To read part 1, click here. Spanish 9
It was hard to get a decent photo, but this is actually my classroom transformed into a maze on the annual 'prank day' of which I was totally unaware (thanks teachers!). Nah, my room was pretty sweet and easy to clean up in comparison to others who had anything from a million pictures of kilts to live fish. Bodies in Creation
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I'm not entirely sure all of what the students processed from the PBS doc I showed (and attempted very hard to censor, out of respect for the school) about Kahlo, but I certainly enjoyed it. It reignited my passion for and interest in surrealist art, the 1920s, and authentic self-expression in all of its glory and profanity. Spanish 30
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I attended an absolutely fabulous information session last night regarding how to use the Online Reference Centre for grades 7-12. Gaining a better understanding of all of the features of the ORC and the databases therein has made me completely reconsider how to go about unit and lesson planning, as well as instructing my students in research-based writing. The ORC is a HUGE time-saver for both students and teachers, and a HUGE cost-saver for schools and individual departments. An orientation to the resources should be part of new teacher on-boarding and/or PD at every school in Alberta. Bottom line: teachers and students should make the ORC, rather than Google, their first stop when looking for information. Why? ORC resources:
As an English teacher, I wanted to highlight two fantastic resources:
I really liked the 4 truths that they identified, and points #3, 4, and 7: they speak to the importance of ensuring that the curriculum continues to drive the assessment and instructional strategies (Understanding by Design) and to the importance of student backgrounds (what they bring to the table in terms of abilities, interests, misconceptions, experience, etc.). Start the year off with a novel study. I am SO much more relaxed since moving into novel studies with both of my classes. We're more focused on a longer piece, which means that they spend more time reading, exploring themes, discussing context, etc. Preparation is much more straightforward and there are tons more resources for me from my colleagues and online. Why didn't I do this in the first place? A few reasons:
Not sure? Just ask. We're doing Of Mice and Men in my ELA 20-2 class and, in the spirit of wanting to break up monotony, I had originally created a schedule in which each class period was divided into 3 activities: reading the text, working on an independent project (building personal connections to a theme through writing), and working on a group project (exploring context through multimedia). I also wanted to make sure that such a schedule could accommodate for the vast differences in pace at which my students work (it's not uncommon for one of my students to finish in a period what another student will take a week to complete). By the end of the week, I got the feeling that this schedule wasn't working, so I polled the class. The vast majority agreed that they wanted to do all of the reading and comprehension quizzes, then complete their independent project, then complete the group project. This actually works out better for scheduling computer lab time for projects, and I think sets them up better for more meaningful writing on theme. For those who are struggling with reading, I've made sure to provide links to the audio version on our D2L shell (in addition to providing vocab and idiom handouts). One of my biggest concerns is absences during the reading and project work days (which I was hoping to mitigate by extending the schedule for each through chunking individual periods), but I just don't think this is avoidable. Anyway, it made me happy to be able to find out what the students preferred and to be able to accommodate them. My hope is that they feel more in charge of their learning and less like school is something that teachers do to them. Technology is great when it works. Okay, I knew this one already, but let me share my story. For studying To Kill a Mockingbird with my ELA 10-1 class, I decided to implement a slightly revised version of the problem-based learning through technology activity I designed for a course earlier this year. I built a Google site where we kicked off the unit by doing a webquest (modified by viewing others' webquests) and uploading the research. My intent was to make this site a collaborative space for all aspects of constructive learning. There have been some issues as well as benefits:
I'm really excited to spend time this weekend looking over and giving feedback on my ELA 10-1 class's latest assignment. One student in particular, who had a mediocre experience with the autobiographical poem, devised a thoroughly original, insightful, and compelling video game character from "Lysandra's Poem," even going so far as to describe what the video game itself would be like. I wanted to play the hypothetical game!
