POST #2: Challenges to Using Iowa AEA Online Resources

Last year I did incorporate some of the resources into my classroom. One activity the second graders used was a list of resources I picked that they could choose from during Daily 5 rotations.  BookFLIX, TrueFLIX, and PebbleGO were the most popular.  I felt there were many good resources but the challenge for me was management and wanting to be more connected with what the students chose and what they actually took away from the book, video, or lesson.  Students independently used iPads and chose the resource they would use for a rotation while I worked with reading groups.  This year I want to have students keep a log or journal of what they used so conversations can happen about their learning.  This year I want to use Britannica School Elementary Learning Zone.  I would like to use some of the specific books/videos to review basic concepts with the students.  Examples:  Time, add and subtract.  Again the management of how to do this most efficiently will be a challenge.  With second graders I will set expectations and model how to use sites so students can use the resources efficiently.  

I believe the biggest challenge in implementing AEA Online resources into the music classroom setting is twofold: 1) Narrowing down what resources would best enhance my music classroom, and 2) Using the chosen materials in a creative and educational manner that would foster every student's learning experience.

The first step would be to look at the units that I teach over the course of the year and compare them to the resources available on the AEA online resources and find which programs would best be suited to enhance my curriculum. Then I would carefully choose which units would lend themselves best to those resources and begin to plan how to implement them wisely.  

After narrowing down which resources are best suited for specific units I teach, I would strategically plan on how to use those resources in my classroom. As a music teacher, I see several groups of the same grade level on a given day. Therefore, when implementing AEA resources, I would have to carefully plan that each class received the materials which based suited them based on grade level and ability.

There are so many different and beneficial resources that the AEA online provides. It is difficult to determine what will be best for Kindergarten age students. I am challenged to find what will be most beneficial for them to use and how to teach or introduce the technology to them I plan on reviewing the resources that were best for Kindergarten aged students. Then digging in a little deeper to find out what will work best for them.

With there being so many resources and each doing something a little different, I feel the hardest challenge would be finding the right resource for my students. I teach special education and my students are working at different levels. Some of my students have reading fluency difficulties and others have reading comprehension difficulties. To find the resource that would best fit their needs is going to take time to find.
Also working with special needs students getting them all to navigate their way through all the steps required to get to the page needed would take up most of the class time.
I feel I am going to need to pick which resource would best fit the needs of the students and try it out. I feel I will learn right along with them and hopefully pick up some short cuts or ways to make the directions easier.

After reading through the course I find my biggest challenge is getting to know all of the resources available.  I need to know them well enough to be able to quickly choose a resource while teaching a lesson. This would have made a great all year PD class to learn about each individual resource and apply the ones that are grade level one by one to the classroom. There would not be as much of a copyright worry and lower levels could access one site.
As a substitute in my own district I know where to get usernames and passwords. Most of the students in third grade and up are at least a little familiar with the website.  In a different district I would need to get the username and password from the office or school librarian. Having the information available ahead of time would benefit the challenge of a smooth lesson transition.  Also, bringing with me a list of resources, general content descriptions and grade levels applicable would give me a start in finding what I need and narrow my search. If I have time, I can go to the tutorials to review each resource that might work for the lesson.

Since I don't have a classroom, I can't really teach the students how to use the resources.  But I sure can make them aware of what is there. and I can help them in the labs when the teachers bring them in to use the computers to do research or what ever they have planned.  I can surely give suggestions to the teachers of some of the things I have learned from taking this class.  I would like to hang a poster in the labs of all the available resources and if they don't know about them, which I'm sure they all do.  From what I have learned from taking this class, I can offer my help and suggestions.  I guess my biggest challenge is to get the information displayed in the library for all students and teachers to see.

Working as a paraprofessional, my biggest challenge in implementing AEA online resources in the classroom is that I am not the teacher and do not make the lesson plans. For the general education classes that I go to I could look through what the AEA has to offer and send links or talk to the general education teacher about using the resources that would fit with the specific units that they are teaching. It will be much easier for me to use these resources in the special education classroom as I work with a great teacher who is always open to new ideas and experiences for the kids. I am going to find materials for the physical science class that she teaches since it is often hard to do traditional labs with the to two students who take this class in our classroom. The students will be excited to have materials to work with that are different from the usual textbook learning that goes with many classes. I am also excited to use AEA online resources with a student that I work with for her novel class. Reading and answering worksheet questions can get monotonous, so I am looking forward  to trying out some more exciting things with her.

My biggest challenge in implementing more AEA Online Resources is my own lack of comfort in navigating through various technology sites.  To help overcome this challenge, I will try to use the site more frequently to gain more comfort in navigating through.  I will make use of the AEA Online tutorials to refresh my memory when I use new sites.  I have also encountered a problem accessing the Book Flix site on AEA Online.  All the other sites allow access, but BookFlix just goes to blank page.  I have talked to technology director, and have discover that if I first access TrueFlix and then try BookFlix it will work.  I do still have access to BookFlix (my favorite) but in a round about way.

