One of the nice things about teaching in a small school district is the how well the different grade levels work together. I was recently given an opportunity for my Honors English III students to experience going to Mrs. Gailey’s Kindergarten class. Mrs. Gailey and I decided to collaborate on our App Smashing assignment. The use of technology in the classroom can be wonderful and sometimes a little difficult. We thought my juniors would be able to help the kindergartners complete this task.
App Smashing is a new technology trend in which an element, such as a picture, is altered or changed with multiple apps. The example that clarified it for me was to take a picture and alter it by adding a mouth. Then take it to another app that will allow you to record your voice. Now watch this picture become a talking picture. Mrs. Gailey and I thought it would be fun if my juniors would pair up with two or three of her students and read a book from the online site iStorybooks.com. Then my students downloaded Awesome Screenshot and with this, they were able to take a picture of the main characters from the book. Next, we smashed the screenshot with Blabberize.com and added a mouth. The kindergartens were each given an opportunity to record themselves talking as if they were the character in the book. It was so fun to watch all of the students listening to their different recordings. However, the absolute best part is watching the interaction between the juniors and the kindergartners. It is so important for little ones to have older students read books to them. It makes my soul happy to watch different generations interact. Modeling positive behaviors like reading will impact these amazing young people. This experience did have a few issues. Mrs. Gailey worked diligently trying to find apps that would work with our computers. We would have had more options available if we had iPads instead of laptops. Blabberize.com says that you can save but we were unable to make that feature work for us. Also, most of the voices sounded scary and not at all like the kids. The only other problem was when a kindergartner sneezed on one of my juniors. That was also a good learning experience. All in all, the students enjoyed it so much the kindergartners asked the juniors to come back again. The juniors decided they would write holiday stories and bring them back to read to the kindergartners. I believe this collaboration is a total success because of the mentoring relationships developing. The following are the standards my juniors were working on for the last two days and a copy of the instructions Mrs. Gailey wrote for my juniors to follow. 11-12.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. 11-12.SL.1c Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
Save or download the blabberize that you and your group created & email them to your teacher and myself:
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If you spend any time with two and three year old children, you will hear the question why, over and over again. Children are naturally curious. As adults we can do one of two things, encourage or discourage their natural inquiry process. It is so easy for adults to forget what it is like to be a kid and to see things and want to know how it works or why it is this way. As an adult, we can get so overwhelmed with all of our responsibilities that we forget to stop and engage in the wonder our children are experiencing. I believe Inquiry Based Learning is an extension of the nature injury process every child experiences.
Inquiry Based Learning is defined as, “a pedagogical approach that invites students to explore academic content by posing, investigating, and answering questions.” (Sweetland & Towns) As the teacher in this situation, it is my responsibility to have an extensive understand of the standards that need to be covered within the course. I must have a focus and understand what outcomes I need my students to learn but allow the student to find their own path to their understanding. By using this approach, the student takes an active role in the learning process. “This approach puts students questions at the center of the curriculum, and places just as much value on the component skills of research as it does on knowledge and understanding of content.” (Sweetland & Towns) My fear with this method is the loss of control of my students. I must allow them more freedom than a traditional classroom. Fortunately, a great deal of research has been done in regards to the best way to teach this method successfully. One such method has been developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique or QFT. The QFT is, “ a simple, but rigorous, step-by-step process designed to help students produce, improve, and strategize on how to use their questions.” (Right Question Institute) The QFT has a seven step processes: “1. The Question Focus (QFocus) 2. The Rules for Producing Questions 3. Producing Questions 4. Categorizing Questions 5. Prioritizing Questions 6. Next Steps 7. Reflection” (Right Question Institute) I had the opportunity to participate in the QFT method in my education class. It was beneficial for me to be actively engaged in process as the student. I now know, I do not write fast enough to keep up with my peers shouting questions at me. Step 5 was difficult for me to prioritize the questions about our math subject. This may have had to do with my lacking math skills or it may have been I did not want to let go of some of the questions we had developed. As the teacher, I would think the difficult part would be developing a strong Question Focus. On a minor scale, I have started including opportunities for my students to write questions about the different topics in class. I also added a Wonder Wednesday, in which students have the opportunity to write a question on any school appropriate topic and then spend a few minutes researching it. This exercise allows the student to research something of personal interest. My goal is to continue to include more opportunities for students to have a focus question that allows students to practice the method of questioning. We need to get back to asking the question why. Even when it becomes annoying, allow students to ask a million questions. The key is to then encourage them to find the answers through quality research processes. Let us go back in time to when Star Trek was just a tv show. I remember watching Star Trek Next Generation and seeing the holodeck for the first time. (I have provided a link to a YouTube video clip below for non-Trekkies.) While traveling light years from home, the fleet members would be able to go into this room and it would become a different environment. In the clip below, it is a woodland habitat similar to Earth. The cost of a holodeck room would boggle my mind but it only cost around $6 to buy a cardboard box that holds your cellphone. This box then transforms the environment you are standing in to a completely different place. I can now stand in the Sistine Chapel and see all of the details of the amazing paintings. I can go to Egypt and walk into the actual archeology dig. This is an awesome educational tool that can be put to great use within our classrooms.
