EDIT 695 Practicum and Seminar

Mary McEwan

Journal #1 - My Teaching and Technology Philosophy................................................................ 2

Journal #2 – Advocacy, Policy, and Procedures for Community Involvement ..................... 3
Journal #3 – Experience with Teaching, Learning, and Assessment ......................................... 4
Journal #4 – Global Education, Perspective, and Competencies............................................. 5
Journal #5 – Personal Experience, Research and Observation Regarding these Elements
of ISTE C1 .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Journal #6 – Personal Experience, Research and Observation Regarding these Elements
of ISTE C2 .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Journal #7 – Personal Experience, Research and Observation Regarding these Elements
of ISTE C3 .................................................................................................................................................... 8
Journal #8 – Personal Experience, Research and Observation Regarding these Elements
of ISTE C4 .................................................................................................................................................... 9
Journal #9 – Personal Experience, Research and Observation Regarding Professional
Development, ISTE C5 ........................................................................................................................... 10
Journal #10 – Lifelong Learning ISTE C6 ........................................................................................... 11
Journal #1 - My Teaching and Technology Philosophy

I believe as a teacher, my main objective is to encourage students to become life long

learners. It is my job to give my students the 21st century skills that will enable them to
be a successful part of today's community. It is important to me that my student's
learning is meaningful and that skills learned in my classroom can be transformed into
any career path they choose. These skills include critical thinking, inquiry, use of
technology and more.

To meet these goals/objectives I use a variety of different teaching methods. I believe

that every student is unique, and I use differentiated instruction in order to reach every
student. In my classroom I utilize cooperative learning, which allows students to work in
groups to accomplish a task. Most of my instruction is inquiry based, which allows
students to figure out the information on their own, leading to a deeper understanding
of the material. I also utilize modern technology such as Google apps for Education,
Explain Everything, QR code readers, Nearpod, and Plickers as much as possible in the
classroom, as students are familiar with learning in this way.

As an educator, I believe it is important to continue learning and modify my teaching

practices and to relate the material to my student's lives in a meaningful way. Our
students are consistently using technology and I believe it is beneficial to use that
technology to our advantage and improve instructional strategies. There are so many
exciting ways to use technology in the classroom to engage students and to
authenticate learning and I plan to utilize them in every way possible. Not only is
technology in the classroom necessary to engage students, but it is an essential tool for
the future. Students in my class will use technology to build critical thinking and inquiry
based skills that all employers are looking for in their future employees!

I know when my students have learned the material because I frequently asses for
knowledge by asking questions and doing activities, not just the traditional test. I give
many alternative assessments such as projects, papers, or presentations.

I plan to constantly improve my teaching by reflecting on my methods, deciding what

