Final Reflection

In todays world technology is seen everywhere, almost everyone in the United States has access to some type of technology. As a teacher you will see many of your students using technology or talking about technology. Technology is apart of the new generation and can be a great tool for you to use in your classroom. In most classrooms teachers have access to a computer, a doc camera, a projector, a tv, and iPads. Because technology is apart of the new generation I strongly feel it is important to use technology in the classroom. My philosophy on technology integration is, do it! There are so many benefits of being a teacher and having the technology we have today. However, I also strongly feel that technology should not replace a teacher from "teaching". As a teacher it is important to find a good balance with integrating technology. 

Technology integration is important because it can help your students learn how to use technology for learning, and it can help your students stay engaged in the classroom while learning. There are hundreds of great technology tools students can use at school or at home to enhance their learning. There are also hundreds of great technology tools students can use to best show their understanding of what they have learned. Technology should be integrated into lessons and into the classroom and teachers should be trained on how to use new technology and should always be searching for ways to improve technology integration. 

I will use technology in my future classroom to help me assess my students, to help me teach my students, and to help my students stay engaged while learning. I learned about some great tools we can use as teachers to help our students learn and to assess them. Some of these tools I plan to use are; stop motion with iPads, Storybird, Symbaloo, Gonoodle, Popplet, Kahoot, AnswerGarden, and FinchRobots. I will use all of these tools to help enhance my students learning. 

Blog #8 UDL Engagement

1. How Will WebQuests help your students?
WebQuests can be helpful for students because they can go to the WebQuest and see a fully written lesson that they can follow. This is great because students can work at their own pace to complete the lesson on their own. This is also great for students who miss school for any reason, they can access the lesson from home. Using a WebQuest will not only help you teach but it will also help yield specific learning outcomes for your students. By using WebQuests students will be exposed to more technology and different tools as they navigate through the WebQuests.

2. What are your goals with regard to this topic?
My goals with WebQuest is to learn more about it by exploring with my own WebQuest and by looking up other WebQuests teachers have made for examples of different ways I can use a WebQuest in my classroom. Honestly, I wasn't excited about having to make a WebQuest and learning about it because I had heard from other students in the past talk about how they didnt like making a WebQuest. Therefore, another goal of mine is to enjoy making our WebQuest and to use it in the future. I love the idea of having a fully written lesson for students to access before, during, or after class. So I am excited to become more familiar with WebQuest and to use it in my classroom to help my students learn.

3. How does this shape your vision for empowered learning for your students?
Using WebQuests help shape my vision for empowered learning for my students because they are the ones who navigate their learning through the WebQuests, they are the ones taking the "lead." WebQuests are a way to help engage students and get them to participate in their own learning. I love how the layout of a WebQuest is simple enough for students to navigate once they are shown. If we as the teachers use it right then the lesson in the WebQuest can be engaging, fun, and can be a unique way for students to learn the material. It can also be a good to switch up how you teach a lesson in your classroom.

Blog #7: Why Coding?

1. How can coding be effectively integrated into your teaching?

Coding can be effectively integrated into your teaching through many different lesson plans. My classmate and I created a sun with our Hummingbird Robot, and created it so it . would light up yellow like the sun and rotate. While teaching about the Solar System in Science you could have your students create different parts to the Solar System to help demonstrate their understanding of the Solar System. You can use coding to grab your students attention at the beginning of a lesson whether you are teaching about the Solar System, habitats, people in history, your options are endless. Not only is it fun for students to create a Robot they will remember what they learned in class about that specific lesson taught because they had to create something from the lesson. 

2. How will this help your students?

Coding is a fun activity to bring into the classroom because it helps students become engaged in learning. You can have the coding equipment ready for students and when they come into your classroom they will want to know what they are going to do with all the tools/technology in front of them. You can then let the students discover the technology and see what they create/come up with. Coding helps students use their brain in a unique way and helps your students learn how to work and communicate with other students. Technology is a huge part of our world today and students need to be exposed to it and learn how to create/use different types of technology that will benefit them now, and in the future. 

3. What are your goals with regard to this topic?

My goals are to learn more about coding and specifically about the hummingbird robot so I can better help my future students learn and use this type of technology. If my future school does not provide this technology for us teachers to use in the classroom I will talk with UVU about using theirs or find a grand that will help us get these tools into our classrooms.

