Reflection for EDLD 5366

After been in this program thus far, I hold my passion for technology use into the classroom to be a vital part of education.  I have been one of the few people on campus to be receptive to using technology in the classroom.  I understand the amazing potential the students had at a moment’s notice.  I think I have felt I have been on the right track.  It is difficult to be a lone wolf, knowing how we can explore options for best practices with technology.  As I currently talk with a few of my colleagues and administrators, they are slowing warming up to the idea of technology’s effectiveness.  We see our students become engrossed into their devices daily.  Why not tap into that captive attention for curriculum?  

Andrew Churches published an article in 2008 discussing Bloom’s Taxonomy in a new way.  (Churches, 2008)  I was really excited to see how the technology skills were incorporated into the Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I was very excited how some of the things we may do as teachers with our students (blogging, online responses and critiques to other students) were making it into the HOTS level.  So often, we find it difficult to create a lesson where we can easily incorporate the HOTS levels.  Some subjects have a more difficult time than others.  I began sharing this article with my colleagues and administrators.  

From the Horizons Report, a few of the technologies projected to infiltrate education are already here from my view point. Mobile devices and apps and tablets are enormous with the students.  (2012) I see many students bringing in tablets to use.  I have begun to apply what I have been learning about different technologies in my classroom, trying to show other teachers ways to implement the technology.  I really want to demonstrate and mentor my colleagues into stepping towards technology for education.  

Citations:

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. (2012). Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition. Retrieved from     

     https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1026609-dt-content-rid-

     7021990_1/courses/EDLD_5362_ENA_2013_90_AP2/2012-horizon-report-K12.pdf

Churches, A. (2007, April). Bloom's digital taxonomy. Retrieved from 

     http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

"My personal story" reflection

This assignment was interesting.  I used powtoons.com to create my video this week.  The challenge of this program was to time my voice recording with the video.  It was not as simple as I first thought.  The first thing was to script out what I wanted.  That proved the most difficult.  Given only 2 minutes, what was I to show about my life?  What was interesting about my life?  I combed my computer and normal places for my files.  

I ended up showcasing my story as a teacher and my pets.  That is where my passion was.  Teaching was my chosen profession since I was a kid.  I always tell my students stories of Bella, the demon child, and Panther, the "special" cat.  

It was simple to import the pictures into powtoons.  The hard part was to edit it with near perfect timing.  After I had the timing down.  I watched the video and recorded different times where I needed my narrating.  I tried several times to record in order to eliminate ghost static.  I will need to look into how to edit audio to help with the quality.

5301 reflection

One of the major things I realized with the action research is how flexible and beneficial it is for all educators to use.  It is an amazing way to personalize his/her professional development through finding topics of interest and researching about it.  What a great way to be actively involved in a professional development that actually interests you.  From my experience of professional development, it has always been droll and mind-numbing without much information that I felt was relevant to my campus and student demographic.  With this idea, I can tailor my research to actual problems focused for my students and campus.  With my first action research, I have chosen the flipped classroom concept.  This is a topic of interest to me.  I was already planning to attempt a little implementation, but can now use this for research and put data with my implementation.  With this I can see how it affects my students learning.  If the research works the way I hope, I will see some improvement in student learning versus traditional teaching.

Revised Action Research Plan

Here it is.  Let me know what you guys think. :) ~Josh

Action Planning Template
Goal:  How does the flipped classroom concept affect student performance, knowledge acquisition, and productivity?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Research ideas and possible implementation strategies for flipped classroom concept 2. Research apps, equipment needed for concept 3. Interview and observe teachers using concept	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica David Henson teacher in Mansfield ISD	September 16, 2013 September 30, 2013	Variety of articles and books outlining concept and implementation Edshelf.com	-Summary of ideas learned from articles and technology researched Interview over experience
3. Outline major topics to implement concept over with other teacher 4. Create a rubric to grade student sample work for different tasks within topics	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica Josh Hadley Algebra 2 level	October 1, 2013 October 15, 2013 October 20, 2013 October 30, 2013	Curriculum guides & reference materials Technology apps loaded	Survey of Algebra 2 teachers for most needed topics Rubric created
5. Conduct first unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from first unit	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	January 7, 2014 January 31, 2014	Videos created and uploaded USB drives & CDs loaded with videos Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments and student work samples in both classes with and without concept used
7.  Conduct second unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from second unit; compare to first set of results 8. Report findings to PLC group; site supervisor and other admin interested.	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	March 10, 2014 May 2, 2014	Videos created and uploaded USB drives & CDs loaded with videos Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments and student work samples in both classes with and without concept used

My Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal:  How does the flipped classroom concept affect student performance, knowledge acquisition, and productivity?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Research ideas and possible implementation strategies for flipped classroom concept 2. Research apps, equipment needed for concept	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica David Henson	September 16, 2013 September 30, 2013	Variety of articles and books outlining concept and implementation Edshelf.com	-Summary of ideas learned from articles and technology researched Interview over experience
3. Outline major topics to implement concept over with other teacher 4. Create a rubric to grade student sample work for different tasks within topics	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica Josh Hadley Algebra 2 level	October 1, 2013 October 15, 2013 October 20, 2013 October 30, 2013	Curriculum guides & reference materials Technology apps loaded	Survey of Algebra 2 teachers for most needed topics Rubric created
5. Conduct first unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from first unit	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	January 7, 2014 January 31, 2014	Videos created and uploaded Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments student work samples
7.  Conduct second unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from second unit; compare to first set of results 8. Report findings to PLC group; site supervisor and other admin interested.	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	March 10, 2014 May 2, 2014	Videos created and uploaded Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments student work samples

5301 week 2 reflection

This week, I learned more about action research and what all it can cover for an administrator.  I still go back to say it is important to teachers to use this concept as well in more purposeful, meaningful ways.  I know I will take this idea back to my PLC for areas we want to improve on and look at the facts and data to support what we do.  The key thing I took away from this is that isn't about the numbers.  You need to look more qualitative and into individual students.  

Action Research

What I learned about action research?

As my head is currently on nuclear meltdown with tons of information I have read and pondered this week, action research is something I think most educators do in some form.  It isn't the traditional "sit-n-get" professional developments where some expert is paid to shell out his or her knowledge about best practices.  

Here is what it is: a dynamic way to research and reflect on a question you have in your classroom or school.  It gives you a buy-in to this type of professional development because you choose what you will research and create a plan of action for in your class/school.  As teachers, we do this quite a bit.  We have a question, "How can I do better with...?"  So, we go out and Google information, school and curriculum resources, and talk with colleagues to find what we feel would make the best impact.  Then, we take what we find and implement.  At the end, you reflect back and see how the idea worked.  You may use students' work for analysis or informal observations during the class time, but we analyze how it was effective.  If it worked, then we keep it and maybe try to maintain little changes to keep it working.  If it didn't work, then you go back through the process for another strategy that works.  

Action research is tailored to your class or school.  It creates buy in for all educators involved with the process.  It gives them a unique, personal learning experience where they can share the successes and failures, creating dialogue with other professionals.  

How educational leaders might use blogs?

Blogs are a great way to collaborate with other colleagues. Blogging allows us to share our thoughts and reflections at anytime.  You can share and have your colleagues make comments.  This allows you to receive quick feedback without waiting for an actual meeting where you are all together to share.  You can also collaborate with others more globally.  Now, you can connect with other educators from all countries.  With that wealth of knowledge at a global level, this technology now brings this to us in our own homes.  We do not have to wait for some amazing conference meeting to talk with our fellow colleagues.