"worked" and what "didn't work", and changing my instruction to fit my class. With the
help of student/administrator evaluations, teacher mentors, and professional
development I plan to continue learning and growing as a teacher.
Journal #2 – Advocacy, Policy, and Procedures for
Community Involvement
Like Kevin, I teach in a very wealthy district in Westchester County. Many of my
students come from money and have a sense of entitlement. They do not necessarily
have that “hard working gene” instilled in them because most everything has been
handed to them for much of their life. This sense of entitlement does pose a problem in
my classroom because sometimes in can cause a negative classroom environment,
especially for those students who may not be as wealthy.
Although there are many things that I can do to help change students’ mentality
and help them shed that feeling of entitlement, my favorite thing to do is give them a
little does of humility. Just this past weekend I was a chaperone for a school event
where I took 18 students on a Midnight Run (http://www.midnightrun.org/). I have
provided the link the organizations website if you are unfamiliar with the idea, but it is a
really great program!
Basically, students organize and collect donations for the homeless in New York
City. They collect clothing such as coats, pants, and shoes, as well as make hygienic
bags with soap, toothbrushes, razors, etc. In addition, they make food bags with
sandwiches, fruits, vegetables, granola bars, and cookies. Students spend the night
organizing donations and making food before loading it all on a bus and heading to
the city at around 10pm. We make about five stops in total all throughout Manhattan.
At each stop we set up a “store” for the homeless so that can pick from clothing and
food and get the supplies that they need.
Obviously one of the goals of the Midnight Run is to provide the homeless with a
few of the essentials needed for survival. In addition to this, Midnight Run is dedicated
to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless. The program
stresses to forge a bond between housed and homeless people by establishing a
foundation of sharing and caring from which solutions may evolve. Students are
encouraged to talk with the homeless, hear their stories, and come to see them as real
people, not a commodity. The Run is just as much for the students as it is for the
homeless people!
On the Midnight Run that I went on this weekend, we were able to interact with
everyone from people in low incoming housing to people living on the streets in boxes.
It was quite an eye opening experience for my students! I think this type of outreach
program is a great way to involve my students in their community and open their eyes
to other people’s circumstances!
Journal #3 – Experience with Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment
I definitely remember those long afternoons and sometimes nights at the kitchen
table working on my homework. I do not necessarily look back on these memories
fondly, but I don’t have PTSD either. I was not the fastest learner and I do remember
wondering why it took me so much longer to complete my work when my sister finished
so fast! School was difficult for me when I was in elementary school and homework
served as a reminder that I had to work harder and longer than the other students to
learn the same material. When I was in high school the disparity between me and my
classmates was not so apparent, and I had absolutely no problem completing my
homework. After watching the videos and reading some articles and blogs about the
perception of homework from student, teacher, parents, and administrations point of
view I can understand why this is a hot topic of discussion.
For my high schoolers, homework can stress them out easily because it can pile
up fast. You may think that you are only giving 15 to 20 minutes worth of homework,
but that student may be taking nine classes and now all of a sudden they have a total
of three hours worth of work. Most students are really involved in school activities
though, so they have a club meeting after school that runs until 3pm, then sports
practice unit 5pm, when they get home they shower, eat dinner, give themselves a bit
of a break, and start their homework around 7 or 8pm. This means they won’t finish until
11pm! Which I don’t know about you, but it’s way past my bedtime if I’m going to start
class at 7:30am the next morning. I can understand why students “half-ass” homework
or copy a friends work if they are running on a schedule like this daily.
From a teacher’s perspective, I can understand the need for homework as well.
As a Chemistry teacher, I can guarantee you that students will have to put in more than
the daily class time to truly understand and do well in my class. Unless you have a
natural talent for the subject, Chem requires hard work, practice, and studying. In my
class, I have an ongoing homework assignment of studying each night. I leave it up to
my students to gauge their own needs. For example, if you understood today’s lesson,
then maybe you don’t need to study tonight, but if you are having difficulties probably
you should come after school for extra help or do some extra practice problems to
perfect a skill.
Additionally, I pride myself on not giving busy work, even my students have
commented that when I assign something they always complete it because they know
it will help them either for the next lesson or for a mini quiz. I don’t ever give work just to
give it… it always serves a purpose!
Finally, I will always provide additional, non-mandatory, resources and problems
for students to use as extra practice. For example, I post Chemistry videos on my class
website so if a student is absent or if they need a refresher, they can watch it on their
own time. Because I was the student who always took forever to complete a
homework assignment, I am always mindful of how long it may take some students to
complete the work!
Journal #4 – Global Education, Perspective, and
Competencies
As a teacher and a future technology coach, global perspectives and digital
citizenship is an important topic to discuss with my high school students. Technology
allow us to better communicate and immerse ourselves in other cultures, but we have
to do so respectively and smartly.
Firstly, to integrate global perspective into my classroom I can use technology
tools such as Nearpod’s virtual fieldtrips and Google Expeditions in order to give
students an authentic learning experience. These virtual fieldtrips can take my scholars
into the labs of famous scientists, into space with NASA, or even down to a molecular
level to see what’s going on. I fancy myself as Mrs. Frizzle, and Virtual/Augmented
Reality is the best way that I can take students on an adventure that helps them open
their eyes to their surroundings.
Additionally, I can use many social media and video conferencing tools to allow
my student to safely communicate with students and scientist all over the world. It
would be neat if we could collaborate with a class of students from another high
school! Technology makes it easy for students to communicate and collaborate with
people from all over!
In order to safely communicate with other students or scientist my students need
a sense of digital citizenship. There are many websites to help students learn about
digital citizenship, but many of them are geared towards elementary school aged
students. My high schooler’s should already have some idea of digital citizenship, but
Nearpod has a great, age appropriate presentation of what digital citizenship means
to teens. In addition to showing them this presentation the best thing for me to do is
work as a facilitator, monitor student’s posts and online discussion, correct any
misbehavior, and reward any good behavior. This is how students will learn how to
conduct themselves in an online environment.
Journal #5 – Personal Experience, Research and
Observation Regarding these Elements of ISTE C1

I believe visionary leaders are: I believe visionary leaders strive to:

