Horn,+Robert+Albert+-+Closing+Reflection

=Closing Reflection Questions=

1. Now that you’ve had this #|professional development experience, how are you defining “new literacies?” How do you think your definition has changed or evolved this week?

==I define "New Literacies" as new ways, ideas, innovations or strategies to teach and implement with students. The way our society has changed, the way we learned has as well. I also view "New Literacies" as continuing what we have always done in our teaching in new ways. Attending the institute this past week has assisted me in openning up and seeing a new realm. Prior to this week, new literacies was about how to implement reading, writing, and investigating within the classroom, but I have openned up to many new possibilities.==

2. Describe some new literacies that you learned about this week? What did you know about these topics before the week began and how has your experience this week contributed to your understanding of these new literacies?

==I have learned of the NLI framwork, Problem Based Inquiry Process. It isn't exactly something I have never heard of or done. It puts everything I have learned and plan to do in my classes into perspective. It organizes my thoughts and, if I have to, will rethink my objectives in the lesson. I had to learn that this week when I thought I had what I wanted to do for the project, then had to change my thought process and revise the plan. It was a process I had to learn. I also needed some assistance in understanding how some of these new items, cool tools, would be useful in my classroom. These "New Literacies" became very useful throughout the week. I began to collaborate with some of my colleagues in math to see how they used them and how we can use some of the newer ones we learned about.==

3. In what ways are the new literacies prompted by technology? How do they affect one another?

==The new literacies are prompted by technology as a new tool to use to get students involved. The cool tools help to get students involved. The technology allows the students to become more hands-on with the content and allows students to use technology to communicate.==

4. How do new literacies affect the way we think about academic]] content? Describe an examples of how some specific academic content is affected by changes in the ways we reading write and thinking (i.e. new literacies). ==If we look into the Project Based Inquiry Process, we can see how in depth we need to think about how we teach the content. It extends what we are teaching as far as how deep we go. It also allows us to rethink our steps and gives us that creativity to open it up to the students. In math we are no longer just looking at numbers and create a graph. Students need to produce a graph but also describe what that graph is doing. What does its' contents telling us. Students can describe the trends and how that data is affected.==

5. How do new literacies affect the way we think about our teaching practices? How do they affect the development of new teaching practices or approaches to teaching?

==Teachers would stand in front of the class and control the environment. With the New Literacies, teachers no longer just control they facilitate. This gives students that idea that they have some control. Students get right to work, work collaboratively, and learn within the community. Teachers facilitate the working classroom, keeping students on task, and answering questions that lead them. This gives the teacher a more in depth view of the class and concentrates on the in depth analysis and the student.==

6. During the week, you learning about several conceptual / theoretical frameworks for understanding the new literacies including, project-based inquiry, TPACK, Bloom’s revised cognitive theory, online identity, and #|global literacies (i.e. cultural competence, cultural awareness, cosmopolitanism). Describe your personal perspective on new literacies as it is informed by these conceptual and theoretical ideas.

==Wow, it just opens the door to the world. Students are no longer bound by the walls of the classroom. As the world becomes more interconnected, so do the students. Through these experiences of global and cultural awarenesses, students will be able to spread themselves out to others in the world. The use of TPACK allows us to incorporate the new literacies, technology, and the content into a global community. The technology can assist in exemplifying the new literacies and broaden the students.==

7. How does the design process you learned about in your design studio work and the video digging deeper session support your understanding of the creative process?

==I was completely confused in the whole process, at first. It took me a while to understand the process and what I was suppose to do. Collaborating with others in what they were doing as well as my partner I was able to grasp the concept. I believe the design process helped in understanding how the PBI process works and can be incorporated into the lesson planning. The digging deeper allowd me to dig deeper. I know that I need to continue to work with the process so that I can become better with it and be able to help others in the PBI process.==

8. You learned this week about how to manage, and in some cases create, your online identity. What action steps will you take (are you taking) to manage and further extend your online identity?

==I am concerned about my online identity. Not because I am trying to hide anything but the more someone knows about me, the more I feel exposed. There are somethings I don't mind people knowing but as teachers I believe we need to limit who we are and keep it as professional as possible. I do have a facebook and edmodo account I will manage and monitor closely. What my partner was able to find on me online was limited which is fine for me.==

9. If you had one more day in the Institute, what would you like to learn more about and why?

==I found many of the things we learned to be very beneficial. I truly enjoyed the subject breakout session. I believe that we can be our best teacher. I think if we could do more subject specific sessions we could learn more about how to implement some tools in the classroom. With just talking with some other math teachers I was able to pick up a few ideas and other tools that I can look into teaching math. Since I will be teaching Algebra II for the first time this year, it would have been great to interact with others who have and get some other ideas on what they have done with technology in their classroom. I did get the opportunity with one and got some good ideas, but more would be better. Overall, this was a very productive and informational week. I had a great time.==