Hannalee's+445+Wiki+Workspace

__EP Status Reports__

11-14-16 I did not do any work from last week because I have been working on my unit plan. But if I could go back, I would have begun working on my knowledge section of the portfolio which includes the content classes I have taken with artifacts of my work. I would have done the education, SS, and ELA classes separately with annotations of each class. I would have aligned my pages with my theme and make it look pretty and easy to navigate.

11-7-16 I have done nothing new since last week. But if I could go back, I would have started uploading my various philosophies that I wrote over the years. I would have written up my five beliefs concerning teaching and learning. I would have searched for evidence of field work and student samples- the things I have created with students to track learning.

10-31-16 My Electronic Portfolio has a theme now! I am going to do sunflowers/gardener/plants themed. I have begun to write a little excerpt about myself on the front page with a picture of me. I would like to begin working on the other pages of my portfolio. I need to add my experiences (field work) and my knowledge (classes I took with artifacts).

__Digital Video Reflection__

I am going to rent a camera from METRC a week before I plan to video record my lessons for edTPA. I will set it up in the classroom a week before as well, so that the students will get use to having it there and will get out all their silliness when I am not actually recording. At the beginning of the semester, I will pass out a permission sheet for parents to sign, asking them if their child can be recorded. This will help me know when setting up the camera, if I will need to avoid certain students or not. I will set the camera up in the corner of the room, unless I need to avoid a student. In that case, I will set the camera up where I can see the most of the room and still avoid those students who did not get permission. I would like to have moving shots of me interacting with kids, and I would like to have zoomed in shots. I will try and set the camera up purposefully so that some days I can have zoomed in shots of my target students, and other days, I can have the camera moving (this would involve my cooperating teacher actually moving the camera around which may not be the best plan). One idea that I had for integrating digital video into my ELA classroom right now would be to have students do a video scavenger hunt. Most of the students I am with now have iPhones, so we could partner up the students and have them go throughout the school (is this allowed?) and record themselves looking and finding whatever I prompted them with. For example, they could go searching for symbolism, sentence modifiers, or hyperboles.

I have posted one Language Today post on Twitter, and I have six more to do. I could use Language Today in my own teaching by having students search for articles on that feed to annotate and respond to though different forms of writing.

I love the idea of a video scavenger hunt. I can't see any issue with allowing students to go through school and videotape as long as they didn't record any students in their videos who didn't have permission slips to be recorded. I think having students use tools that are daily accessible to them helps "repurpose" those things for educational uses and allows students to see the relevancy of content to daily lives.

__Action Portfolio Entry__

3 Takeaways: //Electronic Portfolios 2.0// 1) The visual design and theme of a portfolio should reflect you professionally and personally (page 183). This stuck out to me because it is easy with any assignment to just follow the rubric mechanically and include only what the professor asks for. A portfolio, however, should show personality. It should be distinct and express who an individual is. Also, it is important to realize that a portfolio should not only include who one is professionally or who they want to be, but it should reflect who one is as a human. This includes interests, hobbies, and values. Who you are will affect how you teach. 2) Visuals carry themes that can be used to tie the whole portfolio together (page 184). Using similar images throughout the portfolio will help unite all the pieces. I would like to do this for my portfolio. It definitely will help all my pieces of evidence point in the same direction. 3) Being able to reflect is a skill that must be taught and scaffolded (page 189). This stuck out to me because I definitely believe I can improve my reflections, but I also need help to grow. Young's thoughts about reflecting multiple times on the same thing, and then reflecting on your reflecting seemed overdone. However, that might just be what I need.

I would like to do an electronic portfolio. The purpose of a portfolio is to show your growth as a pre-service teacher, your values, and evidence of your skill sets. The audience would be potential employers. Some possible categories could be lesson/unit plans, philosophies of teaching, strategies for teaching literacy to middle schoolers, and evidence of field work. Themes that show who I am as a teacher and as Hannalee could include my belief that students have something to give (I am not the keeper of all knowledge) and my belief that all students are valuable.

I like how you picked up on two main components of portfolios: design and themes that show personality. I think having a theme (like the example of the blueprint) does a really good job at helping your audience conceptualize who you are. I think you make a valid point about the multiple reflections being overdone; however, I guess it's not fair to make an assessment until you try it. I also think reflecting on your reflecting has a lot to do with metacognition and making sure your reflection is effective. So that could be an approach that could yield different insights.

__Initial Ideas about MSL Electronic Portfolio or Teaching Toolkit__

I would like to do an electronic portfolio, mostly because I have been working on mine since freshman year. I have documented all of my work, papers, philosophies, and unit/lesson plans there. Electronic portfolios do not have to be websites necessarily, but I think a website is a great tool to show off one's work and personality. I have no idea what a Teaching Toolkit would include, and I could not find anything about it on the Moodle or Wiki website. The purpose of an electronic portfolio would be to show a potential boss one's beliefs, abilities, and accomplishments. This will give the boss an idea of what you are like and what you will bring into his school, such as your giftings. A teaching toolkit, I am guessing, has a purpose to provide a teacher with tools for his class. These tools are collected by the teacher over the years and recorded somewhere for use. The audience for an electronic portfolio would be an employer, while the audience for a teaching toolkit would be the teacher who created it and other teachers who want to get ideas for their own class. Possible categories for an electronic portfolio would be philosophies, research, unit/lesson plans, and documented teaching (video or accounts of experience). Possible categories for teaching toolkits might be divided into content, such as subjects to teach. It could be divided into grade level, such as 6th or 7th grade.

I think a portfolio is an awesome way to promote yourself during an interview. What are some of the "tabs" on your electronic portfolio website that you would like to use to break up the content? What categories would you want to include on there?

