Tuesday, February 23, 2016

ISTE Teacher Standards

After talking with your small group about the ISTE Teacher Standards, choose a question to expand on.
Which Standard do you feel you still need to grow in?
Which Standard do you feel you can lead in?
How does this connect to leadership?
Do these standards help guide your practice? If so, how? If not, why?

15 comments:

  1. I think these standards help to guide my practice because they help me to think about choice for students and opportunities to show learning in different ways. I think about this especially in terms of formative assessment. I know I've used assignments in Google Classroom in formative ways that I hadn't done before. For example, I have students add a slide to a group presentation that shows their thinking for a math problem or concept, and I can quickly and efficiently see where they are at in their understanding. In addition, I use sites like GoFormative to get quick snapshots of their learning. What is especially powerful about the tech side to this is it allows multiple viewers at once, for students to get real-time and authentic feedback, and allows us to revisit topics (and the student thinking has been captured!). I know these standards help ground me in what I need to keep focused on and how we can collaboratively work to incorporate 21st century skills into student learning and exploration.

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  2. When I first glanced at these standards, my immediate thought was that I was incorporating all of them. As a "techie" type teacher, I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate technology into my teaching practices. However, when you dive a bit deeper into these standards, it seems that there is much more to implement and teach than just using technology in your classroom.

    Something I've seen evolve is the need for the 4th standard which involves digital citizenship. When I first started teaching just 9 years ago, students didn't have any idea what it meant to be a responsible digital citizen. They could barely double click! Now, our students are finding new tools, extensions, communication forums, etc. every day. After our discussions in class, it really became evident to me that I need to grow in making sure to constantly model for my students how to be a respectful digital citizen. I'm also trying to reflect on ways to give kids appropriate consequences when they break citizenship rules. It was definitely good food for thought!

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  3. Do these standards help guide your practice? If so, how? If not, why?

    These standards do help guide my teaching and I appreciate that they are concise. It seems to me that we are preparing students for a world that no one yet fully understands. When I look at my students, I see young people who function in a different way than I did when I was in their place 20 years ago. Their ability to dig in and do research is limited but their work with technology is far more advanced. In some ways I feel like technology is a disservice in education when it comes to digging for information but in terms of formative and even cumulative assessments, it is a huge plus. I like being able to quickly get a sense of everyone's understanding and seeing what they can do through the use of tech (videos, writing, even art/graphic design). I do think that they are looking for the easy route too often with tech though, for example just using the info that Google spits out at them rather than reading more deeply.

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  4. I just read an article that pertains...and reminds me of Dana's email tagline (if you haven't noticed it - be sure to check it out)

    The article is a good one! http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/01/14/how-to-determine-if-student-engagement-is-leading-to-learning/

    Here are some questions that will assist in determining if engagement is leading to actual learning:

    • Is the technology being integrated in a purposeful way, grounded in sound pedagogy?
    • What are the learning objectives or outcomes?
    • Are students demonstrating the construction of new knowledge? Are they creating a learning product or artifact?
    • How are students applying essential skills they have acquired to demonstrate conceptual mastery?
    • What assessments (formative or summative) are being used to determine standard attainment?
    • How are students being provided feedback about their progress toward the specific learning objectives or outcomes?
    • Is there alignment to current observation or evaluation tools?

    Engagement, relevance, and fun are great, but make sure there is observable evidence that students are learning when integrating technology.

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  5. I feel I still need to grow in the standard 4 Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. This is something I feel I have touched upon yet I feel as though this is a challenging standard to meet. The digital world looks very different than when I was in school and it is constantly changing today. I find myself trying to keep up with all of the changes. Due to this explosion of the digital world, digital citezenship has become of high importance. I am constantly asking myself what does this look like in action? Am I continuously modeling this for my students? I think that while I am modeling it, I need to be better about explicitly teaching this concept so that they understand the incredible doors the digital world opens to them but also understand that they must proceed with caution.

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  6. After reading these standards, I feel as though it is very challenging to select only one to talk about. They are all so important and promoted a lot of reflection of my teaching. I feel fairly passionate about the 5th standard but also feel as though it may be beyond my pay-grade as a first year teacher. I can only imagine the things we could do in fifth grade if the students came in at higher ability levels from the earlier grades. I think there are ways that I could help other teachers in my building with technology use in their classrooms, but at the same time, I don't feel like it is my job/role/place to approach this subject with teachers who have far more experience than I do. Looking to the future (and the ISTE conference this summer!) I feel as though this time could come at some point, it's just a matter of when.
    I have this strong desire to learn new ways to incorporate technology into my classroom, and also to share the amazing things that I am learning to help others around me. I feel very blessed to have two other teachers from my building joining me in this co-hort, including my teammate. It is my hope that the three of us can continuously expose more of our colleagues to easy ways to incorporate technology into the classroom and get others more comfortable doing it so the kids can benefit.

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  7. The standard that I feel I need to grow in is #4 Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. I would like to think I do this daily but truthfully sometimes it's challenging. It's very easy to forget that a 10 year old doesn't have the same understanding of what it means to be a digital citizen as a 32 year old does. Sometimes I just assume that a 10 year old knows that whatever you write on the internet will never go away. Since kids are being required to use technology at a younger age we all need to make more of an effort to ensure that students are becoming digital citizens.

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  8. Which Standard do you feel you still need to grow in?

