POST #2: Challenges to Using Iowa AEA Online Resources

My biggest challenge to using AEA online resources is my own luddite tendencies and the real belief that I will ruin something or get so tangled up in the different levels and areas that I will just implode. I have to learn to trust myself and take my time. There is a wonderland of images, words, pictures and sounds that AEA Online Resources has to offer me and any students I teach and I am walking right past it.

Again, as an "authorized substitute", I am very limited in the time I am in a classroom and I am conscious every time I sub that I am in another's classroom. Forcing myself to do this at home, at my own pace will allow me to expand myself and that confidence will allow me to be a better teacher no matter how long I may be in a classroom!

My students are getting ready to start their end of the year research project, which is to research a country, or well-known person from a country.  Then gather information about the geography, education, traditions, culture, government, food,.....  What perfect timing for me to be in this course!  We could glean from CultureGrams, Britannica, Groiler, Teachingbooks, Gale, AP, clipart, and more.  The students have to write a paper, and  present a display board. I teach in a very small church school, with a very small library that does not have much in the line of resource materials.  We could take a whole afternoon and go to the public library(which we have done before), or we could do it all via AEA resources.  That would be such a blessing!

But my challenge is - we are not an accredited school. So I don't have access to the free resources and I can't afford to subscribe to them all.  Most of the sites I checked out have a free trial period.  I wonder how much research my kids could do during the trial periods?  A second thought would be to contact parents to see how many would donate to the cause of subscribing to the sites. One final possibility would be to present to my church the need for on-line resources that are safe and not interrupted with inappropriate advertisements.  Whatever we do, chances are it won't work for this year, since the projects are due to start next week.  But maybe for the following year we could set up something.

Along with the Online Learning Room, I also teach 7th grade reading. They are leveled out based on ability/scores and the 7th grade class is split between three teachers. I feel that the AEA Online learning opportunities for teachers to use with their students are very wide open. This is helpful to my class because there are so many options to read and do research. One struggle I would say, is time. The amount of time to familiarize myself with the programs and then in turn, explain to the students. This obstacle could be overcome by focusing on one program at a time. Possibly start at the beginning of the year with the resources and work through them throughout the year.

That is a great question, what is my biggest challenge in implementing Iowa AEA online resources in the classroom, I have three main challenges.  First I feel overwhelmed by all of the great resources that Iowa AEA online provides for teachers. Second how do I know what to start with and why start with that first. Third challenge as all teacher know time to look more at that resource.
 To overcome this over whelmed feeling I will pick the resource that I feel will be the most beneficial for the students as well as the simplest to start using.  This will also help solve the challenge with why and what I start with first.  To overcome then lack of time challenge I will allot myself 15 minutes in the morning to look through that resource and find my way around. While finding my way around I will have a list of months and jot down a note by each month about how I can use the resource during that time.   The challenge of time will also be solved by using a resource that is quick to use in the room.

As with anything in education, time is always difficult to find and it takes time to navigate all of these wonderful resources.  I am already comfortable with a few resources but I would like to make more meaningful connections with curriculum and use these resources to really take student learning to the next level. This, of course, takes time as well--but I'm hoping this course gives me a head-start on this process. My team already follows pacing guides in the different curricular areas, so perhaps I can just enter in specific learning opportunities with these online resources as I learn more about them.  

Another limitation is the amount of student access we have to technology within the classroom and students are not independent in using resources effectively. It is very helpful to have a parent volunteer help with accessing resources (even though I have created QR codes for a few of them already). Perhaps students just need more exposure and modeling to be successful.

There are 2 main challenges I foresee in using the AEA digital resources in my classroom: 1- Having a full class set of computers that are fully charged and not having any technical difficulties, all at the same time and fully available for the extent of the lesson. 2- Finding enough time amidst teaching the common core standards.

To overcome the first challenge, I could teach about one of the resources in a small group setting, eliminating the need for so many computers at once. The other groups could be working on the daily math or science lesson and then I wouldn't lose valuable time on the core standards. I also could try and get an extra set of hands in the room, so that if there were a technological issue, the helper could assist with that while I continue to teach the lesson.

To overcome the second challenge, I would have to find a way to incorporate the AEA resource lesson into a lesson or unit that I'm already teaching. My students rely TOO heavily on Google and I think that the extra time would be well spent. Hopefully they would turn to the AEA website when needing research or info for a presentation and not continue to turn to Google.

My biggest challenge at implementing the resources in the classroom would be teaching the students how to use all of the resources available.  I feel that a lot of time might be spent introducing all of the web resources and might take away precious time needed for our Biology Curriculum.  If students already had experience using the AEA Online site the process of research would happen earlier.    

My remedy to this challenge would be to have a discussion with our librarian and the english department about their involvement in implementation.  If the students have not had training on the site then we would need to discuss a plan on how to introduce this resource. Once the students feel comfortable accessing and using the site then we as teachers need to encourage the use of the AEA online resource site for all of our research type projects.  As an educator, I worry about how our students decide what is credible or not credible information.  They are willing to believe any website as truth.  Helping them decipher good information from bad information will be very important as these students become citizens that are able to vote.  During the past presidential election I witnessed a lot of chaos that was the result of bad information being on the web.  This can lead to anarchy which is the intention of the creator of the bad information.  So if we can produce knowledgeable citizens that will be critical and wise about the information they take in we will be able to ward off such anarchy.

