Melissa Quinn's Posts - Classroom 2.02024-03-29T11:11:21ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinnhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1950637609?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=0i3fj11j4v1wd&xn_auth=noGoogle Apps for Educationtag:www.classroom20.com,2014-03-03:649749:BlogPost:9984592014-03-03T19:00:00.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p>Just this year our district started using Google Apps for Education and it has changed the way I teach. While I have used many other tools to collaborate and share information with my students such as Edmodo, Schoology, Microsoft Office Suite and other Web 2.0 tools, Google Apps for Education combines so many of these tools into one area plus much more. These tools have made me a more efficient educator giving me to ability to easily collaborate with fellow staff, parents, and…</p>
<p>Just this year our district started using Google Apps for Education and it has changed the way I teach. While I have used many other tools to collaborate and share information with my students such as Edmodo, Schoology, Microsoft Office Suite and other Web 2.0 tools, Google Apps for Education combines so many of these tools into one area plus much more. These tools have made me a more efficient educator giving me to ability to easily collaborate with fellow staff, parents, and students.</p>
<p> The ability to easily share documents with fellow colleagues and administration has made some processes that were often very time consuming and tedious much easier to complete. One instance were this became very handy was when scheduling conferences this past fall. Our principal created shared spreadsheets that had the times for the conferences split out into appropriate conference segments. We were then allowed to call parents we’d like to schedule an appointment with and update the schedule ourselves. This way we could see what was available and leave comments and messages so everyone was on the same page. During conference night if we were unable to attend a conference we could leave a message for the team listing concerns we had in our class.</p>
<p> Another feature of Google Apps for Education is Forms. Forms allow for the creation of quizzes, surveys and questionnaires. This tool is a great way to gather information from parents about contact information and other any other information you may need to know. All information is easily accessed in spreadsheet form and can be manipulated any way needed. This tool can also be used with students to create quizzes to assess their understanding or poll them on activities they’d like to complete. </p>
<p> One of the things I struggled with was providing feedback in a timely manner using technology and rubrics. While Edmodo allowed me to provided grades and feedback within their setting, it did not allow me to attach a rubric. I was using paper rubrics to grade my assignments. With the use of a script called Goobric, I am now able to create and attach a rubric quickly and easily to each student’s assignment. Even if I need to create a document that just has the rubric attached, like when I’m grading student’s programming, I can easily send them a digital copy of their grades providing instant, detailed feedback. The Goobric script also sends the student an email with their rubric attached for easy access. </p>
<p> There are other scripts that also make communicating and sharing information with students so easy. The use of GClassFolders and Doctopus has all but eliminated my need to print anything in my class. I have created shared folders using GClassFolders that keep all my classes and student documents organized for easy access. The Doctopus script allows me to send out documents to each student’s folders with whatever setting are needed for that project. Students then have access to this document in the shared folder that GClassFolders created. Now that I have used these scripts I can’t image going back to the old way.</p>
<p> All these tools have changed the way I teach and communicate with the education community. From sending out a from to collect information from parents, to using Goobric to attach a rubric for grading, to shared documents that staff can collaborate on quickly and easily. Using theses tools has made me much more efficient at my job of educator.</p>
<p></p>
<table border="1" cellspacing="0" align="left">
<tbody><tr><td width="104" valign="top"><p align="center"><b>Google Feature:</b></p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><p align="center"><b>Notes:</b></p>
</td>
<td width="167" valign="top"><p><b>Classroom Integration Ideas:</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="104"><p align="center">Email</p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><p> </p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Online access to all your emails from any computer easily.</li>
<li>Ability to retrieve other email into Gmail</li>
<li>Has filters and labels to help organize your emails.</li>
<li>The use of threads to organize your emails. This allows all emails and replies in a thread to be stored together for easy access to the entire conversation. (Organized by conversations)</li>
<li>Has a powerful search engine within gmail.</li>
<li>Signature Tweeks – keeps your signature right below the message you type.</li>
<li>Chat feature</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td width="167"><p align="center">Students can use email to communicate with teachers. I send emails to my students that are absent (especially for a long period of time) sending them homework and just communicating what is happening in class. I also receive emails from students asking questions about assignments or things they are stuck on. We use emails to ask questions of other students, staff, or professionals.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="104"><p align="center">Calendar</p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Easy to use.</li>
<li>All planning can be in one place.</li>
<li>Multiple calendars can be combined into one easy to read calendar.</li>
<li>Easy to copy an event.</li>
