Taskstream final assessment

INTASC	Standards (criteria)	Examples & Support	ND / Met
4.13	The candidate knows how to enhance learning through the use of a wide variety of materials as well as human and technological resources (knowledge).	CA-4.13 -> In this course I have learned about the benefits of working together in virtual environment. With my group, we worked on Google Reader I have reflected on my own understanding of web 2.0 and have used and worked with at least 2 web2.0 tools. Here’s a link to my favorite web2.0 tools.	Met
6.35	The candidate demonstrates proficiency and appropriateness in utilizing a variety of media communication tools to enrich learning opportunities (skill).	CA-6.35 -> I went to the OTEN conference. There I learned about different technologies that can be used to enrich learning opportunities. After the conference, I used my cell phone to make a Yodio on this conference. I posted about this on my blog. I also used Screenr and Google Presentations to make a multimedia video on Piaget's Sensorimotor Stages of Development.	Met

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

I this sheet, you'll find collected the test data from a range of rather famous students. I have attempted to make some sense of it all.
First, the raw data after sorting by average.

And here's the students' improvement in test scores shown in a chart. 

It's interesting to see that all the students' test scores have improved. Whatever the teacher is doing, he/she might want to continue that. Except for Katherine, all the scores show a steadily improvement. Some students lose a point or 2 at some point, only to regain them in later tests. Katherine is the exception. Katherine scores remarkably high on test 8. She also shows the highest total improvement over the last 5 tests.
All in all, there doesn't seem to be a clear pattern in the improvement of the students. Some students show very little improvement overall.

So far, this is my least favorite of the Google tools. I'm fairly proficient with Microsoft Excel and thought that I could crank this out pretty quick and easy. Not so. Many shortcuts that I use in Excel don't seem to be a part of Google sheets. Sheets are slower and less user friendly than Excel. I guess I'll be uploading from Excel until Google improves the sheets. 

Piaget's Sensorimotor Stages of Development

Last Monday, Heather, Jeff and I made this presentation using Screenr and Google Presentations:




I had only heard of what one might do with Screenr and I didn't have a Twitter account, but we thought that this would be the best way to do our presentation. The alternative would have been to project our presentation in class and take a video of that while we narrated. Too many things could have gone wrong in that, with valuable time lost. Also, the end product would not have looked as good as what we created with Screenr. 
It took me about 3 minutes to create a Twitter account and figure out how to use Screenr. This shows to me the intuitiveness (is that a word?) and ease of use of web2.0.
I would say that this could be extremely useful in a classroom. An instructional video that actually looks professional is quite an asset.
All in all it wasn't a very steep learning curve for me, but I can only say that I'm very happy to now have this tool in my toolbox. Too bad I had to create a Twitter account to use it. I feel like a twat now.

Reflection of Ed Tech Standards

How might you explain the big picture of what these standards are trying to accomplish.
The tech standards that have been instituted are trying to teach children to use technology to learn, live and work. Which I think is pretty much what education in general is trying to accomplish. To make sure that children know their way around the world. A world that is getting more and more technologically oriented. If children are not taught how to be technologically literate, they are not being taught how to learn, work and live in the world as it is emerging. From the US census data we learn that: Sixty-two million U.S. households,  or 55 percent of American homes, had a Web-connected computer in 2003. That’s up from 50 percent in 2001, and more than triple 1997′s 18 percent figure. In just 6 years, the number of internet connected houses tripled. I couldn't find how much it has grown since then, but I imagine it's a lot more by now. 
We simply cannot afford to not teach children how to be technologically literate. 


Describe some strategies you could implement at your grade levels in order to accomplish this huge task
Here's the standards for teaching technological literacy:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Prob. Solving and Decision Making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts

In some ways, I don't think it will be too huge a task to implement all this. As the US becomes more technological, more options and devices will find their way into the classroom. For children who are growing up now, the internet, smart phones and all other high tech developments are as normal as pen, paper and calculators were for us. They are tools. It will be perfectly normal to use these to do schoolwork and homework.
Which doesn't mean that we shouldn't be extremely careful in how we teach these new skills. The generation that is growing up now is taking technology for granted and will probably use it for things that we haven't imagined yet. It is important that we teach children to use their tools appropriately and well. 

The great benefit of already working in a school.

So. Today I finally got around to calling the Salem Keizer school district benefit office to ask whether there's any program they have that might help me out while I'm a student teacher. Things like financial aid, but also maybe some flexibility in work hours so I can observe at another school (there's a elementary school right in my school's backyard).
I get told 2 things:

1. There are no such programs available for me in any way because I've only worked there for about 1 year and I am not yet a permanent employee (which takes about 3 years). A shame, but fair enough. However:
2. In order to do my student teaching, I would need to take time off. The district is not going to grant me a leave of absence for the same reason as mentioned above. 

Effectively this means that next year, when my student teaching comes around, I am going to have to quit my job. 

I am trying to talk to other people to see whether this is actually true, because it seems a bit strange to me. More on this later.

Who owns a Google doc?

