Valis School Based Experience 1

School Based Experience Final Reflection

School-Based Experience #1
Integrating technology into the classroom can be a daunting and scary task for many

educators. Although there is pressure from school leadership and the community, educators often

feel unsupported and without guidance in their effort. Many educators dont feel they have the

time or the resources to investigate different technologies and plan how to implement them

effectively. Many simply substituting technology rather than allowing the technology to

transform learning. Throughout the course we have read and studied a variety of methods for

evaluating the use of different technologies and discussed the role that technology should play in

the classroom. Through various models, such as the SAMR, TIM, and TPACK models, educators

and school leaders can make purposeful decisions regarding technology and prepare our students

with skills that will help them succeed in the 21st Century.
The two interviews that I conducted were with Colleen Wealton-Mailander (personal

communication, July 8, 2014), a 7th and 8th grade Spanish, Language Arts, and Social Studies

teacher, and with Kathleen Jensen (personal communication, July 11, 2014), a high school

English teacher who teaches AP Literature and Sophomore English. Both are impressive

colleagues that I am thankful to be working with. They challenge me and I continue to learn and

grow working alongside them. Interviewing teachers of two different grade levels gave me

perspective on how the age and maturity of the students can play a big role in how technology is

integrated and used effectively. Colleen in particular brought to my attention that the maturity

level of students can play a role in their ability to interact online. The social dynamics of middle

school education are unique and does not exclude the online environment either. I was impressed

by how Colleen used online communication in the classroom to teach important digital

citizenship lessons and how to be responsible and professional when interacting with others

online. Our students need to know how to communicate and collaborate effectively both in
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person and online and Colleen develops these skills while scaffolding the process and monitoring

closely.
Technology can drastically change education and when implemented effectively can

transform the way that teachers teach and the way that students learn. When technology is

implemented purposefully the whole process is transformed. As Foreign Language and English

teachers, Colleen and Kathleen both focused on what technology has transformed the most; the

audience. Colleen shared how technology and the Internet have allowed her students to connect

to the wider world, which is very beneficial for learning about and experiencing the culture of

the languages of the world. Teachers can immerse students in the culture without taking

expensive trips and students can interact with others of different backgrounds, accents, and

dialects. According to the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) (2014) these types of activities

allow the learning environment to be Authentic where students use technology tools to link

learning activities to the world beyond the instructional setting. For Colleen these activities

come in the form of listening to videos of people from different areas using

www.laits.utexas.edu. According to the SAMR method her use of technology could be

categorized under the Modification level, but Skyping in real time with students from other

countries would be an idea to move to the Redefinition stage and transform learning into

something that was not capable before (Puetedura, 2014).

The expansion of the audience for students looks different in every class and for

Kathleen, in English the audience is not only who students are interacting with, but who they are

presenting their ideas to. According to Kathleen, the audience for ideas is broadened both inside

the class and in students social interactions. Our students are growing up in an environment

where they can easily share their thoughts and ideas with the entire online world. So how are we

preparing students to communicate in an effective way? Before, the audience for any particular
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writing assignment was the teacher and maybe classmates. Now with the use of blogs and other

online discussion environments students have an opportunity to share their ideas to a wider

audience. According to Kathleen, with the appropriate guidelines and criteria students will feel a

sense of expectation and authenticity that raises the caliber of their work. A suggestion for better

quality of work would be to structure the assignments and environment in a way that engages the

students in a professional atmosphere of sharing ideas and communicating effectively. When

students know their work is going to be read by not just their teacher, but their peers and maybe

even outside professionals they take ownership of their work and the quality improves.
For Colleen some of her most basic assignments, such as biweekly writing assignments,

have changed and been transformed by the integration of technology. These basic assignments

that used to be daunting and tedious for students are now engaging and interactive. In her class

students used to do weekly writing assignments. She has since changed them to biweekly

assignments that are done on a discussion board. The first week the students complete the writing

