Final Reflection!!

Looking back to my first blog post helps me to truly understand how far I’ve come in my perspective of technology in the classroom. Obviously, I was pro-technology back in January, but I had vague reasoning that was based on facts and opinions of others, yet now I am personally passionate about technology!

A teacher leader is one who seeks to disrupt the current social norms in education to bring about an innovation that will improve the system. A teacher leader in the digital age makes changes regarding technology. Too often we sit in faculty lounges and listen to teachers complain and gripe about the issues we face on a daily basis. The struggle is real, but change will not take place unless it springs forth from the grass-roots. The teachers in the trenches will be the ones that bring about the true change for future generations of students. We must lead out by speaking out, presenting, researching, sharing, teaching, collaborating and much more. Our voices must be heard, our skills shared, and our ideas spread throughout the country. As teacher leaders we are obligated to make the use of technology an enjoyable and effective experience for those around us. When we fail, we try again. We have the responsibility to be the cheerleaders for the students as well as the teachers to move the digital age forward into the classrooms.

In addition to my plans to be more involved in the digital world of education (as stated above), I will also make changes in my own classroom. Personally, my greatest take away from the course was the need for alignment in our curriculum. I am sure as an undergraduate I spent time unpacking standards and aligning objectives, but this course really took me through the ringer! I want to stick with this means of creating scope and sequences once I have my own classroom. I also want my technology incorporation to be purposeful, but also natural. I want my classroom to be the room which always is buzzing! I am now not afraid to include technology in sub plans, and I feel confident in finding funding for the devices I need.

This course has been an excellent opportunity for me to dive into the ed-tech Master’s program.  I have learned a great deal and I am excited for my courses this summer

Summative.

How will you acquire technology for your classroom?

Working on our grants proposal web quest has opened my eyes to the millions of dollars that are sitting out there waiting to be given to schools that are looking to implement technology! There are so many grants available from large foundations, federal government, small businesses and other sources. Not only that, but there is crowdfunding, door-to-door begging, donors choice, etc. For my own classroom, I’m not yet sure how I will fund the technology needed, simply because I don’t yet know what sources will be available, but now I know where to look. I am currently working with the principal at a charter school in American Fork to set up an interview for a 4^th grade position. As I was researching this particular school they did not seem to have a huge technology focus. I was energized by the thought of filling my classroom and slowly helping bring this charter school to the cutting edge of technology. Maybe these are large goals – that are extremely dependent upon a job offer – but I am no longer afraid of finding sources to fund what I want. Although I am still a little intimidated by big funding places (like the government) I feel extremely confident that I’d be able to acquire technology for my classroom from smaller businesses supporting their local charter school.

How does the use of technology impact your classroom management strategies?

During my undergraduate studies at UVU we had a classroom management course during every semester. It is one of the most difficult aspects of teaching, especially for new teachers, and when you put a device into a child’s hands, it has the potential to turn all of your well planned tactics and strategies topsy turvy! The potential problem of classroom management involving technology hadn’t occurred to me until I was typing out the logistics of my detailed lesson plan. The key to a smooth classroom is to have routines in place so that the students can respond positively to expected behavior. Technology is an added element, but the basic theory remains the same. Procedure and routine needs to be established from day one! Each classroom will be different depending on how the students and teachers interact, but students should be given the opportunity to be creative with the devices and tools they are given while still respecting, maintaining, and caring for the equipment. The best way to find this balance is with established procedures.

Why use technology if you always need a backup plan?

When I was a senior in high school, for my comm 1010 class I was asked to give a speech using a PowerPoint presentation as visual support. I worked so hard on a PowerPoint all about color guard and I was so excited to present it. I was confident that my CD burned properly, but when I put the CD in the player it did not bring up my PowerPoint! To this day, I still have a complex with using data CDs because they failed me once and I felt humiliated. All of us have been in similar situations. It is terrible when our tech doesn’t work. Why go through the sweat and tears for technology when we always should have a back up plan? This question can be answered by reviewing everything we’ve learned over the life of this course! We are here to disrupt the current classroom. We are not teachers called to maintain the status quo and teach the same lessons that our teachers taught! As leaders in technology and curriculum we will experience failure, but as all leaders do, we will become better and more efficient if we press on. The benefits of technology that helps engage our students and prepare them for a digitizing world are worth all back up plans that we create. Our students need the practice and support that comes from daily use of devices in their classroom. We cannot let them enter this digital world without arming them with a knowledge and confidence that they will be able to maneuver through. Teachers are made to be flexible, and I am quickly becoming a passionate advocate of tech in the class, because it is the only way we will make the necessary changes to our education system, which will change our students, which will change the community, and this will change the world.

