Week 15- Looking ahead, closing thoughts

Here I begin my final blog posting of my graduate studies.  This internship has been one that has pushed me to do things that I otherwise would not have had the drive to attempt, and I am so grateful for the "push" from both my college instructors and supervisors. 

Last week I attended a grant writing workshop with helped me get a feel for what was expected of me when writing my robotics/S.T.E.A.M. grant.  I am very passionate about the project and I have spent many hours refining it to show the need of the program at our school. This grant is something that concludes my internship, but also opens doors for me as well.  I am so excited to use what I learned about technology integration to help others learn and succeed!

Week 14

This week was very exciting and began with finding out that Schorlemmer Elementary made the paper for robotics!





This picture was taken back when Schorlemmer Elementary first accepted the grant in the amount of $4,000 to go toward purchasing a robotics "laboratory." It was super exciting as it marked the beginnings of my internship. It's crazy how much has been accomplished since that day!
This week also presented setbacks as mentioned in my previous post. I was to attend a grant writing workshop on my campus this past Tuesday but was unable to due to unforeseen circumstances. Thankfully I will be attending the workshop this Tuesday, and care has been taken so that there are not any problems this time around.


One of the highlights this week was receiving our newest classmate, Samuel the Corn Snake!





He was a great extension to our ongoing "Pesky Pythons" S.T.E.A.M. project and served as a learning opportunity for students to learn the difference between venomous and nonvenomous snakes. Quite a few of my students got the opportunity to hold "Sammy" and face any fears or misconceptions they had of snakes.

This week students continued to use technology to research pythons as an invasive species in Florida, as well as in math stations. It is amazing how well technology has been integrated into our day-to-day activities. When it becomes second-nature for students to quickly grab a kindle when conducting an activity, you know that the marriage of technology and education has been successful.


Can't wait to share my next week of adventures with you!

Week 13

This past week was pretty exciting, and students got to participate in a really neat STEAM activity I found in the book I mentioned in the previous post. This week students continued to post and respond to posts on Seesaw. I now have a few parents who are connected to Seesaw and are able to see their child’s learning. Students also finished taking the survey from the previous week and I received some very informative results that you can view by clicking here

As mentioned above, I found a STEAM activity titled "Pesky Pythons." As the name describes students are asked to research pythons as an invasive species in the state of Florida. Students used computers, kindles, and books to conduct research on snakes, pythons in particular. Students absolutely loved having this time to research on their own in collaborative groups! In the end groups will create a powerpoint presentation to present their findings.





This past week students also used Quizizz and Kahoot to review for Monday’s Social studies benchmark. Students really enjoy mixing and matching the two quiz sites and I have already seen results showing that it helps with their understanding!


I also spent this past week working on writing my grant. Due to unforeseen circumstances the grant writing workshop had to be rescheduled for May 1st.


This post is a little later in the week than usual, but it's been a crazy week! I look forward to sharing more ways our class is integrating technology into our learning!

Week 12

While this week consisted of STAAR testing, cancelled field trips, and district-wide network outages, work still needed to be done when it came to technology integration. I purchased the following book titled "STEAM Design Challenges" which I had a chance to read up on while students were testing. STEAM stands for Science, technology engineering, art, and math and this book contains student-centered project-based activities which are perfect for after testing. The first activity we are going to engage in is titled "Pesky Pythons" and is a research-based activity which has students designing a powerpoint presentation.

Students also participated in a survey to assess their engagement with using the Seesaw online journaling application. I created the survey using Typeform. You can view the survey here:https://jordanh3.typeform.com/to/sWN9LpThe survey gave me a look into how the students thought of online journaling, peer collaboration, and the use of a rubric with journaling. While not all of my participating students have completed the survey, I have received very interesting data that gave me a look at how the students really felt about Seesaw. Below is a screenshot that gives you a sample of the data collected:

 

While more passive, this week was also a week of Seesaw responses to posts. Students posted pictures of our Board Game/ Movie day, and parents that were connected had the opportunity to view posts from their own child.

 

Next upcoming week will be interesting, as I will be taking a grant writing class as I begin writing my grant to receive funding for Robotics at our campus! I look forward to sharing my experiences with you soon!

