Writing to an Edublogger

I think us teachers are incredibly lucky to have such a plethora of resources online for our benefit, and edublogging is arguably the most beneficial resource at our disposal. While collaboration has not always been a primary concern in the realm of education, the increase of technology and resources has allowed for an increase cooperation and collaboration amongst teachers, whether it be forums on mediums like Twitter, or lesson plan idea sharing on various websites, or sharing experiences in the classroom through blogging. For a new aspiring teacher like myself, utilizing all these resources can be of great assistance in navigating my new experiences as I interact with the students at my placement.

I went on the English focused blog huffenglish.com and read about a very relevant post regarding Writing Workshops in the classroom. The blogger wrote about how she conducts a writing workshop with her students, focusing on how students giving feedback to one another can provide opportunities for really meaningful learning, and aid them in sharpening their writing skills. Since I'll be teaching writing to my class very soon, reading this blog was helpful in a lot of different ways. What I wrote in my comment, however, was about the possible disconnect of the blog to my own experience in my placement. It seemed that all the steps taken were for a class that was already high achieving and willing to take big risks, showing their work in front of others. I didn't really see this working out in my classroom as well as it did in her own.

That's not to say it wasn't effective at all and could not be at all implemented, but just that I struggled to connect all the dots with my own placement. And this occurred across most of the blogs I read, unless specifically catered to high-risk teachers. This was a little frustrating and disconcerting, but nonetheless I feel lucky and blessed to have so many different teachers willing to share their thoughts and experiences for the betterment of others, and I have so much to learn from them. While blogging here doesn't seem to me as something I will continue often in my practice later, maybe this realization will make me want to contribute to the online blogging realm with my thoughts and experiences, with hopes that just maybe, it could help one similarly struggling teacher looking for guidance as well.

Prezi- Just for Show or is it More?

We've had some great presentations throughout the semester on various tech tools that we could incorporate in the classroom for different purposes, and the presentation on Prezi was no exception. However, unlike all the other tools, I came in with a solid familiarity of how Prezi works and what it is used for, and I also came in with my personal disposition towards the tool, and I'll admit it wasn't a very positive one. In my experiences throughout high school and undergrad, Prezi was used from time to time by my peers or by teachers in presenting material to a class. In pretty much all those cases, the application was used just to put a little more flash in the presentation as opposed to powerpoint, through fancy transitions and more intricate themes.

So with that in mind, I felt that Prezi is really not innovative in any way, and that it is useless in my book. Luckily, I have a cohort of open-minded and critically thinking classmates that help push my thinking about things further and open my eyes to new opportunities. Both the presentation as well as the discussions that resulted from the presentation led me to new findings about the tool, and how I can manipulate it to support my instruction. One of the main focuses was on the ability to zoom in/out from a panel into a different one, and the meaning I as an instructor can attach to that move within the presentation. It could help to further the attempt at deep analysis of a topic such as a historical event, or the development of a character in a story. Looking at various layers of the event, the feature could help support students in analyzing what is going on in the story, or what was a cause of real life event.

While I still don't see Prezi as a main source of presentations in my teaching, I think through these revelations about how it could be helpful, I'll consider it more as an option for specific lessons, or at least I'll investigate it further on my own to see if it's something I want to use.

Guest Presenter- Reflections

In our Educ 504 classroom, we've been so lucky to have hosted three excellent educators, who have enlightened us about new ways to gain the intrinsic motivation of students in the classroom, through things like cell phones, videos, and new ways to teach lessons in English and Math. I have benefited very much from hearing about their experiences and their thoughts on how education is evolving.

The first speaker in the series was David Theune, an enthusiastic and really intelligent English teacher in a high school. It was evident from the moment he began his presentation that he was an educator passionate about his work, and always seeking ways to improve his own practice as well as enhance the learning experience for students. The primary focus of his presentation, along with delivering inspiring quotes and anecdotes displaying the importance of teaching, was a tactic he had begun using with students when writing, denoting it as "Writing to Audiences." Now that idea isn't all that new, where different writing pieces done by students should be done with the specific audience that typically reads such pieces in mind. However, Theune took the concept to a new level by actually sending the work that students were producing to different audiences, whether they were peers, friends, parents, teachers, or other people. The students would be made aware that what they were writing was actually going to be read and reflected upon by another person, which he said drastically shifted their writing process.