 Open-minded  Develop
 Goal oriented  Implement
 Collaborative  Integrate
 Innovative  Promote
 Inspired  Transform
 Focused  Communicate
 Motivated  Contribute
 Organized  Advocate
 Strategic
Journal #6 – Personal Experience, Research and
Observation Regarding these Elements of ISTE C2

5 tools that promote innovative assessment and address ISTE Standard 2:

1. Plickers is a simple tool that allows a teacher to collect real-time formative

assessment data with one device, which makes this app is perfect for school
districts that don’t have enough devices! Students hold up a QR code to
indicate their answer, the teacher scans the room with their device, and instant
feedback is available to the teacher. This app is an innovative assessment tool
that addresses ISTE standard 2g and 2h.
2. ZipGrade is an app that turns your phone into a scantron grading machine,
providing instant feedback to students by grading exit tickets, quizzes, and
formative assessments as soon as they finish. Additionally, the app provides data
analysis of whole class results including averages as well as individual question
analysis. This app is an innovative assessment tool that addresses ISTE standard
2g and 2h.
3. CK-12 is a website that helps teachers create a digital classroom and customized
textbooks in all subject areas and grade levels which allows for personalized
learning for every student. CK-12 truly differentiates for all learns by providing
multiple forms of activities and assessments. This website addresses ISTE standard
2a, 2e, and 2f.
4. Castle Learning is an online question data base that offers an instructional
support platform for in class, homework, review, and testing. Teacher choose
from a question bank to create assignments that students complete online.
Castle Learning offers instant feedback to students in the form of hints and
explanations, as well as progress tracking, assignment sharing and instructional
feedback for teachers. This website is an innovative assessment and practice
tool that addresses ISTE standard 2a, 2g, and 2h.
5. Pixton is an online comic making software for teachers and students. Pixton
allows for creativity and differentiation in the classroom. This website addresses
ISTE standard 2a, 2b, 2d, and 2e.
Journal #7 – Personal Experience, Research and
Observation Regarding these Elements of ISTE C3

As a technology coach, in order to select the right tools for inquiry in my

classroom and school, I would first need to have a discussion with the teacher(s) in
order to figure out the learning goal or target outcome for the students. In this
conversation, we can determine together how technology will be used to enhance
their lesson based on this learning goal. This discussion may start by having teachers fill
out a survey. From this survey, I may have enough information to truly understand what
the teachers want/need. I usually like to have an informal discussion with the teachers
regardless of their survey so that we can talk about what type of technology they are
looking for to enhance their lesson. The important part of this meeting is that we are not
picking a technology and figuring out how we can fit it into their curriculum, we are
choosing a learning goal and determining how technology can be used to enhance
student understand and better allow them to meet this target outcome.

Once we have worked together to determine the learning goal, I would then do
some research to figure out what technology best aligns with the target outcome of
students. Factors that I would consider when choosing a technology are price,
accessibility, age appropriateness, learning curve or ease of use, etc. I would definitely
look for a free software that could be easily accessed online or downloaded onto
devices. If Wi-Fi connection is a consideration I would be more likely to choose
something that could be downloaded and used without an internet connection. If
school devices are a factor I would probably choose something that could be mobile
friendly so that students with phones or personal devices could bring their own. I would
also consider the age of the students and be sure that the technology is appropriate for
the students. I also want to be sure that the technology is user-friendly. I don’t want to
use the whole class time explaining how to use the software, I want to be intuitive so
that students can learn and explore on their own. I would be more apt to choose a
technology that students are familiar with for this reason.

Once the teacher and I have picked a technology we would discuss the lesson
plan involving the technology including, how to introduce it, how to trouble shoot
problems, and how to manage the class while using the technology. I would plan on
pushing into the classroom on the day(s) that the teacher is planning on using the
technology so that I can support the teacher and the students.

We would meet one more time as a follow-up to reflect on the technology use in
the lesson. We would discuss what went well, what didn’t go as planned, and how we
could improve it for next year, etc.
Journal #8 – Personal Experience, Research and
Observation Regarding these Elements of ISTE C4

Although I believe that all of the ISTE Standards are important and relevant in
their own way, I believe the ISTE C4 Standard is especially important. Standard 4
discusses one of the most significant processes of improving teaching skills in general:
Evaluation. Even without the involvement of technology, how else can you be sure that
your new lesson or professional program was successful without reflection and
evaluation? In order to be a successful technology coach we need to stress the
importance of following up with our endeavors to ensure effective implantation of
technology, not unlike the example given in this week’s prompt.