In class the other day it was asserted that Google owns everything that gets uploaded to it. I wanted to get more information on that, so I looked around the internet a bit. On Gigaom.com I found this article.
What it comes down to is:

• You retain copyright of anything you upload to Google, but:
• “you give Google a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through the Service for the sole purpose of enabling Google to provide you with the Service in accordance with its Privacy Policy.”
• Although Google and Adobe claim licenses, the full terms make it clear that these license are limited to actually providing you the service you’re using.

Seems to me that ownership of anything I upload to or create with Google stays with me. Which is nice. 

My Favorite Web2.0 tools.

Web 2.0 is:

• All the online applications that can be accessed from any computer that has an internet connection.
• The beginning of moving from having a PC (personal computer) to being able to turn any computer into your personal computer. 
• A great way to increase productivity

Dropbox is:

• A web 2.0 tool that allows the user to have a folder on their computer (the dropbox) that can be accessed from any other computer through the internet.
• If 2 computers both have dropbox installed by the same user, whatever is dropped into one box is automatically synchronized to the other box.
• The downside for me is that my desktop has a very small harddrive. I wish I would just be able to access the file on my laptop instead of it putting it on the desktop's drive as well

Tokbox is:

• The web 2.0 way of doing Skype.
• Pros:
• Able to acces it on any computer that has internet access, no need to install software.
• It allows the use of video conferencing for more than 2 users (Skype only allows video for 2 people).
• Easy to use, you just have to log in.
• I've tried it once or twice and it seems to have less trouble with bad connections and bad video or audio reception. 
• Cons:
• Skype can run in the background, Tokbox needs an open web browser. I like my web browser less cluttered.
• Far less Tokbox users than Skype users. 

I like it! Great tools, with much potential for increased productivity. I'm just a bit concerned that there's so many tools out there that I will start to forget which ones I'm using and why. But I'm sure there's a tool for that too ;)

Google Reader

My team and I worked on Google Reader:

• A very nice application that tells the user when websites that they are interested in are updated. 
• No more checking every single website to see whether or not they updated. 
• Just one screen that tells the user which sites have updated. Very nice for checking student blogs to see if they've done their homework yet. 
• A great way to save time. 

The learning curve for me wasn't too steep. I'm fairly comfortable around computers and was very interested in Google Reader when I heard about it in class. I didn't feel forced to try it so that I could blog about it. Since two weeks ago I've been using it a lot. 

For our group assignment, I started the doc we worked in and shared in with my team. After that, we all contributed equally to the document. I used my Google Reader during our presentation to show what the many uses of it are.
Here's a link to our document: LINK

OTEN conference

The OTEN conference:

• The keynote speaker talked mostly about the computers he had used in the past.
• Although that was interesting, it didn't link up that well with his final thoughts.
• We don't know what technology will look like 5 years from now, never mind 30 years.
• Technology should be seen as a tool.
• The first workshop I attended was about the use of a digital whiteboard.
• It was mostly a show and tell.
• The speaker again stressed that no matter how much she liked the whiteboard, it was a tool, not to be used for it's own sake.
• The second workshop I attended was about how schools in New Zealand use technology
• Point England school uses blogs for their students.
• The expected growth of their students has increased fourfold. 

If the link doesn't appear to work, try clicking HERE.

Applications of blogging, with a focus on special ed.

Blogging is a great additional tool in the teacher's arsenal. Reminding students of their homework and allowing them to use the blog to turn in their homework are great uses of this medium.

However, I am worried that these things will not work as well in a special ed classroom, which is where I am hoping to work.

It seems to me that some of the great uses of blogging all focus on a class as a whole. In special ed however, each student has an individualized education plan. Homework is also individualized and many kids cannot use a computer like typical students can, so turning in homework that way is unlikely.

This weekend I went to the OTEN conference in Forest Grove. One of the workshops I went to was about he use of technology in New Zealand. A school there uses a blog as a focal point for what the students create. This school feels that through the blog the student connects to the world and finds that they have real power to reach out to that world.

This example seems to me the greatest use of blogging for the special ed classroom. One of the problems children in general and children with disabilities in particular struggle with is their perceived ability to be heard by the world. If, through blogging, special ed students could feel more connected, that could be incredibly empowering to them.

In fact, this might be something to look into at the school I work at. Hmmmmmmm......

short Bio

Contrary to many of my fellow students, I never thought I wanted to be a teacher. I studied Commercial Economy. Halfway through my studies I realized that trying to convince people that they wanted what I was selling was not what I wanted with my life.

Since then, my life has been a collection of wonderful experiences, starting in Virginia, passing through a few European countries (with a 4 month volunteer experience in Egypt) and ending in Oregon. The one constant was that I worked with people with mental disabilities. And loved it.

Currently I work at Centennial CTP, a community transition program in Keizer. Now that I have come to this point in my life, becoming a teacher seems the most logical and natural next step for me to take. A special education endorsement is (of course) part of this next step.

I have a particular interest in Autism Spectrum Disorder and hope to work in that field of special education. I also really enjoy working with younger kids, so I hope to focus on early childhood. My decision is not set yet and I intend to look at all the fields to see if there's something I might like better.

Apart from all this, I am the happy husband of Lisa and the busy father of Alexander and Annabel. Between my studies and my family, I expect to not be able to read anything but study books for the next 2 years.