In many situations, students dislike the process of continually developing their writing and writing multiple drafts. However, when they knew that someone real besides their teacher was going to be looking at their work, it is understandable that they would want to present something they are really proud of. And that's what happened, the writing made huge gains, and the students put their passion into their writing. As an english intern, I attempted to do something similar with the students I have been working with at TCEC. During our Professional Writing Unit, I had them produce cover letters, and instead of just teaching them the basics and writing one generic letter, 4 scenarios were created where they would be writing to a specific person at a specific type of business or workplace. What resulted was a lot more thinking about how to best address that person, and market oneself to that specific person's liking. It didn't click with everyone, and I wasn't able to actually send out their cover letters to companies for jobs, but I really love the idea and hope to use it moving forward.

Technology at Tri-County

Us interns at Tri-County have been told on multiple occasions that "If you can make it at Tri-County, you can make it anywhere." I don't present this quote to seem more capable or a better educator than anyone else in our cohort, as I'm sure that all of our group could handle themselves well in such an environment. I also don't mean to say I'm doing super well in my placement, because I'm hanging on for dear life in reality. Rather, I present this quote because I think in terms of the technological resources in schools today, Tri-County is definitely at the lowest end of the spectrum, and managing and navigating this fact has been an eye-opening and enlightening experience.

An idea of the technology that we are able to use in the school: There are two computer labs, with about 20 computers in each space. The space as a whole, however, is seen as a dreaded class to enter. This is because the room remains at an alarmingly high temperature, the computers are old Dell desktops that function far below our ideal level, and some of the computers have stopped working altogether. As an English intern, it is certainly the case that I'd want students working and improving upon their computer composition skills in order to prepare them for future assignments and pieces they may need to create. However, acknowledging the lack of resources, as well as the hinderance that this computer lab ends up being to learning, my mentor teacher chooses to have students pretty much handwrite all their work in our classroom, which has pros and cons.

Moving into our classroom, the technology is non-existent except for one computer, at my mentor's desk used for attendance and email. All the work is done in notebooks or on the chalkboard, and I feel that the students are getting such a short end of the stick in comparison to other schools in the Berkeley and Southfield school districts just a couple miles away.

I read my peer Mr. Antuma's blog about the same topic, and I think he hit the nail on the head about the hugely missed opportunity for technology in the placement, with the topic of cellphones. It is an epidemic problem in the school over misuse of phones, as students constantly have their attention away from the content of class and rather on the contents of their devices. I have yet to see any utilization of mobile phones for advancing learning in the classroom, but I don't say that to put down the efforts of the staff at the school. Rather, I think it presents the lack of motivation on the part of the majority of the students to be in the school environment and learn. I think a great topic for discussion amongst staff and students could be how to better manage cell phone use, as well as re-direct this use to a manner in which students and teachers are benefiting, working together to close the technological gap that they face at TCEC.

Connections Across the Discipline Review

As an English major, it was an almost default to cater my group's lesson plan utilizing technology around a work of Shakespeare. Our group wanted students to use the vast resources of the internet to explore various interpretations of the famous play Othello within the context of different cultures and countries. We would hope that students would use this activity to not only gain a better understanding of other cultures and the norms and values they hold, but also to reinforce or challenge the depictions and beliefs they had about the scene we reviewed. It was interesting and enlightening to look at a lesson plan within the scientific realm of biology, and I learned a lot from reading Jesse, Sarah, Sara, and Wilbur's Tree Species Exploration.

After going through their lesson plan, I admired the amount of depth in every element of their process, and really appreciated the development of the lesson through the order of the steps done (starting with the relevant bell-work, followed by a brief discussion and lecture, then changing the scenery and environment for the activity). I think the process would allow students to not get lost in all that would be going on in the class period, and I think the learning would definitely be internalized through the various mediums the students are receiving info (both lecture and personal exploration). In addition, I really appreciated the explicit directions that the group provided for how they would instruct their class in regards to tech. Especially in scenarios with technology being put in place, I think explicit directions are helpful and almost necessary to keep students on task, and maintain a manageable and healthy environment. Like I said, really love the depth that was elaborated on for each step.

Since the lesson was so in depth, it was not something I could really be critical of. However, I think the only area of concern was the feasibility of the whole lesson in one day, both due to accessibility issues as well as a time constraint. In terms of accessibility, it may just be important to consider any students with physical disability that may have difficulty completing such an activity, but I imagine the teachers could very possibly accommodate for that somehow. In terms of time constraint, I just think with all that is hoped to be accomplished in the lesson, it may be difficult to complete in one class and maybe the lesson could have occurred the class before, to allow more time for the exploration outdoors.

