My Educational Philosophy

Philosophy of Education

Melissa Daniels

October 20, 2013

 The purpose of education is to help students reach their full potential.  Education is responsible for preparing students for life.  Students need education to become productive citizens that contribute to society. Education must be ever-changing, all-encompassing, and applicable to all students’ lives.  There are many contributing factors to consider when ensuring that education is successful.  The student, parents, teachers, administration, and community must each do their part in order for education to achieve its purpose.

The role of the students in their education is to be willing to learn.  All students can achieve their individual goals, as long as they are willing to do the work and listen.  Collaboration and communication are necessary throughout our lives.  Students must be held accountable for their education and their behavior.  It is the responsibility of the students to come prepared to learn, grow, and work.  Students should be allowed to explore their own interests, yet also be able to meet the expectations of others. 

As an educator, it is my responsibility to guide, motivate, and prepare students for life.  In my classroom, I strive to meet the needs of each child and help them reach their full potential.  As a teacher, I want to encourage students explore, experiment, and discover.  It is my goal to create a community of learners that have the confidence and skills necessary to be independent thinkers and leaders.  It is also my duty to help parents understand how important education is to their child and how to help them achieve. 

In order to fulfill my responsibilities as an educator, I must differentiate, help student develop social skills, and to incorporate 21^st century skills.  Technology allows me to do that and more.  The use of technology in the classroom allows me to engage students, [provide remediation, challenge, asses, and teach students how to use social media responsibly.  By exposing the students to current devices and software, they will feel more prepared and confident in their higher education or the workforce.    

Technology Integration Online Course - Reflection

As I was taking the survey for the course today, I realized that I have come further this year in my technology integration than last year.  I also realized that I have a long way to go!

I am so happy to have the opportunity to learn even more.  I am excited to flip part of my class this year.  I am also looking forward to creating my Infusion Plan.  I am nervous to comment with my classmates!  Being in elementary, and somewhat limited in my experience, I am feeling that I will not be able to lend much to my coursemates.

I feel I will learn a lot from my peers in this course.  I will take everything I learn and apply it immediately.  My goal is to do it right and do it now (as much as possible that is).  I am excited that my students will benefit from my learning!!

Let's get started!!

Take Aways

I took so much away from this course, I don't have time to list it all.  What I came away most with was the desire to do more.  I want to change the way I teach, collaborate, and learn.  I really want to use My Big Campus more and share that with my peers.  I feel that we still have a long way to go, but I know that even  baby steps are possible.   

As technology coordinator, I feel that I need to show my colleagues how easy it is to use technology.   It seems difficult and scary, but once you have experienced all that is out there, the excitement of thinking and teaching out-of-the-box will fuel your fire.  I also see the need to get our school to 1:1 computers!  I am more determined to have that discussion and keep having it, until we complete the task.

I am excited to build my PLN and help others develop their own.  I am thrilled with the new tools and online learning communities that I have learned about.  I will be taking the next course, with the goal of making 2013-2014 my most successful and exciting for myself and my students!!

Thanks Five Star!!

Using Facebook and Twitter in the classroom

The great debate!  To facebook/twitter or not!!  I personally let my oldest daughter sign up for a facebook when she was 12, I think.  I had her password and checked it frequently.  She was my facebook friend and I had other family memebers checking on her as well.  We had a few incidents where her friends were using language we did not approve of and strangers wanting to be her friend.  Now, I have an 11 year old and she wants a facebook and I have not let her have one.  After experiencing what I did with my oldest, I decided she should wait until she was 13 or starting high school. 

Now, as a teacher, I teach second grade so of course we don't even consider that for them.  We have sixth graders who have netbooks and use online learning this year.  I still would not recommend facebook or twitter for them either.  I feel there are other social media products, like wikispaces, that are made for the purpose of collaborating and communicating in school. 

Even with wikispaces, we had students changing other's work or bullying online.  The difference is I could monitor them very easily and handle the inappropriate situations.  I don't feel that facebook and twitter were setup for school use, at least not elementary or middle school.

I would say in high school it would be fine, but there would be rules like allowing the teacher to be friends and see posts.  The normal monitoring.  I also think the parents should have a say in whether they want their child to have those accounts. 

Online Course Tools

This online class is really opening my eyes to the teacher I want to be!!  I am so excited to use TED-Ed to begin flipping the way I present mini-lessons, as well as Voki and Animoto.  I am also excited to create new assessments that are more true to real life expectations of students, using Socrative or ThatQuiz.  I would like to be better at using my google account and become more familiar with new programs (new to me) like, Edmodo and Moodle.  I want to let my students collaborate more with programs like Wikispaces and edublog.

My biggest struggle is going to be taking my time to implement and teach these new programs.  I will have to pace myself and make sure it is fully understood before teaching something new.  There is so much I want to share with my colleagues and students!!

What I will take from this course

This online course has made me look at the way I currently use technology in my classroom.  I have realized that I can be doing so much more!  It also makes me really want to have one-to-one computers/tablets in my room so I can do more and do it more often! 

I think I will be able to use some of the tools I have learned about.  I also think that I will look in to how to let my second graders use technology to learn more collaboratively.  It is going to be difficult for me to use online assessments and to let my second graders use the exploratory method.  They are so limited on their knowledge and right now they only want to use technology to play the games they are familiar with and play at home.  I have to be okay with them playing and teach them that you can play and learn at the same time.

I also find it difficult in the second grade finding safe ways for them to explore and not see inappropriate things.  They are so immature as this age and love to share the wrong types of information! 

I am excited and nervous at the same time about what the future holds!

Technology Integration Matrix

I believe that I fall in the Adaptation/Collaboration level on the Technology Integration Matrix.  We use our promethean daily, but I mostly present lessons on it.  At least 2 days per week students work together in a small group to use the board, but with activities I have created.  We are on the laptops 5 days per week.  I use the laptops to take AR quizzes, type their spelling words, play games on my Symbaloo that are based on the skill for the week, and to do Acuity lessons they have been assigned individually.  I encourage the students to use their technology at home and have communicated this to their parents as well.  Realistically, I believe I could be at the Adaptation/Constructive level by the end of our year.  In order to do this, I will need to let the students work more independently on the laptops and proboard.  I will also need to let them explore independently and choose their tool and product.  I feel the students are ready for this and plan to make this my goal!