Tech Contract and Letter Home

Winooski Innovation School: Digital Citizenship Contract

Throughout the course of the year, students will have the opportunity to work with technology and become responsible digital citizens. This is an exciting time as students will be able to engage in the digital world, and it is essential that students are able to utilize essential 21st century skills with integrated technology.

• I will communicate online cordially and with respect (as if I were talking to my teacher or grandparents/guardians).
• I will only use appropriate and positive language when communicating with others online.
• I will use technology as a way to empower myself and others.
• I will respect others works (always citing and providing credit).
• I will remember that not everyone has the same access to technology as I do, and I will treat them respectfully.
• I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the internet.
• I will respect my privacy by not giving out my personal information, and I will respect others privacy by keeping anonymity and/or using pseudonyms (consent).
• I will maintain a positive digital footprint.
• I will actively be responsible, and maintain the well being of any device that I may use.

Signature: ______________________________ Date: __________

Parent Signature: ______________________________ Date: __________

Winooski Innovation School: 9th Grade iPads Initiative (Letter Home)

Dear Parents & Guardians,

As we continue our recent iPad initiative at the Winooski Innovation School, every 9th grade student this year will be receiving an iPad during the first week of school. We acknowledge that this is both an exciting time for students who will be provided with great learning opportunities through tech. integration, as well as the genuine concerns parents might have in regards to the implementation of personal, technological devices.

In order for students and parents to better understand the purpose of having a 1:1 initiative at the Winooski Innovation School, we have set aside times throughout the semester in which students can have a seminar on learning how to use the iPad properly, as well as being responsible digital citizens. In addition, we will provide times throughout the semester after schools for parents, guardians, students, and the community to learn how to utilize iPads in an effective manner.

Some of the integral learning skills that students can attain through tech integration, include metacognition and self assessment, which there are various apps that guide and facilitate students reflection on their own work intuitively. In addition, students with disabilities and English Language Learners (ELL’s) will be able to communicate and participate in an integrated classroom much more effectively, which is essential to our commitment of inclusive classrooms.

         Our initiative is an exciting opportunity for our school and an amazing privilege for our students and teachers. With privilege comes responsibility, and students are expected to take care of their devices, both hardware and software. Students will only download approved programs. Students will recognize that not everybody has the same access to technology and will be respectful of those who do not have iPads.

As we begin this initiative this year we are sending each student home with a Digital Citizenship Tech contract. This contract explains our expectations regarding the student’s use of their iPads inside and outside the classroom. We ask that parents and their students thoroughly read this contract together, in hopes of building an understanding of our expectations, together. If parents or students have any questions about the tech contract, after reading it together feel free to contact Winooski Innovation School.

Enclosed with this letter is contact information of two IT Specialists. Please contact any of them if problems arise when your child is using his or her iPad.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rebecca Wigglesworth: Winooski IT Specialist

Phone Number: (802)-685-6178

Email: Beckwiggs@mail.wis.edu

______________________________________________________________________________

Jay Allen: Winooski IT Specialist

Phone Number: (802)-543-7642

Email: Jallen@mail.wis.edu

______________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for time and your consideration,

Principal Jeffko

The first piece of evidence is a Tech Contract. We were asked, in groups, to create a fair use/ digital citizenship tech contract for a 1:1 tech initiative at a middle/ high school. Within the contract we were supposed to think of different expectations that we think would be important in a 1:1 initiative. This may include rule’s around student safety, cyber security, cyber bullying and the safety of the device.

The second piece of evidence is a letter home to parents regarding the tech contract. This letter needed to include a description of our tech initiative while also explaining why it is important for our school community, and introduce our tech contract. This letter is meant to help parents feel more comfortable with the initiative, instead of worrying about the initiative. It was important for our group to keep a professional and respectful tone as we wrote our letter.

