Kelly+Shepherd

=This is Kelly's page.=

CAST Reflection:
When I completed the learning styles survey, I was surprised to find two areas in which the strength was relatively equivalent. These areas were visual/verbal and visual/nonverbal. I hadn't realized that the nonverbal aspect was an important part of my learning style. One strategy that I learned was using charts or tables in order to organize information when studying. I have used this strategy before, but didn't understand why it was an effective study strategy. I was unsurprised that tactile/kinesthetic was my least favored learning style. When learning a new skill, I have always preferred to read instructions or look at diagrams before attempting to complete the skill. Doing so helped me to understand the concept that I was supposed to learn. In school, hands-on activities, such as science labs sometimes left me confused. So much of my effort was consumed by completing the experiment that I would often miss essential information. This is very interesting information, Kelly, especially since I meet so many students who would rather do hands-on activities instead of read directions!

My overall impression of the CAST website is positive. I am impressed by the breadth and depth of the resources that are available. The advantage of CAST is that it consolidates resources and makes them accessible through a central information access point. At the same time, I did find that some information was difficult to access. Some of the specific strategies and examples that I needed were buried under layers of hierarchical links, making it challenging to locate. I believe that with repeated use of this website would I would become more familiar with the organizational structure and that this would alleviate some of these issues. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age provided a great deal of information. I found Chapter 3 "Why We Need Flexible Instructional Media" to be especially interesting. Before reading this chapter, I had not fully considered the educational implications of digital media that can be transformed, marked, and networked. I will incorporate these ideas into my teaching by incorporating more multimedia elements into my instructional materials. I will also look for opportunities to provide internet access to instructional media, so that materials are available for parents and students to use when completing home assignments. Often educators think multi-media is just entertainment, not of real instructional value. However, you can see by the information in Chapter 3 that multi-media does, indeed, serve a very real purpose to learners who need multiple methods of presentation to learn new concept and skills. And, as I've said before, it's what today's generation of learners knows in terms of what they've been doing since early childhood.

The two activities that I participated in were illuminating. For the first activity, I chose the Indian Dinner, mostly because I felt a connection to one of the characters. Like Sheela, I don't really enjoy cooking but would be willing to do so under some circumstances. When asked to identify my background, skills, and interests the way the question was phrased encouraged me to focus more on my strengths than on the challenges that I faced. While those challenges still existed, it was easier to see how I could use my existing skills to overcome them. This is important in education, as well. It is often easier to identify the gaps and weaknesses in a student's skills than it is to notice the strengths that students possess. For me, this exercise reinforced the importance of capitalizing on a student's prior knowledge when attempting to teach new skills or content. In the second activity, it was easier for me to recognize the objects and people in the illustration than it was to explain the motives behind their actions. I realized that I was looking at the illustration from the perspective of a storyteller - I wanted to know the underlying plot, not just the moment in time captured in the picture.

Differentiation has become the focus of school improvement efforts throughout Harford County. In my school, many teachers have struggled this year to implement differentiated instruction in a meaningful way. Too often, teachers are overwhelmed by the need to provide multiple resources, activities, and assessments to meet the needs of learners. The CAST website provides tools, such as the UDL lesson planner, which can help with this process. I will be utilizing this resource, along with the UDL Book Builder, when planning instructional activities for the upcoming school year. I will definitely be using the resources from the CAST website to enhance my teaching and to implement more targeted, meaningful differentiated lessons. I believe that many of my colleagues would also be interested in the materials found on CAST. One aspect of the website that I would like to explore further is the CAST Strategy Tutor, which supports teachers and students who are conducting online research. My students often need to use internet resources to research topics, and are frequently overwhelmed by the amount of information that is available. I am interested in the resources that CAST offers to support students in this endeavor. I hope that you will be able to share this valuable resource (website and took-kit) with your colleagues in the coming year.

Virtual Fieldtrip Reflection:


My experience with this virtual field trip was very positive. For example, the New Bedford Whaling Museum website contains an interactive simulation called "A Whaling Adventure". In this simulation, students participate in a virtual whaling expedition. The simulation contained a number of multimedia features, including sound effects, popup textboxes to explain key vocabulary terms, and visual images. All of these features are designed to help students easily access information on the site. Another simulation, "Hunt for Knowledge" used a game format to teach students about whales. In implementing a virtual field trip for my class, I know that I would need to spend a great deal of time on the planning stages to ensure that students were able to move through websites easily. Finding a broken link was frustrating, but as an adult I was able to work around the issue. In the process, I discovered information that I might not otherwise have found. For students, this might be more problematic.

