Jim's USF Tech Cert Blog

Hello Class, This lesson will be for my 9th grade biology class.  The class consists of 90 total students in 3 different periods throughout the day.  It is a co-taught classroom and we have 25 students with IEP's over the 3 periods.  For the first year, students all have their own chromebook so we are a 1:1 classroom.  The unit I've decided to re-vamp will be one of the most difficult topics we talk about all year, protein synthesis.   In the past, most of the instruction has been in lecture format, with some worksheets and practice problems to understand how DNA codes for proteins which when linked together make a gene that codes for a trait.  I did enhance the unit by doing one quick animation where students were able to build strands of DNA, transcribe them into mRNA, and translate them into the correct amino acids.  Other than that, the technology piece is weak for this unit, which is the main reason I have chosen to revamp this less...

Hello Class, Wow, this week really made me think about how much I rely on technology not only to deliver my lessons, but also to organize my time here at school.  I thought about writing about my google site which houses all my lessons and a calendar for students to access but though everyone already knows about that tool.  I then thought about Mastery Manager which helps me not only deliver assessments but also helps me collect data and trends to reshape my future teaching but another student in our class covered that tool well.  I settled on a tool I use almost everyday in my class to communicate with my students called REMIND. Remind is an app/ website that does exactly what the name says.  It is a tool that gives the teacher the ability to "safely" contact all of their students, athletes, or even parents through kids most comfortable method of communication.... Text.  With remind, you are able to set up a class that students can join when given the pass ...

Hello class, After reading our resources this week and reflecting on my practice, I believe this is an area where I might not be modeling the correct approach to utilizing internet resources properly. We do lots of projects and presentations in my biology class, and I always stress the importance of citing all sources.  What I've learned this week though is I might not always practice what I preach, especially with visual media including pictures and videos.  This module was a real eye opener and made me look into my daily teaching and how I can model better digital citizenship when it comes to proper use of online resources.  Unfortunately, if I am honest, I may be more confused about "fair use" now than I was before I started this module. When it comes to Digital Citizenship, the majority of my focus with students is not on copyright infringement, but more about academic integrity in the digital world.  I feel like the biggest concern this year with 1:1 instruc...

Hello Class, I teach Biology and Anatomy at Waubonsie Valley High School and was part of the curriculum writing team for the district that adopted the Next Gen Science Standards for our new curriculum.  I see a lot of overlap between the NGSS standards and those provided for technology through ISTE.  In fact, I think that is what has made NGSS such a great resource for curriculum because it isn't just about the standards, but also includes how do you apply those essential ideas through engineering practices.  These engineering practices line up well with the ISTE standards and are what I will discuss about in this blog.  I have decided to focus on our Patterns of Inheritance unit in Biology.  One of the NGSS engineering practices that students need to master is the 3rd engineering practice: apply concepts of statistics and probability to scientific and engineering questions and problems, using digital tools when feasible. (HS -LS3-3).  The two tools tha...

Hello class, Wow, that summer went fast!  This course was the first course I have taken in over 10 years and to say I was a little rusty being a student was an understatement.  I knew I always wanted to go back to further my education, but when I found this technology certificate through St. Francis I knew it was an excellent opportunity because of our schools move to 1:1 instruction next year. I was worried that taking this course first would be an issue, but it was the only one available so I signed up and now can say that it was one of the most beneficial courses I have taken in my graduate work.  My bachelors degree is in animal science, and teaching you could say is a third career for me.  When I went back to get my masters in education I was extremely excited to learn about the profession and how I would get the opportunity to share about the amazing biodiversity on the planet with thousands of students.  Honestly, I don't remember much from my gr...

Hello Class, One of the assignments for this class was to make an online assessment that we could use in our classroom.  After looking through a variety of resources for online quizzes, and having experience with a few already over the years, I decided to try a new website called ProProfs Quiz Maker.  I made two quizzes on this site and am going to talk about the second quiz that I made for my eLearning blended unit called "Punnett Square Quiz". Artifact Link: https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtk1mtg0oacohj During a google search for free quiz generators I came across this site.  It was easy to set up a profile and free to use the basic features.  It is similar to other quiz generators I have used with a few positives and negatives in comparison.  The first positive is its simplicity, although some students might also view that as a negative.  It really looks like a typical pen and paper quiz or test, just online.  There reall...

Hello Class, For my first artifact, or artifacts, I decided to talk about the two screencast videos I created for this class to use in Biology.  I wasn't sure if they counted as two separate artifacts so I will talk about both of them here cause I learned a lot about making these videos in between them.  A couple of years ago I went to a professional development class about "flipping the classroom".  This concept really interested me because it was a way to reach students beyond the 46 minutes in class everyday.  Also, students could go back and review the videos if they needed extra help or use them as a review for upcoming assessments.  Maybe the biggest bonus though is it gives the students more time in class to apply the material in labs or activities rather than sitting in a lecture experience.  Because of this, screencasts really appealed to me because they would have an immediate impact in my classroom.  These videos were my first and seco...