Module #3 Blog #2

Leveraging Tools, Texts, and Talk in My Teaching Context:  

Designing specific practices to help support students' practices beyond the screen can be a challenge. However, after reading, supports can be implemented to ensure the quality of learning beyond the screen. For example, as a teacher, a major part of the job is planning and designing instruction to be able to get the most out of your students' capabilities. Students can go through many tools, such as a blog or a group project (Semingson, 2017). The article regarding digital literacy tools discusses the Voicethread app and the capabilities and opportunities it can bring into the classroom for students (Semingson, 2017). This reminded me of a project I do in my third-grade classroom. We compose a persuasive speech, and we plan and draft it in a packet. Then we transition to online to a Google document. A tool I utilize is voice-to-text on Google Docs. This is a more enjoyable way for the students to compose their speeches as well as further their skills with tools to make learning more effective and fun for them. Once we are done with the speeches, we use an app called Canva to create a background for our speech. Lastly, we incorporate a green screen and use a smart board with their speeches on it, and record the speech. To wrap it up, we create QR codes to put on their desk for at open house to scan to watch their speech. The unique process of this is that once we have recorded, we have a celebration day to allow students to watch each other's speeches. I display questions on my smartboard, and the students have meaningful conversations about what went well during their speech and what they could improve upon. It allows students to utilize the digital tools as well as practice their interpersonal skills with their peers (Garcia, 2017). 

Garcia discusses the importance of not turning the two practices against each other, of digital and nondigital, but rather evaluating how to complement them. This stood out to me because I think before this course, I looked at digital tools as a way to replace specific instructional tools rather than pairing them together and allowing students to incorporate them in the task they’re working on (Garcia, 2017). Therefore, I think a way I can encourage students to be more willing to have the balance of using digital tools and non-digital ones when working on specific projects or tasks in class, to keep the balance of verbal collaboration and digital collaboration. In terms of equity, I need to keep in mind the availability of technology to all students. Another area in terms of engagement is having an appropriate, time-consuming assignment. A fear is that I rely too heavily on my digital tools, ignoring the importance of balance between digital and non-digital work. However, another project that we do in my class is a research project related to animals. I am proud of this project because it allows the students to use literacy collected from our library and our online platform to research collections related to their animal. They keep physical notes and keep them on a large Post-it note in our room. Each student has a category they are responsible for. Once completed with research, we transition to our digital tools such as Canva and Google Docs, and Slides. From there, the students are all responsible for a specific number of slides. After they all go through each other's pages and leave digital comments. This creates productive collaboration and positive improvement to their whole group project. Overall, I definitely gained many new tips and tools from this week's readings to be immediately implemented into my classroom now and in the future. 

Garcia, A. (2017). NONDIGITAL SKILLS. Literacy Today, 35(3), 24-25. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fnondigital-skills%2Fdocview%2F1966005428%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Semingson, P. (2017). DIGITAL LITERACIES FOR YOUNG READERS AND WRITERS. Literacy Today, 35(3), 30-31. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fdigital-literacies-young-readers-writers%2Fdocview%2F1966005551%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Module #3 Blog Post #1

Integrating New Literacies in Classroom Context:

After reading this week's readings, it is essential to understand that digital literacy is a skill that can be applied both inside and outside the classroom. In terms of integrating new literacy practices into my classroom, I see many opportunities to implement activities into my current classroom. One particular activity that came right to my attention was a review of particular subjects. We often have packets or worksheets to be handed out. However, there are multiple sources that I can use to allow students can use their Chromebooks or iPads in order to participate in the review. As stated in “Assessing News Literacy In The 21ST Century,” it presents many advantages and disadvantages for interaction within the class and learning (Jacobson, 2017). This is a way to allow students to continue to grow their digital literacy, as well as work on the given skill being discussed as a whole group. I have yet to utilize a tool on my smartboard where I have the capability to have an iCloud whiteboard project on my students' Chromebooks and have it be a collaborative assignment. 

In terms of possibilities for teachers, are to utilize technology more frequently in workshops, center work, as well as individual work time. There can be tools where the students are well-versed in the technology, where they can have the capability to navigate assignments digitally. Tensions I see being a challenge for teachers are the learning style of students; not all students prefer that particular style of learning. Another challenge I see, unfortunately, is the trust of the students staying on the correct tools and not becoming distracted by something non-school related. I decided to read the article The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy (Philips & Garcia, 2013). One particular part that stood out to me regarding the importance of incorporating technology was the person-to-person interaction (Philips & Garcia, 2013). The new technology is a fantastic tool, but as an educator it I think I will continue to err on the side of discretion when and how long to utilize technology in my classroom. I say this because I don’t want my young students to be accustomed to relying on technology and not have the opportunity to be collaborative with their peers. However, in “Building Bridges From Classrooms to Networked Publics: Helping Students Write for the Audience They Want,” something I see as a benefit or tool that can be a simple but effective way as a check-in is a Google form (Lammers, 2019). That is an easy and quick way to gather information and feedback from students that I will definitely consider using more frequently as an exit ticket.

Overall, I gained many good insights and have many ideas of how to continue the growth of technology in the classroom, at the same time being cautious of the usage time. This is important because young elementary students are now growing up being exposed to technology and becoming more familiar with tools than ever before. Therefore, I do not want to lose the verbal communication as a whole when it comes to particular assignments or tasks.

