Definition of Collaboration (Others & My Own)

Dictionary.com defines Collaboration to work with one to another. Roblyer defines Collaboration to be work with one another as well as a integrating technology. My definition of the term is the two of these definitions combined.

In education, collaboration is the truly one of the best ways to become a successful teacher. It is vital to work with fellow teachers. We not only have to rely on one other for certain tasks, but we also need to use those with more experience. When I became a teacher, I relied on my cooperating teacher to help guide me to find my way. Due to her experience, I was able to develop great classroom management skills as well as designing innovative lesson plans. Now, that I don't have a cooperating teacher with me anymore, I  have to rely on other resources. My teammates have become crucial when it comes to integrating subjects and classroom behavior; however, the internet has also become one of most reliable resources to create lesson plans. Being that we are all educators to 21st Century Learners, it is important for us to use strategies such as collaboration to create a successful learning experiences for our students.

When it comes to collaboration, it can happen in a variety of ways. Collaboration can happen within intrapersonal exchanges. Roblyer described these to methods of communicating via technology. Examples of this would be email exchanges among teachers/students and teachers and parents. Students can conduct cooperative learning through problem solving, simulated activities, and data analysis with webquests or other online activities. Over the last few years, Google Docs has become a popular way to submit work online and share with teachers and other students. The internet has changed collaboration to include other ways than just sitting next to each other to do a project or talking with one another. It can now be done virtually.

Not only does the internet change ways for students to collaborate, but it has completely changed for teachers. The main source of communication among teachers is email. For me, it has become second nature to check my school email every free moment I can. Along with email, there are blogs, wikis, and sites dedicated to just teachers. Within in a few clicks of a mouse or keyboard, I'm able to find countless lesson plans  or ideas that are pertaining to my subject area. Sometimes, it can feel overwhelming how much is available. The key is to recognize how to use it.

At the middle school level, the teachers rely on technology as well as each other. For example, my teammates and I try to integrate writing across the curriculum. In order for this to happen, we definitely need to collaborate with one another. Usually, the Language Arts teacher will help us create common key concepts, communicate these concepts to us virtually, and the rest of us integrate them into our subject areas. An example of this is how I had the student read an article about declining pollinators and had to create an nonlinguistic representation of the article. The Language Arts had taught this skill to the students the day before, and she let me know via email. Then I was able to assess the students knowledge of the concept in Science.

Along with my teammates, I rely heavily on my Librarian and Technology Specialist. As expressed in the brochure, Librarians do help students achieve standards in a variety of ways, Things such as providing materials for teachers, strategies to incorporate information literacy, and purchasing databases/software, can really enhance a teacher's curriculum.  By collaborating with with my school's librarian and technology specialist, I've been able to enhance my lesson plans with technological components and cooperative learning skills. The librarian and I are currently in the process of designing a project using GoAnimate for my students disease project. In previous years, I've usually required my students to write a research paper, but this year, I will enhance the 21st Century Learning by revising the lesson to include technology. With the Librarian's help, I am able to learn how to use the program, have her expertise available to the students during class time, and develop a rubric that makes the project much more effective and purposeful than just a typical, boring research paper. As a way to make sure to communicate each other's role in this project, we are using the Collaboration Planning Organizer. This will record the standards, essential questions, technological resources, and purpose to each activity. By filling out this graphic organizer, it will create a cooperative learning experience for each student as well as for the teachers.

Personally, I believe the expectations to Collaboration are respect and communication. It is important to respect each other's time, ideas, and effort. When you respect each other's time, things have a tendency to be done in a more efficient manner. When you communicate well, it can really make something outstanding.  Some of the best ways to communicate may be using a graphic organizer, lesson plan template, or web based strategy. By modeling this type of collaboration, the students are also able to learn the skills to collaborate.


Resources:

Collaborative lesson plan organizer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lrs.org/documents/lmcstudies/collab_plan_organizer.pdf


Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/collaborate

Lance, K., Rodney, M., & Hamilton-Pennwell, C. (n.d.). How school librarians. Retrieved from http://www.lrs.org/documents/lmcstudies/CO/CO2brochure.pdf

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering. A.H.(Ed.).(Recent edition). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston, MA: Allyn&Bacon.

