ISTE 3

Standard 3: 

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

Indicator c.  

Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats

Description: 

In order to get students engaged in learning and using new tools and learning processes, I use a variety of different mediums to present content to my students.  The past school year I implemented a flipped classroom to communicate relevant information and ideas as the ISTE indicator states.  Students would watch a tutorial video at home while filling in a notes outline.  In class the next day, students would then be able to practice the skills they learned in the video.  Class activity would look different depending on the day.  Some days, it would strictly be a workday giving students the chance to get assistance during their independent practice time if needed.  Other days we would do activities such as games, gallery walks, QR code checks and the like.  Students were given the chance to display their own knowledge in a variety of ways as well.  One of the projects from this year was producing a song or skit over fraction operations.  When charging my students with such a task, I always perform the task myself so they can see an example, but also so that I am aware of their potential struggles.  These different activities allow us to become familiar with different digital tools and formats.  Another tool I used to relay information quickly to my students and their parents was Edmodo.  Through Edmodo, students accessed all the video notes and assignments and parents could keep track of daily assignments and upcoming assessments.  Examples of these items are below. 

This is a screenshot of my Edmodo page.  As you can see, this particular announcement went to my students as well as all the parents that signed up.  They receive announcements and video/assignment links within each post. 

                                                                                                                  

Video Lesson                                                                                 
This is an example of a flipped video example that students would do as  homework.                                                                            

Song Example        

This was a song I wrote about Integers as an intro to their own song writing project over fractions. 

Align the Stars Game

This is a review game we use that is played similar to Connect Four but digital.  I typically have students come to my computer to choose the location of their star once they answer a question correctly.

Analysis:

I chose to do a flipped classroom for its many benefits, some of which you can read about here.  For my struggling students, they have a way to review content instruction as many times as they need.  Parents also benefit from the videos because they can see 'how the teacher teaches it' in order to help their kids.  One of the most common phrases I get from parents at conferences is "I can't help [my kid] because you guys teach it so different than when I learned it."  Video lessons eliminates this completely.  It also teaches students note taking skills, listening skills, and causes them to self reflect on what they understood and what they may need help with face to face.  This allows students a chance to learn in a new format and makes them more diverse in their abilities.

I assign projects, like the song writing project, in order to tap into student interests and talents, as well as push students to try something new.  Everyone has strengths and opening the door to new assessment opportunities allows students to work together and showcase what their specific strengths are.  In this project, I had students showcase their musical ability, writing ability, film editing techniques (some made videos), and much more.  They used digital tools to enhance their presentations which enhanced their overall learning.

Lastly, I use games in the classroom to increase engagement and again, cater to student needs and interests.  Most games we play have a digital component - whether that be like the example above where I control the digital display or if they play Quizlet Live on their own devices.  Students are often motivated by competition so bringing that into my classroom always brings positive results.  

Reflection:

One thing I’ve realized about using new digital tools in the classroom, is that there IS such thing as too much.  In our increasingly digital age, it’s easy to feel like we have to implement new tools on a regular basis.  However, we need to focus less on quantity and more on quality.  I want my students to become confident and do really well in a few things, rather than do mediocre work in a lot of different ways.  I need to make sure to choose digital tools that will allow my students to practice different skills within the one tool so they can then take that knowledge and apply it to other tools as applicable. 

When assigning projects and activities, I also need to be aware of the time put into the content versus the time put in to using the actual tool.  In the song/skit project, I found students spending more time on making the presentation look good rather than making sure the math was correct and clear.  Moving forward, I want to make sure I choose diverse but easy to use tools so that my students are forced to spend more time working with the content rather than the tool itself.