This month introduced me to the idea of TPACK. It was discussed a bit during the unconferences I went to, but not really explained. Now that I understand what TPACK is, I can see it becoming a bigger part of my education career. I am beginning to understand how to put all three concepts (content knowledge, pedagogy, and technical knowledge) together to create lessons that incorporate all three and teach students in the process. In my fieldwork I am able to see how the use of no technology may actually hinder students learning better. I have so many ideas of what I want to do with my fieldwork students, but don't have the technology at my fingertips to use to make those ideas come to life. I am realizing that simply a laptop and projector isn't as fun as a smartboard would be for them. I also see that Prezi captivates them more than a standard powerpoint. I like learning all these new technologies because I can use them alongside the pedagogy and content knowledge I have learned/am learning/will learn this semester to help move me into a successful student teaching experience (one where there is more technology hopefully).
After going over smartboards again this month, I feel extremely confident that I can utilize them in my future classroom. I actually even more want to. Especially after finding some really fun lessons on the smart exchange. Like Prezi, the smartboard is a time consuming venture, but it's great that there are so many people who put their work up for others to use. It's great that there is a good community we have been introduced to, to exchange ideas with and utilize some of the principles of the newer evaluation models. Also going over the smartboards again helped me see how integrate the TPACK framework and made it a bit more real world for me. It made it more relatable and I liked that. It inspired me to think about smartboards differently and with TPACK in the forefront of my mind.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
TEACHMEETNJ Reflection
On August 22, 2013, I attended TEACHMEETNJ at Stockton. This was another experience with an unconference and it was an interesting one. This one already had the topics decided ahead of time, but you only had 20 minutes in each session and then you would vote for a longer session later in the afternoon. I liked how organized this event was, but I would have preferred longer session times and just done without the really long one at the end of the event. Overall, I did learn some new things which I hope to benefit from in the future.
The first session I went to was App-onomy, Finding ipad apps to fit your curriculum, which I found to be very good considering I only got 20 minutes worth of it. This was one session I would have preferred to be longer to begin with. I feel like too often teachers pick apps simply because it is somewhat close to the lesson they are teaching, but tend to ignore the fact that it may not fit into the curriculum. I also was finding it hard to find apps that fit into the curriculum we were using for making lesson plans at Stockton. I found the suggestions of apps that fit into the different levels of Bloom's to be very helpful! We're constantly being told to utilize the higher levels of Bloom's and being able to find apps that fit into those levels will help me to achieve doing that while bringing in some technology. I liked the suggestions for apps in the different content areas and the information on how to figure out if the app fits into your curriculum. Again, I wish this could have been a longer session or picked for the afternoon one because I feel like I could have gotten so much more out of this, but I did get a lot!
The second session I went to was about Professional Development and how to make it more fun for the teachers. I enjoyed this presenter a lot and liked her use of Prezi because it made a boring topic really cool! Having never gone to PD, it was interesting to learn what is liked and hated about it from other teachers. I liked how she showed examples of how to amp up the PD so that teachers enjoy it. I really liked when she showed her school districts' video for the beginning of the year and how they teased that something big was gonna happen. Her district seems to really be invested in the teachers and their PD!
The third session I went to was the creating a website using Wordpress. I have wanted to use wordpress in the past, and even for me who had done some website work, I found it overwhelming. This session made it not feel that way anymore. I clearly am still on blogger, but now I know how to implement a wordpress website and use it when I am teaching in the classroom. He showed us some really cool tricks on how to only allow certain students to see things, only allow parents to see things, how to make things private, etc. This was another session I wish could have been longer and gone more in depth because I feel like I could have learned a lot! I truly think websites are a great resource for teachers to get information to their students, the parents, and the rest of the school. In today's world, everyone has a webpage and I think learning how to make a very useful one will benefit me when I begin in the classroom.
The fourth session I went to was Pinterest, the professional goldmine. I LOVE pinterest...I would even say I am addicted to it! I had looked on it for some inspiration for lessons I was making in intro semester, but I felt like I came up so short for my content area and my grade level. Most things are aimed at elementary and math and science. Janice Malone really showed us a goldmine of things for every grade level and every subject. She was very knowledgeable about which websites to use and I even followed her and constantly get all her new pins. She had some really great ones for inspiring the students. I wish her session was longer too because then I would have been able to get more info on where to find the best pins for my content area and grade leve.
The fifth session I went to was Google Tools, which was good too! I liked learning about some things Google offered that I didnt know. I learned about google forms, chromebooks, utilizing google drive and a bunch of other google things in the classroom. I am amazed at how easy google has made my life and I would love to be able to do that for my students. I never really thought about using some of these things in a classroom, but during this presentation, it began to make perfect sense to me!
The sixth session I went to was another Pinterest one, because as I said, I love it! This one was very different from the previous one. What I liked about this one was they showed us specific people to follow and why. They also had a list of people to follow based on your content area. I went and found those people and have been getting new pins from them every day! This one turned into a longer session, and I went to it. I probably should have picked a different one, but it was nice to think of different ways to use pinterest. Like I never thought to have the students use it to share and save their ideas with their groups members. However, I'm not sure many schools would be happy about that, but maybe in the future.
