Final Reflection

I have really enjoyed my experience with my Naz group this year.  Although I still get confused and don't always understand why I may be having different technical problems, I am feeling much more comfortable with technology.

                                                     Looking for citations in the articles.

I especially enjoyed the implementation experience.  My experience was based around a need I found while preparing my students for the ELA exam.  I realized after a couple of practice exams that my students did not cite any sources when responding to informational text.

                                                         Deciding which quotations to use.

My thought was that if I could have my students make some form of cartoon on the computer, then they could have the character say something and then have another character quote the first.  After consulting with Mr. Hill, I decided to use the Tynker coding program that my students had started to use in the STEM lab.

I started the experience by giving my students two articles on bald eagles.  I asked them to write an essay after reading the two articles.  I stated that they should use the information from the articles.  I gave them roughly one and a half hours to complete the assignment on  Google Classroom.

                                                       Individualizing cartoon actors.

We then spent three 40 minute periods in the STEM lab with Mr. Hill and Mr. Riordon making a 4 quote Tynker cartoon.  Students chose 4 people from the articles and then made cartoon actors for them.  They typed in a quote from each and then using code, programmed responses.  Each student also made a cartoon for themselves.  What they wound up making was a cartoon where one actor would represent someone quoted in the article (eg. Bill Clinton).  That actor/cartoon would say a direct quote.  Then the student's cartoon would either directly quote it by saying, "Bill Clinton said, ...." or they would paraphrase what Clinton said.

                                                    Student choosing image for their actor.


I then gave the same activity and told the students to use information from both articles problem I think that they would do better if I had more concretely stated that they needed to quote .  Overall I was pleased because they did a better job of pulling facts from the reading.  They still failed to quote the source of their information with the exception of stating who wrote the first article.  On reflecting on the activity I think they learned the necessary skills to be successful, but they will need more frequent reminding of the expectation to quote resources within their work.

The last thing we did was we shared our Tynker cartoons with Mr. Brooks class through Seesaw.  My students enjoyed seeing his classes work with videos and responses to "Bud, Not Buddy."  They especially enjoyed reading comments about their own project from his students.

Although the lesson took 5 sessions, I feel it was well worth doing and will duplicate it next fall.  I will look to make some revisions as I analyze the work a bit more.

In conclusion, this CLC was very helpful to me.  I enjoyed the comradery with the other members of the CLC.  Everybody in the group shared their knowledge (mentors and newbies alike).  My students had experiences with technology that they would not have had otherwise.  I would happily participate again!


Link to student work:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oZqrWjj0tKWPPabgPPS8k-KTiGsxAu44Q2HH1gO9CgY/edit

About 35 years ago I was the branch president of a small church congregation in San Jacinto, California.  It was an all Spanish speaking congregation with about 150 people on the roles and around 50 people attending each Sunday.  One of my responsibilities was to oversee the financial end of things.  I had a financial clerk, Mike, who was a CPA professionally.  Two people were responsible for counting donations every Sunday. Usually, I was able to delegate that to one of my counselors, but occasionally I needed to help Mike.  

As Mike was the financial expert (he really was) he ran things.  This was back in 1980 and computers really were not very common.  Mike used an electronic calculator and was incredibly fast with it.  One afternoon we had a power outage at church but still had to do the accounting.  We started as we usually did with me grouping money and dictating to Mike what was there and for which category the money would go.  After about 5 minutes we realized that I was much faster with paper and pencil math and switched roles. His dependency on the calculator had caused his computation skills to atrophy. We finished and the next time we worked together we were back to our original roles with an electronic calculator.

The point of my story is that I have a concern that by relying too heavily on the computer our students may lose some basic thinking, research, writing, and editing skills that are essential for cognition and comprehension development.   That being said, I also think it is imperative that they develop strong computer skills.  Their ability to succeed in school, business, and the world is going to depend on these abilities.  

As any others have pointed out, I think a balance is necessary.  Here are some of my ideas on the use of technology in the classroom.

Pros of Technology in the Classroom

• The world is at the student’s  fingertips for research.
• With Google Chrome students and teachers can save their work very easily.
• Editing and revising is much easier.
• Students can work from home (if they have access).
• Teachers can assign work from home (great if they are home sick) and correct work.
• Save paper.
• Teachers can assign work specifically for individual students or groups of students.
• Programs can be used to focus on specific skills.

Cons of Technology in the Classroom

• Too much dependence on the web (not able to research in other ways)
• False news.
• Teachers letting the computer teach the students.
• Students not having access to the same quality of technology at home.
• Plagiarism
• Because of the speed of internet research, students may not digest what they are putting down.
• Inability of students to work with others or in a team, if too much of their work is with their heads down buried in the computer.
• Possible lack of divergent thinking, just finding the first few citations on their Google search.

• AND both lists can go on and on.  Like most things, it doesn’t matter how much or how little we use technology as much as how we use it!