This blog focuses performance criteria 10.1: Candidates are prepared to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure student learning. This means that I am showing my ability to work with members of the community I am working with, including parents and students. A tech initiative is a great time to connect with the rest of the community. When there is a tech initiative kickoff in a school there are often many apprehensive parents. It is our jobs as educators to create open communication with parents to ease their fears. I believe this contract and letter home to parents begins to show my ability to successfully communicate with parents and students, because it is respectful, and allowing an open dialogue amongst the school and the greater community. This gives the opportunity for collaboration to make the initiative the best it can be for the school environment.

As I  think about our educational world moving towards a digital one, I am a little apprehensive. My biggest fear about tech being used in classrooms is it will become a distraction, and will be used too often. Students often use tech frequently at home, and if they use it frequently at school they will be constantly surrounded by tech. As I get ready for my professional life around tech I will definitely be thinking about balance and managing distractions in my classroom. One way I will do this, is use tech strategies that are useful, and not just for the sake of using tech. I will also implement strategies that will require students to close tech when we are not using it, and create a classroom norm of putting tech away when it is not being used.

Along with making sure that tech is used appropriately in my classroom, I will want to be prepared around the best ways to use it. This may include professional development that is devoted to learning how to use different apps in the classroom. If my school has an apple TV, a chromecast, or another system like these two it will be important to have professional development days devoted to properly using this equipment, and practicing using it, so that as a teacher I will be more comfortable with the specific tech in my classroom.

Stage I and Performance Assessment Ideas

Planning Template

(p. 30 Tomlinson and McTighe)

Stage I – Desired Results
Established Goal(s) [all standards/proficiencies]: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.1 Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations:            Lines are taken to lines, and line segments to line segments of the same length.            Angles are taken to angles of the same measure.            Parallel lines are taken to parallel lines. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.2 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.3 Describe the effect of dilations, translations, rotations, and reflections on two-dimensional figures using coordinates. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.4 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is similar to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, translations, and dilations; given two similar two-dimensional figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the similarity between them.
Understanding (s): Students will understand that… The difference between congruent and similar shapes Rotations, translations, dilations, and reflections have different effects on shapes Shapes can be found and used in everyday life, and throughout different mediums.	Essential Question(s): How can we show the congruence and similarity of shapes in different mediums?
Students will know…                                                           Students will be able to…1)How to rotate, translate, dilate, and reflect                1) Explain and show they can shapes on a coordinate plane.                                           rotate, translate, dilate, and                                       reflect shapes on a coordinate      plane. 2) The difference between congruent shapes                   2) Explain the difference and similar shapes.                                                           between congruent and similar                                                      shapes. 3) Shapes can be found in many different                        3) Express their knowledge of mediums.                                                                           shapes in a new medium (such       as computer programs or       artwork)

One idea I have for a performance assessment during my lesson is an art project that uses similar and congruent shapes. I think this would be a great and creative way for students to show what they know about similar and congruent shapes. A student would need to apply all of the knowledge they gained from my unit to complete this assignment. My rubric will include specific instructions about what they would need to include in the art piece, for example a rotation, dilation, reflection, etc. to make sure that students have applied their knowledge and meet the standards I have set in place for the unit. This piece of artwork will also give students the ability to apply their knowledge about how shapes and art relate by creating their very own piece.

These pieces of evidence show the beginning stages of my planning for a unit in an eighth grade geometry class. They show that I am thinking of the purpose of my unit before I start looking at anything else. This is the root of backwards planning, which looks at the purpose of a unit first, and then plans lessons. A main idea and purpose will help a teacher stay on task, and remember the most important part of the lesson.

This blog will focus on Performance Criteria 7.1: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of content areas to meet rigorous learning goals. This mean that I will focus on showing my ability to plan lessons based on my knowledge of my content area. I believe that Stage one of my Backward planning template and my mind map show that I am meeting this criteria. The evidence shows what I want my students to specifically know about congruent and similar shapes. I want them to be able to explain rotations and reflections. This means that I have an understanding of what these are and why it is important for a student to understand the difference between them. This evidence also shows that I want show students how the material connects to a world outside of mathematics. I must have a very deep understanding of the mathematics if I wish to give my students meaningful connections. The backwards planning guide helps me think of ways I can connect my content area to other areas of the world. This will make my instruction stronger, because it shows that I want my students to make connections to the world around them.

