e-portfolio -- artifacts

E-PORTFOLIO

week 8 reflection

• What were 3 highlights of this course?
• Adobe Spark--wow!  what a great tool!  My students really like it & not even others in our computer science dept. knew about it.  For once I feel like I'm on the cutting edge.
• getting better with Weebly--I feel so much more at ease with this now that it's my second project.  I even started my PDP project on Weebly. I will be working on it more this summer so that I can turn it in for a pay raise this fall.
• single-point rubrics--I am SOO glad that I found out about those.  What a game changer.  My rubrics really were hot messes at times.  The simplicity appeals to me and the added room for meaningful feedback is helpful to my students.  
• What were 2 things covered in this course material that you can do now that you could not do or did not fully understand at the beginning of the term? 
• blogger--I had never used this before.  I know feel comfortable adding pages and responding to comments.
• SAMR ladder--I had no idea what this was. It has come in very handy as a reference while working on my district's personalized learning committee.
• Share 1 farewell message or message of gratitude.
• Thank you to Maggie and my jigsaw team.  I appreciate your flexibility and understanding when dealing with my mom's back surgery.  She is home now & walking.  I am very thankful for her renewed health.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
  

week 7 reflection

• What are 3 insights you had about creating your final project (assessment toolbox)?
• lots of time! yikes
• I feel like I'm talking to someone, so can I be myself?  I mean, I'm pretty casual & I don't like too wordy
• I hope I organized my project in a way that is easy to navigate.  I'm not sure I put all the things where they should be.  I hope I did it right.  We'll see......
•  Revisit your SAMR self-analysis and describe 2 insights about how close you came to the goal you set for yourself at the beginning of the course.
• SAMR
  
  
  1. Paragraph one should be a self-assessment of where you are now in relation to the SAMR model. Please give examples from your teaching practices to illustrate how you currently use technology.
  2. Paragraph two should tell us where you'd like to be ideally -- perhaps by the end of this course. Have you started moving in that direction?  
  
  
  I’d say that I’m mostly use technology at the substitution level.  I use google classroom all the time to communicate with my students and post assignment and resources.  Sometimes I assign and collect on google classroom.  I use google surveys as quizzes sometimes.   I occasionally use Kahoot.  Spanish is 3 is all about building fluency.  I want them to expand from the sentence level to the paragraph level.  So, we still do a lot of writing on whiteboards with immediate feedback from me.  I have the students work in pairs a lot and see them collaborating.  I could do this via technology, but I think it’s faster the old-fashioned way.  I have so much that I want them to learn that I have to weigh the time spend on the technology vs. how much added learning the students get out of it.  I did have my students write and record their own news broadcast this year as a culminating assessment for our news unit.  This was at the modification level.  I could have them post them on our google classroom page & make comments about other broadcasts.  I think this would bring it to the redefinition level.  My online students use Buzz as their LMS.  The curriculum is available to them and I don’t make a lot of changes to it due to the fact that I am not the only network section.  It needs to be consistent.  I do supplement with videos that I have found that reinforce the concepts being taught.  I think this is really a substitution level because the curriculum online is basically a textbook.  However, there are videos and research projects.  So, I guess it’s more of a augmentation level.  Plus, students comment on message boards about cultural topics.  In one unit they also get to give feedback to other students on their cultural posts. (in English)
  
  I thought Maggie’s note on our activities list was very appropo.  “Although there seems to be a sense of "the higher, the better," SAMR is not an assessment tool. If you are on the Substitution level, and that's what works best for you, no one should see that as an inferior approach to your classes.”  I feel that I am where I ideally want to be.  It works for my face to face classes at my level.  I will keep an open mind to new technology, but I don’t need to substitute just to try the newest thing.  As for my online classes, I would like to get from the augmentation to the modification level.  However, teaching in a network limits my ability to make significant changes.
• What is 1 question you still have?
• Will I have time to investigate more assessment apps after this class?  It seems so time consuming.  I am looking forward to reading others' final projects so I can get good ideas.  

week 6 reflection

• Compare the recommended assessment techniques from the readings to those that you will use (or currently use) in your own online course. What are 3 things you will adjust in your course to reflect what you've learned from these readings?
• how to create higher level multiple choice questions--- I really liked the idea in Christopher Pappas' article.  I had not thought of including charts or graphs & didn't realize how including a reading would allow for analyzing.
• Don't worry about getting it exactly right; just capture some of the language describing strong work and the problems that students typically encounter. Ask students to tell you about the kinds of mistakes that they have made in the past.  (Andrade, H. "Using Rubrics to Promote Thinking and Learning," 2000, Educational Leadership)
• I think I'll include the the pre-course survey I wrote in my online courses next semester.

