A.INTRO
My name is Deirdre Keane and I am a librarian for a Chicago Public School called LaSalle II. My school is located in Wicker Park. I teach students from kindergarten through 8th grade. I have been teaching for almost 17 years.I have always taught library to elementary school students. I am taking this course through the University of St. Francis to get my Technology Specialist Endorsement. As I have been teaching, I have found that technology plays an ever increasing role in my career and I am finding I like technology a lot. I hope to learn more and expand on my technological knowledge from this course. My favorite tech tools so far are using Kahoot and Google Docs! Now, I am using plickers in the library as review and I absolutely love them. I am also hoping to incorporate green screens as well when my students do animal reports! Students love Kahoot which I am glad I have utilized. Tech does not always work as I have had problems with iPads not connecting or one day , the Internet is down so you must always have a backup plan. My funniest Ed Tech moment was when a student came up to me and was like :" Ms. Keane, my computer shut off!" I went over and the computer was on and for the life of me nothing appeared on the screen! I figured it out. The color/brightness of the screen was down! Duh!!! I have a a five year old niece and a 2 year old nephew. I am constantly amazed at how tech savvy they are. I give them my iPhone and they know immediately what to do!! Almost scary!! I learned so much in the class called MultiMedia Tools in Education. Why? I learned about so many more technological platforms. Some of my favorites now are Padlet, Animoto, and Screencasting!! I am so excited to implementing these tools in the classroom!Learning about these tools will help my students to become Empowered Learners according to ISTE-S standards:"Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences." I have learned so much from my latest course Effective Tech Integration. My latest tools now are Google Expeditions, Kahoot, and Code Studio. Not only did I learn about them but how to use them on the SAMR model of teaching. In addition, I learned about problem based learning projects and cannot wait to implement my problem based learning unit. You can learn all about the tools I have mentioned above in the artifacts below! I am now currently taking a tech class called Assessing and Improving Student Achievement with Technology. This class has improved my confidence in creating and assessing better rubrics for my students. I also feel like I have had rich discussions with my fellow colleagues when it comes to creating rubrics and assessing digital portfolios. I am so excited because one of the artifacts I created I will implement with my middle schoolers this year. I will talk about this artifact below. Before I do, my next course will be called Managing Educational Tech Services. It would be great to learn what technology are good investments down the line. Some technologies do not have a long life span and we need to know what those are. Managing Educational Tech Services was eye opening! I have learned so much about federal and state laws regarding student data and privacy especially on the Internet. It has caused me to enhance my digital citizenship unit. I have learned so much from my fellow classmates on our blog. My journey continues in my next course called: 21st Century Ed Leadership. I have learned so much from my 21st Century Ed Leadership. I learned about the pros and cons of chromebooks and ipads, questions that might be asked in interviews for a technology position, learning walks, how to create engaging professional development for staff, social media in the schools, designing your space to reflect 21st century learning and much more! I would like to share with you two artifacts from this class. My last class EEND713Z2 Engaging E-Learning was very informative. I always wanted to learn how to teach others in an online or blended format. This class gave the opportunity to refine my digital citizenship unit. I was able to research some cool new books on cyberbullying as well as new digital tools on cyberbullying. It was great to share my unit with others because sharing with others allows you to enhance your unit and gives you even more ideas. I am so excited to implement my two artifacts this year! Please click on link below!
