WAP 3 Scribing

    Expanding beyond what Alan November discussed in the use of scribing, today I will be exploring the use of SeeSaw in the early childhood classroom. The methods discussed in this chapter are not really applicable at the earliest levels but scribing can still take place in a different form.  Students love seeing their own work and the work of their peers.  I love SeeSaw because it gives young students the chance to respond in a way that is comfortable for them using video, audio, text, drawing applications, photos, and links.

          SeeSaw is easy to use, even for the youngest of students. I was shocked when within weeks, the kindergartener I nannied during online learning could navigate the application without my assistance. Providing young students with a video or voice option to respond means they can provide far more elaborate responses than would be possible for them to write at that age.  Students can draw photos and then use the microphone to explain what they are conveying as well.  Students can comment on each other's posts and leave feedback for their peers and teacher. The teacher remains in control of the conversations  to ensure that everything being posted is appropriate for the classroom. 

    For my second grade classroom, I could see myself using this idea during a reading comprehension class. I would divide my students up into groups and have them all read the same story or fable. I would then have each group focus on a specific part of the story map such as the characters, setting, theme,  problem, solution, etc. While students are working on this, I would be walking around, answering questions and guiding students to make sure their answers are on track. Students would then record a video  for their group explaining their portion of the story map to share with the class. Students could then view their own videos and the videos of their peers, The videos would remain on the application for students to revisit as often as needed  in case they have questions or need clarification in a certain area of the story. Students could post any questions they have for the group or comments as well. 

    Prior to utilizing SeeSaw in collaborative ways, I would have to work with my class on how to have conversations, give feedback, and disagree. I would use sentence structures in my class to help students communicate with each other while being kind and courteous of others. Since I have to approve the comments on SeeSaw, I would be able to spot any problems and work with students one on one or in small groups if they need additional guidance on conversing with their peers. Because this project would require so much collaboration, I would not introduce it at the beginning of the year, but rather work up to it with smaller activities and discussions on SeeSaw. 

    I feel like at the early childhood level, this is one of the easiest and most user friendly applications for the students and provides autonomy to respond in the way that best suits them.  It allows children at the early childhood level to continue to be creative in their responses and creates a happy, safe, and comfortable environment for all students involved. 

WAP 2 Tutorial

   The idea of incorporating tutorials in the classroom has appealed to me from the time I started doing online learning with the children I nanny. The children came up with deep, detailed responses when recording a video or their voice in their assignments. When they typed or wrote out responses, there were few to no details and they did not properly convey their level of understanding. Once I realized this, I knew I wanted to incorporate this information into my personal classroom one day.  I feel that incorporating tutorial applications in the early childhood classroom can be done with VoiceThread. 

    I was introduced to VoiceThread this winter in one of my previous courses. At first I did not enjoy it,  but soon appreciated the ability to prerecord  presentations and avoid all of the stress and anxiety that comes with presenting live. I hadn't thought of my students utilizing it in my classroom until this question was presented in class.  I first searched for tutorial apps for early childhood students but knew I already had the idea of focusing on VoiceThread. I then switched my search to VoiceThread in early childhood education and stumbled on the blog of a kindergarten teacher who had successfully incorporated this into her classroom. I hope to teach second graders, so with the understanding that she could successfully utilize this program in her own kindergarten classroom, it gave me the confidence to know that I could utilize VoiceThread with second graders. 

    Students could collaborate with each other to create a story in as early as kindergarten. While it may not include as much collaboration, students could use the feature to record voice comments and discuss work with their peers. In second grade, I feel students could comfortably take photos and record over them, or record videos of each other. Students could work together to create presentations to share with the class or tutorials to be kept for students to access as needed. 

    Some students need more time to think, are shy or uncomfortable speaking in front of all of their peers, or may be ELL students who struggle to convey their thoughts as quickly as native speakers. In one of my previous classes, my parter had an accent and wished to use a VoiceThread for our presentation because she could rerecord herself and listen to her own responses to make sure they were easy to understand. She spoke slower and more clearly using VoiceThread and could rerecord herself as many times as necessary. I think this application could be a huge benefit for ELL students and could help them become comfortable sharing information with the class in their own way. 