This course has opened my eyes to all the resources that are available to use in the classroom.  I guess we get so caught up in our daily routines and expectations within our curriculum we fail to recognize the amazing resources we could be using to supplement what we are doing.  I would have to say my biggest challenge is finding the time to plan ahead enough to utilize the resources that are available.  Time seems to be my biggest challenge when it comes to using the variety of resources out there.  I also feel obligated to share these resources with all the people that are not taking this course, so they can take advantage of the additional materials available to them.  It would be a great in-service for all teachers to have the opportunity to learn about the resources available.  Once again, it comes down to time and how these resources will impact test scores.  Unfortunately,  many administrators hands are tied to their in-services to how everything impacts test scores.  That being said, it could be difficult to convince a test score driven school to understand the amazing resources we could all be using.

There are numerous resources available on the AEA Online Resource page.  The vast quantity of resources can make it seem overwhelming to choose which resource would best meet the needs of a lesson.  A teacher could spend endless amounts of time searching all the resources for just the right find.  This course has helped me better understand the resources which are available to educators.  This is the first step to overcoming the challenge of filtering through numerous resources.  The AEA Online Resource course has provided me with knowledge about the choices available.  This in turn, allows me to determine which resources best meet different types of lesson needs.  Rather than fumbling through numerous resources and spending a little time on each, I am now able to know how to better limit my choices.  Another way to help overcome the challenge above, is to determine which resource, or two, to initially integrate into my lessons on a regular basis.  This will allow me to become more comfortable with using the resources and allow students to become familiar with the resources.  Patterns with resource choices within the classroom leads to consistency and student confidence in their abilities.  

The biggest challenge for me is finding time to become proficient in all the different resources.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but if I could pick one or two each year that I would focus on to learn more about and use more frequently it might be less daunting than trying to learn them all at once.  Also trying to figure out which resource would be the best spot to access videos/text/graphics that I need is overwhelming.  Again, it will just take time for me to dabble in each program.  Another challenge would be to teach my 2nd graders how to use the programs....although I think they figure things out faster than I do.  Our media specialist is more than willing to help teach them more about the resources, but then finding time to go to the already busy computer lab is a challenge.  I only have two classroom computers so it's hard to give each student ample time on the computer to try the different resources.

The biggest challenge that I will have incorporating the AEA Online resources into my Physical Education classes is the setup of my teaching space. While I do have access to a laptop and a projector, there are two classes going on at the same time in the same gym divided by a curtain.  The noise level is very prohibitive to showing video or audio clips. This year however I was tasked with supervising a group of 4th graders for 35 minutes at the end of the day for a literacy intervention. For my intervention group I am in the computer lab with access to the projector, so it will be possible to share resources with them, the drawback is the limited time I have with them.  Some of the ways to overcome these obstacles I have come up with included sharing the resources I want the students to view through Google Classroom, so that they have a chance to see them before they come to class.  For my intervention group I have gone down prior to the end of the day and borrowed a second laptop to have everything in place before they show up.  The main conflict is if another teacher is using the lab prior to me.  

Finding the right resource for the right students may be one of the biggest challenges. I want to find articles that my students can read at their reading level for a unit on persuasive writing. However, i think some of the articles on SIRS and teen health and wellness may be to high for them and some of the other articles may seem to babyish. As an EL teacher this is often a challenge because we have 5th/6th grade content objectives and interests combined with 1st-3rd grade reading levels. However, I am glad that there seems to be lots of options on the AEA website and I plan to look through and try to find various options. I may link specific articles for them in a document or our class website. At some point I would like to teach them to search for their own articles by reading level if possible. Also, I am thinking about looking at the videos as well as an option for my beginning readers.

My biggest challenge to using the Iowa AEA Online Resources is the availability of technology. In two of my classes, students to Chromebooks is 3:1 and my other class is 1:1. Time is another concern, as I see my resource students for 40 minutes each day and often homework takes precedence over technological learning. The steps I will take to implement the Iowa AEA Online Resource will first be to use the Gale eResourse for translation support for reading materials, worksheets, and other classroom activities. I will also introduce the Access My Library Public Education app for subject search and kids Infobits; I feel that these to applications will come in handy for EL's. For newbies to the EL resource the Kids Infobits is color coded and in a visual format; two ways EL's learn when they are discovering a new language.  Second, I will introduce Soundzabound; the EL's in our school love to work on Power Point or Google Slides and incorporate music and images which they can use without worries about plagiarism issues. I do not want to inundate the students with too much information, so this would be a gradual process to find the best fit for my students.