EEND-680Z2 ARTIFACT 1 : THE HIRING PROCESS
This was a unique assignment. It was also a partner assignment as well. I thought it was an informative assignment because I learned so much from it. We had to read several resources to learn more about jobs and skills now required of teachers to teach 21st century skills to students. Among the resources is a podcast by Grant Licthman who visited 21 states and 64 schools to see how teachers are incorporating 21st century skills, a podcast by Jennifer Gonzalez on Cult of Pedagogy on Job Interview Advice for Teachers, and an article called" Interview Questions for New Teachers in 21st Century Schools by Alan November. My partner and I had to come up with five interview questions that we would ask of candidates we were considering hiring for our school. I asked five questions and my partner asked five questions. We then had to provide answers to our partners questions. It was easy to work together because we collaborated on the google doc and via email. I think we both asked good questions. Our assignment had to focus on : technology, digital learning, the 4C's, SAMR and so on. It is important to note that you could also ask performance tasks of the interviewee as well. We also had to make sure when we answered the questions that we gave examples and included details in our examples as well. The articles helped us well in forming questions. I was like oh I like my partner's questions. The interview questions are so different than when I was interviewed years ago. It is helpful to keep up to date on what administrations and schools are looking for in teachers. This helps you to prepare yourself and predict what questions that they might ask. You do not want to leave an interview saying Oh I should have said that or I forgot to tell them about that time I did this in the classroom. Doing interview questions helps you to be prepared. Here is our collaborative work:
REDESIGNED LEARNING SPACES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
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EEND-681Z2 ARTIFACT 1: CREATING AN INSTITUTIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLAN
The first artifact is my modified Institutional Educational Technology Plan. I call it modified because we were given a basic plan and we added to that plan. We all familiarized ourselves with the different components of an educational technology plan. It is definitely comprehensive. It was not until I created one that I realized oh my gosh a lot goes into managing technology in a school no matter what size school you are in. First and foremost, this assignment had me look at all the technological organizations like ACM, IEE and CoSn to understand the social, legal, equitable and ethical standards in regards to technology. We must follow these standards or risk legal implications when violating federal and state laws. I also liked this assignment because we had to compare those organizations with our own organization. It made me think does my school have an educational technology plan? Do we have an acceptable use policy? CPS does have an acceptable use policy and it was interesting to research against other schools as well. The acceptable use policy is included in the educational technology plan and should be read by all teachers and staff. The acceptable use policy tells what rules regarding technology including social media is acceptable for teachers and students. It is imperative that teachers and students follow these rules to ensure student safety. I feel confident in writing a new educational technology plan if need to do so in my job. We had to research a variety of materials and articles to draft what would be included in our educational technology plan. This plan is not just about procuring technology for your school. It calls into account: how much will it cost to procure technology, that includes telephones, promethean boards, elmos and so forth how much will it cost to maintain it, how much will it cost to train teachers on new technologies? We had to consider what to do with damaged technology and the rules regarding purchasing software. The educational technology plan accounts for all students and teachers in the school. Meaning we consider the implementation of assistive technologies, ESL supports, security systems and rules regarding CIPPAA and FERPA Guidelines. Even items like how the IT staff in the school should communicate notifications down to the style and fonts is included int he communication plan of educational technology plan. I can keep writing more about it but you can click on the link instead. More and more things can be added to it as technology advances.
Institutional Technology Plan
EEND-681Z2 ARTIFACT 2: Technology and the 21st Century Learning Space
This was one of our first assignments in this class. We were tasked with creating our ideal 21st Century Learning Space that would accommodate 25 students.I had fun designing this assignment. We had to use PowerPoint or a similar tool to design this. I utilized Google Drawings. I remember thinking I want so much in my classroom. After reading articles and doing research, I learned about many more things that would be beneficial in the classroom. There were items and technology I had not heard of. It was great to read what my colleagues would include in their classroom because I was like oh I should have included that in my plan such as implementing a 1:1 plan. However, that is why it was so great to take this class. I have learned so much not from just the readings and multimedia but also from my fellow classmates who have helped me with ideas of improving my classroom and teaching. This was not just about creating your ideal learning space whether it would be your gym, classroom, library, or computer lab; it was to be created with the ISTE standards in mind. That is what made this assignment so interesting and above all, it made sense to include those standards. Students need to be taught skills for the 21st century and therefore the technology in the classroom should reflect that. We had to research articles on learning spaces such as "Rethinking the Classroom" by Herman Miller, "Technology, Instruction, and the 21st Century Classroom" by Ed Tech and "New Teachers Designing Learning Environments" by EduTopia. Not only had we to consider the ISTE standards in our plan but we had to consider the following components ascribed by our teacher: "accessibility, electrical access, private and collaborative space, display/work surfaces, Connectivity options, Classroom technology(e.g., software, individual computing devices (mobile?), headphones, document camera/s, audio system, projection device/s, black & white/color/3D printer/s, copier/s, digital camera/s, wearable technologies, video conferencing equipment, recording equipment, interactive whiteboard/s & presentation station/podium), classroom environment(i.e., lighting, colors & classroom furniture), Support for active learning, Learning styles, goals for teaching and learning and student engagement." Most importantly, we had to consider the social, ethical, equitable and legal standards regarding the responsible use of technology when creating our learning space. Bear in mind our learning spaces did not have budget nor time constraints which allowed for full concentration on the ISTE standards.
