Mod 6, Post 2 - Using Twitter for Professional Development

"Professional Development" is a pretty big buzz word in the world of education. I have been hearing it since declaring an education major in my freshman year of undergrad and I have been continuing to hear it throughout my masters and throughout my first year working in a school. Teachers are called upon to constantly update their professional development by attending workshops, conferences, classes, etc. With all of the technology at our fingertips however, professional development can actually be done right from our phones.


Over the last year or so, I have started to come across educational twitter accounts run by teachers or by education outlets, if you will. I have always enjoyed following them and picking up helpful teaching hints here and there. During one of my student teaching placements I needed to teach a lesson on the difference between revolution and rotation and I actually came across a post on one of the teacher twitters that I followed at the time that gave me a great idea for my lesson!

I have been using Twitter for several years now and I have seen Twitter chats and looked through them, but I never actually participated. I read the article, What is a Twitter Chat?, and it gave me a bit of a deeper insight into what they are. I also read The Twitteraholics Ultimate Guide to help give me better insight into what I was reading in the Twitter Chats.

I think that following eduTwitters and looking through Twitter Chats can be very beneficial for me as a future teacher in terms of finding helpful hints and new strategies, etc. However, I don't necessarily see myself participating in Twitter Chats as a form of professional development - I just think they are nice to look at and browse through for my own personal type of professional development.

I know that some teachers use Twitter as a teaching resource with their kids, as well. I have always thought about when I finally have my own class that I will make a twitter account for the class so that we can post updates and pictures for the parents to follow, which I think would be a very neat idea. Considering that I plan to teach younger students however, I don't think my use of Twitter in the classroom will go much further beyond that.

The more technology you can use and the more outlets for professional development that you can take advantage only means a greater chance of growth for you as a teacher!

Reaction to Podcast

I listened to a podcast from the site ESL Podcast. The podcast was called Types of Students in School.

I thought that this podcast was really good and could be used as a resource in teaching. I would use this podcast for students in their teens in high school. There is a dialogue in the podcast between two kids who are looking through an old yearbook and talking about the different types of people in the yearbook - nerds, jocks, dropouts, goths, etc. The vocabulary is very culturally relevant to American high school teenagers and teaches about the American high school environment. This would be very helpful for students just entering high school in America for the first time.

The speaker in the podcast speaks slow and methodically, but not slow enough to the point where it is boring. He is very descriptive and even spells out some of the specific vocabulary words such as y-e-a-r-b-o-o-k, n-e-r-d, etc. He goes into detail about each target word and gives a definition about each type of student you may encounter in a high school.

This would definitely be something to consider when working with teenage ESL students entering high school to give them a good idea of what to expect.

TedEd Lesson

http://ed.ted.com/on/TLrYXaew

Pasted above is the link to my Ted Lesson!

Target students: High/intermediate advanced students

Objectives: 
Students will be able to discuss and define what response writing is.
Students will be able to write their own response essay based on a reading given in class.

Assessment: Students will partake in a brief discussion during class to review the Ted video lesson. At the end of the discuss students will write their "definition" or their thoughts on response writing and hand it in to the teacher. Students will then be given a short opinion piece to read and discuss with a partner, and they will then need to work together to write a 1 page response essay. 

Flipping Your Classroom

I think that the idea of a flipped classroom is a great thought, but in order for it to work effectively and benefit your students, it puts a lot of trust and reliance on the students. Having students participate in the lesson outside of class and then using class time for activities and observation is a great way to maximize learning and practice with the L2 for ELL students. Students however, must be motivated and must be accountable for actually participating in the lesson prior to getting in the classroom. I think with older learners that teachers would have better luck in being able to count on their students to participate, but teachers might have some issues with younger learners. Younger learners might need the assistance of their parents to access the lessons, but some parents may not be as involved as others. These are some things that teachers must consider before implementing this learning technique. Teachers must also make sure that all students have access to view the lesson outside of class before using the strategy of flipped classrooms.

In theory, I think that "flipped classrooms" are very interesting and innovative strategy that could really help ESL students. However, there is a lot that needs to happen to ensure that this style of teaching/learning can work smoothly. With the right class and the right resources, this tool could maximize learning and potential for all students.