Organizing My Online Life

As teaching interns trying to develop into leading educators in high schools, implementing new tools that can aid students to reach their full potential should be of high priority for us. With that in mind, we were assigned the task of mastering a certain technological resource, not only for our own use, but also to be able to instruct a couple of our peers to utilize the tools beneficially as well. All the tools served some different uses, and so making the most of this assignment was important for us interns. I was assigned to master Google Drive, a storage/creative resource that I already had some familiarity with, and also is a resource we've seen used at Scarlett Middle School, so we know it has real-world application and benefit.

Leading up to my presentation for my peers, I tried to get more well-versed in the areas of Google Drive that I wasn't as familiar with. While I was pretty capable with the apps Google Drive offers, I was really impressed with some of the features it has to aid users. Things such as offline usage, add-on attachments to apps, and the cooperative abilities of Google Drive are things teachers can definitely utilize to streamline some of the assignments they give to students. Check out this video of Drive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WTE6pa-EY4). 

On the day of the presentation, I really wanted to make sure my peers knew about the possibilities Google Drive offered. I honestly felt invested in Google Drive to the point that I wanted to compete with those who were presenting other technologies, and show them how Google Drive was superior to any other resource. However, after taming my competitive spirits, I recognized the need for collaboration on this assignment, and did my best to offer my peers tools to make the most of Drive. My handout focused a lot on the features of Google Drive rather than the apps, with the exception of Google Forms, which my colleagues didn't have as much experience with (https://support.google.com/docs/answer/87809?hl=en). Forms can play a huge role in the classroom, with practical usage in surveys and quizzes, as well as other question based learning. 

Reflecting on my presentation, I think that Google Drive was something that my peers already had at least a baseline understanding of, and so it was somewhat challenging to try and keep them engaged with the info while also making sure to cover all that I had hoped. It took some last minute switching of lessons, and some flexibility, but I hope I served them well. One practical idea of practice I thought about was the benefit of hands on use, or allowing students to try the technology out rather than just lecture about it. Doing so can really solidify understanding of the material, and so I hope to carry that over into real-life practice in the classroom.

Game Review- Brain Pop

Games and school- A concept that has been attempted time and time again, without much positive effect or benefit. Nonetheless, countless attempts continue to spring up in the classrooms, trying to spark engagement in students. With the advances in technology, newer and more advanced techniques are being utilized to implement learning games, but still no really huge game has worked across the board. One game website, however, that comes to mind as being somewhat of the leader of in school implementation, and one that has stood the test of some time, is Brain Pop. When I was in elementary and middle school, I remember using Brain Pop for certain lessons in tech class or other classes, however my reactions were mixed. Even now, Scarlett Middle school where we teach utilizes Brain Pop for some activities. I went back to the site after years away to investigate what I thought of its usefulness as well as engagement.

The site does require a username and password, which need to be purchased, so I was only able to check out one lesson and a couple games. I watched the lesson on blogging, which was a video with an animated narrator and his robot friend. They spoke for about 3 minutes, with some added humor and visuals. It wasn't boring or anything, but obviously for my age level, wasn't especially engaging. I could see it as an alternative to teacher lessons on occasion within the classroom though. My main observation was the game center. I gravitated to the English games, and checked out the Lord of the Flies game. When you access it, you are shown a bird's eye view of the island the boys were stuck on in the novel, with various clickable points to access. Each led to a mini game designed to test knowledge of the story, whether it be character descriptions and quotations, story themes and real-life applications, etc. The mini games each lasted no more than a couple minutes, and I really didn't find myself either too engaged or too unengaged. I finished all of the games so that is a good sign I guess too. After finishing the games, I called it a day and closed down Brain Pop.

Reflecting on the experience using Brain Pop, I tried to base my feedback on my expectations going in. I didn't expect a game site that would cause me to be engulfed in the excitement, devoting hours on end to the task. I expected some entertainment while also causing some critical thinking and cognitive processes. I didn't expect top of the line graphics, but I expected an interface that didn't feel old or obsolete. After playing Brain Pop, I did receive some entertainment and didn't feel really bored at any time, however I did feel that it wasn't too challenging or causing of too much thought. I imagine that in a classroom, many students would just click around till they got the right answers/completed the tasks, rather than really get motivated to complete the challenge at a high level. The overall interface also felt a little dated, seemingly behind much of the technology and websites that students use today. However, the content on the site was of good quality for educational purposes in terms of a change up from the normal lesson. The age group that I feel it probably best suits is middle school rather than high school. In the end, I still don't feel too confident about the use of games for learning purposes, although they've come a long way.