<li>Google Calendars can be embedded to your Google Sites or other websites and then any updates made to the calendar automatically show up on your website also.</li>
<li>Can schedule Meeting for multiple people and sends them an email to let them know about the scheduled meeting.</li>
<li>You can also share your calendar with your co-workers giving them permissions to your calendar.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td width="167"><p align="center">Students could create a calendar for school that would include the schedule and assignments for each of their classes. They would learn how to add my Computer Calendar to their personal calendar to see all the upcoming events and homework due dates. They could also add any sports calendars that they are participating in so they know what day they practices and games.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="104"><p align="center">Talk</p>
<p align="center">Hangout</p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><ul>
<li>Hangout is a great way to communicate to others face-to-face but from a distance.</li>
<li>Screen sharing capabilities allows you to share what you are working on with the other person.</li>
<li>Can use this feature anywhere you have internet connection.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td width="167"><p align="center">Google Hangouts can be used to connect students to experts in the field of study that they are studying. They can also use hangouts to collaborate on projects together.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="104"><p align="center">Docs</p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Secure place on the web to create and share your documents. Eliminates the need to attach a document to an email, which makes a copy of the document.</li>
<li>You have the ability to have multiple people working on the same document at the same time from anywhere that you have internet access.</li>
<li>Can control the level of access to your shared documents. (edit, view, owner)</li>
<li>Everything happens in real time.</li>
<li>Has a chat feature that can be used to communicate while working on a document.</li>
<li>Also has a comment feature to leave comments about a particular part of the document.</li>
<li>Has an option to review revisions. You can also compare them to earlier versions. You can also revert to an earlier version if needed.</li>
<li>Can import and export files using Google Docs</li>
<li>You can work offline by downloading Google Gears.</li>
<li>Can also do spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td width="167"><p align="center">Students can collaborate on documents together using sharing. One of my student's favorite things to so is create a story together with another classmate using Google docs. They will take turns writing every other sentence. I also only allow them to use the chat feature to discuss the story. Another project we just finished included students creating a Science Quiz on their unit of study using Forms. They then sent the quiz to themselves and took it giving the correct answers. Afterward they sent the quiz to five other classmates and received five quizzes. They each took the quizzes and today we graded them using conditional formatting and arrays. This was a great way for them to study their science information.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="104"><p align="center">Sites</p>
</td>
<td width="207" valign="top"><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Can create your own websites that can be shared with others.</li>
<li>Can embed other content (documents, calendars, picasa slideshows, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, and google or youtube videos.)</li>
<li>Has an intuitive editor that makes it easy to create your site.</li>
<li>Template Gallery to choose from many pre-built templates</li>
<li>Lots of storage</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td width="167"><p align="center">I’ve used Sites to have students create a website to market their inventions they create. They are required to think of an invention that would make their lives or the lives of others better. They answer several questions about their invention including the materials they need to build it and the cost. They then draw their invention using the Pixlr app in Google Drive. They take all this information and use it to create a website for their invention. The kids love it.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>My Experience with Free/Open Source Coursestag:www.classroom20.com,2014-02-23:649749:BlogPost:9968432014-02-23T15:08:34.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p> I always love Kahn Academy for it’s educational resources. It has a wealth of videos aimed at educating viewers math, science, economics and finance, humanities, programming, and other topics of interest. Since I am planning to take the Mathematics placement test to attain my secondary math endorsement and I haven’t actively done math problems since college over 23 years ago, the course I chose to take for this experience was an online course on functions. </p>
<p> I was able to…</p>
<p> I always love Kahn Academy for it’s educational resources. It has a wealth of videos aimed at educating viewers math, science, economics and finance, humanities, programming, and other topics of interest. Since I am planning to take the Mathematics placement test to attain my secondary math endorsement and I haven’t actively done math problems since college over 23 years ago, the course I chose to take for this experience was an online course on functions. </p>
<p> I was able to watch several short videos explaining the difference between equations and functions, relations and function, and many other features of a functions. They went through several examples of defining a function. At the end of the first part of the lesson the online course checked for understanding by having me answer several function questions requiring 5 correct answers in a row before moving onto the next topic.</p>
