Success through Technology and Assessment

32 responses so far ↓

• 1    Patty Larsen // Sep 12, 2008 at 9:08 am

  As I left the digital communications workshop a week ago, I felt both excited and a bit overwhelmed at the same time. It was exciting to learn about various technology tools that might spark student achievement, to learn from my colleagues through the great group discussions on what a 21st Century classroom looks like and learning how to better engage 21st Century learners. I felt a bit overwhelmed, however when trying to figure out exactly how to integrate everything I had learned (and have yet to learn) into my role as a 9-12 school counselor.

  I went back and looked closely at the power point on the Stat21 wikispace, ’21st Century Skills, More Than Just Computers’. I can see definite ties between what I do with students in career exploration and the identified 21st Century Themes, in particular the SD Dept. of Ed Initiatives that fall under the Life and Career Skills theme (career clusters, career guidance, HS That Work, etc.)

  I am starting to formulate a plan to increase student knowledge of career clusters and their use of a Personal Learning Plan to guide them in receiving the best preparation for their chosen career. Using the state’s new Career Cruising career exploration program, I hope to get more students excited about career exploration, and as a result to see more relevance in what they are studying. Increased perceptions of relevance should lead to greater achievement. I’m still working out how I might gather data and what types of assessment I might use.

  Having students blog about their experiences with the program will not only provide the students with an opportunity to reflect, but may also provide valuable information for the state on this new career exploration program.

  I also have another idea about using some online tools in ACT test preparation. Using correlations between ACT readiness skills and our state standards, I may be able to identify target areas for our staff to addresss to help our students be more prepared for this test, and for life beyond high school.

  I don’t want to get too many strands going for this project, so I still have some thinking to do before settling on my actual project. I’m excited about the process right now, especially because I can see direct application of what I will learn in this course and the benefit it will provide to my students, and school district!

• 2    julie lewison // Sep 14, 2008 at 10:36 am

  After attending the the workshop in August I was amazed at how much technology is out there that I still have no idea what it is and how to use and this is my second time around with the class!!

  I have used the E-metric data and began on my action plan and have given the first Achievement Series Pre-Test.

  I’m looking forward to taking the classes to increase my knowledge on technology to pass onto my students. I’m also hoping that my students will be able to guide me through this process.

  I’m planning on blogging, webquests and publishing to begin with and hoping to learn what digital storytelling is and how to use it in my 6th Reading class-(hint-Melissa and Cate).

  The standard I’ve chosen doesn’t have a lot of material on the web to help but I’m hoping through the classes, collegues, and Cate and Melissa I will be able to increase my students understsanding of standard 6.R.5.1.

  Looking forward to meeting those that were at the September class along with meeting up again with those in the August class.

• 3    Peggy Reiter // Sep 14, 2008 at 11:58 am

  After attending the August classes I was eager to get started integrating 21st Century Skills into my curriculum. In the past, I have included a lot of technology, however, there are always new things coming out.
  I recently checked our score on the eMetric and found that for the past three years, my grade level has been low in the same reading and math standards each year. I am focusing my lessons and pretest on the reading standard, but I will also be working on integrating technology into the lower math standards.
  In August I also took the Formative assessment class and did not realize that I include a lot of formative assesment already in my class. Through the class I learned about a variety of activities I can include for formative assessment.
  I have gone to the Achievement series and made a pretest and administered it last week. I have shared the test with my grade level teachers ahd they will also be giving the test at a later time. Through the Achievement series I also made a test for the math standards that we were low in.
  My goal for this year is to incorporate the Senteo responders or clickers into my curriculum also. We have been working and practicing with them. The students are excited about using them and I have had compliments from parents for the technology I have included in my class already this year. Blogging, wikispaces, and Web Quests will come later in the year!!

• 4    agregg21 // Sep 15, 2008 at 10:27 am

  I’m always amazed at how inadequate I am at present technology! Even though I only have a few students at a time, I’m forcing myself to use our projector and notebook. I made up a multiple choice game on the Smart Notebook to help students remember which words are months, and they loved it. I’m attempting to hook up the projector with PBS so my student who is severely disabled can see and hear a fun program–this is the only way it would be big enough for him to see it!

  I’m attending a brief session on responders tonight so hopefully I will create a lesson each week to let the students use the responders.

  Do you notice that I’m hopeful and forcing myself? My goal is to get past those words and to be able to say “Look what I’m doing; it’s easy!”

• 5    agregg21 // Sep 15, 2008 at 10:35 am

  I’m trying to change my avatar, so this is just a test.

