Final Presentation

Click below to view my final presentation. Thanks!

 VoiceThread Presentation

My Growth Plan

Here is a link to the growth plan website that I designed.  Thanks!

 Growth Plan Website

WAP 8 Classroom Management

     I have always been someone who strives for complete organization and maximum productivity. Everything in my house has a home and I know where nearly every item is. I don't expect my classroom to be much different. One thing I do struggle with is time management. I have no concept of time and regularly lose track of it. I have alarms set on my phone for everything, including this class. I know that this will continue to be a problem in my classroom. I will get involved in projects and forget about time management.  It is important to manage time because teachers feel like they never have enough time in a school year. A few minutes wasted here and there add up to a substantial amount of wasted teaching time. 

    While searching for applications that could help me better manage this, I found something that could not only benefit me, but my students as well. The website is called online-stopwatch.com and although the idea is simple I feel like this would greatly benefit myself and my students and may become the most used site in my classroom. I like that this website provides a lot of flexibility, I can count up or down and can choose from a large variety of options to provide students with a visual aid of how much time has passed. 

    I feel that young students become very dependent on adults to tell them where to go and when to do so.  Fostering independence in children is something I feel very strongly about. It is one of my main focuses in my current job and it will continue to be a focus in my classroom as well. By providing students with this visual aid, it will help students begin to manage their own time.  Students will monitor their own conversations and tasks. I would encourage students to use timers on their iPads to manage their own time on their devices as well. I would do this by modeling for students how I use my timer and then talk with them about why I use the timer and the benefits of using a timer. I would have students come up with reasons why using a timer can be beneficial and when using a timer may be a good idea to foster ownership. 

    I would use this application in the classroom when having students work in groups at centers. While students are at their centers during my natural resources lesson, I would have this timer displayed on the board so students could manage their time on each task. It will help students plan and prioritize such as deciding if they need to work quickly, move on from a disagreement, or need to ask for help because they are stuck and time is passing. Students will also be able to tell if they have additional time and can dig deeper into the topic. This helps students build time management skills along with self monitoring.

    One problem I can foresee is the visuals may be distracting for some students who have difficulty focusing or being on task. For this reason, I would use the timer that looks like a clock or a timer with numbers to prevent this from happening.  This application offers additional resources such as a group generator, dice, random number generator, and a random name generator. I feel like all of these tools are simple but helpful in managing my time in the classroom. These applications can save time and provide fun and visual ways for students to begin to find their independence. 

    

WAP 7 Assistive Technology

         Having never been in a classroom before, I struggled with this practical. I know that in my future classroom, I will work with students who have different needs and assistive technology can help my students get the most out of their time in school.  I decided to use this practical to explore options for students with autism or communication disorders. 

    Looking through programs that I could utilize in my classroom, I came across an application called AutisMate. This program allows the user to make custom interactive scenes using pictures of people or places that the student interacts with on a day to day basis. When students click on various items in the scene, it gives students the tools to communicate verbally or to use the application to communicate for them. This application is also capable of creating a schedule with visual aids to help students complete daily routines, responsibilities, or activities. 

    This application is useful for students who are  verbal and non-verbal.  For students who struggle socially to communicate, this can provide them with social cues or questions to ask in social situations. This can help students who struggle to interact with their peers to begin to connect with other students in the classroom. One good thing about this application is that files can be created within files to help students continue a conversation. So once students ask a question, they can click on the folder to help students further the conversation with more questions or statements.  Students can even record their own voice asking the questions if they are verbal.  

    One way I can see this application being useful is on the playground. If I had a student with autism who was verbal but struggled in social situations playing and interacting with their peers on the playground, I would use AutisMate to help them talk to their peers about items on the playground. I would program the different playground items such as the slide, swing, etc. so that students could ask their peers to participate in those activities with them and describe how they feel about the activities (ex. that was fun, that was scary, let's do it again, etc.).  I would observe my student in the playground and take notes on any additional interactions I need to add to the image to improve my student's ability to communicate with their peers. I would check in with my student weekly to see how the student likes the application and address any issues or make any changes the student would like. 

    In order to successfully role out this application,  I would introduce this application in the beginning of the school year. I would first create a high interest board for my student on something they are interested in.  For example, Minecraft. This would allow my student to become active and engaged in the application while still learning how to navigate through the menus. In a few weeks, once my student understands the application, I would then create scenes of the classroom and playground. I would navigate through the menus with my student and stay with my student while they learn to use the application during the first week.  The next week, I would have my student then practice using the application with a peer who works well with others and likes to be a helper. Having positive interactions while using this application will make the student want to use the application in the future. I would take notes while this interaction is occurring to see what works and what doesn't work so that I can make adjustments as needed. 

