EDLD 5326 - Progress Report

Action Research Project Title: Using Online Curriculum for Test Remediation Blog URL: leersanchez.blogspot.com Number of AR Project Documented Hours: 40 AR Project Summary (at least 250 words): My action research project is over the use of technology in the classroom. Our school uses two web based programs that students use for remediation, tutorials, and for test preparation. The programs that our district currently uses are Odysseyware and Study Island. Our district uses Odysseyware that the high school level for credit recovery during summer school. The district has used this program for two years. Study Island is used mostly at the junior high level and at elementary for their tutorials. The purpose of my action research project was to find out if both programs were effective. I taught world geography and had students who failed the world geography end of course exams. These students were supposed to retest even though they were not going to be taking a world geography class. I started to think about how these kids were going to be ready for their world geography test while preparing for another social studies end of course. I teamed up the response to intervention teacher and I told her about my plan to have those students who failed the STAAR end of course use the Odysseyware for their remediation. I had to change my research subjects during the summer after the state decided to cut the number of end of course tests from fifteen to five. I had to include junior high students where used Study island as part of their tutorial programs. During summer school, students who failed parts of the STAAR were brought in for remediation and I had them use Odysseyware for the few weeks they were in remediation. I am currently gathering the final test results and will complete the action research project next month.

EDLD 5362 Week 5 Assignment

EDLD 5364 - Week 5 Reflection

I thought the Pitler reading assignment was good.  I have always stressed to my students that putting forth effort will help them in their studies and whatever activities they choose to do later in life.  I liked the spreadsheet idea and have students see what effort looks like and asks them to rate how much effort they put forth in their classes. This is a great idea and students can see for themselves the relationship between effort and their grades. 

 The videos were interesting and got me inquiring about the future of education.  We have to be ready to allow students the freedom to take ownership of their education. However, we must also be aware of the dangers of using digital media in our classroom.  The Howard Gardner video was good in explaining why teachers  have to model the safe and ethical way to use digital media in the classroom. I think his five ethical issues are important, and  all people who use digital media should utilize them. Good Play is to look at five ethical issues, sense of identity, sense of privacy, sense of ownership-authorship, trustworthiness and credibility, and what it means to participate in a community (Edutopia, nd). 

Edutopia.org (nd). Big Thinkers: Howard Gardner on Digital Youth. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-howard-gardner-video

EDLD 5364 - Week 5 Web Reflection

I attended the final web conference of the course.  I found it very informative.  Dr. Borel outlined what we needed to do for the week five final assignment.  She explained what each part of the assignment required and reminded us to submit our assignments to TK20.  After she talked about our current course, she stayed around to answer questions that many of us had about upcoming courses and requirements for the program.  She talked about how to get in contact with supervisors and when our second online meeting was supposed to happen.  She explained how the course embedded portfolio worked and how and when to submit them.  I only missed one of the web conferences but was able to view it later in the week.  I found all conferences very helpful and an important part of the course and program.  

EDLD 5364 - Week 4 Reflection

The videos were great.  I got many ideas from watching the videos that I want to try in my classroom and share with others on my campus.  The reading assignments were also great.  I enjoyed the Pitler reading.  I like that it gave us resources to use for using cooperative learning in the classroom.  I liked the Web 2.0 book and how schools could help teachers integrate technology in the curriculum.  This was a busy week for me, and I am glad to part of a group that keeps me up to date with what is going on.  The website has turned out great, and I am ready to see the final product at the end of this week.  

EDLD 5364 - Week 4 Reflection Webconference

I was not able to attend the video web conference but watched it later in the week.  I liked that Dr. Borel showed us a an example of what to include in our Google site.  I would hope that other instructors would do this in future web conferences to show us where we should be and give us an idea of how the assignment is supposed to be like.  I like that they give us examples, but to actually show us during the web conference, will give us the ability to ask questions while we have the instructor available.  This was the best web conference for this class.  

EDLD 5364 - Week 3 Reflection

The UDL Lesson builder was a great tool to use.  It was very user friendly and would be a valuable resource  for any teacher to have.  I like the format and it guides you to include all the material you will need to make a great lesson.  The other tool that we used was the UDL EBook.  It was very user friendly and had a lot of neat things to include in your EBook.  I like the little characters you could add to the presentation  to read the content or just give them some help in completing the assignment.  It was very easy to share the EBook with others or go back and edit.  This was a busy week, but it introduced us to some tools that will be beneficial to any teacher to help their students learn.  The videos and the reading assignments for week three were great in showing us what is capable if we let the kids become involved in their learning.  We can allow them to create their lessons or choose how to complete them.

EDLD 5364 - Week 2 Reflection

I really enjoyed the videos with the students.  They showed us what is possible if we allow students to be creative and come up with their own lessons for the material.  I think that this offers them a chance to take ownership in their education. I thought both videos were great but the quote from the Cameron video really stuck with me. One of the things we’ve talked about a lot with our teachers is, don’t be afraid to let the kids come up and create assignments. Actually, most of the time, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised when you let them use their strengths to develop their own lessons. You know, and the kids will work three times harder when they’re doing something they really enjoy (Edutopia).  I agree with the quote, if the kids are having fun and doing something they really enjoy they will do all that they can to do their best. But, the teacher still needs to be there to guide them and make sure that they are doing something that is in line with state standards and are learning the material that they should be learning.  

