It seems like it has been forever from the first day we had orientation for the program through the zoom room but at the same time we have done so much work and been very busy that it also seems like it was just yesterday that we started. Now that we are in the last few days of the program I can say that I know a lot more on how to integrate technology than when I began the program. One thing that I will always have in the back of my mind is that, as a teacher, I am a life long learner. Therefore, I don't plan to finish on revolutionizing my classroom in order to better support my students. I am glad that I am in a school site that our mission is to instill 21st century skills as that is my own personal goal for my students and for myself. There has been great design models that I was exposed to like TPACK, ARCS and Dervin's Sense Making Model that it has given me a great foundation to move forward with my teaching practice. And let's not forget all the amazing digital tools that we experimented with throughout the program and some of them are now a staple in my classroom. It has been a pleasure to be a classmate with the rest of the Cohort 15 family. it has been a crazy ride with many ups and downs but at the end we made it to the very top and now we can enjoy the beautiful view of our successes. Good luck to all and thank you very much!
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One of the greatest features that I have valued so far in this program has been accepting and appreciating all of my cohort family. In other words, admiring all of the diverse backgrounds and ideas they all bring to the table. I have been expressive in the past on how much I have relied on them because most of my work has been created because of their suggestions, feedback and ideas I hear from them in class sessions, emails, text messages or phone calls. I truly believe that I promote this in my classroom as my students bring a very wide range of diverse ideas when it comes to doing math. And I think that is a beautiful thing. But at the same time it can be really challenging for me as a teacher to be able to teach and support every single student. And that is where my driving questions comes in to play. Therefore, I do plan to share my capstone with colleagues and friends. Is it going to be the best capstone? Maybe not but I do plan to make it as best as I can possibly make it in order for my message to get across on how important it is to support ELL’s and how important their education is to our communities.
I remember being introduced to TPACK for the first time in our first semester of this program. It was a new concept for me as it brought technology, pedagogy and content knowledge into one. I believe that most teachers do this without knowing that we are TPACK-ing out lessons. But when it was presented to us it helped me understand how to better integrate the three concepts in a more smooth and efficient way for my students. I find myself looking at old lesson plans and knowing that I will be re-teaching those again soon, but now instead of just teaching them I try to find ways of integrating tech tools in those lessons of tools we have been exposed to in this program. I do feel I need more practice when modifying or creating lesson plans around TPACK. Luckily I have colleagues who are open to try new things as well and we always try to bounce off ideas on how to get students engaged in Math. That is probably one of the biggest challenges right now.
These past few weeks have been focused on looking at capstones from previous cohorts while thinking on how I will be organizing my capstone website. It’s funny to think of who my audience is going to be for my capstone. At the beginning of the program it was my students since they are the focus and reason I am here. But then as my action research study began and the creation of my research paper came about, my audience slowly began to be teachers. And as of right now it has stayed that way. But there was an interesting capstone (Ellison’s) that I observed this week that it’s language caught my attention. It seems that even though the Ellison’s audience is educators I think that the way she presented her content was user friendly for students as well. This is something that I didn’t think about and now that I am I hope that I can portray something similar throughout my capstone.