• What are 2 insights you have about using rubrics and/or pre-course surveys?
• I had never heard of a single-point rubric. I really like the "get it or don't get it" aspect of this kind of rubric.  I am excited to try this out with my students on the Spanish Inquisition reflection paragraph.
• Less is more--I have come to the conclusion that not everything has to be on the rubric.  Get to the heart of what you're assessing and have less categories on the rubric.  You can still make comments about punctuation, etc., but if I'm assessing a grammar point, that's what the focus of the rubric should be.
• What is 1 question you still have?
• How can I incorporate single-point rubrics into my course when my district is pushing for 4 point rubrics?  Do I use singe-point rubrics on formative assessments only?

pre-course survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Preview/?sm=Z84Hr1_2FI9x_2FjYyc_2Fiklls0en1OH_2FYGL9tYL4lhTnB1vByo_2FoC0wzmL4Q7N01c7l2







week 5 reflection

• What are 3 new things you learned?
• I didn't know that Blooms was updated in the 90's.  I wasn't impressed by the wording changing to verbs.  However, I really liked the cogs idea & the pieces of hte orange idea.
• Like BYOD, allowing students to Bring Your Own Media can support learning by allowing students to use what “their own stuff.”Among other effects, this can make cognitively challenging work at the upper levels of Bloom’s seem more accessible. One example? Compare and contrast Shakespeare’s use of thematic development across 3 sonnets, or do the same for two songs by Lupe Fiasco and one sonnet by Shakespeare. If nothing else, BYOM allows students to start any learning experience on somewhat solid ground.   http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/strategies/using-blooms-taxonomy-21st-century-4-strategies-for-teaching/
• alltheweb.com   I had never heard of this, let alone know it's a good place to check for plagiarism.
• What are 2 insights you have about using Bloom’s Taxonomy?
• creating on Bloom's--podcasting & editing were specific skills mentioned
• "the focus should not necessarily be on the tools themselves, but how the tools can be vehicles in transforming student thinkings in different levels" (https://youtu.be/0LZhid-STbo)
• What is 1 question you still have?
• Does collaboration at early writing levels in World Language lead to cheating or following others' patterns?  Do blogs and digital tools just make it easier to copy?How can I prevent this?  Does peer review factor into this?

Taxonomy table:




Link to my team's Wiki:
http://teamprincessleiamidterm.pbworks.com/w/page/114705047/Princess%20Leia%27s%20Assessment%20Toolbox%20Home




week 4 reflection

• What are 3 new things you learned?
• 1.  some schools in New York have "opted out" out of standardized testing??  Is that possible? How do they get their funding?  
• project based learning--I continue to wonder about the how of it.  How much feedback do you give kids during the project & how much is just a "grade" at the end?  If you give too much help during the project is that like giving them a higher grade?  (I guess I'm thinking about grammar and vocabulary that are not as crucial to subjects other than World Language.)  I also wonder about the assessments of the components of the projects before assigning the projects.   Are those traditional?
• examples of project based learning with rubrics on: http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/examples/tasks_highschool_foreignlanguages.htm  I am particularly interested in the unit on preterite vs. imperfect past tenses.  I have already shared this with my department.
• What are 2 insights you have about working in teams in an online learning setting?
• Flexibility is key.  My team was ok with me taking a backseat due to my mother's surgery this week.
• Communication--we all used email effectively.  
• follow-through---we set a timeline & we all followed through on creating our parts by the time we picked.
• What is 1 piece of advice you would give about working in teams in an online learning setting?
• be honest---don't sugarcoat something or agree to a timeline you can't abide by--it's best to be honest and then everyone will feel more respected