Gaming

I tried out the game, Word Bubbles. I played the game probably about 20 times, switching between the four different levels - toddler, kid, big kid, and grown up. 

This game involved users looking at a picture with floating letters around it. If the picture were of a cat, the letters C A T would be floating around separately. The user would have to click on the letters in the right order to spell the word correctly from left to right. 

When using this game in the classroom, the teacher would play a passive role, just going around the supervise and observe the students. This game could be a choice option during iPad time, or it could be used during a specific language block, such as spelling. The student would be active participants, as they would be playing individually with the iPad or on the computer. 

I definitely think that a walkthrough would be necessary for the game, especially for ELL's. A simple demonstration on the SmartBoard to model for the students how to play would work.

Performance indicators and objectives:

STANDARD 4: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for classroom and social interaction.
8. Negotiate and manage interactions to accomplish social and classroom tasks. (L, S)

Given a picture and the correct letters, students will be able to identify a picture and unscramble the letters to correctly spell the word that matches the picture.

By walking around the room to observe while students were playing, I would be able to track their progress and see how well they are doing. Players are not allowed to move on in the game if they can not correctly identify and spell the word. By seeing how many new words the student moved on to, I would be able to assess the performance indicators and objectives. 

Gamification in Education

Gamification is the use of game design and game mechanics to benefit areas in a non-gaming context. According to the blog, Tophat,
"We’ve seen this approach in a variety of settings: completing our Subway punch card to win a free sandwich, receiving a badge on Foursquare for being the first of friends to check in at a particular restaurant, or expanding our profiles on LinkedIn to bring the “completion bar” up to 100%. Gamification has even worked its way into the automotive industry with the innovative dashboard of the Ford Fusion hybrid. A high-resolution display features a rendering of vine-like leaves. Waste gas, and your vines wither. Conserve, and they blossom."

Along with Subway punchcards and the dashboards of our Fords, gamification has also worked its way into our classrooms. Educators are gamifying their rooms in very simple ways, but they are beginning to see big rewards. The Tophat article gave me a lot of ideas about gamification, a word that I had never even heard of prior to this mod. However, even though I had never heard of gamification before, I realized that it is something I have integrated into my own teaching without even noticing. Tophat suggests 4 ways to introduce gaming into the classroom: gamify grading, award students with badges, integrate educational video games into your curriculum, and stir up a little competition, such as tournament module platform in the classroom. 

I think that these are all great ideas. I have used point systems before in my classroom, which worked as a great motivator for my students. I did not even think about how the point system linked to games, which is probably why it worked so well with my students!

Gamification in the classroom is a great tool to motivate students and to reach those students who sometimes just need a new perspective on school work - if the student scoffs at assignments, turn the assignment into a game without him knowing and maybe you might see some results. 

Gamification is not the end all, be all, however. Gamification should not be the only motivator in the classroom, as it may take away from some intrinsic motivation. Tophat concludes their post with the quote, "Games can’t be used to replace pedagogy, but can be used to enhance the overall learning experience." I agree with this closing statement 100%. Games are a great tool for the classroom, as well as outside the classroom, to motivate and engage students. However, gaming in the classroom should have a specific time and place. 

Articles read for this post :

http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-in-your-classroom/

https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/TLE_pdf/TLE_Oct13_Article.pdf

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gamification-in-education-vicki-davis

Following a Twitterchat

My initial thoughts on this mod, which focused on using Twitter in education, was that I would breeze through it easily, since I am a veteran Twitter user. However, prior to this, I had never really explored the educational chats and accounts. I follow several teacher accounts on my personal account, but I had never participated in a chat or really delved into looking through other educators accounts. So needless to say, I was on a sensory overload when I began browsing through different accounts and chats and what I thought had been ten minutes of browsing through tweets turned into an hour.
I decided to follow the #ELTchat. ELTchat is a platform for new and old teachers alike to share their thoughts, ideas, questions, and experiences with each other. It is a place where teachers from all over the world can connect with each other to network and grow their professional learning network. I think #ELTchat is a great resource for teachers to be apart of. I am new to the whole Twitter chat thing though, so I think I need some more time to explore what else is out there as well as follow a live Twitter chat to see what it is all about.