I really enjoyed class this past Friday! (That is, until I deleted my awesome, amazing, perfectly edited version of me giving a lesson to my focus student from Scarlett... but that's another story for another day!) I appreciated how the usual classroom management plan was changed to incorporate group teaching this time, especially since we got the opportunity to share our prior knowledge with each other. I feel that it was very beneficial to have several inputs from each member of the group about their personal experiences with the technology applications we were individually assigned: Skype, Dropbox, Evernote, and Diigo. I believe that everyone/anyone has something they can positively share with other students/teachers on any topic, that can be discussed by the group at large. This is mainly based on my belief that class/group discussions in a classroom should be utilized more than lecture-based teaching strategies.
Another interesting finding I had was that creating a handout for an online app is hard. You have to take so many varying factors into consideration regarding your audience/readers, such as prior knowledge, background experiences, possible attitudes towards technology in general, and yes, I even thought about age. And then there's the process of "getting to know" the application you were assigned! I was assigned Dropbox. I had heard of MBox but had yet to explore my umich perks, and there was the Dropbox on the CTools website, but besides that I hadn't a clue what Dropbox was. After my many attempts of acquiring simply the basics of Dropbox, and bypass the process of actually downloading the application, I came to the realization that maybe it was better to take part in the learning process from "start to finish". By downloading and actually using Dropbox would allow me to be able to truly know how to navigate through and utilize the various applications of Dropbox. This would in turn make me more knowledgeable about Dropbox, and the more I knew about the application, the more I could teach or answer (most) questions. And isn't that what teaching is supposed to be anyway? A teacher is supposed to be knowledgeable in his/her content area in order to teach aspects of that particular content to other people. Right?
The entire process, from conceding to the demands of the task, to making the decision to actively take part in my own learning to further the learning of others, took about two hours. I kid you not. Then it took another hour just to get comfortable with Dropbox and all of its varying dimensions and applications. After that all I had to do was write up a step-by-step instructional handout on how to download and use Dropbox. Easy! (NOT.) It was very NOT easy. I had to retrace my steps and rethink my transition from one question to the next, to ensure possible issues and enhance reader comprehension. Then there was the audience demographics I was catering to, and the overall applications this particular piece of innovative technology had on the implications in the classroom. In other words, it took me a long time to create my handout!
I guess the take away from this blog posting is that I didn't realize how much thought and care is necessary to take into consideration when creating an instructional handout/guide (and on technology no less)! It also opened my eyes to how much time (an emerging theme in my blog) a teaching task can take, and how much we as teachers, don't have. But, I must point out that due to the large amount of time and active effort I put into this assignment, the more information, and overall content about Dropbox, I was able to share with the other members in my small teaching group.
My Dropbox Instructional Guide Handout
(compliments of Dropbox's amazing application - applying URLs to documents in your "folder")
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
You Can Trust Me - I'm a Professional
Well, at least I will be a certified professional as of August 2013! As for right now, I'm still in teacher prep school and "learning the ropes" of this collaborative new world of technology and teaching. Unbeknownst to these "Rope Masters" I am a quick study!
In our last class meeting we created our own electronic professional profile! Well, not quite since most of us haven't really completed anything "professional" as of yet, so we have really only began our e-portfolio's. By learning how to navigate through weebly.com, we laid down a concrete foundation and framework. The work we complete throughout the year will continue to fill the open spaces, evolving and shifting the overall product that is our professional portfolio. (At first I was going to say "resumé" but "portfolio" just sounds so much more... well, professional!)
I was surprised by Weebly! The format was extremely user-friendly in design choices and overall layout, allowing more time to be spent on the actual content! Or more time allocated to creating pages of multimedia additions such as a link to this blog and a sweet slideshow of my pictures! Very cool. The benefits of such an amazing online resource are pretty obvious, but in my opinion, I love the fact that I will be getting my name out in the professional world of teachers, as well as keeping my documents, and other such "records of practice," easily accessible to potential employers in the (hopefully near) future.
Hire me!
And back to being serious...
I've noticed an emerging theme from courses, professors, and our mentors at Scarlett: time is precious, yet limited in the teaching profession. Even our guest speaker last Friday mentioned how he had to weigh the pros and cons of his Angry Birds math project. He mentioned that there was always a tradeoff in teaching. For him, allocating more time towards playing the Angry Birds game in class, (since every student may not have had the resources), was more valuable than spending that time drawing graphs of polar equations. Students who did not normally participate in class were more involved in the Angry Birds math project.