Edutopia.org (nd). Digital Youth Portrait -- Cameron. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-cameron-video

Week 2 Reflection - Web Conference

The web conference was very informative this week. I am glad that she talked about the number of intern hours.  It is good to keep reminding us to keep up to date with our hours that we put into our action research plan.  I like the power points that she shares with us. I always download them after the conference.  I think that it is great that the Dr. Borel spends time talking to us about what we need to do to be successful in the program and not spend the entire time talking to us about one class out of many.

EDLD 5364 - Week 1 Reflection

I watched the videos and completed the readings, and had one of those moments where I said to myself, I want to try that in my classroom.  I brainstormed some ideas that I want to try with my students.  The article by Sprague and Dede was good in that it gave us two teaching styles, one that most teachers use and another that is the new way of teaching, but also showed us the fears associated with it.  Teachers sometimes are concerned about such shift; they worry about losing control, not fulfilling their role, or being seen as less effective by parents, principal, or supervisors (Sprague & Dede, 1999).  That is why we are afraid of change. Teaching has undergone very few changes and just in the last twenty years technology has made us look at the style we use to teach.  The videos were informative and a bit scary.  The Cyborg video got me thinking on how close we might be to living in a Matrix type world and teachers might not be need anymore. I think that constructivist theory is good, but it relies on the past experiences of the students to grasp the information.  We have all this technology at their fingertips, but most of my students have never been to the places I teach.  They don't understand what is going on in the real world.  They know what the harlem shake is, but if  I ask them where Harlem is, could they tell me.  We have to teach them how to use the technology the right way.  It is more than just a social meeting place or a collection of dumb videos.  There is content out there to help them learn, we just have to help them use it.  




Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved from the International Society for Technology in Education at http://imet.csus.edu/imet9/280/docs/dede_constructivisim.pdf

Warwirk, K. (nd). Cyborg Life [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_l7SY_ngI

EDLD 5364 - Week 1 Web Conference

I find the web conferences to be an important of the online learning process.  Other online courses I have done in the past, we never got to interact with the instructor, we would have to use email to communicate.  The web conferences allows us to interact with others in our course as well as the professor.  You can ask questions about upcoming assignments and also find our information about the entire program and where you should be concerning other courses or administrative information.  The web conferences also gives us a chance to find group members for our collaborative projects.  I also like that they are recorded and we can view them later.  This has been important to me because of coaching duties on the days the web conferences are schedules.  One thing that the last two courses have been sharing is PowerPoint presentations, and I find those very useful for the information they contain. 

Course Embedded Assignment Reflection - EDLD 5366 Week 5

When I look back at this course, it will be much more than creating a poster, logo, animation, and website.  This course actually got me to think about how much more I could do in my classroom using the information that I learned.  I have created a Google site and a blog for previous courses but with the knowledge I gained from this course I am able to apply it to my previous work and teach it to others. 

From the first assignment I learned techniques that I can use in my classroom to help my students create projects that will enhance their learning.  With the knowledge I gained from week one, I can teach my students that too much color or fancy fonts does not make the project better.  Using the resources from week one by Robin Williams and the YouTube Video by Barry Jahn, helped me learn the basic principles of graphic design.  This is something that I have never thought about when creating content for my classes.  I had designs in my mind, but by using the graphic design principles, I would make the necessary changes to my project to follow those guidelines. 

The week two and three assignments were a lot of fun but the most important lesson was about personal branding.  Your personal brand should be authentic—it should reflect your true character. It should be built on your dreams, purpose, values, uniqueness, genius, passion, specialization, characteristics, and favorite activities (August 2007). Personal branding was something that I never thought about and how important it is. I really liked the article by Marshall Goldsmith especially the quote and it will be something that I will share with others. 

I really enjoyed the group website; I was involved with four great people that worked hard on the project.  I really learned a lot from them and by creating our website.  It allowed us to use all the things that we learned in the course and put it all together.  It was great to share ideas and learn from each other the different resources that we included in our project. 

Learners do not just receive information only at the time it is given; they absorb information in many different ways, often after the fact, through reflection. The most powerful learning often happens when students self-monitor, or reflect (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 1993) (ETE, 2005) (Gerstein, 2011).  This was the most important lesson; it is something that would be beneficial to me and my students. It is a tool that I will use immediately in my classroom for my students and for my own professional growth. 

Robin Williams: The Non-Designer’s Design Book, Third Edition.

Jahn, B. (Producer) (2007). Retrieved from http://youtu.be/mF_mWi6r-9I

Goldsmith, M. (August 2007). Authentic personal branding. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm

Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (1993). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in america's schools... Portsmouth, NH: Reed Publishing.

ETE. (2005, April 28). Reflecting - the reflecting student. Retrieved from http://www.cotf.edu/ete/teacher/reflect.html

Gerstein, J. (2011, August 16). Where is reflection in the learning process? Retrieved from http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/where-is-reflection-in-the-learning-process/