Well, my m.o. is to put something humorous in, but I'm coming up dry. 

 Something about lesson plans that saps my "funny." I spent some serious time planning last night and I feel like I have an idea that will help my students.  I have been working with them trying to get them to cite evidence in their writing responses and to use good sentences that tell the reader where their information came from. 

My plan is to first have my students respond to a reading passage that has multiple quotations, facts, and sources. After doing this I will re-teach this concept using a new poster that I made and then I will have them take the same passage and they will use Tynker to create animated characters who will give the quotes. They will have two characters for each of 3-4 slides.  One will be the giver of the information and the other will be the student who will either quote or paraphrase. After doing that they will then write their responses again to see if they cite more frequently and clearly.  My hope is that by doing the exercise of making the characters with the quotes or facts the concept will be more concrete and automatic. 

When we complete our assignment we will collaborate with Mr. Brokks and his class.  Each class will share what they did and what their results were.  We may use Seesaw for this. 

                                                                       PLN Post


Like most of the other bloggers, I am more comfortable being a "lurker" than a "lurkee."  To be honest, I am not really interested in being a "lurker" either.  I think I have been a bit wary of "social media" as a result of seeing fights and conflict that originated or escalated through "Facebook."  I recognize that this has helped to keep my wife and me away from using different social media sites. Through this class I can see where it can be beneficial through making contacts that I couldn't other ways and seeing ideas that I probably would not have seen without it.

I am starting to use Twitter, but need more experience with it.  I have posted a few tweets on my chromebook , but I think it will be more useful on my smartphone. I am following a site on Thomas Jefferson, Community Schools, and Edutopia. I have set it up on my phone.  I just posted using my first GIF (I had to ask my daughter what a GIF was).

I also use Pinterest, Seesaw (not this year yet), and I am planning on trying some of the webcasts that I saw on  another site.  I have to try and remember where it was.  It had a list of webcasts where people could listen and participate on various subjects.

                                Teaching Is A Dignified Profession

Where do I begin?  Well, a week ago I was sitting down with my students in the back of my room. While a student was reading out loud, N.S. came over and started to brush my hair. I paused and asked her what she was doing.  She said that she was straightening my hair.  I suggested that I did not need or want a Mohawk. Upon saying that, two other students jumped up and started making a little "pig tail" in my hair.  Our principal came by and the kids called her in to see my hair. She laughed and took my picture. In my infinite wisdom I told them that if they worked as hard as they could on the NYS ELA exam (3 days of testing), I would let them do anything they wanted to  my hair (as long as it wasn't permanent).

I was actually very pleased throughout the 3 days.  I have no way of knowing how well they did, but their focus and effort was really great. The pictures below show the end results.  They were very pleased!  I kept it that way throughout the day and saw many a "double-take" as kids and adults walked by me.

 So as the great Gene Kelly said in the movie "Singing in the Rain,"  Dignity, always with dignity,"


                                          

WARNING!!!  THIS BLOG WILL BE A SPORT'S BLOG!!! IF YOU HAVE AN AVERSION TO SPORTS, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.  

                                                             

Okay, I got that out of the way.  Last week I went to my first Pittsburgh Penguin hockey game.  My oldest daughter moved to Pittsburgh 8 years ago and my youngest (2 daughters) moved there later.  I have been following the Penguins since they moved there, and for 8 years I have "meant" to go to a game.  Part of the problem is that during the week does not work, I can't get to Friday games from Rochester by 7, and if I go to a Saturday game I would get back to Rochester at 4 am.  I have Sunday church obligations, so that wouldn't work.  For the last 4 seasons, the Penguins have been playing "away" during February vacation and the regular season is over during Spring vacation. (Still awake?).

Well, in any case, I had some Friday business that I needed to take care of, so I took a personal day and then went to Pittsburgh.  Oh what excitement!  We lost in overtime, but I didn't care.  It was exciting and I got to see Sydney Crosby (he is famous for hockey fans, kind of like the Mona Lisa for art fans, which is a reference to a previous blog).  Are you keeping up?  I took my son-in-law and nephew and it was awesome.

The next day I was able to participate in our web discussion (while holding a beautiful and well-behaved granddaughter). A short trip, but memorable.

Yatta, Mrs. Satta!  Domo arigato gozaimasu Satta Sensei.  Yatta means "I did it!" in Japanese and the rest means, thank you.  Thank you Carol for helping fix my blog issue problem.  This was from a week ago when I reported that I was having difficulty adding my gadgets.  Apparently there were two issues.  One problem was that I kept going back to Add a Gadget instead of just to edit.  Each time I would start a new list of blogs I follow.  The second problem was in not copying the blog address first and then trying to add them.  Carol really did a nice job of explaining and I in turn was able to  others.

