MSU College of Education Technology Conference 2015

#COETC15 

This past Saturday I attended the MSU College of Educational Teachnology Confernce.  I chose to attend the conference in hopes of growing my PLN and learning new and innovative Educational Teachnology apps and programs that Educators around the state are using.  It did not dissappoint. The keynote speaker Sarah Thomas gave an inspiring and notable address.  She brought a new and fresh persepctive to my world of teaching.  From the #magicalmoments where she made me think of the moment I finally was a teacher (pretty much always, but the I had the piece of paper that said I really was a teacher in the state of Michigan) to #Edumatch bringing educators together from around the globe.  

The conference was an awesome, inspiring day, where I was with other educators who believe in teaching to what the student needs and how students learn today.  We can no long teach students the way they have always been taught, their brains are no longer wired to "sit and get." As educators we must push outside our comfort zone, push ourselves to grow and use technology in an innovative way that will not only enhance our teaching, enhance our student's understanding, but will also open up a world that they may not know of, a world that we don't completely know, yet can make our life easier. 

Embrace technology resources, ask people in your building what they are using, join Twitter there are a wealth of resouces just a 144 charaters away.  @janelleritter13

I am so glad I chose to come to this conference, I did it for me, I came for my interests, I came to learn, to grow as a person and as an educator.  Mission accomplished!

Growth Mindset

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html

Balancing Act....

So when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade right?  Or maybe lemonade with a twist in this case.  The last few weeks have been a challenge with me and moviemaker.  I see the potential however it has been a battle with me and converting files to wmv. and then being able to work in Moviemaker.  So that is still up in the air as far as my instructional video, which I completed with Jing but I am unable to work with it in MM. Moving onto the balancing act...

Monday morning started out just like every other day, except it was President's day and a day off so my family had traveled up to my in laws cottage, then at 9:28 am I received the call that would change all our lives.  My father had collapsed and was unresponsive, no pulse in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. No pulse. Unresponsive. 1.5 hrs away.   We made it to our local hospital just as they were taking him to Sparrow Hospital Cardiac Unit.  Turns out he had a massive heart attack, 3 blockages.  After the stints and balloons, the Doctors. seemed optimistic, with in hours that changed.  He had been "down" meaning with oxygen for 11 minutes before the ambulance/paramedics arrived.  My mom did CPR and did all she could, but most likely it was already too late.  So over the last 3 days, we waited, cried, prayed, prepared...Unable to tell them to stop the drips and machines, we wait. Sorry to say we did have to tell them to stop the drips turn off the respirator administer the morphine and hold his hand as he passed.  Then we no longer waited but was put into planning and class and work went to the back burner and was an afterthought.  As we mourned, smiled, cried, talked and buried my father on Saturday.  Now we must move on hold memories dear, learn to talk about him without crying, he would never want us to wallow in sadness and he would definitely be disappointed if I didn't finish this class or my degree, he was very proud of my education!

So hug your family, live to the fullest, be happy!  It really does change all in the blink of an eye!

Balancing Act...Unable to really do anything, can't read, Facebook can only hold one's attention for so long, there's only so much you can do. Why not homework. Good outlet and distraction.  Thank goodness this week was Glogster! Fairly easy to do while I whittle away the hours, can complete it from my iPad and I can actually see many of my staff using this in their classroom, too bad it's only a 7 day free trial.

Part II & III

I chose to use Jing for my instructional video presentation. Jing allowed me to video my staff training on how to update and add information in our Student software, RtI section. I chose to create 3 video parts Adding Referrals, Interventions and attachments. I was then going to uploaded it into Moviemaker to create 1 video with introductions and transitions. I enjoyed using Jing and found it easy to use, the difficult part was that it is saved as a swf and cannot be uploaded to moviemaker. After hours of watching tutorials downloading and uploading, nothing has worked. I'm thinking it should be easier than what it is. I believe that once it's done it will be a valuable resource for my staff to view and revisit when needing a refresher of the process. I originally had planned to have this done as all screen shots with the information on the slides. I believe that this is a better choice because it is actually done, they can watch and see where I am clicking and in real time what it would look like when they click on those segments. So for now I redid it as one screen cast and it was really difficult to fit it in under 5 minutes.

http://screencast.com/t/rfYhKh3siY
http://www.screencast.com/t/rfYhKh3siY

Taking into account Adult learning theory and Swisher's Multimedia principal of student's learn better from words and pictures, rather than words alone.  Also, taking into account the temporal contiguity principle is also the same, yet different within these instructional multimedia tools.  This principle states that when a learner receives information both visual and verbal close to the same time, the result is better learning.  When creating a a video, and instructor must keep in mind the pacing of the video and the rate at which new information is given. When redoing the video to include it all information at once the pacing is too fast for someone who hasn't add information before, yet the bonus is they can pause and rewind several times which they wouldn't be able to if I was talking live with them .