assignment and the second week students interact and communicate with each other, responding

and giving feedback. Colleen found that students were more motivated and comfortable

communicating in this way because this is the way that they are used to communicating outside

of class. Also, her students complete listening and speaking assignments where their voices are

recorded and submitted to the teacher. This breaks down barriers of anxiety and nervousness that

often comes with speaking a new language in front of others. Students are able to practice and

the teacher can give feedback to students using this resource. Since our interview I was even able

to share with Colleen a Web 2.0 tool that I found as a part of our class discussions. Flipgrid.com

is a way for her to do a similar activity, but make it more collaborative while still eliminating the

anxiety in class.
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Both colleagues emphasized the use of technology to expand their Personal Learning

Network (PLN). As veteran teachers they have had a lot of experience collaborating with

colleagues both in their current schools and through outside networks. With the integration of

technology into the career of education they have seen a drastic and positive change in the way

that educators collaborate. Kathleen shared how a dynamic and evolving PLN can inform and

transform your teaching practices. Kathleen has developed a network of educators over the past

five years from all over the world that challenge and encourage her to integrate technology and

stretch herself outside of her comfort zone. She suggested a few wonderful resources for me and

I have since created a Twitter account to follow various educators and organizations to encourage

and challenge me in my own professional development.

Technology integration on a larger scale can be evaluated and discussed in reference to

the TPACK model, the goal being a consistent and even contribution of content knowledge,

technological knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). For both

Colleen and Kathleen, I believe that individually all of these types of knowledge are established

in their teaching practices and that their content pedagogical knowledge and technological

content knowledge are high. I think both could improve upon their technological pedagogical

knowledge. As technology becomes a more present part of their teaching they must grow and

adapt their teaching practices to include how to best teach technology skills in the context of

their content. This is an area all educators can improve upon with the ever changing field of

technology.
The insights of my colleagues are in line with technology integration research and

highlights their commitment to their field. Technology should not just be used as a substitute for

current teaching and learning practices, but according to Kathleen should help facilitate and

energize learning (K. Jensen, personal communication, July 11, 2014). Furthermore, Colleens
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teaching philosophy is clearly showcased in her ideas about technology tools, we need to move

away from the teacher as knowledge giver and we need to teach [students] how to use the tool,

question what they see, and evaluate the tool and information they receive online (C. Wealton-

Mailander, personal communication, July 8, 2014). Colleens idea about students and learning is

directly in line with my educational philosophy from Week 5. According to the Conceptual

Framework (2013) technology has a greater potential to provide a student-guided experience

that allows for collaboration and creativity (p. 16). As educators our role is changing and it is

our responsibility to evolve our teaching practices to fit the needs of the world around us.

Students need to be able to solve problems, think creatively, and discern quality information, and

technology integration is a great way for educators to facilitate the development of these skills.
School-Based Experience #2
The two lessons that are evaluated below are both lessons exploring financial

responsibilities of higher education similar to my own midterm lesson plan. The first, Getting

Down to It! Financial Aid Fundamentals by Sparking the Future highlights financial aid terms

and procedures and showcases various resources available to students. This lesson gives an

overview of paying for college and includes various activities to help students determine

resources that are available to them. It walks students through the process of determining cost

and possible ways of paying, including savings, grants, scholarships, work study, and loans. It

not only informs students about their options, but how to apply for various financial aid

opportunities. In terms of technology this lesson offers various websites as resources throughout

the process and guides students through the process of using these sites in an effective way.
The second lesson, Exploring College Tuition is more in line with my lesson plan from

the midterm assignment because it focuses not only on the content specific to paying for college,

but students explore these concepts in the context of exponential functions and their models. In

this lesson students spend time researching the schools they are interested in and find tuition
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rates for five different years. Then using a graphing calculator they find exponential functions

that represent the increase in tuition. This model is used to estimate the total amount of money

that students will spend over the years that they are in college. Also, included in the lesson is