team wiki:
http://teamprincessleiamidterm.pbworks.com/w/page/114705047/Princess%20Leia%27s%20Assessment%20Tools

week 3 reflection

3 things I learned
  1.  FlipQuiz--I signed up and created a flipquiz.  When I started I thought it was the one that had 20 different options of boards.  However, it's just a basic Jeopardy board.  It was easy to create.  I was bummed that unlike QUIA.com there weren't a lot of already created boards that I could use.  I only tried the free version.  I did like that you could use pictures.  However, I was not impressed overall.
  2.  I looked over Pixton to make comics that students could use as review or assessment.  However, I couldn't enter students without paying, so I didn't get very far.  I looked into the World Language templates, but all were in French.  (the company showed the British & Canadian flags as choices for English langauge)  I really liked the "get to know the program" assignment of a bucket list & might use this when I teach my students the future tense.  I would like to find a free program with similar capabilities.
  3.  I briefly checked into Easel.ly I would like to see if I could have students make smashdoodles to go along with chapters in the novel we read in the spring.  Not all students are comfortable drawing & I thought a digital option might help.  Smashdoodles are smaller versions of Smash books.  Here is how Martina Bex defined Smash books: "A Smash Book is a fast, trendy way to scrapbook–scrapbooking for the 20-something, or the almost-20-something, or the hipster. Something like that." (https://martinabex.com/2014/07/10/smash-doodle/)  
Here is an example that I found about another 
novel:

Here is some info on how doodles can increase comprehension:
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/skills-and-strategies-doodling-sketching-and-mind-mapping-as-learning-tools/?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=1


2 things that interest me and I want to learn more about
  1.  I wonder if google draw would be just as easy to use fro smashdoodles as Easel.ly?  Plus, all of my students already have free access to google draw.
  2. POWtoon--I didn't get to look into it much yet, but I want to see if this free application could do what I wanted Pixton to do.  I am particularly interested in if students can work in groups to create and peer edit work.

1 question I still have
      Does anybody else think that the CABD approach to
writing authentic assessments reminds you of  SMART goals?  We have to write SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & time-bound) for our EE (Educator Effectiveness).  Educator effectiveness is how we are observed & "graded".  Funny how it all boils down to ONE number.

week 2--
3 new things I’ve learned

1. I have never blogged, so this is all new to me.  I really hope that I have learned how to do 2 pages.
2. SAMR:  I did not know anything about this before this week.  Maybe I had heard it in a meeting, but it definitely did not stick in my brain.  I think it is important to remember that it is not an assessment tool.  What works in one subject area may not in another subject area.  
3. RLO:  I did not know what a reusable learning object was.

2 things that interest me & I would like to learn more about

1. Is google classroom a blog?
2. creating a rubric to use for my district’s Grading for learning initiative--I looked at some of the resources under “Online Assessment Resources for Teachers”--Vandervelde 2013

1 question I still have:

Do I really need to blog for/with my students?  I just don’t know about this.


Notes on RLO's and student centered vs. teacher centered classrooms.

RLO's--Well, these seem like the blood-borne pathogens training & quizzes we have to take each year. Maybe I could use this somehow when I do my unit on the Spanish inquisition. Maybe I could make a RLO introduction & then a quiz. I could do this instead of my group presentation and informal raising of hands about questions. Maybe I could include a 321 activity as a reflection that would direct the next class discussion.

teacher centered vs. student centered classrooms--the quiz
Well, I could identify each pretty consistently. The push is to have all student centered classrooms. Feedback will make students reflective learners & reflective learners do better. Well, I question this. I know you have to teach student how to reflect, but most just go through the motions. Even if I tell them why it's important to be a reflective learner, most don't see the value in it & choose not to do so. They don't make it a priority. My content (Spanish) is not a really reflective content. They might reflect on how to conjugate a verb, but that is process, not content.

week 1
Here is my first post on the message board.  It was in response to a survey we required to take.

Here is my second post that was in response to week one's reading assignments on alternative assessment.

Here is my post on the wiki.