    One downfall is that it requires a lot of time to program the application. It also requires the person programing the application to predict the social situations and interactions that this application would be useful for. There may be points in the day where students cannot communicate using this application in a way that they need to because they are limited by what is programed within the scene. Not being able to communicate in the way they need to may make students frustrated. 

   This application is very versatile and can be useful in games, academics, morning meetings, questions and can even provide students reminders of appropriate verbal interactions. I can see this being useful in many aspects of the classroom for many students. 

WAP 6 Assessments

    Assessment is a big part of the classroom. Teachers are constantly assessing students to ensure that students understand the material and to adjust lessons as needed.  At the end of every lesson, it is important to know what students understand and what needs to be revisited in a future lesson.  Throughout each lesson it is important to take a quick assessment of students' understanding to check for any misunderstandings that need to be addressed and reteach information as needed. This information is important to help us as teachers make adjustments to our teaching throughout the lesson. For summative assessments, I prefer projects and presentations but I can see how I would utilize many of the applications available today in my classroom as formative assessments.

    For second graders I feel that using Kahoot for formative assessments would be a fun and interesting task for students. Using a Kahoot after explaining a new concept can quickly inform me what students understand, what needs further explaining, and any misconceptions students  have. While there are many ways that I could accomplish this,  I feel that the fun visuals and sounds make the assessment more interesting for students in a way that Google Forms are not.  I can add images to each question to provide interest and visual cues for those who need help reading the questions.  There are timer and scoring options available if students are motivated by competition.  On the other hand, I feel like this could discourage ELLs and students who have difficulty reading because they are at a disadvantage compared to native English speakers. It takes them longer to read, longer to respond, and would have lower scores. Kahoot gives you the option to turn these features off leaving the quiz un-scored and untimed. 

    Prior to using Kahoot to assess students, I would ensure that students are comfortable with Kahoot.  During the beginning of the school year I would first model how to use a Kahoot, we would then take a Kahoot as a class where students answer  questions about their peers. I feel that this would be engaging and make students interested in using Kahoot in the future. Students would then play through Kahoot quizzes in groups  for a week so they could help each other navigate the application. I would then assess students' understanding of Kahoot by having them complete one on their own after a week. The Kahoot used would use simple questions such as name the student where a photo of each student  is used and students have to click on the correct name.  I would use the data to see if I can then start incorporating Kahoot into my assessments. 

    One way I would use a Kahoot would be during a lesson on renewable vs. nonrenewable resources. I would first use Google Slides to present information on students on renewable and nonrenewable resources. Students would then go to different centers such as: sorting the natural resources they had collected on a nature walk the previous day, a card sort, vocabulary match, and a book with audio to read on the topic. Students would  then reconvene and complete a Kahoot. Once students complete the Kahoot, I can quickly look at the results and see if there were specific questions students struggled with or if they need more information on renewable and non-renewable resources. 

    Using a paper exit ticket, I would have to correct these by hand and find a way to organize all the data on my own, whereas Kahoot grades and collects data for me in an instant. Being able to instantly view this data and assess any misinformation means that I can immediately address any misconceptions prior to it being moved to their long term memory. I can also  quickly change the lesson in a way that most benefits everyone in the classroom. The ability to customize images, timers, scoring, and quizzes means that I can make it meaningful for all students in the classroom. 

WAP 5 Global Communicator

    

After the class on students being a global communicator,  I realized how easy it is to spend our lives oblivious of how our choices impact others and how dependent we all are on each other. My biggest takeaway from this lecture was creating awareness. In second grade, children can be introduced to different perspectives and begin to understand that there are different cultures and ways people live.    

    While reading through this chapter, I realized how lucky we are in this day and age to be able to  communicate with others all over the word.  There are websites designed to help students from different countries to connect, there are numerous applications designed for people to call, chat, and video with people from anywhere that has an internet connection.  In this time, it is so easy for us to reach out and talk with people from anywhere. As someone with friends in other countries, I have realized that one way to learn about a different country is to talk to the people who live there. Reading articles and doing research provides valuable insight but talking with people who live there provides an interesting snapshot that an article cannot recreate and perspective that research may not deliver. 

    This idea would tie in well to the unit I discussed in my previous blog post.  After learning the difference between primary and secondary sources, my students would have to utilize their knowledge on sources. They could do this utilizing this social studies standard;  2.T.4.3: Locate and analyze information and present a short research report on the physical features, resources, and people of a country outside the United States. 