Dr. Sue Gregory, author of the article, Why teachers should use virtual worlds, makes a strong argument for the use of virtual worlds in educational classrooms. She states that it allows students to go on field trips they could otherwise never experience, communicate and collaboration with students across the United States and globally, and allows for role-playing experiences. (Gregory) While I find the field trips amazing, I am still hesitant about the virtual world created through role-playing. I understand students love to play games on their computers but can games really replace other instructional methods. “Virtual worlds have been compared to face-to-face learning, challenging our basic ideas of how schooling works.” (Gregory) I see this as only a supplement to my curriculum. I do not see it as a challenge to our basic ideas. My daughter loves the online virtual world game of Animal Jam. AJ for short, is a product of the highly educational company National Geographic. As a parent, online games terrify me. The teacher in me evaluated the game and realized it does have many good qualities. She can click on numerous videos about different animals, in different games she is quizzed over her animal knowledge, and she must find different animals and collect them. Now the down side, drama, drama, drama. The other players can be mean. I have seen it happen more than once. I believe the kids feel a certain anonymity and often say things they never would in person. I believe it is much more difficult to control the communication and I see bullying as a real downside. According to the review about AJ by Common Sense, “It's fun, but while the site claims to have safe chat, privacy, and parental control features, they're not keeping up their end of the bargain. Sexual content and bullying is common, filters don't seem to catch bad language, and customer support is difficult to contact.” I desperately want to engage my students in my classroom. I believe I can supplement my instructional methods with some virtual worlds but I certainly will not turn my classroom into a holodeck. Just like being on the Enterprise, the holodeck is a nice place to visit once in a while but I won’t take up residence there. Work Cited Gregory, By Sue. "Why Teachers Should Use Virtual Worlds." EduResearch Matters. N.p., 05 July 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. Star Trek Next Generation. N.d. Weebly.com. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwtVz7z0wM Each year the education profession produces new buzz words. Often there is the new fade weight loss plan of education. Nine times out of ten, the fade plans don’t work because you are not putting in the time and effort required to receive the desired results. In my opinion, Problem Based Learning is not a new fade but trusted friend that has been around for a long time.
Human lives are filled with problems and how well we handle those problems will have a direct correlation to us having a good life. So often people will allow their problems to overwhelm them and they can’t see a way out. It just makes logical sense to me that we look at our curriculum and formulate opportunities for students to tackle different problem within an environment of learning. If we teach them, step by step, how to work their way to a solution, those are the life skills that will serve our students for the rest of their lives. Now here comes the buzz words. Everyone wants to make their own spin on PBL. The one that really made me shake my head was Zombie Based Learning. Really?! Educators tend to go overboard. I believe most of the different types of base learning can fall under the heading of PBL or Inquiry Based Learning. If a student has no vested interest in school then why should the student try? Time and time again, I have seen intelligent youth not caring at all about school because they feel like their opinion does not matter one bit. Being a teen is so very difficult. You are not a little kid but rarely are your opinions respected. In this instructional method, the student now has voice and choice and like Robert Frost said, “And that has made all the difference.” This last week, I have attempted to do a semi PBL unit. (I am really not sure what to call it.) My students research the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Then I introduced Rose O’Neill to my class. Rose is the inventor of the Kewpie doll and happens to have lived 11 miles from our school. What many people don’t know is she was also a very active member of the suffrage movement, contributing money and her artistic abilities. Now to the project part. Each student has chosen a cause that they can be passionate about, mimicking how Rose was passionate about women’s right to vote. They are preparing a persuasive project, a paper, speech, PSA video or PSA radio piece. I have a student that has not done any of my assignments because they do not want to be at school. However, this student is coming to me, asking questions and doing the work necessary. I believe because the content is very real to this student, he/she is working for the first time for me. To me, this is a huge success that I will cherish. So if you pop your head in my class this week, you may see me running around like crazy. I am trying my best to stay on top of what each student is working on and scaffolding as needed. I need to work on finding my way in this process too. How can I improve my management of sometimes 30 different projects and still be effective? Next week, I will reflect on what worked and what didn’t work and plan for my next attempt at Project Based Learning. Work Cited "Robert Frost: “The Road Not Taken”." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. |
AuthorMy name is Lisa and I teach English Language Arts at Forsyth, MO. Archives
May 2017
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