As I move forward with my teaching, I know realize the importance inquiry learning and technology as a partner. It is important to me that I continue this learning process with my peers as well. I know that I work better as a collaborative group, and it would be beneficial if we discuss openly the teaching strategies we use. It is important that we meet the needs of all learners, as educators we can do this by using best teaching practices such as PrBL, and TPACK effectively. The ability to research, review, practice and align my teaching to those of my students needs is a practice I plan on continuing.
The above is what I said my overall take-away was from the program, I firmly believe it to be true. I have always enjoyed the ability to collaborate with my peers, but I feel that it can become much more focused now- we can discuss tech as a facilitator, and teacher, not just a filler to lessons. I do not think any teacher goes onto teaching and thinks about leaving students behind. But unfortunately, it happens. Whether it's prior knowledge loss, curriculum, learning disabilities, or standards. Students can and do fall behind. With careful, planning, collaboration, and good teaching practices, we can do all that we can to ensure that no child fails in our classrooms. I get it, I do, I teach middle school- sometimes kids just want to do nothing. But even though their grades may reflect a fail, they are still learning. It's hard to watch, it's hard to swallow, but deep down they are still retaining information. Moving forward, I am excited to share with colleagues the knowledge I have learned. I cannot wait to implement new strategies in the classroom!
3 Comments
I began my teaching career long ago, when technology was a burgeoning thing. Email was the slick, shiny new toy to be rolled out by the district. I can clearly remember teachers across campus squealing with joy, that they could now collaborate in seconds rather than waiting for potentially hours. A lot has changed since then, as have I. Technology and the way we, as educators, approach teaching has changed since I began 16 years ago.
I began the journey in education as a third- grade teacher. It became apparent that I needed, thrived on older students and their “snark”. I needed to be with students who groan and laugh politely at my jokes. I moved to fifth grade the next year. It was so nice that I taught elementary for a total of 14 years, before I made the move to middle school. While I loved having the same students for the entire day, all of the wonder and inquiry we accomplished day in and day out, it became apparent that I needed to move on. Middle school is a special place. I can say that we do more than teach curriculum and content to this unique age group- we teach them how to interact in part of a larger community. Our jobs, of course, is to teach the standards, but it goes deeper than that. I have the opportunity to help these students on their path to becoming young adults, in person and with technology. This generation of students have the unique advantage to hone their skills through a variety of mediums. Which brings me to my journey through Touro. I do not consider myself tech-savvy and was a little hesitant that I would not be able to keep up with my peers in this cohort. More importantly, my lack of skills were keeping me from being the best teacher I can be. Through the generosity of Napa Learns, I have had the ability to learn new technology and practices that I could never have dreamed of! I am excited to implement these new tools in the classroom to deepen the learning of my students and their 21st century skills, as well as helping all students achieve their learning goals. The Journey Thus Far: In the beginning of my journey I was concerned about my level of knowledge. Would I be able to keep up with peers in the increasing demands of technology? While I do consider myself somewhat knowledgeable with a computer, I am very much a dinosaur in my abilities. So, it was with great trepidation that I began this program. I was comforted to learn that we would be taking the process of discovery slowly and that I could ask many, many questions along the way. I felt that it was important for me to learn the teacher side of various programs before I tried introducing them to my students. I knew that great tools existed to aid students with their learning, I just needed to familiarize myself with them. The research helped me gain perspective on my role as a teacher, and as a learner myself. In the middle of the program, I began to see the growth in my teaching. It was through careful discovery, implementation of both pedagogical and technical resources that I learned of TPACK. In the past, this might have been what Vygotsky called the "Zone of proximal development". Or that magical place where it all comes together for a student. But, what Vygotsky and his peers could not have predicted was the technological piece of learning. With TPACK, you are able to combine the best practices of content, pedagogy, and technology to enhance student learning. The middle part of the program was eye-opening for me, in that I saw technology as a partner in my teaching. Now that I am in the final part of my journey with Touro, I see that my work is not done. I need to take what I have learned these past semesters and help other educators with their journey. Through the guided learning, discovery, and implementation, I no longer see myself as the dinosaur in the classroom. I am able to see how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together to make a better teacher. I will forever be grateful to Touro and Napa Learns, for helping me along this path of discovery Moving Forward: As I move forward with my teaching, I know realize the importance inquiry learning and technology as a partner. It is important to me that I continue this learning process with my peers as well. I know that I work better as a collaborative group, and it would be beneficial if we discuss openly the teaching strategies we use. It is important that we meet the needs of all learners, as educators we can do this by using best teaching practices such as PrBL, and TPACK effectively. The ability to research, review, practice and align my teaching to those of my students needs is a practice I plan on continuing. TPACK Reflection TPACK, or Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge is the ability to blend all aspects into one, to not only inform teaching, but greatly enhance instruction. The intent is is for seamless integration of all components for the most effective learning. It is for me, the perfect blend of what I know to be good teaching practices, the content I am teaching, and the partnership that be used from technology. When I plan instruction, I no longer using technology as a filler, but more importantly, I am using it to help teach students the content or standards they need to learn. There is not one component that can be left left, all three must be in place for the most meaningful learning. I really do believe that my capstone target audience will be middle school math teachers. Not that it cannot be used by others, it's just that my DQ is targeted to a specific group. I did learn from looking at the other capstones, that less is more, sort of. What I mean is, no one has time to read extensively when they are researching ideas, they want a quick paragraph or two, some visuals and some links for further review.