Part I

Many times when I lead a staff meeting or professional development I like to begin with a video, music anything that would be motivational.  So in preparation of an upcoming PD I searched for these exact videos.  Knowing where my staff is right now, being in the middle of the year, need a pick me up, a reminder of what the end of the year will bring and that they truly are making a difference! I liked these videos because they inspired me and reminded me why I am here. We often get bogged down with curriculum, drama, data, reports and paperwork. We need to remember the WHY before the HOW and the WHAT!

Creative Commons and Copyright

For EDU 642 Instructional Multimedia, I was required to create a mash-up video for Copyright and Creative Commons Licenses. In view the 9 videos used to make the mash-up I realized there was a lot of things I did not know about Copyright and Creative Commons.  For example, did you know that most Creative Commons material can be used without worrying about copyright law but doesn't usually apply to multimedia unless you change it in some way, like create a mash-up? I was able to create this mash-up because of Fair Use, because I remade small portions of other video and remade it into a new video. Also, did you know that Google doesn't search for Creative Common License Content but you can search using the advance search tab and change to look for different licenses.
 When I first clicked on the site for Mozilla I thought, OH NO! this is not going to be very good for me, I'm not going to enjoy this, etc.. However, once I started using the PopcornMaker, it was extremely easy and fun!  I can see using this for many different things, personal and professional as well as sharing it with my teaching staff.  If you'd like to take a look here's the link for the Mozilla PopcornMaker site and my mash-up video!  Try it yourself!!

Alternative to Round Robin Readings

"In RRR, students read orally from a common text, one child after another, while the rest of the class follows along in their copies of the text," (Finley, 2014). Simple, easy way to hear all student's read, right? Or maybe you're a fan of pulling sticks, students pick students "combat reading," "popcorn" reading when a student calls popcorn when he/she is done reading and calls another student.  Kids love popcorn reading or at least they ask for it by name, maybe that's it, the name is fun so kids want to "popcorn" read, but don't really enjoy it.  Over the last few years there has been a movement to eradicate round robin reading in elementary schools.  I have to admit, it is very hard to stop, even though I know it's not the best method to teach students to read.  According to Finley's article round robin reading: 

• Stigmatizes poor readers. Imagine the terror that English-language learners and struggling readers face when made to read in front of an entire class.
• Weakens comprehension. Listening to a peer orally read too slowly, too fast, or too haltingly weakens learners' comprehension -- a problem exacerbated by turn-taking interruptions. 
• Sabotages fluency and pronunciation. Struggling readers model poor fluency skills and pronunciation. When instructors correct errors, fluency is further compromised. (2014).

I do have to admit I have seen this take place where students are afraid to read because they are not the best readers and will often count the sentences to where they have to read so they can prepare themselves and try to practice in their heads.  Seeing this behavior, teachers should then realize then that RR is not the best method for the students.
There are better methods to teach reading and in my position I have brought the research and methods to my staff and some employ them and others not so much.

For example:
Choral Reading: teacher and students read the passage together to minimize struggle.  I do this everyday with my intervention group.  I also incorporate echo reading after.  I count down 3,2,1 we all read as one voice then I read you read.  They are getting plenty of practice looking at the words and reading the words.  I am now scaffolding off to the students to have them lead the choral watching them tap and sweep under the words to make sure they are one to one matching and not just reciting.

Partner reading: they read together and take turns reading

PALS: Peer Assisted Learning Strategies: pairing stronger readers with weaker readers helps struggling readers not to be intimidated and learn to read, reread, and retell

Whisper reading:  Student read at their own pace but in a whisper voice so I can check in on them to listen if they are struggling or need redirection.


If you would like more information on alternative round robin reading strategies, please check out the article.



Finley, T. (2014, December 1). 11 Alternatives to "Round Robin" (and "Popcorn") Reading. Retrieved December 2, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org//blog/alternatives-to-round-robin-reading-todd-finley