It has been way too long since I posted a new entry! I have been so busy with our ICP assignment! Since I presented my project tonight (wheeew) I can start blogging again! I thought my presentation went fairly well. I do wish I had more time because Digital Storytelling is such a wonderful and extensive topic to talk about. I hope everyone was able to have a better understanding of the role digital storytelling has in developing 21st century skills.
Tonight we had our first set of presenters and I think everyone did a fantastic job! I learned so much information I did not know. For example, Steve enlightened me on all the different uses a digital whiteboard (SmartBoards) can be used for. Heather did a fantastic job illustrating how different type of microblogging tools can be used in the classroom. I cannot wait to try to incorporate some sort of microblogging into my classroom. I'm am definitely looking forward to next week's presenters!
I created the online quiz, "United States Capitals", using the MyStudiyo.com website. I thought this website was more visually appealing than proprof.com so I decided I was use it to make my quiz. I created an account which took all of 20 seconds- loved it! There were many templates to choose from and I chose one that was more universal. What I really enjoyed about MyStudiyo.com is having the ability to add a movie or picture to the quiz. For example, I have a picture of the United States for the title of my quiz. Then after each United State capital question, I inserted that states' flag. For example, I have the New York Flag for the question that asks,"what is the capital of New York?"
I am glad I created this quiz and was able to learn about this website. When I become I teacher, I will certainly use this website in my teachings. Here's my United States Capital Quiz. See if you know some of your United States Capitals :)
On a scale from 1(worst) - 10 (best), I give Engrade.com an 8.5. No matter what content area a teacher specializes in, Engrade.com can assist educators with their gradekeeping, attendance, announcing upcoming events, and allowing teacher-student messaging. Any teacher will find it time consuming to use their gradeslider to find what the grade would be for a student who scored 17 points out of a possible 40 on a Math test. Then the teacher must take that grade and input it in her/his gradebook. At the end of the quarter, the teacher must add up all the Math grades and come up with an average. For one student, this may take a total of five minutes, possibly. Now multiple that by 150 students! A teacher may spend up to 12.5 hours computing a classes' quarter grade. That is insane! It's no wonder why some teachers are burnt-out by their second year of teaching. With Engrade.com, cut the 12.5 hours down to one possible hour, max! I believe Engrade.com is a wonderful software program teachers can utilize which will ultimately save them precious teaching time and sleep!
Engrade.com is an user-friendly software. You do not have to be extremely fluent with technology in order to understand how to use it. It is really quite simple. I find the physical layout of the program welcoming and non-intimidating as well. I believe teachers who are hesitant at first to utilize this program in their teaching will definitely consider using it due to its welcoming appearance.
The features it has to offer can be helpful for teachers who are willing to utilize them. I believe giving students and parent’s online access to grades, assignment scores, attendance, upcoming events, and teacher-student messaging is a wonderful perk of this program. The teacher must set the student up with a "unique secret access number" which will permit the student to enter the website. This will allow students to see what assignments they may be missing without asking the teacher numerous times. Also, this will allow students who are absent to see what they've missed. Parents can benefit from this program by monitoring what their child should be doing as well as feeling as if the parent knows what is going on in their child's classroom.
The actual gradebook section of this program is an excellent tool. I honestly cannot believe how simple it is to set up a class and how fast it is to input grades. I briefly inputted grades into a program called GradeKeeper and this program is so much easier to navigate through than Gradekeeper. For example, in Engrade.com, you can tab down to the next student. Gradekeeper does not allow you to do that, you have to hit the down arrow which I find inconvenient.
Here are some of the features I enjoy using and believe are extremely helpful for educators who use Engrade.com:
Ability for students to have access to their grades
Ability for parents to monitor their child's' progress in school
Teachers being able to send out messages
Calendar feature which will allow teachers to post assignments and news/notes
Weighted percentages in the gradebook. This allows teachers not to have to constantly look at the grade-slider
The EC, extra credit, and drop the lowest grade feature
Printing options: gradebook, student reports, missing work reports*
*Missing work reports is probably my favorite feature on here because it does not require the teacher to physically look through the gradebook and write down all the assignments that are missing for each student. With just a click of a button, the teacher has the printable report in her hand!
It's FREE!
The only potential problem I can see with Engrade.com is that like any other website, it can possibly stop working at anytime. Whether the website is temporary down or if a teachers' internet is not functioning, this may cause a problem. I also feel that if someone really wanted to hack into the system, they probably could. Therefore, I would question the security of this program. I am not a teacher yet, so I do not know what aspects I would change regarding this program. I'm sure if I was more familiar with another program like Gradekeeper, I could compare the two and be able to discuss the similarities and differences between them.
The overall grade I would give Engrade.com is an 8.5 for its user-friendly and welcoming appearance. I would consider using it when I begin teaching if my district does not have a program already set in place. I believe it is a great program teachers can utilize in their career. Of course there will be teachers who will not use the program because they are comfortable with their pencil and paper gradebook method. However, these teachers are losing precious teaching time and sleep! Hopefully, these teachers will come out of their comfort zone and try this program, or one like it! It can only benefit them in the long run.
Assessment is an integral part in education. It MUST be done and done correctly in order for teaching to be effective. Formative assessment can be seem as being more important than summative assessment. I did not realize this until I read one of the articles that drew my attention to do. I do know now I should focus a bit more on formative assessment rather than summative assessment.
The idea of an electronic portfolio is interesting. "An electronic portfolio provides an environment where students can: collect their work in a digital archive; select specific pieces of work (hyperlink to artifacts) to highlight specific achievements; reflect on the learning demonstrated in the portfolio, in either text or multimedia form; set goals for future learning (or direction) to improve; and celebrate achievement through sharing this work with an audience, whether real or virtual. When used in formative, classroom-based assessment, teachers (and peers) can review the portfolio document, and provide formative feedback to students on where they could improve."
At times when I create a lesson plan, I get the formative, summative and diagnostic assessment mixed up. I found the information on the A Conceptual Framework for Classroom Assessment website extremely helpful. Here is what really helped me dicpher between the three: Diagnostic Assessment – Pre-Assessment (Finding Out). The teacher uses different tools to find out the prior knowledge of the students on the concept, which is connected with the upcoming theme or topic: KWL charts, brainstorming, graphing, inventories, checklists, observation, self-evaluation, questioning, etc. can be very helpful for this.Formative vs. Summative Assessments. The idea of providing feedback that helps people improve is often called formative assessment (e.g., see Stiggins, etc. NEA series). This is different from diagnostic or summative assessment, which usually occurs in the form of tests that attempt to "summarize" what has been learned in the end of the lesson or Unit instruction.
I enjoyed creating my digital story using Microsoft's Photostory 3.0. I found this program very user-friendly. Navigating through the program was simplistic whereas, I found Voicethread more challenging to navigate through. The only positive thing I can say about Voicethread was that the sound quality is much better than Photostory. Both of these videos can be used as an ice-breaker activity/welcoming assignment for a second grade class.
Hello! My name is Heather and I am a graduate student at Mount Saint Mary College pursuing my Masters degree in childhood and special education. I am a life-long resident of the Hudson Valley. I am recently engaged to an amazing guy who adores me. I am very fortunate to have Andrew in my life. Andrew and I have two dogs which we love dearly. Jake and Lincoln are buff-colored Cocker Spaniels. They are born exactly a week after Andrew's birthday and a week before mine.
microblogging into my classroom. I'm am definitely looking forward to next week's presenters!