calculation for the amount students will pay including interest with a ten year loan. Reflection is

key to every lesson and this one does include an opportunity for students to reflect on what they

have learned and the decisions that they will make in the near future.
Both of these lessons have unique strengths that allow students to explore some ideas and

resources that are very relevant to their near and far futures. The Financial Aid Fundamentals

lesson is aligned with various educational and technology standards and develops information

literacy skills by engaging students with various resources and allowing them time to investigate

the appropriateness and the relevance of the information to their own financial aid needs. The

lesson gives clear definitions of various financial aid terms and give various resources for finding

and acquiring these resources. Lastly, this lesson creates an Authentic learning environment and

students can clearly relate to the need to know and understand these concepts (TIM, 2014).
Although there is structure in identifying personal resources and finding additional

sources the lessons leaves students a lot of unaccountable time to explore the individual sites and

resources on their own. Other than a note for more information there is no guidance for searching

each of these individual sites. Also, these resources are given to students, but there is no support

in determining the validity of other sites that students might come across in the researching

process. The lesson is clearly meant to be an individual process and there could be some

advantages to including a collaborative or presentation aspect. This lesson also does not a have a

reflective piece that allows students to determine how they are going to move forward with this

information. Another weakness is that there is no documented way in the lesson to assess

students mastery of the material that was presented. There is no way, other than the boxes being
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checked on the worksheet, to ensure that the students understand the process and the implications

that this information has on their futures. The lesson could benefit from the backwards design I

mentioned in the Week 6 discussion. McTighe & Wiggins (2005) argued that the challenge is to

focus on the desired learnings from which appropriate teaching will logically follow (p. 14). My

classmate Rebecca Michalski also brought an important point that it seems as teachers we forget

sometimes where we are headed and are lost in the day to day. It is important to have a clear

direction and know ahead of time what will be assessed and what we want students to know.
In terms of technology integration this lesson falls under the Augmentation phase of the

SAMR model because these websites are a substitute for information that could be found in a

book or handouts. Many of the sites are interactive and students can use them to input their own

unique information and situation to get possible scholarships and loan information. These

resources are much more interactive on a personal level than a book could even be (Puetedura,

2014). According to the TIM model (2014) this lesson would fall between the Adoption and the

Adaption level because the teacher is facilitating the search by supplying possible online

resources and there is some student led exploration, but students are not presenting information

they found and are not using higher-order thinking skills to support their decision making.
Furthermore, this lesson could be improved by first allowing students to share what they

already know about the financial aid process. This would allow for students to contribute to the

learning process and for the teacher to correct any misconceptions immediately. Like previous

mentioned above the lesson could add a reflective piece that asks students to share at the

beginning their future goals and at the end have students share three immediate tasks and goals

they need to take to ensure they are making financially responsible decision when it comes to

picking a college. This would make the learning environment more Goal Directed and require

future action (TIM, 2014).

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The Exploring College Tuition project is clearly more appropriate for a mathematics

class because it includes concepts that are in an Algebra II or Precalculus curriculum including

exponential functions and finding regression functions with the graphing calculator. This lesson

has various steps that help to teach students the importance of college tuition cost over the years

of study. One of the interesting aspect of this lesson is that they focus the regression model and

the function on the increase in tuition cost across the years that a students is at the institution.

One of the strengths of this lesson is that students are becoming comfortable with the graphing

calculator functions and are using it to take data from tables and create a function that models the

increase in tuition cost. Another strength of the project is that students are required to present the

information and reflect on the conclusions that they made in a short essay. Included in the project

are two great resources, a rubric for showing students through the knowledge and activities that

will be assessed and a step-by-step guide to using the graphing calculator. The guide will also

help to alleviate confusion and walk students through the proper use of the technology.
Technology is integrated into the project and the use of mathematical graphing

technology exposes students to its relevance and importance in applying these concepts to real

life examples. The use of graphing technology has bumped this lesson above the line according

to the SAMR model from Enhancement to Transformation. The use of technology falls under the

Modification stage of this framework because this task is possible without it, finding a function

given data is possible, but the graphing technology drastically changes the process. It allows

students to easily change the data into a function that they can then use for further exploration.

