Week # 11
How has the course been effective in broadening your perspective and skill set for managing technology for change?
I believe this course has been extremely effective in conveying the principles of collaboration, teamwork and broadening our minds to the effective use of technology. Amazingly, I can look back and be a witness to the tremendous learning that has taken place this year. I believe that we have all become “better, more powerful versions of ourselves.” What lies ahead for all of us is limitless. Our doors are open to the opportunities given to us all. We have learned that through determination, hard work, perseverance and patience, anything is possible. It is our responsibility now as educated citizens to display our leadership capabilities and create powerful change. We should never forget our humble beginnings, yet strive to improve ourselves while creating plentiful learning opportunities for growth. Our goal, I believe, as leaders in education, is to promote a renewed passion in the teaching profession despite conflicting circumstances and above all hold on to the rope of patience and perseverance. Our students deserve our devotion, commitment and boundless enthusiasm for the love of learning.
Week #10
What types of influence do I have in my current local and global communities? How can I expand that influence?
As an elementary school teacher for many years now, I am fortunate to have a rewarding career and that I am able to have lasting impact on my students. The OMET program has allowed me to channel my interests, and create powerful learning experiences for myself and those around me. I have learned a great deal from my professors and cadremates, and look forward to expand my influence of positive change to my local and global community in years to come. Through my Action Research Project, I was able to have positive impact on my immediate community as I worked with students and their parents in order to help bridge the gap between students and parent participation and involvement in their studies. As members of a school community, our goal as educators is to prepare our students to be literate, creative, collaborative thinkers who will be given unconditional guidance and support from their parents as they strive to reach their academic and personal potential and become lifelong learners and productive citizens in a multicultural society. For this reason, my passion is to continue to be involved with my students and parents and share my knowledge and love of learning with them.
Week #9
From where does global change derive? How can we use global change to promote deeper learning across the globe?
Change can never happen overnight. It has to come from a collective vision and shared mission. It is our responsibility as leaders on education to help establish powerful communities of chnge within our own environment which will in turn grow and extent to our outside community. I believe as Margaret Mead when she states, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Week #7
From where does personal and local change derive? How can we use change to promote deeper learning as individuals and in our local settings?
I believe that personal change must come from within. I believe as Ghandi when he states that we must be the change we want to see in the world. In my own personal experience, I have witnessed a tremendous change within my workplace community. I have impacted parents as they continue to understand their powerful role as their child’s first teacher. Essentially, I see my role in my local community as an instrument for the domino effect. The more I involve myself with parents and support them with their needs and concerns as their child’s first role model, the more they will gain self-confidence in themselves as powerful instruments of change and help successfully guide their children through their educational career.
Week #6
How does globalization change the needs and demands on US, K12, higher education and corporate learning environments?
I believe we are a melting pot. It is because of the diverse cultures, customs and beliefs that we are able to flourish as a society. However, students today are not allowed to be critical thinkers, and are often spoon fed. The problem with today’s education is that the US does not prepare students well to be critical thinkers of today’s multicultural society. On the other hand, technology can open doors to the learning experiences that can help students be successful in the global market.
Week #5
How do NCLB and the Spellings Commission affect change in the use of educational technology?
As an elementary school teacher for the past twelve years now, I am struggling to make sense of the effects of NCLB. I have not yet been able to successfully adopt the Open Court reading program for my students which basically asks teachers to read from the text on a daily basis since the daily lesson is already prepared beforehand. I have always felt the program to be very fast-paced and there is little time for review or time to allow students to assimilate the new concepts. The math program is just as intricately structured, and teachers as well as students feel pressured with time. It is worrisome for me to see the drastic changes evolving in today’s educational system. In the meantime, teachers continue to struggle with budget cuts, and few if any computers in the classroom. It is my hope to see some positive changes soon for the sake of the children, but in the meantime, I will continue to work in the best interests of my students by working with parents to bring donations to the school, get parent volunteers in the classroom and petition through grants to get as much funding as possible to purchase computers for the classroom.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Technology and Education Portfolio Activity
Where do you see technology & education developing next? How do you think the symbiotic relationship between the two will evolve over the next 10 years?
