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*Technology doesn't have to be as tough as teachers seem to make it!  The technology integration matrix helps outline specific features of technology that I should refer to as I design lessons and create my long-range plan...
1.  Active- Focuses on student engagement where kids are developing and discovering and applying their learning
2. Collaborative- facilitate, enable, and enhance students' opportunities to work with peers and outside experts; all about working with others
3.  Constructive-learner-centered instruction that connects new information to their prior knowledge through the use of tech tools
4.  Authentic- links learning activities to the real world beyond the instructional setting; holds meaning to the learner and focuses on intrinsic motivation
5.  Goal-directed- technology tools helps to set goals, plan activities, monitor progress, and evaluate results; technology supports meaningful reflection

Different levels of the matrix:
1.  Entry level- Kids may use technology for drill and skill, and lesson content may be delivered by use of technology by the teacher only
2.  Adoption level- Teacher decides when kids use tech tools, and they may be only used for single tasks that involve procedural understanding
3.  Adaptation level- Teacher begins to guide students in their use of using technology independently; kids explore technology more
4.  Infusion level- a range of different tech tools are integrated flexibly into instruction, and kids start to use the tools on their own; teacher guides students on tech decisions
5.  Transformation level- students extend their use of tech tools in unconventional ways and are self-directed; teacher is a guide, mentor, and model; tech tools are used to facilitate higher-order learning activities that are not otherwise possible at other lower levels

REFLECTIONS and REALIZATIONS
As I am examining the features and levels, I am realizing that I am proud to be able to say I am using technology at all.  Although I was quick to place myself at the entry level, I soon realized that they are certain aspects of my lessons that go above the entry level, perhaps even into the adaptation level, and even the infusion level.  However, as I reflect, I think about how motivated I now am to reach higher levels more consistently and often in my classroom.  Page 28 provided a nice spread of reflection questions for me to consider:  What does technology integration look like in my classroom or the classroom of others that I work with?  To answer this, I would say that it looks like we are trying but we are not consistent across the board.  To keep things on the positive end of things, it is great that teachers in my district are willing to experiment and create fun lessons with out students.  But on the other hand, it is frustrating to know that certain teachers having reputations in the district (not just by staff members, but by parents and students alike) of being "tech illiterate" or "super techy." Another question of focus was about if students are using technology to collaborate with others.  Yes, in my room they are, but it is again not consistent.  I have done lessons where students use Google Docs and Slides to edit each others' work and comment to each other.  They really appreciated those opportunities, and it worked very smoothly, as I was able to give quick, constructive feedback.  However, I wish I was doing this more.

My long-range planning...
THE BIG 4 QUESTIONS:
1.  What traditional literacy skills do I want to promote?
Currently, my school places a high emphasis on non-fiction text.  We are pushed to help our students find and cite important information and provide proof of their thinking.  I also want to focus on reading comprehension of a multitude of text types, and place emphasis on collaboration to develop literacy skills.  Another major factor for learning I want to focus on in my classroom is being able to explain your thinking.  Kids seem to have an easy time coming up with answers, but a tough time answering the question why do you think that?
2.  What digital and traditional literacy skills and dispositions do my students bring to the classroom?
Traditionally, my students come into my classroom as fluent readers, who know how to silently read and partner read.  They typically struggle in the area of comprehension.  They acquire basic typing and internet skills, since they come from a STEM school, in which they have computer class at least once a week.  All kids are also exposed to iPads, as each student rents one for daily home and school use every ear.  They are familiar with reading traditionally by use of a paper book and by reading on a screen.  They have access to desktop computers in a computer lab where they can work in IXL on basic reading skills without teacher assistance.
3.  What types of activities and learning environment do I typically promote in my classroom to improve students' literacy skills and engage them in literacy learning?
I do fluency testing one-on-one with my students, at the privacy of my desk.  I have response to intervention teachers come into my room and work with kids both individually and in small groups.  We do independent reading, group reading, partner reading, and so forth on a regular basis.  Lately I have been placing a lot of emphasis on group collaboration and presentation in which students have to come to agreements together to answer questions, and then present their thinking in a variety of ways.  This allows students to draw conclusions based on text and then form agreements and disagreements in a constructive environment.  I also provide self-guided tasks for kids to excel at their own rate.  There are many different reading levels within my classroom that I differentiate for.  When some students are comfortable and productive on their own, I have time to work closely with other students who need more guidance, especially in comprehension skills.  I offer many art projects that go along with the themes of certain stories for kids to elaborate their findings through.  Sharing their thinking to each other through use of a presentation or display works well in my classroom and students expand upon their knowledge and thinking, and answer that big question of why?
4.  What digital tools might enhance these skills and activities?
Currently, I have allowed kids to access PDFs of books rather than paperback books. I also have downloaded audio so the kids can hear the books being read to them. However, I recently read an article for this class on eBooks and audio books, which are pretty much the same thing, and I want to incorporate these more formally. The fact that I have a SmartBoard, a desktop Mac computer, a MacBook Pro, and an iPad in every students' hand is a lot of technology that I am not making enough use out of. This proves to me that I have the potential to be so much further along that at the entry level. I need to do more blogging, and use Schoology (an app that my entire district implemented) with the potential is serves. I need to use Schoology to have kids collaborate, share links, access and upload assignments, share videos, collaborate, etc... The opportunities are there. I just need to CREATE them, s my kids can start CREATING!