Another problem the guest speaker mentioned was finding the time to stay on top of his content knowledge. As teachers we should always be improving our craft and become fluent in new technology, teaching strategies, and/or recent studies with illuminating results. And then there's school responsibilities such as lunch meetings, parent conferences, study hours, etc. One way our guest speaker was able to fulfill his responsibilities as a professional teacher was by using Twitter's recent innovation: Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is awesome. It lets you organize your twitter feeds based on your preferences. A useful tool for teachers looking for an efficient way to stay
up-to-date on current subject content/knowledge, without sacrificing
their time! As a teacher time is limited. Twitter/Tweetdeck can be used to help mitigate this problem of
not having enough time and the need to find resources or interesting
developments in the education field.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
My Game is Mario Kart (N64 version) What's Yours?
As you can see from the title of this post, I play video games. But honestly,
These days, every little kid I see on the street has one of those Nintendo DS handheld gaming systems. Hooking up the wires to the TV was probably the only downside of playing video games, back in the day... And that's the surprising thing: I am considered "old" in the virtual world. I am somewhat uncomfortable classifying myself as a "gamer" due to my lack of participation in the sudden outburst of virtual worlds and their respective characters and corresponding rules. When I played on my old school Nintendo 64, I didn't think I was actually the character Mario in a red go-kart throwing green shells with amazing accuracy and targeting skills. I was just controlling the go-kart and moving the joystick in the direction I wanted to "drive".
Today, gamers immerse themselves in virtual worlds with characters they are able to personalize and make their own. In Jane McGonigal's TED talk, she focuses on these virtual worlds, and provides several interesting facts about the role that these virtual worlds have on people today. I say "people" because it seems as if the range of "gamers" is consistently expanding. It's not just kids anymore.
Speaking of kids, there was a section in the assigned reading on "Good Videogames and Good Learning" by James Gee, that resonated like a gong in my memory cavity (p. 4-5). For Educ 606, Education Behavioral Psychology, we are reading Nutureshock by Bronson & Merryman, and in their eighth chapter entitled, "Can self control be taught?", the authors cite a Russian study from the 1950s: "Children were told to stand still as long as they could - they lasted only two minutes. Then a second group of children were told to pretend they were soldiers on guard who had to stand still at their posts - they lasted eleven minutes" (p. 166). This study shows that we, as humans, are more capable of "playing" a role and accomplishing a task, than if we were just being ourselves and attempting that same task. Bronson & Merryman included this study in their book to emphasize the importance of "high order abstract thinking" through role playing game plans in the Tools of the Mind program (p.167, 160, respectively). This goes hand in hand with one of the many reasons why people enjoy playing video games (for hours and hours, too!).
A few of the most interesting points in McGonigal's TED talk was the way in which people interact with the virtual worlds, the amount of time people spend playing video games, and the possibilities these virtual games have in our future. I totally understand that I like playing video games, but McGonigal sums it up the best, concisely stating why: "gamers are super-empowered hopeful individuals". We have super power abilities that we may not have in the real world. We are the main player of the game - our view point is of our individual character and what we do is important to "winning" in the game. And we are hopeful because we know there is an attainable goal since there wouldn't be a point to creating a game if it wasn't beatable. Because of this known fact, we are hopeful that this time is when we will beat the boss level and move on to the next level, and then the next boss, and on, and on.
This brings me to McGonigal's main point of her TED talk - we need to make real life more like virtual worlds. Now this is when I began my internal debate on humanity and if this notion is at all possible in the "real world". I understand McGonigal's point that people can achieve more in video games than in real life. This is also a reason why gamers spend so much, if not more, time in the virtual worlds than participating in the world around them. But, that is not real life... (as my parents remind me about once a month now). We can only "win" in virtual worlds because the rules are the same for everyone, but that's not the case here, in reality. You can't "beat" at life. You usually get "beat-down" on by life.
McGonigal provides a possible historic example of how games were used in the past to combat the ills of real world problems from the past: Herodotus of Lydia, where the people survived 18 years of famine by eating one day and playing games the next. McGonigal confidently states: "We can do that." But can we? I may be seen as the "Negative Nancy" in the audience; however, I know that people will take care of themselves before others. In Educ 606, we were given a lecture that addressed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and I'm pretty sure that the most basic of needs (Physiological - food, sleep, sex) are considered more important than our need of belonging (love, affection, being a part of groups). I mean, I've seen post-apocalyptic movie, "The Road" with Viggo Mortensen. Have you?
