This week, I grappled with the concept of 21st Century Learning and the skills that students need to succeed in this modern world. When researching, I found lists of skills that students need to master. I started synthesizing them immediately and narrowed it down to collaboration, critical thinking, and productivity. By being masters of these skills, I foresee my students being successful in any job they acquire. To reflect, I used Adobe Spark, a software I have never used, to create a presentation. While I knew I was taking on something new, I was surprised by how challenging it felt. I’m used to iMovie, but this software wasn’t anything like it. It took a lot of learning that I wasn’t expecting. Here is the result: While reflecting, I thought about my lessons. How is what I am doing in class helping my students learn these skills? One skill my students need to work on is the awareness of others. My middle school students struggle during collaboration because they don’t want to work with people who are different than them. I plan on incorporating some strategies to overcome these obstacles. There were also some skills that I didn’t quite agree with. According to the National Education Association, who cites Robert Sternberg of Tufts University, “Successful individuals are those who have creative skills, to produce a vision for how they intend to make the world a better place for everyone...” (p. 24). Creativity is great, but is it necessary for success? I also question people striving to make the world a better place. What happens if a person’s goal is to just be happy? Making the world a better place seems like such a big task, but by learning collaboration, critical thinking, and productivity, it might just eventually get there. ReferencesNational Education Association (2019). An Educator's Guide to the Four Cs. Retrieved from: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf
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I’m learning American Sign Language (ASL). Why? A lot of reasons. One, as a teacher, I’ve had students who are hard of hearing and knowing basic sign language would have been helpful in a few scenarios. Two, I find it fascinating that individuals of all ability levels can communicate nonverbally. For example, I’m extremely inspired by the Maass family, better known as Fathering Autism on YouTube, who vlog their daily lives with their child who has autism. Check out one of their recent vlog about their child’s communication: Now, here is the kicker, as part of a Network Learning Project, I am challenging myself to learn sign language completely online, using YouTube videos, social media, and other websites. My goal, which I hope to achieve in a few weeks, is to introduce myself and to sign basic sentences, like details about my work, my family, and what I like to do for fun. While learning basic signs, I will also have to learn some signs that are specific to me. So far, I have found what I believe may be the most comprehensive database for sign language instruction on the internet. I did the first introductory lesson and learned a lot of basic signs, like yes, no, teacher, student, name, etc. I really liked how animated the teacher is, but at the same time, the videos are long. I had to break up Lesson One into two chunks. I do like that the material has built-in reviews to help me assess my understanding. Due to the length of the videos, I turned to Instagram where I found @signedwithheart. I like these short videos and find myself watching them repeatedly to truly comprehend the signs. I’m excited and feel confident so far in my learning. References [Fathering Autism]. (2019, March 22). How a girl with autism talks [Video File]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-CMhuapx8.
Fry, Ashley Clark [@signedwithheart]. Posts [Instagram profile]. Retrieved in 2019 from https://www.instagram.com/signedwithheart/?hl=en. Vicars, Bill (2019). American Sign Language University. Retrieved from www.lifeprint.com. Growing up, my parents limited my access to technology. They preferred my brother and I go outside and play. I think that limitation caused me to have a high interest in devices and their capabilities today. As an 8th-grade Literature teacher, I have many colleagues to turn to at school. However, I often find myself using social media, like Instagram and Facebook, to grow as an educator. As I reflect on my Professional Learning Network (PLN), I used Popplet to brainstorm all the ways I currently connect with fellow educators! Turns out my network is plentiful! I soon also realized a big issue with my network. I have plenty of people giving me input, but I don’t feel I am contributing that much to the output. As a newer teacher, I struggle to feel like I have valuable ideas to contribute, especially compared to the seasoned teachers I see on social media. I continually question if my ideas are anything new or interesting, so I tend to not share in person or online. Instead, I find ways to help out in my school that allow me to represent a team. Figure 1. Created by author on Popplet. I watched this Ted Talk by Tanya Menon (2017) as well this week. She made a metaphor, right at the end of her speech, that stuck with me. She said to “think of yourself as an atom, bumping up against other atoms, maybe transferring energy with them, bonding with them a little and maybe creating something new on your travels through the social universe” (Menon, 2017). This made me connect that maybe I have been bumping up against other atoms, but the energy transfer has only been one-sided. I could expand my PLN by contributing more of my personal ideas, which I will soon be ready for. ReferencesMenon, Tanya. (2017, March). The secret to great opportunities? The person you haven’t met yet [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tanya_menon_the_secret_to_great_opportunities_the_person_you_haven_t_met_yet
As my students sit down for class, I ask them to get their assigned Chromebook. In our school, they use these devices almost daily and know the expectations. They’ve come prepared for a quiz on the novel we have been reading. I inform them that in order for them to get immediate feedback and for me to quickly see their understanding, I have put this quiz on Google Classroom, a tool they are extremely used to using. Most students expressed excitement about this task, where paper and pencil might have been seen as time-consuming, less immediate, and not as engaging.
