Final Post

1. What have you learned in this class? What are your major takeaways?
The biggest takeaway I have is the idea of a flipped classroom. I never heard about it until this class, but I can see the value of it when it's done correctly. It was great to experience it as a student and explore the idea of how to use it as a teacher. The possibilities are truly endless with the types of lessons and activities that I can do using technology to help my students use higher order thinking skills to better learn about literature, writing, and many other valuable skills. Something else that I learned is how fast new technology appears. It's hard to keep up with it! There's always something new and even with the technology that we're used to, they have updates with new and better features that we have to learn. We can't be afraid of technology, but we also can't fully rely on it to teach our students. There's still a teacher in that classroom and we can't replace it with a robot. 

2. What has your attitude toward educational technology changed, if at all? Why?
I've always enjoyed technology and I use it most of the day, every day. I never really put much thought into how I would use it in my own classroom. I just assumed we would use a computer when writing a paper and a few YouTube videos to enhance a lesson, but THERE IS SO MUCH OUT THERE FOR ME TO USE!  I'm very excited to continue exploring technology tools that will help me in the classroom. 

3. How will you and your students use technology to improve instruction and learning? Provide a few specific examples. Why will you use technology in these ways?
I really like the idea of having a class website. This can help me better connect and communicate with my students. They can easily find assignments/worksheets/presentations that they missed or go over again if they had trouble understanding something. I can easily post videos, presentations, or notes that they might find helpful or interesting. I will use the class website as a class archive so they can find things easily. It's a great way to gather knowledge (using google forms) to know what they need help with for next class or what I can do better. If I see that a lot of my students got an answer wrong on one of my quizzes, I can create a lesson that will go in depth for them to better understand the concept. 

4. How might I improve this class for future students so that it is more meaningful?
It was my first time experiencing a flipped classroom so it was hard to remember to check canvas for videos. Maybe getting a little reminder during class would have been helpful for me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this class. I'm so glad I decided to take it this summer, because I feel like I learned a lot and I have definitely gained a lot of ideas for my classroom. 

Flipped Classroom Ideas

I found this great article by Kate Petty discussing the flipped English classroom experience. Something I found incredibly useful in this article was the idea of never sitting behind a desk during class as a teacher, "I am constantly around them to bring them back on task, guide their conversations, participate in great discussions, and to show them that I am interested in what they are doing". This is a crucial step in the flipped classroom. If we send them to watch videos at home and work on their own once they're in our classroom, we're not really teaching much. As teachers, we need to be involved during their "homework" time to guide them and answer any questions they might have. 

I would like to use the flipped classroom idea a couple of times during my first year of teaching just to get a feel for it, improve, and then use it more and more as the years go by. It depends on the area I teach and what kind of resources I would have in my school. Ideally, I would like to do mostly flipped after I have a few years of being in the classroom under my belt. I would like to get myself situated as a teacher before I overburden myself, and my students, by trying things I haven't done before. The reason why I like the flipped classroom is because I know my students are working and learning. They're not just listening to my lecture that I've said 4 times already, but they're actually applying what they learned at home in my classroom. I can guide them and answer questions as they arise. I would have more control over their assignments and projects being completed. I would have them either fill out worksheets or quizzes to know that they're doing the "homework". Since I don't have any experience, I don't know what would honestly work best, but I know that I will figure it out once I give this a try in a real classroom. I would like to use a variety of technologies to flip. I think just plain videos would get as boring as a lecture if I use them every single day. Like the Petty mentioned in her article, "I treat the strategies as a candy shelf-choose what works". I know that videos will be the best option for some lessons, but a podcast would work better for another. It would just depends on what I want my students to learn. The technology I use will only enhance that. 

An example of a lesson I could flip would be to have the students watch clips of different interpretations of Romeo and Juliet at home. They would fill out a graphic organizer to gather their thoughts, notes, and ideas. In class, we would create our own interpretation of the play using GoAnimate. They can use different characters, time, or settings to make it their own. We would have to use the computer lab if we don't have enough computers in the classroom. Since Romeo and Juliet can take a bit of time, we would use most of the class time to create these and watch some as a class at the end. The students would be held accountable by filling out the graphic organizer that was provided. 

Digital Storytelling Ideas

• Character development in a novel
• Book reviews
• As a teacher: to introduce a unit

Podcast Ideas

Podcasts can be very fun in the English classroom. Here are some ideas:

• Students can use them as book reports or book highlights to encourage their peers to read those books
• Poetry series where students record their own poems to share
• Students can create sound effects and music to novels, short stories, or plays 

For an ongoing project, it would be fun to have the class create a podcast for younger students. They could give advice or vent. It would be a good creative expression and a legacy full of advice for the next set of students. 

Voki Idea

Students can use Voki to:

• Create an avatar to represent a character from the novel while the character introduces themselves
• Students could have their avatars say what stood out to them at the end of the school year

QR Code Ideas

Students can create a QR code that will...

• direct me to their prezi project
• take me to their bookreads account information

Animoto Ideas

Teacher:
-Presenting a new novel
Students:
-Presenting the themes of a novel we just read
-Characteristics from a character in the novel