The Final Project :)

My Project:  My Website and Remind

My Narrative:                                          The Written Assignment Rubric Self Score

This class marks the wrap up moment of my Graduate Studies here at Rhode Island College.  I am a middle child and was born in 1970. This defines me as a Digital Immigrant as Prensky has taught us.  Dighton, Massachusetts is the small rural town where I grew up; it’s just outside of Rhode Island.  My childhood was composed of a lot of play in the neighborhood. One Summer between Kindergarten and First Grade my Mother signed me up for a very short gymnastics session at a summer camp at the local high school.  From that moment on I begged my Mother year after year to please put me in a gymnastics class. I don’t know why or where this desire came from; it was just there all the time; like Baby George determined to master the step in Wesch’s Ted Talk.  

Finally, in the fourth grade my Mom made my wishes come true when she signed me up for gymnastics classes.  Once in the gym, I quickly advanced because I just wanted to learn more and more. I had an undeniable connection with learning gymnastics and failure made me try harder.  In 1985 my family moved us to Warwick, Rhode Island. I was very excited because the high school had a gymnastics team.

In 1988 I graduated from High School.  My first computer was the Commodore 64.  Then, I believe, we had a MS-DOS computer. I used it as a Word Processing tool to write papers throughout College.  In 1993 I graduated from Rhode Island College with a Bachelor of Art degree in Early Childhood Education and in Psychology.  I was certified to teach up to second grade in Rhode Island. At this time I had no desire to go on to get my Master’s Degree; instead I got married in 1994.  In 1995, I had my first child. By 1999, I had three children and I divorced. Now, I had to support my three children as a single parent; they were one, two and three.

From 1999 to 2005 I taught in a Child Care Center and I took my children with me until they entered Elementary School. I was Miss Dawn to many infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their parents.  There was no technology in the child care centers at that time. All connections made were interpersonal.

My next phase began in 2005.  This is when I connected my three loves:  Early Childhood Education, Gymnastics, and Children.  I started a small mobile gymnastics business and named it Head Over Heels Gymnastics on Wheels.  Initially, my target population were children enrolled in Child Care Centers; but quickly, After School Programs filtered there way into my bullseye.  The carrot of this business was convenience. I brought the classes to the Child Care Center or the After School Program.

At this time Scott Noon would consider me to be a techno traditionalist.  I used technology for Program Development. Microsoft Word was the tool I used to create business paraphernalia.  I was using the web for email and to access information on potential clients. I knew once I got a yes, and families signed on, my connection with each student would make me successful.

As 2007 floated in, I anchored my business at a set location in Providence.  I named it Dawn Corrado’s School of Gymnastics because I believed people would connect to my new business through my name.  Now I expanded my used of technology to create a Myspace account, then Facebook, and a Website. I converted from a 35 mm camera to a digital camera.  I created digital slideshows and movies which I burned onto CD’s to display gymnastics performances and gymnastics meets. I began using group texts to connect and communicate with families.  At that time I also had help with my now husband. He would go on the internet and play around with google algorhythms. His goal was to have my business come up first on the google search engine when people googled ‘gymnastics in Rhode Island;’ Boyd would be proud.

Still a gym owner, I began moonlighting in 2012 as I leapt back into the classroom in Providence.  I have been teaching a Regular Education Kindergarten Class at Alan Shawn Feinstein Broad Street School for the past six years.  Very quickly, I connected to my students and my families interpersonally. I made it routine to connect with each of my students daily.  No exceptions.

I believe students need to connect with their teacher to know they are valued and cared for.  I believe students need to connect with their learning through discovery, centers, direct learning, and collaboration.  This is modelled through my blended learning classroom. It began four years ago at which time I attended my first of three Blended Learning Conferences transitioning to what Noon defines as a techno constructivist.  My students use technology centers independently twice a day. For math they use the Dreambox app and for ELA they use the Lexia app. Both apps are directly correlated with common core standards and produce data which can guide grouping, differentiated learning, and scaffolding.

Additionally, I use the cloud.  This way any images the students capture during technology time pop up on my computer.  This is another way to monitor how students are (or are not) spending technology time.

What would Prensky and Boyd think about these screenshots and selfies during technology time?  My take away is that Prensky would expect to see five year olds playing with digital media like this.  They are Digital Natives and this part comes easy. They probably have been playing with a SmartPhone since infancy.  On the other hand, Boyd thinks if they were true ‘natives’ they would innately know how to use the apps the way they were intended.  I believe it is my responsibility to directly teach my five year olds that technology can be used for play and creativity as well as a learning tool to monitor their progress.  This caused me to begin sharing the data that popped up on my teacher dashboard about their progress. As a result, my five year old students began to use the technological learning tools the way it was intended on a more frequent basis.  What actually began happening is that the students would ask to see what the dashboard was sharing, and they began to tell me what level they were on. With my guidance, they begin setting achievable goals on this learning app.

I have also utilized an app called Edu Creations.  I have used it as a teaching tool: creating slideshows for frontloading and other teaching purposes, I also taught my students how to use it on their own so they could create their own slide shows.  I have even used it as a formative teaching tool. I just completed my second year of teaching with a smartboard in my classroom. It is an awesome tool to utilize to support learning in the classroom.  

I believe it is my responsibility to communicate to parents.  Communications include classroom housekeeping notes, what we are learning in the classroom, materials or resources for parents to access, celebrations, and more.  This has been my past struggle. I would do all of this via paper notes. I even began including “detach the bottom of this sheet, sign and write me if you have any questions or comments, so I know you have received and read this note.”  I have translated through google translate if my students home language was something other than English; yet, I still felt like my communications were less than proficient. As a result of this class; I am happy to report that I have decided to utilize two technology tools to improve my responsibility with parents.  The two tools are the “remind” app and a website.  

I began building a website for parents.  I have been using google translate so all information will be posted in English and in Spanish.  I am including information on the “Remind” app from what it is about, to providing links for a quick and easy way to sign up.

I am also utilizing the “Remind” app because the website is not enough.  Using the website alone is sort of like being out in the cloud without a way for parents to connect to it regularly.  This technological tool will enable parents to receive messages, pictures, or links directly to their mobile devices or email.  I am super excited to try it out. Working in a school which hosts a population of over sixty percent English Language Learners; communication can be challenging.  This “Remind” app translates over seventy languages.

Finally, in Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, he shared the formula to the secret to success in life.  It is the Golden Circle which consists of the answers to three questions:  Why? How? And What? My What? I believe effective teaching occurs through communication.  My Why? I believe in and I love children and I want them to learn. My How is through making connections.  To me, this is the key to finding your way through the corn maze of life.

         So Happy to be done!