These days, every little kid I see on the street has one of those Nintendo DS handheld gaming systems. Hooking up the wires to the TV was probably the only downside of playing video games, back in the day... And that's the surprising thing: I am considered "old" in the virtual world. I am somewhat uncomfortable classifying myself as a "gamer" due to my lack of participation in the sudden outburst of virtual worlds and their respective characters and corresponding rules. When I played on my old school Nintendo 64, I didn't think I was actually the character Mario in a red go-kart throwing green shells with amazing accuracy and targeting skills. I was just controlling the go-kart and moving the joystick in the direction I wanted to "drive".
Today, gamers immerse themselves in virtual worlds with characters they are able to personalize and make their own. In Jane McGonigal's TED talk, she focuses on these virtual worlds, and provides several interesting facts about the role that these virtual worlds have on people today. I say "people" because it seems as if the range of "gamers" is consistently expanding. It's not just kids anymore.
Speaking of kids, there was a section in the assigned reading on "Good Videogames and Good Learning" by James Gee, that resonated like a gong in my memory cavity (p. 4-5). For Educ 606, Education Behavioral Psychology, we are reading Nutureshock by Bronson & Merryman, and in their eighth chapter entitled, "Can self control be taught?", the authors cite a Russian study from the 1950s: "Children were told to stand still as long as they could - they lasted only two minutes. Then a second group of children were told to pretend they were soldiers on guard who had to stand still at their posts - they lasted eleven minutes" (p. 166). This study shows that we, as humans, are more capable of "playing" a role and accomplishing a task, than if we were just being ourselves and attempting that same task. Bronson & Merryman included this study in their book to emphasize the importance of "high order abstract thinking" through role playing game plans in the Tools of the Mind program (p.167, 160, respectively). This goes hand in hand with one of the many reasons why people enjoy playing video games (for hours and hours, too!).
A few of the most interesting points in McGonigal's TED talk was the way in which people interact with the virtual worlds, the amount of time people spend playing video games, and the possibilities these virtual games have in our future. I totally understand that I like playing video games, but McGonigal sums it up the best, concisely stating why: "gamers are super-empowered hopeful individuals". We have super power abilities that we may not have in the real world. We are the main player of the game - our view point is of our individual character and what we do is important to "winning" in the game. And we are hopeful because we know there is an attainable goal since there wouldn't be a point to creating a game if it wasn't beatable. Because of this known fact, we are hopeful that this time is when we will beat the boss level and move on to the next level, and then the next boss, and on, and on.
This brings me to McGonigal's main point of her TED talk - we need to make real life more like virtual worlds. Now this is when I began my internal debate on humanity and if this notion is at all possible in the "real world". I understand McGonigal's point that people can achieve more in video games than in real life. This is also a reason why gamers spend so much, if not more, time in the virtual worlds than participating in the world around them. But, that is not real life... (as my parents remind me about once a month now). We can only "win" in virtual worlds because the rules are the same for everyone, but that's not the case here, in reality. You can't "beat" at life. You usually get "beat-down" on by life.
McGonigal provides a possible historic example of how games were used in the past to combat the ills of real world problems from the past: Herodotus of Lydia, where the people survived 18 years of famine by eating one day and playing games the next. McGonigal confidently states: "We can do that." But can we? I may be seen as the "Negative Nancy" in the audience; however, I know that people will take care of themselves before others. In Educ 606, we were given a lecture that addressed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and I'm pretty sure that the most basic of needs (Physiological - food, sleep, sex) are considered more important than our need of belonging (love, affection, being a part of groups). I mean, I've seen post-apocalyptic movie, "The Road" with Viggo Mortensen. Have you?
So who wants to play some MARIO KART?? Seriously, I have it.
(It'sssa me! A Mario!)
Monday, July 16, 2012
Second Class, Second Task
When you were growing up, did your parents ever give you advice based on their past experiences? Of course you have! (Honestly, who hasn’t offered up some kind of advice where they get to talk about themselves?) And when your parents thought you were listening intently and taking their well-earned words to heart… you weren’t, were you? Of course not! They are older, and they don’t know about everything that’s going on in your life, at that very moment. So why should you care?