In regards to my Learn More Page, I plan to include tools that I have used throughout the program. I think I will focus on tools that I am currently using in my classroom. I noticed other educators included this on their websites. But I also noticed that they talk a lot about their journey. Therefore I plan to include a little background of how I came to be an educator and my journey through the first couple of years of my teaching career. There will be a big focus on why I have a big passion of working with ELL’s since I was once an ELL. But how will I keep my audience engaged in my content? I am not sure how I can do this but I hope that I can make my website eye-catching and not have “too much” where it seems overwhelming. But that is where everything that I have been exposed to and learned throughout the program will come in to play. I know that the C-15 familia has my back and will give me critical feedback that will make my capstone the best it can be! Saelee Capstone:
Right off the bat I noticed that Saelee’s capstone was towards educators. It automatically asked educators how they were dealing with a classroom with diverse educational needs. I believe that it was presented in an organized way for educators to follow what they would need to possibly try some of the suggestions that Saelee presented. Of course most all of the information benefits teachers but one thing that caught my eye was on the Learn More page where there were instructions on how to use certain tools in the classroom. Gottfried Capstone: The language in Gottfried’s capstone was definitely towards educators or even administrators. I think that it was effective in presenting because there was a lot of written details which at the same time didn’t catch a lot of my attention. Ellison Capstone: I think that the language presented in the home page was easy to understand and the message that the author was trying to give out was easy to understand. Therefore I think that the audience is teachers but I for this capstone I think that students are able to follow it. It is also easy to follow with not too much on the pages and pictures are direct links to other websites or further information. Avrukin Capstone: The audience for this capstone are educators. To me it was a bit more difficult to follow this capstone even though the information was organized in an outline form through pages. I think it’s just the fact from previous capstones that I have seen and some of the things that I have seen in this program. My ultimate goal is to get that master’s degree in December and everything else that I believe that comes with that degree. Even though this program has been stressful at times due to the disorganization of how instruction and assignments have been presented to us, I have been able to collaborate with my cohort family in achieving my goals. My biggest goal is to get as much out of this program as possible. I want to be able to transform my classroom from what it was two years ago when I started teaching. I want there to be more structure, clear goals for myself and students, and the integration of technology in most or all work and most importantly integrating 21st century skills (the 4 C’s). I think that over the course of the program I have been able to begin that transformation therefore the culmination of this program will help me get a better understanding on how to do just that. That is my goal at the moment. In order to get things done my cohort familia are the ones that are always available when I have questions or in need of assistance. This is the type of relationship that we have built from the beginning of the program. I have no doubt that this semester will be the same. We are constantly emailing each other, and even calling each other or meeting through zoom to talk about assignments. If we continue this type of collaboration we will have positive cohesion among ourselves. Some important norms that are important to me are respect and being open-minded. In cohort 15, we have that. That being said, let’s get things done C-15 fam! We got this!
Driving Question: How does digital collaboration affect mathematics achievement among English language learners?
At the beginning of the program, my driving question changed very little. I only ended up taking out a word. The idea was to measure and explore the effects that digital collaboration had on academic achievement and engagement. I decided to remove engagement out of the driving question in the second semester as it made my question broader and I didn’t even get to measure engagement during my action research study. Therefore, my focus has been about the same around my ELL’s. I am always welcoming new students that are just arriving from out of the U.S. with no knowledge of the English language and I hope that I can find a way to better support these students through the use of technology. So far my audience is still my students and teachers. I haven’t thought if administration is an audience since when I am writing and thinking about my project I have my students and colleagues in mind. But I think the language and the information in my research paper for example is appropriate for administration to read as well. I honestly don’t know how other teachers will react to my work if they do end up reading it but if they do I hope that they can take something from it. This is important for me because I am not the only teacher on my school site that has ELL’s and I also don’t know how other teachers feel about these students. How much attention do other teachers give them? How much support? What kind of support? This is something that worries me and if we really do want to provide equity among our students then I think that my work can provide a small insight on how we as teachers can work together to make our school a better learning environment for ALL. I believe that I have always wanted to be in a career that involved working with the youth. But honestly, never did I think that I would be teaching, and even less teaching Math. As a student, I was once labeled an English Language Learner. Going into kindergarten I didn’t know any English. That is where my passion for teaching came up as I volunteered as a tutor at high school programs and did private tutoring as well. Now that I am in my third year teaching, I have been lucky to land my dream job of working with youth that are part of the same community that I grew up in. Colleagues around me introduced the Innovative Learning program to me as they were once students of this program. After doing my research on it I knew that this program would allow me to grow as a professional but most importantly it would help me better prepare my students for my Math class but most importantly for life after high school like college or the work field.
I was encouraged by colleagues to join the Innovative Program at Touro University knowing that I would learn new ways of making my classroom a better learning environment for all of my students. I am in my third year teaching, therefore colleagues and I knew that I was excited to explore new instructional design models to provide the equitable access in the classroom. So far the program has been able to assist me in considering the educational background of my students and how the technology that I am slowly integrating into my lesson plans can help academic achievement within the classroom. TPACK, ARCS, Dervins model of sense-making are just some of the instructional design models that I have been using so far as I create lesson plans. Of course, I am just beginning in working around these models. I have a longs way to go, but my students keep motivating me in making sure that I am providing them with the best learning experience that I can possibly give them. I believe that every student that walks into my classroom should have the same opportunity to learn the Math content and build 21st century skills as any other student at my campus and in our community. Their educational background should not be a reason to exclude opportunities but instead it should be embraced and be used as an influence to develop instruction. |
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