Updating some lesson with technology integration...

This week, I took the opportunity to investigate the importance of technology integration. If you read a few of my previous blogs, you will be able to find out my opinion on the subject as well as my critique of lesson that did integrate technology. Due to some of my new found knowledge, I took one of my own lesson plans and updated it to include technology. The second lesson is my revised version of the lesson I had critiqued earlier in the week.

Lesson 1: Circulatory System

Lesson 2: Conservation

Online Learning...Is it a Good Thing?

This week, I took the opportunity to watch a video about online learning. Susan Patrick, the president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) explains many different reasons why online learning provided better opportunities for students as well as educators. In this video she expressed how online learning enhances the instructional methods to meet each student needs, creating motivation in students, and increasing success of students.

Susan Patrick: Why Online Learning is a Smart Solution

The first point Susan Patrick discusses is the shortage of teachers available in critical subjects such as Physics. In fact, the State of Georgia has four hundred high schools and only eighty-nine Physics teachers. This makes it impossible for every high school to offer the subject. By providing online learning programs, students are able to access learning opportunities that may not be available to them in their high school. It also allows them a self-paced environment. Working one on one with a teacher online, allows students to work at his or her individual pace and still learn the same material as other students.  Not only do the students get the chance to take a subject that may not be available at the school, the educators love the flexibility online learning provides.

Teachers are now able to teach classes that work with his or her free time as well as provides more one on one opportunities with students. Since the teachers are able to use their time differently, it provides the allotment to teach classes outside for the school times. Also, it allows retired teachers the possibility to continue teaching in the comfort of their own time and the amount of classes they prefer to teach. According to Roblyer's Summary of Elements, students need opportunities to study in unique ways, online learning provides this opportunity for students as well as teachers.

Due to this concept of online learning, it is important to provide the teachers with professional development. The best part about online learning is that it allows teachers increase productivity. They will be able to learn on their own time the new resources needed to integrate technology without taking time away from teaching the students. By providing these resources, teachers will be able to save time on lessons, save money on consumable materials, and provide feedback to students much faster.


I completely agree with Susan Patrick; online learning is great concept. Of course, I love my students, and I really enjoy connecting with them on a day to day basis. However, having the possibility to teach online classes may allow me to connect with more individuals across the state, country, and world! It allows me to work with some of my students that may need more one on one direction. I still enjoy the atmosphere of traditional school, however, online schooling is definitely something to think about...

Resources:

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering. A.H.(Ed.).(Recent edition). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston, MA: Allyn&Bacon.

Technology Integration in Lesson Planning

Last week, a website that showed four different examples of excellent teachers integrating technology into their classrooms. To recap, the following link will take you to these examples.

Classrooms at Work

This week, I took some time to re-look at these lesson plans, and analyze my own experiences of integrating technology into my classroom.One of the main reasons why I decided to go back to school and get my Master's in Integrating Technology is due to my desire to learn more! I've realized that this world has some new technology source come out on a regular basis. Software seems to be created on a daily basis and hardware on a monthly basis. The funniest thing I ever heard was from the Best Buy salesman. He informed me that my computer was now officially outdated the minute I bought it! Technology is the future, so I need and want to learn more to survive!

My hopes are to take examples such as the teachers in the link above and provide my students with a memorable learning experience. Of course, every teacher wants the "lightbulbs" to click on with students, but I also want to go beyond by giving them a great learning tool. The example I liked the most from the Classrooms at Work link was the 8th grade Wild Ride. This project idea really integrated three completely different subject areas and kept the student completely actively engaged in a project-based learning experience. After reading about this project, I started to think of ways that I could integrate with my own teammates.

Project Wild is successful for a multitude of reasons:
1. The teachers involved really took the time to collaborate. Each teacher still was able to teach the students the required standards that their subjects required, but still able to find common ground with this project.
2. It was organized with a daily calendar.
3. It took a highly interesting topic such as Roller Coasters. Kids love them! So, it made it even easier since the students were so interested.
4. They created a system with the "Roller Coaster RedBook" that kept the students organized and allowed them to reflect on daily tasks.
5. Cooperating Learning - Each student was given a job.
6. Project Wild integrated technology in a purposefully way - it wasn't just there to allow the teachers time to work and not teach.
The reasons are endless, but the key is the time the teachers put in to collaborate and work together. Because of their hard work, the students truly had a great learning experience.