I have recently read a book by Andy Clark entitled: Natural- Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence
I found this book very interesting because it somewhat describes the thoughts I have regarding the evolution of technology and education over the next 10 years. I have witnessed a tremendous shift towards the use of technology, especially in classrooms.
As an elementary school teacher for the past 12 years now, I have been able to note the evolution taking place within classrooms today. I have been fortunate to witness the progress we have made as educators to incorporate computers in the classroom setting as a vital tool in the overall learning process. In the days before computers, the internet and Google, schools would spend much of a student's time and energy memorizing the many facts he/she would need to know. A typical week's social studies lesson in the past might have included four days of memorizing the relevant geographic place names, and one day understanding how they affect the lives of people. Today we might spend a day teaching students how to find the facts online, another day posing important questions, and three days developing higher-level understanding of how the facts fit together and what they mean for our future. The Internet has opened the doors for our youth in unimaginable ways. Communicating to students across the globe nowadays can be as simple as a click of a button. Truly, educating our youth has changed to a dramatic extent, and we need to continue finding ways to implement quality lessons that adapt to these new and changing learning styles. As educators, we must continually ask ourselves, how do we make technology support, enhance and advance the learning experience of our students? My passion stems from such thoughts, and my goal as a teacher has always been to accommodate students in such a way as to make sure they feel empowered by these new advancements in technology, and provide ample opportunities for students to assimilate new information from all technological modalities available to them.
With the many technological advances seen in recent years, it is evident that today’s students are equipped with a vast array of technical skills not demonstrated in the youth of past generations. Today’s typical college students, sometimes called the Net Generation , will soon alter the way professors teach, the way classrooms are constructed and the way colleges deliver degrees. Today's students are armed with a wealth of information and communication technologies, connected to each other and to the outside world. They also typically spend their days communicating, collaborating, and producing with these new technological tools. The important question, however, is what happens when these students go to school? Will they find an environment that takes full advantage of these tools for learning? Indeed, computers, and the Internet have all established an important place in the lives of children, adolescents and adults today. Therefore, employing information and communication technology within the classroom setting in a manner that correlates smoothly with today’s existing technological trends is a necessity and a powerful vision for the progress of technology in schools. As teachers, I believe that we not only need to develop lifelong learning skills in our students, we need to model lifelong learning and we need to commit to learning throughout life ourselves. The Internet has been a major force in creating the need for lifelong learning skills. Learning when to use the Internet and using it to its fullest potential provides exciting opportunities to examine how we teach, what we teach, how students learn, and how this is all connected to the real world. In the same manner, Natural -Born Cyborgs is a book that reveals how our technology is inseparable from who we are and how we think. It draws parallels to the future generations in realizing how we have integrated our lives to technology.
Despite its very technical approach, it explains how closely humans have adapted and incorporated technology into their lives. The author, Andy Clark, points out that we should “appreciate what we already are: creatures whose minds are special precisely because they are tailor-made to mix and match neural, bodily and technological ploys.” In reality, he believes, we are “natural-born cyborgs” and we as humans assimilate well into the technical world.
I have recently read a book by Andy Clark entitled: Natural- Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence
I found this book very interesting because it somewhat describes the thoughts I have regarding the evolution of technology and education over the next 10 years. I have witnessed a tremendous shift towards the use of technology, especially in classrooms.
As an elementary school teacher for the past 12 years now, I have been able to note the evolution taking place within classrooms today. I have been fortunate to witness the progress we have made as educators to incorporate computers in the classroom setting as a vital tool in the overall learning process. In the days before computers, the internet and Google, schools would spend much of a student's time and energy memorizing the many facts he/she would need to know. A typical week's social studies lesson in the past might have included four days of memorizing the relevant geographic place names, and one day understanding how they affect the lives of people. Today we might spend a day teaching students how to find the facts online, another day posing important questions, and three days developing higher-level understanding of how the facts fit together and what they mean for our future. The Internet has opened the doors for our youth in unimaginable ways. Communicating to students across the globe nowadays can be as simple as a click of a button. Truly, educating our youth has changed to a dramatic extent, and we need to continue finding ways to implement quality lessons that adapt to these new and changing learning styles. As educators, we must continually ask ourselves, how do we make technology support, enhance and advance the learning experience of our students? My passion stems from such thoughts, and my goal as a teacher has always been to accommodate students in such a way as to make sure they feel empowered by these new advancements in technology, and provide ample opportunities for students to assimilate new information from all technological modalities available to them.