    I would first show my students an example of a tutorial either I created or an example from a previous second grade class using VoiceThread. I would then give students access to the VoiceThread to view and explore on their own tablets.  Students would then be encouraged to discuss the application and add comments. Students will be working in collaborative groups and will share what they find about the application with their peers. I would walk around guiding questions and discussions to help  students further explore the features of the application. We would then work as a whole class to create a tutorial. It may be something as simple as a story or a collection of their poems. I would walk students through how to use the different features of VoiceThread as we collaborate.  I would purposely make common mistakes and model how to work through these issues. Students would then work in groups to create a VoiceThread tutorial to share with the class. I would divide students into  4 groups. Each group would create a presentation on resources (natural resources, renewable resources, non-renewable resources, and human resources)  to share with the class. Students would take turns recording each other, adding notes, and inserting photos.  I would walk around answering questions, extending learning, and address issues that students cannot troubleshoot on their own as each group works independently. Students would share their presentations with the class and their peers could then comment on other presentations and ask questions to continue extending the learning. 

    What  I enjoy about VoiceThread is that all VoiceThreads are accessible and stay accessible to your peers. I still have access to VoiceThreads from previous classes and could view tutorials on reading games at any time. Students could then access their own VoiceThreads along with those of their peers and even those of previous classes. 

WAP 1 Life Admin Tech

 I use my phone to manage many parts of my life. I use an alarm clock to keep track of my daily work routine. When COVID closed all of the gyms last year, I downloaded the Nike Training App to find new workouts and keep me active and motivated. When I started to fall into less healthy eating habits, I downloaded My Fitness Pal to help get me back on track. I thought now would be the time to try a new app for a problem I have struggled with for most of my adult life.  I have a hard time waking up and motivating myself in the morning on my days off. My current work schedule is 11 hour days, 4 days a week, so I am gone 13 hours on workdays including my commute. Work days leave little time for much else beyond dinner, walking the dog, working out, showering, and bed. Working full time, taking graduate courses, and trying to maintain a house and life means I need to  be productive on my days off. I decided to download an application on my phone to help manage my daily tasks. 

I downloaded Habitica, which is  a game to help with daily activities, to do lists, and habits. I get rewards for completing any of these tasks and am rewarded based on the difficulty of the task. It is broken down into multiple categories and tasks can be repeated daily, weekly, or monthly. The more days in a row you complete the tasks, the more you are rewarded. The Nike Training App congratulates me based on how many workouts completed, the type of workout, etc. and  I enjoy that.  I stopped using My Fitness Pal because it only offered negative reinforcement about what I was eating, no matter how hard I tried to be healthy.  I feel as if Habitica's positive reinforcement of coins and prizes, which I can then spend on various items for my avatar, would encourage me to continue to use the app. I am trying to make positive changes and want to feel good about myself and the choices I am making, not be admonished for being less than perfect. 

I like that this app offers a lot of freedom in deciding frequency and difficulty of tasks. Everyone is different and tasks vary in difficulty from person to person. It is simple and made for one purpose, to form better daily habits with the freedom to prioritize what I see as important. Things that are all encompassing such as Google Keep can be overwhelming with little to no positive reinforcement. Notes apps offer little to no organization or accountability and can easily be forgotten or overlooked.  I feel as if on my days off, this could really help keep me organized and  more productive. Typically at this point in my day off, I would be working on my readings. Instead, I have already crossed several items off of my to do list and am  finishing up my second blog thanks to Habitica. I hope that Habitica can offer the level of organization and reinforcement I need to be more productive with my limited free time in the future.  

My Future Classroom

My Future Classroom

Welcome! In this ideal scenario, I would have 22 students in my second grade classroom.  It will be a warm and welcoming classroom set up to encourage collaboration. Students can work in the small group areas scattered throughout the classroom while utilizing tablets, books, and audio.  The classroom is set up so that students can easily walk between different areas or centers during lessons in order to seek input or ask questions of their peers in other groups. There are no obstacles between areas ensuring that students can safely move between spaces.   There are benches and beanbags in the carpeted area for  students to sit comfortably and areas throughout the classroom where students can work in groups of various sizes. There are 2 whiteboards and a smart board in the bottom right hand corner of the classroom that all students will be able to see when we are working together. Materials such as journals, graphic organizers, and additional scaffolding for students will be placed on the red table daily. While many teachers take a very colorful approach to their early childhood classroom, I will have areas with a more subdued color pallet as I feel too many colors and items can be overstimulating and inhibit learning.  There will be plants throughout the classroom to help create a peaceful and calm environment in the classroom. My school would be located in a middle class area with some diversity in the classroom. The majority of my students will be native English speakers.