Reflection journal #1- Ed 603

I teach Chemistry at Somers High School in Westchester NY. My school views technology as a
tool to personalize each student’s learning experience and currently my district is focused on using
technology for students and teachers to collaborate and communicate. In the past 3 years each student
and teacher have received a new Windows Surface Pro tablet for personal use in the classroom. I
believe my school district has done a great job with not only providing us with technology, but also
giving us opportunities to learn more about this technology and how to use it in the classroom. At each
professional development day we have at least one session involving the use of our PLD (Personal
Learning Device) and funds have been allocated to send staff to technology trainings. This year I was
approved to take part in the Lighthouse Academy which is a 6-day professional learning geared towards
training us in the use of the Microsoft software as well as how to incorporate the use of our PLDs in the
classroom. I feel as if my district is supporting me in my quest to integrate technology into my
classroom.

Currently I align my teaching practice to my school’s vision of technology use by using

technology as a tool to collaborate and communicate. My biggest use of technology is my school
website through Yammer, a business alternative to popular social media sites. Yammer is very much like
Facebook where I can post statuses, share pictures, upload documents, take polls, etc. I personally
invite my students to join my page which allows it to be a safe and private webpage that only my
students and administration can view and participate in. Yammer allows my students to directly
communicate with me, access class materials, and create and share information. Yammer has a mobile
app as well so students will be notified when I post something or send a message to them directly.

One of the challenges to using an online social media platform in the classroom is controlling
what students post and making sure they are using it appropriately. According to Marcela Borges and
Sean Goggins in their journal article titled Towards the Facilitation of an Online Community of Learners:
Assessing the Quality of Interactions in Yammer, the best way to regulate student activity is to model
desired posting behaviors. This study suggested that by coaching students on their posts, encouraging
sense making activity, and providing guides to help students learn how to moderate Yammer students
“eventually took ownership of the environment” (Borges, M. and Goggins, S., 2013). I imagine that
towards the beginning of the year the teacher would need to be actively present on this online interface
and then slowly shift responsibility to the students. This is a great research based tactic that I plan to
incorporate throughout my online Yammer class website.

Through the science department at my school I also use a program called Rubicon Atlas that
helps me map my Regents’ Chemistry curriculum. Although I don’t necessarily use this technology in the
classroom with my students, it allows me to collaborate with my coworkers as we engage in curriculum
revision and renewal. The Atlas program is very useful for both horizontal and vertical curriculum work
and it offers so many tools that I have yet to utilize! This year the Chemistry department’s goal in
updating our curriculum is to be sure that our assessment methods align with our standards and
essential questions. Ultimately we want to be sure that our assessments are evaluating skills as well as
content.

Curriculum mapping is beneficial in that it gives teachers an opportunity to collaborate on best

instructional practices based on classroom assessment data. I find that curriculum mapping also ensures
alignment of standards, curriculum and assessment which is helpful to new teacher who have just
started familiarizing themselves with the curriculum. Although curriculum mapping has its
advantageous it can often times be frustrating and challenging. One of the biggest challenges that
occurs at my school was actually mentioned in a journal article titled Opportunities and Challenges of
Curriculum Mapping Implementation in One School Setting: Considerations for School Leaders by T.
Shilling. The article states that one challenge of curriculum mapping is the concern with teacher buy-in.
Not all teachers bought into the need for curriculum mapping because the relevance and benefits were
not explained by school leaders. Based on Shilling’s research “teachers feared that they would have to
do the same thing and there would be no place for individuality and creativity in curriculum and
instruction” (Shilling, T., 2012). Many teachers at my school have this same fear and have also not
“bought in” to the idea of curriculum mapping. The only clear solution I see to this problem is being
sure that administration or lead teachers describe the benefits and reasons for collaborating on these
curriculum maps.

Other than Yammer and Rubicon Atlas I use a smattering of other technology tools in the
classroom such as OneNote, CastleLearning, Kahoots, Google Scholar, Padlet, and Plickers, just to name
a few. I mostly use technology in the classroom as a way to receive feedback from my student or as a
way to give my students instant feedback. For example, Plickers is an application that allows me to
instantly collect feedback or formally assess my students without the need for them to each have a
technology device. I use Plickers as a way to survey my classroom and see if each individual student is
understanding the content and feels comfortable with the material. On the other hand, CastleLearning
is an application that allows students to answer multiple choice questions on their Tablets and receive
instant feedback. If they get a question wrong once it gives them a hint and if they get it wrong a
second time it describes how to answer the question. With this I can see what questions students had
trouble with and what I need to review more! Both applications are useful for feedback either to me the
teacher or to the students individually. According to studies involving the use of technology as instant
feedback, technologies provide the innovative edge that can help students engage more effectively with
their feedback (Cook, A., et al, 2012). I believe using an appropriate technological application has the
potential to allow teachers to provide more detailed and engaging feedback.

While I try my best to include technology into my everyday teaching, I’ll admit that sometimes it
is difficult and frustrating. I find that sometimes when the students realize our lesson is geared around
technology they feel it is a “goof off” day and not necessarily a lesson with an objective to be met. I
think this has to do with the way students use technology in their everyday lives. My high schoolers are
used to using technology in a social way not necessarily as a tool for learning. One of my personal goals
is to teach students how to differentiate the use of technology in a personal and social manor and in a
professional and business manor.

Like most teachers, time is also an issue for me when incorporating technology. A major
dilemma is that I teach a content heavy Regents’ course in a school district that expects great test
scores. With assemblies, snow days, and making sure we have time to review before the Regents’ exam,
it’s often hard for me get through all of the Chemistry curriculum. Including lessons involving
technology is often not an option if I want to be sure to cover everything that is on the test without
wasting time getting the technology to function properly. This doesn’t mean I don’t use technology all
together, but I will admit I do tend to avoid creating lessons centered around technology for fear it
won’t work. I tend to add technology in as an added activity in which I always have a back-up just in
case. As my school starts to shift away from the Chemistry Regents’ exam my goal is to become more of
a risk-taker in terms of using technology at the core of my learning objective. I am hoping that the
Lighthouse Academy that I mentioned previously as well as my classes at NYIT will help me achieve this
goal. I feel that once my school no longer focuses on standardized test scores I will be more able to
support their vision of learning using technology because I will feel less pressured for my students to
obtain certain marks. As I continue to grow as an educator and become more comfortable in the use of
technology, I plan to continue supporting my school district and their vision of use technology to
collaborate, communicate, and personalize student learning.

Work Cited

Borges, M. and Goggins, S. (2013). Towards the Facilitation of an Online Community of Learners:
Assessing the Quality of Interactions in Yammer. The internet and Higher Education, 16, 14-22.
Doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.07.003

Shilling, T. (2013, November 18). Opportunities and Challenges of Curriculum Mapping Implementation
in One School Setting: Considerations for School Leaders. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 7(2), 20-
37. Doi:10.3776/joci.2013.v7n2p20-37

Crook, A., Mauchline, A., Maw, S., Lawson, C., Drinkwater, R., Lundqvist, K., Park, J. (2012). The Use of
Technology for providing Feedback to Students: Can it Enhance the Feedback Experience for Staff and
Students? Comuters & Education, 58(1), 386-396. Doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.025