It's all about good teachers right? Studies show that teacher quality has a direct relation to student achievement. "More than two decades of research findings are unequivocal about the connection between teacher quality and student learning." (Center for Public Education, 2005) In the article "Redefining Teachers with a 21st Century Education 'Story'" , Thom Markham argues that teachers are feeling unempowered and stuck due to the state of education for the past century. He feels that education is stuck in this cycle of old antiquated ways that we need to get out of. The answer to that is teachers. I would argue that most teachers went into education because they want to make a difference in the lives of others and ultimately in the world. Often times teachers can lose this momentum because of the expectations put upon them and students. Expectations like standardized testing, and the requirement to prepare students for these tests. I know when I taught in public school, I once was required to spend an entire month on "test prep" because the students at my school were scoring so poorly. All day everyday we had to do go over test taking strategies and make students practice taking multiple choice tests- it was absolutely awful! Those kind of expectations and mandates make you lose your inspiration and drive as a teacher. Markham argues that teachers need to be inspired again; to want to change the world again. "Your passion, vision, and sense of mission will determine your level of contribution, but those qualities are liberated by appreciation and gratitude." (MindShift, 2015). I love this idea of gratitude. The author notes that our jobs, as educators, are so important, and enviable by many. I know as teachers we can sometimes feel unappreciated because of our small salary or a nasty e-mail you get from an upset parent, but as a whole, our jobs are really incredible and we should feel lucky to have them. It is a privilege to be able to educate our youth, the future of our world. We need to remember to have this gratitude and appreciation for our work. It is an incredible position to be in. I think a great way of reconnecting with the appreciation of our work is to share it with the world. Teachers are doing creative, innovative, incredible things in the classroom everyday and maybe the only people that know they are doing it is their students. I was once at a CUE conference and the keynote speaker had everyone in the audience turn to the person next to them and share something that they were currently doing in the classroom that they were proud of. This was so powerful, to be able to reflect on what I was proud of, and then to be able to tell a complete stranger about it! Well that's what PLN's are all about. Sharing your gifts, talents, lessons, and questions with other educators and like-minded people! I love when Markham said "put something meaningful on twitter, and watch Australia light up..." It would be pretty rewarding to know so many people were valuing your work and perhaps becoming better teachers because of it. My question was, how do I grow my PLN all the way to Australia? Don't I have to be famous for people across the world to read my thoughts? Either that or a really good networker! Other than that, I do agree, as teachers we need to share our stories with the world. http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/11/redefining-teachers-with-a-21st-century-education-story/ Markham, T. (2015, February). Redefining Teachers with a 21st Century Education ‘Story’. Retrieved from http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/11/redefining-teachers-with-a-21st-century-education-story/ Teacher quality and student achievement: Research review. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Teacher-quality-and-student-achievement-At-a-glance/Teacher-quality-and-student-achievement-Research-review.html How to Get a Job at Google by Thomas L. Friedman was an article that made me have two serious self-reflecting thoughts. #1: Was my four years at USD pursuing a degree in liberal studies a waste of time, effort, and money? #2 How can I share the message from the article with my students and inspire them to be analytical humans? Although I would not consider myself to be a math/science brain, nor would I say that I have a well-trained “ analytical and structured thought process” I would say that I have some of the other qualities needed to be hired at Google. Being a teacher, leadership comes naturally to me. I can command the room and argue my point until no end, but recently I’ve been much better about taking that step back and really learning from others, especially my students. This connects with the idea of humility. You have to have humility (another crucial character trait for being hired at Google) in order to re-learn things, which I feel I am doing all the time. The ability to learn and re-learn is a concept that we’re constantly discussing in this course. A discussion that needs to continue outside of this course in the real world and in schools all over the country. We have to be open and willing to re-learn in order to best adapt to our current reality. The ability to collaborate was another key attribute to becoming a Google employee. Bock states in the article that “innovation is becoming increasingly more of a group endeavor”. As teachers, I feel that most of us are natural collaborators who are willing to share and learn from one another. This idea of collaboration is a huge theme within our master’s program. We are learning to collaborate within our cohort and also learning new ways to facilitate collaboration in our classrooms. I know personally, my students have really thrived when given opportunities for small group projects this year. It took me a few years to figure out classroom management best practices when incorporating group projects into the classroom but it was definitely worth the work. I don’t think I am ever a more proud teacher than when my students are working together, inspiring each other, arguing with each other, and most importantly, learning from each other. By working together and collaborating, my students are able to bring together their good ideas and come up with better ideas together. A big take-away I got from this article is to continue working on critical thinking and analyzation in the classroom, because this is an incredibly important life skill to have that will differentiate students from the rest. I think if I taught the upper grades I would also remember to talk to my students about why they are pursuing a college degree. I would work with them on setting real career goals and working on ways to distinguish themselves from other students, making them more competitive in the job market. For now, I am happy knowing that perhaps I could possibly get hired at Google one day for my leadership skills, humility, ability to collaborate and adapt, and my love for learning and re-learning. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=2 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google-part-2.html
Instagram i love you by Casey Neistat was a refreshing and honest video about the culture of instagram. He made the argument that most social media platforms have the life expectancy a hamster, which I thought was hilarious and true. I think instagram is here for the long haul though. Casey explains that instagram has "just the good stuff" - images and short captions, with hopefully not too many hashtags. He also used he term "don't bleed the feed" when explaining how often to post photos. Casey offers simple rules to be a good instagram participant. I'd recommend this video to someone who is new to the instagram world.
