CEP 820 Developer Notebook Final Reflection

http://justrightmath.weebly.com/

My experience creating an online course this semester is one to remember. I am a kindergarten teacher and the website I created for CEP 820 is called “Just Right Math for Kindergarten.” It is meant to be a hybrid course. The website provides students with several informal lessons, learning songs and most importantly, practice. Most of the core math instruction and assessments will be done in the classroom. The online course I ended up creating and the one I had originally planned on creating are as different as night and day. The whole time I was brainstorming ideas for an online course, it never crossed my mind that I would actually be able to create something I could have my kindergarten class use. I asked myself; How could they read the directions? How my students answer questions if they can hardly read, write or type? How would I know if they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing? There were so many “unknowns” that it almost seemed undo-able. It seemed like creating a course for an older crowd would be much easier in this aspect. But I also didn't like the idea of spending over three months creating an online course that I will never use. I expressed some of these concerns in my developer notebook and luckily, my instructor gave me some feedback that convinced me to go for it. This is when I really had to start getting creative. I knew I wanted it to be a “Just Right Math” course because my school has a “Just Right Reading” block of time each day and there has been talk of starting a “Just Right Math” block. I thought this would be the perfect supplement for this. With my new plans in mind, I was excited to get started. But where should I start? I chose Weebly for my course management system. I knew the topic I was going to use so that but the difficult part for me was figuring out how to I was going to present the information in a child-friendly manner that is organized and effective. I used the Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten Math as a guide and I posted them on my online course as well. In order to cover all of the standards for kindergarten math, I needed to provide content in the areas of counting and cardinality, algebraic operations, place value, measurement and geometry. I tried presenting the material in several ways. The first way I tried was a week-by-week online course. So, on Week 2, students would work on the specific lessons and activities that are designated for that week. The problem was that with this format, “Just Right Math” wasn't necessarily “Just Right” for everyone because each child is forced to do the same activity as the rest of the class. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Next, I separated it into units. This way there was more choices available for each student within each specified unit. The units were going to be used as a pacing guide for me to use with the students. The idea was for the online course to go side-by-side with the content that the students are learning in class. I felt like this way the course was still organized and my problems with accountability would be easier to solve. The only downfall of this was that I teach at a public Montessori school so there isn't actually a map that our curriculum follows. There is no whole group instruction. Everything is as individualized as possible. Therefore, how could I link everything into units? And what exactly would a unit consist of? And who’s to say when it’s time to move to another unit? Finally, I came up with the idea that I am using right now. I plan to keep it too! I simply separated all of the content into eight categories. They each represent major components of the Common Core State Standards for kindergarten math. I broke “counting and cardinality” down into three categories - count sequence, count objects and compare numbers. I also broke “algebraic operations” down into addition and subtraction. The other three categories are place value, measurement and shapes. The best way I can explain it would be to say that I made the entire course available for all students so that they could spend their time online efficiently. Each student will work on different parts of the online course, depending on where they are ability wise in each of the eight different sections. Accountability, documentation and assessment were my next concerns. Among many, many other questions that ran (and still run) through my mind, the one that sticks out the most is, How can I make sure my online course is actually helping children learn? The only way I can think of is observation. Are the students demonstrating a prior knowledge in class of something I have not yet taught them? Are students retaining information that we have not revisited in the classroom in quite some time? Are students performing noticeably better all around than ever before? If the answer to any (or all) of these questions is yes then I am confident that I have designed something that is effective. However (isn't there always?), how do I know if students are just going online and doing nothing but play games and click around? Because I’m only one person with two eyes, I recognize that I cannot watch every student every time they go online. I came up with a strategy that is the best way I know of at this current time to track which lessons and activities students are doing. and whether or not they are challenging for each individual student. I put a Google Form on the bottom of each of the Directions, Lesson, Practice and Challenge pages. The only thing the form asks is for the student’s name. Every time a student uses a page, whether it be watch an instructional video or playing a practice game, they have to type their name and submit it. I have a database that their names are sent to. I have a separate database for each page they submit their name from. In addition, there is an “Exit Survey” they need to fill out each day they visit the online course. It simply asks what lesson they did, if it was too easy, just right, or too difficult and what lesson they will do next. This is a good tool for me to use to keep an extra eye on which students are using which activities and whether or not they are understanding what they are learning. In order to accommodate for my young, inexperienced learners I used lots of aesthetically pleasing colors and pictures, child friendly words and large print. On my “Meet Mrs. Kim” page, I used Voki to read my words out loud via a recording of my voice. Each section has a Screencast demonstrating exactly what to do for each activity. There are other accommodations I would like to someday add such as navigation to the next page links on each page and lesson review screencasts. Hopefully I will get to do that before long. The most important piece of advice I can offer someone who wants to create an online course would be to choose something that interests you and that you will be able to use some day. For me, knowing that I would someday use this for my own students was a driving force to do my best work. I would also recommend having a solid idea of what your expectations are for your online course, before you begin. Be specific. This is something that would have saved me a whole lot of time that was instead spent changing things around on my online course, several times over. My topic of kindergarten math is so broad. It covers such a wide range of topics and an endless amount of resources. It was fun to surf the internet in search of activities for my online course but again, knowing what exactly I was looking for would have been helpful. If I could go back in time and instead choose only one standard of kindergarten math to do, I would not. I recognize that it would have been much more in depth and more easily assessed but I wouldn't have been able to use it as an online “math” course. I wouldn't be able to take my class to the computer lab and have them all visit the “Just Right Math” online course and pick up where they left off. I’m glad I chose to go the extra mile and I look forward to using it with my class!

