EDUC - 630: Video Discussion Board #1

 

Video Discussion Board 1                                                                                        EDUC 630

 

            An effective teacher balances the demands of standards-based curriculum and the individual needs of each student by employing technology in ways to:

·         Time-manage

·         Vary instruction, assessment, and learning artifacts

·         Organize collection and analysis of student data (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019)

Several tools we have at our disposal to help us comply with both the demands of standards-based curriculum and the needs of individual students are hardware-based technologies, such as:

·         Wireless network – to access the internet

·         Laptop or desktop computers - for administration, teachers and students

·         Hand-held technology – cell phones, tablets, or e-books

·         Display technology – used in whole class or large group instruction from a computer

Other tools are software-based such as productivity software that allows “teachers and students (to) plan, develop materials, communicate, collaborate, and keep records. These might include word processing, spreadsheet, databases, and email programs as well as a variety of other materials generators and data collection/analysis, graphics, and research and reference tools.” (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019, pg. 8)

          A technology-based best practice that I have repeatedly employed in my lessons is audio-assisted reading. Although it is found by some to be redundant a drain on cognitive load, and completely unnecessary (Jonassen, 2008) I have found that in the light of learners with disabilities and/or special needs it is very valuable. Whether you are working with English language learners, struggling readers, or emerging readers audio-assisted reading can increase comprehension, fluency, and sight word recognition (Stevens, et al., 2017).

References

Jonassen, D., Spector, M. J., Driscoll, M., Merrill, M.D., van Merrienboer, J., & Driscoll M.P. (2008) Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology: A Project of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Roblyer & Hughes (2019) Integrating educational technology into teaching. New York, NY: Pearson.

Stevens, E.A., Walker, M.A., and Vaughn, S. (2017) The Effects of Reading Fluency Interventions on the Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Performance of Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities: A Synthesis of the Research from 2001 to 2014. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(5) 576–590, DOI: 10.1177/0022219416638028

Video Discussion Board #4 - EDUC 630

Video Discussion Board #4                                               EDUC 630

          In order to provide equitable access to digital technology for every student, school districts, administration and teachers must ensure adequate access to resources. (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019) In my school district, many schools have a one to one ratio of Chromebooks for students. Some schools only have a 1 to 2 ratio of Chromebooks to students and must share or rotate devices in the classroom. During the COVID-19 Safer at Home Order, our school district made sure that all students either had a Chromebook assigned to them or had access to another device at home to access the internet. In addition to this, mobile hotspots were provided for students whose families were unable to acquire internet access of their own.

          “Technology equity is a major concern for state lawmakers and leaders. States continue to work to eliminate a wide disparity among individual districts as to how they use technology.” (Whitehead, Jensen & Boschee, 2013) Often educators are left to their own devices to find ways of meeting their students' needs in the classroom with their own resources such as utilizing defunct or outdated smartphones to provide applications for extra play-like practice for struggling learners.  Many districts are fortunate if they have a SMARTboard or other such device in their classrooms to assist teachers with interactive group rotations, or video/other media presentations to keep their learners engaged. The endless uses of the SMARTboard can save those educators hours planning and executing lessons that don’t have to be recreated by hand on a whiteboard each new school year.

Resources

Roblyer & Hughes (2019) Integrating educational technology into teaching. New York, NY: Pearson.

Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D. F., & Boschee, F. (2013) Planning for Technology. Thousand Oaks, CA: CORWIN

Professional Development Presentation - EDUC 630

Video Discussion Board 1 - EDUC 630

Video Discussion Board 1                                                                                        EDUC 630

            In our text, Roblyer & Hughes (2019) tell us that the effective teacher balances the demands of standards-based curriculum and the individual needs of each student by continually seeking to acquire and maintain technological, pedagogical and content knowledge skills that will prepare them to meet each new challenge as they arise in this ever-expanding digital educational age.

            In our reading this week Jonassen (2008) speaks to several tools we have at our disposal to help us comply with both the demands of standards-based curriculum and the needs of individual students. Hardware-based technologies, such as eye-tracking technology provides evidence of the learners’ attentiveness to the lesson by tracking what they are looking at on the computer screen. This eye-tracking data can be used as the foundation for supervising and supporting learners during the learning process, guiding their learning to increase engagement. This information could allow teachers to redirect those who are off task, possibly without the learner realizing they are being redirected.

