ED626 Final project - Final blog #SEACCR

This class was quite an adventure.  During our semester, I gained insights into unfamiliar writing styles, experienced the chaotic world of Twitter, and was given the opportunity to share ideas with an interesting and remarkable group of people.  Members of this class were an impressive bunch who willingly shared their expertise and insights.  I appreciated their wisdom.  I also learned more about language arts standards and Common Core math standards than I had ever hoped to learn.  I still have administrators asking me questions about the standards when they need clarification.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this class has been reading other students projects.  I have had the opportunity to review and comment on three final projects so far and intend to keep reading and commenting on more as they continue to be completed.  The topics chosen have been interesting and educational.  Most often, I find myself pulling useful information that I can use in my own classroom.  As I was reading Jamie's paper, I kept thinking how useful her ideas were for any teacher working in Alaska.  The papers I have read have been very well done and aside from a few grammatical suggestions, most did not appear to require many changes.  All of them have been worth the time I've spent reading them.

And now, I can finally say my paper is complete.  It can be viewed at the following link:

 ED626 Final Project

Final Project

A draft version of my paper is finally posted.  It can be found at the following link:  ED626 Final Paper

I'm looking forward to reviewing your amazing projects!

Week 8 Follow up #SEACCR

Week 8 follow up

     It was an interesting week of blogging.  I had several back and forth discussions about data that was collected and how it could be displayed.  I had the opportunity to share ideas on how to create graphical representations of data and offered some suggestions on organizing and displaying information from Excel.  It will be interesting to see if my suggestions show up in any of the final papers.  Two of us ran into similar issues trying to export spreadsheet results to our blog sites.  It appears we came up with slight variations of the same solution.  I’m a little embarrassed to mention this but I actually succumbed to the lure of Wordle this week.  I have noticed several examples while reviewing blog sites the past few weeks and decided I should try them.  The results were interesting from an artistic standpoint but I still find them to be too and chaotic and random for this project.  Although I will not be using them in my research, I thought about incorporating them into my classroom when focusing on vocabulary.  It could prove a useful tool for reviewing vocabulary at the end of a chapter.  Adding vocab alongside synonyms and antonyms may prove to be an effective (and enjoyable) way for my students to study.  Two of my classes will be finishing a chapter soon and I fully intend on introducing them to Wordle as part of our chapter review.  

  

     I intend to spend more time writing during the upcoming week.  Work meetings have been eating up a significant amount of my time this semester.  Last week was particularly bad.  I finally had to tell people that I would not be available for a couple of weeks so that I could focus more of my attention on writing.  The twitter sessions have continually reminded me to use triangulation to validate my research which is what I will focus on as I combine all of my info into a final product .   My goal is to have a draft version ready to share by next weekend.  It will be a busy week.

Week 8 Data Analysis #SEACCR

Week 8  Data analysis

During our web meeting, Dr. Graham mentioned that working with the data could be a time consuming process.  I’m discovering the truth in that statement.  I’m used to dealing with spreadsheets and graphs as organizational tools but putting that to work with qualitative data is proving to be somewhat challenging.  Much of my data is based on observations and interview questions that are not associated with numerical scoring.  This limits the types of graphs I am used to using.  One idea I had was to create basic balloon diagrams displaying responses I received when talking with students and parents.  I’m finding this is a good way to avoid focusing on numbers and focus instead on the answers to my questions.

Sample student responses

In what ways did technology help you understand the lesson?

 How was the technology a distraction?

  

  

With the data that has numerical values assigned, simple column graphs work well. 

Sample Parent responses

 

What am I finding so far?

1. Technology adds interest, focus, depth, and better retention of information.

2.  Students can adapt quickly to deeper thinking skills required by smarter balance assessment questions despite their unfamiliarity.

3.  Interactive response systems increase participation with students who are typically quiet or withdrawn.

4. Rich graphics displayed on an interactive white board help visual learners comprehend lessons and promote deeper thinking.

5.  Graphing calculators speed the learning process of basic graphing and effects of changes in equations.