Well, surprise, surprise – they were right, weren’t they? (Even now I bet you can hear, “I told you so,” in your mother’s voice.) Hopefully by now you understand the reason I have included my general anecdote on advice…
For one reason or another, the role of the librarian has been highly overlooked in the past, even though they are highly knowledgeable in various areas of expertise. Specifically, resources. Julie was our librarian, and she was amazing. She gave us multiple “student friendly” websites and applications we were able to incorporate into our lesson plan. Without her input I highly doubt we would have been able to find these “funds of knowledge” (from the Moll & Gonzalez reading for Educ 402), or it would have taken a very long time to find them. Based on her past experiences, such as co-teaching with subject-specific educators and teaching for many years on her own, she successfully facilitated our cohesive lesson plan. We even made a wiki for anyone to view our amazingness.
Wiki Page
Maybe it’s because we are older, or maybe we are just that awesome, but we really enjoyed any and all input from our assigned librarian. Her advice on the process of creating effective lesson plans and the technological resources available, was much better than reading it in a book. Unlike our course readings/texts, we were actually able to “talk to the text” directly with the “author” of a singular personal example, affording us a better comprehension through the creation of a collaborative lesson.
I felt like I was in the Scarlett students’ shoes, being offered an “educational opportunity,” (from the Alexander article in Educ 695), where I wouldn’t have been able to find such an opportunity to interact with such a wealth of knowledge on my own.
(P.S. it was cool to make a podcast.)
Well, surprise, surprise – they were right, weren’t they? (Even now I bet you can hear, “I told you so,” in your mother’s voice.) Hopefully by now you understand the reason I have included my general anecdote on advice…
For one reason or another, the role of the librarian has been highly overlooked in the past, even though they are highly knowledgeable in various areas of expertise. Specifically, resources. Julie was our librarian, and she was amazing. She gave us multiple “student friendly” websites and applications we were able to incorporate into our lesson plan. Without her input I highly doubt we would have been able to find these “funds of knowledge” (from the Moll & Gonzalez reading for Educ 402), or it would have taken a very long time to find them. Based on her past experiences, such as co-teaching with subject-specific educators and teaching for many years on her own, she successfully facilitated our cohesive lesson plan. We even made a wiki for anyone to view our amazingness.
Wiki Page
Maybe it’s because we are older, or maybe we are just that awesome, but we really enjoyed any and all input from our assigned librarian. Her advice on the process of creating effective lesson plans and the technological resources available, was much better than reading it in a book. Unlike our course readings/texts, we were actually able to “talk to the text” directly with the “author” of a singular personal example, affording us a better comprehension through the creation of a collaborative lesson.
I felt like I was in the Scarlett students’ shoes, being offered an “educational opportunity,” (from the Alexander article in Educ 695), where I wouldn’t have been able to find such an opportunity to interact with such a wealth of knowledge on my own.
(P.S. it was cool to make a podcast.)
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Lesson Plan with the Soda Ban!
I can see how a simple lab experiment could be used in a science course to show off the abstract concept of conservation of mass in connection with the soda ban and our perception on volume changes. I can see how a math lesson where volumes of soda containers with varying
sizes are computed and compared in a math class. I can see a history or social science teacher facilitating a classroom divided in half, arguing over the pros and cons for a soda ban. I just can't quite see how an English teacher could create a lesson designed with a connection to the soda ban - not a good one, at least.
^
I wrote that a couple days ago and didn't really give it a thought since then. But now that I think about it, in connecting the soda ban to class, I think I can do better. I can use my own expertise in being a student, and dig through my past experiences with "successful" classes. What do I mean?
I mean this: Say you are a high school student, sitting in your math class, and day in, day out, you do..... well, math. Then one day, your teacher surprises you and says, "Class! Today we are going to make our own soda pop!" The in-class project would include measuring the surface area and volume of a 1 liter plastic pop bottle and various relevant math questions based on the students' measurements. For example: "If there are approximately 1500 students at Scarlett Middle School and every students drink an average of 5 cans of pop a week, how many cans of pop are consumed in one year (52 weeks)?**" Once the students are done, they go up to the teacher, one by one, and have the teacher look over their assignment sheets. If the teacher decides a student was successful at completing the assignment sheet, that student gets to pick a flavor for his/her very own liter of soda pop from the SodaStream Home Soda Machine!!!
You have to admit, this is actually a pretty cool project. It engages students in a fun project that has a purpose instead of constant drilling. And they get a free liter of cola!
Thank goodness I'm minoring in Math! I might have to use this one day... but add in the social context of the soda ban in New York and the students' thoughts on the matter.... then the project!!
