This spring semester has been a really busy one for me. I've been training five days a week for my first triathlon, helping a practicum student, working at the Bookworm, taking this class, preparing my eighth graders for the state reading and writing tests, and then just trying to have a life. As I see the end in sight and reflect on how I've grown, I am grateful for the opportunity to take a Social Learning Course, mainly because I've had challenges in the past finding courses that teach new technologies and that is super frustrating. Beyond that, there are other things to think about. If you're interested in knowing more about the course or how I will proceed from here, read on.
How has social networking made a difference in your classroom?
The main affect this class has had on me is giving me the courage to push forward in using technology in my classroom to help my students connect. The first week of this class, I learned of an opportunity for my students to email back and forth with students from Sweden. I was hesitant, but because of the confidence I felt about Social Learning from my new Twitter friends, I plunged in. I also held on/stayed the course when my students started getting requests on their personal email accounts during English class to instant message since the Sweden kids were out of school for the day due to the eight hour time difference (my kids 9a.m. - Sweden kids 4p.m.) I didn't freak out when one of the Swedish kids said, "Oh Sh$#, this is so cool!" It may seem simple or not that big of a deal, but I have always fretted about what parents will think or if I'll get in trouble. Just having this class and the support from my classmates and Twitter friends helped me feel more secure.
Well, the way this class made a difference in my classroom is that these Sweden penpals have made my students EXCITED about English. They want to check their email every day. They beg to write them back. They even read the User Agreement to FotoBabble so that I would let them send a Fotobabble project back to the Sweden kids in response to something they had sent.
What plans do you have to continue developing your online personal learning network (PLN)?
I will not be missing NETA, EdCampKC, or EdCampOmaha, and I will continue to actively seek ways to learn more about how to integrate technology into my classroom. This summer I plan to take the Nebraska Writing Project's Technology course in Lincoln during June and meet even more people who are already doing great things promoting 21st Century Learning Skills in their classrooms.
The great thing about EdCamps is that they give me a chance to meet the people and get to know them really well, so I can feel comfortable asking them for resources, continuing the conversation, or contacting them at a later date. I am confident I will continue to build relationships with these people, but I want to make a personal goal to share more of my resources with others. Prior to this class, I was definitely a lurker and a taker only. During this class, I have moved toward sharing, but I'm still not balanced on those roles, and my goal will be to be more sharing and less taking ultimately. I just need to find my niche/role/spot where I can help others.
How do you see an online education community changing education?
As many educators know, teaching has the possibility of being isolating especially if a person teaches in the same building, same content area, same community for a long time or if those areas aren't necessarily supportive or open. I think the online education community will allow people who are early adopters to find other people like them to provide support, so they can feel happy and confident doing what they know is best, and not have to worry so much about waiting for others to "get it."
Overall, I feel like I have a strong foundation and will continue to use the skills I have learned at least on a weekly basis, maybe more once I finish out a few of my current projects. I will continue to blog, probably under a different name and with a different purpose. I will be trying to have a teacher Facebook group for students and parents as well as a teacher Twitter account either for a month in May or in the new school year. As I said, I will continue to learn more about integrating technology and keep doing small things, one step at a time.
sk
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Dear Mr. Clay Shirky,
Dear Mr. Clay Shirky,
Nothing excites me more than the part of your TEDTalk where you say, "Innovation can happen anywhere and is moving from one spot to another." I like the idea of innovation being open to all of humanity. If there's a great idea out there, I want to hear it. . . and if I can hear it without having to wait for some expert to validate it and then have another expert validate that expert, that's even better. Awesome.
The other exciting line you mentioned is that the "Largest increase in expressive capability in human history is now." If we as humans are not here on this earth to be expressive, what are we here for?
However, while these two ideas are amazing and make me so happy, the thing I really, really love is that teenagers ( my target audience as a middle school teacher) have as good a shot at being innovative and expressive as people who are older and more experienced or experts. They don't have to wait until they "grow up" or "figure out what they want to be." Using their MacBooks issued by our school, they can create, innovate, express, and publish in an easy manner. Wooohoo!
Thank you, Mr. Shirky, for your talk. I am truly happy to know your ideas combined with my students will make this world great now and in the future.
Sincerely,
SK
Nothing excites me more than the part of your TEDTalk where you say, "Innovation can happen anywhere and is moving from one spot to another." I like the idea of innovation being open to all of humanity. If there's a great idea out there, I want to hear it. . . and if I can hear it without having to wait for some expert to validate it and then have another expert validate that expert, that's even better. Awesome.
The other exciting line you mentioned is that the "Largest increase in expressive capability in human history is now." If we as humans are not here on this earth to be expressive, what are we here for?
However, while these two ideas are amazing and make me so happy, the thing I really, really love is that teenagers ( my target audience as a middle school teacher) have as good a shot at being innovative and expressive as people who are older and more experienced or experts. They don't have to wait until they "grow up" or "figure out what they want to be." Using their MacBooks issued by our school, they can create, innovate, express, and publish in an easy manner. Wooohoo!