• 6    agregg21 // Sep 15, 2008 at 10:41 am

  one more time.

• 7    Angela Thill // Sep 16, 2008 at 1:57 pm

  I attended the September session and as I left I was excited to start being a 21st century teacher. I love technology and use it as much as I know how but boy did I get some more great ideas.

  For the first time ever I am attempting to use a wikispace for a project on the Early People of North America. Setting it up was a real pain since I really wasn’t sure what I was doing. We first had to create e-mail addresses for the students…the site thought we were “spammers” since we were applying for so many addresses at once. So I worked around it and have some hotmail addresses, some yahoo, some gmail, etc. We made it through all the setup and for the most part the kids were so patient. Now the students seem so excited to be working online and that they’ll be able to see everyone’s projects anytime they want. It’s good to see them so excited. We’ll see how it goes!

  So far I have also used little 2-minute videos from teacher-tube to introduce new math concepts. The kids were excited when I said the word video and they were defiantly engaged. Some were just disappointed they were so short and had to go back to listening to me.

  Now What? I hope to get better at implementing the SmartBoard in more everyday lessons (this is our first year with them), I’d like to do more with podcasts, webquests, and maybe more wikispaces depending on how it all goes. I still have a lot to learn to continue to be that 21st century teacher!

• 8    kliesinger21 // Sep 19, 2008 at 8:31 am

  I left the workshop feeling very confident since this is my second year. I thought I’d work with second graders and so did the Achievement Series Math test that I had from last year. It went very well. Then I found out I am not working with any second grade students with math.

  I don’t want to do the same class that I worked with last year, and so I am going to do Math with the fifth grade. I have not been able to get the Quick Pick to work, and cannot copy a test that was made as a District test.

  I felt a lot better after Cate came out and visited with me yesterday. I have the eMetric data on fifth grade math back to 2002, and the Math scores of the current fifth graders as fourth graders last year. Once I find the weakest area, I am hoping that the technology classes will help them. I’m looking forward to learning more about Blogs and Wikis and taking the Senteo class in Oct. I had wanted to use the clickers last year, but the ESA didn’t have them. I’m excited about being able to check them out and using them this year.

  I have so much to learn about technology. Since I am not in the regular classroom, presenting my technology infused lessons gets a bit challenging. Once I take the podcasting class, I am hoping to use it with my music classess.

• 9    Becky Mohr // Sep 22, 2008 at 6:14 am

  I participated in the Digital Communications workshop in August. I am excited to begin more technology in my class, yet very apprehensive and sometimes clueless at what to do. I want it to all flow together and not be disjointed but these past few weeks have seemed disjointed. I have developed Achievement Series tests for reading for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. All of the teachers are administering the test now. This Achievement Series test is a pretest over all the standards to assist us in how to proceed to teach the students for the rest of the year. We do have a low standard that I addressed last year and it looks like the scores did not go up again. I am not quite sure how to help these students with this standard and that will be one of my goals for this year.

  I am excited to being an online book discussion with students in Mitchell. We are not sure what book we will be discussing. Ann Moege, a teacher at Mitchell Middle School, has contacted me about this endeavor and it sounds great! She is helping me through this step by step!

  I also want to keep my edublog for my reading students – it worked well last year and I want to do more with it this year. I am also teaching a workshop all year on differentiated instruction and have a blog for teachers to respond. I have asked Melissa to help me a little as I have set the blog up but it does not look right.

  I have so much more to learn and will be signing up for technology classes with ESA2 to help me become a better 21st century teacher! Thanks for the opportunity to better myself and in turn help the students become the best they can be!

  One other goal is to get more SMARTBoard lessons for my focus units in Reading. This will take time and right now time is not something I have a lot of so I am making that my 2nd quarter goal!

• 10    Barbara Workman // Sep 22, 2008 at 6:34 am

  When I left in August, I was still unsure on how all of 21st century tools would be incorporated in the classroom. Once I was back into the classroom and working with my students, I really started seeing so many opportunities presenting themselves. I also realized that I have already been doing some of these things and really didn’t connect it to the idea of 21st century teaching.

  Our school recently purchased a tablet computer. I have been having so much fun learning how to incorporate it into my classroom. My students seem to like it and can’t wait for their turn to try it out. I am also looking forward to taking some of the workshops to learn about more opportunities out there.

  I am starting to decide which standards I would like to focus on for the technology infused lessons. I plan to start by looking at the standards that are part of the School Improvement Plan.