With the many technological advances seen in recent years, it is evident that today’s students are equipped with a vast array of technical skills not demonstrated in the youth of past generations. Today’s typical college students, sometimes called the Net Generation , will soon alter the way professors teach, the way classrooms are constructed and the way colleges deliver degrees. Today's students are armed with a wealth of information and communication technologies, connected to each other and to the outside world. They also typically spend their days communicating, collaborating, and producing with these new technological tools. The important question, however, is what happens when these students go to school? Will they find an environment that takes full advantage of these tools for learning? Indeed, computers, and the Internet have all established an important place in the lives of children, adolescents and adults today. Therefore, employing information and communication technology within the classroom setting in a manner that correlates smoothly with today’s existing technological trends is a necessity and a powerful vision for the progress of technology in schools. As teachers, I believe that we not only need to develop lifelong learning skills in our students, we need to model lifelong learning and we need to commit to learning throughout life ourselves. The Internet has been a major force in creating the need for lifelong learning skills. Learning when to use the Internet and using it to its fullest potential provides exciting opportunities to examine how we teach, what we teach, how students learn, and how this is all connected to the real world. In the same manner, Natural -Born Cyborgs is a book that reveals how our technology is inseparable from who we are and how we think. It draws parallels to the future generations in realizing how we have integrated our lives to technology.
Despite its very technical approach, it explains how closely humans have adapted and incorporated technology into their lives. The author, Andy Clark, points out that we should “appreciate what we already are: creatures whose minds are special precisely because they are tailor-made to mix and match neural, bodily and technological ploys.” In reality, he believes, we are “natural-born cyborgs” and we as humans assimilate well into the technical world.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
My ARP and Backward Design
The more I read and understood the concept of Backward Design, the more I realized that I had been using this approach within my classroom for a very long time now, without realizing it, or giving it a name.It is based on the concept that both the students and teacher will have a much firmer and clearer grasp of where the learning is going if the goal or summative assessment is clearly articulated right from the beginning. By starting with a focus on the enduring understandings that you want your students to learn and apply, then developing how you will know how and when they have reached that understanding, the steps between will be carefully scaffolded to reach that objective. Hence, in my ARP, I had articulated to parents the goal and end result of my year-long project: To help parents become more involved with their children's academic progress at home. Having clear expectations made the end result seem more tangible and easier to accomplish.
What theory, discussion and/or application from this course most impacts your ongoing action research project?
I think the most significant use for my ARP has been in differentiating instruction. I have seen how each child has different learning styles, much in the same way each parent has a different approach to being involved with their child in their academic studies.I have learned to be patient in helping them with their individual needs, and finding the time to address their questions and concerns. As life-long learners, our action research will continue to develop into new themes and spiral through to reach people of diffrent cultures, religions, beliefs and educational backgrounds. As members of our OMET family, we are gifted as a learning community with hopes and aspirations for a brighter tomorrow. Our educational doors to the world of knowledge will remain open as long as we desire them to…and our dreams for leaving a powerful legacy for change will dwell in our hearts as we continue to impart our new knowledge to those eagerly waiting to listen.
Thoughts on Kabul and Parent Involvement
As I reflect on the work I have done in regards to my ARP this semester, I have realized that parents need to be educated on how to best help their children to succeed in school. There is a direct link between student scores and parent involvement, and the key to succees in school is an involved parent.The difficulty that I have seen in Afghanistan is that there is very little education to begin with. Education was removed completely during the Taliban era, so education had no place in establishing a community that valued the pursuit of education.Today, with limited education, and very few women with more than a 6th grade education, children are denied the participation of their parents that is so vital to their academic success in life.Unfortunately the cycle continues, since parents who don’t value education will produce offspring that also will not value education, and the cycle will continue to pass on to future generations unless something is done about it…My hope is for the children.
