Category Archives: Practicum Reflections

Plickers

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Plickers are a great tool for formative assessment.  Not only do they engage my students in learning, my students think it is a super fun game! I was frequently asked:

“Can we use those weird card things? You know, that we turn to answer questions and they have our numbers on them?”

I was able to use Plickers to assess my student’s understanding of different subject areas. A great feature is that you do not have to display student responses. While using Plickers, I turned off the display responses option but left the display of who had answered.  My students thought this was a game, “Ms. Wynne, you missed R!” The students were very instrumental in making sure that I was able to record everyone’s response.  No student felt as though they were on the spot though because it was Ms. Wynne who was not panning properly or too quickly. It also gave students who were not comfortable sharing, the opportunity to participate.  I found that when asked a question, many of my students would look to one another for the answers. Using Plickers, encouraged students to think for themselves and gave me a better understanding of where they were at, as opposed to finding out how well they are able to peek at their neighbour’s response.

I also like that you, the teacher, are able to create the questions that you want to display.  This allows teachers the ability to ask varied questions and tailor the questions to your particular students; a great personalized learning tool.  I also found that throwing in a couple of ‘easy’ or ‘fun’ questions at the beginning and throughout engaged my students, kept them engaged, and encouraged them to answer all of the questions.

The only downfall to Plickers is the set up. It was more of a game for my students and elicited a lot of excitement, which I welcomed. But, I think with continued use and introducing them early in the year would make it more routine and enhance the assessment possibilities.

Let’s Watch a Story

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It is rare that I am able to find a story that engages every single one of my students at the same time, I’ve tried. But I have found that using a visual representation of the same story captures all of their attention.  Whether it is listening to the audio of someone else reading the story, watching it acted out, or having it come to life, all of my students are engaged!

Because of this, I have been looking for resources that allow my students to watch a story rather than listen to me.  I have been utilizing animation videos from “YouTube” and other video websites.  I have found that many of the videos are age appropriate and offer my students a different example of what is a ‘story’.  I have not stopped reading to my students though! And I don’t think I ever will.  It is just as important to read to the students as well as offer them an alternative in watching a story.

Words of advice: watch the video all the way through. I have watched a few videos that I thought would be perfect, but the ending is inappropriate. It is also good practice to know what you are showing your students before you show them.

Technology in the Classroom

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I have the fortunate opportunity to be a part of a school community that has many technology resources.  In my classroom, I have a document camera, a projector, a laptop, a desktop computer, speakers, and 6 iPads that ‘belong’ to my class.  I also have the option of signing out a class set of iPad minis.

I have tried to integrate technology into my practice by using it to enhance my lessons, as well as allow students to use it for research.  Before I ask my students to use a certain website or look something up, I first research and find which websites are suitable and factual. As my inquiry project progressed, I found information that suggested that we, as teachers, must first familiarize ourselves with the technology and resources we want our students to interact with.  I have found this to be very true while on my practicum. But I have also come to realize that the students themselves are a huge resource! They have had the opportunity to explore with various modes of technology, and as such, are well versed.  If I am teaching myself how to use a new form of technology, I ask the students if they have ever used it or tried it.  They love to teach me new things and how things work.  I have also found that even if I do know how something works, asking my students to show me allows me to see how much they know and where I should begin my instructions.

For one of my lessons, I had initially devoted a whole block of time to showing my students how to use book creator.  That was until I discovered that many of them are pros when it comes to book creator.  Instead, I was able to focus my lesson on what the subject matter and I had an extra block of time to use to my advantage!

One area where I will always do my homework before allowing students to engage with technology is when I ask the students to research a certain topic.  You can type a single word into google and it shows you thousands of websites that offer snippets of the information you are looking for.  A lot of this information is great, but there is also a lot that is not appropriate for students.  Because of this, I have made sure to do the research myself and ask students to use specific websites, rather than just let them browse the thousands of links that google provides!

Transformation

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This past Thursday I was able to experience how what we teach in the classroom can be transferred to students learning at home.  As their show and tell, one of my students brought in their iPad and showcased a story that they had written about themselves using Book Creator.  It is an app that has been utilized within the classroom.  He was able to transfer the skills that he had mastered in the classroom to a project at home.  He created an All About Me story that showcased a few of his favourite things.  He was able to bring together text and visuals to represent what he considered to be important. It was interesting to see how he was able to transfer his skills and how proud he was of his work.  The student also disclosed that he taught his siblings how to use the app.  Throughout his presentation, the student was proud of the work he had done and how he was able to transfer his skills.

