is always a good rule of thumb to have a back up plan when technology happens to fail. Even though technology is growing and more and more teachers are integrating it into their lesson, technology can be unpredictable. My advice is to plan as if technology will not work and you will be covered for the day and not have to scramble to produce an unmeaningful assignment.

     I try with every lesson to see how I can integrate technology into the lesson, especially when every student on our high school campus has one. I try to think of ways to stay connected to my students away from school hours that will help maximize their learning potential.  For example, having set hours that I will be available online to connect over question they may be having over an assignment. With technology, I try to use it as a tool to help promote self discipline with students and put a little responsibility on the student. With technology, I now can come into class and not say a word about the assignment because I have produce all the information they will need through presentation and now tutorials that I have been introduced to.

     I have met by goal about technology integration by learning something new in each session. I am especially excited about creating tutorials for my classes to go through. Being able to create tutorials will allow me to teach my co-workers how to implement them into their curriculum, thus giving me more knowledge to become a major role in our districts technology improvement team.

     My goal for my next course is to learn a new technological integration technique that I will be able to use immediately and to find a better to improve on what I am already doing in class. That way I will be able to adapt to all the new changes that are rising to the surface and into the hands of our students. My long term goal is to continue to learn from professors and classmates because we all have something valuable that we can share with one another.

Sharing Online Teaching Experiences

     Our Middle School principal has been pushing for 8th grader to develop an ePortfolio that they will be able to update throughout the rest of their high school education.
The class that integrated this online experience with is Career Explorations. I have about 60 students that will have started a electronic portfolio that they can carry with them anywhere they go.
     Strategies that I use with my students are taken step by step. We are currently creating pages for every major subject that they are enrolled in as of now. We are taking class work that they have completed and uploaded to their portfolio to broadcast their work from various classes. I am encouraging students to be creative and separate themselves from other students who have portfolios. I have taught students the importance to what should be added and what should not be added. Along with what images are appropriate and which ones should be displayed for the world to see.
     We are finding it difficult to add PowerPoint slides that they have created for others classes. We recently ran upon a stumbling block when every student lost work that they saved on their school issued z drives. All of the work that they had saved previously was gone over night. As a class, we were able to go to their teachers and find copies of work that has been turned in and graded. As a district, we hope to see how students develop and how detailed and crisp their work become over the course of their high school years , and what updates the students will add.

Wiki's Lab

Here is the link to my wikispace:  http://clarkmsugrad.wikispaces.com/


Below is a before shot of the wikipedia article I added content to:

Here is the screenshot to the wikipedia and the content added. I added our recent academic ratings from the 2009-2010 school year.

Added content to the school section of the wikipedia: "Tatum ISD is TEA Academically Recognized District for the fourth year in row and has two Exemplary rated campuses and two Recognized rated campuses. Tatum Primary is Exemplary for the fifth straight year, Tatum Elementary has earned a fifth consecutive Recognized rating, Tatum Middle is Recognized for the third consecutive year and Tatum High is Exemplary."

UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist

What is UDL actually?

According to the UDL Center, Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

Below is the link to the Interactive Web Features lesson plan that I created and uploaded to MERLOT.



UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist

Personal Learning Reflection

        As technology continues to grow, educators must grow with it. If I fail to integrate technology into my teaching, then I am not giving my students what they need to be successful. I learned that just because you have a great lesson planned, you need to find a way to make it relevant to today's technology world. How can I turn that great lesson into a superb lesson? The answer is with technology. Integrating technology gets students to “buy in” with what you are teaching. Students are excited to learn away from the traditional style, a book and listening to me lecture. Getting away from lectures and worksheets, will allow the student to be more creative in their work. Technology allows me the opportunity to reach students that I may miss through lecture. Technology allows me to create presentations that students will be able to follow at their own pace. A student may not be able to understand my teaching, without seeing a visual representation. I can provide instructional videos in a variety of ways, such as creating movies or providing real life simulation on the computer. Without incorporating technology into my lesson plans, none of that would be possible.

        Over the course of the class, the blog assignment really exemplified teaching with technology. A blog opens some many windows to learning and creating with technology. Blogging allow students to connect to others and contribute their ideas with one another. Blogs become another teaching method that I can use for my classes. Students are asked to find instructional videos from YouTube or TeacherTube, that reflects what we are learning in class and post to their blogs Students are asked to make comments about the video that was posted, which gives them reinforcement. The blog assignment also will help students become organized by adding different widgets, such as calendars, and adding resources that are beneficial to their education.

       

        In my personal growth plan, I wanted to make a difference in how we use the technology that is available. In this course, I was exposed to many different tools that I used immediately in my classes. Tools such as blogs and creating a personal learning network for my students. One of my technology goals is to design a program for our CTE department that “makes sense”. I have been discussing ways to improve our department with our curriculum director. I have been asked to provide documentation and resources about creating a better CTE design. We have had meetings to discuss how we can improve our department that will be beneficial to the education of the students.

        Working through this course has given me new goals that I need to accomplish. I need to be able to work in small groups. The SIG assignment brought that weakness to my attention. My goal is to initiate group contact and be more of a presence. I will have the opportunity to achieve this goal in the next course. A second goal that I want to accomplish will be put what I have learned to use. I want to give teachers at my school the tools that I have gained through this course. My goal is to inform and educate teachers in staff meetings about how they can integrate technology into their classrooms. I plan to continue learning all I can about emerging technologies, with the help of my professors and members of the MAET community.