Ashley Shaw - Reflection Part 2

How has the process been? 

Overall I really enjoyed creating my proposal presentation. I liked analyzing the needs of the students in my class and prioritizing technology in order to help my students engage and enhance their learning. 

Have there been challenges? 

There have been a few challenges throughout this process, however all of them were relatively small and easy to manage. One issue was that kids in the class come without charged Chromebooks. However, my co-teacher and I knew that was going to happen, so we were prepared. We borrowed extra chargers and charging strips from the technology department at our school. The other issue is helping students to stay on task, and be on the appropriate websites. Luckily, our district has a subscription to Hapara where the teachers are in control of what websites they are allowed to be on during a specific period of time. This helped to alleviate a lot of issues. 

Are you still excited about your topic and believe in its potential? 

I am very excited about using technology to increase engagement! My students have been very motivated to use technology and make their lives easier. However, little do they know, it is also helping them to understand the material on a deeper and more meaningful level. 

What has been the most positive aspect of your journey? 

The most positive aspect of this journey has been that the students in the class are getting a robust understanding of the material, unlike ever before. The online graphing calculator allows them to do things that would be essentially impossible, or at the very least time consuming, quickly, efficiently, and effectively. 

The most negative (if any!)? 

So far, I do not want to jinx it, but there have been no negatives to the process. I feel like my students have been more engaged and interested in the material. Additionally, they are more motivated to participate in the activities because they like to use Desmos and their computers.    

What do you think of being a teacher or in essence a "Learning Specialist/Instructional Designer" in their classroom who utilizes technology to enhance learning for all their students? 

I think that every teacher needs to utilize technology in their classrooms. At this point learning without technology is basically impossible. However, the way that you use technology in the classroom is important. As a teacher you need to think about how you can elevate learning, help students to take ownership of their education, reach levels that would be impossible without technology, and redefine what a typical day looks like.

Ashley Shaw - Reflection Part 1

 Engagement is a key component in learning. When students are bored or disengaged they are less likely to meet the objectives of a lesson or a class. For my project I would like to increase engagement through the use of technology. Overall, I think it is going well so far. One way that I have gotten my students to buy-in to using the technology is as a manner of making their lives a little bit easier. For example, in my Algebra II class students are asked to find the measures of center for a set of data, and then explain what that information means in relation to the data set. This is not necessarily a difficult task, but it can take a lot of time. However, as a class the students were able to open Desmos, create, and save a calculator that calculates most of the measures of center for them in a manner of seconds. Additionally, it can create tables, graphs, and box plots as a visual representation of the data.  Not only is technology helping them to engage more in the lesson, but it is also helping them to understand the content that we are currently learning.

In my Intermediate Algebra II class we are talking about quadratic equations. Once again, we utilize Desmos to get them to engage in the material. They are able to quickly graph parabolas, find the vertex, axis of symmetry, domain and range quickly and efficiently with the help of technology. In the future, we will also build and save a calculator that will help students to perform the quadratic formula and find the real roots of the quadratic. I feel like my students have a positive attitude toward technology because they are learning and growing in a way that they feel comfortable with. 

That being said, there are still times when it is difficult to get the students to open their Chromebooks and participate. Luckily in most of my classes I have a co-teacher and between the two of us we are able to reason with the students that opening their Chromebooks and using Desmos will help to make their life easier and their understanding deeper. Another issue that occasionally pops up is the fact that many students come to class with dead Chromebooks. Luckily we have a few extra chargers that we let students use, or they are able to go to the technology classroom, get a loaner, and charge their device. All in all, I would say that implementing technology in the classroom more has really helped students to engage and take ownership of their learning.