I believe that the evidence shows that I am just barely scraping my understanding of my content area knowledge to create instruction. The evidence currently shows that I have a plan to get there, but doesn’t show much else. I believe as I delve deeper into my unit plan I will have more evidence that shows how I relate my content knowledge to my lessons to give rigorous learning goals. I will learn more about geometric shapes, along with congruence and similarity so I can find deeper meaning in them and find many other ways I can relate them to the real world, so I will have even more rigorous goals for my students.

Shadow Puppet and Explain Everything

Link to Progressivism: https://youtu.be/_u34vE1OsIQ

Link to Literacy: https://youtu.be/PI24YdpslFI

In the shadow puppet a partner and I were asked to describe our definition of literacy, how it has changed over the past few weeks, and how we could relate it to our content area. In the explain everything I was asked to explore my teaching philosophy, research theorists and it, and apply my learning to my future teaching style.

In these two projects I found a lot of similarities. As I researched my teaching philosophy I learned that I believe it is incredibly important for students to actively work with material, and not just listen to me talk about the material. When I gave ideas as to how I would assess my future students literacy in math I said I would do exactly that. A great example is starting at 1:23 of the shadow puppet with my partner. We stated that a student must be able to show they are literate in multiple ways. I then gave an example of how a student could do that. Our shadow puppet also brought up the fact that a person who is truly literate in math can apply it to everyday life. I think these are huge points in my teaching philosophy. Students must be able to find connections to their world to find the subject matter interesting. Along with this they must be able to experiment with the material, and actually do instead of just listen. So I believe there are a lot of connections with literacy in my content area and my teaching philosophy.

Performance criterion 4.1 states that candidates must accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline. My shadow puppet with my partner really showed that. One of the key concepts in high school mathematics is the ability to understand signs, symbols, and important language. My partner's and my shadow puppet talked a lot about the importance of understanding these things to be literate in the content area. I think this also covered the performance criterion 5.2 which states "Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills [such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving] to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways". In the shadow puppet I stated students will need to show literacy by taking different text styles and applying them to different text styles. An example of this is taking a graph and find the equivalent algebraic equation. Then I also stated that students need to apply the concepts to the real world, which my teaching philosophy believes is very important. This will require critical thinking skills. Students will need to critically think about how they can apply these concepts to the real world. My partner and I had a picture of a student playing basketball in our shadow puppet, and that would be a great way to integrate critical thinking skills. A student would need to figure out how to apply their math skills to the real world, and that requires critical thinking.

As I have explored my presentations and how they relate to the performance criteria I have learned more about how I can apply the different criteria. When I first read performance criteria 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, and 5.2 I was confused as to how I could apply them, but I started to see that my shadow puppet expressed the importance of being able to understand different mathematical mediums and relating them to real world situations, and I felt that performance criteria 4.2 and 5.2 really expressed that. As I keep moving forward I want to find other creative ways I can relate class projects and experiences to the performance criteria and mission statement pillars

Friends and Peers

This week MayZin and I worked on reading graphs and slope-intercept form. I struggled helping her this week, mostly because she had a hard time understanding the relationship between x and y values along with fractions and decimals. These past few weeks I have started noticing a gap in MayZin’s mathematical learning. She is working on learning to write equations, but she has a hard time working with fractions converting decimals to fractions. This is a problem in foundations of algebra because fractions are a huge portion of algebra. I believe this is why she is struggling with slope-intercept form, because an understanding of fractions is important to find the slope of a line.

MayZin was much more motivated in her classes this week, especially her reading class. I had mentioned in earlier posts it is often difficult to get her to focus on her reading plus work. Earlier in the semester I noticed that she would become distracted during reading plus. This week, however, she started reading plus as soon as class started. She even asked some of her classmates to be quiet so that she could focus on what she was reading. I believe this change is mostly because progress reports were recently sent out. She seems to be trying harder these past few weeks. I wonder if this is because she was unhappy with these grades. I believe that she is trying to finish the school year on a stronger note, and she is headed in the right direction.

