Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Semester Reflection Period 3

What changes have you seen this semester in regards to your education? What role did technology play in that change? What role did the constructivist philosophy play in that change? (constructivist-students becoming producers of information, students in charge of their own learning. What suggestions for improvement do you have for me next year? What are some of the things you would suggest I do again?

Make sure to include specific examples and expand on each other's ideas. Your feedback- honest and reflective- is important!

17 comments:

Levi S said...

i think we used the laptops a little too much. i enjoy using them and it makes things a whole lot easier and sometimes harder. when we read the odyssey first semester, it was a nice break and i can't believe i'm saying this but sometimes reading out of the book can be a more fun way to learn about something. my suggestion for next year is to occasionally do something without laptops especially because if someone is doing a big project there are a lot of things that can go wrong like the file dissapearing or part of it being erased. in my opinion, using the internet isn,t the best way to learn. while a lot of information is available, it isn't always accurate.

laurene said...

Changes I have seen this semester regarding to my education have not been drastic ones but ones that are noticeable. The grades I had in my classes last semester were horrible; I was disappointed in myself for doing a poor job. Second semester though I tried out for lacrosse and made the team. Sports and school are hard to handle at the same time. My goal for this semester is to keep my grades up while playing a sport and I did just that. It might not have been straight A's, but I worked hard to get my grades. With finals coming up I am studying like crazy hoping I will ace all of them to bring those C's up to B's. Technology played a big role in my changes with school, because it did help make work easier to do and as a teenager I love to use the internet. Having teachers let us use our resources, like cell phones and laptops, it was a lot of fun and made projects and homework more interesting to do. Improvements for next year will be big. I will work harder then ever in the beginning of the year all the way through the end. I have learned many lessons of not doing work this year and I do not want to fall in a big hole again being a sophomore. I will also being going out for lacrosse next year and again with school and sports it can be difficult, but I am ready and I feel very prepared. Suggestions I have for English 9 next year is really nothing. I enjoyed this class and it was actually one of my favorites. I learned a lot and it was also nice to use the computers to stay in touch with the expanding technology. Doing the projects in this class were also fun and made group discussions more exciting and interesting.

Josh TS said...

Over the year I thought it was cool learning off a laptop but often times difficult due to the urge to play games. I also liked the “teach yourself”. For net year I suggest that you keep some of the fun and creative projects because they were a good way to learn about all of our new classmates, like the what matters project we did at the beginning of the year and the Google Earth adventure.. I also suggest that PLN’s are unnecessary.

adama said...

I think that everyone is this class have grown very much as a student this year in your English class. I also do think that technology has had a huge part in all of our learning as students. It has helped us mainly have access to million times more data than one single text book could provide to use. It has also taught us more about being able to use higher and more advanced stuff some of use had not even heard about before. We have also learned how to be safe in the information we put out there and it’s cool knowing that other people can read our work also. Also I think that the PLN presentation as much as the whole class didn’t really like them I think really helped us all to become better speakers in front of the class and not being as afraid when we go up there and present. Other than that you have been very good and even though my writing is probably not perfect yet is it way better than it was at the beginning of the year. So most of the stuff you have done this year has been very good and I wouldn’t change a thing. But it would have been nice to do only one PLN a week because if you are interested in a blog there is not always a new good blogger every three or four days. This is what I think about this year.

annies said...

I thought that I had done better this semester because I have done all of my PLNs except for two, and I have done really good on all of the tests and quizzes this year. I don’t really know what it is that’s keeping my grade at a C. I think that having the technology was great, but doing my homework was definitely key to keeping my grade from dropping. The technology is good though because we use the on line text for Romeo and Juliet. I think that we need more guidance with our learning though. Not too much but maybe a little more. We’re still young-ish and it is just kind of confusing. But I guess that’s what it’s about, learning. I think that next year we should spend more time on reading the book because now it’s almost finals week and we haven’t watched Romeo and Juliet. It will take all of class for the next two days probably to just finish one of them. But next year I think that you should keep the PLNs because without those, there is pretty much no grade. PLNs are a HUGE part of the grade, and they’re an easy 20 points. I also like commenting on people’s blogs. I think that you should start the year with that and just keep it rather then changing it half way through the second semester. Because when someone reads our blog, about someone else’s blog, it’s just regurgitating information, they don’t know how we feel about it. They just figure out how the blog mattered to us and the world around us. But over all this has been a great year :)

brandonh2011 said...

