Genetic Testing Blog Post #2

If you had the opportunity to be tested for a genetic disorder that would develop later in life, would you do it? What would make you want to know? What would make you not want to know? What if the test was for cancer? What if the test was for Huntington's disease? (think about the symptoms, etc of each).

Reflecting- Sosnoski Week 7

Step 1: Reflecting on my GAME plan, I have learned a lot. While I have not made as much progress on my goal for creating an authentic learning experience in ecology, I have made a lot of progress in my goal regarding blogging. The reason I have not made further progress with the ecology project is because IPEI (who offers the grants) referred me to 2 teachers in my building who I have already spoken to. I was hoping they'd link me to an outside, community resource. I'll keep trying! To revise this plan, I think I just need to take away a time limit and hope to find something by next year that will help me meet my goal. Perhaps over the summer, when I have more time, or in february, when I graduate from Walden, I will have more time to focus on this.

Meanwhile, my first blog endeavor with my students was a great success! The link to my class blog is http://sosnoskibiology/blogspot.com . Check out the responses! This was a great experience for me. I got so excited every time a kid left a comment. The prompt asked students to reflect on what they've enjoyed most and least in the class so far. The students were very insightful and it gave me some really great feedback that I can use to tailor my instruction to meet student needs. I will definitely continue to use this tool for student reflection.

As far as using GAME plan with my students, I had started this process in the beginning of the year by having students write SMART goals relating to my class. Unfortunately, I have no held them accountable for monitoring and evaluating their goals. Since the end of the marking period is coming up, I'd like to start this process over and really keep track of student goals this time. 

Step 2: As described above, I will be using technology more in the form of blogs to track student reflection throughout my course. During these blog posts, students are also collaborating with each other by responding to others' posts, promoting online collaboration. For my next big project with students, possibly on the topic of genetic disorders or during the body systems unit, I will have students create digital stories. For genetic disorders, students could create a story from the perspective of a person with the disorder, a doctor, or biologist. For body systems, students could create "tours" through the different body systems. 

As far as problem-based learning goes, I am trying to think of more authentic ways to use this in my classroom. One idea I have is to have a "diagnose me" day, where students research different disorders/diseases online then some students act out the symptoms while "doctors" diagnose the disorder/disease.

Sosnoski Week 4- Monitoring my GAME plan progress

This week I made a lot of progress toward my goals. Woohoo! I set up the first prompt for my students on my biology blog: http://sosnoskibiology.blogspot.com . This prompt asks students to reflect on their favorite and least favorite topics so far this year. This will help me see what students are enjoying and what needs to be spiced up next year. I made the requirements very "Walden style." They have to make a post by a certain day and respond to two classmates' comments by another day. Students will start this when we return to school from Thanksgiving break. As the year goes on, these prompts will require more content-specific reflection, but I want to start with topics that will be easy for students to write about so they develop a copacetic attitude toward writing their responses. My only question is--how often should I have them do these? That is something I will need to really think about.


For my second goal, I discovered many resources that could help me in my quest to develop an authentic ecology experience for my students. While talking with some colleagues about my goal I found that there is a program in our community called IPEI-- Ithaca Public Education Initiative. This organization's purpose is to link teachers with members of the community to provide extended learning experiences for students. Not only will they help you figure out the best connection to make, but you can apply for a Red & Gold Grant, which puts $500 toward your endeavor. I e-mailed the coordinator to ask for ideas regarding teaming up with some community organizations or Cornell University to do an authentic ecology learning experience. I have not heard back yet, but I am excited for their help! My biggest question is how I am going to organize all of this with such a packed schedule. I am teacher 20% over time and rarely even get to eat my lunch. I think I'm going to request help from my department chair.

Week 3 Sosnoski- Reviewing my GAME plan

In order to carry out my plan regarding the authentic ecology experience, I will need to reach out to the Ithaca community to see what programs currently exist for students to study the ecology of the area. I know that several of my colleagues have conducted field work with their classes at the creek behind the school. I would like to illicit their ideas for how to engage my students in an authentic learning experience related to ecology. This additional information will allow me to better formulate an effective and authentic experience. So far, I spoke with an elementary school teacher close by who I know does many stream study experiences with her students. She informed me of some of the activities she does with her students and I began thinking of more advanced activities I could do with my own students. 

As far as the blog is concerned, I will not need many resources, as the blog already exists. It is just a matter of using it! I need to think about the requirements for these posts that I want my students to do--should it be extra credit at first and gradually lead to a graded activity? How often should I have the students blog? If these blog posts are required, what will be the consequence for not completing them? If they are not required, will I provide an incentive for completing them? These are all questions I keep going back and forth with in my head. Any suggestions from colleagues would be greatly appreciated! I have not been able to find anyone in my school who has used blogs to promote student reflection.

GAME Plan--Sosnoski Week 2

As I reflect on the NSTE NETS-T standards, I feel pretty confident that I am proficient in many of the standards; however, there are two I would really like to increase my confidence in:

a. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources

c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

As Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) discuss, authentic learning situations increase student motivation. If we can spark our students' interest an provide a challenge, "we are more likely to engage them in the topic at hand and to prompt them to take ownership of their learning"(Cennamo et al., 2009, p. 37). Although I believe in the benefits of authentic learning situations, I often find myself bogged down by time restrictions. I would like to break through that barrier this year.

In addition to this, performance indicator "c" involves using tools to view student thinking. I feel that I do not allow my students to reflect on their learning often enough--again, due to time constraints. I strongly desire to change this and to use technology to better facilitate the process. I have created a GAME plan in order to improve my confidence in these two areas (Cennamo et al., 2009)

Goal 1: to develop an authentic learning activity for my 9th grade biology class on the topic of ecology
Goal 2: to better utilize my classroom blog in order to involve students in reflective thought regarding their learning in biology

Action: I will research how other teachers have provided students with authentic learning experiences in ecology. I will also research the school and community resources available to me in this situation. For goal 2, I will begin to require students to post on my blog once a week, answering a question that requires them to reflect on their learning for that week.

Monitor: As I progress through reaching my goal, I will assess whether there are sufficient resources to provide an authentic learning experience for ecology. If not, I will choose a different unit of study to investigate. I will also monitor the level of student engagement in the blog reflections--are students giving thoughtful answers? Are my questions and the student answers clarifying their conceptual understanding and thinking? If not, I will have to alter the format of my questions or the requirements.

Evaluate: After these endeavors, I will reflect on the effectiveness of providing the authentic learning opportunity and using blogging to promote student reflection.  Using student surveys, I will ask students how they felt about the authentic learning experience and how they felt about the blog postings and how effectively they feel the two strategies helped them learn. This will give me valuable data for my next goal.

I hope that by following this plan, I become more confident in these skills. I also hope that as I share positive results from this experience with my school community, it will have a "ripple effect," motivating other teachers to engage in this type of self reflection and goal setting (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).



References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom
use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Promoting self directed learning with technology, part 1. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/ default. learn? CourseID=6072063&Survey=1&47=6819430&ClientNodeID= 984650 & coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Welcome!

Hello,
Welcome to my blog about integrating technology in science. I hope we all learn much from this blogging endeavor.