Here is a link to my Developer Notebook.

Making It Stick - Achieving Student Achievement

CEP 815 Making It Stick on Prezi

"Shape It Up" Lesson Plan Implementation

The lesson plan I created utilizes a Smart Board in conjunction with an activity I found on the SMART Exchange website called “Shape It Up.”  The activity is a one or two-person game that is played on a Smart Board.  The goal of the game is to identify specific shapes in each picture.  I chose this activity because it is an interactive, realistic and exciting way for children to learn.  It requires minimal instruction and supervision by providing it’s own control of error, which in turn promotes independence.  Originally, I didn't plan on using any verbal instruction.  However, after reviewing the Common Core State Standards for the lesson, I decided it was necessary to verbalize the names of the shapes during the lesson.  Although a silent demonstration would have been plenty guidance for the students to know how to do the activity, it would not have been adequate information to cover one of the standards for the lesson.  Standard K.G.2. states “Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.”  Because the vocabulary is a component that is necessary to achieve student mastery of this standard, I also added into my lesson plan a requirement for the students to state the name of each shape as they find it in the picture.  The control of error remains because each partner has to agree on the correct name for each shape.  In the event that neither partner knows the name, I designated two other students in the classroom as “go-to friends” for assistance if necessary.  

I implemented my lesson plan last week and overall, I am pleased with the outcome. There are 21 kindergarten students in my class with a wide range of ability levels. For the lesson, the children sat on the rug in front of the Smart Board while I demonstrated the “Shape It Up” activity.  The first page of the activity has a circle, square, rectangle and triangle on it.  Each of the shapes is labeled with a brief description of it’s characteristics written next to it.  I read the words on the page and continued on to the first “picture” page.  Each “picture” page contains several pictures of objects that have the same shape as one of these four basic shapes.  I demonstrated how to choose the correct shape and drag it over to the corresponding picture.  There are a few other variations of the “picture” pages throughout the activity so I briefly demonstrated how to do some of them.  The children seemed interested in the lesson and eager to have a turn.

