My journey started in September of 2020. This is when I decided to take a big jump and join the master's degree program for Innovative Learning through Touro University. The reason I say it was a big jump for me is because Innovative Learning was an area that I felt most uncomfortable with as a teacher. Due to this awareness, I have pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, and I can proudly say that I am weeks away from earning my degree! The acronym TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. As you can see from the image above, there are three main areas that come together to form the TPACK. The Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) area is what we describe as the "What am I teaching?" After teaching 3rd grade for the past 7 years, the content is probably my most comfortable area of TPACK. However, adding the technological component was outside my comfort zone. I mean, sure, I had students on the computers typing reports or googling information for a project. However, I now have students using GimKit, Kahoot, Quizizz, FlipGrid, Google Classroom, Zoom, Clever, No Red Ink, Jamboards, EdPuzzle and more. My awareness and growth in the technological realm is benefiting my students and their content understanding. The Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) area is the "How will I teach it?" This is where the choices a teacher makes to "teach" the content becomes most important for having the information "stick" for students' understanding and learning. Since utilizing more technology with my students, I have noticed the content "sticking" more for most of them. In the beginning of my journey I found it incredible that different gaming sites helped students learn better and easier. Then I thought more about it and realized that the gaming is what was engaging for them and ultimately made it fun and exciting. When education is fun and exciting for any student, but for my 3rd graders, it really made a difference in their learning. I was much more successful in my test scores this year than any other year in the past. Finally the Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) area...talk about changes for me! As I mentioned above, adding more engaging technology to teach the content standards has made a world of difference for me as a teacher and for my students as learners. I am a silver-lining thinker. I believe when our world turned upside down due to COVID 19, one of the several silver-linings is the expansion and knowledge of online learning, online learning platforms and engaging online gaming sites. There are several teachers that would have never ventured out and learned what they have this past year about virtual learning and gaming, had it not been forced upon them due to COVID. I am thankful for this extra push because I feel we are all better teachers by challenging ourselves to think outside the box and change the way we teach (pedagogy) to be for effective and efficient teachers for our young learners! To learn more about TPACK, please visit their website at www.tpack.org/.
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Blog: Investigate your district’s mission statement and policies around technology and 21st century learning? What is it? It’s an all-encompassing or does it need a gentle nudge from you? Analyze and comment. "TRANSFORMING LIVES BY INSTILLING AND INSPIRING LIFELONG LEARNING IN EVERY STUDENT". This is the mission statement for Napa Valley Unified School District. Due to the fact that mission statements are short, to the point, and a statement, I can see how this statement blankets our generic goals as a district. Below are some of my thoughts:
Overall, I think the mission statement is very generic. I would like to see it written to be more specific to cover our diversity as a district. It should be specific as to why our district is special. For this week’s blog, please write about two things:
I am passionate about safety, respect, responsibility and kindness. I have always been the teacher that encourages positive relationships with others. I feel there is a need to teach students how to be responsible for their behaviors, how to use manners, how to engage in respectful conversation and encounters with one another, and how to be kind to each other. Therefore, I have always enjoyed teaching BEST/PBIS lessons and Second Step lessons. To the left, you will see the SEL rings of Instruction and Climate in the classroom. In addition, due to COVID and the recent online learning through personal laptops and ipads, I felt compelled to teach students how to be safe online learners. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I would like to include all of these passions into one driving research question. My driving research was "The Impact of Blending Digital Citizenship Lessons with Positive Behavior Interventions and Support in Elementary Students’ Online Learning". I have already shared my experience and results with my Principal. I am the BEST lead at my site, so I asked her if I could incorporate some digital citizenships lessons into our future BEST plans. She has agreed, so I will spend time this summer revamping our lesson plans! I am excited to move on with my results and share my successful experience with others; all the while teaching students to be safe, respectful, responsible and resourceful online learners. Write a paragraph answering the following questions: Choose a website that you liked from above. Who was their audience? Were they effective in presenting to them on every page? Why or why not?
Part 2: Having explored several capstone websites, write a blog about who you think the audience of your capstone is going to be and why. PART 1: I reviewed three different elementary (primary) websites. I liked them all but was impacted by one more than the others. It is interesting because of the three websites, this one had the most errors or "cons" as I listed it on my review sheet. However, the content is more closely related to my research and driving question. Shawn O'Neal is a teacher in the Fairfield district and she researched the Power of Yet! I liked the way she color coordinated her words and her logo. I appreciated her videos and visuals. I will definitely find the source(s) and use a couple of them on my website. I also like how she added a youtube video explaining TPACK. Ms. O'Neal's audiences are teachers and counselors. She worked with a lot of SEL and her driving question was built upon Growth Mindset and the Power of Yet. She was effective in presenting her ideas and message on each page. I wish someone recommended for her to show her results or to attach her research paper. I would have enjoyed looking that over also. I also wish someone had really read her rough drafts because there were several spelling errors and typos. One error occurred in her video where she quoted Henry Ford and used the improper "your". It should have been "you're". Part 2: The audience for my paper will be teachers, administrators, counselors and district employees that work with curriculum. My research is designed around teaching digital citizenship and blending the lessons with social-emotional learning and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. I hope the CommonSense.org lessons will be taught in every classroom, one day, from K-5 and possibly beyond. Our students need to be safe, respectful, responsible and kind while being online. Blog: Blog about your own goals relative to the the goals of the program. What hopes/thoughts do you have on how fellow cohort members can support you with completing your capstone and how you can support them? How will you work to support positive cohesion among your cohort? What is important to you in terms of group norms?
Cohort 20: What can I say about this awesome group that isn't already obvious? We have really meshed well together. We were six strangers that have grown together and respected one another since the beginning. I feel safe to speak and write my thoughts without judgement from any of them. I also appreciate the fact that they each feel comfortable to provide me with positive, constructive criticism and encourage me to be the best me possible. This fosters my growth as a learner. I know that we will be life-long friends after our program has come to a close. Future thoughts, hopes and concerns: Thankfully I do not have any unfinished business with my ARP. I did not have any new questions pop up that I need to resolve. I hope that I can be creative and technologically savvy enough for this last stretch in Semester 3. I am excited about being creative but it also makes me nervous. I am a bit concerned about the workload this semester. I had no idea that we doubled up in order to get 14 weeks into 7 weeks. However, with that being said, I am excited to have at least one week off of everything (I am also teaching summer school this year) before we return to the 2021-2022 school year. |