• 11    Shelly Trisko // Sep 22, 2008 at 7:24 am

  As I left the September class I felt very invigorated with ideas of how to incorporate technology into a music classroom. Hopefully, the skills that I attain will be of a benefit to my students.

  Students are so immersed in technology and at times I feel that I am behind the times. It is important for me to make connections with students. Being open to technology use and unafraid of its power perhaps is a way to connect to students that I may not otherwise reach in a classroom situation.

• 12    Marlys Hauck-Fenner // Sep 25, 2008 at 5:54 pm

  I love using technology and I know my students are really motivated by it. There’s always something new to try and I’m looking forward to using wikis. I see a lot of potential for that with my FCCLA chapter when they’re working on STAR (team) events.
  I have no experience with the assessment testing at all, so am excited about learning how to determine the standards that need work and then creating activities that will address them.

• 13    Roxane Olson // Sep 26, 2008 at 10:22 am

  After leaving the workshop on September 6, I felt a little overwhelmed, yet very excited. For one, I am very anxious to attend the workshop on SMARTBoards. This is the first year for SMARTBoards in my school, and I was fortunate enough to get one in my classroom.

  My hope is to provide my students with opportunities to interact with each other through the use of technology. I am also excited to learn more about blogs and Wikis. I already have several ideas as to how I can incorporate blogs and wikis into my units.

• 14    Nancy Weidenbach // Sep 29, 2008 at 6:55 am

  I left class on September 6th feeling very energized and excited to go back and begin using some of the new technologies that were shared that day. I feel as if I have always integrated technology into my curriculum but also felt like was starting to use the same old technologies and websites. I was/am ready for something new again and this is opening my eyes to more tools in technology.

  I am in a different position this year that will allow me to “play” and integate technolgoy. After 5 years of teaching 6th grade math, I have moved to 7th grade computer teacher. I will also be working with the 6th and 7th grade teachers to help integrate technology into their classrooms. We do share a technology integrationist with our high school but since that is in a different building, it’s not always as easy for him to be in both places at once. So far this year, I have helped teachers get set up on Achievement Series for testing there and with DACS. We have also worked with some other websites such as Quia and I have used some Teacher Tube flicks with my students. I am also working with a 6th grade science teacher to help her set up a blog for her class and students.

  I am looking forward to an exciting year and anxious to take what I learn in STAT 21 back to my students and teachers in my school.

• 15    Pam Lundt // Oct 1, 2008 at 10:39 am

  What a challenge! I’m so excited about digging into some technology. I skirted the edges, doing what I’ve needed to get by and picking up a few more skills along the way, but my students are zooming far ahead of me. Not only do I know I need to at least try to keep pace with them, but I’m truly fascinated by what can be done in the classroom using technology.
  We’ve identified a couple low standards that need to be addressed and should be able to develop a plan to fill in the gaps. I need to get a baseline soon! Where does our time go. I viewed the video again and am trying to keep in mind “how” kids learn best. They really do tell us if we listen. I will be haunting the workshops trying to absorb all sorts of new info. See you all soon along the way.

• 16    Kristen Tucker // Oct 2, 2008 at 9:09 am

  I was very inspired and motivated when I left the Digital Communications workshop. I am up to the challenge of figuring out how to incorporate technology into my classroom. I am under more restrictions than public school teachers so this will be a challenge for me.

  I love the idea of wiki spaces as a communication tool between teachers and students. I was also inspired by the video showing the need for technology to be in the hands of the students. Our students are far more creative and independent than we allow them to be. It will be an adjustment for me to allow the students to be in control of their learning and explore different ideas freely.

  I am looking forward to the up coming workshops so that I can get more ideas of how to incorporate technology into my lessons. I can say that I use technology in my classroom but I cannot say that it is the most effective way to use it and I rarely allow the students to use computers or the internet in my class because I am afraid they will misuse it.

  By the end of this learning process, I want to be comfortable implementing different strategies to engage my students. I want my students to be able to go beyond textbooks to gain information about the world around them and become actively involved in their education.

• 17    Donna Howes // Oct 2, 2008 at 10:32 am

  During the entire day, I went through a series of “I didn’t know that was possible’s”, “I feel so behind” and “I so glad I’m doing this!”

  I’m amazed at the wealth of technology that is available to us and it seems to be ever changing each second of the day.

  I’m hopeful that I am able to provide meaningful lessons and opportunities for my students through the use of technology!

  I just wish there was more than 24 hours in a day!