Keane 21st Century Learning Space
EEND 679 ARTIFACT 1: Using Technology to Design Formative Assessments
This year my middle school students are learning a new computer programming language called HTML. It is unit 2 of the Computer Science Discoveries course. In my class, we were asked to create a formative assessment. Not only to create one formative assessment but to create it using two different technology resources to do so. I utilized Google Forms and Quizizz. This class allowed me the time to not only focus on a formative assessment for my computer programming class but to really look at what are the best technology resources to use for formative assessments. I really liked both Google Forms and Quizizz. We had to reflect on the features of the online tools and what features are important to us. Cost is very important as teachers already spend a lot of their own money on classrooms so these tools are both free for teachers to use and it is very easy to figure out how to implement your questions and answers. I thought both sites were user friendly not only for the teacher but for students too. They are both great because you can download the students responses and review them as a later time. This way you can reflect on the students' responses and see if there is anything you might need to reteach. I liked how Quizizz allows you to preview the questions so you can see how the students will view it as well as randomizing the questions. All these features were very important to me and I would definitely use Google forms and Quizizz again. I would like to implement both forms of assessments and ask students which they liked better quizizz or google forms. Below are the actual links to my Google Forms and Quizizz. One final note, you also need to draft directions to students letting them know how to access Google Forms and Quizziz. I always have one or two new students but having directions for all students in case they forget how to use the online tool is a good idea. I have posted an example below!
Quizizz: https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5bcfdaf8ef3508001bae80d0/web-development
Google Forms: https://goo.gl/forms/LFDNThRg2uwKs6Qv2
Directions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M9-pMmbisIh3YeYNqqx8pOaTdix4z5knNEn_n9xD6uc/edit?usp=sharing
ISTE Standards FORSTUDENTS. (2016.). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students
EEND 679 ARTIFACT 2: My Genius Hour
In this course, we learned all about Genius Hour. Genius Hour is sort of what Google does for its employees except they call it 20% time. During this 20% time, Google employees have time to tinker around and create things that are of deep interest. Some great apps and inventions have come from those who utilized their 20% time at Google. Google recognizes humans beings nature of being curious and allowing their employees to explore that curiosity. Well, teachers are now translating that same concept to the classroom calling it Genius Hour. Usually done on Fridays but doesn't have to be. Due to so much standardized testing, we are not allowing students to be curious and explore the answers to their burning questions. Teachers help students find out what their interests are and help them narrow them down. Students are to explore using whatever resources at their disposal and try to find the answers to their questions. Teachers give the structure and timeliness to help the students guide their projects. Students should then present their findings to the class. This way everyone learns from everyone else. This makes everyone's learning authentic and their findings can be shared with the school and community. In this class, our teacher gave us our own genius hour but due to time limits of the class, we had to at least spend an hour exploring our genius hour burning question. We had to fill out a chart about our findings each time we spent on our genius hour project as well as post a picture of the final product which I will post below. My question was : how do I make Asian edamame salad like the one at Corner Bakery's? I couldn't find an exact recipe online matching Corner Bakery's (they only listed the ingredients) but I did explore several other websites and decided lets make my own version as close as I can to Corner Bakery's because I just love their Asian edamame salad. It took me several tries. I would bring my salad to lunch each day and reflect on its taste. On the first day, I forgot the edamame which was the whole point of my salad ha ha! The next day, I added way too many carrots and then I decided to add in cheese which was pretty good. The soy dressing took even more tries to get it to the taste I wanted because it was so strong I just kept smelling the soy all the time. I am happy to report that I love my salad and it is a great side to have too! I posted it on Instagram and was both surprised and happy that people liked it. I honestly enjoyed this project because it was something I wanted to do and it was successful because I kept at it. Those are the features that make a genius hour project work!
