Today was a whirlwind of conversations. I had the opportunity to meet with Raji and Kathy, our Kindergarten team. Unscheduled tech time gives us the opportunity to work together to create learning experiences for the children that will use tech as a way to enhance their teaching goals as well in a developmentally appropriate fashion. This summer we are purchasing ten digital cameras for Kindergarten to share between the two classes. The teachers are going to use the cameras to help create curricular moments. We discussed what developmentally appropriate technology looks like in the kindergarten setting. At this age children need to see teachers model technology as a tool. We are reaching out to other kindergarten classes in the hopes of making connections beyond the walls of AFS. Sharing videos that allow students to see in action a particular concept or event is another way computers can be used in the Kindergarten Class. Do teachers need to have a computer in the classroom for students to use? It is my preference that the teachers use the Mac laptops when they decide to use computers with students. Macs have a fairly intuitive interface. The icons on the dock make it easier for nonreaders to identify programs. When a student works on a technology focused project, such as creating nametags we are going to ask the third grade partners to work with them. This way the children will have one to one support and the third graders can strengthen their present knowledge.
I also had the opportunity to work with the fourth grade. We discussed the need to kick off word processing early in the year. The hope is that we will begin with the fourth and fifth grades and work our way back. As I stated in an earlier post, we are also going to implement a unit on digital safety, citizenship and footprint. It is important that we begin this conversation early in the year and then continually come back to the various topics it encompasses. We are hoping to have the fourth and fifth grade create public service announcements, quick one-minute message we intend to share with sixth and seventh grade. The Middle School students will view them to see if the message is clear. Feedback will be given back to the fourth and fifth graders. The duel purpose of this is to spark conversations throughout the year as well as work on media literacy skills including creating and interpreting content.
As I come to the final days of my structured time for this fellowship I am ever aware of how much work is still ahead. I have opened several strands and feel that there are areas that need deeper exploration. I always understood that this would not be a three-week process, but more like a three-week beginning. I will continue to work on this throughout the year and look forward to hearing from more voices as the summer comes to an end.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Meetings, meetings, meetings.
Yesterday was a day of many meetings. So many that I really needed to go home and process before I could post coherently. In the book some of us are reading together this summer, Curriculum 21: Essential Education in a Changing World, Jacobs strongly recommends reviewing the curriculum for relevance. I thought this was a wonderful idea when I read it and still do, but wow it is hard to actually do. Everyone has an opinion, a well thought out, based on years of experience opinion. And sometimes these opinions clash or need to be re-evaluated. Okay, enough stalling on to the meat of it.
If you have been reading this blog, you know that last week when I sat with fifth grade we discussed using Scratch, especially in the younger grades. The key question was: “Are second graders learning integers and the Cartesian plane through Scratch?” I opened myself up for this as I listed these under the skills section. We revisited this in my meeting with the second grade teachers who wanted to reevaluate whether it was developmentally appropriate, especially the use of negative numbers. This really haunted me throughout the last twenty four hours because I have been using Scratch successfully with the second grade for the last three years. I spent a long time on the Internet last night researching developmentally appropriate math and reflecting on my experiences as a classroom teacher, a technology teacher and my continued learning in this area. For me the question is, “Will my teaching Scratch and introducing integers and the Cartesian plane be detrimental to students learning in the future?”
“Fostering Children’s Mathematical Power” by Jerome Baroody speaks directly to the question of integers and young children. He cautions that students need to understand that the symbols used to show positive and negative numbers are not operations. Additionally, he feels that the introduction of negative numbers is dependent on the development of the child.
“In general, primary children can be introduced to negative numbers if done in a developmentally appropriate manner.” (p. 8-23)
“Ideally, a discussion of negative numbers would arise from a genuine need of such numbers.” (p. 8-23)
Scratch gives children an authentic environment to
begin exploring negative numbers on a visual plane. Children have a built in need to use the x axis and y axis to plan the animation of their sprites. My own experience is that Scratch is a way to differentiate learning of this concept. For some students there is the almost automatic understanding that certain planes on the grid are only positive or negative. For others, it is simply a way of defining a point and although they are using the plane they don’t further explore value. I don’t teach using negative numbers beyond the idea that they represent a place on the plane. Whenever students move their mouse the exact position of the cursor is noted in the lower right hand corner of their stage. (This is where they position the sprites.)
Can the children really work the program? As with anything else there are those that excel and those that need a lot of support, however, the critical mass can create basic animations. Here is a sampling of work done by this past year’s second graders:
What have I learned?
On a different topic that once again went back to a conversation I had last week, we discussed the value of Twitter in the classroom. Is it a worthwhile tool for students? I don’t recommend students in second grade having a Twitter account, however I think we have a wonderful opportunity to model using Twitter as a tool. I had hoped for classrooms to create Twitter connections with other schools. The idea was a low level investment of time posting relevant information we are learning and discovering what other students are learning throughout the year. The hope was that meaningfully relevant curricular collaboration would ensue. Why not use blogs? I thought this would be too time consuming for teachers to maintain on a regular basis. However, I am not opposed to creating and following other blogs around the world.
What are your thoughts on this discussion?
On to Middle School and the best place to introduce Digital Citizenship. Where and when do we introduce it? How do we continue to stoke the discussion? Do we keep it mainly in the MESSFlex (Math, English, Science, Social Studies flexible time)? Do we use advisory time? How much time will we need? The idea of using MESSFlex for issues pertaining to plagiarism and piracy was proposed as a natural fit and safety, citizenship and digital footprints in advisory. However a counter argument was made that all should take place in MESSFlex because there is more time available and the students need to have the same message brought to them from different disciplines to ensure there is real learning. This is a conversation still in progress.
Finally, I met with the first grade yesterday and began to consider what makes sense with their curriculum. What can we keep? What do we need to re-evaluate or postpone? We are beginning our year with a PowerPoint based on a book the students write about themselves. This is a rework of a project that first graders have been doing in the tech lab. The students will create the book first in the traditional way and then from the book create a PowerPoint, exploring how to use multiple ways of telling a story. We are going to continue with the story theme and students will again create movies sharing the content they learn about Day of the Dead. This will begin shortly after the unit wraps up and we will work together on a daily basis for a week or two.
Again, it was amazing to work with teachers, share what I have been doing in the lab and aligning it better with what happens in their classroom. There is some anxiety on both sides. For me there is the sense that this is what I have been doing, and everyone has an opinion on what is the best way to do it and what is developmentally appropriate. The great thing about working with teachers is I get to make my curriculum better. The hard part is my practice is under a microscope and for someone who often inhabits the world of insecurity it can be a little scary.
I appreciate all your thoughts, suggestions and challenges. It is a growing process.
If you have been reading this blog, you know that last week when I sat with fifth grade we discussed using Scratch, especially in the younger grades. The key question was: “Are second graders learning integers and the Cartesian plane through Scratch?” I opened myself up for this as I listed these under the skills section. We revisited this in my meeting with the second grade teachers who wanted to reevaluate whether it was developmentally appropriate, especially the use of negative numbers. This really haunted me throughout the last twenty four hours because I have been using Scratch successfully with the second grade for the last three years. I spent a long time on the Internet last night researching developmentally appropriate math and reflecting on my experiences as a classroom teacher, a technology teacher and my continued learning in this area. For me the question is, “Will my teaching Scratch and introducing integers and the Cartesian plane be detrimental to students learning in the future?”
“Fostering Children’s Mathematical Power” by Jerome Baroody speaks directly to the question of integers and young children. He cautions that students need to understand that the symbols used to show positive and negative numbers are not operations. Additionally, he feels that the introduction of negative numbers is dependent on the development of the child.
