Reflections

Reflections
Module 1

     I was especially pleased to read how the new teachers in various universities are being educated.  Their curriculum included technology  training for integration in the classroom.  I wish we had been taught that when I went to school.  It is a lot harder now to learn it while teaching and preparing lessons, grading, etc.  I am somewhat computer savvy; I can use e-mail, word processing, Smart board,  power point, to name a few things I can do.  I just find it hard to find the time to integrate it into the curriculum. As an art teacher I use the Internet as a virtual museum to add art history to my lesson plans.  I only have one computer in the room so to have the children actively engaged in a tech lesson I would need the use of a smart board or video conferencing.  Unfortunately, I am not sure how to find the information I need to do so. 

     I don’t own a PDA but after reading the chapter on this device it seems like a great tool.  Almost something you would see in a Star Trek episode.  As I read the description of what it could do I know it seemed that it was making work easier but to me it seemed a little overwhelming.  I e-mail myself from work  with thoughts and ideas I need for the classroom.  This allows me to open it up and work on it at home without having to upload the same info from my PDA.   I like technology but I don’t want to be consumed by it or have it replace the human interaction that we all need.

Module 2

     This Module was informative. It asked me to think about topics that I really had taken for granted. My school uses programs and web sites that have been approved by the technology department. Rarely at our students age, are they asked to surf the web, remember my students are 4 and 5 years old. However I need to be aware of what students are doing at the upper grade levels as well. As an art teacher, you never know if your teaching assignment will change. I like the idea of asking the students to review and evaluate web sites because it makes them realize that not everything they see on the web is the truth. There may be a hidden agenda in what a site is telling the student. As the year begins it is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate with the students how to evaluate a web site and discuss cyber ethics as well as the districts AUP. In my school we have a very limited ability to surf the web. I am always asking for web sites to be unblocked for visual content. There are times when a web site is unblocked but the graphics remain blocked. As an art teacher, it is the graphics which are more important to me than the text. I believe there are different web log ins that open up more of the web to individuals but I haven't been able to persuade the powers that be to do that for me. This year I have joined the Tech Committee at school. We are attending various workshops to better understand the new technology the district has and how to implement it in the classrooms. I am then one of 3 who will mentor teachers who would like to implement technology but are unsure how to go about it. I am still VERY new at this but I hope that I can continue to mentor teachers as I become more secure with the tech. knowledge. In many ways this practice reflects some of the readings in our text book.


Module 3

     I have been fortunate to have a very tech savvy brother.  He works in the television and film industry as a post production editor.  He loves to keep me updated with all the new bells and whistles in the day to day tech world.  His influence has generated my own desire to try and stay current in the tech world.  Unfortunately, we lost our computer lab teacher 4 years ago due to budget cuts and as such I have become the “go to person” in the building to help out with computer problems.  However, technology changes rapidly and I need to try and stay current.  That is why I took this class and why I am involved in the Tech. Leadership program for the district.  I attend monthly district meetings on various topics and then we have meetings at the building level to address the needs specific to our school.  I expect to continue in this endeavor for the rest of the school year and in the future.  I am still learning and have got a ways to go and I recognize that there is a lot of information out there and technology can be used in a variety of different ways.  It’s my goal to become proficient over time in this field.

Module 4

     The readings in this Module were interesting.  Imposing state standards and assessments on students has some value.  The chapter entitled “Toward Genuine Accountability,” gave very clear principals on how the system of doing so should be judged.  Most importantly they assessment needs to be real and allow for a partnership of trust the chapter spoke about.  For students need to excel teachers need to be held accountable for their education.  Therefore, there has to be an element of trust between the state, the teacher and the student and some flexibility to allow the teachers to have some control as to how the standards are applied.  The student also has to see some value in what they are learning and that ties into project based learning. Structuring a math, science and art project such as the design of a future school found in our text book, is one such project based assignment.  Students working collaboratively with other students and experts in the field of architecture demonstrate knowledge in these areas rather than a grade on a quiz that is discarded after it is taken.   Assessment needs to focus on a deeper level of understanding if we want our students to advance their critical thik skills.  If we are teaching our students bo memorize and regurgitate facts than there is no need for alternative assessment.  However, if we want them to use higher thinking skills than the assessment has to reflect the level at which we  want them to learn.  It seems that most of our reading are on the middle school and high school level.  I would like to see some directed to the elementary school level.

Module 5

     This Module looks at the use of multimedia use by students and teachers in the classroom.  I have used Power Point in my classroom to show the students various artists and styles of art.  I do not have a smart board so they have to look at a computer monitor for the images.  Unfortunately, these images are difficult to see on a small screen.  If I had a school with a computer lab I would ask the students to look at various artists and their styles, do a power point presentation on an artist of their choice and then we would create art based upon their findings. We are conducting a video conference nest week with the Center for Puppetry and will be creating puppets with them during the conference.  We have work to complete before the conference and we will use what we have made during the conference.  There is not a lot of video conferencing out there yet that incorporates art at the primary level.  I think that will change as time passes and funding for school trips is cut and video conferencing takes the place of an actual field trip.