Working as a paraprofessional, my biggest challenge in implementing AEA online resources in the classroom is that I am not the teacher and do not make the lesson plans. For the general education classes that I go to I could look through what the AEA has to offer and send links or talk to the general education teacher about using the resources that would fit with the specific units that they are teaching. It will be much easier for me to use these resources in the special education classroom as I work with a great teacher who is always open to new ideas and experiences for the kids. I am going to find materials for the physical science class that she teaches since it is often hard to do traditional labs with the to two students who take this class in our classroom. The students will be excited to have materials to work with that are different from the usual textbook learning that goes with many classes. I am also excited to use AEA online resources with a student that I work with for her novel class. Reading and answering worksheet questions can get monotonous, so I am looking forward  to trying out some more exciting things with her.

As I took this course, I had no idea how many resources were available through Iowa AEA Online.  There are a few challenges that I anticipate as I look at implementation.  I have to continue to explore the resources and become efficient as using them before I can expect the kids to do so.  This is going to require time collaborating with the classroom teacher and figuring out which resources would best fit specific projects throughout the year.  It will also take time for me to learn on my own time how to navigate through the resources.  Time is always a challenge for teachers as expectations increase in other areas of learning.

I could start to overcome these challenges by using some of our PLC time to collaborate with my 6th grade teaching partner and the rest of our PLC team to decide which resources could be most effective during certain learning units.  I also feel like I under-utilize our librarian.  The 6th grade classes spend 50 minutes per week in library/media classes.  I could talk with her and find out what she can do with the kids during this time to help them learn about the resources and give them time to explore them.  

My biggest challenge seems to be in line with alot of other educators out there.  Time.  To become fluent and gain experience in navigating through the resources just requires time.   I believe for my students to benefit from my taking this course I will be using the AP Images,  AEA Digital Library, and Teen Health and Wellness, among others of course because there are so many resources available.

I will want to research each resource to gather appropriate images and videos to implement into my presentations and gather discussion questions that will trigger group discussions of our content material.

Again, time management of utilizing it  wisely to will give the students the most effective and most impact on their course work will be the most challenging part.  The resources, however, our at my fingertips which is the advantage I have now since learning where to go through this class.    

I think the biggest challenge for me would be the fact that I'm a substitute teacher and you have to follow the lesson plans that are left for you.  Now that I know about this site I can guide the students to use it for research if they need help.  I usually see signs around the school that has the school password and that on them and telling the students to use them.  
If I had my own classroom then I would need to check with what I was teaching to decide what site would work best for me and my students.  This class has given me more inside on what different types of help are available to not only teachers but also the students.

When I first started this course, it was a bit overwhelming because there is so much information.  Once you become more familiar with each site, they are pretty user friendly.  Although I do not have my own classroom, I will encourage teachers to take this course if they have not. There are so many resources available in the Iowa AEA online resources that I would want to use if I had my own classroom such as lesson plans, the ability to correlate to the the Core Standards, and the lesson plan builder. The Scholastic site is amazing. One can see what other teachers have to say about books and share your own thoughts.  One of my favorites is the Culture Gram. So much information at our finger tips.    
The most challenging part of implementing resources would probably be the time factor for teachers to become familiar with the sites and to instruct students on using the sites. If I had my own classroom, I would collaborate with other teachers and administration to see if it would be possible to offer instruction for some of the data bases in computer, business, or even in career classes.  It may be possible that such instruction could fit into their lesson plans and lend to accomplishing their learning targets.  I have been in career classes where students were researching jobs/careers, educational requirements, wages, etc. for areas of interest. Keyboarding, computer and business classes should all lend themselves to this type of instruction. Study hall could also be used as a time to instruct students. We have high school kids that are designated technical helpers for staff.  It may be possible for these students to help out with instruction in the middle school. I also realize that all of these resources have training videos that can be used.  The hands on experience after classroom instruction is where kids helping kids could be a win/win for all. Knowledge of these resources can be used across all curriculum. A collaborative effort to teach students how to use the various resources only makes sense to me. In my opinion, our students are smart and tech savvy so most will quickly and easily master use of these resources.
Bottom line is that the most challenging part to me would just be getting everyone on board and implementing.  If none of the resources are being used now, one may need to start small and build from there.  Teachers, administrators, and staff may need to think outside of the box to problem solve all obstacles that stand it the way of enriching students learning experiences with all of these amazing online resources.