HummingBirdTutorials

Blog #6 UDL Action & Expression (Summative)

1. How can effectively integrate Finch Robots into your teaching?

As a teacher you can integrate the Finch Robot into your teaching in so many different ways. and with so many different lesson plans. The way we integrated the Finch Robot in class today was through teaching 4th grade science. The objective was about teaching students about physical characteristics of Utah and common animals found in Utah. We chose an animal from Utah that we wanted to do some research on and then we created that animal on our Finch Robot and created a habitat for it.
You could also use a Finch Robot in your class with your reading/literature lesson plan. The students could create a story and create a character on their finch from the story. They could also create a character from a story that you as the teacher read to the class and have them identify characteristics of the character and create their Finch Robot character. They options really are endless.

2. What are your goals with regard to this topic?

The goals with this topic would be to help students learn new technology and different ways to use technology to show what they are learning in class. In science the goal was for students to research and show what they learned while using the Finch Robot this was used for a Summative Assessment. The goal for reading/literature would be for students to show their understanding of characters in a story and describe the character in the story that was read in class or in a story they created. Another goal with using a Finch Robot would be to helped students be engaged in the learning process and add variety to your classroom and your teaching.

3. How does this shape your vision for empowered learning for your students?

I thought this was a great tool to use to encourage empowered learning. It helped me see how learning and summative assessments can be fun and very interactive. I can see how the students would be engaged and how the Finch Robot would help them think more about technology. I also think this will help their minds expand and become more creative.

Finch: The Red Fox

Blog #5 UDL Action & Expression (Formative)

1. How can Principle 2: Action & Expression: Formative Assessment be effectively integrated into your teaching?

Formative Assessments can be effectively integrated into teaching using formal and informal assessment procedures. Some tools you can use for Action and Expression: Formative Assessments are AnswerGarden, Interactive White Boards, Kahoot, TimeToast, Word Cloud, Popplet, ThingLink, and one of my favorites StoryBird. We used StoryBird to assess third graders on Reading/Literature Standard 3. They are to create a story in StoryBird where they describe a character in a story (their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. 

1. How will this help your students?

I think this will help my students be engaged in learning and will help them feel less stress when it comes to assessments because they are done in fun interactive ways. This will also help them have a desire to learn and will help them be creative in the ways they express what they learned. And finally I think this will help my students understand technology better and how they can use it to help them learn and express themselves in a good way. 

1. What are your goals with regard to this topic?

My goals are to become more familiar with some of the different tools you can use for formative assessments and practice using them so I can show my students how to use them and help get them excited about using these different tools. My goal is also to find more tools that were not mentioned that could be useful in the classroom. 

Ellie the Elephant finds a friend

Blog #4 UDL Representation

1. How can Principle 1: Multiple Means of Representation be effectively integrated into your teaching? Multiple Means of Representation in the classroom is about how each child learns in a different way specifically how they perceive and comprehend information that is given to them. As a teacher it is important to use different teaching strategies and give students multiple options for how they want to show their learning. I could do this by providing different options for perception; for example I could use a powerpoint to teach my class in my powerpoint I could use text, pictures, and videos to help teach my students about one concept. I can also provide different options for symbols and language; for example I could use pictures and words to define a vocabulary word. I can also use sentences to define a word and have the students try and figure out what the word means. Students can use technology to help them define a word, they can play interactive games with audio or without audio to help them learn. And last, as a teacher I can provide different options for comprehension; for example some students may need a step by step printed out instruction sheet for an assignment while another student may just need to hear the instructions and another may be able to look at objects and figure out what they are suppose to do on their own. Each student is different and all need to be given multiple options and multiple tools to use to learn the objective. 
2. How will this help your students? This will help my students be excited to learn and will help them stay engaged while learning. Giving students Multiple Means of Representation will help them develop a love for learning and they will be the successful ones. My students will gain confidence in learning and sharing what they learn because I integrate this is my teaching. This will also help my students explore different ways they enjoy learning. 
3. What are your goals with regard to this topic? My goals are too learn more about different ways to effectively integrate Multiple Means of Representation, practice using these different tools myself, and use them in my future classroom. We learned how to use the Stop Motion app in class and created a story while teaching math and this is something I want to do with my students. It was a fun interactive way to show what you have learned. 

UDL: Multiple Means of Representation

Blog #3 Digital Citizenship

1. Why is it important to teach digital citizenship?

It is important to teach digital citizenship so that students can understand how to make appropriate choices while using a digital tool. It is also important for them to understand the importance of keeping information private. Students will also learn how to respect themselves and others while using their digital tool. They will learn the importance of not sharing their passwords with others and the importance of reporting any type of bullying they might see while using their device.  Finally, it is important to teach digital citizenship because students learn how to give credit to the sources they use. Students in classrooms are being exposed to all sorts of different digital tools that will help them learn in the classroom, therefore, it is important that they understand how to use these tools appropriately. 

