It’s been a long and rewarding journey.  I feel absolutely exhausted from it all!  But in the end, I learned a lot about the need for teachers to lead the way in the world of technology in education.  I was able to try countless different online applications and tools, and got so many ideas for my teaching practice.  Best of all I was able to co-create a website that will help other teachers in their professional practice.  Not bad for 3 weeks worth of work!

I think my favourite part of the course was the various 10 minutes of fame presentations.  I wish they could have been longer so we could have had time to ask more questions and go into more depth.  I also really loved Kate’s approach to her 10 minutes; giving us 10 online “gems” that we may not have seen before.  I was lucky and hadn’t seen any of the 10 sites that she presented on and I’m so excited to try them out.  A good addition to this course would be to have everyone do something similar and present their top 10 favourite sites that they use in education.  The problem with the online world is the sheer vastness of information available – it’s so nice to hear from other teachers about what they’re using and what works.  I know that I personally could go on and on about my favourite online spaces.

I’m really looking forward to not thinking about school and projects this weekend!  I start my last 2 classes on Monday and definitely need the time to clear my brain. 🙂

So here’s my final project that I co-created with Christine Bodt:  www.ipads4literacy.weebly.com

While we worked collaboratively throughout, I was responsible for the Reading Skills, Responding to Literature, and Accessing Literature pages on the site.

Overall, I have found the process of creating a website through Weebly to be quite intuitive but of course, I have run into a few issues.  A few times, I was unable to figure out how to make something look exactly the way I wanted but my philosophy is just to get the ideas out there, rather than getting hung up on trying to make it perfect.  Overall, I’m very happy with the appearance of the site.

We put a lot of thought into what kind of information we wanted to put on our site.  We want it to be useful for busy teachers therefore it must be simple to navigate and not be too visually overwhelming.

Being able to work on the project in class gave us the opportunity to get some invaluable feedback from our peers.  Someone today said that what she liked most is that the site isn’t cluttered – it’s simple and streamlined.  Working in class also gave us the chance to ask for help from others who may be encountering the same technical difficulties that we were.  We were able to offer lots of advice to other groups as well.

In future, one of the challenges will be maintaining the site.  There will be a lot of pressure to stay on the forefront of technological advances and update the information we’ve provided and make sure all the links are still intact.  I also imagine that as we try out the various ideas we’ve listed, we’ll have a few changes we’ll want to make.

Our future vision project is coming along nicely.  We have a functioning website with a manageable amount of useful information for other educators to access.  I’m glad we decided to go with the website format.  I find it much more functional than blogs – I don’t like the blog format where you have to scroll to find posts.  I prefer to simply click the link that contains the info I’m looking for.

I’m also glad we went with Weebly for our website.  It’s very user-friendly and we are able to create a professional-looking result.  We haven’t spent too much time worrying about font and images at this point.  I feel it’s more important to get the content onto the page first.  There is always time later to go back and perfect it.

We have tried to find images that complement the content for each page and link.  I do feel that presentation is very important – we don’t want the site to be overly wordy and it needs to be attractive.  The whole point is that the site is user-friendly for busy teachers.

I’m quite excited to start using some of these strategies in my classroom this September.  I was really inspired by today’s 10 Minutes of Fame presentation on digital storytelling.  This would be the perfect activity to try on the iPads!  I plan to work my way down the list of ideas we have on our website.  Once I have a sense of what works and what can be improved, I would be able to update the site.

The website we are developing is intended to provide useful information for intermediate teachers within our own schools but also across the country and indeed, the world.  A simple google search of the terms “iPads and literacy” will bring interested readers to our site.

Surely we aren’t the only teachers who are experiencing the iPad phenomenon.  iPads are purchased by the school, available for us to use, but there is absolutely no training or Pro-D that goes along with them.  Because no one knows what to do with them, they get hogged by one or two keen teachers, or sit and gather dust.

It seems that iPads are the technology that most schools are turning to so we wanted to create a resource that will help give teachers ideas for how they can be used to enhance literacy in the classroom.  After reading the various pages on our site, we hope that teachers will be inspired to begin using the iPads.

