Student Led Parent Teacher Conferences

In order to find out if student led parent teacher conferences were more effective than conferences where students didn't lead, I had to do a little data research. The point to understand, was to know if students would take an active role in their education, even at young ages, due to presenting the information they had learned in the semester to their families. Moreover, could students get more excited about the learning process as they are able to have a say in which items to show parents their mastery. 

Initially, I started out with data from my current administrator, as she advocated for these meetings. Therefore, I needed to to a bit more research to see if it would actually be appropriate for kindergarten students. Could they take ownership over the projects and information presented to the families? Would they care? The data I collected was initiated by a Google search, in addition to a scholarly search within the Ashford Online Library. Fortunately, I was a student at the time. 

"Parents and caregivers in the study reported that student-led conferences were invaluable and that they contributed to a better understanding of their child's learning. Students reported that, as a result of student-led conferences, they felt more confident about their learning, more accountable for their own learning, and that there were more conversations at home about their learning" (O'Fee. 2012).

In addition, to raving remarks in success with student achievement and ownership, the attendance of parents increase as they are able to watch their child in action, rather than listen to a teacher the whole time. It is more powerful for parents to see their child proving mastery, than it is to listen to a teacher tell them about it. 

Blogs were another source of data, as the teachers who create these blogs are actually implementing techniques within their classrooms, and they are posting the successes and failures of these techniques. Student-led parent teacher conferences could effectively be done in kindergarten, and there were many examples of how to have success.

Pinterest also became a point of interest, as it had many resources to use during the student-led parent teacher conferences, some even free. This search led to the site www.teacherspayteachers.com, which held the manipulatives to print and laminate. Students would then use some of these ready-made items to show mastery in letter recognition or number recognition, building words, and simple addition. The child could be observed in action by the families attending the conference. 

The child would also have an accumulation or portfolio that they could show some of their best accomplishments thus far in kindergarten. 

Technology is instrumental in everything I do. It plays an active role in life practices, academics, and teaching. It is so wonderful to live in an age where we have information at the tip of our fingers. There are many search engines that will take us right to the resources we need to make an informed decision. However,  it is absolutely imperative that the searcher has experience in detecting scholarly and reputable websites and pieces of information. Without this key skill, improper choices could be made in all of the same areas, based on poor data. 

References

O'Fee, C. (2012). Trialling Student-Led Conferences in a New Zealand Secondary School. Kairaranga, 13(1), 3-6.

Collaborative Adaptation with Technology in a Classroom

What does it mean to collaborate? Essentially it means working together in groups of two or more. It is not simply independent, as you need to the insight and perspective from other members within a group, so that the product becomes one that is from everyone in the group, all of which is mostly agreed upon to present. 

What does adaptation mean? It means to rework or modify a process for a desired outcome. In this particular case, it would be geared towards learning objectives. Therefore, it is about meeting the needs of the students in the classroom, meeting the needs they have to learn and succeed.

Therefore, collaborative adaptation means working together to revamp the learning process. By which, collaborative adaptation would be the stage that appropriately describes my position as a person interested in technology and educational outcomes. 

This stage of learning describes me personal due to the fact that my brain is always looking to other ideas and perspectives to gain better understanding in my own thoughts. I am a person who wants to see all sides of a coin. I want to know all I can about something, in order to make the best decision I can. How many times have you thought, "if I had know that, I would not have made the same decision"? Therefore, using something called a jigsaw method, could really make use of collaboration within the classroom, and then this is where the adaptation comes in. As we rework the process in which we achieve learning objectives, we are collaboratively working together, becoming experts in the fields we are placed in. Then, in turn we return back to an original group to teach fellow classmates all components within a learning objective, such as parts of flowers or pollination. 

Each student contributes their expertise to the original group, building self-confidence as the student becomes proficient in the given topics they are expected to learn about at whatever grade level. 

I enjoy learning in different ways, and I think adding the use of technology through the Jigsaw Method, collaboration, I believe that the learning could grow exponentially. Students could watch in depth videos of an actual bee pollinating a plant. The children could watch as the picture is magnified to see the pollen dust on the flowers and on the bees, bringing the topics and material to life. The more emotion we can evoke of them through their lessons, the more the students will likely be to remember it. I want to make learning enjoyable, and a thing that a child can't wait to return back to! 

Key Technology Developments within the Classroom

                The evolution of technology is one that has made rapid progress in the last twenty years, alone. When we first look at how the classroom has changed over the course of history, we see slight changes. However, as we get closer to present day we see amazing changes that impact the classroom tremendously. The key developments that are the most significant would include an interactive white board, laptops, tablets, and internet access with all these devices. 

              

                Interactive whiteboards are greatly effective within a classroom, as you can change your lesson plans around to engage students. Information can appear or disappear accordingly to the discussion going on within the classroom. Students can learn through auditory, visually, and kinetically designed lesson plans. Collaborative learning can be more easily facilitated with technology like this. 

 

                 Laptops have become instrumental in creating a sense of ownership in a student's learning. This technology gives them the power to find and research information that is needed for the assignments they are tackling. If the student is looking at life cycles of frogs, the student can look at scholarly websites and possible interactive videos or programs to understand the life cycle more in depth. The better they understand the information, the better they will remember it. The use of laptops makes information come alive, instead of feeling stagnant reading material in a textbook. 

Another piece of technology that is a key development within the classroom, is a tablet. This technology is extremely easy to use, as young students do not have to understand the use of a keyboard, yet. They can effectively look through programs and applications to build words or to listen to books as they enhance their literacy skills. They learn to take ownership over their personal education at a young age, as they are engaged in interactive applications that entertain and educate them. 

Personally, I grew up with a lot of exposure to computers in school, and when the school didn't have it, my family did. However, I have never been exposed to Smart Boards, personal laptops, or tablets within a classroom. Even though, I have no personal experience. I do have personal experience teaching without them, and for that reason I have a great understanding of how they could enhance the information I am teaching each day. I have students who simply can't focus on reading and writing, but can focus on televisions and video games. I know that if I had access to tablets for them to practice building words, writing the words, and listening to books they would do tremendously better. This would also be a phenomenal way to apply differentiation for all the students. I see no hindrances, only amazing, endless opportunities in learning!

Here are some related links suggested from the Foundations of Educational Technology Class with Ashford University:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFwWWsz_X9s

http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-history