For this blog post I decided to look at 2nd Grade Math Standards according to the Georgia Performance Standards.

I looked at the 12 content standards (and did not examine the elements within each standard. I also did not examine the process standards) and found the following results:

Number of standards that focused on critical thinking skills: 2
Number of standards that did not focus on critical thinking skills: 10

To the credit of the DOE, I will say that if I more closely examined each element under each standard, and more closely examined the process skills in addition to the content area standards, I would find a greater attention to critical thinking skills.

Under the content area standards, however, I think the verbs within each standard told a lot. Many of the standards included language such as "understand", "use", and "know" as opposed to higher-order thinking skills such as "compare", "classify", "contrast", and so on.

An area of improvement I see would be with the following standard:

M2M2. Students will tell time to the nearest five minutes and know relationships of
time such as the number of minutes in an hour and hours in a day.

In terms of improving students' critical thinking skills, I would suggest the following:

Include activities such as:
Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between one second, one minute, one hour, and one day
Describe activities that take one second, one minute, one hour, and one day to complete

In terms of improving technology integration into this lesson, I would suggest the following ideas:
Have students perform activities that take one second, one minute, one hour, and one day, and record them (or a snippet of them if it's too long) and create a movie to share with the class

To the DOE's credit, as a 2nd grade teacher in Georgia, I loved (and my students got a great deal out of) the sample Frameworks that the DOE posts online. They definitely incorporated critical thinking skills, and sometimes included technology as well. This was a great resource that I would use in both my instructional planning and instructional delivery (https://www.georgiastandards.org/Frameworks/Pages/BrowseFrameworks/MathK-5.aspx).

I strongly believe that equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become critical thinkers is of utmost importance. I feel as if on this blog I have written a lot about standardized testing, but a lot of these topics lend themselves well to a conversation about such. In today's test-heavy education system, there is unfortunately all too often a lack of focus on empowering our students and ensuring they are prepared to face real-world challenges with problem solving and critical thinking skills. I believe it was a conversation I had with Pasha earlier in the semester where we discussed focusing on test-prep, and how that did not transfer to students being able to think critically. However, when we talked about the opposite, teaching our students critical thinking skills, we both strongly were under the belief that this would transfer into students being strong test takers, and it is more important/relevant for children to be prepared with real-life skills. One thing I would like to learn more about with critical thinking is how to promote this amongst younger learners, particularly with the K - 2 students I interact with on a daily basis. I think "teaching" critical thinking skills at any age can be quite challenging, but particularly in the early elementary grades, this poses a particular set of difficulties where you first must teach students basic skills and abilities, and transfer that knowledge to critical thinking skills. One strategy I have seen a teacher at my school utilize quite frequently is outlining the steps students need to take for activities such as problem solving in math. I think that by laying out the different steps students need to take, and then working with them to exploring challenging questions, students will be much more equipped to think independently and become true critical thinkers.

This week we researched telecommunications projects that could be utilized with students or adults.

I viewed a wide variety of projects on iEarn (https://media.iearn.org) and came across one on Bullying that stood out to me (https://media.iearn.org/projects/bullying). The reason for this was because I was recently reading an article about bullying that I shared with my school counselor, and thought that this project was something he could possibly contribute to.

This site is a collaborative place where educators and students alike can come and share resources such as audio files, poems, artwork, etc. related to Bullying. As this is a very important topic.

The author also provided external resources (such as www.bullying.org) that people visiting his iEarn site could access.

My only point of feedback with his project would be to see it developed further. I think this is a great idea but unfortunately I do not see a lot of artifacts related to the project. Hopefully this is a work in progress and as time passes more great artifacts will be posted to the site.

Chapter 8 described a variety of important aspects of eLearning. What stood out to me this week were the disadvantages of eLearning as described by the text. The reason that this particular section stood out to me was because for the other course most of us in the LDT program are taking (EDIT 6100 with Dr. Orey), this week we were asked to write an abstract of an article that critiqued some aspect of instructional technology. This assignment was interesting because we were required to find examples of articles/books that pointed out potential flaws in integrating technology into education, summarize, and provide our own perspective.

Here are a few of the disadvantages the chapter cites:
-Technical support for users who are participating in distance learning might not be easily accessible
-The learner can be overwhelmed with the wide variety of information that is available online
-All learners' needs may not be met by the instructor due to the fact that some individuals may perform better with more structure or face to face interaction

While I think these are valid points that need to be considered when teaching (or participating in) an eLearning experience, I think the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks. A few that were noted in the chapter include:
-Convenience (learners have more flexibility/ability to set their own schedule)
-Exposure (greater chance of interacting with people/resources outside who/what might normally be available in a face to face setting)
-Responsibility (learners are required to take personal responsibility for their growth and must develop important skills such as the ability to work independently)

As I mentioned above, it was an interesting take to consider the potential drawbacks of eLearning, but again, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives for me as a learner.

