Phase III: Signature Assignment

Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

1. Throughout my three lessons I was able to promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness through integrating technology. In my first lesson students used iPads and the computers to manipulate analog and digital clocks and in my second lesson they made video journals where they hypothesized about magnetism. Although my first lesson was not creative, I think the second one integrated technology in a way that allowed student innovative and inventiveness. They were asked to use critical thinking to predict and explain why they were predicting what they thought would happen. In my last lesson, students participated in a relay race and also used video journals to record how they were going to get from station to station or complete the tasks.
2. I was able to engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. The first lesson dealt with telling time and they used their computers and iPads to further develop their time telling abilities. They need to know how to read digital and analog clocks in everyday life as they get older, so this lesson addressed that real-world application.
3. In each of my lessons I was able to promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. The video reflections in lessons 2 and 3 allowed students to hypothesize and reflect on their original thoughts. My third lesson was collaboration based  and allowed students to build off of each others prior knowledge and develop new learning experiences.
4. Students were able to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments. The main lesson where students collaborated with their peers and teachers was the third lesson. They were placed into groups and had to work together and practice good teamwork in order to complete the tasks.

  

Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

1. I feel that I was able to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. My telling time lesson was a lesson I originally created in my math methods class. I was able to easily incorporate student centers with activities that used the computers and iPads to develop their abilities to tell time. My second lesson on magnetism was based off of an activity I saw in my science methods class. I was able to create a lesson around that activity and incorporated technology through students creating video reflection journals. My last lesson plan was not created based around technology integration. We developed an obstacle course that was focused around developing students’ teamwork abilities and we then decided it would be beneficial to video journal and record their collaboration and abilities to work together and be successful.
2. To develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities, I would like to create an environment where they feel they are safe and as though we are all functioning as a team. I think I would begin the year with a lesson like my third one with the obstacle course. I wouldn’t be able to have it based off of previous lessons like this one, but I could incorporate physical activity in some centers and have the activities be based on prior knowledge from the previous year.
3. Throughout my lesson reflections, we were asked to discuss how students with diverse learning needs would be addressed. By reflecting on my lessons and writing about how I would accommodate for diverse learners, I was able to customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
4. In my third lesson, I was able to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards. We used observation as a form of assessment as well as the video journals and the discussion with the class as a whole and the teachers after the lesson was complete. If we had been teachers in an actual classroom, I think we could have used the resulting data to inform learning and teaching. We were able to use that to reflect on our learning experiences in our blogs as well.

Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

1. To demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations, students participated in using iPads. They were required to be familiar with the way they work and apply their learning to what they already know about technology. I think this is helpful in exciting them about the topic at hand because students do not typically get to use technology in their classes. But if you incorporate games and activities with the computers or tablets it will help excite them and get them interested in their own learning.
2. In order to collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation, I would like to  be able to hold technology workshops. I think this would help students who are unable to have items used in class at home to become familiar with the technologies. This would help with student isolation from their peers and help eliminate bullying due to socioeconomic status and factors relating to what they are able to afford and use at home. I would also like for parents to participate in the workshops so they can become more familiar with technologies their students are using in class and be able to support their students by helping them when necessary.
3. I would like to have a classroom blog to be able to communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers. I want to get feedback from parent and students and allow that to be an open forum for classroom discussion. I would also like to be able to relay information to students who miss class and record lessons to post for them to review. I could post any information missed and discuss what activities or topics we go over in class. I think this would be beneficial for both students and parents, as well as me as a teacher.
4. I would like model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning by having workshops, as previously mentioned. I would also use as many technologies as I am able to in the classroom in order to help my students be ready for the real world.

Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

1. In order to advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources, I would like to help educate parents on these topics so they can effectively reinforce these ideas being taught in the classroom. I would also have mini lessons before technology is used about safe internet practices with my students to ensure they know the responsibility that comes with using technology and are able to use it properly.
2. To address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources, I would make the resources used in the classroom as readily available as possible to students, whether it be during or after class. I would also discuss with students how they learn best and what technologies they feel proficient with and what they would like to learn more about.
3. To promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information, I would go back to number 1 and implement those practices. I would also like to have a lesson dedicated specifically to teaching students about safe and unsafe digital practices and the implications of those practices.
4. One idea I would love to try in my classroom is pen pals. I think this is a great idea to develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness. I have also seen teachers use student blogs where they interact with students from diverse places and cultures. This helps by engaging students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.