Relate to my Japanese in the first paragraph, for our school's Dream Celebration there will be a chopsticks competition. I taught my students earlier how to use them.  I have developed a three step system that I think works well.  I start with a basic video that shows how to grip the chopsticks (for a couple of dollars you can buy packs of 50-100 cheap chopsticks that work well).  I then have students practice picking up styrofoam packing peanuts.  They have basically no weight and decent texture to grip.  The students practice a bit moving the peanuts around their desk and into a paper bowl.  Next, comes cheese doodles.  I give them 5-15 and then they get to eat.  When they have mastered that I have pass out Japanese senbei (rice crackers) that are small and hard.  When they can eat the senbei using chopsticks, they have graduated!

Below I have attached links to a simple chopstick video and a humorous link to a video entitled, "Chopsticks vs. Fork."

Well, I am here at home battling with my "computer machine" (a favorite quote from a fairly lame, yet harmless police/comedy sitcom that lasted two years).  The older partner kept telling the younger, tech savy partner, to look it up on his "computer machine." The younger partner eventually gave up trying to tell him that it is just "computer."  As for me and my family, we will call it a computer machine!

I am trying to add my "Blogs That I Follow" list.  Each time I leave the page to find and attach the URL the page goes back to the default "layout" page and I have to start over.  I posted two URL's and they came up separate on my blog page.  I'll have to get help from one of the people I mentor.

On a more positive note, we went snowshoeing in Cobbs Hill yesterday.  Cold, but fun.  We (my wife and I) are wimping out today and watching a movie while working out on the elliptical and treadmill.

                                     
                                 "Who needs global warming when you've got snowshoes?"

Well, I arrived home last night at 10:30 from Palmyra and was getting ready to go to bed when I checked my email, and lo and behold, No School!  I was not expecting two days out, but I do understand it.  We have power and no damage (expect a chimney guard that blew off and will have to be put back later.  I have been fairly busy organizing damage assessments for members of my congregation.  Also, opening up the church for those without power. Despite those duties, I have managed to workout, visit my mom, and fight with our taxes (I  am not mentioning naps or anything like that).
I was supposed to have my formal observation Thursday and that gave me the opportunity to extend with technology.  I used a site called QuizStar to make a pre and post test on test taking (in anticipation of NYS ELA testing at the end of the month).  I had trouble with it because I couldn't seem to get access to my students.  They could see the quiz but couldn't click on it.  I found out later that it took about two hours for the quiz to actually become active (populate?).  I probably should have used Google Forms, but I hadn't really used it before and wasn't sure how to.  Next time I will.

I also have been using Jeopardy Labs Jeopardy games.  There are many online, free and work well with my students.  I have picked out different topics for review (Egypt, Science reviews, and other subjects).  I decided that it would look good for my observation to have a Jeopardy game, so I made my own on test taking (Multiple Choice, QAR, Essay Questions, Close Reading, and Test Preparation). It seemed to work out well and I am looking forward to using it next week.  Here is a link to it.

jeopardylabs.com/play/ela-exam21


Remember!  What could go wrong?

I was told that it is good to add pictures to your blog page.  This is a picture of the Mona Lisa. It is very famous.  I actually saw it in person when I was 10, but that really isn't relevant.

Well, I'm back.  Life continues to be hectic, but good.  We have added a new grandchild to the family.  Eve Esperanza Tveten, who was born on October 28, 2016.  She is the newest "apple of my eye." She was born in and lives in Pittsburgh, which means many 2-day weekend visits to Pittsburgh.  Go Steelers, Pirates, and most importantly, go Penguins!  Sorry to my daughter that she wasn't enough of a draw for such frequent visits.

                                                                  Why is life so hard?



Otherwise, I continue being very busy as a teacher and a bishop for my church .  As part of being a bishop, I was able to officiate two weddings in September.  I first officiated my dear friend Demetria's wedding and then my daughter's best friend, Krysia's wedding.  Both experiences were really cool.  Last big change since I posted.  Last September I turned 60.

 Old age, how did you creep up on me?  I try to milk it for as much as I can.  I joke by asking teachers, "Where am I?" I will also go to other classrooms ask, "Is this my classroom?"  It works well since they don't take me seriously anyways.

I am actually going to be serious for a minute.  I am enjoying being a teacher (I always have). I see people retired at 60 and I am not jealous at all.  I like being "relevant" and being able to still work with young kids and with my younger peers.  I am in no rush to be "put out to pasture."  The hardest part is adapting to new technology and paperwork.  I seem to work more slowly than I used to.  The computer is great until something doesn't work and then it all seems counter intuitive. Regarding working slowly, I guess that may be an age thing (but hopefully I can work smarter).

Well, I hope you enjoy reading my blog entries.  I will try to be insightful and humorous when possible.  I will leave you with a picture of the Class "B" Boy Scout uniform (t-shirt) from my church's Boy Scout troop that has an inspiring message from me.