One of the things that breaks my heart is knowing that my students deal with varying degrees of anxiety for a variety of reasons, some of whom have been formally diagnosed and are receiving treatment or therapy. My PSI teacher (grade 4) dealt with restless, boisterous, or distracting/distracted students by having them go for a walk through the hallway, touching 50-odd lockers, complimenting someone, and then returning to class. I really liked this idea and explained to my students on day one that, if they were feeling anxious or simply needed a break, that they should simply let me know that they're "taking a walk" and to do a lap around the floor and come back to class. On Wednesday, my 20-2 students were exhibiting their self-portraits for our photography/visual literacy unit, and one of my students, whom I'm particularly concerned about, slipped out of the room without my noticing. I told the students I needed to look for their classmate, and asked a colleague (my mentor teacher, actually, who was prepping in another room) to supervise while I tried to track the student down. While I was frantically searching, the student returned to the room and explained to me later that s/he had just needed a break from the stressful environment, and also apologized for not letting me know (my colleague had had a talk with the student upon his/her return). Frankly, I was delighted and relieved that this student came back to class of his/her own volition. Because attendance tends to be an issue in the -2 classes (often due to family/life situations), one of my primary goals is to make my class a place where the kids want to be. The class community still feels a bit disjointed to me, but group activities and performances are one way we seem to be getting closer.
Educational Possibilities
While research in this area is still new and limited, information and communication technologies continue to be touted by developers, businesses, and educators alike for their potential in the classroom. And not without reason. Michael Rich asserts that kids are taught by all media they use, inside and outside the classroom, including video games and social media (ctd. in Dakin, 2014). The line between education and entertainment is blurry. Because kids use technology for recreational purposes, using it in the classroom is often emotionally engaging and perceived as more relevant. YouTube alone—when used effectively—can grab students' attention and motivate them, improve classroom discussion of an issue, provide ‘real-life’ experiences and authentic/expert voices, reach multiple intelligences, increase memory (through the auditory and visual combination), and be used to view simulations, collaborate, and practice digital citizenship (Education 4391, 2014). From an administrative standpoint, using technology enables educators to meet Inspiring Education’s Cross-Curricular Competencies. Clearly, we can’t teach Digital Literacy without using digital technology, but it also assists with Lifelong Learning, Self-Direction and Personal Management. Technology extends both the walls of the classroom and the hours of the school day by enabling students to learn any place, any pace, any time. Some self-directed online programs allow students to monitor their learning against set criteria and identify lagging skills, which contributes to greater metacognition—a key to lifelong learning (Tapscott, 2009, p. 140). Students might also use an online environment in which to develop an e-portfolio that will showcase their learning from K-12 and beyond. When this data is centralized and made available to teachers, they are better able to keep tabs on where students are at and so adapt their lessons or teaching strategies. These self-directed online programs, also known as adaptive learning systems, may also provide welcome relief for students “frustrated with working in a group setting, or having to negotiate the diversity of a public school setting,” or for those who are “struggling academically or irritated by the pace of learning in schools” (McRae, 2013). To this, we might add the benefit of assistive technologies designed to accommodate students with exceptional needs. And even if students are working in greater isolation, as Rich notes, social media can be a place for isolated kids to connect and find community (as qtd. in Dakin, 2014). Technology facilitates the other Competencies as well. Tapscott (2009) asserts that technology can be used to help education become more student-centred, more interactive and discovery-based, more suited to the student’s learning style, and more collaborative (p. 122). Wikis, blogs, YouTube, Skype, and other collaboration tools enable students to construct and share knowledge with each other, whether they are in the same class or across the globe, and peer-to-peer sharing can promote high engagement and learning (Ibid. pp. 137-138). Cross-cultural interactions can also promote empathy, as it gives kids a chance to interact with and know people who are different from them. While Tapscott doesn’t use the term ‘flipped classroom,’ he describes taking a course in which he could review the material and test himself