Reflection on Integrated Unit

Developing the integrated unit to support my teaching of early literacy strategies was both meaningful and frustrating. First, let me address my frustrations. As there are few opportunities for teacher sharing embedded in the structure of our day at school, it was somewhat difficult to find quality time for collaboration with my colleague. This was especially complicated due to the fact that my counterpart also works in two other schools within the district. I want so much for my school community to commit to quality conversations around teaching and learning. Working across grade levels and with specialists would be facilitated by a structure thorough which ideas could be developed and shared. If this had been in place prior to the development of the unit, I do believe that the integration piece would have been more powerful and meaningful.

On the positive side, however, the level of student learning through the course of the unit was incredibly strong. As I tailored the learning to meet specific needs within the group, individual students could access the skills and strategies that were being taught at his or her own developmental level. The success that students experienced as documented in both the formative and summative assessments was amazing! I was thrilled to have the opportunity to design and implement a unit of study that will benefit students for years to come!

Conversation #3 with colleague

I spoke with my colleague about developing lesson plans today and completing stage 3. Tera grasped the concepts rather quickly. She is very intuned to students' learning styles and offered some advice as to how we may incorporate the seven learning styles into her art lessons. Although this may not be possible, I realized through the course of our conversation that I would benefit from being a part of her art lessons when we implement the unit next fall. She has such a different way of approaching teaching. So much of what she does allows students the opportunity to experience the arts through their senses. It is natural for her to create units by first examining how kids can respond to art in a personal way. I look forward to more opporunities to be influenced by my gifted colleague.

TPCK World Languages

What teachers know about subject matter, pedagogy and technology must be interconnected in today's school settings. Unfortunately for most students, this ingegration does not happen in the classroom. I was not shocked at the findings of the survey, "Technology Counts '99: Building the Digital Curriculum." The results showed that only 29% of the teachers who participated stated that they had more than five hours of technology integration training in their schools within the past year.

Personally, I have not had even one hour of this type of training since I began teaching in my district (7 years ago). The anxiety that I feel because of this lack of support and instruction as a graduate student is overwhelming at times. I am so incredibly far behind my peers in my understanding of technology. I often feel in class that I am swimming just below the surface of the water, fighting to take a breath but completely unaware of what I must do to get to the surface. Part of me feels as if I should be taking on more personal responsibility for learning technologies so that my students aren't left behind. Most of me, however, is completely overwhelmed at the idea of trying to navigate through technologies such as hypertext or StorySpace.

TPCK- English

I so appreciate the idea expressed in the following quote: "Preparing teachers to use specific technology within the context of their content areas rather than in a separate, general technology skills course is an emerging trend in the field of education" (Dexter, Doering, & Riedel, 2006; Sprague, 2004). In my experience, teaching in isolation tends to be difficult if students are to master and utilize any new learning.
Our school has a computer lab in which classroom teachers can bring groups of students for a variety of purposes. Unfortunatley, there is no technology integrator who can help support staff develop a TPCK model so that the techonolgy can become a meaningful part of the teaching and learning process. What generally happens in the lab is very limited to playing math games or word processing. As chapter 4 illustrates, schools need to provide situations for teachers so that their knowledge of technology integration becomes solidified. Establishing formal in-sevice opportunities where educators are afforded the opportunity to take a specific area of the curriculum and learn how to support it through technology would be incredibly beneficial.
Content-focused technology instruction must become a regular component of a school's culture. Most of the teachers with whom I work are rich in content knowledge. Most have had exposure to general technologies (email, web resources, word processing). Few have been afforded the luxury of engaging in new techologies in order to improve the quality and scope of their content areas.

TPCK - math

Teaching mathematics is rather far removed from my role as a literacy interventionist. Because of this divide, I wasn't sure that I would get anything out of this chapter. It was interesting, however, to think about how much I rely on technology that is supportive of math in my real world. At school, I track my caseload using spreadsheets. Assessment data is entered into excel for all of my students. At home, I use an on-line budget program to keep my finances in order. A calculator simplifies my life when completing the order for the food coop that I manage on a monthly basis. On-line banking allows me to transfer funds quickly from savings to checking. These examples of technology have allowed me to simplify my life in a way I never thought possible. Sharing resources such as these with high school students would be an incredibly beneficial learning experience.

Leadership discussion # 2 with colleague

I met with our district's elementary art teacher this afternoon to discuss our project. The stage two goals were a bit hard to explain but relying on the text's description of the facets of knowledge was helpful. We were able to support each other as we navigated through the template. I really value the pespective from which she approaches the project. She is incredibly perceptive about what children are developmentally capable of synthesizing when it comes to art education. Some of my suggestions for integrating technology into her 'spoke' of the unit's wheel were met with enthusiasm as well as apprehension. Before this conversation, I truly believed that any art lesson could be watered down to meet the needs of any grade level of students. Clueless, huh? Talking with Tere made me so appreciative of how reflective she is about her teaching and about how impportant it is that her students' experiences be scaffolded. Teaching reading is similar to the pedagogy of art in so many ways....

TPCK - social studies

As a literacy teacher, I am always looking for ways to integrate content areas into my lessons. This has been relatively easy when using web videos, such as You Tube as there is no reading involved. However, social studies has always proven difficult for me in terms of locating developmentally appropriate on-line text. Publishers of children's books have worked very hard in the last five years to provide the market with non-fiction leveled texts that both appeal and teach young or struggling readers. However, it has been a challenge for me to help students make connections with the outside world through website research. Recently, this has changed since discovering www.scholastic.com.

Scholastic has become an incredible resource for my students and me. It provides a wealth of ideas to support readers of all levels and abilities. There is an on-line magazine geared towards lower elementary age students that allows us to find the definition of unknown words using 'Dictionary Wizard.' The site allows me to browse online activities by grade and subject. There are computer lab suggestions. There is even a writing link that teachers young authors how to compose book reviews and create news stories. Kids can even post non-fiction book reviews.

In order for technology integration to further develop my teaching, I will need to discover more sites similar to Scholastic. Web publishers will need to become more aware of the needs of a population of young readers and writers whose access to the world beyond the classroom is much more limited due to learning disabilities.