That Led Me On A Journey
Fall 2011
In ECI 541, Reading in the Content Areas, I learned to create a website, specifically a WebQuest, to integrate both traditional and new literacies, independent and collaborative work, history and current events. Through this project, I learned how to use technology in my classroom for planning and instruction in a way that is practical for myself and my students and that teaches them a multitude of the skills and strategies they need for complex, nonlinear online reading and research. This WebQuest, http://pacifictheaterww2.weebly.com/index.html, was linked to Scaffolded Reading Experience assignment, addressing NC SCOS
Standards 7.01 - Identify historical events
such as invasions, conquests, and migrations and evaluate their relationship to
current issues, and 7.02 - Examine the causes of key
historical events in selected areas of Africa, Asia, and Australia and analyze
the short-and-long range effects on political, economic, and social
institutions. Both of these projects helped me to integrate 21st century skills and technology, multicultural perspectives, and a variety of texts were read and comprehension strategies were modeled and practiced.
eci_541_sre_project.docx | |
File Size: | 20 kb |
File Type: | docx |
In ECI 546, New Literacies and Media, my classmate Stephanie Offerding and I worked together on two projects during the semester. The first was a review of the website Animoto, an online tool to create animated slideshows. We learned how to use Animoto for educational purposes and gained some much-needed confidence in our technological abilities, but more than that we learned how to collaborate via Wikispaces on a project without always physically meeting. This is an invaluable lesson, as Wikispaces, Google+, and similar technologies allow for conferencing, collaboration, and connections across oceans and borders, which will help me to teach and use 21st century technology in tandem with multicultural perspectives and global issues. You can see our work at http://hillerspires.wikispaces.com/Animoto+Page. Stephanie and I also completed our Project Based Inquiry together, a foreshadowing of our Creative Synthesis, again using WikiSpaces, to answer the question, how can we use technology to enhance the curriculum for special needs preschool students? The rationale and lesson plan are available at http://hillerspires.wikispaces.com/Dyad+4+page. We used an electronic switchboard and MovieMaker software to create two different activities to teach the parts of the body to our nonverbal special needs preschool students. This project taught me several important lessons; I gained valuable experience working with very young beginning readers, learned how a simple switchboard can be used for phonics instruction, and discovered that MovieMaker can be used to combine still images, audio, and video, and for struggling readers this could mean valuable audio-visual texts to assist in accuracy, fluency, comprehension, and reading stamina. You can see me in action with the switchboard and view our final project movie below.
Spring 2012
ECI 524, Theory and Research in Global Learning, found me running a section of the Global Learning Initiative Project (GLIP) among middle school students across America and around the world. This was also done using WikiSpaces, and you can see what my group accomplished and my personal essay on where I see the world in 25 years at http://glip2012.wikispaces.com/Group+Witham. The experience of working on this project completely online, and without full participation from all of the partner schools, helped me to learn about some of the pitfalls of online, distance collaboration. I learned that there need to be very specific guidelines, clear expectations and due dates, and a user-friendly and simple website to host it. The project showed me how images and text can be used to share ideas, beliefs, and concerns with people from all over, and it also brought the ideas of global society and global education into perspective for me in a way that I can now see myself doing this in my classroom. A study of maps of the world created by children for the Barbara Petchenik Children's Map Competition, linked below, did the same for me in a very profound way that can be adapted for my students to teach them the same lessons, as I explain in the Educational Applications section of the presentation. A third project for this class, on cosmopolitanism, taught me to finally feel confident in my abilities and instincts creating multimedia products to show my knowledge and learning, which I can in turn pass along to my students.
maps__pluralism.pptx | |
File Size: | 1663 kb |
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During this same semester, I was enrolled in FLG 101, German 1. Although the experience of being in a language course after twelve years was interesting, it did not help me answer any aspect of my compelling question. However, it did remind me of what it feels like to struggle to understand a written and spoken language one does not understand, and struggling to learn the new grammar and vocabulary will help me sympathize with my students who struggle to decode and comprehend while reading.
