EDLD+5368+Reflections

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__**Discussion Topic Week 1:**__ I thought the readings and activities for this week very enlightening, yet I still do not think that just one Instructional Design Theory is possible. After researching the different theories described by Dabbagh (2006), in his article, //The Instructional Design Knowledge Base,// I feel that I am a teacher that believes that parts of all three theories can be applied. I am not sure if I feel this way simply since I teach math, and I can observe and understand how in this subject area each theory, can be observed and applied to the students and to me their teacher. The other two articles and listening to this week’s lecture notes simply just confirmed my belief. It was interesting to go through the teaching style inventory to see how I would score. Some questions were a little difficult to apply to teaching math or also somewhat hard to rank. Under the Teaching Goal Matrix I fell into Quadrant a, meaning I prefer "rote learning to analysis, which truly surprised me. In math, I realize you must know certain facts, and you have to practice, which does mean repetition, yet these facts must be related to the world and utilized in real-problems and situations to make some kind of sense to students. Without that, students lose interest extremely fast. They must know why they learn what they learn and how they will use this in their lives. The Teaching Method Matrix Interpretation put me into Quadrant A, "instructor prefers to have student’s process information via symbols and language and work as individuals". Well, this analysis is a little bit more on target. We do give short math instruction almost daily to introduce new materials, and most of the time my kids do work as individuals. I would love for the students to work in teams, and we do on occasions, yet the noise levels are so high, and the results are not always what I would like them to be. Some kids do great and groups truly work, yet I have not found math activities which correlate to TEKS, fit into the ever demanding time schedule to teach TAKS and benefit all the students. I am hoping technology will solve this problem for me. For math especially, students need more motivating and challenging activities. In addition, after looking at the results from the //Learning Style Inventory,// I was not surprised to see that the majority of the students scored the highest in the visual category. Both auditory and tactile scores were close, with tactile being just slightly ahead. I know I am a visual learner. In math, I always tell my kids to draw pictures and create a visual image to image the problem they are trying to solve to make sense of the situation.

Dabbagh, N. (2006). The instructional design knowledge base. Retrieved on April 16, 2010 from @http://classwebgmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm Learning Theories Knowledge Base (2010, March). Learning-Theories.com Retrieved April 17, 2010 from http://www.learning-theories.com Teaching Style Inventory. Retrieved April 17, 2010 from [] Learning Style Inventory. Retrieved April 17, 2010 from []

__**Discussion Topic Week 2:**__ I think true understanding can be defined by levels of comprehension. I have knowledge of many things, yet that does not mean I truly understand how they work together or interact. I know a lot about American Politics, however I do not understand how it works together to make this country function. Like John Dewey (1993) states, “Understanding is the result of facts acquiring meaning for the learner: To grasp the meaning of a thing, an event, or a situation is to see it in its relations to other things” (pg. 38). Therefore to really understand, students need to internalize knowledge, grasp the essence and know the facts of materials to transfer them with knowledge and skill towards any problem situation effectively and with genuine understanding. Being a math teacher I see a lot how students do good if the problems are simple, and ask the students exactly for what needs to be worked out. However, when these same types of problems are put into real world situations and the students have to think about what mathematical methods to use to find solutions many of my kids get stuck, unless they have a true understanding of the material and are able to transfer this into any problem solving situations. I thought the example of the “Pythagorean theorem problem (pg. 43) was very interesting and so true. Kids can do it when all the clues are given to them. If they do not see the facts and have to use this theorem they get stuck. In a recent test I gave my GT students this problem from the 2006 TAKS test:“A ladder that is 13 feet long leans against a building. The bottom of the ladder is 5 feet away from the base of the building. How far up the side of the building does the ladder reach?” To answer this question correctly, you have to use A2 + B2= C2.However, it did not mention this in the question anywhere and furthermore, there was no picture drawn. First of all, the students needed to draw out the triangle to make sure they understand which side is the hypotenuse and which are the other two legs. Most of the kids unfortunately did not make this connection and answered incorrectly. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). //Understanding by Design.// (Expanded 2nd Ed.). Retrieved April 22 from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamar/docDetail.action?docID=10081770

__**Discussion Topic Week 3:**__ I teach math, so generally we have a particular order we have to teach to ensure all the prerequisites are covered and the basic facts are reviewed before we introduce new material to our students. The first step in teaching a new TEKS is to look over the type of problems the students need to know, the difficulty level, easy misconceptions, and all the materials which are available for us to teach from. We generally do not work backwards. We look at what the kids need to know, and then pull many types of materials from all different sources, like the math book, the accelerated math computer program, hands- on activities, TAKS books, or other work sheets we already prepared in which we selected problems we felt were most sufficient for students to learn, and based on real life applications. Fridays we test! According to how our kids do we take the type of questions which were missed the most and make daily warm-ups to reteach and review all year long. __Understanding by Design__, Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005) uses a “backward design which keeps the end in mind, and works backwards, which is very effective in many aspects. I love the quote “If you don’t know exactly where you are headed, then any road will get you there” (pg. 14). Knowing exactly what students need to know and searching for assessments and other evidence to proof student knowledge and understanding first, before looking for methods of instructions and teaching activities, gives teachers a direct focus on what they need to teach and what information students need to know to master required standards. The key element here is that the “backward design” allows a teacher to focus on the desired results. In math, I have learned a long time ago that even my best laid out plans never work out exactly how I expect. Every year students change and get stuck in different areas of mathematics. Since we do test on a regular basis, and we consistently review, almost daily, it is difficult to always stay with the “backward design.” The structure and idea is great and often works well, yet we often have to change and adjust to reteach some students, or to teach different grade level materials to GT students. When I have ESL, Special Ed., regular students, 504 students, and gifted students all mixed together in one class; the “backward design” is not always the best method to use.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). //Understanding by Design.// (Expanded 2nd Ed.). Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamar/docDetail.action?docID=10081770