“In general, primary children can be introduced to negative numbers if done in a developmentally appropriate manner.” (p. 8-23)
“Ideally, a discussion of negative numbers would arise from a genuine need of such numbers.” (p. 8-23)
Scratch gives children an authentic environment to
begin exploring negative numbers on a visual plane. Children have a built in need to use the x axis and y axis to plan the animation of their sprites. My own experience is that Scratch is a way to differentiate learning of this concept. For some students there is the almost automatic understanding that certain planes on the grid are only positive or negative. For others, it is simply a way of defining a point and although they are using the plane they don’t further explore value. I don’t teach using negative numbers beyond the idea that they represent a place on the plane. Whenever students move their mouse the exact position of the cursor is noted in the lower right hand corner of their stage. (This is where they position the sprites.)
Can the children really work the program? As with anything else there are those that excel and those that need a lot of support, however, the critical mass can create basic animations. Here is a sampling of work done by this past year’s second graders:
What have I learned?
- It is really important for my communication with classroom teachers to be clear. Now that I am going into their classrooms I think this will be easier as we work together to create relevant curriculum.
- I need to be more aware of the language I am using when I introduce material to students. Anne helped me to identify better words to use to ensure that I don’t cause confusion. I will definitely be more aware of this in the future. For instance, defining negative numbers as numbers that come before zero is wrong, and instead I should use the term less than to help the students begin to understand the concept. Additionally, I want to make sure that I use the words positive and negative and not plus or minus.
- Scratch is a valuable tool for giving students authentic practice with math concepts. It is also a great opportunity to help students learn how pervasive math is in our lives and how to problem solve.
On a different topic that once again went back to a conversation I had last week, we discussed the value of Twitter in the classroom. Is it a worthwhile tool for students? I don’t recommend students in second grade having a Twitter account, however I think we have a wonderful opportunity to model using Twitter as a tool. I had hoped for classrooms to create Twitter connections with other schools. The idea was a low level investment of time posting relevant information we are learning and discovering what other students are learning throughout the year. The hope was that meaningfully relevant curricular collaboration would ensue. Why not use blogs? I thought this would be too time consuming for teachers to maintain on a regular basis. However, I am not opposed to creating and following other blogs around the world.
What are your thoughts on this discussion?
On to Middle School and the best place to introduce Digital Citizenship. Where and when do we introduce it? How do we continue to stoke the discussion? Do we keep it mainly in the MESSFlex (Math, English, Science, Social Studies flexible time)? Do we use advisory time? How much time will we need? The idea of using MESSFlex for issues pertaining to plagiarism and piracy was proposed as a natural fit and safety, citizenship and digital footprints in advisory. However a counter argument was made that all should take place in MESSFlex because there is more time available and the students need to have the same message brought to them from different disciplines to ensure there is real learning. This is a conversation still in progress.
Finally, I met with the first grade yesterday and began to consider what makes sense with their curriculum. What can we keep? What do we need to re-evaluate or postpone? We are beginning our year with a PowerPoint based on a book the students write about themselves. This is a rework of a project that first graders have been doing in the tech lab. The students will create the book first in the traditional way and then from the book create a PowerPoint, exploring how to use multiple ways of telling a story. We are going to continue with the story theme and students will again create movies sharing the content they learn about Day of the Dead. This will begin shortly after the unit wraps up and we will work together on a daily basis for a week or two.
Again, it was amazing to work with teachers, share what I have been doing in the lab and aligning it better with what happens in their classroom. There is some anxiety on both sides. For me there is the sense that this is what I have been doing, and everyone has an opinion on what is the best way to do it and what is developmentally appropriate. The great thing about working with teachers is I get to make my curriculum better. The hard part is my practice is under a microscope and for someone who often inhabits the world of insecurity it can be a little scary.
I appreciate all your thoughts, suggestions and challenges. It is a growing process.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Sixth Grade Social Studies
Two days ago I met with our Sixth Grade Social Studies Teacher, Mark. Mark’s themes of the class are Bias and Perspective and his essential Questions are:
1. What is bias?
2. How do bias and perspective affect history?
There are two major units in the class, one on the Romans and another on Medieval Times. Additionally, Mark covers smaller units on the Mongols and the Vikings. Skills Mark emphasizes in class include note taking and how to conduct research. Mark has two areas that he wants to work on this year:
• A more intentional integration of current events that he can parallel with the units he studies.
• An online space the students can use to keep gathered information and changing ideas as they grow throughout the year.
There were two resources that seemed to fit into the need to emphasize current events as well as begin to give students a more global perspective. This is exciting for me because it is authentic use for the technology as well as emphasizing a skill we are hearing is more of a necessity everyday – global perspective. Also, I love the idea of paralleling some of the events happening around the world today with what the students are studying in history. Global Voices is a blog space developed by Ethan Zuckerman. He explained his reasoning for creating this blog on TED. There is also a journal from England that was recommended, Understanding Global Issues. I have read in other online communities that this journal is written in accessible and easy to understand language and is unbiased. There is a free copy that can be reviewed on line and it seems inexpensive.
We reviewed WackWall, a social networking environment that doesn’t (yet) have an age limit listed in the terms of service. This is a ning like environment that is still in beta. Like most freeware in beta the user should expect some glitches, but normally when testing a beta tool there is also a high degree of technical support-at least that has been my experience.
The actual use of the online environment is still being worked out. Since Mark doesn’t use a textbook, he does want the space to be a place students can reference notes. His vision is to have a student responsible for recapping important points discussed in class. It could also be a place to post resources for the students. We also discussed using the space to have students converse about central topics in the class including perspective and bias. Since this is going to be an exceptionally busy year for Mark professionally, he needs to have a way to keep up with the conversations without having the discourse become overwhelming. Online group work could help him manage the student posts more easily. Essentially the way this works is to break the students in to small groups and have them form smaller online communities. One student is responsible for monitoring the conversation and posting a summary reflection of the points discussed. This would have to be modeled in class and may take a while for students to get down the process. The skills the students develop in this process, reading for understanding, picking out main points and synthesizing information as well as communicating the information to a larger audience are valuable. Grouping also relieves students of the burden of having to follow all of the online discussion.
Mark’s responsibility becomes one of mostly reading, picking out points that he wants to either emphasize or clarify in class face to face. As long as Mark brings back topics discussed on line in the class, the students will be aware that he is reading the discussion and considers it to be valuable.
Assessment was the piece touched on in the meeting. How does Mark evaluate the online discussions? How does he grade the process of the work done by the students? I’m not sure what other modes of assessment are employed in this class; so that is something I need to ascertain. For students I think a short punch list will help them structure their work and may change dependent on the nature of the work. However it may include something like this:
Mark’s assessment can take several tacks and will depend on what he is actually evaluating. If he wants to make sure all salient points from class are understood he can evaluate the weekly scribe from that perspective and can create a rubric to support this process. He can also have group grades based on the summary posts of the group. The person summarizing group response would change every week. It will be harder for him to determine how students understand the impact of perspective and bias from summary posts of information, however if he lurks on the blog he will glean some of this information. The digital recording of the information will give him a place to go to check student understanding. A component of posting in a timely manner would also be reflected in the grade. Online learning environments work through different topics throughout the year. This necessitates having a starting and ending date for discussions where students are not expected to revisit conversations once they have come to an end. This frees students from having to keep up on too many conversations at one time.
1. What is bias?
2. How do bias and perspective affect history?
There are two major units in the class, one on the Romans and another on Medieval Times. Additionally, Mark covers smaller units on the Mongols and the Vikings. Skills Mark emphasizes in class include note taking and how to conduct research. Mark has two areas that he wants to work on this year:
• A more intentional integration of current events that he can parallel with the units he studies.
• An online space the students can use to keep gathered information and changing ideas as they grow throughout the year.
There were two resources that seemed to fit into the need to emphasize current events as well as begin to give students a more global perspective. This is exciting for me because it is authentic use for the technology as well as emphasizing a skill we are hearing is more of a necessity everyday – global perspective. Also, I love the idea of paralleling some of the events happening around the world today with what the students are studying in history. Global Voices is a blog space developed by Ethan Zuckerman. He explained his reasoning for creating this blog on TED. There is also a journal from England that was recommended, Understanding Global Issues. I have read in other online communities that this journal is written in accessible and easy to understand language and is unbiased. There is a free copy that can be reviewed on line and it seems inexpensive.
