ETEP 2017- 2019. Training Topics

Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship.

Reflection:

For this first area of focus I have worked with my students on the importance of behaving and acting safely on the Internet, learning good manners and appropriate online behaviors. For many of my students it was the first time they had access to technology on a regular basis on a 1: 1 device and before giving each student their Chromebook and start creating accounts and integrating them into my lessons I wanted to make sure that the internet access was secure and they could learn to begin to filter information and analyze the credibility of the sources at their disposal. For that, I have created a document called Chromebooks Agreement (Artifact 1) that we reviewed together and my students took home to sign for their parents or legal guardians. The vocabulary used in the document is simple and accessible for my 3rd Grade students and before putting it in their backpacks I made sure they could understand all the parts of that agreement.

Lesson idea:

As an idea for a lesson I liked using Adobe Spark Page to design a document that we call Our Digital Agreement (Artifact 2). Among all we contribute ideas and rules to behave online and be a good digital citizen and we created this document. My students worked in groups, each creating a rule and looking for images to share with the rest of the class in order to create a final document that included all these practices of good behavior. In this way my students learned to use Adobe Spark, a tool that we have used throughout this course to create projects, pages and videos.

Artifacts:

2. Standards and Understanding in the Digital Classroom.

Reflection:

This module has seemed very interesting to me because it has helped me to reflect on the importance of creating good digital citizens and integrating ISTE Standard -based instruction in the classroom. It has also helped me to reflect on the importance of integrating technology in my lessons in a meaningful way. Before starting to learn about all this digital content and possibilities of technology in class, my idea of using technology in class is based on choosing an App / website and then designing my lesson. With this module I have realized the importance of following the steps of the process: planning a lesson and integrating the most appropriate technological component for my content (and language) objectives. In the next module, number 3, I was able to deepen this idea using the SAMR framework and trying to take my lessons to the Modification and Redefinition levels.

Lesson idea:

I have applied many of the principles learned in this module and I have incorporated technological tools in a deep and meaningful way. I include two artifacts where evidences of this work appear with my students. This module has served me to reflect on two aspects: the importance of differentiated teaching and Student Centered learning, giving the possibility to my students to be responsible for their own learning with technology as a driving element. Before delving into these ideas I was not aware of the learning styles of my students and now I have been able to reflect on students who learn in a visual, verbal or kinesthetic way.

In this module I present ideas to integrate technology in your lessons: in Artifact 1 I have included one of the most important points for me in my class dynamics and present in each of my lessons: collaboration between my students and the possibility of learning from each other. Technology offers me a great opportunity with the use of tools such as Padlet with which my students can share their work easily and can access the work of other students. I have also introduced my students to the AR world and their possibilities for meaningful learning in class. For that we have used Quivervision to learn about science topics such as the phases of the Moon and the habitats of animals (Artifact 2).

Artifacts:

3. Integration and Application of Instructional Design.

Reflection:

Continuing with the idea of Student Centered learning, in this module I have reflected on the framework in which to locate all the technological components of my lessons and the SAMR framework has seemed very suitable for my objectives: the possibility that technology changes significantly my lessons seem fundamental to me, taking them to limits that I could not before and moving the content out of the walls of my class, being in contact with other educational communities around the world. The tools that we have learned in this module have helped me to get my lessons to levels of modification or redefinition and in the artifacts I present examples of this meaningful learning through these tools.

Lesson idea:

To create lessons using all the new Apps and websites that we have learned in this module, I have first reflected on my content objective for this lesson and then I have searched in the SAMR Graph the best option to achieve my goal of taking my teaching and learning outside the walls of my class. For that I have selected several tools that I have used with my students in various parts of my lessons. The three artifacts that I include in this section have been used with my students: Artifact 1 is a tool called Edpuzzle that is used to modify or record videos to distribute with your students, introducing questions or comments at the moments of the video you want. Artifact 2 is one of my favorites, because in my Spanish as a second language class the oral production of my students in the target language is fundamental and Flipgrid allows me to present topics to my students, record their answers and interact with them through of comments. Finally, the Artifact 3 is one of my favorite tools, called Quizizz and that allows me, with the aspect of a game, to carry out formative assessments at certain moments of my lessons.

Artifacts:

4. Problem-based and Student-centered Instruction.

Reflection:

In this module 4 I have reflected on the importance of students being responsible for their own learning and for that I have worked with two very valuable resources that I have introduced in my lessons on a regular basis: the hyperdocs and the principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The possibility that my students are the ones who direct their learning and do it at their own pace seems to me a great strategy of differentiation that I can introduce in my lessons. That is why, on a regular basis, I have been using hyperdocs to organize my lessons and that my students can do their work independently. In the artifacts of this module I present an example of an artifact that I have used with my students about countries of the world where Spanish is spoken.

Lesson idea:

Hyperdocs are a great way to organize my lessons in a meaningful way and offer the possibility of incorporating several elements that without technology would be impossible. In Artifacts 1 I present two examples of hyperdocs that I have used with my students: the first one is a lesson about countries of the world where Spanish is spoken where I have incorporated various elements such as web search, videos with questions using Edpuzzle, videos presenting information with Flipgrid, creating posters with Adobe Spark, sharing them later in Padlet and finally a formative assessment activity with Quizizz. In Artifact 2 I have developed a lesson in Spanish in which I have been able to introduce videos, articles and activities for my students from different sources to facilitate the understanding of the topic of this lesson. Finally, in Artifact 3 I present a PBL activity that I used with my 3rd Graders last year and that was very interesting and meaningful.

