Teacher Spotlight for August – Katie Fryzel

Each month, we will be highlighting teachers who are using Collaborize Classroom in innovative ways to engage students in their classroom. This August, we talked to Katie Fryzel.

Katie is a 9-12th grade English teacher from Easthampton High School in Easthampton, MA. She is active in teaching Professional Development sessions about online learning for the Collaborative for Educational Services and is the Newspaper Advisor and Senior Class Advisor at her school.

She is new to Twitter, so say hello at @KFryzel.

Why did you get into teaching?

I first got into education as a senior in High School. I instantly fell in love with the idea of helping to facilitate the development of youth. As a high school student myself, I had been highly influenced by my teachers. One teacher in particular had made a large impact on my life, and I hoped to do that for just one young mind if I could.

What was your first interaction with educational technology?

At Easthampton High School, each teacher is issued a class website through our district. My first semester as a teacher at EHS, I used this website. It had a blogspot, and I was able to post assignments for my students to view, but the format was not as user friendly as I would have liked. I knew that my students needed a format that was more familiar to them, such as a Facebook-like wall. That is when I discovered Collaborize Classroom and fell in love with its format, and so did my students.

How long have you been an active Collaborize Classroom user?

I have been using Collaborize Classroom for roughly a year now. I use it both in my classroom at EHS, as well as for a classroom I run in the summer for the Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton, MA, helping High School drop outs matriculate back into the educational system.

Are you part of any clubs at your school?

I am the Newspaper Advisor as well as the Senior Class Advisor at EHS.

How do you integrate technology into your classroom, specifically Collaborize Classroom?

Each night students are assigned a different homework question on our Collaborize Classroom website. They are required to log in and answer the question at home. At the beginning of class the next day, we begin with a discussion and go over our answers to the homework question. Also, while reading a novel, students are assigned groups. Each student/group is allowed access to the site as “moderators” so that they may post their group work, which they then present to the class.

I have found that “Reading Circles” work especially well in this format, and allow the students to both post their own ideas, as well as comment on their teammates’ work. While presenting, the rest of the class is able to review parts of the novel that we have already read, helping them to really understand all of its complex pieces (diction, symbols, plot, etc).

What projects are you leading using Collaborize Classroom?

I have both a site for my English class, as well as my summer program. Also, I offered a PD option for our district, introducing Collaborize Classroom to other teachers in Easthampton. The Easthampton School District is very interested in the continued use of technology in the classroom, and has welcomed Collaborize Classroom in the classroom.

What are some of your goals surrounding the use of Collaborize Classroom in your classroom curriculum?

In using Collaborize Classroom, my first goal is to increase student participation within the classroom. With Collaborize Classroom I find that all students participate, and the anxiety of raising their hand in class is lessened. All students’ opinions are heard during discussion time because they have posted to the site the night before, and it is there for all to see. I make sure to touch on each student’s response and point out interesting ideas that other students might not have thought of. In doing this, some of the less outspoken students are included, and their egos boosted.

My second goal is to increase student’s skill set. Each post on the website is there for us to view as a class, and is a great way to point out grammatical errors. Students are able to see what their mistake was, while classmates do the work of pointing it out. In this way, I know that students actually understand. My third goal is to be able to gage the progress of each student in their writing process. Since each post is saved, I can look over an individual student’s work throughout the semester and therefore I am able to see how they have progressed. This comes in handy during Parent/Teacher Conference time!

Having the ability to showcase the student’s strengths, as well as weaknesses, helps the parent to feel more involved in their child’s learning, as well as increases the contact between school and home.

How do you view education?

The youth of our nation not only need to learn the academic portion of life, but also how succeed as healthy members of society. Education is multi-faceted. Students are looking to teachers for support in and out of the classroom. Teaching is not just a job, it is a lifestyle. We are counselors, friends, parents and most importantly role models. Students spend more time interacting at school than at home. Teachers need to respond to this calling understanding that student’s of any age are fragile, and need full support in both social and academic growth. Education continues for a lifetime, as I am still learning alongside my students.

Are you using Collaborize Classroom to support any technology based pilot programs at your school/district? Are you an early adopter at your school?

I am the first teacher in the Easthampton District to use Collaborize Classroom. I have run one very successful Professional Development Workshop introducing Collaborize Classroom to other teachers in the district grades k-12. I also introduced the website to fellow teachers at the high school level who now use the site, and also in my own Professional Development group as a way to display data we had collected over the school year on MCAS testing. We presented our findings to the faculty using Collaborize Classroom as our format.

What skills are you teaching your students by using Collaborize Classroom?

Grammar, vocabulary, discussion skills, social interaction online (a big one these days with Facebook as a main conduit of communication between students) and writing skill sets.

How has the use of technology in the classroom impacted your teaching practice?

Through the use of technology in my classroom I have greatly decreased my paper load. No longer do I carry home large folders filled with papers. I simply have to log into the site and correct right there on the screen! Collaborize Classroom has also helped in facilitating class discussion, and makes it easy to upload reading material that the students can then access directly online, rather than photocopying for hours and wasting paper.