My Genius Hour Documentation
MY ASIAN EDAMAME SALAD
EEND 679: ARTIFACT REFLECTION
I chose to include Artifact 1 because I know that I will implement it because I am teaching the material to my middle schoolers now. I love learning about new technologies and in artifact 1, I explored the features of Quizizz and Google Forms in more depth. Due to this course, I feel more confident in using Google Forms and Quizizz as formative assessment options. I cannot wait to implement and see what technology tool my students prefer.
I chose to input Artifact two because it was different and fun! This project was personal to me and yet can help others to because I posted my final result on Instagram. I also yapped about it to anyone I met because I was so proud of it and determined to make it successful. Before this course, I rarely gave thought to Genius Hour. Doing Artifact 2 made me realize that if I had fun doing something that interested me and I satisfied my curiosity, so will my students. Now that I have done the assignment myself, I feel confident implementing genius hour in my classroom. I have a class I see twice a week and I am thinking on Fridays, my students can do their own genius hour projects!
My Two Artifacts
EEND-680Z2 ARTIFACT 1 : THE HIRING PROCESS
This was a unique assignment. It was also a partner assignment as well. I thought it was an informative assignment because I learned so much from it. We had to read several resources to learn more about jobs and skills now required of teachers to teach 21st century skills to students. Among the resources is a podcast by Grant Licthman who visited 21 states and 64 schools to see how teachers are incorporating 21st century skills, a podcast by Jennifer Gonzalez on Cult of Pedagogy on Job Interview Advice for Teachers, and an article called" Interview Questions for New Teachers in 21st Century Schools by Alan November. My partner and I had to come up with five interview questions that we would ask of candidates we were considering hiring for our school. I asked five questions and my partner asked five questions. We then had to provide answers to our partners questions. It was easy to work together because we collaborated on the google doc and via email. I think we both asked good questions. Our assignment had to focus on : technology, digital learning, the 4C's, SAMR and so on. It is important to note that you could also ask performance tasks of the interviewee as well. We also had to make sure when we answered the questions that we gave examples and included details in our examples as well. The articles helped us well in forming questions. I was like oh I like my partner's questions. The interview questions are so different than when I was interviewed years ago. It is helpful to keep up to date on what administrations and schools are looking for in teachers. This helps you to prepare yourself and predict what questions that they might ask. You do not want to leave an interview saying Oh I should have said that or I forgot to tell them about that time I did this in the classroom. Doing interview questions helps you to be prepared. Here is our collaborative work:
Interview Assignment
EEND 680Z2 ARTIFACT 2: REDESIGNED LEARNING SPACES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER
I liked this assignment because it was a big challenging and fun at the same time. I know in one of the other classes we had to design what our ideal classroom would look like after reading a variety of resources about 21st century learners and classrooms. I created an ideal library space in google drawings and saved it. That drawing helped me a lot in this assignment and I referred to it for ideas. This assignment was fun because we had to research how we would redesign our space if we received $10,000! The challenging part was not going over that limit and trying to decide which purchase should I make and how many of something should I get. From my readings in this course, I tried to think about what the library's goals are in the long run and to make purchases that are sustainable and justifiable. It was so hard because I am like I want 32 of these and that! This assignment reminded me of what skills students need to learn in the 21st century and what will they need in the classroom/library to help them learn those skills. In addition, many of the resources talked about flexible seating and how students can make their own choices on where to sit in the classroom for the best optimal learning environment. I never knew about Vogek hubs and am so glad I read the articles about them. They also say to keep a wish list on hand in case administration asks or you are able to get a grant for them so I will definitely be saving this assignment. I only wish we were able to view everybody else's redesigned learning spaces assignments. I know I would definitely get ideas and it does not hurt to add more! Here is my assignment below:
REDESIGNED LEARNING SPACES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EEND-681Z2 ARTIFACT 1: CREATING AN INSTITUTIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLAN
The first artifact is my modified Institutional Educational Technology Plan. I call it modified because we were given a basic plan and we added to that plan. We all familiarized ourselves with the different components of an educational technology plan. It is definitely comprehensive. It was not until I created one that I realized oh my gosh a lot goes into managing technology in a school no matter what size school you are in. First and foremost, this assignment had me look at all the technological organizations like ACM, IEE and CoSn to understand the social, legal, equitable and ethical standards in regards to technology. We must follow these standards or risk legal implications when violating federal and state laws. I also liked this assignment because we had to compare those organizations with our own organization. It made me think does my school have an educational technology plan? Do we have an acceptable use policy? CPS does have an acceptable use policy and it was interesting to research against other schools as well. The acceptable use policy is included in the educational technology plan and should be read by all teachers and staff. The acceptable use policy tells what rules regarding technology including social media is acceptable for teachers and students. It is imperative that teachers and students follow these rules to ensure student safety. I feel confident in writing a new educational technology plan if need to do so in my job. We had to research a variety of materials and articles to draft what would be included in our educational technology plan. This plan is not just about procuring technology for your school. It calls into account: how much will it cost to procure technology, that includes telephones, promethean boards, elmos and so forth how much will it cost to maintain it, how much will it cost to train teachers on new technologies? We had to consider what to do with damaged technology and the rules regarding purchasing software. The educational technology plan accounts for all students and teachers in the school. Meaning we consider the implementation of assistive technologies, ESL supports, security systems and rules regarding CIPPAA and FERPA Guidelines. Even items like how the IT staff in the school should communicate notifications down to the style and fonts is included int he communication plan of educational technology plan. I can keep writing more about it but you can click on the link instead. More and more things can be added to it as technology advances.
Institutional Technology Plan
EEND-681Z2 ARTIFACT 2: Technology and the 21st Century Learning Space
This was one of our first assignments in this class. We were tasked with creating our ideal 21st Century Learning Space that would accommodate 25 students.I had fun designing this assignment. We had to use PowerPoint or a similar tool to design this. I utilized Google Drawings. I remember thinking I want so much in my classroom. After reading articles and doing research, I learned about many more things that would be beneficial in the classroom. There were items and technology I had not heard of. It was great to read what my colleagues would include in their classroom because I was like oh I should have included that in my plan such as implementing a 1:1 plan. However, that is why it was so great to take this class. I have learned so much not from just the readings and multimedia but also from my fellow classmates who have helped me with ideas of improving my classroom and teaching. This was not just about creating your ideal learning space whether it would be your gym, classroom, library, or computer lab; it was to be created with the ISTE standards in mind. That is what made this assignment so interesting and above all, it made sense to include those standards. Students need to be taught skills for the 21st century and therefore the technology in the classroom should reflect that. We had to research articles on learning spaces such as "Rethinking the Classroom" by Herman Miller, "Technology, Instruction, and the 21st Century Classroom" by Ed Tech and "New Teachers Designing Learning Environments" by EduTopia. Not only had we to consider the ISTE standards in our plan but we had to consider the following components ascribed by our teacher: "accessibility, electrical access, private and collaborative space, display/work surfaces, Connectivity options, Classroom technology(e.g., software, individual computing devices (mobile?), headphones, document camera/s, audio system, projection device/s, black & white/color/3D printer/s, copier/s, digital camera/s, wearable technologies, video conferencing equipment, recording equipment, interactive whiteboard/s & presentation station/podium), classroom environment(i.e., lighting, colors & classroom furniture), Support for active learning, Learning styles, goals for teaching and learning and student engagement." Most importantly, we had to consider the social, ethical, equitable and legal standards regarding the responsible use of technology when creating our learning space. Bear in mind our learning spaces did not have budget nor time constraints which allowed for full concentration on the ISTE standards.