Primary Assessment

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While on my practicum I have been intrigued with how to use technology for formative assessment with primary students.

My class has been using Freshgrade as a portfolio for assessment. The classroom teacher is able to upload examples of student work, criteria for assessment, comments, photos and videos, and descriptions of students activities and assignments. Parents and students can then go online and view their child’s progress and comment on the content.  It gives parents the opportunity to see assignments and criteria that they may not otherwise see – work that could be left at school, only used for assessment, or that never makes it home.  It is an interactive tool that can be utilized by students, parents, and students. It offers a collaborative approach to assessment.

While it is an effective collaborative tool, in the primary grades it is more teacher than student lead. It is difficult for the students to upload their own work and comment it on it from the classroom.  Because of this, the posts are more teacher lead than a way for students to showcase their own learning.  Students in the intermediate grades are able to post their own work and comment.  To enable students to post examples of their work it requires a lot of practice and time committed to ‘teaching’ how to effectively comment and reflect.

As Fabrikant, York,  and Morris suggest, it is important to know what we, as teachers, are doing before we can expect our students to know.  It is not necessarily about the integration of technology but knowing what content you need to cover and then using technology to enhance learning. To be better equipped to teach our students how to properly utilize technology. As teachers we ourselves must understand how to effectively incorporate technology into our lessons.

Fabrikant, K., York, S., Morris, M. Integrating technology into pedagogical content knowledge in K-12 and university professional development. Building Sustainable Futures for Adult Learners, 541-558. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/21070374/Integrating_technology_into_pedagogical_content_knowledge_in_K-12_and_university_professional_development

Code Builders

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My students are very interested in coding and have coding apps that they are allowed to utilize when they have finished their work or when we are having a maker space with whole class involvement.

My class uses the coding app “Kodable”.  It is a fun way to get the students involved in computer science. The app uses fun characters and gets the students excited about trying something new. The website that accompanies ‘Kodable’ includes a teacher’s learning guide, which I find to be very helpful.  While coding is growing and becoming a part of our everyday lives, we were not not taught how to code.  By having a guide for teachers, Kodable enables teachers to familiarize themselves with what they are asking their students to do. It also provides lesson plans, unplugged activities, and specific coding vocabulary.

I questioned how to assess students progress with Kodable.  I was surprised to find out that each student can create an account and as the teacher, you are able to see students progress as well as who has been working on ‘coding’ more than others.  Coding can be used as an extension activity for students who finish early.  With that though, there could be students who always finish early and are therefore at a higher level than other or they have completed all of the stages. Conversely, there will be students who never finish early and do not have a chance to work on coding. So while I would like to include coding and computer science in my classroom, I find that I am not yet fully prepared and will continue to explore ways in which I may include it in other subject areas.

Link to Kodable Resource

Technology in Action

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What do you do when is a Thursday afternoon and your students just won’t listen? Why you bring out robots, of course!
Technology is a resources that we sometimes take for granted. It is used almost everyday in the classroom, but we sometimes forget to think outside the box as to how we can incorporate it in new and exciting ways. Why not put it in the hands of the students and let them facilitate their learning?
My classroom is fortunate to have a collection of ‘robots’ and technology tools at their disposal. On Thursday, we set up stations and let the students ‘have fun’. There were stations where students could work with Ozobots, Sphero, create their own stop motion movies, works with circuits, develop mazes, and use the iPad’s to work on coding. It was student directed learning.
My inquiry project is focusing on using technology in the classroom for personalizing learning. This afternoon activity used technology while allowing students to experiment and create. I had the opportunity to work with the students who were experimenting with circuits. I observed students who are normally reserved and do not take chances in the classroom jump in. They were eager to try something new and were quick to start experimenting. It gave the students the opportunity to self direct their learning. All they were given was the package of circuits and the booklet that was included. These students started with trial and error before realizing that they needed to follow the directions. Once they were able to make their first few complete circuits, they were excited to experiment and see what they could come up with. It was interesting to see this process and to see them work together to figure out how to solve their problems.
After observing this, I started to think of the ways that I would be able to incorporate this type of learning into my practicum – letting students experiment while using trial and error. The students were able to choose which station they wanted to work at and were not given more direction then what each ‘robot’ was able to do. The students were self directed. I am looking forward to utilizing technology more in the classroom and allowing students to self direct their learning while learning from their experiments.