Reflection for Funding Sources

1.     What factors should be considered in seeking funding for technology projects in your classroom? Which of these factors are most important? Explain

In a previous graduate course I was given the assignment to research and apply for a grant. This was the first time my eyes were opened to the extremely generous amounts of money that is available to educators if we are willing to jump through the hoops to get it! Throughout that experience, I followed behind my group blindly as they applied for a grant through Crayola, but our in retrospect, I can see that our project was poor. This time around I felt much more guided in my project, but most importantly I felt passionate about what I was applying for.

Many factors should be considered when we take the time to apply for a grant. First of all, it is essential that we have a project idea in mind, because this narrows our thought process as well as the different types of grants we may qualify for. As educators, we receive resources from our district, and it is important that we first look to the resources we have been allotted before we begin applying for grants. Funding sources also love to see that teachers are frugal and only purchasing supplies that are necessary to further student achievement, so we have a lot of research that we must do to guarantee that we are being money-smart! It’s also important to take into consideration the way in which the project will be assessed, evaluated, and if we are qualified to apply for the grant. Based on my experience (which is extremely limited) the most important factors in applying for funding would be the clear project in mind and the current resources that are already available. This enables the grant writer to write directly and specifically to fill a need to improve student achievement.

2.     Compare your confidence in finding technology funding before you started this lesson and now. How has your confidence changed (if at all)? Explain what you have learned and how it has impacted you.

Before I started researching for this class (and the class previously) I viewed grants as a big scary monster that would potentially be really rewarding if you tackled the hoops necessary to jump through. I assumed that only veteran teachers were able to get funding and I assumed that all funding projects went through major foundations or the federal government. Now, I feel much more confident in finding funding! I think the biggest take away that I have gained from this web-quest is knowing what you want when it comes to applying for grants. There is so much out there and each grant has narrow requirements, so if you narrow your project first you are able to weed out the grants instead of the grants weeding out you! This has impacted me because now I feel more confident in tackling the big scary grant monster! I know that I could find the funding I need, and there are so many different ways to obtain money for our classrooms.

3.     How likely are you to follow through on your project plan and funding sources? Why? What are your next steps in bringing technology to your students?

Now that I feel more confident in finding grants, I would definitely be more likely to look for the grant funding in the future. At this time, it is unlikely that I’d move forward with this particular grant because it was based off of my future classroom. I am hoping to get hired for the upcoming school year, and in that situation I may look into applying in the next year or two. However, with technology changing so rapidly and depending on the resources of my classroom, it is likely that I would need to “re-vamp” my project to match my own classroom. As for my next steps, I plan on entering my classroom with the eye to see the potential for increased technology! I want to find the “hidden mobile lab carts” in the school and be sure that I am utilizing all available resources and funding currently offered. After I have scavenged the school, I will search google to find my funding! There are so many grants out there, and when you have a project you are passionate about you can find the money you need!

Backwards is the Only Way to Go

I just finished my unit plan, so looking back on the process and synthesizing the experience, I took a backwards design approach with a Kiyna-like twist. I don’t feel that I can give an honest opinion as to how it affected my curriculum design pattern, because I don’t have any experience to compare it to (except my undergrad work, but that was a while ago), but I feel that the steps I took were effective. I started with my unit plan with my standards. I reviewed my scope and sequence and the plans that I had made, but the more I thought and pondered the more stuck I became. On closer inspection, I discovered that my original essential questions for the unit were not what I really wanted for my students, so I changed them and aligned them to the core standards and my GRASPS assignment. I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do for the GRASPS, but I didn’t know what the steps were to get there. I threw ideas back and forth for days on end, but I had hit a mental road block and could not form a flow of lessons for a unit plan!

This is where the backwards design became essential. The only way I pushed through the road block was to take my essential questions, standards, and GRASPS assignment and work it backwards. I knew that I wanted to include technology in every aspect possible and this was able to drive me to flesh out each lesson. The standards became my … standard. I came up with lessons until I’d covered all the standards sufficiently, and then based my objectives and instructional ideas from the standards I’d chosen for each lesson.

Having a focus on technology in my lesson plans gave me direction in both the assessments and instructional strategies. I stretched myself a little further for each lesson by thinking, is there a way I could incorporate more technology into this lesson? Where can I add in a video? When would be a good time for them to engage in a simulator? These questions shaped my cover sheet and overall my entire unit.

Overall, I found that when it came down to the wire, the only way to align my unit plan with what I wanted (not to mention what the rubric wanted) I had to use backwards design. If not, then I would have had random lessons with no cohesion, but because I based my design primarily on my standards, there is a common cord that strings throughout all seven lessons.