References

Jacobson, L. (2017). ASSESSING NEWS LITERACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Literacy Today, 35(3), 18-22. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fassessing-news-literacy-21st-century%2Fdocview%2F1966007432%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Lammers, J. C., & Van Alstyne, J. H. (2019). Building Bridges From Classrooms to Networked Publics: Helping Students Write for the Audience They Want. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(6), 653–662. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48554924

Philip, T. M., & Garcia, A. D. (2013). The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 83(2), 300-319,400-401. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fimportance-still-teaching-igeneration-new%2Fdocview%2F1399327199%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Module #2 Blog Post #2

 How New Literacies are Relevant to Us

After reading Digital Literacy, my main takeaways from the reading are how many skills are needed to be able to effectively use digital tools. The section regarding skills needed to be digitally literate was eye-opening to just how many skills are in digital literacy. The skills mentioned were basic computing skills, media literacy, digital problem solving, network literacy, and information literacy (Vanek, 2019). These are all skills that directly correlate to paper-based literacy. Now it is a challenge to take those skills and turn them into digital literacy. Having the ability to navigate digital literacy and then having the skills to apply their findings to their work. These skills are something that I can incorporate into my work environment to pass along to my students. These are valuable skills that they will continue to use and perfect as they continue their education. 

The second article I chose was Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice: More Than Just Tools. The main takeaways I gathered from this were incorporating digital skills that students use in their own lives and how, as a teacher, it is our job to educate them on the modern digital tools (ILA, 2018). Second is how we can use digital tools to level the educational playing field for all and not just some of the students( ILA, 2018). Lastly, as a young teacher, an advantage I have is all the experiences I have had with technology as a student going through school. This is not the case for all students. In the article, it states that instead of investing in expensive technology for schools that they should invest in teaching their teachers how to teach useful technology tools to their students (ILA, 2018). This is something that would be a major benefit to all teachers. It would be an effective way to deliver digital literacy and digital tools to our students instead of widening the gap in inequality between students. 

Overall, both of these articles gave information about digital learning that I had never encountered before. There are many beneficial tools and knowledge that I can incorporate into my teaching now. Digital learning can be an advantage for students to have to comfort in navigating technology both in school and outside of the classroom. 

References: 

Improving Digital Practices for Literacy, Learning, and Justice: More than Just Tools. Literacy Leadership Brief. (2018).

Vanek. (2018). Digital Literacy This Brief https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/TSTMDigitalLiteracyBrief-508.pdf

Module 2 Blog Post 1

 Defining New Literacies and Why They Matter: 

New literacy practices are something that is a consistent practice in my daily personal life as well as my professional life. When I was in elementary and middle school, we always had to read textbooks and then answer questions on a worksheet or a separate piece of paper to turn in. As I went through high school, I was allowed to use iPads to read instead of having a physical book. The same for writing a paper in high school, I was able to use speech-to-text to write papers. My students now do not write papers anymore. Students are now typing their papers or doing speech-to-text to complete an assignment. 

New Literacy extends beyond the conventional view of literacy as printed and written texts, and includes meaning-making practices using digital technologies (e.g., video games, weblogs, mobile texts, etc.), and explores the changes of beliefs towards literacy in the process of practices(Sang,2017). As an elementary school teacher, I rely heavily on digital reading platforms to allow students who are struggling with reading comprehension to have the opportunity to have books read to them. I also have students whose English is their second language. I can select collections that are in their primary language and have them still be able to read what the rest of the class is reading. It makes differentiating much easier for teachers and students to have access to these, so students can all be on the same page and involved in the lesson. 

Problems I see in my own school are that we progress monitor students, and all students take the New York State exam in both math and English language arts. We have a wide variety of socioeconomic students in our school who do not have the means to buy up-to-date books and rely on their children checking books from our school library. It is not fair to students whose English is their secondary language. Beecher states, “Creating a community and working together requires a degree of trust and familiarity that can be difficult to build when there is physical distance between the participants” (Beecher,2023). Overall, new literacy has been a major benefit to us in education, allowing students to connect with new ideas all around the world. As well as for translating readings into the students' primary language. New literacies are a major benefit and tool for everyone in so many ways. 

References:

Beecher, C. (2023). Chapter 1. What is Literacy? Multiple Perspectives on Literacy. Iastate.pressbooks.pub. https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/teachingearlyliteracy/chapter/what-is-literacy-multiple-perspectives-on-literacy/

Sang, Y. (2017). Expanded Territories of “Literacy”: New Literacies and Multiliteracies.. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(8), 16–19.

Introduction!

 Hi everyone, 

My name is Joe Avellino. I graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2022 with a bachelor's in early childhood/childhood education. I currently live in Syracuse, New York. Both of my parents work in education, so I was always around educators and going to school events with both of them. After my freshman year of college, I dropped out and took a year off, and during that time, I started to coach and work as a substitute teaching assistant in the same district where I went to school. From there, I realized that I enjoyed teaching and grew up playing sports, and I knew that by going into teaching, I could do both! Therefore, now I teach third grade and coach football and lacrosse, still in the district I went to. My goals for the future are to eventually become an elementary principal. But for now, I enjoy being able to make a difference in the classroom as well as on the field with my high school athletes. 

I chose to pursue a master’s degree to further my education. Secondly, I want to be able to learn and grow as an educator to help me later down the road in my career in eventually in an administration position. But also, I want to be able to have tools to impact my current teaching to make my students' learning a positive experience that allows them to grow as learners. As well gather new knowledge on technology that I can incorporate into my classroom. 

After a long day of school and practice or games, I love to go home and watch some sort of sporting event. Particularly football, basketball, or lacrosse. Then, if there are no games that interest me, I binge-watch shows or sports documentaries on one of the many streaming services.