We reviewed WackWall, a social networking environment that doesn’t (yet) have an age limit listed in the terms of service. This is a ning like environment that is still in beta. Like most freeware in beta the user should expect some glitches, but normally when testing a beta tool there is also a high degree of technical support-at least that has been my experience.
The actual use of the online environment is still being worked out. Since Mark doesn’t use a textbook, he does want the space to be a place students can reference notes. His vision is to have a student responsible for recapping important points discussed in class. It could also be a place to post resources for the students. We also discussed using the space to have students converse about central topics in the class including perspective and bias. Since this is going to be an exceptionally busy year for Mark professionally, he needs to have a way to keep up with the conversations without having the discourse become overwhelming. Online group work could help him manage the student posts more easily. Essentially the way this works is to break the students in to small groups and have them form smaller online communities. One student is responsible for monitoring the conversation and posting a summary reflection of the points discussed. This would have to be modeled in class and may take a while for students to get down the process. The skills the students develop in this process, reading for understanding, picking out main points and synthesizing information as well as communicating the information to a larger audience are valuable. Grouping also relieves students of the burden of having to follow all of the online discussion.
Mark’s responsibility becomes one of mostly reading, picking out points that he wants to either emphasize or clarify in class face to face. As long as Mark brings back topics discussed on line in the class, the students will be aware that he is reading the discussion and considers it to be valuable.
Assessment was the piece touched on in the meeting. How does Mark evaluate the online discussions? How does he grade the process of the work done by the students? I’m not sure what other modes of assessment are employed in this class; so that is something I need to ascertain. For students I think a short punch list will help them structure their work and may change dependent on the nature of the work. However it may include something like this:
- Did I fully answer the question?
- Did I support my answer with examples from the class or text?
- Did I spell check my work?
- Does my work make sense?
- Did I explain my agreement or disagreement?
- Did I support my reasoning?
- Did I spell check my work?
Mark’s assessment can take several tacks and will depend on what he is actually evaluating. If he wants to make sure all salient points from class are understood he can evaluate the weekly scribe from that perspective and can create a rubric to support this process. He can also have group grades based on the summary posts of the group. The person summarizing group response would change every week. It will be harder for him to determine how students understand the impact of perspective and bias from summary posts of information, however if he lurks on the blog he will glean some of this information. The digital recording of the information will give him a place to go to check student understanding. A component of posting in a timely manner would also be reflected in the grade. Online learning environments work through different topics throughout the year. This necessitates having a starting and ending date for discussions where students are not expected to revisit conversations once they have come to an end. This frees students from having to keep up on too many conversations at one time.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Friday
Today, so far has been split up in many small projects. I have downloaded Type To Learn to test run the program. This is the program we are leaning towards to have our students learn how to type. It is definitely a pesky problem that needs addressing without spending tons of time instructing. So (hopefully) we will be introducing the program to second through fifth graders in Lower School. I haven’t decided the best way to approach this in Middle School, although Middle School students also need the assistance in this area. We are pricing this, as a web based program students will access from home. After we introduce the students and get them comfortable with the program we are planning to have the students practice from home. Yes, there will probably be students who will need to find time during school to do this, and we will address that as needed. Additionally, the students will have to install some software on home computers to access this. I know this will require an extra level of support but I think having the program available at home for students will be worth the possible initial aggravation.
I have also tried to wrestle down a tool list. There are some things to consider as you view this list.
1. This is not a definitive list. There are many more tools listed that can accomplish the same goals. Feel free to add to the list as faculty has editing privileges. Please try to link tools that are web based.
2. Many tools overlap, so yes you can use Twitter both as a collaboration tool and for your PLN (as I do.) Actually, a real PLN involves a lot of collaboration.
3. The prerequisite skills were the most difficult to fill in. It was tough to complete this without sounding ridiculous. What I consider basic computing skills may be completely different than what someone else might consider basic. So let me clarify. I think a comfort level with toolbars is basic. The ability to copy, paste, save, format, spell-check, upload, download, insert images, format tables, word process, tab.
4. The list of 21st Century Literacies is a suggestion. The literacy you support will depend on the way you use the tool.
I am interested, as always, on any feedback you have for the list. I am working now on assessment, articulating individual lesson plans on citizenship and working more on the maps.
If I don’t post again, have a good weekend.
I have also tried to wrestle down a tool list. There are some things to consider as you view this list.
1. This is not a definitive list. There are many more tools listed that can accomplish the same goals. Feel free to add to the list as faculty has editing privileges. Please try to link tools that are web based.
2. Many tools overlap, so yes you can use Twitter both as a collaboration tool and for your PLN (as I do.) Actually, a real PLN involves a lot of collaboration.
3. The prerequisite skills were the most difficult to fill in. It was tough to complete this without sounding ridiculous. What I consider basic computing skills may be completely different than what someone else might consider basic. So let me clarify. I think a comfort level with toolbars is basic. The ability to copy, paste, save, format, spell-check, upload, download, insert images, format tables, word process, tab.
4. The list of 21st Century Literacies is a suggestion. The literacy you support will depend on the way you use the tool.
I am interested, as always, on any feedback you have for the list. I am working now on assessment, articulating individual lesson plans on citizenship and working more on the maps.
If I don’t post again, have a good weekend.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Meeting with Andrea
Last night Andrea, one of our Lower School Teachers, and I began to look at the content of the maps from Lower School. This year Lower School will not have pull out tech classes, but instead we will work in a sort of project/workshop mode to bring the technology into the classroom. Since this is the first year the whole Lower School will be participating in this model, Andrea and I were evaluating the maps first for plausibility. The maps posted so far are reflections of past projects; they are not definitive of future projects. Part of the fellowship was to determine where we are so that we can see where we need to go. Some or all of the content contained in the maps could be changed, deleted or added to. I think this needs to be really clear. The reason maps were not produced yet for third through sixth grade is because I either don’t have a full picture (we did not have pull out classes for 3-5 in Lower School last year) or we are planning to build together.
As we discussed the constraints of time and schedule, I realized that even though some teachers may have the skills necessary to lead some of the content in the maps, having never taught technology they may not feel a comfort level that would encourage them to branch out on their own. The goal is for teachers to become more fluent with the technology and begin to design lessons enhanced and enriched with the tools they are using. One possible way of assisting teachers as they continue to grow in their skills is to have older students buddy up with younger students. Since Lower School already has a partner model, kindergarten with third, first with fourth and second with fifth we could use this model to have the older students work one-on-one with their partners. This would have the added benefit in the beginning of the year of skill review for the older students.
The tension of developmentally appropriate curriculum and how to best use technology was another idea we explored. What does developmentally appropriate use of technology look like? At what age is it not only okay but also actually beneficial to use technology with younger students? I researched this heavily about ten years ago as part of my graduate studies in Instructional Design. However, a quick read of the National Association for the Education of Young Children position statement helped be gather the research needed to approach this question. Although this statement is under revision, it is still a wealth of research resources. NAEYC clearly states that teachers need to define the technology the students use. They also cite research that supports the use of technology with young children:
“Developmentally appropriate software engages children in creative play, mastery learning, problem solving and conversation.” (p.2)
“Research points to the positive effects of technology in children’s learning and development, both cognitive and social” (p.2)
“Children engage in high levels of spoken communication and cooperation at the computer. They initiate interactions more frequently and in different ways than when engaged with traditional activities, such as puzzles or blocks. They engage in more turn taking at the computer and simultaneously show high levels of language and cooperative –play activity.” (p.2)
“Appropriate use of technology is integrated into the regular learning environment and used as one of many options to support learning.” (p2) I added the emphasis.
This last sentence lends support to the removal of the Lower School Technology Lab as a pull out space to teach tech tools. As we move up the grades, research continues to support the use of technology when it is fully integrated into the curriculum. Students need to use the tools fluently to connect, collaborate, create and evaluate.