My goal that I have to with using technology is fairly similar to the example above. I would like to integrate technology with purpose. Over the last few years of my teaching career, I've become much more technology educated, but I'm just starting to really integrate it into lesson plans with much more purpose and meaning. Project Wild is a perfect example of a way to integrate technology as well as other subjects. I would love to do the same with my own colleagues.

Being that I'm a science teacher, I definitely understand the purpose to the "science" side of Project.Wild. Although, I don't teach Newton's Laws, this project has given me some ideas for the human body. In fact, my team and I are trying a little "integration day" for Valentine's Day to be "Heart Day." For one day, each teacher on the team will have lessons that coincide with the Circulatory System. Since this is just a one day integration, only one of the teachers plans to do integrate any technology with some research on the history behind Valentine's Day. However, each of the other teachers plan to do some great hands on activities. As a way to tie each of classes together, the students will complete a reflection sheet in the form of a heart with the four chambers as their four classes. See below for the example:

 Pathway through Heart Reflection Sheet

Just like Project Wild's 8th grade teachers, I have the luxury to work with a team of teachers. Although we do not block, it is still possible for us to create some integration among our topics. It just has to be in smaller doses. As I investigated this website, I definitely explored the 8th grade lesson the most, but I really enjoyed reading about the 9th grade lesson as well. Since I don't always get the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers, I would like to explore ways for my students to share their work with classmates from other classes.  I've used technology is a multiple of ways for science projects, but I've never explored ways for the students to share their work with people that are not in their actual science classes. The Global Challenge lesson plan provided a great example.

The the past few months, I've really learned a variety of ways to make technology much more purposeful. The best aspect is how much my students really enjoy learning with technology. The students are always actively engaged and really thrive on hands on experiences with technology. Due to this new found appreciation for technology, I'm definitely looking at ways to improve my teaching. In fact, next year, I plan to have a blog for my students to use for their homework assignments, and I'm working on creating forms on Google Docs as an option for students that prefer to use computers over worksheets. :)

Whole School Technology/Classroom Viewpoints...

Scenario #1: Hypothetically speaking, I was awarded a $45,000 grant to use for technology, how would I spend it?
This is an easy question for me. I would spend it on iPads! $45,000 is definitely not enough money for my the students at my middle school be given in a one to one option, but it is definitely enough money to purchase a few mobile labs that move from classroom to classroom. I did a little research, and this is how I would spend the money:

$20,160 = 32 iPad 2's + iPad covers + apple TV connector + connection cords + mobile cart
$20,160 = mobile lab #2 will same accessories as above
$1900 = "Mommy Computer" preferably an apple computer- this will be used for the iTunes account and creation of apps.
Total= $42,220 leaving the remaining money to be used for app purchases and any maintenance that may occur.

Now, being that I'm a science teacher, I would really like one of the labs to go to just the science department and the other to be used among the other departments. In a perfect world, it would be wonderful to have 1 mobile lab per department, but since this scenario only gives me $45,000. I would need another $45,000 to make it happen! I know it is selfish of me to to have one of the mobile labs for just the science department, but there is a little method to my thinking. I'm actually in the process of conducting an opinion poll with my technology specialist of the school I currently teach on this exact topic. I've also asked many of the teachers about iPads and how often they would use them in their own classrooms. All the science teachers, except for one said they would forego a mobile lab of laptops for a iPad lab instead. The other departments, math, social studies, and language arts, had only a few people that said they preferred iPads over laptops. Since the interest and demand seems to be more so with science department, hence the method behind my thinking.

Scenario #2: a $3,000 budget has been given to the technology teacher, how can/will they spend it.
I took the time to ask my technology specialist. She believed the money is definitely not enough money to buy anything new. So, the money would be better spent to update/upkeep last year's technology. It may beneficial to use for other maintenance costs such as batteries.

