Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes identified in the standards
a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
Students in my algebra 1b class like to get up and move around rather than just sit in one spot. I created an assignment for Introduction to technology in schools that focused on something I always do with my students, practice the material, but in a new way. During this assignment students will use QR codes to navigate through a scavenger hunt of problems to practice. This project incorporates the use of a personal device such as a phone or tablet. This promotes student learning as well because they are getting practice with the material but also if they get an answer wrong, they will not be able to move on because they will not find their answer on another QR code sheet and will be forced to go back and review and revise what they did. This will give me a chance to review with the students about misconceptions before they move on to other problems.
Artifact: QR Code Scavenger Hunt
I worked with students who were getting credits through a self-paced program. These students had to learn through a program that gave them notes in one way, written on a computer screen. I found that many students found it hard to learn math this way. I decided to create videos of the lessons that students could watch to get the material they needed for the lesson. They logged on to a website called Crazy for Education and they would register for my class using a code and watch the corresponding video to their lesson. This allowed the students to work and learn at their own pace but using the computer to watch videos to do so. This promoted student learning because they did not have to wait on me to explain what they were doing or not understanding and instead could watch the video and then ask for clarification if needed.
Artifact: Crazy for Education Video
b. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
I always encourage my students to try to discover how to do something or find something on their own or with a partner before consulting me. One tool I really love for that is a website call Khan Academy. This site has videos and practice problems on almost any math concept you would want to know about. Students can just go to the site, search for the concept they are wanting to know more about and find the videos and practice pages to assist them with their goals.
Artifact: Khan Academy
Students in my geometry class will be tasked with the project to create a page for a website that showcases a certain parallelogram. The students are given a rubric to follow so they can set their own goals for the project and what they want the page to look like and how they would like it to operate. They can also use the rubric to assess their progress on the project while they work on it to manage their own learning.
Artifact: Types of Quadrilaterals project
c. Custonmize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
During my time in this program, I found that having a project be personalized was easier than I had originally thought. This gave me the idea about creating projects for my students that had set guidelines and material it needed to have but to let them be creative with the project. For example, during intermediate web development, all of our projects had specific criteria but we could be as creative as we wanted to be with the finished project. The artifact I have is a web page where the criteria was to embed a song, a couple of videos and a picture slide show, other than that we could be as creative as we wanted. I decided to make a Christmas webpage.
Artifact: Christmas Webpage
Students in my algebra II class are tasked with a project to create a cereal box that keeps the volume of the original box in the problem but creates less surface area. They are able to go with any solid shape they desire and use any presentation tool they want to showcase their final product. This project allows students to be creative and use whatever resources they find they like best.
Artifact: Cereal Box Assessment
d. Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
I have loved exploring different ways of assessing my students that do not involve the standard paper and pencil test or quiz. I have been using Kahoot! which is a trivia game that students use their own devices to answer questions created by me, the teacher. They are awarded points for correct answers. The questions do not move in a continuous strand so that I have time to go over a question or give the students time to reflect. I also get a data sheet on what student got what question wrong and how many students got each question wrong so that I know what I need to reteach.
Artifact: Kahoot!
During my algebra classes, I started to assign the class a Quizizz for homework during certain points of the lessons. A Quiziz is set up like a game where students answer questions and are given a meme to show whether they got the questions right, so they know right away how they performed. I also get a feedback sheet of everyone that has taken the quiz and which questions they got right or wrong. I can also set up the quiz to send the students to different questions based on their answers. I could even have them watch a video of how to solve the problem and have them re answer the question or another one similar to it. I will also use this information to adjust my lesson for the next day if I find that I need to reteach one or more concepts.
Artifact: Quizzizz