    I would like to continue to grow in the first standard, empowering learners. I feel fairly educated in multiple ways that technology can be used to multiple ways to demonstrate competency but have not had the time to coordinate my essential learnings with a lot of student choice. The balance needs to shift from one size fits all to more of a choice. In order to do this, a teacher must really take time to consider the essential concepts and be able to articulate what the students need to demonstrate (not how they demonstrate it). This also requires students to understand a bit about self pacing and self control.

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  9. Do these standards help guide your practice? If so, how?

    I was looking at the standards and these two stand out to me for what I do in the classroom: Design and develop digital age
    learning experiences and assessments AND Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. I definitely plan lessons around these two standards.
    We designed an "Open Ended Assessment" and gave the students options to do it on paper or use these sites: Possible Animation Software Options:

    http://www.xtranormal.com
    dvolver.com
    http://www.storyboardthat.com
    http://wideo.co
    http://www.moviestorm.co.uk
    http://www.plotagon.com
    ToonDoo
    DoInk app
    Powtoon
    Voki
    GoAnimate
    wevideo https://www.wevideo.com/

    It was amazing what they created using them. The cool thing was I had NEVER used them myself to create something, but the kids are so tech savvy they just jumped in with two feet and tried it. Most students chose an electronic way to express their learning. Only a few did it on paper with colored pencils.

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  10. After reviewing the standards for ISTE, I noticed that I need to grow in all of the standards. I feel I need to talk to my students about digital citizenship at an early age. I think 6 year olds need to know the dangers and embraces the internet has to offer. When they need to be concerned and tell an adult and how to block online predators. It is also imperative that they understand the "etiquette" of emails and that posts never do "go away." I feel that I can massage more creative ideas into my students so they can communicate with the world. I think allowing them to create more using age appropriate tools will allow them to express themselves early on in their educational career.
    I think I can slowly integrate these ISTE standards into our classroom even with the limited tools that we have. I am hoping that I can truly lead little techies into a smooth transition for their future.

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  11. At first glance ISTE standards may be viewed as “one more thing”, and some teachers may shy away from considering them, thinking the standards are for teachers who teach “tech”. On the contrary...embedding the ISTE standards have the potential to enhance every content area and deepen learning experiences for all types of learners, including teachers. If we all consider ISTE standards’ roles in supporting 21st Century learners, we can use them to help students make connections across content areas and disciplines. Increasing accountability and growth tracking is here to stay and even to some extent increasingly important when we consider the implications of ECEA (Exceptional Child Education Act) and ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act). The goal of the revised laws focus on “fully preparing ALL students for success in college and careers” [...of the future], including students with needs at both ends of the learning spectrum. If we view the ISTE standards (#1-4) as a framework for scaffolding learning opportunities and work collaboratively with PLCs to support our profession (#5), both teachers and students benefit. Integration (of ISTE standards) has the potential to enhance rather than expand our daily planning and assessment, and support 21st Century learners on their journey towards college and career readiness.

    ECEA - includes guidelines for students with special needs and gifted and talented populations

    https://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/documents/spedlaw/download/ecearules-march2013.pdf

    ESSA - http://www.ed.gov/essa

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  12. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
    "Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices." I would really like to be able to look at different professional development opportunities that I could utilize to teach students in math beyond trying to connect real world and usually way in a students future. When talking to students about when they might need this in the future is rough. This is where I would like to look at more growth.
    Being able to facilitate and grow student learning through a digital feed seems to be something that needs continual growth as well as something I would like to start to lead in professional developments at school, with some assistance. In leading some of the discussions around this topic I feel that there would be more of a united front in teaching students to be not only more responsible members in the digital community but also increase the resources that teachers and students have to be positive members of their own learning in class.

    These standards give me an idea of where I would further my thinking when looking at a unit and lesson within that will give me a broader sense of experiential learning for students and what they can gain from these experiences in their lives now to drive learning in the future.

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  13. I used to think the Standards were daunting! Now that I have had time to ingest them and persevere through the "newness" of them, I appreciate having something concrete on which to focus. I intentionally have students learn these Standards as well - and post the actual standard on the board with the Learning Goal. I think it's important for kids to know them and why they need to master them at this point. It helps guide me through the selection of ideas for assignments - and I am always turning to TPT or Pinterest for support as well! I also love having students feeling proud of their accomplishments at this stage of their learning. My students are further in technology this year as second graders than my third graders were last year! I am growing right along with them!

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  14. Emily Post once said, “Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.” When looking at the ISTE Teacher standards, I believe that one of the skills I need to continue to work on personally and work on with my students is the promoting of digital citizenship. To me digital citizenship is the “etiquette” of the 21st Century. Our students have been thrust into a world that I was not raised in and much like the social graces, digital citizenship guidelines are being developed like a plane being built in midflight. This citizenship can be modeled and practiced but in order for it to be a habit, we ALL must continually work on it and continually build that plane in the air. I will keep helping my students learn the value of strong digital citizenship. I will keep praising their growth AND failures I will keep my own personal growth mindset on.

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  15. I agree that incorporating the essential value of a 'digital citizenship' should be a priority for my students and for me as their teacher. It goes without saying that the best example is in one's actions. It should be a very easy task to ask students to follow my own lead once I've established it in my classroom comportment towards technology.

    I have a long ways to go as far as incorporating more and more of technology but, certainly I'm not afraid to venture on this journey. I do have to do it very slowly and lead my students in this journey all the time. They know much more about it than I do but, then I know how to organize their learning for them. Digital citizenship is the highest value that we as teachers can impart to our students.

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