Unit 9 post

I’m not sure if I mentioned this or not, but I used to live in Florida. I moved there shortly after finishing college when there were lots of teaching jobs available. My family had a condo near Tampa and that is where I settled in. I taught there for 10 years in Hillsborough County. When I saw an article show up on my alerts about Tampa schools I had to click on it. That article was titled; Tampa’s Just Elementary rebrands itself as a STEM academy. Florida gives their schools a “grade” and this school was given an F. This means the school was very high needs and many of the surrounding families choiced out of Just to go to another school with a higher rating. Many of these students were English Learners. Charlie Dittmar, an outreach instructor from the Museum of Science and Industry, wanted to change that. 

“So he began what he called a “reverse marketing campaign” to bring students — and their parents —back to the school by advertising the rebranded Riverwalk STEM Academy @ Just Elementary.”

One way they are doing this is to incorporate more technology into their schools including STEM initiatives — science, technology, engineering and math — from coding mice to robotics. STEM learning is principal to many new technologies and jobs in the workplace, it is especially important that schools learn how to connect students with this material earlier, and in a more meaningful way. They introduced many changes including coding mice, lego EV3 robots, 3D printers, 106 new desktops, 30 new laptops, new furniture and painting the outside of the school. The school also offers engineering and robotics clubs that meet after school. The inclusion of hands-on activities will result in the higher success of all students, including ELs. These technology changes have helped Just move their school grade up from an F to a B.

One of the teachers, Desiree Whitter, said it best “It’s not that they can’t learn, but that they haven’t been exposed to a lot of things. And now they’re being exposed.”

Check out the original post here.

Unit 8 post

After searching for an article that interested me, I found, As the use of in-class #EdTech increases Flipped Classrooms are on the rise, by Demetrius Harrison. I have heard the term flipped classrooms often, but have never had any experience with them. I felt it was time to learn more so I continued on with the article. Although this article didn’t go into detail about how a flipped classroom runs, it did talk a lot about the benefits to chatbots. If you are wondering what a chatbot is, as was I, I have some background information for you. Chatbots are tools that simulate conversation to provide assistance and learning.  Think voice assistants (such as Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Home or Microsoft Cortana) or via messaging apps (like Facebook Messenger or WeChat). They went on to list some of the benefits and I have to say I am intrigued!

Some quick stats about in-class chatbot use:

By reviewing material repeatedly over time, students are better able to remember what they've learned.

Software algorithms can predict when you'll start to forget what you've learned - catering to spaced interval learning.

AI can score papers with 92% accuracy in comparison to human graders, freeing time for teachers.

Learners who receive feedback immediately show greater improvement than those who get delayed feedback.

Chatbots can track student performance and adjust the curriculum to better meet their individual needs.

Freeing up time! Immediate feedback! Yes please!

At the top of the list is that chatbots are able to assess each pupil’s knowledge, learning ability and style and then devise a curriculum especially tailored to them. Acting as a guide, the chatbot can adapt the work and course to suit the pupils’ ability. With many English Learners on different levels than the majority of their classmates, this sounds like a tool that will benefit them greatly. There also seems to be a lot of visual support along with the verbal support, giving them a more personalized learning learning experience. 

So, although by then end of the article I am still slightly confused by how exactly this is used in the classroom and what that looks like, I want to find out more!

Check out the article here.

Unit 7 post

This article I read this week discusses the multiple languages that some schools on Texas. It was titled: Area schools work to meet needs of nonnative English-speakers by Kelsey Thompson.  Currently there are 92 languages other than English being spoken in Round Rock ISD. The district predicts that this number will continue to rise. When a child enters the district they are required to complete a home language survey which evaluates the student’s proficiency in English. After getting these results, the students are put into either a dual-language program or an ESL program. So far it sounds like they have an effective system in place. The problems arise because of the many languages. One issue is that the bilingual programs are only offered in Spanish, so the school district cannot provide bilingual programs in other languages but there are no teachers available to teach it. This leads into the other problem… a lack of qualifies teachers. There is only a limited number of bilingual teachers, and with all the surrounding areas all having the same needs, the school district are competing for the same applicants. 

Read more about the article Here/.