In Chapter 3 of Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice there were numerous ideas on how we can utilize technology in order to further enhance the learning process.

One concept that stood out to me was the idea of collaboration versus cooperation. With collaboration, students draw upon their strengths, skills, and knowledge to engage in a discovery process and reach an end goal together. In the case of cooperation, students have unique roles in a structured task and bring their parts together to a specific end goal. There are benefits to both, but I would say that as an educator, my ideal would be to strive towards more learning experiences that center around collaboration. While cooperation would be more powerful in certain circumstances, I reflect upon my own education (such as with the LDT program at UGA) and think about those experiences that have been most rewarding and beneficial to me and I would say they would lean towards collaboration. While many of the projects we have completed have been independent, the time we spent together doing "desk crits", reviewing each others work, and more, was a much richer experience than times where I worked within a group and contributed a specific component that helped the group get towards its end goal or product.

I think about this in terms of my ability to impact student learning as an administrator, and how I can encourage teachers at my school to explore teaching with a focus on both collaboration and cooperation, and what the benefits are to each.

One small change I am considering making with my project for the semester is to include more teacher input. I am utilizing my network's "intranet" system (Prism) in order to disseminate, organize, and store important forms, documents, handbook, etc. as a common place for all staff members to have access to. I currently have not solicited teacher feedback for the site, and I think this could be a small, but important change moving forward. I remember with our projects for another class in our program we had to have prototypes and share this with our client for feedback. I think this is a feasible change that I can integrate without much difficulty, and would give me valuable information about things such as the content, layout, and more. As time progresses, I believe that I can get continuous feedback from the staff and make the appropriate changes based on what the staff is able to share with me.

Assessing student learning is a hugely important component of the instructional day. I have always been of the belief that it is essential that we utilize data to drive our instruction. One concept that I think is important to remember when we consider assessment is the variety of forms it can take. There is definitely a time and place for standardized tests, and such methods can provide invaluable data that gives educators insight into both individual student strengths and weaknesses, as well as trends across the class. As a classroom teacher, I was required to have monthly "Mock Tests" where I administered mock tests in all content areas, and analyzed the data using an Excel template in order to drive my instruction. While it was a very important tool that gave me a lot of information, I did see the added stress and constant pressure it put on my students by spending such a huge portion of each month on standardized tests.

I believe equally as important, educators need to explore the wide variety of assessment tools that are available to them that will give them deeper insight into their students' strengths and deficiencies, and will also allow students to be met with greater success by providing alternate means of assessment. For example, arts-infusion techniques are one way to integrate assessment alternatives that engage learners and allow students with a unique set of learning modalities to be successful. At the school I am currently leading, it is even in our mission that we are preparing our students for college through a "rigorous, arts-infused curriculum." While we still definitely need a great deal of growth in this area, it has been a positive experience to see students who might not normally fair as well with a traditional paper and pencil test to be met with success through engaging activities that include areas such as movement, drama, and song (while still covering content area and providing the teacher with meaningful data points).

I would be interesting in continuing to explore alternate ways of assessing students' mastery of standards that go above and beyond standardized tests.

I recently had the opportunity to complete the reading on Project-Based Learning (PBL) and learned a great deal, particularly since this is an area I have very little knowledge of/experience with.

Diane McGrath's article "Getting Started with Project-Based Learning" defines PBL as "teaching and learning around projects that are driven by an authentic question or problem that is central to the discipline/curriculum, involves the building of a community of learners, and culminates in the presentation of a student-constructed work" (p. 1).

One point that McGrath brought up was that students who engage in PBL perform as well as, or better than, students in traditional classrooms, on standardized tests. Although, as I mentioned above, I do not have a great deal of background in PBL, I would imagine this to be true. Unfortunately in the field of education, so much is driven by standardized tests and so much time is spent on "teaching to the test", we are doing our students a disservice by not engaging them in authentic experiences that promote creativity, higher-order thinking, collaboration, problem-solving skills, and more that will stay with them for a lifetime rather than instructing students on how to best perform on a multiple choice examination. I believe that PBL holds a great deal of potential for educators and students alike, and am interested in learning more about this concept and how to integrate into my own school.