    I know early childhood  educators in England and Denmark that I could collaborate with.  Students would be divided into 4 groups of 5-6 students.  2 groups would focus on England while the other 2 would focus on Denmark. Each student would focus on one topic (natural features, resources, people, animals, etc.) and the groups would be responsible for coming up with topical questions for their country. I would provide a list of these questions to the students in Denmark or England prior to the interview. This would allow them time to construct their answers and be prepared for the interview. When the interview happens, students would each have a job as they talk with students in another country as the interviewer, note taker, recorder, or photographer. Students could then use Skype to communicate. I enjoy Skype because it is a video and messaging application all in one. This means that students can message each other when they are offline and respond at a later time. I feel this would make managing the time difference easier, it would allow students to communicate more frequently, and would make asking simple follow up questions easier. Despite having access to the messaging feature through Skype,  I can see students needing to speak with the other class more than once. They may come up with more questions or need more information for their presentation than can be conveyed by a second grader over messenger so I would arrange for  multiple meetings ahead of time.  I would have one group interview at a time so that I could monitor the conversations.  Students would use the information they collect as their primary source. 

    For a secondary source, students would use a custom google search I create to find resources to answer their questions using sites like NatGeo, Google Lit Quiz, Stack the Countries, etc. While I would begin to talk to students about reliable resources, I feel like at this age it is important that students have safe resources.  Students would then work together as a group to create a presentation to share with the class. Students could use VoiceThread to create their presentation. Some students will feel comfortable writing, others typing, and others speaking and VoiceThread gives all students  the opportunity to present information in a way they are comfortable with.  We would then watch all of the presentations as a class and students could ask each group questions after their portion of the presentation. 

    Each student would be graded on their potion of the  presentation. They would be responsible for answering a certain number of questions and need to use one primary and one secondary source in their answers. Their secondary source has to be referenced.  The rubric would also require presentations to be well put together and their portion of the presentation should be well written or spoken. 

    Obviously this project would take more than one lesson to complete. Students would first research their country, students would then come up with questions to ask their international peers, students would then arrange their answers into presentations, work on their presentation, and finally present. I feel that this is an engaging assignment  and would help get students interested in other parts of the world. In future lessons, we would explore places students have a personal connection to and cultures that vary greatly from our own. This will help students to build a foundation and hopefully lead them to be more understanding about different cultures and interested in meeting and learning about people outside of the US. 

WAP 4 Research

    

    With a bachelor's degree in Psychology and years spent writing endless papers with a strong focus on references, it is easy to forget that research was a skill that was drilled into me over the course of four years. Without this knowledge, I would not have been able to properly educate myself on a variety of topics. Having the background knowledge to be able to read scientific studies came in handy this past year with all of the misinformation being spread about COVID 19. At the second grade level, my students will not be looking through scholarly journals for  statistically significant experiments with large sample sizes to support their claims. However, I can begin to set my students up for success and begin to understand how to navigate the web, which questions to use, and how to find good sources. 

        In the common core standards, students in second grade are already being asked to gather information to answer questions and do their own research for projects. My first instinct would have been to give them a list of sites to visit or create a custom Google search engine to ensure that students end up with a reliable answer. However, after reading November's work and discussing research in depth, I realized the importance of students discovering how to find their own resources. 

    In my unit, I would focus on the history and social studies framework 2.T.4.3: Locate and analyze information and present a short research report on the physical features, resources, and people of a country outside the United States.                                                                              

     Clarification Statement: Students should choose a country of interest, for example, 

    • a country where they, their families, or their ancestors lived

    • a country where they have friends or relatives

    • a country that they have visited or would like to visit

    • a country that is the setting for one of their favorite stories

    • a country that has an interesting animal population, environment, or terrain

   To complete this assignment, I would have my students use a primary source and a secondary source to share about their country of choice. In order for this unit to begin to be possible, students would have to learn how to differentiate between a primary source and secondary source, which is where my lesson begins. I would first teach students the differences between primary and secondary sources using a Google Slides presentations. Students would then visit different stations in groups with activities including: viewing examples of primary and secondary sources (ex. letters, textbooks, a documentary, pictures),  a card sort of primary and secondary sources, a comparison of a primary and secondary source on the same event (ex. my experience at a new ice cream shop vs. a newspaper article on the new local ice cream shop),  and a VoiceThread on primary and secondary sources that each group would add information to. At the end of class, I would then use a Kahoot to collect a formative assessment on my students to check for understanding on this topic. Students love using Kahoot, they are fast for students to take and students get immediate results. I would remove the ranking and time limits so that students are not pressured by them and the timer leaves ELL's and students who struggle with reading at a disadvantage. 

    While the final assignment, which includes students doing their own research, may be months away from this lesson, I feel that this lesson is an important foundational block in setting students up to become successful researchers in the future.