Fall 2012
Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning, ECI 512, was an online class that taught me many things that helped me find answers to my compelling question. I learned how to blog, http://21learningncsugrad.blogspot.com/, and podcast, and have many ideas for applying these skills as either a reading specialist or classroom teacher, both for students projects and teaching tools. I collaborated via Google+ with classmates on projects, solidifying my familiarity with the technology and adding to my confidence in using it professionally. One project is a perfect answer to my compelling question, as we designed a lesson using students' own mobile devices, which do not require school resources, to share and respond to images captured by peers, integrating 21st century learning tools, learning skills, contexts, and critical thinking, awareness of various perspectives and backgrounds, and multimedia comprehension and writing. This course also introduced me to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, http://www.p21.org/, and the following graphic.
mobile_device_lesson_plan.docx | |
File Size: | 10 kb |
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ECI 543 and ECI 544, Diagnosis and Remediation of Reading Disabilities, respectively, provided me with specific and extensive tools, activities, and strategies to read and help my struggling readers, addressing my first concern and a main part of my compelling question, and in a way that requires no monetary investment, which will help me in low-income school districts. I learned how to assess students at any age or level of reading ability, interpret the assessment results, design a plan of instruction based upon the data, and implement instruction to improve the students' area of need and overall reading, addressing all Five Pillars of Reading Instruction. I was given the opportunity to practice all levels of the process with students and was provided feedback as well. I now feel confident, prepared, and ready to help my struggling readers in ways that I did not before this program, eliminating the frustrations I felt as a teacher before coming to NCSU.
eci_543_essay_2.docx | |
File Size: | 21 kb |
File Type: | docx |
eci_544_essay_2.docx | |
File Size: | 22 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Spring 2013
ANT 252, Cultural Anthropology, opened my eyes to the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, globalization and localization, social facts and varying versions of culture that exist in our world. Not only did this course reinforce many ideas introduced in ECI 524 about global education, but in learning about many different cultures and their rituals, kinship ties, customs, and languages, and the way anthropology studies them, I shed many of my personal biases and misconceptions. The history of anthropology is the history of colonialism in many ways, and it is that history and the ideas and beliefs about people and society that shape our current political, economic, and social environment and all of its issues. This knowledge, awareness, tolerance, and acceptance will help me to better connect with, relate to, understand, and ultimately teach all of my students, regardless or their ethnic or cultural background, and it will also make me better-able to teach my students to be tolerant and accepting of diverse peoples and cultures.
ECI 645, the Practicum in Reading, provided me with the opportunity and experience of implementing everything I have learned in the K-12 Reading program. I worked with a student in a one-on-one situation over 13 weeks. I assessed the student's reading fluency and comprehension, spelling, and writing, interpreted the assessment results, formulated a plan of instruction based upon the assessment data and his specific areas of need, and then designed weekly fluency, word study, and reading comprehension activities to address those needs. Each week I monitored progress and made adjustments as needed. Finally, I learned how to write a case summary, an instructional plan, lesson plans, and assessment and instructional reports specific to a reading specialist, and how to communicate these effectively with parents and other educational professionals. In the interest of confidentiality, I will not include these assignments. I now feel completely prepared to work as a reading specialist.
ECI 645, the Practicum in Reading, provided me with the opportunity and experience of implementing everything I have learned in the K-12 Reading program. I worked with a student in a one-on-one situation over 13 weeks. I assessed the student's reading fluency and comprehension, spelling, and writing, interpreted the assessment results, formulated a plan of instruction based upon the assessment data and his specific areas of need, and then designed weekly fluency, word study, and reading comprehension activities to address those needs. Each week I monitored progress and made adjustments as needed. Finally, I learned how to write a case summary, an instructional plan, lesson plans, and assessment and instructional reports specific to a reading specialist, and how to communicate these effectively with parents and other educational professionals. In the interest of confidentiality, I will not include these assignments. I now feel completely prepared to work as a reading specialist.