EDLD+5364+Teaching+with+Technology

I found the discussions about constructivism to be very interesting. John Abbott states that the constructivism belief is that you never learn anything absolutely from scratch. It is believed that you take in a new idea and see how it relates to the things you already have in your brain and you construct a bigger framework. So, you take in information and add it to what you already have and that expands your framework of knowledge.
 * Week 1 **

This seems to make so much sense when I think about the problems of some of my students. I teach chemistry which requires a good math background. Most of the problems that they are having are due to poor math backgrounds. They cannot effectively process the new information because they did not learn the math foundation needed to be successful. According to the constructivism belief, had that been learn, then the students could relate what is being taught in chemistry with the math information they have in their heads and expand their framework of knowledge.

This week was both interesting and a little confusing. The interesting part involved learning that students perform better academically all around if technology is used in instruction. This is actually what I am researching first hand right now. I have always wondered what would be the results if students were to take test using the computer. Would we see a significant improvement?
 * Week 2 **

Our group had to brainstorm ideas for development of our plan. Group work can be frustrating sometimes because everyone is submitting at different times which will hold others up. I think this week I am going to suggest that we set a deadline for when the members must submit their information so that we will stay on pace to complete the project.

All of the readings, lectures, and videos from this past week have really been intriguing. They really made me think about how I teach my lessons. I teach high school chemistry which involves my students using their math skills as well as being able to understand things that are not tangible. This is a very big problem for many students. I am always looking for technology that I can use to better help my students understand the concepts of chemistry.
 * Week 3 **

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has given me some hope. Since I teach at a performing and visual arts magnet, my students are gifted and learn and very different ways. Using the ebook will allow they students to demonstrate their understanding in their own way. Since music can also be added I can reach all clusters which are music, dance, theater, and visual.

Time as always is a factor. Before it can be incorporated in the classroom, the teachers must be familiar with how to use the resources. Then there is testing. How does this translate to their test scores? I watched on 60 minutes tonight a segment in which the TEP Charter School in New York was attracting top tier teachers by paying them $125,000 per year. The teachers were fantastic and their methods of teaching were student centered and very engaging. Some of their students were showing great improvement and the students loved school. The problem is, the students of TEP Charter School were scoring no better on state test. How effective can we be when the testing doesn't not align with the way we are being asked to teach?

I also created an ebook this week. It can be found here: http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ view.php?op=share&book= 5f35b79e1dd7f4ddd5a0acdab9516a c8&sid=4328

The material for this week was some of the best for me. The videos were very enlightening. It was finally good to see concrete examples of technology being used in the classroom. Through the videos I was really able to see the benefit of having a class blog. I created one some time ago, but I have not done anything with it. That will now change.
 * Week 4 **

The ideas that were shared in the readings regarding cooperative learning were also very intriguing. I have never thought of any of these things prior to reading about them this past week. The information about how to arrange students in groups was invaluable. I will start to incorporate some of this information into my classroom this week. The only problem is that it can appear to be overwhelming because of so many different things that one can do. Our teaching schedules are busy and trying to incorporate the new things we are learning can become so overwhelming that nothing ever gets done.

Week 5 was one of the best weeks of information. There were some very useful things presented in the readings of this week. Probably the best thing to come out of week 5 was the idea of an effort rubric. I will immediately create one of these. Do to it being so late in the school year now, I don't know how quickly the students will respond to this. I think letting the students see the relationship between their effort and their test scores is invaluable.
 * Week 5 **

The videos were also very informative. I see the disconnect between teachers and students in the classroom. Something has to change quickly.