• 18    Carmen // Oct 2, 2008 at 6:34 pm

  This class really inspired me to get going and get the kids involved more with technology. As a computer teacher, we work with technology every day, so my biggest plan is to expose students to more and more technologies that they probably use daily as it is. I will also push classroom teachers to implement many of these same ideas into their regular classrooms to help engange their students. I really plan on using the wiki for my class later in the year as well as set one up for my school to use on their website. I also have been using more quick snippets from utube to help enhance my lessons. I can’t wait to see what else we learn so I can get my students involved.

• 19    Barb Hascall // Oct 15, 2008 at 12:59 am

  When I left the digital curriculum workshop in September I was amazed at what is available. I have used technology in my classroom in the past. Most has been with the graphing calculators and the view screen for the overhead projector. I have also used the calculator simulator with a smart board. Second semester I will have a projector and interwrite board in my classroom. Then I hope to use more technology in my classroom. I know I will be able to use the calculator simulator and have the students do more work with it. I teach geometry and I have found that the TInspire helps to present a lot of the topics with more stress on the details, but it is somewhat time consuming using the view screen. With the simulator I should be able to use it just like a calculator and make things a little easier to present and allow the students to get involved.
  I also plan to use the achievement series more to work with problem areas.

• 20    Pat Reiners // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:56 am

  It always amazes me that the more I learn about technology and ways to apply it within my classroom and with my students, the more there is available and that I want to learn about. I especially learn a lot from my students. We are discovering new ways to apply technology together.
  I have been using the eMetric site to determine a math standard that my district has been repeatedly low in. Now I am in the process of creating a Pre-Test using Achievement Series and designing a variety of ways to present this standard to the students in hopes of improving their understanding and application of the standard before I post test. I am looking at incorporating technologies into these plans either as an entire class presentation or on an individual level by differentiating their lessons.
  Wikispaces are a new experience for me and would like to incorporate their use in my classroom but am still struggling with the issue of computer availability for all students right now. But I am working on a means to incorporate their use at some level.

• 21    cathy magee // Oct 18, 2008 at 12:43 pm

  9/6/08 Wikis and Blogs- I was very excited to see how to use this technology. For starters I never knew this excited. At first my mind almost went to overload because I could think of so many classroom applications for this technology. To be honest it was a lot of stuff to learn in one day. I learned about the differences between wikis and blogs. I still need alot more exposure to this technology.

• 22    mgile // Oct 19, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  I attended the September workshop and have spent the last month working with blogging with my students. We ran into a few problems: Lab space. Like most of you that are not 1:1, we struggle with getting everyone into the lab. Another problem I ran into was posting. We had too many post at one time, only half were able to complete the assignment on the day we went to the lab. I think I have found a way around that. The kids really enjoy blogging and like to read what everyone else wrote. I have another lesson planned for this week.

  I am hoping that we all look back at this experience in two to three years and laugh at our inexperience. I hope by that time we will be so comfortable with the technology and have oodles of creative ideas of how to incorporate it into our lessons we will wonder how we ever taught without it!

• 23    jb041 // Oct 21, 2008 at 6:06 pm

  I am excited about the prospect of integrating 21st Century Skills into my classroom. I know this will require some retraining of my comfort zone in the classroom. I have problems with “not feeling in control” of the learning in the classroom and I think, at least to some degree, I will need to work on this – especially as I will need to become the learner and my students the teacher in some cases.

• 24    Amber Gregg // Oct 23, 2008 at 10:21 am

  Just when I think I’m beginning to understand technology—I wrote a blog to this statement somewhere, but who knows where it is???

  After attending the various sessions that support the grant, I’m learning how easy it is to use the emetric site to research data. I not only know which strands need more work, I also know which students need more one-on-0ne on certain items. Thank goodness Cate came to my room to observe, she was able to help me understand what my goals are and what I need to focus on to create my project. I’m excited about WebQuests and look forward to showing my students how to do a project using the computer.

• 25    Teri Alleven // Oct 28, 2008 at 4:37 pm

  After the workshop, I went back to school and created a travel brochure lesson for my 8th grade class. I wanted them to create the brochure in Word because I wanted them to have another option if for some reason Publisher was not available. I aligned my lesson to the new technology standards as well as the World Language standards. They had to evaluate the reliabilty of Internet sources, cite those sources, as well as import and cite pictures. All of my students learned how to use and format features in Word that they had never used before-text boxes, word art, drawing canvas, etc. They loved it and I have a ton of new ideas.