Upon completion of my demonstration, technology became the main facilitator for the activity, which gave me a chance to observe the students interacting with the shapes. It was satisfying to see that my behaviorist approach for teaching, was working.  By demonstrating some examples first, the students knew their expectations and the directions for how to do each page.  One unfortunate constraint of this activity is that only two students were able to use it at a time.  Because of this, some students had to wait so long for their turn that they forgot what to do on some pages, which made me very grateful for the control of error the activity provided.  Any time a student tried to put a shape in the wrong spot, it would bounce back.  They were unable to move on to the next page until all of the shapes were in the correct spot.  There were not many questions that the students asked me because of their requirement to ask the two “go-to friends” before asking me. The only type of questions I ended up having to answer were questions about the directions.   It was fascinating to watch the children problem-solve without my assistance.  They consulted with their partner about the characteristics of a given shape and then put it in the correct spot on the board.  The Smart Board  and the “Shape It Up” activity provided an interactive and effective learning experience for the students.  This is a tool I will definitely use again in the future.

Lesson Plan: Shapes in the Environment

1. Content:
Common Core State Standards:

K.G.1 Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.

Essential Questions:
How can I identify shapes?
How can I describe shapes?
How can I correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size?


K.G.2. Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

Essential Question:
How can I correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size?

The content that I will be teaching is kindergarten math and more specifically, identifying and describing shapes in space using a Smartboard activity I found on the SMART Exchange website called “Shape It Up”. The big idea is to recognizing, naming and classifying shapes in the environment. It may be difficult for some students to apply their prior knowledge of shapes to the objects in the real world. Another challenge may be recognizing familiar shapes in unfamiliar sizes, orientations, and settings.


2. Pedagogy:
Learning takes place in the form of constructivism, behaviorism and some scaffolding. Behaviorism takes place when I go through the Smartboard activity and demonstrate one or two examples from each page (sliding the triangle shaped objects into the empty triangle, sorting shapes, matching....) while they watch. There should be no verbal instructions. By now they will have some basic knowledge of shapes and my goal is for them to be able to apply what they know in order to complete this activity. The demonstration will tap into their prior knowledge of shapes so when it is their turn to do the activity, they are able to concentrate on their new skill of finding shapes in the environment (scaffolding). The constructivism is taking place when the students are actively engaged in the Smartboard activity, figuring out what each shape is and where it belongs on the board. Scaffolding will also occur if a child is having a hard time using the Smartboard then I will step in and show them how to use it again. The activity has a control of error to prevent a student from getting the wrong answer. It is very important for me to observe the students doing the activity in order to ensure student understanding, success and achievement.


3. Content & Pedagogy:
Students know the expectations and how to do the activity from observing me demonstrate some examples (behaviorism). This will tap into their prior knowledge of shapes so when it is their turn to do the activity, they are able to concentrate on their new skill of finding shapes in the environment (scaffolding). Without the teacher’s assistance, students are forced to rely on themselves to figure out the correct answers. Their work is uninterrupted which enables them to gain a deeper understanding of the topic by exploring, engaging in, correcting and therefore learning from their own mistakes while completing the activity independently (constructivism). Scaffolding will also occur is a child is having a hard time using the Smartboard then I will step in and show them how to use it again. The activity has a control of error to prevent a student from getting the wrong answer. My observations and limited but necessary interventions are key to ensuring student understanding and success.


4. Technology:
I will be using a Smartboard activity I found on the SMART Exchange website called “Shape It Up” for my technology tool. Achievement is increased when students are active participants. If I want my students to learn the material by interacting with the content in a fun and exciting way then the use of this technology is necessary. Another option for using the “Shape It Up” activity would be for students to use it on a regular computer but this option would not be quite as exciting as using the Smartboard. Regular computers are also not as effective because they don’t provide the physical interaction that the Smartboard allows for.


5. Technology & Pedagogy:
The Smartboard activity is especially appropriate because it uses a variety of learning for teaching for individual learning styles. This would include kinesthetic, visual and verbal. It also allows for independent work. Without the teacher’s assistance, student are forced to rely on themselves to figure out the correct answers. Constructivism takes place because their work is uninterrupted which enables them to gain a deeper understanding of the topic by exploring, engaging in, correcting and therefore learning from their own mistakes while completing the activity independently. The activity has a control of error to prevent a student from getting the wrong answer. My observations and limited but necessary interventions are key to ensuring student understanding and success.