This semester I have seen many changes to my English work throughout the semester in regards to writing, reading and other tasks. Technology really changed writing because in my past classes we would read a book then re-tell it in an essay but this year we read articles relating to us and we were able to tell our thoughts on it that type of writing really helps. I say next year do PLN’s they help a lot along with the presentations. I liked how we went over the book so if you were confused about some part of the story you could get feedback on it, and with that you would do it on the Wiki sometimes which I really thought helped a lot. I liked the position paper because it gave use a chance to improve our writing. So I think you should do those things again next year they were really helpful for my learning.

samh said...

Ms. Smith,
This year has been amazing in this class. I have grown so much with my learning in the class. I have become a much better writer and I have also become more comfortable speaking in front of the class. This semester, and over all this year, has been such a huge learning experience for me. I have learned how to better use the computer and I feel like I am more computer savvy now and a lot of that has to do with the use of laptops. I was so excited to have these laptops and I can not picture an English class without them now. Next year I am attempting to get into the English 10 class with laptops, but I can only take it second semester, if I get in. I greatly enjoyed using laptops and I think our school should provide them in all English classes. I enjoyed the constructivist philosophy in this class because it made me think on my toes and become a problem solver. On top of that, it allowed me to come up with new, creative ways to be a producer of information. Next year I do not really have any suggestions for improvement. I feel like everything this year was good and it taught me a lot. One thing I would suggest might be coming up with news ways to read books in a more exciting and hands on way. I struggle finding interest in reading so if there was a better, more creative way for me to do that then I might be more interested. I would like to say, just keep doing what you are doing. I learned a ton this year!
~Sam

angelicao said...

I have grown so much over the year. Not only in English but also in my learning process.

But the many ways that I have learned and grown in English is by being about to present in front of the class and not feel nervous, or scared of dreading it. At the beginning of the year when we had to do PLN presentations I would play with my hair a lot, talk really fast, and not look at the audience at all. But now I don't mind doing my PLN presentations. I need to work on making more eye contact but other than that I am not nervous and doing it is not big deal.

Another way I have grown in English is with my writing. I used to be a horrible reader and when I would have to write reports or something like that my word choice would be poor, and my ideas would all be mixed up and then it would end up making no sense. Also I didn’t know how to write a thesis and a conclusion.

And the biggest thing that I have grown in English that is very new to me is technology. The first day of class was the scariest thing because I wasn't very good at working computers and I thought I was going to get very behind and always have to ask for help and I'm sure you noticed at the beginning of the year how much I asked for help and how much trouble I was having. But now look at me. I'm descent at it anyways.

But now you see the many ways I have changed this year in English and I will continue to keep getting better.

joeyw said...

Not only have I seen a lot of change in myself this semester, but I have seen change in myself throughout the entire year. I now know how to use a computer more efficiantly for my school work. I also now know how to write a very good argumentive paper. Technology played a huge part in my learning and growth this year. I learned how to use new programs such as blogger and I learned how to use them efficiently. Using blogger halped me a lot and just useing a computer everyday helped me grow as well. Who knows what I'll grow up to be but whatever it is I am sure being efficient with a computer won't hurt especially since technology is advancing every day. I also learned how to make your writing longer and better looking by spelling out our congigations.

Jackie N said...

