Teaching Portfolio iBook

When deciding on what to do for my project I know that I wanted something that I could use for applying for jobs moving forward. In one of my other classes we had to put together a teaching portfolio that we could give to prospective employers when we interviewed. When the project was mentioned it seemed to me that something I could do that would be great for this project as well as for going forward into my teaching career would be to have a digital version of a teaching portfolio that I could give to prospective employers. I am very happy with my product because I think it gives a good overview of who I am as a teacher. I hope to continue to add to this and improve it as I go through student teaching to eventually have a product that is comprehensive of all of my teaching experience and can be used to show the kind of teaching applicant I am. As a teacher who is going to be going into classrooms that are advancing into the 21st century, it only makes sense that as an applicant I begin to move away from the traditional and present myself as a modern candidate, and that includes using technology! By creating a digital teaching portfolio, I am setting myself up to go into the professional world with a product that I can continue to keep current and use to show that I would be an asset to any school.

Pen Pals Reflection Phase 2

1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching

During my lesson  what went really well as the use of Google Earth. I found that they enjoyed the idea of the pen pals but that they enjoyed using Google Earth to explore both familiar places as well as places abroad. Modifications I made during the lesson was encouraging my students to practice using Google Earth by looking up their houses back home. They really liked this because they were able to practice with the technology while making it so that they could personalize the lesson to themselves. 

2. Mechanics

The technologies I used were Microsoft Word and Google Earth. We all used these technologies during the lesson, me by modeling how to use Google Earth to find a location and my students used it to look up specific places. My lesson was within the correct time frame because my students had enough time to produce the work I wanted them to and also have enough time to explore using Google Earth. 

3. Assessment of Learning 

My students were all able to include the components of a friendly letter as well as including details about themselves. They were also able to use Google Earth to find areas in Dublin. I felt like this lesson was successful because my students were engaged and interested in what they were doing. The comments on my peer reflection support this because they said that they really enjoyed the lesson especially the Google Earth part and that this is a lesson that they would teach in their future classrooms. 

4. I learned a lot about the international resources out there for teachers while doing research for this lesson. There are so many different options out there for teachers who want to look for international relationships for themselves and students. By just doing some brief research to see what kind of pen pal options there are, there are many ways that a teacher could reach out and form a connection with an international source. In the future I will be sure to do research into what kind of options there are out there to enrich my lesson before settling on using what I know off the top of my head.

Pen Pals Lesson Reflection

Assessing Prior Knowledge and Planning Instruction:
Prior knowledge for this lesson is knowledge of what a friendly letter is. I would have taught a lesson about what a letter is and had the students write letters to each other and their families. When the pen pal lesson is taught it will be more about refining the conventions involved in a friendly letter. Prior knowledge will be assessed by starting the lesson with a discussion about friendly letters to refresh their memories about what a friendly letter is and how they have used it in the past. My objectives for this lesson are the standard of having the students use greeting, closing and commas correctly in a friendly letter as well as a personal objective of having them add personal details about their lives and  their culture in their letter.

Designing Instruction:
The instructional methods I described use the idea of engaging students through interest and ownership. By giving the students the opportunity to choose what is in their writing, it allows them to take onwership of their work and it engages them because when they get to decide what the content it, it is usually content that is interesting to them and they enjoy writing about it so much more. Students who are interested in what they are doing are more engaged and it makes what they are doing meaningful.

Planning Assessment:
My assessment aligns with the standards because it checks off the parts of the friendly letter that my students need to know. My assessment demonstrates student engagement because they are able to choose what goes into their letters. They can make it as long as they want as well as include whatever details they feel are important to them. By making this assignment personal, it means that my students are able to express their ideas and express on paper about themselves, and it demonstrates higher order thinking skills because they have to think about their lives and themselves and decide on a way to write a summary that encompasses the basics about their lives.

