Each year I gift the teachers thirty minutes of free time the week before Christmas break and I take each class from Pre-K -5^th to do a lessons with them about their brains.  I would like to find more content on the growth mindset that is more kid friendly or quick activities that I could do with the children to help them see the positive side effects of thinking this way.  I also wrote a grant and currently creating a new makerspace curriculum for my school that will help students ability to deal with challenges.

My hope is that with the growth mindset lessons for students, book studies with teachers and application of the mindset in our MakerSpace we can begin to create a community of change within our school.  Below are links books I have read and teaching materials I use.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rQ3ILI3BMUlZ1CWZyQTiG27yxFIbR3I3Jnq9-tiQUBM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vDjgm6FxWmlFOYi3lcyS8iuAPZlx6QzYwvSQcEphHoQ/edit?usp=sharing

Personally I love that the COVA model has been implemented into ED Tech Masters classes as I was getting very bored with my classes and questioning their purposes, which is  exactly what students are doing.   I have also struggled with the COVA model in this class as I am unsure of myself and my work.  Again I am putting trust into the process and knowledge that this feeling of uneasiness is me growing and becoming better.   With this week's assignment I am pushing myself to try something new.  I have no clue how to make videos so I have spent the week researching different programs and playing around with their functions.  I think I have settled on Screencastify.  For my eportfolio I will venture into the world of Google sites and I am contemplating the idea of trying out podcasts. 
********UPDATE*********
 I survived! I tried new technology struggled, got frustrated, was really worried nothing was good enough surprisingly I think I did a pretty good job and I learned something new.  Check out the finished product below.
 

I believe in this process and think it is an integral part of creating an education system that validates the students and the process of learning and growing.  I believe that providing curriculum in this way will create an internal drive within students to excel at their craft.  I believe this process will not be a struggle for the students but one for the teachers. 

I had created an eportfolio about five years ago but I never kept up with it because I created it for a job that I wanted so once I got the job I dropped the eportfolio.  I know this will not happen as I am not striving for a title but creating a database of learning, changing and growing. My goal is empower teachers not only in my school to make these changes but teachers throughout the states.  The eportfolio embodies the COVA model as it is created from the ground up all by myself.  I didn't have a rubric or templates to use.  The artifacts are all mine that I have used in my professional career and it is set up to fit my style.  I own the learning shown on those pages and I am proud to share it with anyone.  

I feel like I have learned so much in this class and all of it I can say was authentic.  From growing and stretching my boundaries with new technology to learning how to let the learning lead rather than the title.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this class and look forward to the next one.  

Through the use of authentic lessons students also find the connection and purpose for their audience.  Rather than just assigning work and posting it in a public domain.  It didn’t work when the teacher told the student to make sure they did a good job because she was going to put the paper out on the bulletin board so why would it work now on a website. As a teacher it is important to take in account student relevance, interest, voice and choice when creating assignments to ensure student ownership.

I think the use of digital technology in at least elementary classrooms are on a slippery slope.  I love that teachers are using technology and can share students work but it is important to ask ourselves how is the use of the technology encouraging the COVA model and really being aware of this question, is technology enhancing the product or just a very expensive replacement of the pencil and paper.  This leads me to believe as elementary educators we need to rethink the planning of lessons.  Yes we have to teach children how to read and write but how can we do all this in an authentic way.  How can we get students excited about the TEKS.  This is something I am working on in my Makerspace.  I can see some of the lessons I am doing flourishing and it is exciting as we are moving past the planning process and moving into building but their are a few grade levels that I may have missed the mark and need to reevaluate how to teach these TEKS in an authentic way.  

 But here is my question, how do I build an eportfolio with elementary aged students.  Our district uses google so do they all create their own google site? Or is there a better way?

One of my texts books for my masters program is the COVA e-book written by Dwayne Harapnuik, Tilisa Thiboudeaux and Cynthia Cummings.  This book is all about the use of the COVA model plus CLSE learning environments to create authentic learning.  COVA stands for choice, ownership, voice and authenticity and CLSE standing for creating significant learning environments. I loved the concept of COVA, when I learned about it in my last class and immediately started using it as a planning tool in my makerspace classroom.  I can say as the kids have started building and implementing these lessons some of them are really great and hit the mark and there are two grade levels that I am still unsure of.  So with this as my starting point I was eager to read this ebook and have it help me with implementing more lessons.  Maybe it was my mindset but I struggled through this reading.  I wanted more.  Here I was a teacher who was ready to take this COVA on in her classroom, but examples given to me were students who were homeschooled.  It wasn’t until the last 10 pages of the book that I was finally told by the author that they would not be giving us examples  as this is not a quick fix.  I understand that but I wish for more or something to help me with the implementation in a classroom that does have grades, standardized tests, TEKS and time constraints.  