The main idea that I took away from this video is the importance of giving students an audience to showcase their work. The overall message that I got from the students being interview was that they not only appreciated the comments and feedback, but that the idea of knowing that someone besides their teacher was going to be reading their work, made them try harder. Their teacher even explained that it became almost a competition to see who was going to get the most comments from their peers. The students then wanted their writing to be the most interesting so that they could get more recognition from their peers, ultimately making them better writers. Student authors also began to think about their audience when they were writing and work to meet their expectations. One student also talked about how much he liked getting opinions from not only his local peers but from people from across the world who may have totally different outlooks and opinions on the topic. This winter I went to an EdTech conference at the convention center and one of the seminars was all about how a teacher let her students design the syllabus for the year and choose what they wanted to study. They then went as far as to publish their own “textbooks” using itunes U accounts. She shared what a tremendous impact this made on her students’ motivation level and the quality of their writing. On a smaller scale, I see this same notion within my own classroom. If my students know that they will be sharing their work at one of our “publishing parties” then they will work to make it their best work. No one wants to be embarrassed in front of their peers or put their name on something they are not proud of. That is, if they know people other than just the teacher will be reading it. I love the idea of giving my students an authentic audience through blogs and social media. I think a big challenge is privacy, especially with the younger students. There are good options for this like “kidblog” which I plan to use in my classroom next year.
Something that really struck me during last week’s class was the idea that when you are doing something that you are passionate about, an hour should feel like 5 minutes. When coming up with a project proposal I really tried to keep this idea in mind. I want to do something that I will be really interested in and enjoy doing. With that said, here are my two project proposal ideas: Learn basic photography skills and how to edit photos using Photoshop I have recently fallen in love with photo imagery (like I could literally look at interesting and beautiful photos for hours). I am a frequent user of Pinterest and Instagram and love to share beautiful images with the world. This is what gave me the idea of learning basic photography and photo editing. I think this is something that I could spend a lot of time on and enjoy every minute of it. My end goal is to actually edit my own engagement photos (ambitious, I know). My fiance proposed to me about three weeks ago and we’d love to take engagement photos but know that that is just one more additional cost to our limited budget. I don’t know exactly what this would entail - either using a timer or asking a friend to take the pictures- but I am hoping that with Photoshop I will be able to make them “Save the Date” worthy! Questions for getting started:
Project idea #2: Learn to play the Ukulele My second project idea was to learn to play a musical instrument. My fiance, Matt, plays the guitar and we love to jam out and sing together. I’ve always wanted to be able to participate by playing an instrument. Everytime I’ve tried to learn the guitar, my finger just can’t handle the pain. My thought is that the ukelele is easier on the hands and would be a nice different sound to add to our jam sessions. Also, it would be something that Matt and I could do together. Questions for getting started:
In his TED Talk Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able, Michael Wesch describes the drastic cultural shift that we've seen in the past decade where access to information or "knowledge" has become just a mouse click away. He describes the ease in which people can connect, share, collaborate and publish information. This is a huge change to society. He explains that with the invention of the television information was coming into the home in a new and exciting way. The issue with that was that to have a voice in society, one had to be on TV- and to be on TV, one had to be a significant person. The beauty of internet access is that there is now a forum for anyone and everyone to have a voice. In many instances, peoples voices are being heard, and they are making a difference in big ways! One example that resonated with me was the spoof off of the Dove campaign about "media impacting young girls" - the spoof used this same idea to send the message that Dove products are causing huge deforestation in Indonesia. This voice of this campaign was heard and the video went viral. Because of this, Dove went into talks with the organization on cutting back on deforestation. Wesch ends the video by making the point that although it is very easy to publish to the internet, how can we educate our youth to publish meaningful content that will make a difference? Knowledge-ability takes practice.