The seventh session I went to was all about google forms. I now LOVE the idea of google forms. I like that I can create this form and it will do all the work for me! I also like that I can make it look pretty and interesting to my students. I also think the students would be more willing to do a test, quiz, do now, or exit card on the computer than with their hands. Plus it allows me to take all the answers with me simply on google drive so I can access it from my phone, computer, wherever! This will allow me to do work without having to take all the papers! Plus this will save the environment too!
Overall I did enjoy my sessions at TEACHMEETNJ. I wish they were longer, but I got a lot out of them. A lot of the sessions aimed on helping to create that harmony between technology, content knowledge, and pedagogy and helped me see it can be done. It helped me see that there are things out there to use that will fall into my curriculum, help me assess my students at a higher level, that are in my content area, and that will be technologically appropriate!
The first session I went to was App-onomy, Finding ipad apps to fit your curriculum, which I found to be very good considering I only got 20 minutes worth of it. This was one session I would have preferred to be longer to begin with. I feel like too often teachers pick apps simply because it is somewhat close to the lesson they are teaching, but tend to ignore the fact that it may not fit into the curriculum. I also was finding it hard to find apps that fit into the curriculum we were using for making lesson plans at Stockton. I found the suggestions of apps that fit into the different levels of Bloom's to be very helpful! We're constantly being told to utilize the higher levels of Bloom's and being able to find apps that fit into those levels will help me to achieve doing that while bringing in some technology. I liked the suggestions for apps in the different content areas and the information on how to figure out if the app fits into your curriculum. Again, I wish this could have been a longer session or picked for the afternoon one because I feel like I could have gotten so much more out of this, but I did get a lot!
The second session I went to was about Professional Development and how to make it more fun for the teachers. I enjoyed this presenter a lot and liked her use of Prezi because it made a boring topic really cool! Having never gone to PD, it was interesting to learn what is liked and hated about it from other teachers. I liked how she showed examples of how to amp up the PD so that teachers enjoy it. I really liked when she showed her school districts' video for the beginning of the year and how they teased that something big was gonna happen. Her district seems to really be invested in the teachers and their PD!
The third session I went to was the creating a website using Wordpress. I have wanted to use wordpress in the past, and even for me who had done some website work, I found it overwhelming. This session made it not feel that way anymore. I clearly am still on blogger, but now I know how to implement a wordpress website and use it when I am teaching in the classroom. He showed us some really cool tricks on how to only allow certain students to see things, only allow parents to see things, how to make things private, etc. This was another session I wish could have been longer and gone more in depth because I feel like I could have learned a lot! I truly think websites are a great resource for teachers to get information to their students, the parents, and the rest of the school. In today's world, everyone has a webpage and I think learning how to make a very useful one will benefit me when I begin in the classroom.
The fourth session I went to was Pinterest, the professional goldmine. I LOVE pinterest...I would even say I am addicted to it! I had looked on it for some inspiration for lessons I was making in intro semester, but I felt like I came up so short for my content area and my grade level. Most things are aimed at elementary and math and science. Janice Malone really showed us a goldmine of things for every grade level and every subject. She was very knowledgeable about which websites to use and I even followed her and constantly get all her new pins. She had some really great ones for inspiring the students. I wish her session was longer too because then I would have been able to get more info on where to find the best pins for my content area and grade leve.
The fifth session I went to was Google Tools, which was good too! I liked learning about some things Google offered that I didnt know. I learned about google forms, chromebooks, utilizing google drive and a bunch of other google things in the classroom. I am amazed at how easy google has made my life and I would love to be able to do that for my students. I never really thought about using some of these things in a classroom, but during this presentation, it began to make perfect sense to me!
The sixth session I went to was another Pinterest one, because as I said, I love it! This one was very different from the previous one. What I liked about this one was they showed us specific people to follow and why. They also had a list of people to follow based on your content area. I went and found those people and have been getting new pins from them every day! This one turned into a longer session, and I went to it. I probably should have picked a different one, but it was nice to think of different ways to use pinterest. Like I never thought to have the students use it to share and save their ideas with their groups members. However, I'm not sure many schools would be happy about that, but maybe in the future.
The seventh session I went to was all about google forms. I now LOVE the idea of google forms. I like that I can create this form and it will do all the work for me! I also like that I can make it look pretty and interesting to my students. I also think the students would be more willing to do a test, quiz, do now, or exit card on the computer than with their hands. Plus it allows me to take all the answers with me simply on google drive so I can access it from my phone, computer, wherever! This will allow me to do work without having to take all the papers! Plus this will save the environment too!
Overall I did enjoy my sessions at TEACHMEETNJ. I wish they were longer, but I got a lot out of them. A lot of the sessions aimed on helping to create that harmony between technology, content knowledge, and pedagogy and helped me see it can be done. It helped me see that there are things out there to use that will fall into my curriculum, help me assess my students at a higher level, that are in my content area, and that will be technologically appropriate!