In addition to NAEYC, PBS has a long list of position statements and research done by an array of companies, philanthropic organizations and the government. The bottom line is that using technology in the framework of sound learning theory creates a positive impact.
We explored the use of digital portfolios and discussed how Catalina has agreed to pioneer this effort with me. Andrea made me realize that it isn’t a large leap from what we are already doing, since most grades already have students create learning goals. The only difference is we would have a digital record from year to year. What subject would be included? Would we try to do all? That seemed overwhelming for everyone involved. Would students decide? That seemed to align best with a student centered approach that would give the child responsibility. John, our Technology Director, and I discussed the best place for this to live and feel Google Sites seems the most reasonable as we have migrated to Google Apps. This still needs further exploration. Questions to consider are:
Can it accommodate an assortment of file types such as sound, video, etc?
How much control do we have over privacy settings? Can we make some parts private? Should we make it all private?
How far would the portfolio follow the student? Just through Lower School? Middle School? Upper School?
We also discussed the goal of eighth graders having the skills to create a personal learning network (PLN). What do we need to do as a Lower School Community to prepare students for this? What skills and competencies can we build into our program in such a way that we continue to enhance our own curriculum and also prepare students to take on the larger share of responsibility for their own learning? We already do this with students on many levels, responsible use of technology, as a tool for learning is another level.
As we discussed the constraints of time and schedule, I realized that even though some teachers may have the skills necessary to lead some of the content in the maps, having never taught technology they may not feel a comfort level that would encourage them to branch out on their own. The goal is for teachers to become more fluent with the technology and begin to design lessons enhanced and enriched with the tools they are using. One possible way of assisting teachers as they continue to grow in their skills is to have older students buddy up with younger students. Since Lower School already has a partner model, kindergarten with third, first with fourth and second with fifth we could use this model to have the older students work one-on-one with their partners. This would have the added benefit in the beginning of the year of skill review for the older students.
The tension of developmentally appropriate curriculum and how to best use technology was another idea we explored. What does developmentally appropriate use of technology look like? At what age is it not only okay but also actually beneficial to use technology with younger students? I researched this heavily about ten years ago as part of my graduate studies in Instructional Design. However, a quick read of the National Association for the Education of Young Children position statement helped be gather the research needed to approach this question. Although this statement is under revision, it is still a wealth of research resources. NAEYC clearly states that teachers need to define the technology the students use. They also cite research that supports the use of technology with young children:
“Developmentally appropriate software engages children in creative play, mastery learning, problem solving and conversation.” (p.2)
“Research points to the positive effects of technology in children’s learning and development, both cognitive and social” (p.2)
“Children engage in high levels of spoken communication and cooperation at the computer. They initiate interactions more frequently and in different ways than when engaged with traditional activities, such as puzzles or blocks. They engage in more turn taking at the computer and simultaneously show high levels of language and cooperative –play activity.” (p.2)
“Appropriate use of technology is integrated into the regular learning environment and used as one of many options to support learning.” (p2) I added the emphasis.
This last sentence lends support to the removal of the Lower School Technology Lab as a pull out space to teach tech tools. As we move up the grades, research continues to support the use of technology when it is fully integrated into the curriculum. Students need to use the tools fluently to connect, collaborate, create and evaluate.
In addition to NAEYC, PBS has a long list of position statements and research done by an array of companies, philanthropic organizations and the government. The bottom line is that using technology in the framework of sound learning theory creates a positive impact.
We explored the use of digital portfolios and discussed how Catalina has agreed to pioneer this effort with me. Andrea made me realize that it isn’t a large leap from what we are already doing, since most grades already have students create learning goals. The only difference is we would have a digital record from year to year. What subject would be included? Would we try to do all? That seemed overwhelming for everyone involved. Would students decide? That seemed to align best with a student centered approach that would give the child responsibility. John, our Technology Director, and I discussed the best place for this to live and feel Google Sites seems the most reasonable as we have migrated to Google Apps. This still needs further exploration. Questions to consider are:
Can it accommodate an assortment of file types such as sound, video, etc?
How much control do we have over privacy settings? Can we make some parts private? Should we make it all private?
How far would the portfolio follow the student? Just through Lower School? Middle School? Upper School?
We also discussed the goal of eighth graders having the skills to create a personal learning network (PLN). What do we need to do as a Lower School Community to prepare students for this? What skills and competencies can we build into our program in such a way that we continue to enhance our own curriculum and also prepare students to take on the larger share of responsibility for their own learning? We already do this with students on many levels, responsible use of technology, as a tool for learning is another level.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Digital Citizenship
Getting Started Again…
There is so much swirling around in my head that I am having trouble getting started again. The great thing about working with your peers is that you get so much insight and so many good ideas into your work. The hard part is then coming back to your own head and synthesizing. Between my meetings with Lower School Resource Teachers, my meeting with Catalina and my meeting with fifth grade I am already looking with new eyes at my work.
Yesterday’s conversation with fifth grade resurfaced the need to teach digital citizenship and Internet safety. With new tools come new responsibilities. As I review the information I have in the maps I created and the skeletons I have for the upcoming grades I can see this glaring omission. Although these skills need to be reinforced throughout the year a formal introduction in every grade needs to happen in the beginning of the year. This will naturally change the content of the maps. I have spent most of the day finding resources for and creating a rough outline of a digital safety, citizenship and footprint unit. It is not complete. Questions that I need to consider are:
- When is the best time to introduce this in each grade? Obviously for 3rd to 8th it should be in the beginning of the year but what about K-2?
- What is my venue for Middle School? Lower School I can get into class rooms, where does this fit best in the Middle School curriculum?
- Ongoing assessment? Ongoing reinforcement?
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Working With Fifth Grade
Working with Fifth Grade
Today I had the opportunity to work with the fifth grade team. We worked on getting some shared space available through Google docs so fifth grade would have an accessible site to gather resources.
We also had a great discussion about how technology could be used to support the learning. The discussion arose with the map created for the second grade curriculum. Within that map is a unit on Scratch and some of the skills including introducing Cartesian Graphs and integers. Do students really understand these concepts at the second grade level? If I am the introductory point for them what is the best way to introduce these skills? Should they be introduced in a concrete fashion before moving into the digital realm? Previously I had checked with the second grade team and knew that the students were familiar with these concepts through previous math activities, including working with graphs. However, it would definitely make more sense to use Scratch with the children at a time when they are working with these concepts as opposed to another random moment in the school year. This pointed to the need for more intentional use of technology to build curriculum as opposed to just trying to tie into a theme. The reality is the project grew from a three-way collaboration between Catalina, the second grade team and myself with the end result to be to animate the poems the students create with Catalina. However, before they can move forward with the animating process they need to have a basic understanding of the positive and negative space as seen on the Cartesian graph. So the question becomes how flexible is the curriculum? Can this project be adapted to better reinforce a concept that is already part of their curriculum? The larger question is how are we using the technology to reinforce our learning? We know as a school that we don’t want to use technology without real purpose, so we need to continue to reflect on the ways we are using technology.
We also discussed Social Studies in fifth grade. There are two major units in fifth grade: Ancient Greece and Government. Building from the fourth grade program, we discussed having students evaluate Jenkintown as a city and create an action plan to improve the area. This would be another way of looking at government and elections. How do we evaluate candidates?
Connecting classrooms through Twitter is a project I have wanted to try with the teachers in Lower School. Each classroom would have an account and follow other classes. I have classes in Australia and South Korea who are also interested in trying this. However, before we can begin this the question of accountability was raised. What happens if students want to use this tool out of school? What is our role in this? What do we need to teach them about digital citizenship? What type of education do parents need around this tool? And what is our school view on this? Teachers need to know as we venture into this new realm that we will be supported, especially if we are to take the risks necessary to become fluent in this environment.
What are your thoughts on this?