MayZin seems to spend a fair amount of time with her friends. Every week I ask her what she has planned for the weekend, and after some suggestions she often tells me she will probably hang out with her friends. She spends a lot of time socializing with her friends before class as well. Theorist Harry Stack Sullivan believed there were four positive aspects to intimate friendships. These four aspects developed higher self-esteem in adolescents (Arnett,2013). These four aspects are informational support, instrumental support, companionship support, and esteem support. I have noticed MayZin’s friends offer all four. When she is not in school her friends will text what she missed. They will also work together in class, helping each other with vocabulary worksheets. MayZin spends much of her time between classes with her friends showing that they rely on each other for company during structured social time. Finally, I often see them supporting each other through their successes. When someone gets a good grade they congratulate each other. If they didn’t do as well as they hoped they encourage each other to work harder.

Since we were working on graphs again this week I worked on MayZin’s reading level with her again this week.. According to the WIDA can do descriptors the ability to “evaluate usefulness of data or information supported visually or graphically” (Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A., 2007) is not attained until level 4. She struggled with reading the graphs that she was asked to work with again this week. I mostly worked with her on deciding which variable is the independent variable, and which variable is the dependent variable. From there I asked her leading questions until she was able to figure out the the x-value is the independent variable, and the y-value is the dependent variable, and why they are like this.

Media

Today MayZin had the chance to work on her complex assessment today in her math class. The complex assessment theme she was assigned is finding evidence of an afterlife. I mostly looked at her presentation and tried looking for different articles she may be able to use. When I asked her about her assessment she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it. She moved around in slides and articles quite a bit. I had a hard time trying to figure out what exactly she was trying to do. When I continued to ask her about it she gave me short answers. In all there was not much I was able to help MayZin with today.

            I didn’t have any new assumptions this week, but I did notice a change in MayZin’s academic attitude in her reading class. In previous posts I have stated that I have assumed MayZin seems to not have a strong motivation in her classes. This week, in her reading class, I noticed that she focused on her reading plus work more this week, and she participated better in class. This could have been a push to do better before break, or maybe she was ready to start working harder in her classes. I also know that progress reports had been sent out a few weeks ago. She could have not been pleased with her progress report grades, and she may now be pushing to end the year in good standing.

            MayZin is surrounded by technology all day long. Winooski has a 1:1 tech initiative. This means that every student in the high school has a laptop that they use regularly throughout the day. The two classes that I follow MayZin in uses technology. Her Math class is an independent learning classroom, so she completes and turns her homework in all on her computer. This has positive and negative effects on MayZin and her classmates I have noticed. One of the positive effects the 1:1 initiative has is students are able to work at their own pace. This helps MayZin’s understanding, because she is able to work on a unit until she thoroughly understands it. MayZin also has access to the Internet when she does not understand a concept. However, I have noticed that MayZin and her peers take advantage of technology in the classroom. Many of them will use the computers to watch YouTube videos and search through their social media feeds. They also use their cell phones an excessive amount during class time. I have noticed many of MayZin’s peers’ texting when they should be working on reading plus work. There are many positives to the 1:1 technology initiative, but I also have seen that it needs to be better regulated, because many students are abusing it.

            I continued to work on MayZin’s reading level with her this week. I noticed that she can read graphs well, but taking information and making a graph with it is difficult for her. According to the WIDA can do descriptors the ability to “evaluate usefulness of data or information supported visually or graphically” (Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A., 2007) is not attained until level 4. This could very well be why she has a hard time to create her own graphs. This week she was asked to make a graph of her own with two related variables of her choosing. I tried to give her examples, some of them including her favorite sport soccer, but she still struggled to create a graph herself. She also struggled with solving a question where she was given information and then had to draw a graph with that information. I could see that she could not decipher what information is important and what isn’t. I believe this is because of her reading level, because after many guiding questions and explanations she was finally able to draw the graph.

Works Cited:

Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A. (2007). WIDA English language proficiency standards and resource guide. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.