Wellcome to my ECED 4823 Learning Portfolio! I am Lydia Conner. I am majoring in Early Childhood Education at Northeastern State University. I have worked with Jenks Public School for 4 years. Primarily with K-1st grade. My students bring so much joy to my days. When I am not at work you can find me camping, kayaking, reading and enjoying the great outdoors!
Skills I Have Gained
- How to use technology to enhance student learning and make teaching more efficient.
- Adapting technology to fit the specific needs on my students.
- Use technology in ways that foster collaboration and communication with students and coworkers.
- Using technology to process data and reports over student progress and understanding.
My Purpose
The purpose of this portfolio is to highlight the progress I have made and how this course has prepared me for my future teaching years in the classroom. I have learned how to use technology as a tool to adapt lessons to meet each students learning goals in a resourceful and successful manner. On the following pages you will find some of my best work this semester each will show a tremendous amount of growth.
My Learning Journey
This semester I have completed many projects and assignments, each stretching my knowledge of technology in the classroom. I have made excel data sheets, Kahoots, flip videos, interactive hyperdocs, and so much more. I have learned how to personalize each technology to meet my students specific needs. I have also learned how to adapt the way I gather data and preform assessments to optimize learning and time through technology. Continue reading to explore more about my learning journey!
Evidence of Growth
- Before this class I had only used a hyperdoc as a student. I remember the first time I used a hyperdoc was in my pre 1 internship and I loved how interactive yet straight forward it was. This class taught me how to create my own hyperdoc as a teacher. I was surprised by how much effort it took me at first as there are many sections you have to prepare such as video links, interactive assessments, forms, and games. But the more I practiced the more I appreciated the organization. Hyperdocs are a simply way to guide student inquiry in one organized digital platform.
- Through out this course I was challenged to video record myself often! I learned to use several different platforms all with specific learning curves. I used zoom, screencastify, and flip. The most challenging part for me was condensing my lesson into a short video. I often found myself writing a script before hand to organize my information in a more concise manner. I find video recording to be useful for times when in person classes can not be held. It gives the learner a chance to have the one on one personal connection and visual cues without physically being present.
- For many assignments in the course I had to align my work with state and technology standards. Both for students and educators. This forced me to really think of the why behind each of my projects and lesson plans. By reviewing ISTE and state standards, I was forced into critical thinking by asking questions such as does this lesson promote collaboration between peers? Does it empower my learner through technology? Am I able to gather clear data from this technology tool? Or what technology tools can I use to meet specific academic standards set by the state? This was challenging and overwhelming for me at first but as the semester went on I became very familiar with the ISTE standards and meet many expectations within the class rubrics.
My Best Work
Above is an example of a hyperdoc I created it is a digital lesson over gathering and sorting data for 1st grade. My goal for this assignment was to create a lesson that was personalized for each learning in my classroom.
- This work stands out as it is a perfect example of presenting information and hiding inquiry through several technology platforms. Within this hyperdoc students will access google slides, flip, youtube, google docs, and an interactive game. I got a 10 out of 10 on this assignment rubric.
- This project forced me to meet several ISTE standards both for educators and students. This lesson meet standards 2.7 analyst for educators and all of the standards for students! I am very proud of my effort to meet each standard thoughtfully, it was hard work!
Above is an example of my learned ability to gather student data from assessments and present them visually to make a data table and a line graph. My goal for this lesson was to create an assessment that meet specific learning goals and sort the data to help further my own teaching goals.
- This assignment stands out among my other work as it required alot of effort and was the first time I used excel to create a data table and graph specifically for reviewing student progress. I received a 6 out of 6 on the course rubric for this project. Within this excel sheet I compared students baseline assessment (pre conceived knowledge) to the post assessment.
- As you can see the majority of students scores went up, reveling that my teaching techniques have been successful. For this project I worked on ISTE standards 2.7 and 2.1 as I practiced using technology to gather data and was able to set professional goals based on the results of my data.
Above is a fake instagram account I created to highlight a specific digital learning tool. This project was created to stretch my ability to locate quality learning tool to incorporate into my classroom as supplemental work to meet state academic standards.
- This project stands out as exculpatory because of my effort to visually present information using a learner friendly and creative digital platform. I received a 6 out of 6 on the course rubric!
- Through out this project I was asked to find a technology tool that meet ISTE standards for learners. The website I chose fulfilled standard 1.1 empowered learner. The website let the learners be active learners by providing choices and achieving learning goals by demonstrating competency through games. It pushed me as a educator to explore digital resources that promote student autonomy and curiosity.
What I Learned
ISTE: I learned that quality teaching comes from exploring new and creatives avenues for inquiry. To do so it is helpful to meet set learning standards. The ISTE is a collection of standards for both the educator and learner, they aim to promote critical thinking, collaboration, and rethinking traditional approaches. By using these standards throughout the semester I have realized that to create a quality lesson plan a teacher must be willing to dive into unknown territory and find paths to personalize learning for each student.
SAMR: Throughout many projects I was asked to review the SAMR model and use my critical thinking to realize how the digital tools were transforming classroom based learning. This model helped me personalize learning by reviewing many different learning strategies and categorizing them as substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition. If a teacher can meet a section of this model they can either transform or enhance student understanding of a topic.
UDL: I learned to implement the universal design for learning guidelines into my projects to optimize student my teaching and learning. This helped me accommodate to each different learning style I might encounter during my teaching. It taught me that a good lesson needs to be purposeful, resourceful, and strategic.
My Goals
- I wish to extend my ability to create web pages and use authoring software. I do not feel completely confident in by ability to create web pages or use brand new software technology such as excel. I can extend my ability by exposing myself to this digital platform in the next classes I enroll in. I realize that in my future classroom I will have to compile and sort through student data and would like to be prepared to organize this is a way that is easy to read and understand.
- I wish to work on my leadership skills when it comes to guiding other educators in using digital tools. To do so I will have to become more comfortable exposing and exploring new ways to meet the SAMR and UDL models.
- I also hope to become better at discerning the appropriateness of a digital platform or tool based on ISTE and state standards. I will practice this by referring to the standards with each lesson plan or project I create. I realize that quality teaching comes from recognizing the purpose and why behind using a digital tool. By doing this we can accommodate each lesson to the students needs and deeper their learning experience.