Are my learners engaged in learning?
Yes, I have been fortunate to have a great deal of learning and engagement both at school and at home over the past several months as parents have been actively participating and trying to educate themselves so that they could also help their children.
As a result of the class video, parents became more involved as a positive competitive spirit was created among the parents as to which parent devoted more quality academic time to their children as they supported them in their studies. Children would often come to school explaining to their friends that their parents invited their relatives over to watch their class film. Students were proud of their film and were excited to tell all their friends and family, since they believed they were “movie stars.” After school, I noticed many parents talked about the fact that they were also learning to read since they were also practicing the letters and sounds from the video, which in turn encouraged them to continue with more ESL classes. This fun approach to learning made it less intimidating for them, and helped them become more relaxed and confident about helping their children succeed with their studies.
As a result of the class video, parents became more involved as a positive competitive spirit was created among the parents as to which parent devoted more quality academic time to their children as they supported them in their studies. Children would often come to school explaining to their friends that their parents invited their relatives over to watch their class film. Students were proud of their film and were excited to tell all their friends and family, since they believed they were “movie stars.” After school, I noticed many parents talked about the fact that they were also learning to read since they were also practicing the letters and sounds from the video, which in turn encouraged them to continue with more ESL classes. This fun approach to learning made it less intimidating for them, and helped them become more relaxed and confident about helping their children succeed with their studies.
Technologies I have used in my classroom...
For my ARP, I am working on having parents become more involved with their children through active participation in their studies at home.Since I work in an elementary school as a 1st grade teacher, I am constantly surrounded by concerned parents wanting to know how their child is doing in school. Since I work with mostly only Spanish speaking parents, it is difficult for them to know how to help their children in school. Even if they want to help, most parents feel uncomfortable to volunteer in the classroom, or even help their children in their studies for fear of not being able to understand the material being taught. My struggle, then, was how to get parents in my classroom to support the learning of students at home? However, my main research question centered on how I could effectively find ways to encourage more parent participation with their child's academic studies at home?
Further, in what ways could parents with little or no educational background help to contribute to their child's education? What support could parents give to their children at home? Taking Action: Video as a Solution In order to help answer these questions, my goal was to get parents involved by having the children video-taped during their regular reading time. The film created in the classroom included the students singing their ABC’s (letters and the sounds) while I pointed out the letters. Also included were student responses to questions on reading letters to make words. Hence, the primary target was phonics and word blending. Essentially, this video was created to help the parents who have difficulty with learning English, as well as provide an easier way for parents to get involved with their child’s education in a fun and interesting way. Most importantly, the plan was to help parents feel valued as an integral part of their child’s education since they would need to spend quality time watching the video together. For parents whose native language is not English, this video provided valuable assistance to those struggling to learn English since they were able to study with their children at the same time and promote a positive learning environment at home.
Here is the link to the video: http://students.pepperdine.edu/vaazizi/ARP.htm
Further, in what ways could parents with little or no educational background help to contribute to their child's education? What support could parents give to their children at home? Taking Action: Video as a Solution In order to help answer these questions, my goal was to get parents involved by having the children video-taped during their regular reading time. The film created in the classroom included the students singing their ABC’s (letters and the sounds) while I pointed out the letters. Also included were student responses to questions on reading letters to make words. Hence, the primary target was phonics and word blending. Essentially, this video was created to help the parents who have difficulty with learning English, as well as provide an easier way for parents to get involved with their child’s education in a fun and interesting way. Most importantly, the plan was to help parents feel valued as an integral part of their child’s education since they would need to spend quality time watching the video together. For parents whose native language is not English, this video provided valuable assistance to those struggling to learn English since they were able to study with their children at the same time and promote a positive learning environment at home.
Here is the link to the video: http://students.pepperdine.edu/vaazizi/ARP.htm
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