At our middle school, my technology specialist is the one that makes any and all decisions about the technology in the school. My principal really has now say, and she can use her budget however she chooses. The way she makes her decisions is based on how the teachers will use it and how it will benefit the students. I took a look at 4teachers.org's technology tool planning kit. Ironically, we are the process of such a change in the school by replacing two mobile laptops with iPads. We are now using this tool kit as our checklist. So far, so good....

Internet Safety

As a mother and teacher, I constantly think about how to keep my child/students safe. We have drills at school to protect our students from fires, tornadoes, and lock downs, but it is easy to forget that the internet can be just a dangerous! When it comes to the increase of technology and having everything at our fingertips, it is just as easy for dangerous situations to occur with a few clicks of a mouse. I've spent some time researching the topic. In the link below, I've created a top ten list that should be discussed and taught to students.

Top Ten List on Internet Safety

The biggest issue we face with our students is social networking. Many of the students have their own facebook page, twitter, or some other type of online social account. I will admit that I have one to stay in touch with family members and old friends. However, I do not wish to be friends with my students or their parents! I really believe that is crossing the line of professionalism. As an educator, it is my job to be a role model to my students. I'm here to help them learn academics as well as provide them ways to be become successful adults. I'm not an educator to be their friend. I also feel the same way about my students' parents. Parents and teachers should always keep the lines of communication open and stay consistent with students, but being friends with parents is crossing the line. I know there are a few exceptions. Teachers are human too and sometimes they do find relationships with his or her students. However, I try to maintain a professional relationship only. My district seems to have the same opinion considering the fact they have blocked many of the social networks for students and educators.
My district takes internet safety very seriously. We have a program the will flag any student or staff member that use in appropriate searches. I actually learned about this the hard way. MY first year in the district, I had found out about the program, but I thought it was only for students. Staff members do have more leniency, but they are still monitored. Well, being a science teacher, on of the topics I happen to teach is sexual reproduction. So, when I was conducting a search of slang terms that one of my students asked in my Question box, I was flagged. Within a hour of my search, my principal was in my class demanding to know what I had been doing! Luckily, all was explained, and everybody had a good laugh; however, I learned my lesson to conduct my "sex question research" at home.

Even though teachers are given a little more leniency, the district monitors our students very closely. Students and staff members are required to use a login and password to open anything on the computers. Once it is logged on the program will monitor all internet searches for that particular individual. Each month, our technology specialist will receive a report on any student/staff that was conducting inappropriate searches. Being that I work in a middle school, we do have students that like to test the limits. The most common search seems to be with the word "poop." Our specialist will give each report to the principal, and he will make the judgement call. I had a student in my class that kept attempting to look up Selena Gomez in a bikini instead of researching his biome project. The principal did talk to this student and give him some consequences for his actions. He was suspended from using the computers for one week. He also was warned that if it happened again, more serious consequences would happen. This particular student definitely learned his lesson because he couldn't work on his project at school, so he had a lot homework. Usually, the principal doesn't hold the teacher accountable, but he will definitely make us aware of situations like this one. When I made aware, I have a tendency to keep an extra eye on those students.

Despite the fact that the district has blocked access to many websites that are deemed inappropriate, there are some rare occasions that one is not blocked. If that ever happens, the teachers are required to let the principal and technology specialist know right away. They also should communicate with the parents. As long as the teacher lets everyone know, many times the situation is handled without any problems and the website will be blocked by the district. Most of the time, the parents understand that these things happen and use this as a great learning experience on digital responsibility. However, if the teacher doesn't take the right actions, they will be held accountable.
When it comes to internet searches, I like to say that I pretty knowledgeable; however, I know there are always new techniques. Luckily, I have many databases available through my school district, so it makes it a little easier to find reliable material. As a teacher, I try to teach my students about reliable sources as well. I have to admit, my district has made is much easier with databases. If I don't use the data bases, I try to teach my students common websites that are considered reliable. To make it easier for them, I like to tell them to look at the .org or .edu's first!
As a well to instill internet safety an digital citizenship into our students, our district has invested in iSafe. Each quarter, a subject area will take a day to talk about internet safety through age appropriate lesson plans provided from iSafe.org. I usually teach lessons on social networking.

Classroom Management Techniques...