Connecting this to my own experiences, I plan to speak to some of the teachers to my school to learn more about their skills and knowledge related to Project-Based learning, and consider how we might be able to roll out PBL within our school. I realize that something like this would probably have to start small (perhaps within one grade level in a subject area such as Math or Science which lends itself well to work such as this) and then could be incorporated on a broader, school-wide scale with the lessons we learn throughout the process.

September 9th's class was very valuable to me. There were several interesting and valuable components that I'd like to share:

1. Pasha and Anne's Cool Tool demos were great. The Adobe site Pasha shared and the Skype and Blabberize sites that Anne discussed were good resources that I look forward to using both on my own as well as sharing with my staff members. With their being so many excellent tools available to educators on the web, I think that the Cool Tools portion of our class will be an exciting way to talk about tools we use and enjoy as well as learn from our classmates.

2. Our discussion of the sites we have been exploring as part of our Individual Integration Project was helpful tonight. I enjoyed having the opportunity to talk about one of the sites I have been spending a lot of time on, BetterLesson.org. I was able to utilize the NETS standards for teachers which I have been familiarizing myself with in order to think about how this all relates to 21st century technology skills. Again, I also enjoyed hearing from my classmates about the different sites they have been exploring and relating to NETS standards and LoTi.

3. Finally I enjoyed the breakout room time with LaRhonda for several reasons. First, it was good to hear about the sites she has been exploring. Next, she gave me a different perspective on LoTi levels, where a site I had been looking at which I thought was a lower LoTi level, LaRhonda was able to provide an alternative perspective that allowed me to see it was actually further along the continuum than I had originally thought. Last but not least, I had been looking for an online resource where I could start my site for EDIT 7500 and LaRhonda told me about Weebly, which I opened an account for. I wish I had thought about this site earlier because I could have done my blog directly from there instead of linking to an external Google site, but regardless, it will be valuable in creating one home base where I can host my Individual Integration Project, Digital Citizenship Project, and more.

This week I've been working on my Webpage with Examples assignment and have found several great resources that have been helpful in thinking about my Individual Integration Project. I've had the opportunity to speak with our Professor, Chan Min Kim, about the possibility of completing my project with adult learners in a K - 12 setting, since this is the primary group of learners I am currently working with.

As a result, I've reviewed two sites thus far and considered important areas such as the target audience, technologies used, and how the site meets ISTE standards/LoTi Level 3 above.

First I visited the Google Apps Education Edition training module which can be found at http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home/module-1. This site is an online resource for educators looking to integrate Google Apps into their school and/or classroom, and provides a breakdown of four sections including areas such as "Getting Around" and "Customization". I considered this in relation to the ISTE Standard: "i. Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning" this site was a great example of how technology is being creatively used to improve student learning.

The next site I reviewed was BetterLesson.org, which can be found at www.betterlesson.org. This site was developed by teachers, for teachers, and is an online social networking/collaboration site where teachers can upload resources, ideas, and more, and gather same from other teachers, searching by standards, content area, keywords, and more. The reason I believe this is at a Level 6 for LoTi is because it truly involves two-way collaborations amongst educators, with teachers both uploading resources, gathering resources, and engaging in interactions with 21st century tools such as "tagging", a BetterLesson blog, Twitter, and more. I actually had the opportunity to sign up the teachers in my school for this site and thus far have had positive feedback from users who have gotten to go to the site and share/download resources.

For the remaining sites I will explore, I am interested in finding sites with videos and other dynamic learning experiences that relate to adult learners in the field of education.

This semester I'm looking forward to participating in EDIT 7500, Technology Enhanced Learning Environments, as part of my work in the Ed.S program at the University of Georgia. I hope to both gain knowledge and skills from my fellow classmates and professors, as well as share resources and ideas with others that will enhance their experience in the course.

I have enjoyed using the Google Applications thus far. I am fairly familiar with these tools, and integrate them into my own practices at the school I currently work at, such as working collaboratively on a Weekly E-Bulletin that is sent out to my staff. My Director of Instruction as well as I contribute to this document, and using Google Docs to share this document amongst ourselves prior to sharing with the staff has been a great time-saver and online collaboration tool.

In terms of the course content, I think that the four main projects, the Individual Integration Project, the Digital Citizenship Project, my Reflective Blog, and finally the Ed Tech Conference (which I will have to complete the alternate assignment for since I am no longer living in Georgia) will help me to grow as an instructional leader who values technology integration in K - 12 schools. I worked with the ISTE several years ago as part of a grant I received (HP's Technology for Teaching) but am unfamiliar with LoTi and would like to learn more about this concept.

Overall, I am excited about the possibilities ahead and most importantly learning from others as well as through the projects I complete.

EDIT 7550E

This is a test for our 7550 blog.