Weeks 10 and 11

The past two weeks have been a true test of the effectiveness of integrating technology into the math and science classroom.  This upcoming week students will be taking the STAAR math and reading assessments, and so the past few weeks have been spent in intensive intervention as we worked to prepare.  Technology plays a significant role in our classroom environment and took the form of math games, drill and practice, as well as QR codes for students to self-check their work.  Students used the math program Prodigy that I had mentioned in a previous post to work on computation, and Reflex math to improve math fluency.  Students also worked on completing STAAR aligned task cards that they scanned using a QR code reader on their Kindles.

But these past weeks weren't just about math.  My class participated in a virtual lab investigation where they got to create working circuits.  Students really enjoyed the activity and used Seesaw to share their reflections with their classmates. The greatest benefit of completing a virtual circuit lab was that students could safely find out what happens if the circuit was overloaded, which caused the batteries to catch fire.  This use of a virtual lab showed one of the benefits of technology integration in the science classroom - students could take risks, manipulate their works in ways they would normally not be able to do safely in a real lab environment. 

Example student reflection page

      Student designing then sketching a complete circuit.

These past two weeks have been intense, but have shown to be great opportunities to integrate technology into the classroom.

Below is the link to the virtual lab:
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab

Week 9

This past week included both the integration of technology into the classroom, as well as hours spent preparing for my graduate comprehensive exam.  To prepare for my exam, I reviewed concepts pertaining to Psychological Foundations in curriculum, more specifically the constructivist theory and its applications in the classroom.  Also in review was augmented reality, which I have gained a sparked interest in. I hope to be able to incorporate augmented reality into a math station soon to help motivate students as we prepare for the upcoming STAAR test.

This week students continued working on their robotics projects, and, due to a change in stations, students were given an opportunity each day to refine their math computation and fluency skills using two great programs: Reflex Math and Prodigy Math.

Reflex math is a program that I wrote a grant for and received for free for a year.  It is an amazing program that works on building students' math fluency.  Students create an avatar and play different games as they build their fluency.  Their goal each day is to reach their "green light," which means they have successfully completed a lesson in Reflex for that day. 

                                                      www.explorelearning.com
Prodigy Math is a program that I am new to having my students use, but am already in love with.  Like Reflex, students create an avatar and then travel about a virtual world defeating monsters and leveling up.  Students can collect special clothing items and weapons.  Teachers can log in and collect data to assess student math performance.  Best of all, it's free! 

This upcoming week we plan on going back to our Seesaw lessons, hopefully finishing and having students become "Seesaw Certified."

Week 8

While I spent Spring break out of the classroom, I found plenty of time to work on my research and learn more about technology integration. I started the week by viewing a webinar by Istation that discussed the challenges with integrating technology into the classroom. You can find the webinar here:

https://www.edweek.org/ew/webinars/education-technology-webinars.html?override=web


The rest of the week I continued working on research, adding newly attained survey data from a recent technology survey.  I had sent a request for the survey a few weeks ago and finally was given access to the results.  It contained data that further showed a need for technology in the classroom and helped with giving purpose to both my research and internship.  

I also used this time away from the classroom to review for my upcoming Comprehensive exam.  I viewed both videos and research that related to AR in education and industry.  Below are a few of the sources I viewed:

Aug That!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg3CcaAgnUM

Using Aurasma and Powerpoint to create educational AR experiences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEVKtPEcgQg

AR in industry (Index AR Solutions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMEJnYKpwog

Caterpillar AR for inspection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8jMgBimuxg

Air measure app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8jMgBimuxg

I tried out the Air tape measure app and it was amazing how accurate it was!  It combined virtual reality with reality as it created a virtual tape measure to measure real objects.  Best of all the application was free!  I would like to do more research and see if there is such an app available for the kindle.  How neat would it be to have students measure objects at their desk with a virtual tape measurer?  Or measure objects that would otherwise be very difficult to measure, such as floor to ceiling or from one side of the room to the other? 


I also viewed videos and research that related to learning theory of constructivism and how it shapes curriculum.  The resources are below:

Constructivist Approaches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krqjqGIuC-A

Article on Learning Theories in Education Technology

https://www.scribd.com/document/342240877/Foundations-of-Curriculum

Breakout Session #1: Constructivist Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk-RdlAahXc

Today I was back in the classroom, and while it is good to be back, it was nice having this time to focus on professional development and further understanding how to integrate technology into the classroom.