This English class has played a very important role on my education. The class was different from all the other ones that I have had. Through using computers to PLN presentations, I have improved in many areas. I improved on being able to write better, and improving my PLN presentations. From the beginning to the end, the presentations were quite different. Reading many literature books has gained more of my reading comprehension and learning new formats of writing, made me learn the proper way of writing. The writing we have done in this past year has been incredibly helpful, and I believe it will pertain to my future. Through the technology we used everyday, I have learned so much about blogs and other internet uses I never knew about. The projects were very fun as well because they were unique and applied to technology. I also loved how the learning aspects came along with fun in this class. Some suggestions I would make is to focus a little bit more on individual attention rather then generally the entire class. For next year, I suggest you break down part by part each day of our learning, like how you had done this year. It made me stay focused on an individual task each day, and helped me learn a lot more from details, rather then a pile being thrown at me all at once.

kellyS said...

This semester I think I have made drastic alterations in my learning that have really improved my writing and overall thinking. The first thing that I think about this class that has changed me is the technology aspect of it. This is the only class that I use a computer frequently in and it is also the class that I am doing the best in. First of all I find myself to write a lot easier when I am typing because then I can just delete a sentence or cut and paste different ideas in my writing and it just gives me more flexibility in my writing. We have also done work with power points and other slide show type of software such PhotoStory and VoiceThread which opened up a whole new window of opportunity for me in projects and other work. I feel like I have really become a constructive student especially when using our Personal Learning Network. With our PLNs we have the freedom to learn what we want to learn and then put it out there for others to feedback on as well. Suggestions I have for next year is to make sure that all of the assignments are very clear in what is being asked of us. Also maybe have more discussions on what the class is learning about, and get feedback from the students constantly on what is being done in class. I like how you try to do projects that cause us to really open our minds to questions and think outside of the box, like for instance how you give us a semester long question in which everything we do can relate back to that question. This semester and whole year has really helped me improve my education and has prepared me for my future classes.

seanb said...

Over this past year I have had a lot of changes. I have discovered new ways to write persuasive paragraphs, I’ve discovered the personal learning networks, and I have discovered a greater importance to the class of English. Throughout this second semester i have changed. I have been able to reflect upon peoples blogs to actually help them. During presentations I am no longer as fidgety and hardly look at my notes. Technology in general has changed for me. I have begun to use my email for school and not just chain letters, I have become more familiar with programs such as Picasa, and windows movie maker. Constructive philosophy has also changed for me. Well actually my constructive philosophy has become stronger. Instead of producing little information on subjects now i can spew out buckets of useful thoughts to a conversation. Next year i would suggest make students think at different angles. Maybe assign students speech and debate types of projects to really show them different angles. I say you should not take anything away from your education program. If anything you should try and add more. Thank you for a great education Ms. Smith.

alenav said...

The change that i have seen most during this semester is in my writing. I use to think that writing was boring and a waste of time, but being able to do it on a daily basis and do it on what captures me has shown me how useful and fun it is. Technology played a huge role in helping my learning capability. It made everything so much easier and efficient. Writing using the laptop made it quicker, and simpler. I was able to get my thoughts out easier. Having students in charge of their own learning is essential. The student has to want to learn before they can obtain information. Without wanting to learn they are not going to take anything in. Some suggestions for next year is to maybe use more creative projects for learning a lesson. We used several projects to help us learn. Personally it help me with understanding tings a lot better, if you could just use more of those i know it would keep students interested and motivated. Something i would suggest keeping for next year is PLN's and PLN Presentations. This gives students an oppotunity to expand their learning on their own and present what they learned to the class.

alenav said...

The change that i have seen most during this semester is in my writing. I use to think that writing was boring and a waste of time, but being able to do it on a daily basis and do it on what captures me has shown me how useful and fun it is. Technology played a huge role in helping my learning capability. It made everything so much easier and efficient. Writing using the laptop made it quicker, and simpler. I was able to get my thoughts out easier. Having students in charge of their own learning is essential. The student has to want to learn before they can obtain information. Without wanting to learn they are not going to take anything in. Some suggestions for next year is to maybe use more creative projects for learning a lesson. We used several projects to help us learn. Personally it help me with understanding tings a lot better, if you could just use more of those i know it would keep students interested and motivated. Something i would suggest keeping for next year is PLN's and PLN Presentations. This gives students an oppotunity to expand their learning on their own and present what they learned to the class.