Computerized testing- Why is it being implemented?

In our second class session, we delved deeper into the role technology has begun to play in the classroom and educational process. An investigation into the realms of computerized testing brought on some heavy distaste from much of the class, citing the difficulty of navigating the simulated test page, to the increased strain of reading off of a screen, to the examination of inequities brought upon by the implementation of testing with technology. As I reflect on that experience, while at the time I saw how frustrating it was to manage this technology while also being under the pressure of taking a very important and consequential exam, I look now with maybe a more open-minded perspective.

We as graduate students may have had to take a graduate level exam in similar conditions, such as the MCAT, GRE, PRE, and others, without much training, and this experience could have been unnerving. It seems even more unnerving to think that middle and high schoolers would have to deal with those same conditions, and the thought of it could be frightening. However, as I think about it, I would think/hope that those students are now being prepped in how to approach such testing conditions, to better prepare them for the environment they'll be entering. With practice, they will become acquainted and trained in approaching these exams, in the same way that we were taught how to fill in bubbles correctly, how to read a passage but first look at the questions that follow it, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a proponent of this switch completely to technology as a means for testing. As an English major and fan of reading novels, I place a much higher value on reading paper than on a screen, and do much better in terms of comprehension and in problem solving when writing things down, rather than typing. Nonetheless, I was trained in those regards, and the same can probably be achieved as students start to be trained to use technology primarily for their educational pursuits. Obviously research has shown the comparisons between virtual and physical formats of learning, but I think the literature will change as students train more to become proficient in computerized learning.

This post has definitely been all over the place, and it probably seems to say that I am content with technology as the primary means of instruction/testing in the future. This isn't the case, but I want to look at the bright side and try to find positives, especially since it looks like I can't change this trend towards technological implementation at all levels. My only hope is that the intentions behind this movement are student-driven, but I can't see how that could be the case. Are these technologies being used to save money, time, and difficulty on the administration and governments part, or is there real motivation to make technology the main source in order to benefit students and their development in the long term? I wish I had the answer to that, because that's what I truly care about.

John Dewey: An Ideal Educational Culture

Throughout my undergraduate career, I contemplated my prospects as a teacher, and whether or not I'd be able to create the positive classroom environment I believe students deserve, but are rarely provided. I wavered in belief of my capability to balance personal connection with educational enrichment, and to be able to be "on" everyday to affect students in a positive way. John Dewey's article, My Pedagogic Creed, sheds light on many of the ideals and thoughts that led me to continue my pursuit of a career in education, although throughout much of it I couldn't help but feel it was an idealistic picture, like the one I had painted in the past, but more recently have become aware is not entirely true.

 In the article, Dewey delves into his beliefs about the various layers of education, describing his ideas of education, of school, of subject matter, the nature of method, and school and social progress. He presents various ideals a school and the community involved in a school should uphold, from the community's investment in a student and vice versa, to building autonomy within students, to a teacher's role which shouldn't be as an authoritarian, but rather as a medium to aid students in seeking knowledge, to how to enact forms of discipline, and more. While they were all incredibly important and very legitimate ideals regarding the structure of a student's education, I definitely felt that in this day and age, with all the struggle and back and forth between policy makers, administrators, parents, teachers, and others invested in the state of education, and felt a little hopeless in some of the ideas put forth by Dewey. One idea in contrast that I feel definitely is a possibility and I think a must within all classrooms, an idea that Dewey came back to time and again, was that of making the student's education part of a larger social development, built upon making their education relevant and applicable.

"  I believe that knowledge of social conditions, of the present state of civilization, is necessary in order to properly interpret the child's powers. The child has his own instincts and tendencies, but we do not know what these mean until we can translate them into their social equivalents. " Technology plays a frequent role in the lives of students, and to neglect it in education entirely i think would be unwise as it neglects the "present state of civilization" as Dewey puts it. Although technology can become quite a distraction, we can recognize some new ways that we can connect students with the content we are teaching.

Relevancy of content and connecting things with the society we currently inhabit is an essential element of a successful curriculum, and it is necessary for teachers to reflect on how the education they are transmitting is relatable to students and their situations.

Yay a blog!