We do not go into detail on “how” to actually use the iPads.  We have to assume a bit of background knowledge on the part of interested teachers!  Luckily, iPads are so common these days, it is rare to encounter someone who hasn’t had the chance to play around with one or seen them used.  iPads are also very user-friendly so we didn’t want to focus on the technical stuff.

Basically, we hope that an interested teacher will visit our site, browse the various tabs, and walk away with several ideas that can be implemented right away in the classroom.  Using the iPads to create book trailers?  Excellent idea!  Using the iPads to record students reading aloud to help build reading fluency?  Genius!  The site is set up so that teachers can pick and choose what they would like to learn about and they are welcome to try any or all of the ideas in whatever order they choose.

We also created a Contact Us page so that interested teachers can email us with their comments or suggestions.

Christine and I are working on a website that is a collection of ideas and resources for using iPads specifically to teach literacy at the upper elementary grades.  We both work in schools with access to iPads and we wanted to explore how to use them in meaningful ways in our classrooms.  We chose to specifically focus on literacy because reading and writing is the foundation of all the subjects that we teach.  In my particular classroom, it also happens to be the area of greatest weakness for my students.

We have begun working on 6 pages for our website: the home page, using iPads to respond to literature, using iPads with Literature Circles, using iPads to access literature, increasing reading fluency, and teacher management tools.  We are each working on 3 specific pages, with lots of collaboration of ideas.

Our website will assume a fair amount of technological know-how on the part of other educators who access it.  We will explain some specific uses or strategies for each category and provide the links to various resources and apps.  We will not however, cover troubleshooting or download instructions. I think it is fair to assume that anyone doing a google search for how to use iPads effectively in the classroom already has the necessary technical background knowledge.

There is so much information available online and it is our hope that by gathering amazing ideas and resources together in one place, teachers will be able to easily begin implementing sound literacy practices in their classrooms.

We are trying to be mindful of using the iPads in meaningful ways with a specific purpose.  The internet is already flooded with pages of “The Top 10 Apps for Education”.  We also  don’t want the iPads to be used as just another way to word process or access the internet.  Rather, we would like to see students using the iPads to create and share their work with others around the globe.

The site is something that we can continually add to as we come across new ideas and try different things out in our own classrooms.  It is currently very much “under construction”!

It’s been quite the journey! I’ve been thinking about where I started at the beginning of this course. When we visually formed a line to show how comfortable we were with technology, I stood in the section that I considered to be a 7.5 out of 10, but then the line kept getting pushed down as people stood on the lower end of the scale and I accidentally ended up looking like I was at the forefront of technological knowledge. Your level of technological comfort really seems to depend on who’s in the room with you. I’m reminded of the Flight of the Conchords love song to a girl who is the most beautiful girl in the room “depending on the room”. And so it is with me – so often at work, I feel like a computer genius as I demonstrate my cut and paste moves for amazed colleagues. And yet, here in this room, I’m constantly humbled in my knowledge.

Every day has been an incredible learning journey, and I’m left with a host of things to try out and discover. I’m reminded again that no matter how proficient we feel, there are always going to be endless new applications and online resources to discover. The vast amount of information out there and the seemingly endless opportunities for education and collaboration can be completely overwhelming. The first week, I could barely keep track of all the different things we signed up for. For me, the trick to staying afloat on this ocean of information is to simply narrow down what it is that best suits my needs as an educator.

In future, I plan to seek out greater collaboration opportunities with like-minded colleagues. I’ve been inspired to start following blogs and Twitter feeds to stay current and connected. I also want to make sure that I employ technology in a meaningful way in my classroom. Looking at the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, I want to move away from the many exercises that simply ask students to “remember” information. I want to focus more on having my students work at the higher orders of creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying.

Thanks, Christine! I’m super excited about using Padlet in the classroom. I could instantly see all sorts of uses for it with my class. The best part? It’s user-friendly and requires no sign up for students to participate.

After doing a bit of research when I got home this afternoon, I stumbled upon this informative blog at www.blog.padlet.com which was full of tips for how to use Padlet in the classroom. The blog proposes that it is possible to run an entire lesson using Padlet.

