EEND 679 Course Reflection

While participating in this class, the coursework about rubrics really stood out to me. I really appreciated both the video, Designing Rubrics, from Lauren Hobbs and Grant Wiggins’ article On Rubrics and Models Part 2: A Dialogue. These two resources really struck me with their guidance to create rubrics. I completely understand the value of rubrics and have seen how they have been beneficial in my classroom. However, I have often struggled with creating my rubrics. I often find the language challenging. I want the language to be reflective of the learning standards, but also easy for my students to understand what is expected of them. Additionally, I often find the task a little overwhelming. If I am assessing on more than one standard, then there ends up being a need for lots of writing of descriptions. These resources really worked to help me to understand how to be more precise in my language and reflective about what I really want to assess and how to write that into the rubric.

During this class, I really enjoyed working with Janet on our Genius Hour Project. I think that we actually worked on this project was a great learning experience. I think it is easy to see how Genius Hour might work in your classroom. However, I think it was even more beneficial to work with a teammate. I think it was beneficial to see how she tackled the project, it was slightly different than the way I started my research. I think this provided great perspective about how students might tackled the Genius Hour Project. Additionally, it was great to have a conversation with her about how she was thinking of incorporating a Genius Hour Project in her classroom. It was great to have that conversation and have another perspective. It provided me with more ideas of how I could include Genius Hour in my class.

I think this class has helped me to grow as a connected educator. I think that this class has really helped me to connect all the learning I have done in the other classes. I think that in the other classes we learned about great resources and topics about technology. I feel in this class I was really able to pull together lots of the ideas I had learned and apply the assessment tools that we learned in this class to bring my lessons to the next level. The focus on assessment really allowed me to take the information about technology and determine how I can use it to assess my students and improve their learning experiences. I think that the use of rubrics and the better understanding of rubrics will help me be a more connected educator for multiple reasons. One reason is the online rubric resources. I have created rubrics in the past, but I love this resource and the possibilities to use in my classroom. Additionally, I think that using rubrics for the different technology projects I plan to implement will help take the learning to a higher level.

I look forward to taking what I have learned in this class and the other Foundations of Educational Technology classes and using them in my classroom. I feel that the tools and resources I have learned about in these courses are going to help me to differentiate the learning in my classroom. I feel that the activities that I plan to implement in my classroom next year will both increase students excitement and engagement and will also let me modify curriculum to meet my students at their level. From this class, I think it is so important to use rubrics and spend the time to discuss them with my students. This will ensure that students understand the expectations of a project and the standards on which they will be assessed. I think these classes have provided me with great resources to take into my classroom. I will continue my learning in my classroom through actually utilizing the resources and modifying my current curriculum and projects to better meet student needs.

EEND 679 Artifact #2: Assessment Tool Comparison Infographic

            The second artifact I chose to share for this class is the Assessment Tool Comparison Infographic. I chose this artifact because I think there are two elements here to be addressed. One element is that two different assessment tools that I compared. I really enjoyed reflecting on these tools, how I have used them and way in which I could potentially use them in the future. I used Go Formative almost every day during the last school year. However, when researching it for this project, I learned about even more options and capabilities of this resource. I look forward to using some of these new features in my classroom next year. Additionally, although I was familiar with Kahoot, I had not used it often in my classroom. It was fun to explore and see all the potential uses of this resource. While exploring I thought of so many ways in which to use this program in the future. The second reason I chose this artifact is the infographic element. In a previous class we learned about infographics and how beneficial they can be for student learning. However, this was my first time using piktochart. I was so impressed with this resource. I think I was able to create a really great looking infographic using this program. I look forward to introducing this resource to my students and using it in the classroom to see the amazing projects students can make.

            Although I really enjoyed using piktochart, there were some challenges that I experienced. I think that I was able to create a very sleek and visually appealing infographic. The resource I used, piktochart, was very user friendly. I did have to explore and play around a little with the site to find all the different available tools on the site. However, what I found to be most challenging was developing the content to display in the infographic. I very quickly chose Kahoot and GoFormative to compare. I was familiar with both of these resources, when that I used daily and the other that I wanted to use more frequently. However, I really struggled with identifying the five components I wanted to judge these resources on. I can see how students could be very excited about using the piktochart resource and create a wonderful looking project, but I imagine they may also struggle with what and how much information to show on their infographic. This was great project for me to experience before I assign an infographic assignment for my students.