PADCAMP Reflection
On August 8, 2013, I attended PADCAMP at Galloway Middle School. It was my first experience with an unconference, and I have to say, it was a pleasurable one. After breakfast and topics were decided, I headed to four very interesting sessions. The first session I went to was titled, "Free apps for Educators". I really enjoyed this one because they were really prepared and had some free apps already in mind and showed us how to use them. I think what I liked most about this session was the fact that all of us were able to put great free apps into a spreadsheet that we could share with each other and go back to after the unconference. I enjoyed meeting other teachers and hearing how they use technology in their classrooms everyday. They explained how they will take the app that works with their lesson that day and utilize it in the classroom, whether in a 1:1 format of iPads or with just one the iPad. These teachers explained how they knew the apps were working for their students and how found them for their content area. It was nice to see apps being to be used because until I took this session I felt like I was falling flat on finding apps for my content area. I think it's great to learn new free apps that can be used in the classroom to further the content knowledge and teaching of students in a way that is effective.
The second session I went to was all about Edmodo. Having only used Edmodo as a student, I was interested how it worked for teachers. I'm so glad I took this class because I realized so many things about Edmodo that I had never known before. I liked it being compared to Facebook for the classroom, because it truly is. I liked a lot of the suggestions to use Edmodo to Flip the Classroom, do formative assessments, and to get to know the students. I feel like this is something that everyone should use in their classroom because not only is it a great tool to communicate to the students, it's also fun for them as well. They view it as a social media, but it has boundaries so the students cannot get in trouble. I also feel like it is so versatile that any teacher could use it and I feel like it would engage students to participate more as well.
The third session I went to was the podcasting one. I was interested in this because I had done some podcasting in college, but nothing like what they're doing today! I was amazed at all the amazing features and benefits podcasting affords the teacher and students. I really liked the idea of being able to broadcast something happening in school for the parents to watch later at home or in real time. I feel like something of this nature could even be used everyday. If the lessons are being broadcast over the internet, then students who may be home sick can watch from home and not worry about falling behind. Or even students who may not have gotten everything in the classroom setting can go back and watch the lesson again to get the information they may have missed the first time. The students can show their parents the projects they have put together or their parents could watch their child get an award or big recognition online. The possibilities are endless when it came to this session, which was very informative!
The fourth and final session I attended was about apps for social studies high school classes. It was the one I was most interested in, but was the least put together. It ended up being a few teachers discussing what they use and what they have found to work in the past in regards to apps, youtube channels, and websites. It was good to get a good amount of resources to go back to and look at, so I have some idea of where to go when it comes time for me to use technology in the classroom. I also liked that the teachers shared their experiences with each thing they suggested and how their students liked it or not. This session was more of a discussion but it was a big help!
Overall, my experience at PADCAMP was great. I was able to speak with real teachers who employ technology in their classroom in an effective way. I was able to truly understand how TPACK comes to life in a classroom. These teachers knew ways to take their content areas and find the best methods to teach it using technology, no matter what the technology was! I hope to become that knowledgeable one day so that I know immediately what to use to accomplish that sweet spot where technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge come together!
The second session I went to was all about Edmodo. Having only used Edmodo as a student, I was interested how it worked for teachers. I'm so glad I took this class because I realized so many things about Edmodo that I had never known before. I liked it being compared to Facebook for the classroom, because it truly is. I liked a lot of the suggestions to use Edmodo to Flip the Classroom, do formative assessments, and to get to know the students. I feel like this is something that everyone should use in their classroom because not only is it a great tool to communicate to the students, it's also fun for them as well. They view it as a social media, but it has boundaries so the students cannot get in trouble. I also feel like it is so versatile that any teacher could use it and I feel like it would engage students to participate more as well.
The third session I went to was the podcasting one. I was interested in this because I had done some podcasting in college, but nothing like what they're doing today! I was amazed at all the amazing features and benefits podcasting affords the teacher and students. I really liked the idea of being able to broadcast something happening in school for the parents to watch later at home or in real time. I feel like something of this nature could even be used everyday. If the lessons are being broadcast over the internet, then students who may be home sick can watch from home and not worry about falling behind. Or even students who may not have gotten everything in the classroom setting can go back and watch the lesson again to get the information they may have missed the first time. The students can show their parents the projects they have put together or their parents could watch their child get an award or big recognition online. The possibilities are endless when it came to this session, which was very informative!
The fourth and final session I attended was about apps for social studies high school classes. It was the one I was most interested in, but was the least put together. It ended up being a few teachers discussing what they use and what they have found to work in the past in regards to apps, youtube channels, and websites. It was good to get a good amount of resources to go back to and look at, so I have some idea of where to go when it comes time for me to use technology in the classroom. I also liked that the teachers shared their experiences with each thing they suggested and how their students liked it or not. This session was more of a discussion but it was a big help!
Overall, my experience at PADCAMP was great. I was able to speak with real teachers who employ technology in their classroom in an effective way. I was able to truly understand how TPACK comes to life in a classroom. These teachers knew ways to take their content areas and find the best methods to teach it using technology, no matter what the technology was! I hope to become that knowledgeable one day so that I know immediately what to use to accomplish that sweet spot where technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge come together!
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