Weekly Discussion: I believe online classes will continue to increase over the years, which will create initially a variety of problems to schools and Universities and also challenging questions on how to adjust to this growing trend. In my current teaching situation I see how online classes could be a benefit in many incidences. In my teaching situation, I am struggling with Special Ed. Student, 504, ESL and GT students all in one class period. Sadly the students who generally do not get the education they deserve are the GT kids, since I spent to much time with my other students. However, I do have so much material I am trying to teach to them in addition to the 7th grade math material, which I would love to do with an organized online course in which I could chose the TEKS I know they need for the following school year, since they skip 8th grade and jump directly in to Algebra 1. This is just one way our schools would benefit from online classes. I believe in the future this type of education will be the norm. I believe staff development needs to be continuous with a 24/7 support line. The initial change to online classes will be difficult, especially for teacher who are used to being in the classroom and struggle with technology. There is a whole new way of presenting information, creating activities, and even submitting and grading activities. It boggles the mind. In addition after doing this weeks assignment, I was wondering how I could know if students really did there own assignments. With technology changing so fast, I am sure online classes will also continue to improve, which means teachers must continue to be educated as well. Professional development should be continuous and ongoing to keep up with the demanding pressures of the high tech economic world we are living in. Online courses make it easy to keep learning and keep in touch with technology, to able to compete with the rest of the word and stay informed about the business world. Students growing up in these type of schooling environments will have no problems to continue learning and growing professionally to be successful in their future endeavors.
 * Discussion Topic Week 4:**

__**Final Reflections:**__ Online classes are here to stay and a benefit for teachers and students as well. Needless to say, this means all educators should learn how to design these classes to help their students advance. There are so many applications and situations in which students could receive specialized education for their specific needs. Gifted and talented students can be challenged with all types of activities and projects to further their education, challenge their intellect and keep them motivated and interested in learning. Special needs students who need their curriculum adjusted to concentrate on specific areas in their education can have their assignment tailored to meet their need. With all the technology available to educate students, all teachers need to learn how to develop online courses, to help students be academically successful. Educators must continue to find new ways to engage students, and keep up with technology to teach 21st century students. I do not think I will use the exact course I designed for this class, however, I do feel that I learned a lot, and also still have much to learn before I venture out to teaching online classes. I do hope that in the following year I will be able to create a new course for my GT students to add to their curriculum all the extra material they must learn in order to skip 8th grade math and jump into algebra 1. In previous years, al my GT students were combined in one class period, which made it easy for me to teach them all the 7th grade material, and also the 8th grade material they needed. This is the first year, the school decided to split these kids up and integrate them among the rest of the students. Teaching them additional material is defiantly more difficult. Schoology is an interesting program, and I will learn more while I create this course and work on making appropriate assignments. I believe my GT kids will love it and it will keep them motivated and engaged.
 * What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?**
 * How will you professionally use your course that you designed?**

Students need to learn how to participate and learn in online classes, and teachers need to be able to teach these types of classes I believe as early as middle school, to prepare students for college and the ever growing trend of distant learning. As a teacher I will try to incorporate this type of education in to my curriculum, starting out with my GT kids. It takes a different type of discipline to schedule time when dealing with assignment in the online class environment compared to actually participating in class. This is not the time to procrastinate and wait to the last minute to do assigned work. Students need to become familiar with this type of learning. As an educational technology leader I would try to create a professional staff development to educate all the teachers about online courses, to get them involved and familiar with the possibilities of new learning ideas. I know many of our teachers like technology and using new teaching ideas, they just do not have the knowledge and technical support they need to implement these ideas. When reflecting back on our Schoology assignment, and creating the online course for my math students, I am still slightly confused about students turning in their assignments online. I do realize everything is submitted through the drop box, however, being a math teacher, I generally do not accept assignments, unless I see the work show. How can I achieve this with an online class? In 7th grade we do not allow students use to calculators, how I know they truly worked out the problems. What about academic honesty, how do I know these kids do not cheat from each other? They try to do this now with me looking at everything they do, what would stop them from just submitting someone else’s answers? I guess I want proof that the work done is their own. I need to learn more about this part of online teaching. In addition, I could not figure out how to create an expandable textbox, or anything similar to this for students to enter their answers. Although we initially had many problems and issues with Schoology, I found it exiting to be on the other side of online classes for a change and be the teacher assigning the materials and giving the instructions and leading the discussion board. I know I have much to learn, yet the more I looked and thought about my assignments, the more ideas came to my mind on how these courses could be used. I will try to create on online course for my GT students next year and see how this works out. I would like to go to a workshop and get some instruction on “Moodle”, which I heard many positive things about. I think my student would really enjoy learning online. There are still many issues that need to be worked out, like making sure students have computer access at home and also how can I separate these students from my regular students to allow them computer access at school. I know eventually it will all work out.
 * Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?**
 * What questions do you still have about online learning?**
 * What will you do with this new learning?**