With that all being said I still love the book and I love the concepts I wish we could change the world of education right now with the snap of our fingers.  I do recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about creating environments for student voice, choice, ownership and authentic learning.  My principal has asked to read it and we discussed sharing with our staff.  Student voice is a new goal for our district next year so although we can not change education with one snap of a finger sharing the message is a start. 

The professor said we could use whatever we wanted but they constantly went on about the capabilities of Wordpress.  I started making two one with Google sites and one on Wordpress.  After about a week of building a lot on Google sites and absolutely nothing on Wordpress I decided to stick with Google sites. I am all about trying something new but I was so lost on Wordpress.  There were all these things and I had no clue what they were supposed to do.  Maybe I needed a class on just website vocabulary, like what is a widget? So I have stuck with Google Sites and I am happy to say it has worked out well.  I use Padlet for my blog and just embedded that in my site.

The other unknown was, what is an eportfolio? I have come to learn that it can be whatever you want it to be.  Currently I use it for my blog and to showcase cool things that have gone on at my school.  I am excited to share my Makerspace lessons and student work when it is ready. If you would like to check it out there is a link below.   I still wonder how we could get students involved in building their own so hopefully this next week I am going to have my 2nd grade GT students begin to build their own to test it out. I am hoping by sharing mine and showcasing what I am learning they will get excited about sharing their own.

When I started my courses the professor kept talking about these Eportfolios.  I had no clue what she was talking about.  I had remembered my principal had brought up the topic of all students have portfolios and I remember our instructional coach requiring us to take three writing samples a year for student portfolios. 

So to say the least I was a little confused about what they were and what I was gonna have to do with one.  Well let me tell you Eportfolios are not like anything I had before.  So here are my ins and outs of a eportfolio.  

1st.  It’s whatever you make it to be

The eportfolio can serve many purposes.  It can be a resource to promote what you do and provide prospective employers a glimpse of your talents.  It can be a place where you share what you are working on, learning or loving.  It can be a place for blogging. Or it can just be a catch all for all of the things listed above.

2nd. It has got to be yours

If you do not control what goes into your eportfolio will you really even own it? Will you continue to work on it and build your content after the class assignments are over? Will you be as eager to blog about what your doing if your audience has faded?   We really only do the things we want to do, in order to find success with eportfolios one needs to be incharge of what goes on their site.  Plus your content will be lacking if you are doing an eportfolio for someone else or a grade.

3rd. IT shows your learning

Learning is active. Learners grow develop and change.  This must be present in your eportfolio.  One should be able to go through your blog and see insightful reflections about your learning, growth and change.  You can add documents or images as artifacts of learning.  You should continue to add to your eportfolio.  It is not a one time creation and done. 

The biggest struggle I had with this course is I hated it from the beginning the amount of material stuffed into one week made the learning daunting and was hard to decipher what was of importance.  I especial struggled with our copyright lessons as I did learn a bit about the law but I still do not have any strategies or solutions to help teachers or students with them.  I do not see me being able to take what we did and use it to improve instruction in this area.  It just made me have some experience with the law.   I believe there has to be a better way.  Learning is fun when it is relevant.  This is a component of the the COVA model so I would hope that Lamar could find a better way to align this course to the COVA model. 

My suggestion for students taking this class is to first look over the weekly assignments and then skim through the suggested reading materials and videos.  Pick out the material that looks to be the most useful to you for completing the assignment.  If you choose to read all the material and watch all the videos you will be wasting your time, and as educators and parents and adults with other responsibilities we don't have time to waste.  Many weeks the videos are very repetitive and you could waste an hour watching the same thing over and over again.  Secondly I suggest you purchase Mike Ribble’s book.  I bought the online version and wish I had paperback as it is important component to the class.  The other books may not be worth your time.  If you do purchase them start reading them at the beginning of the class because along with expecting you to read many articles and watch a lot of videos one week the expectation is to read a whole book.