Purposeful Portfolio
This year I am working at taking our technology education to a more cohesive and innovative level. Students have never had a technology teacher. Teachers have been responsible for using the computer lab time in ways that worked for them. Teachers at the school are at all levels of comfort using technology and at all levels of belief of how and whether technology should be a part of the student educational experience. My goal as the technology teacher is to create excitement among teachers by showing them authentic ways to make technology an integral part of the classroom tools. My secondary goal is to create a map of technology skills by grade level and build upon them.
One of the tools I am developing this year is to create a platform to empower students to take a more active role in their educational journey. We will use a digital tool to allow students to organize classwork during in a central location and to reflect on their learning. Students will use design tools in Google Sites to create individual digital portfolios where they will showcase their journey as an elementary student. My goal is that over time, students will take increased ownership of their learning, be able to set and reflect on learning goals, and maintain a portfolio to showcase their growth through their elementary school years.
Most exciting to me was a conversation I overheard with the Art teacher one day. She was talking with another teacher about wanting to do portfolios for students but was unable to find the time both inside and outside of class to get started and maintain. This fed right into my original plan, so we have teamed up for the project. She had 4th and 5th Graders take pictures of their art and the reflection using our iPads and the students uploaded them to their google classrooms. The next trimester when they return to this activity, they will take pictures of their art by itself to facilitate a better picture and will either do the writing electronically or take a separate picture of the writing reflection. It is working!
ISTE Standards:
- 1. Empowered Learner -Take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals
- 2. Digital Citizen. Properly display information while protecting their identities online.
Content Standards:
- CCRA SL4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- CCRA W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
- CCRA W.6 Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
- CCRA SL5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
Lesson Plan progression:
5th and 4th Graders duplicated the website in November. It took a while for some sites to duplicate due to our slow internet and the number of students duplicating at one time, so I had students work on a different activity until the following week.
The following weeks, students learned how to share the site with teachers. We looked at how Google Sites is laid out and how to add and format text and images. We discussed copyright infringements and the need to be appropriate. Students learned where to look for images when they were downloaded from the internet or in their google drives. Students began making their page their own by changing cover images, writing about themselves, and adding photos they took of their art work. After the 3rd class, we took a break from sites to complete other activities. Most students had ample time to complete the work on their beginning site.
Principal said that as long as they are kept viewable just by APS personnel that we could publish them. I highly encouraged students not to put personal photos of themselves on so that they are less open to ?, however, I have not had time to visually look at each site to approve the content, so we have not published them at this time.
The next steps: At the end of the month I would like to have students return and update the sites by adding completed work into their portfolios and publishing.
3rd Grade is ready with pictures of their artwork and will begin sites next. I plan doing K-2 beginning sites by duplicating the original template and changing the names and cover images, and then by uploading pictures of their art to the site. This will involve many lessons as they will learn how to add the photo to their google drives using the ipads, and then how to find them on google sites and placing them appropriately to their site.
Sample Student Home Page
Sample Student Home Page
Sample Student Home Page
Inside Art Portfolio
Students upload picture of their art and a reflection piece. We already learned that 2 pictures are better than one. For the next addition students will have a choice of writing with pencil and paper or using an electronic reflection.