Finally, I am coming to realize the immensity of the project I am taking on this summer. This will be somewhat structured by the end of the summer but, like a real curricular map, this will remain a living document meant to be reviewed and assessed for relevance and purpose. For me this is a little scary, as I would like to have a little more structure to the upcoming year and not try to fit as many projects as I possibly can in. However, I guess we are working towards this and it continues to be a journey of learning from every level.
Today I had the opportunity to work with the fifth grade team. We worked on getting some shared space available through Google docs so fifth grade would have an accessible site to gather resources.
We also had a great discussion about how technology could be used to support the learning. The discussion arose with the map created for the second grade curriculum. Within that map is a unit on Scratch and some of the skills including introducing Cartesian Graphs and integers. Do students really understand these concepts at the second grade level? If I am the introductory point for them what is the best way to introduce these skills? Should they be introduced in a concrete fashion before moving into the digital realm? Previously I had checked with the second grade team and knew that the students were familiar with these concepts through previous math activities, including working with graphs. However, it would definitely make more sense to use Scratch with the children at a time when they are working with these concepts as opposed to another random moment in the school year. This pointed to the need for more intentional use of technology to build curriculum as opposed to just trying to tie into a theme. The reality is the project grew from a three-way collaboration between Catalina, the second grade team and myself with the end result to be to animate the poems the students create with Catalina. However, before they can move forward with the animating process they need to have a basic understanding of the positive and negative space as seen on the Cartesian graph. So the question becomes how flexible is the curriculum? Can this project be adapted to better reinforce a concept that is already part of their curriculum? The larger question is how are we using the technology to reinforce our learning? We know as a school that we don’t want to use technology without real purpose, so we need to continue to reflect on the ways we are using technology.
We also discussed Social Studies in fifth grade. There are two major units in fifth grade: Ancient Greece and Government. Building from the fourth grade program, we discussed having students evaluate Jenkintown as a city and create an action plan to improve the area. This would be another way of looking at government and elections. How do we evaluate candidates?
Connecting classrooms through Twitter is a project I have wanted to try with the teachers in Lower School. Each classroom would have an account and follow other classes. I have classes in Australia and South Korea who are also interested in trying this. However, before we can begin this the question of accountability was raised. What happens if students want to use this tool out of school? What is our role in this? What do we need to teach them about digital citizenship? What type of education do parents need around this tool? And what is our school view on this? Teachers need to know as we venture into this new realm that we will be supported, especially if we are to take the risks necessary to become fluent in this environment.
What are your thoughts on this?
Finally, I am coming to realize the immensity of the project I am taking on this summer. This will be somewhat structured by the end of the summer but, like a real curricular map, this will remain a living document meant to be reviewed and assessed for relevance and purpose. For me this is a little scary, as I would like to have a little more structure to the upcoming year and not try to fit as many projects as I possibly can in. However, I guess we are working towards this and it continues to be a journey of learning from every level.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Working with Catalina
This morning I felt as though I had a very productive meeting with Catalina, our Lower School Spanish Teacher. It was fabulous to collaborate with someone and really begin to flesh out some plans and goals. It was also a reality check for me. I have a personal goal of creating a full calendar for the coming year. The hope is that I will know exactly where I am going to be every day and have a common purpose with teachers. I knew that when it came to a schedule like Catalina’s she sees every student in lower school, I would only be able to begin the process but it made me realize that my goal is actually to map my year by the end of these three weeks may be a bit…too ambitious?
We reviewed a great project that she does with the fourth grade. The students study different city designs in the United States and other countries and then design their own city. The design is labeled in Spanish. In addition to vocabulary skills, the students discuss and form ideas about how the design of a city reflects the needs and priorities of a population. We discussed ways in which technology might enhance this project and whether this was even a necessary place to add a technology component. We decided the student creations on paper were better than having them use design software for two reasons:
1. Students had complete freedom of design when they were designing on paper; they weren’t limited to a program.
2. The skill level needed to operate a design program effectively may not be worth the investment of time.
What we decided was that each student’s design could be scanned into the computer and the class could view it together on the Smart Board. This would allow room for supporting both of the main goals of the project:
1. Vocabulary development both spoken and written
2. Design of space based on needs and priorities of the population.
A copy of the scanned designs could be edited to remove the labels and the class could then work together to label the buildings and spaces created. Also, the students could write a short paragraph explaining how and why they designed their city and the class could review the design to see if they could discover the priorities of the designer.
From this discussion we moved on to Skype. Catalina is hoping to connect some of her classes with Spanish speaking countries from around the world. Previously I had checked out Around the World With 80 Schools, a ning established to connect teacher who are interested in Skype, and found a class of 8-12 year olds in Barcelona, Spain. Catalina is in the process of joining the ning and connecting with this class. I also asked her if she would be interested in creating a Twitter connection with this class. The fourth grade could create a classroom Twitter account and follow the Barcelona class throughout the school year. Besides having authentic purpose to use their Spanish, we may even discover opportunities to collaborate on other projects.
A final topic we covered was digital portfolios. Catalina agreed to pilot the use of portfolios for students. Our goal is to have students choose something twice a year to demonstrate growth and understanding. The first target is December. We will be starting them Prek-5 this year. We both understand that this will be a learning process for everyone involved. Catalina sees great potential for sharing during parent conferences. The tool that we are considering now is Google Sites. Each student already has a site so this seems like the perfect space.
This afternoon did not feel as productive. One of my goals was to create a menu of items for teachers to choose from when they are considering using technology. I want this list to have several features including:
1. Tool type
2. Tool name
3. Pre-requisite skills, or what they need to know to hit the ground running
4. 21st Century supported skills
5. Common Uses
Does this make sense? Every time I try to establish this list, it seems too simplified. Would teachers want something like this available? I could create a list that would continue to grow, since new tools are becoming available all the time.
Thoughts?
We reviewed a great project that she does with the fourth grade. The students study different city designs in the United States and other countries and then design their own city. The design is labeled in Spanish. In addition to vocabulary skills, the students discuss and form ideas about how the design of a city reflects the needs and priorities of a population. We discussed ways in which technology might enhance this project and whether this was even a necessary place to add a technology component. We decided the student creations on paper were better than having them use design software for two reasons:
1. Students had complete freedom of design when they were designing on paper; they weren’t limited to a program.
2. The skill level needed to operate a design program effectively may not be worth the investment of time.
What we decided was that each student’s design could be scanned into the computer and the class could view it together on the Smart Board. This would allow room for supporting both of the main goals of the project:
1. Vocabulary development both spoken and written
2. Design of space based on needs and priorities of the population.
A copy of the scanned designs could be edited to remove the labels and the class could then work together to label the buildings and spaces created. Also, the students could write a short paragraph explaining how and why they designed their city and the class could review the design to see if they could discover the priorities of the designer.
From this discussion we moved on to Skype. Catalina is hoping to connect some of her classes with Spanish speaking countries from around the world. Previously I had checked out Around the World With 80 Schools, a ning established to connect teacher who are interested in Skype, and found a class of 8-12 year olds in Barcelona, Spain. Catalina is in the process of joining the ning and connecting with this class. I also asked her if she would be interested in creating a Twitter connection with this class. The fourth grade could create a classroom Twitter account and follow the Barcelona class throughout the school year. Besides having authentic purpose to use their Spanish, we may even discover opportunities to collaborate on other projects.
A final topic we covered was digital portfolios. Catalina agreed to pilot the use of portfolios for students. Our goal is to have students choose something twice a year to demonstrate growth and understanding. The first target is December. We will be starting them Prek-5 this year. We both understand that this will be a learning process for everyone involved. Catalina sees great potential for sharing during parent conferences. The tool that we are considering now is Google Sites. Each student already has a site so this seems like the perfect space.
This afternoon did not feel as productive. One of my goals was to create a menu of items for teachers to choose from when they are considering using technology. I want this list to have several features including:
1. Tool type
2. Tool name
3. Pre-requisite skills, or what they need to know to hit the ground running
4. 21st Century supported skills
5. Common Uses
Does this make sense? Every time I try to establish this list, it seems too simplified. Would teachers want something like this available? I could create a list that would continue to grow, since new tools are becoming available all the time.