<p> This course was designed to start with the basic understanding of a function and then slowly build on this understanding. Building on prior learning and understanding before moving on to the next level is very similar to the traditional learning environment. I also like that the lessons are broken down into small lesson videos so I could go back and review a portion that I struggled to understand.</p>
<p> A bulletin board system was used during this lesson to explain and show examples of problems we were trying to solve. For math this was especially important because seeing the problem is very important. The instructor also had questions uploaded onto the bulletin board for easy access and then he used different colored pen tools to help identify the value of x when solving the functions. This is similar to face-to-face learning in the sense that the instructor is giving a lesson and students are following along. They also had a short “checking for understanding” section that assesses the level of mastery. There are also a few differences. I was able to pause the lesson when needed and restart right where I left off. There was a lack of teacher-student interaction because this was a taped lesson and didn’t have the ability to chat with the instructor. </p>
<p> While there was a lack of teacher-student interaction I still feel the course offered a rich learning experience. I was able to quickly learn about functions as the class was scaffolded starting with simple questions and problems building on the prior knowledge in the next video. The instructor also did a good job using different collared pens to highlight the important parts of the problem for visual queues when solving the question.</p>
<p> Because this is class was not a real-time course but recorded earlier and then uploaded it did not provide the opportunity to ask questions during the lessons. While I didn’t feel the need to ask questions I also know that other students may have issues with learning some topics this way. Because of the style this is a Behaviorism lesson. It encompasses a teacher-led approach, breaks down the learning into small tasks, and has several examples that are similar to drills. Your understanding is measured through their assessments and the ability to get five questions in a row that includes skills and abilities being enhanced through practice. </p>
<p> For some students who have a strong math background they may be able to watch these videos and understand the concepts without further learning, however for most students I would suggest these courses as a refresher or enhancement to a class that they are currently enrolled. I know the issue our school struggles with is access to technology to use resources like this in their classes. In an online setting I could see how this could be a huge resources students could use to enhance their understanding of topics being taught in an online environment. </p>
<p> In conclusion, I enjoyed taking the course on functions and refreshed my understanding of this math concept for future testing and endorsements I hope to attain. While I am not a math teacher, I can see using these resources to enhance the traditional classroom and online environments giving students another option to learn these concepts. I will be using the videos found on Kahn Academy to prepare myself for the Mathematics place test in the near future.</p>Virtual Reality Reflectiontag:www.classroom20.com,2014-02-09:649749:BlogPost:9943552014-02-09T16:57:26.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p>I really struggled this week to come up with a good opposing view of why Virtual Reality games or simulations shouldn’t be used for educational purposes. I’m not sure why I struggled so much but as the technology teacher I felt I needed to have a good reason. While other colleagues found reasons like a child’s change in behavior when playing in virtual worlds, taking on the characteristics of the avatars, distinguishing from real life and from video game life, and lack of face-to-face…</p>
<p>I really struggled this week to come up with a good opposing view of why Virtual Reality games or simulations shouldn’t be used for educational purposes. I’m not sure why I struggled so much but as the technology teacher I felt I needed to have a good reason. While other colleagues found reasons like a child’s change in behavior when playing in virtual worlds, taking on the characteristics of the avatars, distinguishing from real life and from video game life, and lack of face-to-face interaction. I found that these were all reasons against some of the virtual reality games like “Call of Duty” that I wouldn’t allow in my classroom anyway.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I chose to focus on reason why virtual reality programs specific to simulations used in the classroom might cause issues that would prevent them being used for educational purposes. I found that some students can get a type of motion sickness called “Cybersickness” when playing these games. This is caused when two sensory stimuli disagree or do not match what is expected. As a mother of a child who has suffered her whole life with motion sickness I can see why this might cause problems with integrating simulations that cause a lot of sensory overload. Not all VR programs are like this however having an alternative option for students who may struggle with “Cybersickness” would be something I would suggest if using a VR program that has quick movements around a virtual reality world. While this can be an issues, I do see that most students are not as affected as an adult may be in these situations.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Another reason that could cause educators to not implement VR programs would be the low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness some students can feel especially if they struggle with successfully completing the task. This can be addressed with cheat sheets that give clues to the completion of the game or allowing student collaboration when they are struggling to find their way through the task. By allowing students to help or give clues to other classmates is beneficial two ways. It give the struggling student a way to get help before they are so frustrated they give up and it gives the student who is helping a sense of pride in helping others.