"10 Surprising Ways to Use Instagram in the Classroom" - Hannah Hudson "Editorial: Approaching Technology in English Education from a Different Perspective" - Melanie Shoffner "Editorial: Enhancing English Language Arts Education with Digital Video" - Carl Young

I really liked the idea of using Instagram to publish student work. Publishing student work is really important to me because it shows students that I value their ideas and creations. Also, by expressing their work to others, they realize that their voice and ideas can shape others and the community. It is powerful. I also loved how Hudson said teachers could have students pretend to be historic figures and use Instagram to describe their life. Students will benefit from this activity because one needs to be able to step into the shoes of others to learn empathy. This is an important skill for life success.

In Shoffner's article, this concept of ELA teachers changing how we view literacy stuck out to me. "Such thinking is reinforced by their conceptions of literacy as traditional print literacy. Without an understanding of literacy as multiple, integrated social and intellectual practices for meaning making, preservice teachers can easily dismiss technology as unnecessary to their teaching and their students’ learning" (page 2). It is true that as technology has expanded, different literacies have as well. Teachers need to help students engage with technology and become masters of it, so that they will be able to communicate with the world and share their own ideas. My question is, how can teachers guide students through technological literacies if the students are better at using technology than the teachers are? What can teachers give students concerning technology that they do not already know?

Young, Long, and Myers explored the introduction and use of film in the classroom. What interested me was that educators in general are slow to accept new technologies as valuable as old texts. Popular culture cannot be higher culture or high art is the eyes of educators. There is not much reason for this. There is a misconception that if something is hard to attain, it is rigorous and valuable for learning. However, the fact is that easily accessible and simple methods can be useful for student learning and should be engaged by teachers. How can we change this mindset? How can new teachers stay faithful to the research and methods learned in college and not sink back into this mindset? How can new teachers influence the mindset of the school they enter in to teach?

Good, thorough reflection on the readings. I really like your focus on publishing student work and I think Instagram is a super cool tool to do that with. What might be some other tools? Can you think of any other groups of people you would want to share student work with (aka - how public?)? I also think you bring up a good point about students already having mastered technology and teachers knowing less than them; however, we have talked a lot about a learning environment in which students and teachers learn from each other - I don't see why this can't be one of the areas in which students are able to take the lead, share their expertise, bring in different tools, create guides, etc. Finally, I love how remaining faithful to your core beliefs as a teacher and not falling back into teacher-centered traditional methods is something on your mind. Have you thought of any ways to keep yourself accountable with this?

I planned to go to the first edTPA session, and I did. It was on September 1, and it focused on Task 1.

__[|Online Professional Identity Video] __

Seminar 1 Prep Reading Response

"An Educator's Social Media Guide" (or "What I Wish I had Known Before I Wasted 5 Years Not Knowing How to Use Twitter to Grow") by Aaron Hogan

Aaron is encouraging educators to grow a support team. We all need people to challenge us and support us in our professional growth. He explains that we can find that group online! Twitter is a tool where we can connect to people of passion who will give us ideas and who we can share ideas with. He outlines how to use Twitter in order to form this support team because it was the "how" that stopped him from engaging in the online community earlier. I really enjoyed his post! I did not know how to use Twitter for the benefit of my growth as a teacher. He gave links to help us understand. I think community and collaboration is vital to learning, and the fact that we can do that online now is so cool!

I definitely agree with you about community and collaboration, and sometimes it's hard to do as a first year teacher when you feel isolated in your classroom. Seeking out those ways to connect with people in your school and online will definitely help you keep your head above water! Have you found any online support systems that you can use yet?

"Instant Message, Instant Girlfriend" by Roger Hobbs

This article was shocking. It is amazing how big and connected our world is now through technology. So much goes on behind computer screens and cellphones now. Being aware that the interactions of the class are a lot more than just what I see can help me in guiding the students. It is important to teach them that, like Hobbs said, "The Internet is not a separate place a person can go to from the real world. The Internet is the real world. Only faster." I am not only teaching students the curriculum. I am teaching them life skills and how to live in a relational world. If I can give them awareness of the power of words, the consequences for our actions, and the value of other human beings, it will bleed into their social media lives. Because students use so much of social media, it will probably need to be talked about just as often as I discuss life with them.

I really like your ideas about the life lessons that will potentially affect how they interact on social media, and I particularly appreciate how you note that talking about social media is inevitable in your classroom. With it being such a big part of students' lives, we have a responsibility to talk about what takes up the majority of their days. What are some activities or ways in which you would like to teach those lessons in your class?

Online Professional Identity Takeaway

I realized that I saw my social media as a benefit for me to keep connected with people, but I not as a tool to show my professional identity. All of my social media sites are on private because I do not trust people. This makes it difficult to show off my good professional skills though. I will need to brainstorm ways to express who I am professionally to the world online and yet stay safe. I have a Facebook account which is set to private so that the public eye can only see my profile pictures and background picture. I do not plan on making Facebook public, but I do plan on writing up a professional excerpt about education that anyone will be able to read. My twitter account is not private, and I recently changed my username to my full name so people can find it if they look me up. I will use this professionally. I do not plan to join any other organizations for professional use, however, I may join Instagram to connect to my future students. This would be beneficial because I've heard students use instagram a ton these days. It would be good to connect with them on a level they are comfortable and integrate educational content and themes.

I think you make a good point about the different uses for social media. What sites are you a part of now that are private? Do you plan on changing them and making them public or creating professional accounts? Are there any new "organizations" you'd like to join online? Why do you think those would benefit you professionally? Please add more detail.