Thoughts?
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thoughts on Working with Teachers
Today I had the opportunity to meet with Crissy and Roxie, our Lower and Middle School Directors to review some of the work that has been accomplished so far and the direction of what is to come.
As I look forward to drafting curricular maps for grades three to six, I know that the more important process will be sitting with the teachers and finalizing plans for the year. So what does this look like? How do we move from pull out instruction to meaningful, intentional and authentic uses of technology in the classroom? To help guide the conversation I created a structure of three simple questions:
1. What is the content, essential question or topic you want to cover?
2. What are the skills, knowledge, or actions you want the student to have or be able to do at the end of the process?
3. How do you plan to assess this and how often?
If we can get a clear understanding of these points, then we can begin to discuss the right tool to enhance the learning of the student. I wonder if teachers realize that this will probably take more than one conversation in the beginning as we refine the process.
Another piece to this is the need to monitor and assess how effective we are being as a team and I am being as the support. This has been at the back of my mind but brought out to consider when I met with Crissy and Roxie. How do you define growth? At what point are teachers ready to move on using the tool proficiently without me? This is harder to get clarity on. Originally, I thought that we could have a reflective sheet for teachers to monitor their own progress and what additional supports they need from me. I still think this, but I am having trouble crafting this sheet. So what are we assessing here? What do we want this reflective sheet to illuminate for us? Well, we want comfort level with the tool so that could be as simple as a check mark:
I am ready to use this independently. I am not ready to use this independently.
Ad then the second part could leave room for the teacher to list what they feel they need from me. More support? Direct instruction? Use with another project?
But this really only answers half the question, and it isn’t the important half. I want teachers to feel fluent in their use of technology, to feel comfortable using it as a learning tool, to see it fit into the curriculum in a way that feels more natural than stiff. I need a good question or set of questions to give teachers the chance to express anxiety, concerns, successes, leaps, etc. I am open to suggestions.
As I look forward to drafting curricular maps for grades three to six, I know that the more important process will be sitting with the teachers and finalizing plans for the year. So what does this look like? How do we move from pull out instruction to meaningful, intentional and authentic uses of technology in the classroom? To help guide the conversation I created a structure of three simple questions:
1. What is the content, essential question or topic you want to cover?
2. What are the skills, knowledge, or actions you want the student to have or be able to do at the end of the process?
3. How do you plan to assess this and how often?
If we can get a clear understanding of these points, then we can begin to discuss the right tool to enhance the learning of the student. I wonder if teachers realize that this will probably take more than one conversation in the beginning as we refine the process.
Another piece to this is the need to monitor and assess how effective we are being as a team and I am being as the support. This has been at the back of my mind but brought out to consider when I met with Crissy and Roxie. How do you define growth? At what point are teachers ready to move on using the tool proficiently without me? This is harder to get clarity on. Originally, I thought that we could have a reflective sheet for teachers to monitor their own progress and what additional supports they need from me. I still think this, but I am having trouble crafting this sheet. So what are we assessing here? What do we want this reflective sheet to illuminate for us? Well, we want comfort level with the tool so that could be as simple as a check mark:
I am ready to use this independently. I am not ready to use this independently.
Ad then the second part could leave room for the teacher to list what they feel they need from me. More support? Direct instruction? Use with another project?
But this really only answers half the question, and it isn’t the important half. I want teachers to feel fluent in their use of technology, to feel comfortable using it as a learning tool, to see it fit into the curriculum in a way that feels more natural than stiff. I need a good question or set of questions to give teachers the chance to express anxiety, concerns, successes, leaps, etc. I am open to suggestions.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Middle School
Sometimes it is hard to shift your brain from Lower School to Middle School. After spending the past two days creating calendar based maps for Lower School, I realize that I need to revamp the process for Middle School at least to start. Ideally, it would be great to also tack the student's technology journey through middle school to a calendar so that teachers were aware of the skills students had when they walked into the classroom. Also knowing which tools other teachers are using would help streamline the process of user name and password if teachers felt comfortable settling on one blogging tool, wiki site, etc. Students could become proficient with one interface and teachers could emphasize the use of the tools for learning as opposed to reteaching how to use the interface. The larger goal of using the tools is to support the growth of 21st Century Skills.
Another way the maps vary from lower school is my lack of understanding of really how they were used, which speaks as much to the tool I used to collect the information as it does my inability to get into the classrooms. Working between two divisions leaves me little time to connect well with many teachers on a regular basis, so unless they need support actually showing and using the tool with the students, I am not in the class to experience the use of the tool. This means I can't speak to the 21st Century skills, or align the use of the tools with ISTE Standards for students. This does NOT mean that the skills are not there or that the standards are not in play.
Working on this curriculum over the summer for three weeks also restricts and highly structures the time I have available to meet with teachers. But I knew this would remain a work in progress and that if I could get an idea of where we are, I can continue to work with teachers throughout the school year to define where we want to go and how to get there. Curricular maps by nature are dynamic and in flux reflective of continuous growth.
So the maps to start are different.
Here are the links:
Seventh Grade Map
Eighth Grade Map
As always, please feel free to comment or give feedback. Also, some people have been emailing comments which I do appreciate but would love to see them on the blog so a larger conversation has the opportunity to ensue.
Another way the maps vary from lower school is my lack of understanding of really how they were used, which speaks as much to the tool I used to collect the information as it does my inability to get into the classrooms. Working between two divisions leaves me little time to connect well with many teachers on a regular basis, so unless they need support actually showing and using the tool with the students, I am not in the class to experience the use of the tool. This means I can't speak to the 21st Century skills, or align the use of the tools with ISTE Standards for students. This does NOT mean that the skills are not there or that the standards are not in play.
Working on this curriculum over the summer for three weeks also restricts and highly structures the time I have available to meet with teachers. But I knew this would remain a work in progress and that if I could get an idea of where we are, I can continue to work with teachers throughout the school year to define where we want to go and how to get there. Curricular maps by nature are dynamic and in flux reflective of continuous growth.
So the maps to start are different.
Here are the links:
Seventh Grade Map
Eighth Grade Map
As always, please feel free to comment or give feedback. Also, some people have been emailing comments which I do appreciate but would love to see them on the blog so a larger conversation has the opportunity to ensue.
Second Grade Curriculum Map
And we're back. Here is a link to the second grade C. Map draft. As you will notice there is a large blank in April. Previously the second grade created a Voice Thread sharing information on Civil Rights leaders. I would love to try to bring this project back but need to work more with the second grade team.
Before you prepare for a third grade map, I will be spending the rest of today and tomorrow working towards coherency of middle school technology use. As always, thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Before you prepare for a third grade map, I will be spending the rest of today and tomorrow working towards coherency of middle school technology use. As always, thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Grade One Curricular Map
So, finally another map draft finished. I have to share that sitting and really mapping the work is already giving me a sense of what I may be missing early on and what I tend to do a lot, where my own comfort zone is. As always any and all feedback is welcome.
Here is the link to the First Grade Map.
Here is the link to the First Grade Map.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Curricular Mapping in Progress
This first curricular map was harder than I thought it would be. I think the worst part was knowing how busy I was and how hard I worked and trying to transfer that into the map. Additionally, I know that this will need to be revised to adapt to the upcoming schedule but also to hopefully be more reflective of the Lower School 21st Century Mission Statement still in progress. Now that I have an idea of a form, I also feel a renewed sense of purpose. One thing about working through the process of articulating curriculum is you become both more reflective and excited about possibilities. Hopefully, when this is finished I will be able to sit with teacher and review what we have done and why and what makes sense for the future.
However, I do still see this as an evolution. I am finding more validity in the process of curriculum mapping everyday and I feel that as a school we could really make this a dynamic and worthwhile process.