Artifacts:

5. Tools for thinking in the digital classroom.

Reflection:

This module has helped me to reflect on the importance of the Learning Management System (LMS) when it comes to organizing student learning. A well-organized class is essential when making the most of the resources we have at our disposal and optimizing the learning of our students. In my case, using Google Classroom has always been a very useful tool when it comes to making my lessons and providing interesting links and documents for my students. At this moment I already see Google classroom as an essential tool and my students know perfectly: they know how to look for assignments by topic, how to turn in assignments, we even use it as a communication forum. In this module I found the use of websites and digital portfolios very interesting so that my students can reflect on what they have learned and to use in the future when they are applying in their professional careers.

Lesson idea:

Continuing with the idea of the digital portfolios, it seems to me a very interesting project and my students at the end of a module can carry out a portfolio to structure their knowledge and gather all the elements they have created in the different sessions in Spanish. Google sites is a great resource that students can use because it is very simple to gather all the work they have done during a semester. For example, my students of Culture, History and Media have created a lot of assignments in Spanish during the first semester of this school year and a portfolio has been a perfect way to gather all these works that can be used in their future professionals and academics. Having used Google classroom all their links and projects are in this LMS so it was easy to access them and structure them in a Google sites.

Artifacts:

6. Inquiry in the digital classroom.

Reflection:

In this module I have found very interesting all the ideas about inquiry and how to pose challenges to our students. As a teacher, I have always liked more to provide questions than to give answers. It seems to me a great idea to look for questions with deep levels of complexity and to equip our students with tools so they can come up with a conclusion to the question posed before. Using inquiry my goal as teacher is posing a challenge because we must activate the curiosity of our students and look for topics related to their own experiences or that are interesting and motivate them to investigate and try to answer the questions that they or we pose throughout the lesson. There is nothing more exciting for a teacher than to see a motivated student looking for new resources and ask questions to answer with the proposed topic.

Lesson idea:

For this inquiry module I have decided to use hyperdocs, since I can provide my students with a resource in which to integrate different tools that they can use to answer the initial question that I propose. Hyperdocs fit my wishes to motivate the curiosity of my students and provide them with videos and web links that they can continue researching to try to answer the main question. It also seems to me very important to provide my students with collaboration tools when carrying out inquiry projects. Hyperdocs adapt to this desire, including tools such as Padlet or Mentimeter.

Artifacts:

7. Digital Age Collaboration&Communication tools.

Reflection:

This has been one of my favorite modules since I always thought of the class as a space to be in contact with the world and to tear down walls to learn from what is outside the walls of a school. I've been a great Twitter user for years and I think it offers many possibilities in the field of education since you can be in contact with many educators around the world and any search you do always finds an idea that you can use for your benefit and for the benefit of your students. This module has helped me to open my eyes and realize that I want my students to be in contact with professionals who can talk to them about different topics at specific moments, so I have been doing a lot of activities related to this idea. For example, when doing a reading about Mexican cuisine, I got in touch with a Mexican restaurant and one of their chefs talked to my students using Skype. This module opened my vision of education and has served to think about projects and communications with the outside world that help my students understand what we are talking about in the class.

Lesson idea:

As mentioned above Skype for Classroom is a great tool that we can use to be in contact with the world and invite people to talk with other students about various topics. At Christmas, I carried out a project with Brenna in which our classes had contact and shared memories and special moments of Christmas. We use many digital tools for our students to have in contact and to share moments even when they are in different schools. In the artifacts I include a Flipgrid topic with the videos of the students of the two classes.

Artifacts:

8. Learning and assessment.

Reflection:

This module has helped me to reflect on the importance of the assessments in the learning process and to incorporate new ideas to use with my students and to know if they are understanding the content that I am trying to teach them through language. In my case, formative assessments are very important since I need to know at all times that my students are understanding the information I want to transmit in a second language. Technology is fundamental when it comes to continuing the learning process or doing more activities related to the main topic because the data shows that my students are not understanding the content. I found Google Forms really interesting to give a voice to our students so they can share with me and with the rest of the class their ideas about certain topics we are talking about in class.

Lesson idea:

Using formative assessment at different times in the lesson seems fundamental to me and we should not wait until the end of the lesson to evaluate our students about their knowledge. Technology offers us incredible tools when proposing to our students different moments of evaluation, whether formal or informal. On many occasions students can help other students in these evaluation processes since conversations are fundamental in this process and they can share their knowledge with each other. For example to practice their skills in Spanish, these informal moments and physical activities that demonstrate the knowledge of certain topics of the class is fundamental. This module has helped me to include tools such as Google Forms so my students can express their opinion.

Artifacts:

9. Innovation and creativity.

Reflection:

In this last module of the ETEP I have been able to reflect on the importance of incorporating new techniques to my work as a teacher since I always like to go ahead and provide my students with tools and topics so that they can think outside the limits established by the curriculum. It has been very interesting to be able to learn from different projects that I can incorpore in my class and that can make my teaching more interactive and applicable to the real world. A student is engaged with the content if they can use it for their own world and if they can identify it as something habitual in their lives. The part dedicated to digital storytelling has been really useful since as a second language teacher it is fundamental that my students can express themselves using this language. I have used tools like Adobe Spark post several times so that my students can summarize the lessons they have learned in the class, especially at the end of a module or a semester content.

Lesson idea:

An idea that I have used in my Culture, History and Media was a video contest, so they recorded each one or in groups videos with content we have learned in class. We have talked about the Discovery and the Colonization of America and I proposed my students that they could create videos explaining to an extraterrestrial how was this historical process. My students have used Adobe Spark video to create their videos but first they have written their scripts, they have reflected on the content they want to include in their videos, they have selected the photos that fit their content and the music they want for their videos. Then they have shared the links of their videos on a Google slide and everyone has been able to see the videos of other students choosing their favorites.