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With all of these issues, I still strongly believe that Virtual Reality programs and simulations can be successfully integrated into curriculum and can encourage engagement while offering visual understanding of how things work. I’m also a strong proponent of creating simulations through programming. I plan to integrate a simulation lesson where students will create a Contagion simulation. This is a great way for students to learn first hand how different viruses would spread through a school. With the simulation program and the ability to create variables that can be changed and data recorded showing how fast a virus would spread is a great example of how hands on and visually seeing the virus spread can help them understand the process. I would use the Phet website to show the way data and variables are used to help understand the concept. Students would also need to research different types of viruses and the rate that it spreads using the simulation to produce data on the spread of these viruses.</p>Blogging About Social Networking & Digital Citizenship:tag:www.classroom20.com,2014-02-02:649749:BlogPost:9930252014-02-02T15:46:02.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p>After completing week 4 of my Master’s class on Social Networking and Digital Citizenship I have discovered several new technologies and lesson ideas that I’d like to pursue. One of my colleagues and I also created a Digital Citizenship Policy that I will use and share in my classroom when teaching digital citizenship and especially when expanding our connections to the outside world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One of the new technologies I’d like to pursue and find out more about ways to integrate…</p>
<p>After completing week 4 of my Master’s class on Social Networking and Digital Citizenship I have discovered several new technologies and lesson ideas that I’d like to pursue. One of my colleagues and I also created a Digital Citizenship Policy that I will use and share in my classroom when teaching digital citizenship and especially when expanding our connections to the outside world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One of the new technologies I’d like to pursue and find out more about ways to integrate into my lessons is VoiceThread (VT). My first thought was to have students create a VT similar to what Rich and Edis did for their policy, explaining each of the 9 components of digital citizenship. I would have students collaborate in groups of two and then go back and forth explaining each component. This would be a great way for them to review the policy and summarize. I can then check for understanding by watching the VT videos.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Another idea for VT could be in collaboration with the Reading Teachers in the building. All students are required to take a certain amount of reading counts tests during the semester to make sure they are reading. I could have students create VT videos summarizing the books they are reading as an extension of the reading counts tests.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I’m also going to pursue a blogging challenge called “Student Blogging Challenge” through Edublogs. I am going to start the process of getting permission forms for students to create blog accounts. I feel I need to start now with this process so I can secure all the forms well in advance of this challenge. During this blogging challenge we will discuss the 9 components of digital citizenship and what makes a good blog. I will require that each student create an original blog answering the question and then comment on 2 blogs from students around the world. I feel my biggest barrier will be getting permission to create personal blog accounts and making parents feel comfortable with their child’s safety online.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>During this week I have learned new ways to integrate social networking and digital citizenship into my classroom. I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with my students and transforming them into good digital citizens.</p>Acceptable Use Policiestag:www.classroom20.com,2014-01-24:649749:BlogPost:9909082014-01-24T14:00:00.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p align="center"></p>
<p>How do we keep students safe online while at school? According to the National Education Association school districts need to have an effective Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that contains six key elements, a preamble, definition section, policy statement, acceptable uses section, unacceptable uses section, and violations/sanctions section for computer uses when on the schools network. This AUP is signed by both parents and students and defines the appropriate behavior…</p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p>How do we keep students safe online while at school? According to the National Education Association school districts need to have an effective Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that contains six key elements, a preamble, definition section, policy statement, acceptable uses section, unacceptable uses section, and violations/sanctions section for computer uses when on the schools network. This AUP is signed by both parents and students and defines the appropriate behavior to keep users safe from online mishaps.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When researching the Acceptable Use Policy for my district I found that it could use some updating to include all six of the key elements needed. I also feel the need for three different AUPs, one for the elementary schools, a middle school policy and a high school policy. My districts AUP is very generic to cover all grade levels and I feel adding age appropriate detail would be beneficial.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Preamble:</b></p>