Keane 21st Century Learning Space
EEND 679 ARTIFACT 1: Using Technology to Design Formative Assessments
This year my middle school students are learning a new computer programming language called HTML. It is unit 2 of the Computer Science Discoveries course. In my class, we were asked to create a formative assessment. Not only to create one formative assessment but to create it using two different technology resources to do so. I utilized Google Forms and Quizizz. This class allowed me the time to not only focus on a formative assessment for my computer programming class but to really look at what are the best technology resources to use for formative assessments. I really liked both Google Forms and Quizizz. We had to reflect on the features of the online tools and what features are important to us. Cost is very important as teachers already spend a lot of their own money on classrooms so these tools are both free for teachers to use and it is very easy to figure out how to implement your questions and answers. I thought both sites were user friendly not only for the teacher but for students too. They are both great because you can download the students responses and review them as a later time. This way you can reflect on the students' responses and see if there is anything you might need to reteach. I liked how Quizizz allows you to preview the questions so you can see how the students will view it as well as randomizing the questions. All these features were very important to me and I would definitely use Google forms and Quizizz again. I would like to implement both forms of assessments and ask students which they liked better quizizz or google forms. Below are the actual links to my Google Forms and Quizizz. One final note, you also need to draft directions to students letting them know how to access Google Forms and Quizziz. I always have one or two new students but having directions for all students in case they forget how to use the online tool is a good idea. I have posted an example below!
Quizizz: https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5bcfdaf8ef3508001bae80d0/web-development
Google Forms: https://goo.gl/forms/LFDNThRg2uwKs6Qv2
Directions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M9-pMmbisIh3YeYNqqx8pOaTdix4z5knNEn_n9xD6uc/edit?usp=sharing
ISTE Standards FORSTUDENTS. (2016.). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students
EEND 679 ARTIFACT 2: My Genius Hour
In this course, we learned all about Genius Hour. Genius Hour is sort of what Google does for its employees except they call it 20% time. During this 20% time, Google employees have time to tinker around and create things that are of deep interest. Some great apps and inventions have come from those who utilized their 20% time at Google. Google recognizes humans beings nature of being curious and allowing their employees to explore that curiosity. Well, teachers are now translating that same concept to the classroom calling it Genius Hour. Usually done on Fridays but doesn't have to be. Due to so much standardized testing, we are not allowing students to be curious and explore the answers to their burning questions. Teachers help students find out what their interests are and help them narrow them down. Students are to explore using whatever resources at their disposal and try to find the answers to their questions. Teachers give the structure and timeliness to help the students guide their projects. Students should then present their findings to the class. This way everyone learns from everyone else. This makes everyone's learning authentic and their findings can be shared with the school and community. In this class, our teacher gave us our own genius hour but due to time limits of the class, we had to at least spend an hour exploring our genius hour burning question. We had to fill out a chart about our findings each time we spent on our genius hour project as well as post a picture of the final product which I will post below. My question was : how do I make Asian edamame salad like the one at Corner Bakery's? I couldn't find an exact recipe online matching Corner Bakery's (they only listed the ingredients) but I did explore several other websites and decided lets make my own version as close as I can to Corner Bakery's because I just love their Asian edamame salad. It took me several tries. I would bring my salad to lunch each day and reflect on its taste. On the first day, I forgot the edamame which was the whole point of my salad ha ha! The next day, I added way too many carrots and then I decided to add in cheese which was pretty good. The soy dressing took even more tries to get it to the taste I wanted because it was so strong I just kept smelling the soy all the time. I am happy to report that I love my salad and it is a great side to have too! I posted it on Instagram and was both surprised and happy that people liked it. I honestly enjoyed this project because it was something I wanted to do and it was successful because I kept at it. Those are the features that make a genius hour project work!
My Genius Hour Documentation
MY ASIAN EDAMAME SALAD
EEND 679: ARTIFACT REFLECTION
I chose to include Artifact 1 because I know that I will implement it because I am teaching the material to my middle schoolers now. I love learning about new technologies and in artifact 1, I explored the features of Quizizz and Google Forms in more depth. Due to this course, I feel more confident in using Google Forms and Quizizz as formative assessment options. I cannot wait to implement and see what technology tool my students prefer.
I chose to input Artifact two because it was different and fun! This project was personal to me and yet can help others to because I posted my final result on Instagram. I also yapped about it to anyone I met because I was so proud of it and determined to make it successful. Before this course, I rarely gave thought to Genius Hour. Doing Artifact 2 made me realize that if I had fun doing something that interested me and I satisfied my curiosity, so will my students. Now that I have done the assignment myself, I feel confident implementing genius hour in my classroom. I have a class I see twice a week and I am thinking on Fridays, my students can do their own genius hour projects!
