Crushing My Barriers

So, during my summer break, I am taking a CISD required course called Tech Academy. It is a week long course to help teachers feel more comfortable with and provide more resources for infusing technology into our classrooms.

This morning, I am up early while my family sleeps and have set up outside on my back porch to resume my course work. It is raining and quite enjoyable! :)

Ok, so back to crushing my barriers! Yesterday, I created this blog and my first post was about four barriers that I felt were hindering me to fully infuse technology into my classroom. Those four barriers were: Bloom's Levels, branching out past Popplet, resources for every student, and relaxing and knowing that kindergarteners can handle it!

Today, I am to find some solutions to help me overcome my barriers.

As for Bloom's Levels, there is information available. I have several cheat sheets at school to help me understand the actual levels. It is basically on my shoulders to learn more and become more familiar with the question stems for each level.


(image from CISD website)

This illustration helps us see how the levels can actually flow into and out of each other based on the learner's schema. Not all topics covered in class need to start with the Remembering level. With some topics students would be able to move into the higher levels of Analyze, Evaluate, and Create quickly.

This anchor chart that I found on Pinterest is a great visual for both the teacher and students to see what kind of questions fall into what categories.

(On pinterest, the original author is unknown.)

I also created something similar to this in my classroom with question stems to help me make sure I was asking HOTS. My grade level team did a rotation of HOTS levels each month. I used library pockets and popsicle sticks.

(Found on pinterest, from classroomfreebies,com)

My second barrier was finding other apps and web 2.0 apps other than popplet. Now don't get me wrong, but popplet is awesome! If you are new to infusing technology into your lessons, this is a great one to start with. It is user friendly and easy for students to use. It is a techy version of a plain ol' mind map. With this version, you can add colors, pictures, drawings, etc. Fun stuff! My students and I have created popplets for 2D shape pictures that we found around the school, family vocabulary words, sources of light, and sources of heat.

(google search image)

I have used fotobabble and Flipagram (http://flipagram.com/f/LShiUkL121) too.

(google search image)

Educreations is on my to do list! I like how you can add pictures, draw, and talk on the video!

(google search image)

My third barrier was not having one to one for my students. Like I said in the earlier post, my library does have sets of Ipads which I could check out. So, that again, is on my shoulders with planning ahead and reserving them for my classroom. Donor's Choose is also a route that I could take in getting some devices for my classroom. http://www.donorschoose.org/


(google search image)


My fourth barrier was letting go and letting the Kindergarteners use the devices. Often I feel like I am anxious about them breaking the devices or not being able to use the app on their own. What I often forget is that these kiddos have had access to devices of some sort since they were born. They sometimes know more than I do! :)

(google search image)

So there you have it...my plan for crushing my four barriers. Putting it down in writing and doing a bit of research has made it seem simple enough! We will see!