Thank you, Mr. Shirky, for your talk. I am truly happy to know your ideas combined with my students will make this world great now and in the future.
Sincerely,
SK
Student Panel Progress
During each of my six English classes, I told the students about the blogger who held student panels in order to help with teacher professional development by offering the students an opportunity to share their thoughts on how to improve learning. I asked for anyone who would be interested in sharing their opinions by participating in a panel with only me as the audience during homeroom to raise their hand. Surprisingly, between 3 to 7 students in each class volunteered, and it wasn't necessarily the students I would have thought would volunteer.
I really thought the kids who would volunteer would be those who get good grades or who seemed to like school or even those who like attention or are good at class discussion. However, it was more of a mixture of kids who seem bored, some who are attentive but maybe a little shy, some who are super smart and some who need a little help.
Three of my homeroom students took the list of about 45 students and split them into groups of five. I only gave them the idea to try to make comfortable groups- kids they knew got along or would at least feel comfortable sharing freely. On their own, they decided to either make groups all girls, all boys or an even mixture of both.
So far, I have completed one panel consisting of five boys. The majority of what they talked about didn't surprise me. Here's a few things they mentioned.
***I asked- How is technology at school different from your technology use outside of school?
***They said- We use technology for everything at home. We use it to talk with our friends. Well, not just talk, but communicate because we call, text, Facebook, everything, you know. At school, we're not allowed to do those things at all. Everything is locked down here because some kids don't use it well. We should be able to have the cameras on and not have things blocked until we do something wrong.
***This led to a big discussion about how it wasn't fair that some kids did bad things and then everyone got punished for it. They wanted to know if the eighth graders next year would get to start the year fresh with computer privileges or if they would not have some privileges because of this year's student behavior. They thought it would be better if computers weren't locked down at all for all students until they showed they were irresponsible and then only the kids who did something wrong would lose privileges. (Ah. . . I agree, I agree, I agree. Not only for the kids and computer privileges at school but for adults as well. If there's a teacher who isn't following dress code, talk to that one teacher, don't make an announcement for all teachers at a staff meeting. I have tried really hard in the last three years since being a behavior interventionist not to punish a whole class for the actions of a few. I did that often my first few years of teaching. )
***From there, they transitioned to how they felt that teachers spent too much time helping the kids who don't want to learn. Here's where their ideas diverged. Some kids felt the teachers only helped the really smart kids and the ones who didn't want to learn. Some said only the kids who didn't want to learn. Another said mostly students who needed lots of help got it.
After spring break, I will still have enough time (just barely) to interview the other eight groups. I think it will be interesting to see how the comments do or don't show patterns over time through the topics and with the different student groups.
Are you curious about how middle school students think about a particular topic? Post your question here in the comments and I'll be sure to ask them and post my findings. :)
sk
I really thought the kids who would volunteer would be those who get good grades or who seemed to like school or even those who like attention or are good at class discussion. However, it was more of a mixture of kids who seem bored, some who are attentive but maybe a little shy, some who are super smart and some who need a little help.
Three of my homeroom students took the list of about 45 students and split them into groups of five. I only gave them the idea to try to make comfortable groups- kids they knew got along or would at least feel comfortable sharing freely. On their own, they decided to either make groups all girls, all boys or an even mixture of both.
So far, I have completed one panel consisting of five boys. The majority of what they talked about didn't surprise me. Here's a few things they mentioned.
***I asked- How is technology at school different from your technology use outside of school?
***They said- We use technology for everything at home. We use it to talk with our friends. Well, not just talk, but communicate because we call, text, Facebook, everything, you know. At school, we're not allowed to do those things at all. Everything is locked down here because some kids don't use it well. We should be able to have the cameras on and not have things blocked until we do something wrong.
***This led to a big discussion about how it wasn't fair that some kids did bad things and then everyone got punished for it. They wanted to know if the eighth graders next year would get to start the year fresh with computer privileges or if they would not have some privileges because of this year's student behavior. They thought it would be better if computers weren't locked down at all for all students until they showed they were irresponsible and then only the kids who did something wrong would lose privileges. (Ah. . . I agree, I agree, I agree. Not only for the kids and computer privileges at school but for adults as well. If there's a teacher who isn't following dress code, talk to that one teacher, don't make an announcement for all teachers at a staff meeting. I have tried really hard in the last three years since being a behavior interventionist not to punish a whole class for the actions of a few. I did that often my first few years of teaching. )
***From there, they transitioned to how they felt that teachers spent too much time helping the kids who don't want to learn. Here's where their ideas diverged. Some kids felt the teachers only helped the really smart kids and the ones who didn't want to learn. Some said only the kids who didn't want to learn. Another said mostly students who needed lots of help got it.
After spring break, I will still have enough time (just barely) to interview the other eight groups. I think it will be interesting to see how the comments do or don't show patterns over time through the topics and with the different student groups.
Are you curious about how middle school students think about a particular topic? Post your question here in the comments and I'll be sure to ask them and post my findings. :)
sk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)