• 26    Dana Berg // Nov 1, 2008 at 6:31 am

  As a second years grant participant, I still feel that there is so much out there for me to learn about 21st century skills! Last year I was looping with my class, and we had been through kindergarten together and moving into 1st grade. We were able to pick up so fast at the beginning of the year-it was wonderful! This year I am teaching kindergarten, so I feel excited but challanged as well to find creative and age-appropriate ways to assess the students using technology and share the way that I have found work best for these young learners. This year we have all recieved interwrite boards withing our district, so this will be a fun, hands-on way to help the students learn and engage them through technoology, but I am looking foward to going beyond that and finding the little everyday ways to intergrate technology into the curriculum and instruction. My only hesitation at this point is that I am feeling the need to hold off a little bit with a few of the things I have planned until after the Holiday break, because of where the students are at developmentally. I believe that the integration of technology and assessment within my kindergarten classroom should be a fun challange and work out very well!

• 27    Gretchen Scoblic // Nov 1, 2008 at 12:40 pm

  So. . .I’m waiting for SMARTboard software to download and have searched the net for new stuff to use on my board at school. It’s exciting to know my personal laptop will have this software available so I can play around without having to be in my classroom.

  What I enjoy most about learning new stuff is the actual learning (duh). My dislike is the overwhelmed feeling I get once I’m gone, want to play with what I’ve learned, and don’t have the time to play around with technology. However, this teaches me that my teaching might be just as overwhelming to my students. I need to remember to manage time wisely and use data and information effectively.

• 28    Justin Lovrien // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:14 pm

  Just noticed I never submitted Sept, sorry so late!

  What I am continuing to work on is year is the use of blogs (not going well) and clicker quizzes (going very well). I think these two items relate to the skills discussed at the August meeting because they allow students to be creative (in the case of blogs) and get instant feedback (clickers).

  In the video on 21st century skills stressed the love kids have of creating their own product. I am hoping my blog allows students to create a blog or wiki to post their lab reports. They could include photos, computer-generated graphs, and written work. The wikispace take far too long to load images and video, so I have given up on that. At present, the blog spot allows me to load images and video but students are not being allowed access through the school account – hope it gets worked out!

  The clickers are great for instant feedback, they allow me to incorporate images and graphs, and students enjoy the break from lecture/papers. I am now using them as an instant diagnotic (find out what topics are trouble spots, then review those before a test).

  Justin Lovrien

• 29    Melissa Shanks // Nov 15, 2008 at 1:28 pm

  I left the September workshop whirling with ideas and loads of new information. I am excited to apply some of the new skills I’ve learned and information that I absorbed! I am feeling very overwhelmed however.

  I am anxious to begin formulating a plan for my project. I teach lower elementary so I want it to be relevant for the kids. It will be interesting to attend more of the sessions to see what exactly I will come up with for a project. There are endless possibilities!

• 30    Dawn Coggins // Nov 19, 2008 at 2:35 pm

  It is interesting sometimes as a technology teacher how other colleagues just assume you know everything. I came away excited from the workshop with some ideas of different technology tools I plan to implement this year. I am excited to work with podcasts, blogs, and wikis. However, some of the frustrations that I already know I will have when proceeding is trying something new with 30 students in a computer class. I am excited to have students blog, yet I am anticipating the problems with getting everyone assigned to it and having it unblocked, etc.

  I think whenever you try to incorporate new things there is always that level of anxiousness and how you want this great thing to be an instant success. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that I can successfully implement these technologies to enhance the learning of my students with little difficulty! I always think it is fun exploring the unknowns with technology. Sometimes you find a technology that is so slick and easy to use and you hang on to it. Other times you try a technology and it requires so much of your time that you have to let it go. I am thankful to have this grant to keep exploring!

• 31    lkimmel21 // May 19, 2009 at 2:00 am

  To steal from someone else’s comments – the technology classes energize you. Exploring new ways to teach is always exciting. Learning ways to enhance learning and improve achievement is the goal of most educators. Getting time to practice and perfect using the new technology is usually the greatest challenge. With the always, ever-ready grant staff, you know there’s someone to help you through the rough spots if you just ask for help.

• 32    heikkila // Sep 16, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  I’m really trying to pull together the concepts from project-based learning and digital communication tools. I did a “trial” with my 6th graders and the projects seems to go well. I need to develop a better rubric for next time, though.

  I am also trying to find some new solutions for technologyaccess in the library. If we can scrape up some money it may involve the new mini laptops and ipod touches

  Also – I set up a wiki on my website and I’m hoping to get some discussion going.

  Becky

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