Cedu521: Week Six

I found the conclusion of this course to be quite interesting with the presentation of the Unit Plans created by each student in our course. It was valuable to see the different types of unit plans and the way that each worked to integrate technology into their classroom or library media center. Personally, I plan to use my created unit plan next year with my 9th grade U.S. history students and am excited to see if project-based learning is successful within my classroom.

Overall, this course really got me thinking about the planning that I do within my classroom and the importance of integrating more technology within my classroom itself and how every student and school is not the same. As a result, knowing your limits and being willing to try to add more technology, even if it is time consuming and/or difficult, will lead to the growth of skills and overall success in the classroom.

Cedu521: Week Five

This week was interesting because I finally made it to the final draft of my unit plan. I really think that using Google Docs as a way to share this unit is useful because I could see this as an excellent opportunity to collaborate with others. For example, I could easily share this unit plan and all of the attached materials with other teachers and they could do the same. I also liked how I was able to include links to the additionally needed materials within the unit plan itself, making the overall process and use quite easy.

In addition to my unit plan, I enjoyed being able to help another classmate by showing how I interpreted the unit plan that they had created. Hopefully, by looking at the project analysis form, my partner will gain an understanding of those areas that are clear in their unit and possible areas for improvement.

Cedu521: Week Four

This week I really focused on ways to make my unit plan clearer for others to understand. This goal was valuable to achieve because if I were absent while teaching this unit, I would need my substitute to have an understanding of what the students should be doing on a given day. This is something that I have not done with as much detail since I was an undergraduate in school and had to write up lesson plans during my student teaching. While time consuming, it is valuable not only for other instructors, but allows me to more fully envision the lessons that I plan to initiate with my students.

Cedu521: Week Three

This week I really focused on completing my lesson plan unit. When planning out my unit, which will last about ten class periods and will focus on the immigrant experience, I really took into consideration the practices presented by project-based learning, which I became more familiar with while doing my article reviews. I really am excited to put this unit into practice, especially because of the way it will allow me to further integrate technology into my classroom.

I also really liked the curriculum changes that I worked on for the group project, I think that the changes are definitely something that a school district could and should implement if they are lacking technology integration.

Cedu521: Week Two

This week I particularly enjoyed writing my first article review because it focused on project-based learning and how a specific PBL experience was implemented in an 8th grade social studies class. Being a social studies teacher myself, I found this article to be very informative and gave me implementation ideas. In addition, I feel like I can better prepare my instructional unit for this class based on ideas presented in the article. Beyond this, I really liked contemplating the level in the Bloom's Taxonomy (and the updated technology version) that my students are currently at. Reflecting on this made me a bit more aware of things that I can do to encourage higher-level thinking and technology functioning within my instruction and throughout my school overall.

CEDu521 Blog: Week One

This week I really enjoyed learning more about project-based learning. I have used PBL in my social studies classroom in the past, but the information we learned this week further confirmed its effectiveness. In addition, I had never really heard about the levels of LoTi until last week. Learning the LoTi levels really made me reflect on my own teaching and what level (s) I fall in based on the things I have my students do. As a result, I think I am more aware of the levels of LoTi and hope that this will translate into even more technology integration into my classroom.

CEdu534: Session 5

This week I finished up my Wiki space, which I plan to use with my U.S. history students in the fall. Overall, I thought that creating a Wiki was pretty fun and interesting. I am interested to see how my students like utilizing the resources from this source, which will actually allow me to utilize less paper in the classroom. I also think that the possibility for collaboration is a really nice aspect of Wiki spaces and hope that it would encourage/create even more in class discussions concerning the material being covered.

Also, using TokBox to create a video recording was a fun activity, which is another tool that I could see having my students use next year as a way to present material and/or ideas that they have learned.