Will Richardson’s Why School? offers a profound view on school reform and the necessary steps that need to be taken to best educate our future leaders. This book really made me think about not only my philosophies on education, but the philosophies of my school, and of society. I love that Richardson started the novel with anecdotes of his own life and experience with technology and his own children. He offers the example of his son playing and mastering the game Minecraft to demonstrate that idea that this generation of learners has instant access to information at their fingertips. They can figure out how to do virtually anything on the internet. This offers the notion that students could essentially teach themselves anything- but they have to want to know the information. This was an underlying theme throughout the novel: Students need to take charge of their learning and we need to give them to tools to do so. The other theme throughout the novel that resonated with me was this idea of fostering a love of learning and modeling it through our daily words and actions. No one can argue that education is changing, and that reform is the next obvious step. Richardson shares two different potential models of reform in education. The first model is the idea of “doing it better”. In other words, schools will deliver the old curriculum in new ways, using technology. There will continue to be a huge emphasis on standardized testing and evaluation of teachers and schools according to these scores. This model of reform has an emphasis on schools as big business. Private companies will make a lot of money with the implementation of the Common Core National Standards and information acquisition will continue to be the ultimate goal in education. Richardson offers another example of reform. This second model looks very different and is focused on the idea of doing things differently rather than better. One of the pillars of this learning model is that students won’t be delivered information but rather, will discover it. There is a shift from content mastery to learning mastery which is extremely powerful. If we give students the tools to take charge of their learning, the possibilities are endless. Some of the big ideas within this model are: making content more relative to students, allowing students to use their resources to acquire information and collaborate with others, promote creativity, critical thinking and persistence, and to ensure web access is universal. As teachers, in order to successfully achieve these goals, we have to be willing to unlearn and relearn information, methodology, pedagogy, and tactics. We must constantly stay on top of our professional development. I love that Richardson compared education to modern medicine. Doctors must constantly be learning and practicing the newest and greatest medical procedures in order to have the most success with their patients’ health. Just like modern medicine is constantly growing and changing, so is education. Educators must be willing to grow and change with the times in order to be the most effective teachers. Richardson offers 6 unlearning and relearning ideas for educators so that we can continue to grow and adapt with the times. The first is to share everything. I know that being a young new teacher I have so utilized and appreciated what other teachers have published on the web. A huge part of my personal and professional growth during my first years of teaching has been reading teacher blogs, using sites like Smart Exchange, Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ve attended several conferences where the presenting educators will provide links to all of the teaching resources that they’ve created. I think this is so important. I know that I am doing my best teaching when I’ve collaborated and bounced ideas off of my colleagues and done research. I’ve met teachers who are selfish and are unwilling to share their lessons because “they worked so hard on it” and want to receive sole credit for it. I find this shocking, because really, we all went into education to make a different and in the end, it’s all about the kids. So if you’ve created something that will benefit other students, why not share that with other teachers so that they can use it to benefit even more students? This last two years I’ve worked hard to create flipped teaching lessons and they are all published to the public on youtube. I’d love to think that my math lesson is helping some kiddo in another district, city, state, or even country. The second idea is that curriculum should be discovered by students, not delivered to them. “Telling kids what to learn drives away their passion”. (Richardson, 2012) I think this can be a challenging idea for many educators. It can be hard for teachers to let go of the reins and let the students take charge. The skill that teachers must work on is being able to guide students in the right direction through the use of questioning and choice. This is a huge classroom management piece that can be tricky, but is so important. I think especially with younger students this can be difficult, but the idea of choice is so powerful. Even very young students will feel empowered when they have a choice in their learning and can work through some of it on their own or with their peers. My students get so excited when they can teach something new to me (and so do I!). I’ve this done beautifully in the upper grades. At a recent conference that I went to, the teacher literally had her high school students create the entire syllabus for the semester. They ended the term with incredible published material on iTunesU that other students around the country will be able to access. Talk to strangers was the third big idea. I struggled with this topic the most. I teach 4th graders and a huge part of my year is teaching the students digital literacy and internet safety and edicate. Not only is it scary what things that can get through the school’s server, but also the idea of teaching 9 year olds how to determine which sources are credible and which are not can be challenging. The concept of copyright and plagiarism take most of the year to fully master. I would be interested to know other teacher’s techniques for guiding their students to making safe and worthy connections online. I’ve definitely used EdModo and Skype in the classroom as way to collaborate with others but I’d love input in this area! I loved the idea of being a Master Learner. This fourth idea encourages educators to model good learning habits and talk about them in the classroom. Teachers also need to be literate by the 21st century standards by NCTE. I consider myself a lif- long learner and I tell my students that all the time. Everytime I go to a tech conference and read about something new and exciting I share it with my class. It is my hope that my love for learning is apparent and contagious. I was so proud to tell my class that I was starting graduate school and they couldn’t