Here is a link to my UbD unit on the culture of celebrations used for my final project. The video is a presentation and reflection on that unit.

1. What were your goals for your lesson/project? The standards related to learning about culture through holidays and celebrations, and using tech tools to research, produce and present.

2. What tools did you use? Why did you choose this/these tools for this/these task(s)? We used online sources to research holidays in the Spanish speaking world, because there is more available to students. We used e-mail to correspond with students across the world, because this helped establish a relationship. We used Skype chat and video calling to talk directly and live, but this proved difficult due to time zones. We used slide presentations to create augmented presentations. We created and uploaded videos to give our peers more personal communication.

3. How did you go about introducing your lesson/project? We began with discussion of our own celebrations, and sharing thoughts on what we knew or thought we knew already regarding others’ traditions.

4. How did the students react? Students were excited at the prospect of “meeting” and befriending kids from another country and exchanging ideas with them.

5. Outcome? Did you meet your goals? Not really. We didn’t get enough interaction to learn all I had hoped from prime sources.

6. Evidence of learning? There were revelations made, like seeing that Mother’s day is universal but not necessarily celebrated at the same time everywhere.

7. What would you do differently next time? What did you learn? I need to get more classes involved and participating, and begin earlier in the year. That way relationships can be established that will lead into more discussion beyond introductions. There is a lot more learning possible than strictly cultural and can be on-going all year and potentially beyond.

8. How do/did you plan to share this with your colleagues? I began by using a CFG protocol with teacher colleagues to fine tune the unit before introducing it to students. I have also already heard from other CoETaIL participants regarding my and their work. This is expanding my PLN.

9. What was your greatest learning in this course? That is a hard one. I have forced myself to learn new technologies and apply them to my classroom. I can produce multimedia presentations that I couldn’t do before. This might be the tool I use most to engage my students, especially if I continue to flip my instruction.

10. Did this implementation meet the definition of Redefinition? I feel we achieved all levels of the SAMR model in this implementation, in spite of the fact that our outcomes were limited. Using email to correspond with students in other countries, blogging about that learning, and reading and commenting on others’ postings is reaching (potentially) a global audience. Posting self-produced videos is another example of the transformative use of technology that cannot exist without the digital environment at our access today.

Eres muy bajo.

Here is a link to my project incorporating technology in a flipped classroom model. I am implementing this learning theory in my Mid-school Spanish classes right now and adjusting as I go. I appreciate being able to apply theory into practice through the coursework I am doing with CoETaIL. I know this unit isn’t perfect, so I’ll appreciate any feedback.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1xbhS8JkjFH5CDwtL5ucTAcOVHFrZzQGAdc7CNqneZO4

See What You Can Do by Flipping Computers?

Using technology in the classroom is a given today, so a teacher needs the skills to manage and integrate their use effectively. As the Isenet article points out, classroom management in general is a prerequisite to good teaching, and trying to bring computers into the mix without being prepared is asking for trouble.  There’s a whole new set of issues that come into play- access, differing levels of students’ navigating abilities, and staying on task to name a few. Those terms sound familiar in discussions of classroom management if you remove any reference to tech!

Our school is in its second year of 1 to 1 netbook use by all mid-schoolers, and I teach Spanish to sixth, seventh and eighth graders. I am myself a late comer to technology (I didn’t even touch a computer until I was 28), but I am trying to stay on top of current trends by integrating technology usage into my pedagogy. In fact I am flipping my classroom in the hopes of freeing up more classroom time for practicing the language.

My students are disproportionately non-native English speakers, studying Spanish in Vietnam. They need practice in using the language in real situations, and there isn’t a lot of opportunity to practice outside of the classroom, or get help at home. I realized right away that my students were losing practice time if allowed to work on their computers during class. So flipping instruction seemed the logical choice. They are assigned short instructional videos (mine or favorited YouTube postings from students or other teachers), and asked to reflect in writing on those videos. Class time is freed up for practice, review, re-teaching and enrichment.

When the kids got computers last year I quickly saw the need for effective control of their usage. Students are adept at toggling between chat, gaming, Facebook, and the given task depending on where the teacher is in the room. In fact, it quickly becomes the norm for students to enter the room and turn on their screens automatically. This was the first discovery I made and the first rule of thumb- wait to be told to turn them on.

I am learning how to manage the use of technology in the classroom. I hope that by flipping my classroom I am providing my students with what they need. I am grateful for any advice on managing the use of computers, and so really appreciate the Horizon Report/ New Media Consortium . They provide insight into what trends and new technologies are coming soon, and it looks like we will soon be promoting gaming as an educational tool. It seems like a natural step to motivate people by letting them have some fun while learning. That in itself is a major flip in philosophy for many!

How do we let kids have on-demand access to technology and know that they are staying on task? They are very used to “playing,” so how do we get them to use their devices as learning tools? Good classroom management skills are necessary, and just as in the pre-tech days of education, training the students is the most important part. But informing teachers through professional development is a necessary component of effective technology integration, because without it teachers let students establish the rules and procedures. We want to give them a voice in the matter, but we are the professionals here, right?