            The best practice I am implementing in my classroom regarding technology, ideally, is to create a classroom culture that is enthusiastic and supportive of technology use. If my students see that I am comfortable and confident in using my chosen tech devices, then those feelings will convey to my students also. My excitement and confidence in utilizing technology will be contagious. (Catucci, 2020)

References

Catucci, C., (2020) Best practices when using technology in class. Retrieved from: https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/teacherzone/best-practices-using-technology-class/

Jonassen, D., Spector, M. J., Driscoll, M., Merrill, M.D., van Merrienboer, J., & Driscoll M.P. (2008) Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology: A Project of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Roblyer & Hughes (2019) Integrating educational technology into teaching. New York, NY: Pearson.

         

Important Lessons: In case of an accident

 

Some important things I have learned this past week:

 

-          If you loan your car to someone to drive out of state, notify your insurance company beforehand.  Common sense, Traci. Hello.  Insurance companies get a little testy about stuff like that.  They will grill both you and the driver individually, recorded deposition style and make you feel like a common criminal to get at the truth.  Fortunately, our (true) stories matched.  (AND we are sticking to it!)

 

-          If you loan your car to someone to drive out of state, make sure you have copies of all those important papers in the glove box.  You may never see them again and insurance people may hound you until you hunt down the receipt from your most recent oil change for verification of the true mileage of the car. (Right!  David has always changed his own oil.)  Fortunately the Civic was in at the dealer this summer for a recall on the airbags so we have that to fall back on.

 

-          Keep copies of all service records and receipts separate from the vehicle, not just shoved in the glove compartment.  If your car is totaled and you have bought a new battery or tires (or other things) in the last year and can prove it with receipts they will add that prorated amount to the total value of your vehicle!  

 

-          It is very fortunate that I had thought ahead enough to text the driver our electronic insurance cards prior to leaving on the trip.  That little detail probably went a long way toward convincing the officer who worked the accident that the driver had permission to have possession of our vehicle and operate it.  Even for day to day use I think it is important to keep an electronic version or picture of both sides of your insurance card available in an app on your phone.  Maybe a good place to keep medical insurance cards too.

 

-      First-Aid kits, emergency blankets and other 'In case of' items are important.  Make sure your vehicles are stocked.  A cold, dark, wet night on the side of an interstate would be a lot more pleasant if you had a way to keep warm and help keep yourselves from going into shock.

 

In short, be more diligent in your record keeping and accident preparedness than I have been!  We are so thankful that the accident wasn't any worse than it was.  Thankful for friends to be able to call on to help us pray for safety while they waited for help to come.  Thankful both precious driver and passenger were unharmed except for bumps and bruises despite the fact that none of the airbags deployed. (!)  Thankful our insurance company didn't deny the claim.

 

 

Wendy's Wonderful Kids

Placement Day 01.21.2014

Last month I was approached by the director of marketing for the Dave Thomas Foundation.  She asked if we would share our adoption story for future Wendy's Wonderful Kids promotions in Wendy's restaurants in central Indiana. I love sharing our stories of adoption.  Of course I knew I had to participate and support this incredible opportunity to encourage others in their adoption journeys.

First Overnight Visit, December 2013

In the early spring of 2013 I sat at my desk in our schoolroom one day in our rental house near Greenwood, Indiana.  Our three seventh graders were working quietly on their school work while I worked at my desk.  I took a break from my work and flipped through Facebook for a minute.  While I was there I was compelled to click on a link to the AdoptUSKids.org website.  Soon I was scrolling through a list of children eligible for adoption through foster care.  I looked around me at the huge house we had been blessed with and was overcome by the knowledge that we had it within our power to do more than we were currently doing.  I paused on the profile of a sibling group and thought…with just a few tweaks we could adopt again.  Just need a little bigger vehicle, a couple sets of bunk beds.  It was totally doable.  My girls noticed I was teary and sniffing and they asked me what was wrong?  I said, what would you think about adopting again? 

