Change can be Good!

    Education is an agent of change.  As teachers, we need to try to be those agents that ignite the change.  We are trying to prepare our students for the future.  As teachers we need to think about what that future is.  Do we want to prepare our students for high school?  Do we want to prepare our students for college?  Do we want them to finish?  How about beyond that?  If as a teacher I can’t imagine what the future job market will be, how do I start to think about what tools my student’s need to have?  In reading this week's resource, in especially, Web 2.0 Tools and K-12 challenges, it sparked me to think about the things that I can prepare my students for.

     I Can be the type of teacher who constantly learns new things and techniques.  In “School in the Cloud,”   Sugata Mitra had to be willing to step outside of his comfort zone and learn new things, and more importantly believe that his students would value from a new way of thinking and new techniques.  “Education innovation,” not only speaks to the technology that we implement in our classroom, but also the methods and skills that we cultivate for the needs of our students.

   I Can be the type of teacher that challenges my students to collaboratively think and deduce.  I can encourage classroom to be a place where my students are encouraged to think through and challenge ideas.

     I Can be unafraid to try new things and fail.  I need to be able to accept that every method will not work with my classroom.  Every method won’t be a perfect fit for my students.

     I Can be empowered to try new things and see my student’s succeed! Knowing my student’s and assessing their needs is part of my job as a teacher.  If I find technologies that will benefit my classroom,  I should make an effort find access for my students.

    I often think about the students I’ll teach.  They could be the next leaders and innovators of the world!

Flipping over a Flipped Classroom!

     We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

     Sometimes new ideas and innovations in education can feel like reinventing the wheel.  Changing the pedagogical model of the way that we instruct students seems dangerous and a little crazy at first glance.  I started to think about the way that we learn as adults in general.  If I want to make a dish for dinner that is unfamiliar to me, the first thing that I do is web surf to find an interesting recipe. I may find a video or pictorial to further assist me before I prepare the meal.  Once I’ve made the meal, it may not be perfect on the first try.  I will probably need to practice making that meal a few times before I get it just right.  Sometimes I may even need a friend or loved one who is familiar with the dish come in and act as a sous chef.  I think that sometimes in teaching we give our students a lecture about the ingredients and send them home and expect that they will come back the next day having prepared the perfect meal.  The flipped classroom allows students to have exposure to content before they come to class, and use classroom time as a time to work with the teacher as a facilitator.

     The more that I read about the ‘Flipped Classroom,’ I realized that this was a very innovative way to learn.  Allowing students to come to class with their own questions and reservations that they have about the materials, and being able to work through those problems with their peers and teachers. 

     I thought about the many benefits that the flipped classroom offers. It gives the teacher the ability to help the students who need further support, but it also allows for pushing our gifted students to further their knowledge in ways that wouldn’t be possible if the student were at home with ‘homework.’

     I could see how this method would also greatly alleviate the stress of parents who have students who come home with homework that they do not know how to support them with. This especially rings true in the 21^st century, with all of the new math innovations, such as everyday math that many parents are completely unfamiliar with.

     I love the idea of pushing our thinking, and finding new ways to help our student’s learn.  Ways that may make us feel uncomfortable at first in their uncommonness, but understanding that we are willing to do whatever it takes to see our students to succeed.

How will you tell Your story?

     I remember as a child being immediately transported to far away lands by the stories that my kindergarten teacher read to us at carpet time.  I can remember my favorite stories far better than I can remember the formulas and algorithms that my math teacher taught us in high school.  When we tell and hear stories, those stories tend to stick with us and become part of our core base of knowledge.  By incorporating digital storytelling into our classrooms we are not only helping our students retain the knowledge that we are trying to impart upon them, we are also encouraging their comprehension of the topics that they are retelling.

     In Benjamin Porter’s, Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum, he says,  “The digital storytelling process helps us transform isolated facts into illuminated, enduring understandings.”  As teachers we hope that our students will remember the core of what we teach in years to come. I took time to think about Benjamin Porter’s words and what the whole idea of digital storytelling would mean for my classroom.  I imagined the number stories that my students could create that illuminated measurement, money and grouping.  My students could use meaningful pictures and words to connect to these math concepts, peer sharing their work to help other students. I would also be able to use those digital stories to assess their understanding.  I thought about how children developing their digital stories could replace biographical movies and documentaries played after historical units.  How exciting would it be for students to share their own works with their classmates.

Digital Storytelling not only connects what we’re teaching to the things that they find important and meaningful, it also  implements the use of technological skills that they will need in the future.  Our students will be learning how to combine, photograph, animation, text, video and so many other facets to effectively communicate with the world.  As I become more aware of the educational tools that are available to my students,  I get more and more excited about the possibilities for my classroom and the learning that will happen there.

A Blooming Classroom

     As I think about Bloom's taxonomy and its practical uses in the classroom, I also started to think about what really 'sticks' with my students when they leave the classroom.  They do not progress from year to year gathering an additional semesters' compilation of facts.  What we hope that they are acquiring as educators, are those higher order-thinking skills (HOTS) that Bloom outlines. We hope that we are giving our students the tools that they will need to succeed in society.  In the 21st century those skills will also need to include technology.

     Our digitally native students will not need us to stand in front of the classroom as 'purveyors of knowledge.'  They have many tools and resources available to them; with smart phones, I pads and net books, what they will need from us, as educators is to give them the skills to navigate this technology effectively.  If we are going to use Bloom’s taxonomy efficiently, we must make our classroom a place that is comfortable with the use of technology.  I can remember a time when we went to the library to gather books to write term papers, we navigated the encyclopedia for information.  My teachers took my classrooms into the library to teach us how to use the Dewey decimal system and navigate the ‘stacks.’  My classroom will need to be a place where I expose my students to ubiquitous learning.  I will use the technology that they are already familiar with to enhance their learning and expose them to additional technological tools that will deepen their understandings. They will not have the same confines and restraints that I once had, and my classroom should reflect that openness to the way digital natives learn. For me, part of teaching my students to more critically think and understand, will also include using technology in a meaningful, developmentally appropriate way.