My students used technology in real ways to collaborate and learn throughout my internship. Sadly, most of the ways that would allow my students to share with a larger or more global audience were limited due to our district's policies, but we were able to work around that.
My students worked to create digital stories that focused on a societal evil prior to our To Kill A Mockingbird unit. Students had to demonstrate that they understood what a societal evil was, could give historical examples of that evil, and that they could demonstrate how or if it was still active today. My students used a variety of media sources as well as their own voices and research to create videos that introduced the class to the various societal evils we see in the novel. Another project that we did was that students were given the opportunity to select one image of Baltimore in the media and combat it with their own vision of what Baltimore is. Students were encouraged to independently post their final products to their social media accounts with the hastag "#mybaltimore". A number of our Seniors did this and you can see one example of that to the right. My students benefited from both the collaborative aspects of these assignments as they had to learn how to make a cohesive final product with their groups, and they had to account for the audience that would receive their products. This lead to a number of conversations with students about the best way to share their messages, format their products or create the effects they were looking for. Having an authentic product and audience really pushed my students to next level and generated more engagement and interest in the projects. |
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Since starting my internship, I have found myself collaborating in a variety of different ways for a variety of purposes. Other than email, which does still comprise a majority of my collaboration, the bulk of my collaborating is done through the Google Suite.
Within my school and department, we have both a team folder and a google classroom. It's there where we put all deliverables for our department and share any resources we create or think will be of use. However, my school is small and there is generally only one teacher per grade level. For that reason, I also collaborative via our districts ELA Virtual Learning site (where they post any curriculum updates or changes) and through an Inter-School Collaborative Planning Team Drive. This team folder is used by teachers at my grade level and content area in seven other high schools. This allows us all to work on creating lessons and ideas for different aspects of our curriculum and share them for the benefit of all. This ability to share resources both within and outside of my school has benefited me in a number of ways. I have been exposed to different approaches and resources, which I have then been able to use with my students. Another great benefit to this system is that it saves me time. Since I don't have the ability to co-plan for my grade-level within my school, having the opportunity to do with teachers at other schools is a benefit that I would not have access to without the use of digital technologies. I'm also in a team folder for facilitators of our 21st Century Schools program. I was selected to be one of the facilitators for SY 2018-2019 and being in this group has been enormously beneficial to me on a professional level. Because I am one of the facilitators, I know what shifts the district is making before they make them and I have the opportunity to be a beta tester for various products and programs. This has allowed me to make pedagogical decisions that would help me to stay in alignment with the district's evolving focus. |