Fast forward to the late summer that year.  David and I had finished up our foster care/adoption home study.  Our family had been Special Needs Adoption Program certified.  David and I had already interviewed for one sibling group of three…but there were several families that were interviewing for that group.  We were in ‘wait and see’ mode.  I went out to the mailbox that day and had a little packet from a Wendy’sWonderful Kids recruiter.  She introduced herself and congratulated us on this big decision to grow our family through adoption.  She also included a number of short biographies of current WWK children and encouraged us to read through them and see if we felt any sparks.  I flipped through the pages.  Most of them were single adoptions.  All were older children with varying medical and or behavioral issues. One page stood out to me.  Two little brothers who loved Legos, Star Wars and Star Trek.  As I’m telling myself there is NO WAY, I picked up my phone and called our WWK recruiter.  I remember leaving her a voice mail and telling her we wanted more information about Elijah and Nate.  

Emails were exchanged.  Our recruiter sent me pictures and videos.  In one of the videos Elijah was holding a few Legos that he had fashioned into the shape of the starship Enterprise.  His foster Mom was asking what characters he liked on the shows and he said: “I love all the Captains.  All the heroes.”  We are huge Star Trek fans, and that kinda cemented it for me.  Their WWK recruiter tried to explain to us as best she could about their challenges, medications, doctors and background.  We made an appointment to meet with the boys’ team including their CASA and their case worker.  We found out later that the boys had been eligible for adoption for a couple of years.  They had been through eight previous foster homes and two failed pre-adoptive placements.  Their challenges were many, behaviorally and educationally.  David and I walked out of that meeting that day and said to each other…These boys need us.  If not us, who?  If not now, when?  We knew the other sibling group we had interviewed for had several other families interested.  The boys did not have that luxury.  David and I both felt convicted this was what we were to do.   

Visits were initiated pretty quickly after that.  We had the boys for overnight weekend visits for 4-5 weeks and then a longer visit over several days at Christmas.  Our placement date was MLK day in January 2014.   We never looked back.  Every month the boys’ CASA and case worker would make visits to us.  Every month they would look deep into my eyes and ask me how things were going?  I would tell them the truth.  The challenges.  The sweet moments.  The homework struggles.  Every month I think they were looking to see if or when we were going to cry ‘uncle’ and try to escape our commitment.  I didn’t see that as an option then.  I only had one goal in site: Finalization.  In November of that year we finalized their adoption on National Adoption Day.  November 21^st, 2014.  It was on that cold and drizzly day just before Thanksgiving that we officially became a family of seven.  

Anniversary of D, B and HJ's placement July 1, 2017

photo courtesy of Martin Walker at http://martywalkerimages.zenfolio.com/

Weariness

Galatians 6:9 (NIV)

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

**to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted

How many times have I read that verse?  It was only within the last week or so that it dawned on me that this first line “Let us not become weary…” implies that we have a choice if we are going to become weary or not. (!) 

I have always viewed weary as tired.  How can you avoid getting tired?  But as I was walking this morning it occurred to me that we have a choice as to whether or not we are going to “give up” and sink down into the weariness…or if we are going to press on and finish the task with excellence.

This realization comes along on the heels of a very difficult last few weeks for me.  I’ve been beat down and struggling over every element of my life it seems.  Pain has been a constant companion.  It came to a head last night.  I started to kneel by my bed and I just collapsed on the floor under the weight of it all.  I felt alone.  I felt bruised and beaten.  I cried, I pulled my comforter over my head and curled up in a ball.  I was done.  If I had a place to go I would have fled.  It felt as if an iron door falling into place with a loud *thunk*.  Shut down, log off, I can’t leave but I am checking out.

I was allowing myself to sink into the weariness.  It was a ginormous pity party.  Did I have many good reasons to feel beaten down?  Yes!  Was allowing myself the luxury of wallowing in the mire going to fix it?  No.  Thankfully God’s mercy is new every single morning.

James 1:2-8 (NIV)

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the hard things in life.  Thank you for using them to make us realize we must persevere past the temptation to give in to weariness so that we may reap the good harvest at the proper time.   We want desperately to keep reaching for maturity and completeness in you and you alone.  We believe you for your promises.  Please forgive our unbelief!  Protect us from the enemy as he seeks to divide us, discourage us and destroy our relationships.  Protect us from the spirit of doubt that seeks to chip away at our solid foundation.  May we never be blown and tossed by the wind this way and that.  Make our foothold in you secure and strong, stable in every storm.

 Keep doing hard things.  Perservere.  Look for the joy in the trial.  Don't allow yourself the luxury of wallowing in the weariness.