That's where the Learn More pages come in: this should be where visitors can click on lesson plans, TED talks, Youtube videos, etc. that will, hopefully, give the information they are looking for. Let's be honest, my research was boring, I mean total snooze-fest boring. Of course, my data is important, and I will definitely include my graphs. But, I can guarantee that I can link better, snazzier, videos and clips that will enlighten the reader. This is after all, a compilation of not only what I have done, but what others have pioneered before me. So what does all of that mean for my capstone? I hope that I can be concise, but thorough. Visual, but not too much. I would like to find a happy medium between the first and the third capstones I reviewed. I know that my cohort and instructors will help guide me in my quest to complete the perfect capstone. Critique of Saelee:
First of all, this is an amazing, well crafted website. She has clearly taken the time to lay out her website in a manner that would be most helpful to teachers. While it might be accessible to students, it is clear from her video especially, that this site is meant for teachers. Each page is the same, a format in which math teachers, to be precise, can access for help in meeting their teaching goals. It did seem, however, that there was a lot of reading- perhaps more visuals would have helped? Overall, I find this website very helpful in creating my own. Critique of Ellison: Once again, this is a beautiful website, with well- thought out details. I appreciate the way she has laid out her journey through not only teaching, but Touro. Perhaps, I missed who the target audience is? Is it teachers? Computer lab teachers? What was confusing to me was that I felt like I did not need to go further on her website as all the important details were on the home page. It was also confusing in that her Learn More page read like an inspiration. My overall impression is that this website would be useful for specific technology instruction, rather than a framework of tools. Critique of Avrukin: Sometimes, flashy is just that, all glamour and glitter with no substance. That cannot be said of this website. On first glance, it appears pretty bare bones- no razzle-dazzle to pull in the reader. But, don't let that confuse you, there is substance in the text. I appreciate that her thoughts are concise, and that the reader does not need to search endlessly for what they need. However, the learn more and standards page were the same, a missed opportunity by the author. I think, that the target audience on all pages was teachers. Overall, I might miss this page if I were searching for resources, as it does not necessarily stand out. Overall, I find it incredible helpful to look through my peers work for guidance. About the Author
Initially my driving question was The Impact of PrBL in a Middle School Mathematics Classroom. But I think over time my DQ has morphed into something shorter, more concise: Does the data support PrBL in a Middle School Math class? While my data was inconclusive, the current literature overwhelmingly supports PrBL as a learning tool to meet the needs of 21st C learners. Which means that my focus group has changed. While I will always focus on the learning of my students first, truly my research paper and my website will be geared for educators. Why? Because students are not concerned about what is considered best practice , or new engagement strategies. Students care about what they are learning and what their end product is supposed to be. In terms of my cohort, this is an incredibly supportive group of educators. I look forward to the weekly constructive criticism I receive, so that I can better my understanding of the work we are doing. I hope, that I am able to give the same feedback to my team. I think that we are open with each other and give honest feedback when it is needed. I look forward to the help I know I will get on my capstone/website. |