There are always challenges when talking about providing the best education to your students.  It will take time to go through the online resources.  There is so much, that it can get overwhelming.  I would like to just focus on one of the resources, get a lesson or to planned and go onto another one.  If I take it bit by bit, I'll be more apt to use it.  So first, I plan on looking for resources for our science unit on rocks.  Then, I think I'll check for some resources for math.  Specifically, for multiplication, division, fractions, area and perimeter.  Another resource I'm going to check out is part of the Gale website:  KidsInfoBits.  Some of our Making Meaning read alouds have certain subjects that the students always want to learn more info about.
For example, polar bears, frogs, etc.  

No doubt, my biggest challenge will be to not get overwhelmed with the enormous amount of resources available.  I am not sure if it is due to having ADD or if it is the same for everyone, but when there are so many options to choose from, I often do nothing.  
I knew there would be an overwhelming amount of new information covered in this course before getting started with it, so I made a plan to just take one thing from the course and utilize it right away.  Start small.  If I wait too long to make a start, my current motivation will evaporate.
I am going to try a lesson using the flip teaching concept and the Khan Academy for a lesson next week when we start a new unit dealing with circles.  That's the plan and I am sticking to it!

The biggest challenge will be to get students (and me) away from only using Google as a research tool. Google does not really evaluate sources; it simply lists items often based upon criteria that is related to advertising relevance as opposed to quality of the source that the GALE provides. So, I may work with my colleagues to create a requirement (because requirements are often the best/only way to get people to try something new) that we and the students make use of additional resources provided by the AEA with at least one of our research assignments. Maybe the best way is to start the course with a little inquiry-based work and ask students to use GALE or AP Images. Then we may take the step to create some focused searches and/or projects that could make use of some of the sound and/or video libraries. I am very intrigues by the idea of having students tell their digital story. That works very nicely with a number of the resources mentioned in this course.

Another step that I can use is encouraging student use of available resources right on their phones. Now, if there are IDs needed, that can also be an issue (again, that is why everyone loves Google!), but with help from our librarian, I believe every student can be encouraged to complete the activities and assignments. Really, the online resources are fun to use, so if learning is "fun," then even reluctant learners will more likely than not at least give the resources a try. If they see them as "better" resources--and in turn start doing better work or getting better grades--their learning will improve!

I feel my biggest challenge in using Iowa AEA online resources is becoming familiar with all the resources you offer. There are so many it's overwhelming for some teachers.  I'm very glad by going through this tutorial you offered step by step  directions so that I could assist teachers when they ask.  After going through the modules I will be able to suggest different resource to either utilize in the classroom for either the staff or students. I like that the password is mostly generic for the resources so they can easily be accessed from home or school for students. By becoming more fluent and utilizing the resources more I will be able to offer more resources to the teachers in the classroom.

As I stated in my first forum, I will be having a new set of students next year.  I believe my biggest challenge in implementing this set of resources is the idea that there is so much in Iowa AEA Online.  I also don't believe a lot of my students will have knowledge of this resource.  Together, the group of us, I feel will be learning.  This will be a challenge for me because I worry about the content I am teaching and if I am not comfortable with Iowa AEA Online how can I expect my students to fully learn.  I am worried my students will miss on major material because I am so focused on making sure I am explaining Iowa AEA Online resources.  I feel like there is going to be a lot of online searches in my future.  My summer plans may change, I maybe sitting in front of my computer using Iowa AEA Online.  I am a learning who has to do things herself and make mistakes for things to set in, and if this is what my summer is to benefit my students than it shall be.

I believe one of the biggest challenges in using the online databases in classrooms is the students' habit to simply go to Google and search for references. The students consider this easy and quick. The problem is the students don't evaluate the information on the sites they go to, and consequently, don't necessarily get the best or most recent information on a topic. Another obstacle to overcome would be the availability of desktop computers, laptops, or an iPad-like device at school. Some schools don't have individual computers or devices for students to use, and it can become difficult to schedule a computer lab for the teacher to provide them. To address the challenge of students not using the online databases, I would first demonstrate the online database(s) I wanted them to use for a particular assignment. Then, they would be required to use that database in their assignment with reference notations. As the class is required to use more and more of the online databases, they will realize how much excellent information is in them, and that the online databases are actually much easier and quicker to drill down to information than using Google is. To overcome the second challenge of having devices for students to use if they weren't available at school, I would have them do all their research and written assignments at home. If the student didn't have a home computer, I would suggest using a school one during study hall time, borrowing a friend's computer, or possibly checking one out from the school library if that were a possibility.

I really do not see very many challenges when using this resources.  The biggest challenge will be finding the time to explore.  This class gave me that time to explore the website.  I feel within the next school year I will be using a variety of these tools when teaching the facts of whatever we are learning about.  I love to find new information and ways to show kids how to use the online source in a safe and respectful way.  I have found a variety of different tools that will be useful in the classroom.  The challenge of teaching preschool how to use some of these sites.  I do find that the bookflix will be used within my classroom.  It will take some guidance, but once kids have figured out that books are at their fingertips I think they will be excited to learn and read.  Also,  not sure how this will work with IPAD's  we have more uses of IPAD's in our classroom than computers, curious to found out how it might work on IPAD's.