1. How might you teach digital citizenship in an elementary classroom?

I might start a discussion with the class about using digital tools by asking them what they think some appropriate choices might be while using a digital tool. We would brainstorm as a class and I will write down ideas on the board. I would then lead into a discussion about bullying and how bullying is not an appropriate way to use their digital tool and that they must report any bullying. This can also lead into learning about respecting themselves and others while using their digital tool. I would try to find a book to read to the class that demonstrates what it means to respect yourself and others. As we begin to use these digital tools in the classroom the students will have to create passwords and we will discuss the importance of not sharing your password with anyone else. After we learned and discussed some of these things I might have my class create a story using StoryBird where they can demonstrate what they learned about digital citizenship. Once they create a StoryBird I will teach them how to credit the sources they used. 

Note: below is a link to Alpine School Districts policies on digital tools. 

Technology Services in Alpine School District

Blog #2 Standards and PLNs

Twitter Handle: KenzieWhatcott
Symbaloo: Instructional Media
UEN: The three resources I found helpful on UEN are:
1. The Lesson Plan Creation link
2. The Rubric Creation
3. The Calendar
I think it is awesome that UEN has these links on the front page. They are easy to find and use. I also think the Suicide Prevention Training link is an important one, it helps teachers to remember to do the training and it is also a reminder to be thinking about those things just when you see the link on the home page.

Equity & UDL: Recruiting Interest

1. What does the research say about this? We talked about technology equity and Universal Design for Learning. Research shows that equity and equality are not the same, what one person needs is not always the same as what the other person needs. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) research helps us know how to maximize learning for ALL students. If we break down UDL into different parts we understand that the word universal means teaching curriculum that can be understood by everyone, the word Learning is the different parts of the brain we use that help us learn the what, why, and how's, and the design is about making the curriculum flexible and being able to fit it to everyones needs. 
2. How can this be effectively integrated into your teaching? I loved what they said at the beginning of the video clip we watched in class "the way people learn is as unique as their fingertips." All classrooms have diversity, every child is different. We need to think about what we want our students to know, feel, and do and figure out what the barriers are in our classrooms so we can help them learn. Because of the diversity in classrooms research says to provide multiple means of representation, provide multiple means of action and expression, and provide multiple means of engagement to help ALL students learn. 
3. How will this help your students? When we show the curriculum in different ways, allow students to approach learning, and offer options to students they will have a greater learning experience. 
4. What are your goals with regard to this topic? My goal is to get to know each of my students and their needs so that I can figure out what I want them to know, feel, and do and to also be good at finding the barriers that hinder them from learning. I want my students to love learning and so I want to be good at providing multiple means of engagement so that ALL my students can succeed.  
5. How does this shape your vision for empowered learning for your students? It gets me excited to learn new tools and ways to teach my students so that they can have different choices and more learning opportunites. It helps me see that although every child may learn differently, they can all be engaged in learning. 

All About Me

Hello!
My name is Makenzie Whatcott. I was born and raised in Utah County. I grew up with a Mother and Father and three siblings. My brother and I are the youngest of the family and we are only seven minutes apart. I have been married for about a year and a half now and can't wait to grow our own little family. My husband and I met in Jr. High and started dating the summer after we graduated High School. We enjoy spending time with our families and being outdoors. Some of our favorite activities are hiking, running, camping and boating. We live for warm weather and the outdoors. I have always loved children and I especially love playing with my nieces and nephews.

I have wanted to become a professional teacher since I was in Preschool. I still remember the day I decided I wanted to become a teacher. We had a "career day" where we visited many of our parents at their jobs. After the career day we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, and with no hesitation I responded "a teacher". (Above is a picture of me in Preschool deciding I am going to be a teacher). I have thought about many other career options since then and I have tried different internships to help me decide what career path is for me and I always go back to becoming a professional teacher. I am excited to learn what it means to be a professional teacher and I feel privileged to be apart of the Elementary Education Program at Utah Valley University.

My goals for this course consist of:
-Attending all class sessions & arriving on time.
-Completing all course materials on time & with my best work.
-Learning how to use technology in the classroom to help meet the needs of all students.
-I hope to discover a few of my favorite tools to use in my future classroom.