<p>While I feel our districts preamble does a great job of explaining why the policy is needed and it’s goals they are missing how they developed this policy. After doing my research I found that our AUP has been update in 2012 but not much was changed. The revisions were minor and were based on CASB (Colorado Association of School Board) recommendations. As a matter of fact, the entire AUP originated from a recommendation for CASB as a policy many years ago and hasn’t had many changes since. There was also little to no input from administration, staff, or parents. It was on the board agenda and anyone who attended had the opportunity to comment on the policy, otherwise it was the board members who set the policy. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Reference to the school’s overall code of conduct is also missing in our AUP. I feel this is important to state as it addresses bullying, appropriate language, and respect for district property. These are all important when using district technology. I have my own classroom expectations that address these issues and other teachers have added similar aspects to their classroom expectations.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Definition Section:</b></p>
<p>The EGSD Acceptable Use Policy does not have a separate definition section. While it does explain some terms within the policy, creating an area that has technical terms defined makes sure that all parents and students know and understand what the expectations are more clearly when signing the document.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Policy Statement:</b></p>
<p>After reading the definition of a policy statement and the example of a “Computer Responsibility” class that goes over the AUP for better student understanding, it gave me the idea to add this to my lessons at the beginning of my classes. I love this idea! While I’m not sure it requires a separate class, focusing on the details before beginning projects in my class will work great for my needs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>While parts of the policy statement are spread throughout our AUP, it doesn’t have a specific section and I don’t believe it covers all services that we provide. For instance, the AUP mentions communication skills with other students and individuals yet it doesn’t mention anything about online blogs and wikis.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Acceptable Use Section:</b></p>
<p>The EGSD Acceptable Use Policy combines the Acceptable and Unacceptable Use sections. For the acceptable use portion it only discusses that students shall use the districts computers in a responsible, efficient, ethical, and legal matter. I feel this could be better defined to include examples of acceptable use.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Unacceptable Use Section:</b></p>
<p>This section is done well in our AUP as it discusses examples of unacceptable use and describes them well. It also has a disclaimer that with ever changing technologies every unacceptable use cannot be described. This is an important part of the policy because while they try to address each issue in this section there is no way to hit on every unacceptable use and stating this leaves it to the digression of administration when other unacceptable uses occur.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Violations/Sanctions Section:</b></p>
<p>There is a section call “Student Use is a Privilege” that talks about failure to follow the policy and what disciplinary actions may occur. The following sentence is important for students to remember. “Student use of the Internet and electronic communications is a privilege, not a right.” While it’s important for them to remember that it’s a privilege to use the computers, I also struggle with suspending their use because it’s important for them to learn the tools that are being taught. I would rather see other sanctions with limited use to technology under supervision.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If I had to grade our Acceptable Use Policy I would give it a “C”. I feel there are several areas that are missing and other that could be stronger. While it has worked for our district over the past several years, I believe a major revision should be done to protect our staff and students.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1974065655?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1974065655?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>References:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Getting Started on the Internet: Acceptable Use Policies. (n.d.). <i>Education World</i>. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from <a href="http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml">http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml</a></p>
<p>Policies and Regulations. (n.d.). <i>Virginia Beach City Public Schools</i>. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from <a href="http://www.vbschools.com/policies/6-64_1r.asp">http://www.vbschools.com/policies/6-64_1r.asp</a></p>
<p>Student Use of the Internet and Electronic Communications. (n.d.). <i>East Grand Administrative Policies</i>. Retrieved January 23, 2014.</p>How Bloom & Marzano Have Impacted My Teachingtag:www.classroom20.com,2014-01-18:649749:BlogPost:9894502014-01-18T17:40:15.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p align="center"><b>How Bloom & Marzano Have Impacted My Teaching</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because I received my teaching license in an unconventional way, through the Alternative Teacher Licensure Program, I did not have a strong understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Instructional Strategies. Even though they were mentioned during my alternative program, I did not begin to understand how important they were to the learning process until I started my masters program at Regis…</p>
