It’s been more than a few hours since I took the ISTE self-assessment
so I’m not entirely sure how I rated myself at the beginning of the course. I
do know that I have learned a lot, and I am not doing as well as I thought I
was before I started this course. It’s not that I’m horrible at ISTE*T standard
2, developing digital age learning experiences, but more that with my current
knowledge I am now aware of areas I need to improve.
I believe I am weakest in substandard B, developing
technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue
their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their
own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own
progress. Although I have made growth in this area by providing a few experiences
for self-design and assessment it is not the norm in my classroom. This is
partially because of the lack of technology in my classroom, but I could do
more with the devices I do have. For instance, if I let the kids stay at the
iPad center for a week at a time, instead of rotating them daily, they would
have a more realistic chance at completing a project. I could give them a
guiding question, some project guidelines, maybe some key vocabulary I would
like to see included, and if I really had it together I would provide a project
rubric.
I am stronger in standards C (Customize and personalize
learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working
strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.) and D (Provide
students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned
with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform
learning and teaching.). I am good at seeing that a student cannot be
successful at the learning activity using the tools I have provided, or
anticipating the need ahead of time. Some students need more scaffolding,
modifications, or accommodations to reach the desired learning goal. Likewise,
I effectively use formative data to inform my ongoing teaching of the content
and students of their current progress. And, I use summative data to give
students a picture of their learning and to plan future projects and units.
For my Symbaloo webmix, I choose to provide sources for my
students to learn about Polar
Regions. We will be covering this in our writing time with three read-alouds on the subject over the next few weeks as we embark on our expository
writing journey. I thought that adding the digital sources along with a few
lessons on using reliable sources, giving credit to those sources and creating
a digital presentation would be a great way to incorporate 21st century skills into something
we are already doing. My students will gain access to the webmix by using the following
QR code.
I have also located two videos I will use in the project. The
first one I will use is a great example of a second grade student made
iMovie trailer. I will play it when I am introducing the lesson. It seems
to have similar parameters to those I will give the students, and the creator
of the video presented her information in a very interesting way. I chose to
use the student created video instead of creating one myself for two reasons.
First, it will encourage my students that they will be able to be successful.
Second, it saved me time. The only disadvantage to using this video is that
after watching it the students may want to create more of a narrative than
informational project. The second video that I will use in the project is a “how to” video for making
trailers using iMovie. Although, I will teach the students how to make a
trailer, I will not spend very much time on it. Also, I may teach it to a small
group of students and then have them be the “experts”. Having the “how to”
video available will help answer questions when I am not available. Students
will access the video using the following QR code.