However, I do still see this as an evolution. I am finding more validity in the process of curriculum mapping everyday and I feel that as a school we could really make this a dynamic and worthwhile process.
AFS Lower School 21st Century Mission Statement
As part of an end of year faculty meeting, we came together in lower school to discuss what it meant to learn in the 21st Century. We broke into small groups to start the discussion and then came back to brainstorm our thoughts as a group. From this long list of ideas which included potential opportunities, challenges, moments of clarity and confusion we tried to create a meaningful statement that would guide our practice, in particular our use of technology to support our teaching, student learning and our own learning. We went back into our groups to try to fashion a statement. Although we had originally hoped to synthesize our views into one coherent statement, the clock ticked away and instead we gathered the individual statements with the intention of having them pulled together into one mission statement to be edited and adapted by the group. This is the first pass at this statement. I tried to incorporate the spirit of the group through the use of the phrases and words that came from discussions. Another lower school faculty member will edit this statement and either she or I will post the edited version here. Please feel free to post suggestions, anything you feel was left out or not emphasized the way it should be, something you feel is not important, or even positive reviews.
21st Century Lower School Mission Statement
We strive towards developmentally appropriate and genuine use of technology that supports the articulated curricular goals and maximizes learning. Use of technology should support our vision of nurturing students in their journey to become creative, resourceful and compassionate problem solvers and critical thinkers who are productive and literate in our diverse and interconnected world. Technology resources used to share, collaborate, communicate, access and evaluate information supporting our growing ability to understand and support diversity, how we share resources and our own impact on the environment and one another. Our use of technology should inspire a time for quiet reflection and evaluation of our values. As teachers we strive to gain fluency with and teach multiple literacies, modeling our own learning as well as balance.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
At the End of the Day...
Before I started work on this Fellowship I thought I had a clear idea of where I was going and how to get there. Originally I believed that I would need to do some groundwork before I could begin working with Roseanne and Andrea. Now I see that this is not only counter-intuitive to the process it is impossible. With this in mind I did begin to list out a group of skills however this is only a first pass. Maybe I need to work on my collaboration skills.
With this in mind, I am starting this list as a beginning, knowing that I will be working with Roseanne, Andrea, Crissy and Roxie to help me begin to make sense of this process.
To support students in developing a PLN we need to begin nurturing these skills:
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking
• Media Literacy
• The ability to seek out information on the Internet and sift through it for relevance
• The ability to craft questions.
• The ability to sift though large amounts of information for relevance.
• Organization
• Time management
• Reflective Thinking
The tools students need to have proficiency with to create a PLN could include:
• Delicious
• Twitter
• Blogger or another blogging platform
• Wikis
• Nings
• RSS
• Flickr or another photo program
• Podcasting
To begin portfolios students will need all of the above skills, but will also need:
• The ability to communicate in different mediums including text, images, video and sound.
• Analysis and synthesis
• Problem solving
• The ability to choose the best tool for the job
Tools students will need proficiency with include:
• Digital editing software such as PhotoShop
• Video Editing Software
• Slide Show Software
• Podcasting software
• Word Processing
• Spreadsheets or graphing software
• Web Development Software
Additionally, I had the opportunity to work with Toni today to see how we can support each other in our work. We realized that we share many of the same challenges in that the skill sets that we are hoping to help teachers teach their students are dependent on the content of the class. For our first meeting we were able to identify some of our needs to create coherent curriculum and identify the people who would be able to support us. We will be working together more throughout the summer to streamline our own processes.
This first day has been a little difficult in finding a way into the work. I think the initial reflection that I posted this morning helped me to organize my own thoughts, hopes and priorities. I am hopeful that people will feel comfortable sharing thoughts and ideas with me via this blog, through email or in person throughout the coming weeks and beyond. Even if we are meeting it would be great for any and all input to help shape this work. That is a direct plea by the way.
With this in mind, I am starting this list as a beginning, knowing that I will be working with Roseanne, Andrea, Crissy and Roxie to help me begin to make sense of this process.
To support students in developing a PLN we need to begin nurturing these skills:
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking
• Media Literacy
• The ability to seek out information on the Internet and sift through it for relevance
• The ability to craft questions.
• The ability to sift though large amounts of information for relevance.
• Organization
• Time management
• Reflective Thinking
The tools students need to have proficiency with to create a PLN could include:
• Delicious
• Blogger or another blogging platform
• Wikis
• Nings
• RSS
• Flickr or another photo program
• Podcasting
To begin portfolios students will need all of the above skills, but will also need:
• The ability to communicate in different mediums including text, images, video and sound.
• Analysis and synthesis
• Problem solving
• The ability to choose the best tool for the job
Tools students will need proficiency with include:
• Digital editing software such as PhotoShop
• Video Editing Software
• Slide Show Software
• Podcasting software
• Word Processing
• Spreadsheets or graphing software
• Web Development Software
Additionally, I had the opportunity to work with Toni today to see how we can support each other in our work. We realized that we share many of the same challenges in that the skill sets that we are hoping to help teachers teach their students are dependent on the content of the class. For our first meeting we were able to identify some of our needs to create coherent curriculum and identify the people who would be able to support us. We will be working together more throughout the summer to streamline our own processes.
This first day has been a little difficult in finding a way into the work. I think the initial reflection that I posted this morning helped me to organize my own thoughts, hopes and priorities. I am hopeful that people will feel comfortable sharing thoughts and ideas with me via this blog, through email or in person throughout the coming weeks and beyond. Even if we are meeting it would be great for any and all input to help shape this work. That is a direct plea by the way.
Day One
And So It Begins:
So here I am at work trying to synthesize all of the projects I want to begin and having so much trouble getting started. I just can’t seem to get started. Where do I begin? Do I start by trying to lay out the benchmarks? Do I analyze teacher responses? That would be the bottom up approach but for me it doesn’t feel too natural. I think I need to have a spiral system. Where I begin to lie out where we need to go and then reflect where we are actually working towards this and where we have gaps. So perhaps the priority is to mark out the goals, and then create the steps that will take me there.
Goal List:
• Synthesize Mission Statement from Lower School
• Benchmark 21st Century Skills from PreK-12
• Align Skills with Present Practice
• Work with Teachers to Create Curricular Projects that will Support the Goals
• Have a timeline
• Create a Guide for teachers to use when they are assessing technology in projects.
• Work through Online Course to support the mapping of technology
• Assessment of Work as well as fining a way for teachers to assess themselves and their students in a non-threatening manner.
Synthesize Mission Statement From Lower School
This will entail rereading all of the material that came from the faculty meeting and then crafting a paragraph that seems to encompass all of the relevant pieces. Once I feel comfortable with this, I need to send it to Jane with all of the materials as she has offered to help me. This needs to have some priority since we will need to begin testing this as I work with individual teachers and grades in two weeks.
Deadline: Wednesday July 7 2:00pm
Benchmark 21st Century Skills PreK-12
So we know we are hoping to have students leave the eighth grade with two major tools:
1. A PLN
2. A Reflective/Learning Digital Portfolio
This is one of the taller orders and won’t happen over a period of months, but maybe over more of a period of years. So the questions are:
1. What is a realistic time period?
2. What are the skills and content knowledge that need to be built into the curriculum to begin this process?
3. How do I get teachers to evolve into this? Can I?
4. Where is natural intersection between this and already existing structures that will ease this process?
I think that the first step would be laying out the skills I think would support this growth and then see where it is already happening. This overlaps with my desire to create a list of possible tools and the ways in which they support 21st Century Learning. So this will obviously have a series of deadlines. First deadline will be to lie out supporting skills.
Deadline: Tuesday July 6, 2010 2:30pm
Align Skills with Present Practice
I see this as an ongoing process that will hopefully continue to evolve. First stop will be the information provided by the teachers. Unfortunately since many teachers did not return the information, this may lag a bit until I meet with them. Also, as I meet with teachers this map of practice will continue to evolve. Therefore first deadline will entail aligning the information they provided with the scope and sequence.