All of this background thought and preparation went into this quick ten-minute assessment. I knew my students would feel comfortable with the technology tool, unlike I was this week while making a sample cooking video (see below). I was tasked with creating a cheese plate using a plate, a bowl, and a fork (graciously picked by my roommate), and within minutes I was in front of the camera. I was unprepared and on the spot, with a tool that was not going to help me accomplish this task. I connected this to the classroom and how teachers need to prepare lessons while understanding many components, like technology, pedagogy, and content. Read more about those concepts here. I can only imagine how my students would have felt if I had said they are taking their quiz on our poorly functioning iPads, using an unfamiliar app. They would have gotten frustrated and it wouldn’t have truly reflected their knowledge of the content. Overall, it is important for teachers to understand all the components of the classroom before engaging with students. Maybe then, the students will be more successful than I was with my fork-created cheese plate.
Figure 1. A representation of how I felt after creating my cooking video. Retrieved from https://gph.is/1shjcw2.
References
Bethenny frankel cheese gif (2016). Retrieved from https://gph.is/1shjcw2.
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. Stirling, J. (2019). Cooking with TPACK. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/PyOAHBE0DOs.
Figure 1. A representation in GIF format of me gathering as much knowledge from my reading as possible. Retrieved from https://gph.is/1PHynry.
The art of teaching is constantly evolving, so much so that teachers are often turning back to the basics in order to promote learning. What are the basics? What are the quality methods? What works best? I thought a lot about these fundamental concepts while reading some of Bransford, Brown, and Cocking’s (2000) How People Learn.
While reading, I reflected upon some of the key methods teachers should use in order to promote learning and understanding in the classroom. My reflection can be found here. Teachers should focus on inquiry-based and engaging lessons, as well as collaboration and student relationships. For more on building relationships, see this list compiled by Genia Connell for Scholastic. Above all, I recommend that teachers, in order to truly foster understanding, deeply consider and assess for misconceptions that students carry with them into the classroom. By doing so, teachers can successfully take what students bring to the class and use it to create a classroom culture of encouragement and intellectual growth. After reflecting, I attempted to summarize my understanding to create something I could use in my classroom. When lesson planning for next week, I decided to create an idea called the three C’s. I created this concept to remind myself of good strategies when planning. How will my students contribute to the lesson? They need to stay engaged, participate, and take ownership of their learning. How will the students collaborate? They need to share, express, and respond with one another. Lastly, how will my students communicate? They need to be able to ask questions, self-assess their learning, and clarify prior ideas they have about the topic. Together, these three C’s can really improve the daily lessons that I, or anyone else, create to help further understanding. References
Baby reading a freaky story. (2016). Retrieved from https://gph.is/1PHynry.
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368. Connell, Genia (2016). 10 ways to build relationships with students this year. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/10-ways-build-relationships-students-year-1/. |
Jennifer StirlingThis is my #MAET journey! Thanks for reading! Archives
August 2020
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