I believe it’s easy for a technology coach to become swept up in their job and
forget to follow up with the teachers, classes, and professional development sessions
that they have worked with. As a technology specialist, after meeting with teachers
and helping them implement technology it is very important to reflect and evaluate
their implementation. This process of evaluation will help inform future instruction by
determining the effectiveness of the lesson or program and its impact on instructional
practice and student learning. As technology specialist we need to remember that
closure and evaluation is just as important to us as it is to a content teacher.

In this week’s example, Olusola Dawodu showed us a great example of how a

coach can follow up with the teachers after he develops and delivers professional
development training. He visits participating schools after the training to observe
classroom practices, provide individual support, and develop future professional
development based on how the teachers have already applied what they have
learned. This is an excellent example of how evaluation informs future instruction!

I think the simplest way to evaluate and reflect on a professional development

session or a classroom lesson is to have an informal conversation with all participants.
Some topics that would be good to discuss include what the participants felt went well
or didn’t go well, how they would change the session/lesson, or what they would do
differently in the future. Additional there would need to be some analysis of the results
of the session/lesson to determine how effective it actually was. If an informal
discussion is not practice a simple online survey or form could also do the trick!

The important thing to remember is that reflection and evaluation are important
aspects of the learning process and are not steps that can be skipped in the
technology specialist’s approach to incorporating more technology!
Journal #9 – Personal Experience, Research and
Observation Regarding Professional Development, ISTE C5

I especially liked this week’s example of a technology coach implementing ISTE

Coaching Standard 5 by teaching students appropriate digital citizenship in terms of
copyright laws and infringement. I liked this example because Geri Kimoto was able to
incorporate digital citizenship into a preexisting lesson plan. I think that this makes the
content more applicable and engaging for the students, meaning that it is more likely
going to “stick” with them. Imagine if Geri Kimoto called all the students into the library
and gave a 45 minute direct lecture PowerPoint presentation on copyright laws. How
boring would that be! She has found a way to teach the students about copyright in a
meaningful way that has to do with their class projects and papers.

I also like the way that Geri Kimoto has developed a plan to have students share
their own work online so that they can really identify with how an author would feel if
their work was copied or used without permission. I think this will give the students an
emotional tie to copyright issues that will also “stick” with them.

As a technology coach I would try to incorporate digital citizenship into each

lesson I did with the students or each session I had with the teachers. With students
there are many games or interactive activities for the younger kids to help teach the
basics of digital citizenship. I personally like resources such as Common Sense Media,
PBS, or Netsmartz. Many of these websites have educator resources as well, so that
teachers could incorporate more digital citizenship into their everyday lessons.

With today’s society and how kids are enthralled with social media, I would
definitely have a lesson on proper online etiquette, especially on social media sites such
as Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and more. Not unlike Geri Kimoto, I would try to
incorporate this into their everyday life and school lessons so the learning is authentic
and applicable. I think there is always a chance to include digital citizenship into any
lesson!

The most important thing I could do is set an example for students and teachers
of how to properly use resources and communicate online safely!
Journal #10 – Lifelong Learning ISTE C6

I have put off my last journal for a few weeks because I’ve been waiting to hear
good news, and this week it came! Not only have I received tenure at Somers Central
School District, but I have also been offered the position of Technology Leader and of
course I plan to accept!

I will not necessarily be a technology coach, but I will oversee technology

professional developments and run technology curriculum meetings for the high school.
In my school district the role of Technology leader is an additional stipend position, so I
will still have all of my teaching duties in the classroom. I am honestly excited because I
am not ready to leave the classroom entirely, but I am ready to dive into the field of
technology. This position will allow me to work with teachers and help them implement
technology into the classroom. The position definitely focuses more on the pedagogy
of using technology rather than the hardware or IT side of technology, which is exactly
what I am looking for.

I am very excited to be taking on this new position next year and I truly feel like
this program at NYIT has effectively prepared me! After my fieldwork and practicum
experience I feel confident that I will be able to provide the best professional
development opportunities for my coworkers as well as effectively lead tech committee
meetings. I also feel like I have the ability and skills to access new tools and resources
and successfully share them with the school.

Like Jill Brown in this week’s prompt, I plan to be a life long technology learner,
play around with new tools, evaluate their usefulness, and share these resources with
my peers. I also plan to continue to be a member of professional organizations, attend
conferences and workshops, and stay in touch with professionals around the world to
stay current in technology tools.

I am attending LHRIC’s TLI Technology Expo next Friday May 11th in Briarcliff, let
me know if anyone else is attending and we can meet up!