Amberly Austin Instructional Media

Blended learning is essentially learning using technology, or a blend of learning with technology and without it.  The website listed below has the 7 different models for Blended Learning: Station Rotation, Lab Rotation, Individual Rotation, Flipped Classroom, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual.  These models list all of the different ways to integrate technology in teaching.  The main idea with the blended learning is that students can learn the material before class and then come to class ready to work on assignments or projects and practice. I have thought a lot about how this model can fit into my content area and there are multiple different ways.  The first that comes to mind is flipping a writing unit so that the students learn about the writing process at home through videos or online learning, and then come to class ready to actually work on that process.  The process of writing an essay can be a stressful one for students but if I flip the process students can learn at

Assessing students as we teach is a fundamental practice of good teaching.  Simply asking students to answer a question or write about a certain topic is not always the most effective way to do this, however.  Students like all of us want to be engaged and entertained while at school so why shouldn't we as teachers make our formative assessments interesting and engaging? For my research on this topic I went to the website for the National Center on Universal Design for Learning.  The website suggests three different ways we can formatively assess student understanding.  Each of these differ in practice so that kids can express their learning in different ways.  The first is physical action, this basically means that students differ in their ability to use the materials in a classroom.  The second was expression and communication, this is students abilities to express themselves.  The example used on the website was that a dyslexic may be able to tell a story perfectly, but may st

Representation is a very important part of being a teacher.  Giving our kids every opportunity they can to learn through different mediums of representation is essential.  Everyone learns differently and as teachers it is our job to help our students use their learning strengths to grow and learn what they may think are difficult concepts. Deborah Moore-Russo and her partner Jillian Wilsey had some interesting insights on was to change representation in the classroom.  They did a study on math teachers to see how they taught basic algebra.  The most important thing that they found in the study was that teachers constantly evaluate how they are representing their content.  In addition to that I would argue that teachers need to evaluate themselves constantly on how they are representing content in multiple mediums. As a result of my research more than anything I plan to self-evaluate my teaching often and make goals to improve and do better. That is my biggest goal in this aspect. I

Digital Citizenship is an interesting concept when it is considered from a teaching perspective.  In some of my research on this I found a video on the ISTE website by LeeAnn Lindsey that highlights the three most difficult challenges when it comes to technology. The first was that mistakes made online have greater impact.  Essentially once something is online it is harder to take back.  Another challenge is technology is changing faster than we can figure it out, and the last is that adults are not on the same page when it comes to the proper use of technology and having good digital citizenship. The last one really stuck out to me because I see it in day to day life.  Growing up my aunt and uncle lived across the street from my house.  My parents were always accepting of technology and taught my siblings and I how to use it, we always had access to a computer and printer at home and because of that homework was never an issue.  This is not true for my aunt and uncle.  They fought t

Learning about what is out there for teachers to create a PLN was really fun and educational for me.  As a future teacher I often feel overwhelmed when I think about all that will be asked of me, it was comforting to see that there is an entire network of teachers who will be in the same boat as me and can offer support and help.  An article written by Caitlin Tucker lists five reasons why teachers need PLN's they include: Connecting, Learning, Embracing Change, Expanding Scope, and Getting Inspired.  All of these were great reasons to me. Much of this activity reminded me of an opportunity I had last semester to attend NCTE (National Conference for Teachers of English).  I was able to attend many academic sessions where I gathered teaching ideas but I also got the opportunity to meet people in my content area from all over the country.  I left excited and ready to get to the teaching field.  That excitement has since wore off a little bit but I felt a little bit of it come back

What does the research say about this? How can this be effectively integrated into your teaching? How will this help your students? What are your goals with regard to this topic? How does this shape your vision for empowered learning for your students? Learning about UDL and equity along with what is called the Digital Divide has been very interesting and eye opening.  It is no secret that everyone learns differently using UDL to help students access their niche and find what they are good at seems like a no brainer. As I researched and read about this along with how to bridge the digital divide I was amazed at how they worked together.  I chose to watch a TED Talk by Navarrow Wright titled The New Digital Divide: The Perception Problem to learn a bit more about the issues .   He talks about how this digital divide affects all of us and how anything can change when we change a child's perception of his learning.  He talks about how he tries to create light-bulb moments to