When it comes to my own classroom management, I like to define it as "organized chaos." This means that when you walk into my class, it may look a little crazy to you. However, if you stay long enough, you will get a sense of the organization.  Not to mention, I know what everyone is doing! This week, I took some time to research some other teachers that have development some remarkable classroom management skills.

The following link has some great examples of classroom management.
Classrooms at work

The link shows four different classrooms that are from different grade levels and subject areas. The first link is to Char Soucy's 1st Grade Animal Research Project. During this project the students are able to conduct some research on computers, make flip books, and creating powerpoints. This particular teacher does a remarkable job creating a project that is interesting to her students as well as teaching them the importance to research and presentation. The key is she made it fun! As a way to keep her student organized, she allowed them to work with partners. Each group had a checklist and each partner was responsible for his or her part. Soucy also had the luxury of Parent Helpers. Since this seemed to be the students first real experience with research and technology, her parent helpers made it so this project was a great success. Soucy students were able to use the classroom as well as a computer lab. As a way to save time, the Internet browsers were already set to the San Diego Zoo as the default browser. This definitely saved time for these six year olds!

As a middle school teacher, I do allow a little more independence with it comes to research sites. One of the biggest challenges that I deal with is the fact so many 7th graders think that Wikepedia is a the best site to get information. So, I like to require some more guidelines to research. For example, I provided a list of reliable resources, and the students choose. I also require the students to provide a bibliography. Recently, I've started using livebinders.com. It is a free online database where you can create tabs of websites. This has been a lifesaver on time. By creating a set place for the students to find all their information from multiple resources has really helped save time!

The next link is for 4th grade Geography Project called Travel USA. Just like Soucy's 1st grade class, Mrs. Krauss' strategies is similar in the way of organizing her students in group. However, she does not have the luxury of parent helpers to keep her students organized. So, each group has a "Paper Clip Person." This person is responsible to organizes the daily tasks of the group. Since this project is spanned out for 3 to 4 months, the kids do a little with it each day.  As a way to monitor the students' daily work, each student keeps a Daily Effort Diary. As a way to utilize the limited computers, she rotates her students. Half of the student will work on the computers while the other half is in the classroom portion working on related activities. Then the students will switch.

I use this strategy in my own class. At the middle school that I teach, we have mobile labs of 16 laptops. Since class sizes range from 30 to 35 students, it is impossible for all students to be working on a computer at the same time. So, it helps creating groups. Each group will have a group leader. Group leaders are responsible to make sure all the tasks are completed; however, each group member will be responsible for the same number of tasks and each student is graded independently from each other. When I only have 16 laptops, I usually rotate; half the group members will use a computer while the rest of the group does a different activity, then they switch. Since my classes are only 50 minutes, I usually schedule the mobile labs for multiple days and have the kids switch on different days instead in the same period.

The third link was a middle school project called Wild Ride. This was a great project because of the idea of interdisciplinary content. The math teacher, science teacher, and language arts teacher all had parts that were completed in each other's class. Because of the multiple classes involved and the amount of time, the students also had a checklist called the "Roller Coaster Red Book." I just did something similar with my language arts teacher and social studies teacher.  To celebrate Chinese New Year, we devoted one day to teach Chinese culture within our contents. As a way for the students to go from class to class, they were required to fill out their "passport." It was their ticket in and out of classes. We used the passport as a way for the students to reflect on their experiences in each of the classes.

For final link was a 9th grade class completing a five week project on Global Challenge. This project had three phases. The first two phases had requirements and guidelines, but the third phase was to evaluate other groups. The best thing that the teacher did before assigning this project was to survey the students about their technology skills. This allowed him to know how in depth to make the project as well as what the students already knew with technology.

I've do something similar with my students. I give the students a survey at the beginning of the year to learn about their background knowledge of science topics and technology skills. Of course it is important to pre-assess the students before each unit, but I think it is important to look at other knowledge such as technology. This makes it easy for me to decide group leaders at the beginning of the year.

Classroom management is extremely important. The key is to take ideas and strategies like these and apply them to your classes. One thing that our principal requires of teachers to conduct one peer evaluation each semester. This gives us the opportunity to learn from others. Each teacher will have certain things that they are really good at, but nobody will ever know. So by going into others' classrooms, we can open our eyes to new ideas and strategies.