My first and obvious challenge in implementing the use of some of these resources is the lack of internet in the building where our preschool is located.  It is a simple addition that can be added, yet the cost may not outweigh the little amount of use in the preschool class.  It may be a case of just adding a hot-spot for the minimal time needed.  Our program is only a 3 hour, morning only program.  We are a very hands-on, play based program, and do not have the little ones participate in much screen time.  That would be the first obstacle, but again, a simple fix.   There seems to be several resources that I could download ahead of time to the computer, and allow the children use of those downloaded materials without having to worry about internet use.

The other obstacle is the amount of information and pacing myself without getting overwhelmed. There is an amazing amount of resources on these sites.  I will try to just choose one or two, even though I want to try many more, and just use those one or two really well, and add another as time goes on.  I don't want to fall into the "pinterest" mode and wanting to try everything at once!

I believe my biggest over all challenge for using AEA Online Resources will be time! Time to collaborate, more than I currently am, with the general education teachers. Some weeks it feels as if we barely have time to plan together to meet what is already required. I am aware that using the AEA resource doesn't land purely on my shoulders alone, but I do want to be more knowledgeable if I am the one introducing it. I am also aware that working harder now will make it easier in the long run. Another part is time to dig into the multi faces of the AEA resources. To find material that will fit with what is going to be taught.  To overcome this challenge I will first pick one part of the AEA online to bring into my skills class.  This will allow me time to check out other parts that help my co-teachers to bring in more resources into their lessons.  Each month I will set up a goal to check out another section of AEA online resources to become more familiar with, and with time I can even part of one of our districts Ed. Camps.  

When I left UNI in 1978 there was just one computer on campus; a large mainframe that took punchcards to program.
I didn't use a computer until I went back to teaching nine years ago so I am still apprehensive about "just click on it" but I'm gaining confidence daily.  
I will use one new resource each week in each of my classes-I will jump in and apply each to something new each day.
This coming Monday will be the roll-out for AP Images. My Earth Science class will explore a current event that has been influenced by an earth process.
Astronomy can access current information about exoplanet discoveries.
Anatomy and Physiology will get up to date on diabetes' latest developments.
Eighth graders will search for  bird-of-prey numbers in Duluth Minnesota.
Seventh grade science will use AP Images to research the progression of emerald ash borer in Iowa.  

After learning about all of the different resources the Iowa AEA Online has to offer, I feel that my biggest challenge is going to be getting the students to use these rather than Google.  Students have gotten so used to just going to Google and typing something in and finding the answer right away.  They see no difference between randomly looking something up and researching using a reputable website or source.  I hope to be able to introduce them to some of these sources so they will have another option as they research.  
To help my students overcome this challenge, I need to learn to use the sources better myself.  As we go to research for projects and ideas, I will show the students how to log in using our school username and password while using my Smart Board.  I will be sure that kids are using these sites while walking around the room monitoring their searches.  I will also require them to site their sources when doing specific research projects.

     Time is probably the biggest challenge to implementing Iowa AEA Online resources into the classroom. It will take the most time to search the databases in order to find the videos, pictures, and information that you want to use in the classroom. Then you will have to spend considerable time working each resource into your daily lesson plans throughout the year.
     
     To overcome this challenge, you could take the Using AEA Online Resources class in early summer every year or two. Then you could dedicate one or two hours every day throughout the summer to searching the databases to find the various resources you want to use in your classroom. Whenever possible throughout the year, you could spend time on social media following your peers who have used the databases and can make recommendations.

As I enter this post, I am at a start-up point for the second nine weeks of the first semester. I am going to try to use a different AEA resource for each of my classes;

For Earth Science we're working on a science fair project concerning lightning-Brittanica Digital will be our
      source for statistics and explanations about its formation.
Astronomy will make use of iClipart to generate an interest-generating presentation for our planetarium project/again science fair related.
Anatomy and Physiology will access Learn 360 as they put together learning modules concerning medical/science topics related to Bible verses and references.
 7th graders can take a look at AP Images for historical info about past flood events in the Cedar River and elsewhere in the US.
8th science will search AEA Digital Library for images and illustrations from the Grand Canyon.      
 

The biggest obstacle for me is the use of technology.  Often the online resources are "down" or the computer is not working correctly.  I had difficulty viewing a few of the videos in this training and could not make many of them go to full screen.  For many months, our school could not log into the LEARN360 or Bookflix.  We complained to our district and then mentioned it to the AEA.  The problem was fixed for a few weeks but again is unavailable.  I have now figured out that I have to go to TRUEFlix, log in, and then I can back and get on Bookflix.  Not sure if this problem is with our district network or the AEA?  I also could not get on this forum at school so I have to post at home.  All forums are blocked at school.
For me many of these resources are not age appropriate for younger elementary.  I teach Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten.  These students would not be able to navigate some of the sites on their own.  It would take direct instruction or the teacher would have to find the information for students.