6. Technology & Content:
The Smartboard activity provides an exciting and interactive way of presenting a wide variety of realistic examples of shapes in the environment. The activity provides a control of error (“Oops! Try again!”) so the student will know if he needs to try again. My observations will help me decide whether or not a student needs me to reteach or if a student is ready to be assessed.


7. Assessment:
I would like my students to be able to apply their prior knowledge of shapes to the objects in the real world in order to name, describe, and classify the shapes in the environment. It’s important that they develop the ability to recognize familiar shapes in unfamiliar sizes, orientations, and settings. The assessment would be my observations of a student’s independent performance while doing the activity. This will help me decide if the student needs to be retaught, if they just need more practice or if they have mastered the concept are ready to move on to 3D shapes in the environment.

Digital Storytelling - Greater Than or Less Than

Understanding Student Understanding

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Audio Interview
Podcast

Wicked Problem Project

As a child, I remember my parents asking me “What did you do in school today?”  As a parent, I ask my child the same question.  The answers I gave to my parents are similar to the answers my son gives me such as “Nothing” or “I played outside”.  This is an issue many parents face with their children every day.  How can we communicate with parents better?  Newsletters are great but they often get lost in the backpack or misplaced at home.  Over this past spring break, I had the opportunity to be a camp counselor and I ran into this same issue of a lack of parent communication.  I asked myself “How great would it be to ask parents for ideas and advice?” and “Wouldn’t it be nice to reflect on each day and inform parents of the next day’s activities?”  I was about to be a lead counselor for summer camp and I needed a solution to my problem!

So, I decided to create a summer camp website using www.weebly.com. which is free software.  On this website I included camp counselor introductions, weekly topics, a calendar, contact information, camp rules, items campers need to bring each day, and most importantly a blog.  

This was a reasonable approach because most people have access to the internet and once our Weebly page was set up it won’t be time consuming. An alternative could have been to give parents our email addresses but that’s not as interactive.

The technology I chose is weebly. It is very user-friendly which means it's more likely that parents will actually use it.  It makes the content in my problem more intellectually accessible because it allows camp counselors, parents, and campers to communicate in the digital world rather than sending several notes home or printing off a weekly newsletter.  

My pedagogical choice makes the content in my problem more intellectually accessible because when the children look at the website with their parents, they will begin to recall events that happened at camp and share their stories.  They may even think of even more stuff to talk about other than what is posted on the website.  The learning that is enhanced here is recalling and communicating.

My goal was to create a website to increase parent communication.  I was surprised that there was already a domain name for summercamp.weebly.com being used.  I guess I'm not the first person to have this idea!  That's okay though because I used supersummercamp2012.weebly.com.

I was hoping to put some pictures from last years summer camp but I didn't think about the fact that I would need permission from each of the child's parents in order to do that.  This also means that in order for me to put pictures of my campers throughout this summer, I will have to get permission to do this as well.  It is doable but definitely a "bump in the road".  Another thing I was hoping to do was monitor who can participate in the blog page.  I would have liked for it to be password protected and give parents the password but in order to do that I would have to get the Pro version of Weebly which costs money.

Luckily, I discovered that Weebly allows you to set your blog up where anytime someone tries to post a blog, it has to be approved by me before it shows up on the blog page.  

The project was implemented as planned.  By the time camp started the website was up and running.  The only problem was the Meet the Counselors page.  I was the only counselor on there! Hopefully this will be taken care of soon.

The best evidence would be parents typing in on the blog page.  There has been some verbal evidence such as parents knowing what we are doing that day ahead of time.  I had some parents know that we were going to go bowling. One parent came in and asked me "What is Neukem?" (a kid-friendly version of volleyball) and we hadn't even played it yet.

Next time I do something like this I will be sure to advertise the website way more in advance.   I would also put a form in the registration packet asking parents if their child can have their picture posted on our website. Also, I will be sure the Meet the Counselors page is completed ahead of time. This should have been taken care of before implementation.

A classmate of mine gave me some good insight about my overall success.  She basically said that once others see how successful I was this first year with my website, they will be more likely to use it next year.  I’m very satisfied with the results of my website and I’m looking forward to giving it a try in my new classroom this fall!

Super Summer Camp 2012