This task was redesigned to not focus on the tedious calculations, but to engage with the overall

process of using the function to make further conclusions. Using this technology students are

also able to easily see the visual representation of the model in the form of the graph. Consulting

TIM (2014) this use of technology falls under the Adaption level of technology integration
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because students are directed by the teacher through the process of creating the function, but they

are also given the opportunity to work on their own to make conclusions and decisions about the

results. The environment of this lesson is also a positive one because it requires students interact

with concepts that are relative and authentic to their lives.

This lesson could be improved by adding some guidelines and structure to the

presentation of the material. This would give students an opportunity to share their ideas and

conclusions in a meaningful way. They could even use some form of technology to do so, and

giving them choices over the tools that they use which allow some autonomy in the project. Also,

the lesson could be improved by adding clear goals. The introduction gives some background to

the relevance of the project, but having clear goals will help the teacher to assess whether the

students have met the goals for mastery of the material. I would prefer to implement this lesson

because of its relevance to the classes that I teach at the present time and for the structure of the

lesson and the implementation of mathematical technology. The implementation of this

technology for students to use it to help make relevant conclusions about their future. The lesson

is relevant to students lives which will foster motivation and engagement and will develop skills

to discern good financial choices in the future.

Both of these lessons have key aspects that could improve my own lesson on student loan

interest and repayment. The first supplies a variety of different resources that might be helpful to

my students in the research part of their project and the definitions and clear explanations of

various financial aid vocabulary can be added to the lesson for further clarification. The second

lesson adds a new element to the process of determining cost over all the years of study. In my

lesson we assumed that the cost for each year of study would be the same as the one the students

researched and that is often not the case. Adding this element of collecting past data and

determining an exponential function using graphing technology would allow students to have a
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more accurate representation of the overall cost. It would also support their understanding of

exponential functions and regression models.

In conclusion, technology can support, engage, and transforming learning. Educators and

school leaders need to take a purposeful look at the technology that is incorporated into the

classroom as well as the way it is being implemented. There are many different circumstances

and aspect of the implementation that need to be included in the analysis including the students,

school environment, and resources. There are many models that can be used to evaluate the

integration of technology, including those used in this evaluation, but one of the best ways to

evaluate the implementation is to ask why? the technology is being used. Why are you using

it? Does it align with the mission of the school or the educational philosophy of the teacher?

Asking these questions are the best way to determine whether the incorporation of the

technology is meaningful and effective.

Works Cited
Conceptual Framework. (2013). Conceptual Framework: Teaching and Leading Beyond Boundries.

Retrieved from http://www.umuc.edu/edudept/upload/full-conceptual-framework.pdf.

Leigh, E. (n.d.). Exploring college tuition project (using exponential functions). Teachers Pay Teachers.

Retrieved from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Exploring-College-Tuition-Project-

Using-Exponential-Functions-362329.
Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2011-2014). The technology integration matrix. College of

Education, University of South Florida. Retrieved from http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php.

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2005). Introduction and Chapter 1. Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA:

Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved from

http://books.google.com/books?

id=N2EfKlyUN4QC&lpg=PP1&dq=1416600353&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Puetedura, R. (2014, June 29). Learning, technology and the SAMR model: goals, processes and practice.

[Weblog post]. Retrieved from

http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2014/06/29/LearningTechnologySAMRModel.pdf.
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Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. Boston, MA:

Pearson.
Sparking the Future. (n.d.). Getting down to it! Financial aid fundamentals. Washington State Office of

the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Retrieved from

https://www.k12.wa.us/SecondaryEducation/CareerCollegeReadiness/SparkingFuture.aspx.