SITE

Lately I have been trying to figure out my next steps. I really want to start adding in all of these resources that I am learning about into my classroom. So what's stopping me? Well time is one of them. My students have been really busy with their service learning project, Coins for Critters. We just finished it on Friday when we went to the Suisun Wildlife Center and presented them with an $800 check that my students worked hard to raise. Now that we are done with that (which was a lot of time and effort) I can start moving on to incorporating more digital tools for my students to use. My driving question has changed slightly to "What are the effects of digital tools on reading comprehension?" I really want to find digital tools for my students to use to help retell their story using the story elements. I changed it from "digital storytelling" because there are not a lot of computer based tools to use for my purpose. I found a lot of apps, but I do not have Ipads.  Now that I took that out I can broaden my scope of digital tools. I'm sure I'll change my question a couple more times before I'm happy with it, but for now I'm working with that. 

The SITE model  stands for Sociocultural, Informational, Technical Education. These 3 subcontexts (socoiocultural, informational, and technical) all surround the learning making this a learner centered model. For the sociocultural subcontext of this model, the teacher needs to understand the student as a whole person. There are many factors in a person's life, family, peers, role models, mentors, or community. The technical subcontexts determines the ways and means in which the learner learns. This will effect how the teacher will teach. The informational subcontext is the information that exits for the learner. After reading about the SITE model I am looking at my students closely. I understand that I need to use what motivates them, and that is why I am trying to make a plan to incorporate more technology in my classroom. They get so excited when it is time for computer based lessons. I am also motivated by technology and that is why I want to make sure that my students are not falling off the wagon because I am not using all of the tools in my tool belt. I want my students to be motivated and engaged throughout my lessons. I feel that in the spring time this is less and less so now is a perfect time for me to try new things.