            I think that infographics could be a great project in a classroom. I think it is a really creative way for students to show their understanding of a given topic. I think that students who struggle with writing long pieces, would really enjoy this kind of project to show their learning. I think that this kind of project is great because it is so diverse. One way I can imagine using this project in my classroom would be to have students create an infographic comparing two states or regions in social studies. Students already do some research on these topics and do a write up to show their learning. I think having them create infographics would be an even better way to show their understanding of the subject. Students could also use infographics to compare two different characters when reading. They could also show understanding of a science topic using an infographic. I think the diverse potential of this project and the creative aspect of the resource make this project a great addition to any classroom.  

            I feel like this artifact shows how much I have grown in my learning in not only this class, but during the series of five classes. In our third class, we learned about the importance of infographics. The infographic we read in the resources really struck me and has inspired me to use more infographics in my classroom. From early in the class we have explore a variety of different resources, such as Kahoot. This class has really allowed me to combine the knowledge I have gained in the previous classes and put it together in a way to really benefit the students in my classroom and use my knowledge to increase their learning and engagement. 

EEND 679 Artifact #1: Genius Hour Project

            The first artifact I chose for this class was the GeniusHour Project. I included this project because I think that this is a great way to really impact student achievement. This kind of project is an important way to differentiate and improve student engagement. Students will be excited and motivated to participate in a Genius Hour project because they get to choose their own question. Students will become excited to research a topic that interests them. This project is also great because there are so many different ways that students can show their research. This allows students to be creative in how they want to present their learning. Additionally, students will be able to show mastery of a variety of different skills during this project. They potentially can show mastery in reading, writing, and technology skills, as well as potentially a subject area that their project is connected to. This is why I chose to discuss the Genius Hour Project.

            Although this project has so many potential benefits, there are also some potential challenges. One of the strengths of this project, how open ended it is, could also be a challenge for some students. Some students enjoy or feel secure when completing assignments that have very explicit directions. These students often struggle when they are provided with more choices and freedom. One way to address this challenge is to have a rubric ready to discuss when presenting this project. By explaining and discussing the rubric with students, you will explain the expectations for students and give those students some structure, while still allowing them the choice and freedom to develop their own question and be creative when sharing their project. Another challenge could be helping students to develop questions to research. Students will need to develop questions that allow deep thinking and research. Students are often not familiar with asking these types of questions. It may take some time and some guidance to help students to develop appropriate questions to research for their Genius Hour.

            I think the Genius Hour Project would be a great addition to any classroom. I think one way to incorporate a Genius Hour would be during an informative Writing or nonfiction Reading unit. Ideally, if you are teaching these unit together you could devote even more class time to the project. You could potentially teach the reading and writing skills of the unit and then have students show mastery of these skills by completing a Genius Hour Project. During the process of researching their question they would have to use the nonfiction reading skills taught during the unit. Similarly, while creating their project, they would have to utilize the informative writing skills they had just learned. I think what is really important for this project, is to determine which skills you will be assessing at the completion of the project and be sure to include these on the rubric. It is important to take time to review and discuss the rubric so students have a true understanding of the purpose of the project. This project provides so many potential opportunities to incorporate into the classroom to address a variety of learning standards, it is just important that a rubric is provided and those standards are addressed with students to provide them with some guidance to understand how they will be assessed.

            I think that this project is a great example of how I have grown throughout this class. This project really shows how I have used the different information I have learned through the other classes, but through this class I am using this knowledge to assess and really transform my students’ learning. In previous classes I had learned about different site and resources that students, such as Google Sites, WeVideo, and Padlet, but during this class I learned about how to use these in combination with rubrics and other assessment tools to really impact my student’s learning. This project is a great example of this learning because of the variety of ways to utilize a genius hour. However, what takes this project to the next level is the use of a rubric to focus in on the specific learning standards the teacher would like to address. This will really help students to stay focused and improve their learning.