Deadline: Thursday July 8, 2010 1:00pm
Work with Teachers to Create Curriculum that Will Align with Goals
Another goal that has overlap with creating a map for teachers to use to help them become more independent in choosing their own tools to support the learning goals they have already established. Another piece to this is my preparing for individual teacher meetings by becoming more aware of their curricular goals so I can focus the time and the questions that I need to have answered. I have meetings next week and I will set this deadline, as I get closer to the meetings.
Have A Timeline
This is an evolving goal to create a realistic map of how we can support the enrichment of teaching and learning with technology. However, I think this is also a goal that overlaps with sketching out where we are and where we are going. This cannot be done without middle school and lower school voices on both an administrative as well as a faculty sphere. The initial conversations with Crissy, Roxie, Roseanne and Andrea will help to begin to shape this. So I need to begin to set up these meetings
Deadline for setting up Meeting with Crissy and Roxie: Wednesday July 7, 2010 9:30.
Deadline for working out meetings with Andrea And Roxie: Wednesday July 7, 2010 10:30.
Create A Guide for Teachers to Use For Assessing Tools to Enrich Curricular Practice
This will be a time consuming task and part of the process will be refining the presentation of the information. AS of now I am thinking of it, as a table since creating a database will be too time intensive for now. However a well-created table will migrate easily into the right database. What I want to be included is:
• Tools organized under larger topics such as social media, digital editing, etc.
• Soft skill set (critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration)
• Technical skill set
• Questions to consider when using the tool
Deadline: Friday July 10, 2010 12:00 noon.
Work Through Online Course on Curricular Mapping
This is a final project type piece of the work. The online course is providing the expert support I need to create this map with the faculty. Additionally, I will be provided with an outsiders view, as teachers from around the country give their opinions and experience in their feedback. The group consists of teachers in public and independent skills as well as administrators on varying levels so there will various voices to help me think about this project. The deadlines are also prebuilt into the course, so I will follow the class content.
Deadline: July 6, 2010 2:30
Assessment
How do I assess my goals? How will I know that I am meeting my own vision as well as assuring the vision is representative of the teachers? I do feel very connected to the faculty and that I can find a way to capture the spirit of their voices and their curriculum. However, I do want a checkpoint for myself, Roseanne, Andrea, Crissy and Roxie to assure that we are not veering off course. One way is my goal of posting my reflections daily of the work and publishing this to the lower and middle school faculty with the invitation for them to provide feedback.
The second assessment will be for teachers and students. I am hoping to create with teachers a practical quick guide for checking their own progress. John and I have begun this discussion on what the questions should look like. This will be a larger conversation with teachers and administration to ensure that I am on target. I will need to remember to bring this up at my meeting with Crissy and Roxie.
Deadline: Monday July 13, 2010 9:00 am.
So here I am at work trying to synthesize all of the projects I want to begin and having so much trouble getting started. I just can’t seem to get started. Where do I begin? Do I start by trying to lay out the benchmarks? Do I analyze teacher responses? That would be the bottom up approach but for me it doesn’t feel too natural. I think I need to have a spiral system. Where I begin to lie out where we need to go and then reflect where we are actually working towards this and where we have gaps. So perhaps the priority is to mark out the goals, and then create the steps that will take me there.
Goal List:
• Synthesize Mission Statement from Lower School
• Benchmark 21st Century Skills from PreK-12
• Align Skills with Present Practice
• Work with Teachers to Create Curricular Projects that will Support the Goals
• Have a timeline
• Create a Guide for teachers to use when they are assessing technology in projects.
• Work through Online Course to support the mapping of technology
• Assessment of Work as well as fining a way for teachers to assess themselves and their students in a non-threatening manner.
Synthesize Mission Statement From Lower School
This will entail rereading all of the material that came from the faculty meeting and then crafting a paragraph that seems to encompass all of the relevant pieces. Once I feel comfortable with this, I need to send it to Jane with all of the materials as she has offered to help me. This needs to have some priority since we will need to begin testing this as I work with individual teachers and grades in two weeks.
Deadline: Wednesday July 7 2:00pm
Benchmark 21st Century Skills PreK-12
So we know we are hoping to have students leave the eighth grade with two major tools:
1. A PLN
2. A Reflective/Learning Digital Portfolio
This is one of the taller orders and won’t happen over a period of months, but maybe over more of a period of years. So the questions are:
1. What is a realistic time period?
2. What are the skills and content knowledge that need to be built into the curriculum to begin this process?
3. How do I get teachers to evolve into this? Can I?
4. Where is natural intersection between this and already existing structures that will ease this process?
I think that the first step would be laying out the skills I think would support this growth and then see where it is already happening. This overlaps with my desire to create a list of possible tools and the ways in which they support 21st Century Learning. So this will obviously have a series of deadlines. First deadline will be to lie out supporting skills.
Deadline: Tuesday July 6, 2010 2:30pm
Align Skills with Present Practice
I see this as an ongoing process that will hopefully continue to evolve. First stop will be the information provided by the teachers. Unfortunately since many teachers did not return the information, this may lag a bit until I meet with them. Also, as I meet with teachers this map of practice will continue to evolve. Therefore first deadline will entail aligning the information they provided with the scope and sequence.
Deadline: Thursday July 8, 2010 1:00pm
Work with Teachers to Create Curriculum that Will Align with Goals
Another goal that has overlap with creating a map for teachers to use to help them become more independent in choosing their own tools to support the learning goals they have already established. Another piece to this is my preparing for individual teacher meetings by becoming more aware of their curricular goals so I can focus the time and the questions that I need to have answered. I have meetings next week and I will set this deadline, as I get closer to the meetings.
Have A Timeline
This is an evolving goal to create a realistic map of how we can support the enrichment of teaching and learning with technology. However, I think this is also a goal that overlaps with sketching out where we are and where we are going. This cannot be done without middle school and lower school voices on both an administrative as well as a faculty sphere. The initial conversations with Crissy, Roxie, Roseanne and Andrea will help to begin to shape this. So I need to begin to set up these meetings
Deadline for setting up Meeting with Crissy and Roxie: Wednesday July 7, 2010 9:30.
Deadline for working out meetings with Andrea And Roxie: Wednesday July 7, 2010 10:30.
Create A Guide for Teachers to Use For Assessing Tools to Enrich Curricular Practice
This will be a time consuming task and part of the process will be refining the presentation of the information. AS of now I am thinking of it, as a table since creating a database will be too time intensive for now. However a well-created table will migrate easily into the right database. What I want to be included is:
• Tools organized under larger topics such as social media, digital editing, etc.
• Soft skill set (critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration)
• Technical skill set
• Questions to consider when using the tool
Deadline: Friday July 10, 2010 12:00 noon.
Work Through Online Course on Curricular Mapping
This is a final project type piece of the work. The online course is providing the expert support I need to create this map with the faculty. Additionally, I will be provided with an outsiders view, as teachers from around the country give their opinions and experience in their feedback. The group consists of teachers in public and independent skills as well as administrators on varying levels so there will various voices to help me think about this project. The deadlines are also prebuilt into the course, so I will follow the class content.
Deadline: July 6, 2010 2:30
Assessment
How do I assess my goals? How will I know that I am meeting my own vision as well as assuring the vision is representative of the teachers? I do feel very connected to the faculty and that I can find a way to capture the spirit of their voices and their curriculum. However, I do want a checkpoint for myself, Roseanne, Andrea, Crissy and Roxie to assure that we are not veering off course. One way is my goal of posting my reflections daily of the work and publishing this to the lower and middle school faculty with the invitation for them to provide feedback.
The second assessment will be for teachers and students. I am hoping to create with teachers a practical quick guide for checking their own progress. John and I have begun this discussion on what the questions should look like. This will be a larger conversation with teachers and administration to ensure that I am on target. I will need to remember to bring this up at my meeting with Crissy and Roxie.
Deadline: Monday July 13, 2010 9:00 am.
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