<p align="center"><b>How Bloom & Marzano Have Impacted My Teaching</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because I received my teaching license in an unconventional way, through the Alternative Teacher Licensure Program, I did not have a strong understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Instructional Strategies. Even though they were mentioned during my alternative program, I did not begin to understand how important they were to the learning process until I started my masters program at Regis University. My research will definitely change the way I think about and develop my lessons.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> After studying Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy I realized that I use a lot of the higher order thinking skills already in my lesson. Since I am the technology teacher everything we do uses technology, however it was nice to see that the verbs being used in Bloom’s to describe each level are words that I use every day with my students. Focusing more on these terms in my lessons and posting them in my room will ensure the students not only hear them but also understand what they mean. I feel this will benefit their learning experience.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Marzano’s Instructional Strategies are a great guide to classroom practices that enhance student achievement. These nine instructional strategies are tools that teachers can integrate into their lessons to help with best practices and applications in teaching. I find that I use some of the ideas, however they have not been front-and-center while planning my lessons. Making sure to incorporate each of these strategies during my lessons and not just focusing on a few will make me a more effective teacher.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> To enhance my lesson planning process I have changed my lesson plan template to include an area for Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Instructional Strategies at the beginning of my template. This will allow me to focus first on the overall lesson and then these two important components to increate student achievement. Keeping them at the beginning will allow me to effectively implement them into my lessons. I can continue to reference them as I’m creating the content portion of the lesson, using the strategies Marzano has defined and integrating the key vocabulary from Bloom’s Taxonomy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Another reason having both Marzano’s Instructional Strategies and Bloom’s Taxonomy at the beginning of my lessons is that it will allow me to quickly and easily browse through my lessons to identify what strategies and vocabulary I’ve already used. This way I can ensure that I’m integrating all aspects and keep my lessons well rounded in the use of these important tools of teaching.</p>Bloom’s Taxonomy and Digital Bloom’s Integrationtag:www.classroom20.com,2014-01-17:649749:BlogPost:9894362014-01-17T22:52:01.000ZMelissa Quinnhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MelissaQuinn
<p> During our Frogger Programming Unit, we use many of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Students are taught computational thinking patterns that hit on higher order thinking skills like applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. For instance, the computational thinking pattern of ABSORB is used in programming when one agent absorbs another agent. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As a class we discuss real world examples of absorbing, for instance when a car enters a tunnel or a…</p>
<p> During our Frogger Programming Unit, we use many of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Students are taught computational thinking patterns that hit on higher order thinking skills like applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. For instance, the computational thinking pattern of ABSORB is used in programming when one agent absorbs another agent. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As a class we discuss real world examples of absorbing, for instance when a car enters a tunnel or a turtle disappears in the water when it jumps in. Students are taught how to <b>apply</b> the pattern to their programing using the knowledge that they have gained in the lesson. They then <b>analyze</b> the data by comparing the example with the problem they must solve to get their cars to absorb into their tunnel or their logs and lily pads to absorb into their waterfall. We read the code and hypothesize what will happen, this hits on Bloom’s category of <b>evaluating</b>. With all the knowledge they learn they <b>create</b> a working game that uses several computational thinking patterns allowing them to design, construct and make a Frogger game.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As I was creating a wiki for my masters class a suggestion from my professor on how to enhance my wiki really hit home. I have been struggling as a new teacher to find a way to implement wikis and blogs into my classroom. It was suggested to add a page to the wiki where students could upload agents they have created for their games to share with their classmates, family and friends. By including blogging to this page, students could blog with other classmates on their agents quickly and easily.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I would also like to add a page to the wiki strictly for students to post their successes and frustrations they encounter during their programming. I believe this is a good way to get students to help other classmates if they understand the programming themselves. By being able to answer a question students are inspired to learn more even if the concept is challenging. When posting their successes students can see that with hard work and perseverance that they can also be successful at creating new games.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With the addition of these two pages to my wiki I will be hitting on Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy of <b>understanding</b> with blog journaling. I also believe it will make the lesson well rounded and incorporate all aspects of digital learning. I can say that as we start this unit my students are so excited to learn to code!!!!</p>