ISTE NETs Standards:
1. My lesson meets the creativity standards because they students are able to be creative in how they write their letter as well as they have the opportunity to include a picture or illustration to go along with their letter.
2. In their lives, my students will have to use word processing programs to type everything from emails to essays. It is important that they are exposed to this because it is so important that they master this basic technology because they will use it all of their lives and being knowledgeable in it will help them in their careers and personal lives.
3. I will model the process of writing a letter to the other teacher while my students write a letter to the other teacher's students. I will make sure that my students know how I used technology and why I used it when I did.
4. The lesson I created advocates safe use of technology because we are writing and sending our letters to a source that has been verified by communication between the teachers. This is a very learner centered lesson because it is customizable to each and every child because they are each creating a unique work of their own that can be modified if need be. I will have modeled in my writing how even though we are writing to another classroom, that we will not be using our last names, just our first names as a way to make sure that everyone is protected. Global awareness is integrated in this lesson through the nature of international pen pals. By adding in research about the place the pen pals live and finding them on a map it helps so that the students can see that there is so much more word out there and that we can explore it right from our classroom. I think it is so important for students to use the technology tools at hand to explore other parts of the world and cultures and this is a easy way to start that.

Pen Pals Technology Lesson

Pen Pals Lesson Plan 2

I. RATIONALE:

The reason for this lesson is to practice the curriculum/standard of letter writing as well as widening the students worldviews by exposing them to different parts of the world through letter writing and pen pals to international students.

II. OVERVIEW

Grade Level: 2

Subject(s): ELA & Social Studies

Topic of Study: Letter Writing

Time Allotment: 1 school week (5 days)

Standards:

Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. b. Use commas in greetings and closings of letters. (2.L.2)

Strand 4: Geography: PO 4. Describe elements of culture (e.g., food, clothing, housing, sports, customs, beliefs) in a community of areas studied.

Objectives:

Students will be able to write a friendly letter to an international pen pal using commas in their greeting and closing. They will include basic details about their personal culture in their letter to their international pen pal.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Procedure:

This lesson will be done over a course of 1 school week (5 school days).

Day 1: Discussion about students lives in the US and how they are different and similar to other students internationally, focusing on the area of the international pen pals (ex. Dublin, Ireland)

Day 2: Centers:

Reading Center: Information about Arizona and about international pen pal place will be available for students to read to give them ideas about what they want to say to their pen pals to introduce them to their lives.

Map center: Students will use maps to identify where their international pen pals are located as well as seeing where Arizona is in relation to that place. They will then use Google Earth with teacher or aide guidance on iPads to see where their pen pals go to school.

Pre Writing Center: Students will outline what they want to tell their pen pal, including basic details about themselves and where they live.

Day 3: Students will be given a penpal to write to with their name, age and gender. They will then handwrite letters on practice paper and conference with teacher and aides to get their papers edited. If the students have time they will draw a picture to include with their letter.

Day 4: In the computer lab, students will use Microsoft Word to type and print their letters.

Day 5: In whole group, teacher will include all letters in an envelope and show the students how to address an envelope on the document camera and get it completely ready to send to pen pals at the Sacred Heart BNS in Dublin Ireland.

Technology Integration:

The teacher will assist students in using Google Earth on iPads during the map center. Students will use computers with Microsoft Word to type up their letters in order to print them and send them to wherever their pen pals are located. The teacher will also use a document camera to project the addressing of the envelope so that it is easier for the students to read.

Differentiated Instruction:

• Cognitive delay: Students with cognitive delay can dictate a letter to an aide who can type it for them and can help them to edit it.
• Gifted: Gifted students can be challenged in the kind of vocabulary that they use and in the length and amount of details in their letter.
• ELL: ELL students can use sheltered language in their letters as well as including only whatever information that they wanted to include.

IV. ASSESSMENT

Procedure:

To assess I will read their letters before we send them and use a checklist to make sure that they have all the components of a friendly letter.

Instruments:

Assessment Checklist:

• Greeting
• Closing
• Correct use of commas
• Correct use of capitalization
• Basic personal details are included

IIV. MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Example of letter:

Dear Alan,

Thank you so much for working with my class to be our international pen pals. We are at DeMiguel elementary school in Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff is a small town located at 7,000 feet elevation so we get all of the seasons, sometimes even when we are not supposed to! It snowed yesterday even though it is spring! We have a class of 23 students, all second graders. We are so excited to be your pen pals and we look forward to talking with you more and we also look forward to hearing all about Ireland.

Best,

Laura

Materials:

• iPads
• Computers
• 1 large envelope
• International postage