Final Comprehensive Reflection

• Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

1. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness: In my first lesson I had my students create a direction book on a topic of their interest. The students were able to pick any topic that they wanted and write their direction book using their creativity through the directions and pictures on storybird.com. In my second lesson my students created their own flyer advertising about the sun. They used pixie to create colorful flyers with text and pictures. Lastly, my third lesson gave my students the opportunity to create a short story of their choosing. My students were given the freedom to make up their own story and use the pictures on storybird.com to illustrate their stories.
2. Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources: My second lesson about what the sun does and how it is important to the world really opened up my students eyes to the Earth and the importance of nature. In my future classes I will be incorporating this concept by having my students research interesting and relative topics online and create a project to show everyone else what they have learned from their research. This is a very important concept to have in my class since my students need to stay connected to the world and society they live in, rather than remain blind to some issues that are relevant to them.
3. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes: For all three of my lessons in this class I had each of my students complete an exit ticket at the end of the lessons. The exit tickets were always asking questions about what they just learned and sometimes asked them to make predictions about what would happen in different situations. I also had my students do some quick brainstorming before beginning their creative assignments. That is important so that my students can organize their thoughts and reflect on all of the ideas they have come up with to figure out which ideas are relevant and which ideas do not fit so well with the assignments. I think that exit tickets and graphic organizers, such as KWL charts, are very important in the learning process. Reflection and self evaluation is very important and should be incorporated in as many aspects of life as possible.
4. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments: Throughout my three lessons I tried to give my students time to discuss with each other and share their ideas to help each other. In the future I would love it if I could have my class collaborate with another class and develop some sort of public achievement project that the two classes can work on throughout the year. It would also be very interesting if my class could have another class in a different area to face time periodically and learn about the culture in that community. Collaboration is fun and needs to be incorporated in the classroom. I think that there is nothing better than working with another individual and building off of each others ideas to create something bigger.

• Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

1. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity: There are a ton of awesome resources online that have fantastic games and activities to enhance your lesson plans. In my future classes I will be sure to incorporate digital tools and resources through the internet, computer programs, assistive technologies, and smartboards. I think that, if I have access to one, smartboards will be my favorite and most useful tools. There are many programs made for smartboards that students can use to enhance their learning. They will be interacting with the lessons while moving around and filling their kinesthetic needs. 
2. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress: In my future classes I hope I have access to many different technologies. Having tablets available for each student to use during class would be very effective and helpful to guide the student's learning. I can give my students a broad topic and have them research different areas under that topic. The students can pick whichever topic they find interesting and want to learn more about an create some sort of project to show what research they have done and why that research is important to them. That gives the students the freedom to choose their own topics and guide their learning in the direction they would like to go. 
3. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources: I understand that every students learns differently and needs to be catered to differently while being taught. I think that technology is a great way to cater to the very different learning styles and let the students really thrive at what they are good at. If I have students who work better with pencil and paper activities I will give them that option. I can also have all of my lessons online for the students who like that kind of visual who need to follow along with everything that is said. Some students work well with worksheets and hands on activities while other work better through online games and activities. Having all of these options available for my students at all times will benefit their learning greatly.
4. Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching: Throughout my lessons I make sure to periodically ask my students review questions about what we are learning at the moment. If my students express the correct answers and seem comfortable with the information, then I can move on with the lesson. If my students do not know the correct answer and seem a bit confused, then I know that I need to stop and revisit the information that I have already presented. In my lessons I used different summative assessment and try to make them relevant and fun for the students. My first and third lessons were assessed on their final books that were publish online and my second lesson was assessed on their flyers that the students made about the sun. Mixing up the ways that I assess with benefit my students and make learning more interesting and exciting for them.

• Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning 

1. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations: Throughout this course, I have learned about many different technologies and how to incorporate them in my classroom. I became fairly comfortable with shorebird.com in a quick amount of time and plan on keeping my mind open to learning other programs. If I come across a new technology through my coworkers, school or even students I can learn more about it and evaluate if the program will benefit in my classroom. Technology is rapidly growing and I will do my best to keep up and learn the latest versions for the good of my students learning experience.
2. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation: In my future classroom I can incorporate blogging and video chats. Blogging is a great way to share information and, when done right, receive constructive feedback to help the students develop their thinking. I think that blogging will be a phenomenal way to collaborate with members in the community and even with people all around the world. Also, video chatting could be used when my students need information about an area they have never seen or a culture they are not familiar with. This is a great idea because my students can directly ask someone questions and get information without having to go through myself or an internet search engine.
3. Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats: I think the first action that I will partake in as a teacher will be to set up a class website for my students and their parents to view. This will be an effective way for me to upload students homework assignments, calendars, newsletters and any other information that might need to be known. I can also collect an email list from parents and send them information that way, if that works best. Another way that I can communicate information could be by text messages, if that is a possibility for some of the parents and guardians of my students. There are multiple ways to communicate important information and I plan on using as much of them as needed to reach out to my students, parents, and peers.
4. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning: When my students get to the point where they need to use the internet to heighten their research I can teach a mini-lesson showing them how to get the information that they want and how to gather their research responsibly. I want my students to be able to use as many resources as possible, but need to make sure that they know how to effectively use them first. This mini-lesson could includes topics such as plagiarism, credible sources, and finding relevant information for the topic. All of these topics will help my students understand how to use technology and how it can make their work and learning so much more.

• Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

1. Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources: I would like to incorporate this topic in a mini-lesson as I have described above. My students will learn the importance of citing sources and using technology in a safe and effective manner. As I will be their role model, it will be imperative that I show my students the correct way to use information off of the internet and express to them why that must be done. This mini-lesson will be very important and will be brought up many times throughout the year when the students use information off of the internet.
2. Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources: I know that I will have some students in my class that will learn differently from others and I am prepared to help them in any way that I can. If I know that one of my students struggles with fluency while reading, but needs to read a story for comprehension I will give them the option of listening to an audio version of the story to support their learning. Also, I may have a student that struggles with the fine motor skills necessary for writing. For this student it may be better if I give them the option to type their work on a computer or tablet instead of hand writing everything. There are many other kinds of learners that I have not shown examples for, but I expect myself to cater to my student's needs and have the correct resources for them to strive with their learning.
3. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information: This would be another topic that can be put into a mini-lesson. If i have my students create blogs, then I can explain to them how to effectively comment on others work and what kinds of things are not acceptable to be posting on the internet. We would also go over what kind of personal information is allowed in the internet and what should be kept to yourself. Another important discussion to have with my students would be how to detect if you are talking to someone who is real or lying about their identity. I want to make sure that my students can get full use out of all of the technologies out there, but first they must learn how to do it safely and appropriately.
4. Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools: Like I have stated before, I think that video chatting would be a fun way to learn about cultures all around the world. I never got to do anything like that when I was a students, so I think it would be very exciting if my students got this incredible opportunity. Video chatting with another class in a different state can show my students how alike they are from each other and how different things are in different areas. I think that my students would be very engaged in the lesson we are working on and will want to ask the questions to whomever we may be video chatting. Through this kind of collaboration and research my students will gain an understanding of different cultures and how much diversity there is in our world.