Final Project

Growing up in a white middle-class family in the 1990's, I feel as though I was an automatic digital native, or as Marc Prensky would say I am a native speaker of the digital language of computers, video games, and the internet. There was always newer technology in my household growing up and I was always interested in how it could make things easier.

There have been major changes in technology in my lifetime, and I am fortunate to be able to grow up with the changes. My family would make Turkle proud though because my parents raised my sister and me to have those technology free moments. When cell phones became an item in our lives, there were certain times that we were not allowed to use them because my parents wanted us to have conversational skills.

At the time of being teenagers, I think that my sister and I both hated those rules. But today, I am so thankful that I had a "device-free zone" and learned how to have those face-to-face conversations with people around me. As far as my education growing up, technology was just starting to become a tool that was used by teachers. The rolly VCR cart was still used to show movies, which as students there was no aspect of surprise, overhead projectors were still used, in the sense that each transparent sheet would need to be cleaned in order to use it again, and desktop computer labs needed to be reserved by the teacher if they wanted to use it.

But it is not the technology that I remember about my education. It was the hands-on projects that I completed that helped me dive deeper into content and learn. I remember in 6th grade when we were learning about body systems, my teacher wanted us to do more with our knowledge. In groups, we traced a body and had to glue each part of the system onto our body and write about it directly on our body. We then each presented our bodies to the rest of the class. It was these engaging moments that helped me fall in love with school, as a student, and reinforced the fact that I wanted to be an educator when I grew up.

I don't remember wanting to be anything other than a teacher growing up. I would play school with my sister, with myself being the teacher of course. I even remember being that young and trying to come up with interesting and engaging ways to teach her because it was those moments that would help her remember things and actually learn. Looking back now, I believe that this is where the beginning of one of my beliefs of how students learn stems from.

Princess Ana says that love is an open door, but I think that education is an open door. Education is a journey to find your why. I still believe that I am walking through that open door trying to hold down my why. I believe that students learn from investigating and determining a connection between why and how things are. For me, it is important to recognize that every student learns differently, but when students investigate with the material, they are able to learn the content in a way that makes sense to them.

With the opportunity to teach 5th grade math, for the first time ever at my school, I want my students to have time to investigate with fractions and understand why things work rather than just get told an algorithm. Students deserve to know the WHY behind what they are learning, but in order to understand the WHY behind what they are learning, students need a safe space to be able to ask questions and learn from their mistakes.

Students also learn best when they have a complete support system that is informed to encourage their learning. At this point in my career, entering my third full year of teaching, I would say that I am a techno-traditionalist on my journey to becoming a techno-constructivist. But, I keep in the back of my mind that it is not necessarily about the technology that is used. Technology is a tool that assists the learning.

My beliefs have helped me determine some steps that I can take to get students to that point. In my opinion, these steps are the what and how that Sinek discusses in his Golden Circle.For the 2018-2019 school year, I have created a class website.  This class website has a few different goals attached to it. One major goal is that I believe that parents should be involved in their child's education.

My school has an amazing family engagement committee and does a great job of keeping parents informed and involved, except for on an individual classroom level. Our school has an open door policy and parents are always welcome into our classroom, which is amazing, but it does not mean that they are informed in their child's education in regards to their individual classes.

Parents will get an introduction to the class website when they attend orientation in August. On this website, parents will have access to what students are learning in class each week, homework assignments, and links to resources that may be helpful for them in regards to their childn's education. Parents will also have access to sign up for Talking Points.

Talking Points is an application that will allow me to contact parents directly and vise versa. I'm excited to use this application during the current school year because I will be able to have that connection with parents. There will be no language barrier between the parents and myself because Talking Points translates messages into different languages. It also has a feature where multiple family members can be included on a strand.

My hope is that my website and Talking Points will allow parents to have open communication with me about their child's education and that together, we can support the student's learning. For students, my goal is that the website will serve as a "home base" in my classroom. During student orientation week, I am going to have the students bookmark the website into their favorites so that it will always be available for them. In the past two years, I have seen how much time students "waste" trying to find the correct website. Since I have such a strong belief on how students learn, students should not be wasting their time trying to find the correct website to be on.


My goal for students with my website is that it will be a one-stop-shop for them. All of the websites that they will use in my classroom will be under an important links tab along with any hints for username and passwords. By using this website for that purpose, I hope that students will be able to have more time investigating and using the technology as a tool for their learning.

Like Boyd, I believe that youth need opportunities and time to develop the skills and knowledge to engage with contemporary technology effectively and meaningfully. But, students will not get the time and opportunities if they are stuck trying to get to the right place.

After thinking back on this course and all that I have learned, Kelly Reed keeps being at the forefront of my mind. A conversation with her helped me realize that as educators, we need to bring the joy back into learning. Learning should have some fun in it without always worrying about the outcome.

This upcoming year, I want to help students find that joy through investigations and engaging creatively in learning. As I continue my journey as a techno-traditionalist, I think back to Moana, "One day I'll know, if I go, there's just no telling how far I'll go".

Overall, thinking back on this course, I truly enjoyed being able to actually learn. I was reminded, as both a student and teacher, that learning is a process. The school system has become so bogged down in grades that everyone is forgetting what it is like to learn. I will forever hold these concepts close to my heart and I know that myself as a person, as a student, and as a teacher have been changed. I'm looking forward to putting these new concepts into practice in the fall and enjoying the journey.

Petcha Kuka

Petcha Kuka (Pictures)

Petcha Kuka (Narrative Piece)

Live Pecha Kucha

Wesch and Turkle

I believe that both Wesch and Turkle bring powerful statements to the table, much of what connects to what we have been discussing in class this week. Technology is going to be around forever, but how we use it needs to be reevaluated. I believe that in a way, Wesch uses Turkles "argument" to help his.