1) The lesson – all content can be easily organized on a wall and is easily presented by clicking on any content
2) Group discussion – questions can be posted on a wall and students can participate in real-time without the need to refresh the screen
3) Exit tickets – by using the “Moderate” option, students can’t see each other’s posts and you can get a feel for how well students understood the lesson
4) Assignments/Projects – the ease of Padlet makes it ideal for student use

I really appreciate the fact that Padlet appears to do it all. The variety of apps out there is endless and you can drive yourself crazy learning all the different features of different apps. I think Padlet will be particularly useful because it can be used in so many different ways.

In the sample Christine showed us, students were using the wall to post sentences using a particular vocabulary word. I think this would be a great beginning of the day activity. And I really like the idea of using it for exit tickets. Before students can leave the room, they have to post one question or thought about the day’s lesson. It could also be used for test review – each student could post important points or questions to consider. The possibilities are endless…

The 10 Minutes of Fame segments have been the highlight of the course for me because I love to see what others are using in their classrooms. I was also inspired to begin adding to my Shelfari collection – I had intended to share it with my students as a “Ms. Mason Recommends…” but after adding 4 books, I must have run out of steam. I should definitely go back in and add to my personal collection considering I’ve read so many young adult books and my students are always asking me what I think they should read next.

Finally! Something I can understand! Linguistic cognitive domains refers to how we link to each other and ourselves through language. Through language, we explain things to ourselves and others. Everything we say has an impact on others. If we are conscious of this, we can be more aware of how our words will influence others.

This plays out all the time in my marriage. My husband will often respond to me by saying “I don’t like your tone”. To which I reply, “What tone? I wasn’t using a tone. You’re the one using a tone.” Moments later, we are both annoyed and confused, watching TV in separate rooms. We go through the same song and dance with misinterpreted text messages to each other. If he is having a bad day, the most mundane “When are you coming home?” text message can be completely misunderstood. Clearly, the ability to communicate effectively is extremely important in all of our relationships.

At work, I find myself becoming annoyed not so much by what people are saying, but how they are saying it. If something is said in a condescending tone, I am not likely to respond positively to it. My principal deserves a medal for always saying the wrong things or in the wrong way. This creates a very uncomfortable atmosphere of “us vs them” at work. As a “young” teacher, I don’t think I am often taken very seriously by older teachers and today’s discussion made me think about being careful how I phrase things if I want to be make a serious point or create lasting change.

This reminds me of a TED Talks clip we watched just this morning in a different class. A wannabe slam poet, Lemon Andersen, recounted how he stalked his hero relentlessly until he was finally told that the problem with his poetry was with the way he was saying the words. “My hunger and thirst was, and still remains: How do I get people who hate poetry to love me?…I learned how to pull the mic away and attack the poetry with my body.” It wasn’t until he changed the way he was delivering his poems, that he became a successful poet.

Today’s class was interesting, to say the least. Christine and I had some time to narrow down our inquiry focus and we were frantically adding ideas to our mindmeister map. We decided to focus more on how iPads can be used to improve literacy in the classroom and mindmeister was the perfect way for us to organize our thoughts and share our thinking with each other.

And then we got to learn a lot of big words. Really big words. Adrienne Gear would refer to them as “triple-scoop” words and while I don’t see myself dropping them often in conversation, some of the ideas made a lot of sense. I see a lot of institutional isomorphism at work at my new school. I’m a teacher with 10 years of experience, but I’m the “new kid” at my new school. There is definitely a tendency towards the mimetic and normative. I can’t tell you how many times this year I’ve heard the phrase, “Here at Fleming, we do things this way…” No matter how stupid some of the traditions are, there is such a strong reluctance to change. I am one of the only teachers who is using a report card program to write my reports. Everyone else is still using Microsoft Word to type them up and some even write them by hand! It’s ridiculous, really.

Rather than rock the boat my first year, I chose to just quietly do my thing. I sometimes try to get my colleagues excited about something new in the world of technology, but the seasoned teachers have the mindset that everything is cyclical. They feel that they’ve seen “fads” come and go and no longer get excited about anything. I find this troubling. As educators, we have a responsibility to be on the forefront of technology and change in the classrooms. At what point do teachers give up and just begin to do things the way they’ve always been done or do things the way everyone else does?