But luckily for you, I have also just now thought of a teaching opportunity where a connection can be made with the soda ban in an English class (lucky you!):
Commercialism and the possible "effects" of marketing campaigns would be the issue at hand. Coca-cola and Pepsi are notorious for their sponsorships around the world. (Even kids in Africa have access to an ice cold Coke!) Students would use their creativity and create their own marketing campaigns for and against the soda ban. Within their campaigns, the students would be asked to present a summary of intellectual research, explain their overall marketing concept and the strategies they used to reach target audiences, as well as include a visual aspect of their campaign. This could be a student-created commercial, various advertisements/public service announcements in poster or magazine form, or something super creative. Tri-fold poster boards would NOT be accepted for credit. I hate those. In fact, I hate them so much I would give negative credit, somehow. Of course, the standard presentation, reflective essay on what the students learned, and their "Soda Portfolio" would be handed in for grading.
Even though there doesn't seem to be a whole-heck-of-a-lot-of "English" going on here, I assure you there is. Since the students would be in groups, they would be required to communicate, in and out of school. Students will need to use their cognitive abilities to complete research, and their literacy skills to write their reflective essay. Also, they would need to really hone-in on their ability to express their thoughts in a cohesive way. All in all, a damn good project. I feel like I should copyright this...
Boom.
Possible extension of the project:
This could even be used in collaboration with the math class that does the Soda Pop Project. We could even add in the history and sciences classes.... maybe even the entire school! The school could present it's project to the school board, or even the world. The possibilities are endless!
** The logistics of the Soda Pop Project were fundamentally my idea, but when I googled "fun high school math projects" this came up. I really liked the questions and how the teacher incorporates the use of computers in order to find the answers: Pop Can Assignment
^
I wrote that a couple days ago and didn't really give it a thought since then. But now that I think about it, in connecting the soda ban to class, I think I can do better. I can use my own expertise in being a student, and dig through my past experiences with "successful" classes. What do I mean?
I mean this: Say you are a high school student, sitting in your math class, and day in, day out, you do..... well, math. Then one day, your teacher surprises you and says, "Class! Today we are going to make our own soda pop!" The in-class project would include measuring the surface area and volume of a 1 liter plastic pop bottle and various relevant math questions based on the students' measurements. For example: "If there are approximately 1500 students at Scarlett Middle School and every students drink an average of 5 cans of pop a week, how many cans of pop are consumed in one year (52 weeks)?**" Once the students are done, they go up to the teacher, one by one, and have the teacher look over their assignment sheets. If the teacher decides a student was successful at completing the assignment sheet, that student gets to pick a flavor for his/her very own liter of soda pop from the SodaStream Home Soda Machine!!!
You have to admit, this is actually a pretty cool project. It engages students in a fun project that has a purpose instead of constant drilling. And they get a free liter of cola!
Thank goodness I'm minoring in Math! I might have to use this one day... but add in the social context of the soda ban in New York and the students' thoughts on the matter.... then the project!!
But luckily for you, I have also just now thought of a teaching opportunity where a connection can be made with the soda ban in an English class (lucky you!):
Commercialism and the possible "effects" of marketing campaigns would be the issue at hand. Coca-cola and Pepsi are notorious for their sponsorships around the world. (Even kids in Africa have access to an ice cold Coke!) Students would use their creativity and create their own marketing campaigns for and against the soda ban. Within their campaigns, the students would be asked to present a summary of intellectual research, explain their overall marketing concept and the strategies they used to reach target audiences, as well as include a visual aspect of their campaign. This could be a student-created commercial, various advertisements/public service announcements in poster or magazine form, or something super creative. Tri-fold poster boards would NOT be accepted for credit. I hate those. In fact, I hate them so much I would give negative credit, somehow. Of course, the standard presentation, reflective essay on what the students learned, and their "Soda Portfolio" would be handed in for grading.
Even though there doesn't seem to be a whole-heck-of-a-lot-of "English" going on here, I assure you there is. Since the students would be in groups, they would be required to communicate, in and out of school. Students will need to use their cognitive abilities to complete research, and their literacy skills to write their reflective essay. Also, they would need to really hone-in on their ability to express their thoughts in a cohesive way. All in all, a damn good project. I feel like I should copyright this...
Boom.Possible extension of the project:
This could even be used in collaboration with the math class that does the Soda Pop Project. We could even add in the history and sciences classes.... maybe even the entire school! The school could present it's project to the school board, or even the world. The possibilities are endless!
** The logistics of the Soda Pop Project were fundamentally my idea, but when I googled "fun high school math projects" this came up. I really liked the questions and how the teacher incorporates the use of computers in order to find the answers: Pop Can Assignment
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