Module 6

    The topic of this Module is Technology Integrated Lessons.  It would be great if all of our lessons could incorporate technology.  My only concern is the amount of time that such a unit might take up when considering the amount of curriculum a teacher is required to cover.  If you are working with a class that has a history of working with technology then you don’t have to teach them how to create power point presentations or publishing documents to a website.  However, if they have very little experience than the time to teach the technology cuts into the curriculum time.  This is why having a computer lab is so important in schools.  The lab instructor in collaboration with the classroom teacher can work together to create a unit that effectively incorporates   technology.  In our school the lab facilitator retired 4 years ago and the district has not replaced her.  Classes rarely use the lab opting instead to use the computers in their room instead.  How well tech. Can be integrated also depends on how much it is valued by the district.


Module 7

I found that the textbook readings were informative and insightful as it pertains to the emotional maturity of our students. I just wondered why those readings were selected to compliment the module on Excel and spreadsheets. I do not have Excel on my computer and cannot create a spreadsheet on my own because our computers don’t have the program installed.
As an art teacher I probably won’t have any use for spreadsheets in the classroom. Perhaps in the upper grades, middle school or high school there might be an occasion for use when students are studying art history. For example, they could study the relationship between economic times and the proliferation of art.
This week we were required to attend a 3 hour work shop on Crisis Prevention and Intervention. This workshop was geared towards educators to teach us how to disarm a potentially violent situation. Much of what we learned was to handle a situation that had already escalated to the point of some sort of acting out behavior. At no point did we discuss, with specific examples, how to create an environment similar to those in the text book reading. Years ago we were taught a crisis prevention program called “Second Step.” This program was aimed at K-2 students giving them valuable lessons in emotional intelligence. I have found that teachers are not using the program as much as they first did. The demands of the Kindergarten curriculum have increased and this program is getting squeezed out. If there was more attention to the discussion of feelings and discussing alternatives to contrived situations perhaps the need for Crisis Intervention programs would be lessened. I was encouraged to learn that Emotional Intelligence isn’t just acquired as a young child but continues throughout our lives. We will need to relate to each other, manage relationships and manage our feelings as we go through life in different situations. As adults we can continue to learn how to handle these better and with more maturity as we age.

Module 8

Making Connections Between Home and School is the title and focus of the reading for this module.  This is and has been the focus of on going discussions each year at my school and in my district.  My district’s student population closely resembles the Sherman Oaks Community Charter School with eighty percent of the students coming from Latino families.  This factor alone presents us with language and culture obstacles not found in our surrounding districts.  Many years ago our teachers would make home visits to the student and their families before school started.  It was discontinued.  Some of the suggestions in the readings were valid.  I especially liked having the school remain open for parents to come in and use some of the resources available, such as access to the computers.  We provide instruction in a bi-lingual class to help the children retain their native language while continuing to learn English.  Our communications are always sent home in both English and Spanish but it is interesting how other outside sources provide us with only English documents.  I have had to ask twice in the last month for Spanish translations of release forms for art competitions because they parents would not be able to read the documents.  Our PTA meetings are well attended by both teachers and parents.  We provide a headset for translations so all can understand what is transpiring. We have a back to school function, a BBQ where the whole district is invited to participate. On the  first day of school the attend school with their parents for the first hour.  Several times a year  we have functions where the parents are invited to attend with their children.   I think we probably could do more but we are differently on the right track.

Module 9

When my son and daughter were in their senior year in high school they participated in a program design to give them experience in a field that they were interested in.  This internship connected school to business in a way similar to the readings in the text book.  My daughter interned at a local school with the speech pathologist on staff.  She interned for 10 hours a week for a semester.  As a result of this internship she attended SUNY New Paltz and majored in communication disorders.  In the fall she  will be attending graduate school to get her degree in speech pathology.  Her internship gave her the experience that directed her life.  My son also did an internship as a video editor in New York City.  He is a sophomore and is deciding that perhaps it’s not for him.  His decision, if he decides not to enter that field, will be made confidently since he has had prior experience.  I think the more connection student s can make to the real world the more understanding they will have when they enter the work force.

I also wanted to comment on the iEARN chapter.  I think it’s a great  way to show the students how small they world is and that we are all connected. I see that there are many different ways a class can collaborate on various projects from art, music, writing, etc. I was not familiar with this at all and would like to take a closer look at it and see how my school can participate.

Overall Reflection of the Course

I have learned a lot in the modules we have completed thus far.  Some of the information, though interesting, does not have a place in the art room.  However, there is information and applications that have been helpful.  I like the ability to create a survey using SurveyMonkey.  It’s easy to use and has many practical applications for building use and information gathering.  The biggest problem is getting people to answer the survey.    Video conferencing with various museums as well as creating art with artists through a conference is exciting.  I’ve tried both and the kids love it.  They get the idea that it’s not a TV but interactive.  To further this understanding I would like to get involved with iEARN so they understand that there are people in other countries and places that may think they  way they do, encouraging them from an early age to think globally.

I like the idea of creating multimedia presentations and if I had older children I would have them research a time period, a style or an artist and create a presentation for the class.  If possible, I could create a virtual portfolio for the children to save their artwork for the future and show the progression of their talent.

In a world with Myspace, Tweeter, Facebook and other sites that allow discussion of personal topics, I think all children should be taught about cyberethics and cyberbullying.  We don’t have anything in our building concerning this and at our next tech meeting I am going to bring this up.