Please post your responses to the reading questions below. Be sure to include your name at the end so that I will know who responded.

Roy Campa -

Discussion Interactive WhiteBoards

Klien ISD is using the interactive whiteboard to enhance the students learning.  The students at Klien are now the teacher because they post their assignment to a website and teach it to their peers.  The attention now revolves around the students using the technology.  Classrooms at Klien ISD are slowly becoming student centered instead of teacher dominant.  The key to this success is professional development for teachers and principal support. 

A technology that we are using at Munoz Elementary is interactive wireless slates and Response Units.  With the inception of this new tools the teacher have now become more mobile.  In my experience there are students that are shy and won't work on a problem in front of the classroom.  The idea behind the slate and the clicker is to allow students to work from their desks which in most cases our students gain more confidence.  The response units generate reports on quizes and allows the teacher to reteach if necessary.  With the wireless slates our students are becoming more productive because they can now contorl the lesson by creating thier own ideas about any given subject.  The response units allow teachers more insturction time because they don't have to grade as often. 

Whiteboards

By allowing students to use the whiteboards to teach others and coordinate their group work, Klein ISD has changed the way whiteboards are being perceived.  Teachers are no longer the center of instruction, rather lessons are now being presented by classmates who become knowledgeable in an area and are able to teach others what they learned. 

In my classroom, I have used PowerPoint presentations, at a kindergarten level, to present a rhyming lesson.  After students have mastered the objective, they are responsible for creating several slides and presenting them to the class.  Students work in pairs to develop their sets of rhyming words, add pictures and be able to present to the class in a way that shows true understanding of the concept. -Gaby Torres

Video Responses

• What are the advantages to teaching units as these teachers do?
  • The adavantages to this style of teaching is that all of will have 100% of students engaged in real world learning.
  • Diversified groups that will self teach and learn
  • Creates higher level learning skills.
  • Self grading by rubrics.
• What are some disadvantages that you can see to teaching this way?
  • The disadvantages to this style of teaching is that some students will not participate and allow other students to the work.
  • Disabled students not having the approriate assistive technology to fully participate with group discussions.
  • Not enough time for project completion. 
• What are some challenges you will face as you attempt to develop this type of lesson?
  • A challenge we will face is time constraints for completing all projects.
  • Proper Planning before the inception fo the lesson.
  • keep the projects student centered and not teacher centered
• What types of resistance will you face in developing lessons like those in the videos (yours, other teachers, administrators?
  • My point of view is to create a well organized thoughtout lesson without giving up midway.  Refining the lesson through the years.
  • Other Teachers might become annoyed with the level of excitement of student engagement; your class is to loud, can you tone it down.
  • Most administrators may not be familiar with constructivism teachers and may restrict you from continuing with your lessons. 
• In developing a project-based lesson, how can you adapt it to meet state standards?
  • Make sure you look over the TEKS for the subject that you are covering. 
  • Align your curriculum with state standards or even natinonal standards. 
  • Make sure you look over student proficiencies for technology TEKS to adapt technology integration into the lesson.

 Video

The advantages of teaching units as these teachers do is that this eventually becomes a truly student centered evnironment.  Students become more and more responsible for their learning as the teacher's role becomes that of facilitator and guide.  The project becomes something they truly become interested in, so they are highly motivated to do their best work.  Students learn to work with others, and develop teamworking skills, they will eventually use in the working world.

The only disadvantage to teaching this way is that this is a process that takes time to perfect, from both the teacher's and student's side.  Getting to the ideal environment will probably take time because students and teachers are molded to accomplish tasks in a set way. 

In trying to develop a lesson like this one, where students work in groups to develop their own lessons and teachers offer only guidance and direct students in the right direction, you will probably encounter resistance from all directions.  Teachers and administrators who have not been exposed to this type of learning environment, will probably have great doubts of its effectiveness and efficiency.  It's difficult for teachers to drastically change their way of thinking and developing a lesson, from being in charge to letting students determine their own pace of learning.  Some teachers really believe that they are the sole source of knowledge and really doubt their students can be capable of being successful in this type of learning environment.  A project-based lesson, like any lesson, can be designed to meet state standards with proper planning.  Once a teacher determines what the learning objectives and standards are, he/she can guide students in the right direction.  The teacher is already aware of what she wants her students to accomplish, all students are responsible for is the end product.  -Gaby Torres

Response to Unit on Percentages in Mrs. Garcias math class.