NowlanS said...

I saw a huge change in my learning from last semester to this semester. I feel that I became more responsible and that my writing had improved greatly. With using technology my way of thinking changed. Many of the programs I used this semester I have never heard of before in my life and never would have known about if it wasn't for this class. I learned more about blogging and creating PLNs which I think will help me greatly in the future. I learned a lot by doing PLNs and learned a lot of new interesting things. I also figured out the down sides to having a Mac operating system instead of a windows system. There were some things that would not work on my computer at home because I did not have windows. This was a little frustrating. I cannot think of a way for improvement. I felt everything done this year was for a good purpose and was done in the best way possible. Some things to continue are PLN's and definitely continue to do the Position paper the way we did. Breaking it down step by step made it easy to do and made it difficult to get a bad grade. If you got a bad grade you were not doing your homework or paying attention. The style of learning I experienced this semester helped me greatly.

ethan l said...

This English class was like no class that I have ever been in before. It was really cool that we got to use technology every day. I liked using lap tops for a lot of stuff like taking notes and writing papers and even doing blogs. It made it a lot easier. I think that being in this class I have improved in many different ways. I have become a better writer in the structure of my writing and the content. Also we had a lot of presentations and I used to hate presentations so much but now I don’t really think about them I just get up there and do it. I think that you did a great job teaching this class and I can’t think of anything that you can change. Also this year I felt you challenged us in making our selves more independent in our work. It has really made me realize that in high school you have to be a lot more independent and just get things done. There’s not going to be anyway that is going to guide you along the whole way. This year was a great learning experience for me. Keep up the good work.

Averee said...

I have seen a lot of changes in regards to my learning this semester. I am definitely a far more technologically literate student. Working with laptops every day has helped me work out the kinks in the way I learn with them. Before, I was shutting down my computer every 20 minutes because I had frozen it. Now, I can proudly say that this is no longer a problem. Being in charge of my own learning helped me as well. Knowing that I was the one responsible for my grade, and taking that responsibility seriously taught me that my grade is in my hands, so I have to fix my own problems. I am a more self-sufficient student because of this.

As tedious as they were, PLNs assisted a great deal in my learning this year. I am more open-minded, more intelligent, and more aware because of what I have done with my PLNs. Before, I was completely oblivious to what was going on in the news, the school, and sometimes, even other people’s lives. Now, I am aware enough to know what people are saying when they talk about making kids “googlable” and add my own input. I am more interested in what my teachers and my fellow classmates say on their blogs. PLNs even helped me discover my habits, my fears, and myself. Through repeatedly visiting CNN.com and other news sources, I discovered that I am a repetitive and often very boring reader, who visits sites over and over again merely to stay within my comfort circle. As depressing as this realization was, it helped me to over come my monotony (or at least try). I branch out a little more, and I visit new blogs (though I still stay within the regions of teachers’ blogs.) My reading and studying skills have improved because I am more willing to try new things, instead of sticking to the old.

Some advice I might have for next year is to decide with the class what days PLNs should be assigned. Students should still do two a week, but the days they are due should be a little more flexible. I know that this year, PLNs were assigned on Tuesday nights, when I had a lot on my schedule, so I was often up late finishing them. Perhaps this sounds silly, but I think that maybe if students were able to vote on a day for weekly PLNs. PLNs should still be assigned on weekends so our minds to go completely dead, but students should be able to choose as a class what day the week PLNs are assigned so they can work it out in their schedule. Not everyone will be happy, but at least more people will have more time to complete PLNs.

This year has really changed me as a student. I am more interested in my learning, and I am careful about my grades. When there is a problem, I take initiative and do everything in my power to fix it. I am responsible for my grade and my learning, something I now know.