What+I+Learned

= **What I have learned… ** = Since we are a laptop school, technology is nothing new to me or my students. The one part of Project Integrate that probably taught me the most was the use of other 21st Century Skills like collaboration and critical thinking in my lesson plans. Making sure that I looked at my students and what they need to know in the 21st Century to be productive has now become a key part of my lesson planning. In the beginning, I wasn’t quite sure where to center my focus for action research. There were a few standards that I could address with my students, but the one place I felt I needed to focus ended up being a standard that the 7th grade has struggled with for a few years. After I looked at the eMetric data, I was still surprised to see them score somewhat low in the same area for a couple of years. After the pretest was given, I knew that I needed to take some time to focus on this area in order to help them be successful. Since I truly hate teaching to a test, this was difficult for me. However, I understand as an educator that this seems to be the way education is going because funding is being tied to test scores. Because we are a laptop school, my students have had a lot of exposure to technology. I love technology, but that doesn’t make my job easier as a teacher since I feel that technology sometimes takes a lot more time to implement and use. I used two applications in my project that my students have had limited use of in the last two years. Some of my students were not afraid to try something and fail while others were scared to touch a key or try something different without having hand over hand help. Those students who weren’t afraid to try the program usually helped those who were fearful of the outcome. I had two students who repeatedly helped two others who struggled. Most of my students progressed with little difficulty in using the programs. When each project was completed, we held a “share” time with the class. Each student presented his/her project using their computers and an LCD projector. At the completion of the first project, students copied off their books and used a book binding machine to bind them together. I had one student who did not complete the first project. He is easily distractible, but even with modifications set in place he did not finish his book. Most of the students enjoyed putting together their books by defining poetry terms with their own language, searching the web for the examples, and then illustrating their pages with original art work or photographs. I loved watching them compare their definitions, examples, and illustrations with one another and offering advice on how to change something to make it better. The second part of our project was to either create or find a poem to be used in a poetry story using PhotoStory3. Part of the project was centered on fluency while the other on understanding the use of poetry elements and devices used in the poem. This was the part of our project that the students seemed to enjoy the most. While some of the stories contained information that was incorrect, most of the stories were flawless. Each student really showed what he/she knew about the poem and how it was constructed. I saw a lot of growth in the identification and understanding of poetical devices and elements. I was also excited about the fluency that was exhibited in their projects. Students would try several times to record to make sure it sounded just like they wanted before they submitted their projects for a final grade. Once again watching them collaborate and exchange ideas with one another freely was an awesome experience. I had hoped for better posttest results, but I still think the gain overall and the individual gains by several students prove that what I did with them worked. I’m not sure that the results accurately portrayed everything that went on in the learning environment, but they show growth. I also waited over a month for them to take the posttest to see what they truly retained from the unit. Since a lot of what we do as teachers is tested in the spring of the year, seeing what students retain and for what length of time that knowledge is retained helps us as teachers to know when to reteach or reinforce what we have already taught before state testing in the spring. Integration of 21st Century Skills is essential in our classrooms in order to prepare our students for the world in which they live and will inherit some day. Technology is only one part of the puzzle, but it is a part of the puzzle that many of our students are quite comfortable in using. Integrating technology along with other 21st Century skills will hopefully help my students as well as others to be better learners and lifelong learners and it gives hope for a brighter future.

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