The overview provided at the beginning of the field trip was very useful, and helped set the stage for what students were about to explore. If I were implementing this with a class, I would want to include a similar framework and questions for students, to help guide them through the activity. One way to do this, other than a Word document, would be to create a "Jog the Web" for students to lead them on a structured tour of the websites. I would also try to include websites with a text-to-speech option. While the information on the New Bedford site was presented well, the reading level would have been challenging for struggling readers. Good point. I would have liked an audio component, so that they could focus more on the content, and less on decoding unfamiliar words. I would also consider adding an assessment component to the virtual field trip to determine if students were able to achieve the lesson objectives. A journal entry, for example, would provide students with time to reflect upon their experiences. Yes, I know that there are some elements that could be added to this experience to make it more valuable to students' learning - just didn't get "there" yet.

As an adult learner, I thought I had a decent understanding of whaling, and did not anticipate learning as much as I did. I had not realized, for example, that whale oil contributed to the success of the Industrial Revolution. A virtual fieldtrip should offer every participant an opportunity to expand their knowledge base, even if they have existing prior knowledge about a topic. Students who know - or think they know - all there is to know about a topic should be provided with more challenging materials. The PBS video, "Into the Deep: America, Whaling, and the World", and its related links are a good example of materials that could be used to enrich a virtual field trip. The reading level would be challenging for most students, but more advanced learners would appreciate the video, paintings, photographs, and reenactments that are available on the PBS site. As a teacher, I would want to ensure that I had previewed all materials. There were a few parts of the video that contained content that would be questionable for elementary aged students.

Technology Standards:
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Toondoo:
Great cartoon, Kelly, and a clever idea to present the battle for Ft.McHenry.

Glogster:
My experiences with Glogster have taught me the importance of effective summarization. For any topic, the volume of information will greatly exceed the amount of space available on the poster. While text boxes can be used to contain copious amounts of information, the visual impact of the poster is much greater when text can be bulleted or presented in small chunks. Creating links to websites, documents, or presentations is an effective way to prevent visual clutter. Still, students need to be able to identify key facts about their topics and summarize important ideas in order to create a successful glog. In my opinion, Glogster offers a fun, interactive means of teaching these critical skills. Yes, glogs give students the opportunity to be creative and, most of all, it forces them to limit the information on the poster so they get practice in identifying key facts - plus, they can link to site with more information for those who wish to visit there.

Glogster offers users the option to easily embed multimedia elements and to link to outside resources. This ability, when utilized effectively, can help the user create informative and appealing posters. As a teacher, however, I see the potential for students to misuse Glogster's features. For instance, students would need to provide credit to their information sources through correct citation. More importantly, students would need to know how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources of references. I believe that using Glogster would be a very positive experience for students, provided that teachers took the time to teach some information literacy skills before or during the project. Also, I found that much of my time was consumed with choosing graphics and backgrounds. For students with limited computer access, effective time management would be important. media type="custom" key="20311250"

=Final Project:= For my final project, I chose to create a wiki. I have experimented with wikis in the past, and even used them briefly wth my students. However, I've found it difficult to be consistent in my implementation, because I didn't have the time needed to plan the structure of the wiki and to ensure that it was aligned with my instructional objectives. I believe that I have finally created a space that will meet the needs of my students.

My goal was to create a wiki that students can access from both school and home. The wiki needed to be comprehensive. I didn't want to have separate wikis or blogs for each subject area - I've tried that before in reading and writing, and it isn't managable. Most importantly, the wiki needed to be both structured and flexible. A clear organizational structure ensures that users can locate the information that they need quickly and easily. Flexibility is also important, since the wiki needs to grow as new information and resources are added.

Currently, the wiki contains three main areas: general information, reading, and math. In the math section, students can access resources to help them with homework, math facts, and lessons. The reading section contains pages for book recommendations, classroom library information, special programs, and projects. In the future, other sections and subject areas may be added. While parent can access the wiki, it is primarily designed to be used by students. Although some pages are currently locked for editing, most of these will be unlocked once students are taught how to use the editing, discussion, and comment tools in the wiki. Eventually, students will be using the wiki to hold discussions about assigned readings, create group projects, and post examples of work.

Ultimately, I would like this wiki to help bridge the gap between home and school. I find that many of my students do not have the support or resources available at home to complete assigned projects or homework. Parents would like to help, but sometimes don't have the time or background knowledge needed to do so. By making online resources available to students, I am hoping to foster a greater sense of independence and responsibility. I want my students to know that if they develop good study habits and make use of available resources, that they can learn and achieve success.

This is the link to my wiki:

Wild About Learning Wiki

Since this wiki is set up as a private wiki, you will need to log in using the following user names and passwords.

User name: Guest_2012 Password: stiauo

User name: Guest_2012b Password: miodri

User Name: Guest_2012c Password: raipri

User Name: Guest_2012d Password: widuph