MY STEPS FOR INTEGRATING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
1.  Begin and end with an instructional goal.
2.  Determine an appropriate instructional approach.
3.  Identify the digital tools that will address the instructional goal I have chosen.
4.  Consider the contribution that technology will make to the instruction.
5.  Consider the possible constraints of the tech tool I am using and the difficulties they could cause.  Be ready!
6. Consider instruction and reflection.

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*Not all students have access to digital tools at home, but I can still supply them in my classroom.  With this in mind, focus on using the tools more-so for in-class activities, rather than assigning a bunch of homework.
*Consider the age of the students I am teaching when I plan digital lessons.
*Be willing to be a facilitator, and not just a lecturing teacher.
*****Digital Citizenship*****
1. Digital access - full electronic participation in society
2. Digital commerce - electronic buying and selling of goods
3. Digital communication - electronic exchange of information
4. Digital literacy - Process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
5. Digital etiquette - Electronic standards of conduct or procedure
6. Digital law - electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
7. Digital rights & responsibility - those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
8. Digital health & wellness - physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world
9. Digital security (self-protection) - electronic precautions to guarantee safety.

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www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AWeNc8vev0
(Video of eBooks using Pixie and PebbleGo)

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*Readers theater uploaded to a podcast or blog site, so students can evaluate their own fluency, and revise and improve their work.
*Use a wiki creation to do fictional story writing, share links and projects collaboratively, incorporate digital video recorders to share biographies, use avatars to read aloud, record, and post poems, use Pixie 2 to create and upload PowerPoints, use Photo Story with research projects, create and post virtual field trips.
*Use digital technology as a way for parents to stay connected with their children academically (ex: online adult penpals).

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*There are a lot more reasons than I thought to integrate technology into your my literacy curriculum.
*I once found it overwhelming to think about all that is technologically expected of me as a teacher, but with the help of this new textbook, I have a guide and it doesn't seem as exhausting.
*I appreciate the layout of the standards, which give simple examples of how to cover them through digital literacy.
*Integrating technology doesn't mean you need to be a "lover" of technology.  It just means you have to be willing to enhance all the options you give your students to learn literacy skills.
*I really found the 9 components of digital citizenship to be very important, and something my current classroom has been lacking awareness in. I need to place far more emphasis on how to be a good digital citizen.

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*Keep the focus on literacy, but use technologies to enhance the learning of literacy skills. "When digital technologies are integrated into literacy instruction, they become part of the teaching and learning process that leads to the attainment of literacy skills."

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*"Explain and describe the skills, strategies, and dispositions that students and teachers develop and use when learning literacy skills with digital technology."

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Reasons why K-6 teachers should incorporate digital technology into their literacy instruction include...

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Reasons why K-6 teachers should incorporate digital technology into their literacy instruction include...

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-The use of digital technology is incorporated into the Common Core State Standards.
*Likely a big change for educators, because being literate not can be considered being digitally literate.
*Explicitly mentioned in the anchor standards.
-Digital technology can support literacy instruction by helping children share ideas, information, and experiences through images, colors, and sounds.
-Digital technology changes the literacy practices we engage in daily and these practices should be reflected in school.
-Teachers have the opportunity and responsibility to model high quality uses of digital technologies for students and their families.
-Schools have the opportunity to ensure equitable access to digital technology and the way in which it is used in the classroom.
-Teachers have the opportunity and responsibility to help children develop and understanding of the norms of appropriate, responsible, and ethical behaviors related to online rights, roles, identity, safety, security, and communication.