believe I was going to work full time and have “homework” every night too! Professional Development opportunities are different at my school because I work for the Diocese. We have a budgeted amount of money that goes toward professional development and we are required to find our own opportunities and seek them out. I love the opportunities because I learn so much from the people that I meet. I connected with the idea of doing real work for real audiences. My class does a lot using the iPad and I use youtube as a way to share that with their parents and with the world. The kids love it because they can access their work and rewatch it as much as they’d like! Finally, we come to the idea of transferring the power to the students. This has always been a pillar in my teaching philosophy and I couldn’t have said it better than Richardson. Students crave room for creativity, choices, and opportunities to show their learning in interesting ways rather than just taking a test. I feel lucky to be at the school where I am because my principal really trusts her teachers and gives us so much room for creativity. I have never had to ask permission to do any sort of unconventional project. Being one-to-one with iPads I have been able to do some incredible projects with my students this year and I’ve never seen kids more excited about learning. Typically I will pose a question, give them an idea, and briefly show them how to use a new application.After that, they run with it and make the project their own. Many times this year they have exceeded my expectations and taught me so many new and cool things. All in all, I loved the book. So many of the ideas in Why School? aligned with my own teaching philosophies and I loved diving deeper into those topics. I will definitely be forwarding this book onto my colleagues for a great summer read! Find the book at: http://www.amazon.com/Why-School-Education-Information-Everywhere-ebook/dp/B00998J5YQ Richardson, Will. ( 2012). Why School? [Kindle Cloud Reader] Retrieved from Amazon.com
Click to set custom HTML
The idea of digital visitors and digital residents is a very prevalent topic today. Dave White defines a digital resident as a person who has an online presence and identity. White stated in his video that digital residents "live out a portion of their lives online". The three words that he used to describe these residents are: visible, social and communal. The idea of being visible online is something that digital residents are all at least subconsciously aware of. It's that idea that over time, your tweet, your instagram photo, your pin is going to go to the bottom of the feed, be replaced by others, never to be seen again. It "erodes over time" according to Dave White. If a resident wants to maintain this online presence and identity, they must constantly post to the internet so that they don't disappear to the bottom of the feed forever. They must remain visible. When Dave White talked about being communal on the web he clarified that communal does not necessarily mean to be collaborative. One can be autonomous while still being part of a community. Digital residents are typically involved in several different online communities. Among my group of friends the most popular online communities are: instagram, twitter, facebook, and snapchat. This idea of being communal connects to the idea of being social. Being a digital resident allows people to be social in another facet of their lives. We can connect with friends, family, colleagues and even strangers from around the globe by being a part of these online communities. Dave White did not touch on this topic but I wanted to bring up the idea of online dating. Because of the internet, dating is forever changed (in my humble opinion). Being a part of digital communities has allowed people to connect, communicate, and find partners- ones that they most likely never would have met without these types of forums. With the internet, you really have control of your online identity and what information you put out there for others. It has given people another, possibly more comfortable (for some), means of communicating with people. I have several friends who are digital residents who have met their husbands through online, social forums. On the other hand, online dating probably seems preposterous to the digital visitor.
Dave White put it very well when he said that most digital visitors are concerned with privacy. They do not feel comfortable putting information about themselves on the internet. I connected to this because my parents (who are now digital residents) just a few years ago were afraid to even shop or buy a flight online, let alone post a picture of themselves. They were so concerned with this idea of “identity theft” and didn’t understand the necessity of doing things online when you can do them in real life. Digital visitors don’t understand the idea of “flaunting themselves” in front of strangers on the internet- but in reality, the majority of people within our social media networks are people that we know in real life. If someone is a digital visitor it does not mean that they are not using these online tools- they are just choosing to use the tools that have necessity and merit to them. White explains that digital visitors are the product of their education, where they were encouraged to be autonomous. They will use the internet for specific tasks, but will log off and shut down after that task is complete. I loved the analogy that Dave White used to compare digital natives and digital residents. He described the residents as people milling around, socializing in a sunny park while the visitors were rummaging around in their toolbox, finding and using the tool, and putting it back when they were done with it. The residents are taking pleasure in being social while perusing around on the internet while visitors use the internet for whatever their need may be, and then logs off. I liked that White finds the middle ground between the two. He used himself as an example when explaining that some people can be both digital visitors and residents or a combination of the two. Dave White is very present online professionally, but prefers to keep his personal life offline. In this case he would be considered a digital resident with his huge network of professional learning communities, but may be considered a visitor when it comes to his family life- preferring to keep photos and information off the web. I would consider myself very much a digital resident. I keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues daily through different online forums. I’ve been publishing photos, videos and blogs online for several years. I look forward to building my professional learning networks throughout this program. White, Dave. "Visitors and Residents." YouTube. YouTube, 31 May 2013. Web. 07 June 2015. |
AuthorPassionate teacher. Curious student. Lover of sunshine and all things outdoors. Archives
August 2015
Categories |