1.      Explain why the use of spreadsheet software and Internet proposed by the teacher would be appropriate and effective for enhancing this activity.

The spreadsheet software and Internet proposed by Mrs. Garcia for the unit on percentages for students to share their knowledge and creativity.  The reason why the spreadsheet and internet are an excellent tool are as followed:

a.       The spreadsheet can be used in Microsoft Excel.

b.      Excel allows student to input data in different formats such as

                                                              i.      Text

                                                            ii.      Alpha Numeric

                                                          iii.      Numeric

c.       Excel allows students to use different math functions such as:

                                                              i.      Sum

                                                            ii.      PMT

                                                          iii.      IPMT

                                                          iv.      INT

d.      Excel allows students to adjust fonts and create graphs and tables.

e.       The internet allows students to research different companies to allow for comparisons between the local dealership national dealerships.

2.      Describe one additional technology available to the teacher and how that technology can be effectively integrated into the lesson;

As the MTT, I would recommend several different resources that Mrs. Garcia could effectively and efficiently use to integrate technology into the lesson. An additional technology that Mrs. Garcia can use is Graphing Calculator to verify amounts and percentages.

a.       Students will use the graphing calculator to verify data collected and analyzed in spreadsheet software. 

b.      Students will be able to work in small groups due to the lack of 1 to 1 ratio on computers.

c.       All students will be able to work on course material simultaneously.

3.      Explain why this technology would be appropriate and effective for enhancing this activity.

I believe that the spreadsheet software and internet are appropriate for enhancing this activity because of the collaboration of ideas between students and the facilitator.  Students ask detailed, refined, and appropriate questions, by engaging with other students by debating, predicting, and collecting data.  Students are engaged with real world problems and solutions.  These are the reasons why I believe that by integrating spreadsheet software and internet into the lesson will be appropriate and effective.

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Use of Interactive Whiteboard in Class

In my opinion, the key to their success was a commitment of the whole district to effect a thorough change throughout the district. They had a comprehensive plan that they implemented incrementally. They had extensive teacher instruction and modeled the expected teacher behavior. They followed up with weekly reinforcement through lesson plan review that caused the teachers to reflect on their pedagogy. It was not a directive from above that the administration and teacher paid lip service to.

The interactive whiteboard is not the center of the classroom, nor is it used by all of the students at once, but it is used a small group center while other groups are using more traditional technologies such as textbooks and computers. The Results of the samall groups is a authentic finished product that is posted to the web and in some cases used as instructional material in peer to peer learning. The teacher now has the role of mentor and the students are responsible for their own learning.

In my own classroom, I must admit that I use my Smartboard in a more traditional teacher-centered way. I had not considered using it as a center in small groups. I will have to realign my thinking.

I have used a video cameras and word-processing in my Spanish classes where students write recopies from English into Spanish then present a cooking demonstration to the class. They then took the recipes and made a bilingual cookbook and edited and created a CD of their presentations. If I were to do this project today, I would have them post their presentation videos on the school website and link to other cooking sites and invite the public to share their favorite recipies.

Module 2 Videos

• What are the advantages to teaching units as these teachers do?
  • The learning is very student centered and authentic. It allows students to have some responsibility for their own learning and to see the relevancy of what they learn in their own lives.
• What are some disadvantages that you can see to teaching this way?
  • It is expensive and time consuming. It requires a commitment from not only the teacher, but the administrators and the parents. All of the adults must see the value of this learning style and accept that their children and students will learn more than they would in traditional teacher centered learning. The adults must not panic and fret in a test based education system that they will look bad or lose funding if some of their students do not pass the state achievement tests.
• What are some challenges you will face as you attempt to develop this type of lesson?
  • Convincing the administration that this is an effective means of teaching and will cause students to be interested in school and, more importantly, that their TAAKS grades not only won’t suffer, but will improve. (Has that been determined to be true? I must admit that student centered learning is counter intuitive to a system that is oriented towards rewarding students that achieve on a traditional standardized test. What about remediation and preparing special populations and at risk students for the state standardized tests? If you can’t answer that question, you’re out of the game.)
• What types of resistance will you face in developing lessons like those in the videos (yours, other teachers, administrators?
  • Expense and liability of field trips.
  • State standardized test preparation.
  • Time for teacher education and training in the efficacy and benefit of student centered learning and group projects.
  • Time for teachers to reflect and retool their lessons and syllabus that they have found to work for years in a high pressure environment.
• In developing a project-based lesson, how can you adapt it to meet state standards?
  •  

 Bill Young