"My job becomes less about teaching, and more about encouraging students to join me on the quest" - Michael Wesch

Wesch starts off the article Anti-Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of Significance by stating "students- our most important critics- are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education".  For me, this was extremely powerful to read and connects back to this week. Students, just like educators, need to find their WHY. Why are they in school? Why is there such a need for them to be critical thinkers? Why do they need to learn?...but then Wesch continues to state "The only answer to the best question is another good question". Students need to be pushed to ask questions that are going to lead them to more questions and further their thinking. It is going to be this that produces learning. I agreed with Wesch when he discussed that learning school has become a "meaningless game of grades rather than an important and meaningful exploration of the world in which we live and co-create". This made me think of my own education and how at some points, I was more worried about the grade rather than the learning that was produced. It made me think about how different that experience could have been for me if I was pushed to ask questions and dig deep into the learning. Overall, I believe that Wesch's argument was for students to become "active lifelong learners" who have these skills that will carry them anywhere they want as long as they have an environment that helps.

"Meaning and significance are assured only when our learning fits in with a grand narrative that motivates and guides us" -Michael Wesch

On the other hand, Turkles argument is explicitly about technology and how it has gotten in the way of being able to have conversations. The Goldilocks effect that Turkle discusses is something that really stuck with me. She states it as "We can't get enough of one another if we use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right". I believe her main argument is that we need to be able to find the balance to disconnect from technology in order to keep those face-to-face connections alive. She talks about having digital free rooms, which I love the idea of. I grew up not being able to have a cell phone at the dinner table. To this day, it is still something that I believe strongly in. I find it so sad that when I go out to eat, a family will all be on their phones rather than engaging in personal conversation and interacting with each other. She sums up her article by stating "But in our rush to connect, we flee from solitude, our ability to be separate and gather ourselves". 

"Our colleagues want to go to that board meeting but pay attention only to what interests them" -Sherry Turkle

While I don't think that Wesch and Turkle are necessarily allies, I don't think that they are in opposition either. Wesch doesn't bring up technology in his argument. But I think they agree on the idea that something needs to change. One connection that I did find between Turkle and Wesch was about the question people are asking. Wesch discussed the basic questions that students are asking in regards to what they need to know for a test, or how much of a grade it will be, etc whereas Turkle discusses how people want faster answers now and to do that we "ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters".

I was extremely moved by both of these articles in different ways. Turkle moved me in a personal way. To make sure that I am engaging in connections with people rather than being on my phone in some instances. This is something that I feel like I am decent at, but definitely, have room for improvement. Turkle gave me a push I need to try and work on it. Wesch moved me in an educational sense. To make sure that my students find their why and that I take a step back from the teaching and ask my students to join me through the learning. 

Let's Make Stuff

Shena, Mary Sue, & Jackie

Our people represent that no matter how different we are, we can come together to change the world! 

This hero shows us that we can be reserved and be able to show off our superpowers, just not in a way that "people" would expect.

This person represents the non-conventional female role, wearing a purple tutu while wearing her sports team and holding a baseball glove. 

This person represents someone who is gender neutral and sometimes people make assumptions because of what they see on the outside. 

This person represents everyone in the LGBTQ community and that they are an important piece of our larger society. 

This person represents those who are different and defy definition in our socially constructed world. 

Together, these people can work towards a community of one!

                                              

Flipgrid

Flipgrid is another tool that I figured I would share! Some of my professors have used it recently. I have a little bit of knowledge about it but wanted to post it in case anyone else wanted to explore it.

   

EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle is a FREE online tool that allows your students to learn through video.

The magic with EdPuzzle is that you can make your own video and upload it for students or you can use one of the many videos that are provided in a library. Another great feature of EdPuzzle is that you can assign students a video to watch and see who has actually watched it. Taking that piece a little bit further, EdPuzzle allows you to pick a spot for the video to stop so that you can insert a question to determine if students are actually watching the video or not. If there is just a piece of a video that you want to use for students, there is a crop video feature. 

From experience, my students enjoy using EdPuzzle. I've used it during independent time and during blended learning. I have found that it has helped some of my struggling students grasp ideas that I just wasn't able to connect with them on. Many of my students who are visual learn would ask for me to put a video on EdPuzzle in regards to the content that we were learning. As a teacher, I liked that my students were engaged in the material and that I was able to see if they were understanding through the questions I put into the videos. EdPuzzle gives a report on each video so that teachers have data to look back on. Another great thing is that it connects directly to Google Classroom, so students only have to log into that account. 

I have never uploaded a video and have only used what is in the resource library. I have to say, while there are some great videos for certain content, some content was extremely difficult to find a video. Sometimes I would spend so much time looking for a video that was at the level of my students and still engaging, but I knew the outcome would be worth it. 

Signing up is really easy, and did I mention FREE!

Below, I have provided step by step on how to get started and some of the features.

Once you get signed up, you create classes. I have shown the classes I have in my account.

To begin to find content to add; you can go to either of these places:

 

Once you find a video that you are interested in using, as stated before, there are features that you can use in the video.

The red scissors allow you to "cut" pieces of the video out and change the timing. 

 The microphone above the video allows you to insert an audio track.  

The question mark on top of the video is where you want to go if you are interested in adding questions into the video or creating a quiz piece. There are options for short answer questions, multiple choice questions, and an essay. 

Below is what the data piece looks like from the teacher's dashboard:

Here is an example video that could be used with questions included in it!

How Does Soap Work?