online, and then receive face-to-face time with the instructor. Virtual classrooms hosted on websites that link to online readings and instructional videos make it possible for teachers to assign for homework what would have otherwise involved in-class reading and listening. They can spend class time doing hands-on, problem- or project-based, collaborative, student-led learning. Web 2.0 participatory tools and the Internet also promote learning-by-tinkering in a social and virtual context (Ibid. p. 135). Multiuser virtual environments (MUVE) enable students—via simulation and inquiry—to pose and pursue meaningful questions about the world, past, present, and future (Ibid.). Truly, technology makes it possible to learn 24/7 wherever a screen is available. Impact on Students’ Development Technology has incredible potential to enrich students’ learning in school and to promote life-long learning, but using it also has costs—besides the obvious financial spending required. Increased technology use almost always means decreased time outdoors, which tends to be one of parents’ biggest concerns, aside from online predators. Kids play outdoors fifty percent less than they did in the late 1970s (Juster et al., as ctd. in McRae, 2013). This “nature deficit disorder,” as Richard Louv calls it, is connected to depression, ADHD, obesity, and decreases in cognitive development and executive functioning (as ctd. in Dakin, 2014). The more we use technology, the worse off our brains and bodies seem to be, which is perhaps why people try multitasking: using technology while engaged in another activity. Unfortunately, multitasking is a recipe for disaster. We end up in a state of “continuous partial attention” in which our “working memory gets overwhelmed and makes mistakes”—mistakes which sometimes result in safety hazards, like walking into lampposts (Stone, as ctd. in Anderssen, 2014). Gary Small associates this state of “continuous partial attention” with our taste for new information, and warns that our tendency to jump from website to website looking for quick answers is actually rewiring our brains. Considering that teens are developing their frontal lobes, Small is worried that, by using too much technology, they may not learn to read social cues, think deeply, or consider the big picture (Anderssen, 2014). McRae (2013) is concerned that kids using customized learning systems may come to believe that the world adapts to them, making them less able to recover from adversity. Likewise, students’ critical thinking will be significantly hampered as they are more able to “access the information they want at any time, place or pace through a variety of devices” and are “increasingly fed only the exact type of information … and sources … to which they digitally subscribe” (McRae, 2013). Many teens also multitask with technology, using multiple devices at once, which contribute to about eleven hours of screen time per day (Dakin, 2014). Of the Moncton teens Pauline Dakin interviewed, one doesn’t use social media for fear of her ability to focus, and another suggested she “should probably cut down,” as if were a bad habit or addiction (Dakin, 2014). This begs the question: are the students engaged in learning through technology, or are they simply addicted? Neema Moraveji, director of the Calming Technology Lab at Stanford University, effectively compares some technology use to gambling, reporting that checking social media can be “energizing and mood-boosting. We get a rush – what scientists have called a ‘dopamine squirt’ – when anticipating the contents of a potentially juicy e-mail, much like pulling the arm on a slot machine” (as ctd. in Anderssen, 2014). But just as feeding a drug addiction degrades mental and physical health, so being connected to social media 24/7 (what researchers at King’s College Institute of Psychiatry in London call “unchecked infomania”) is linked to depression, eating disorders, and a temporary 10-point drop in the IQ, ironically double that of marijuana users (Anderssen, 2014). If that’s not enough, when searching the web or checking email, people exhibit what Linda Stone calls “e-mail or screen apnea”: they subconsciously “take shorter breaths, or hold their breath entirely, restricting oxygen to their brain” (Anderssen, 2014). An expression of the flight-or-fight response, screen apnea can lead to “long-term stress and its potential risks: teeth-grinding, diabetes, heart disease and depression” (Anderssen, 2014). While sleep is often the prescription for stress, technology impairs this as well. Screen time is cutting into sleep, which is a major factor in student performance. Many teens interviewed by Dakin (2014) reported getting somewhere between two and eight hours of sleep, as opposed to the nine to ten hours recommended. They would stay up late to check (often trivial) social media updates or would have their sleep interrupted by text message notifications. Nocturnal screentime decreases sleep quality and quantity, as well as kids’ readiness to learn (Howard-Jones and Rich, as ctd. in McRae, 2013). From my previous studies in fatigue management, I know that this is primarily because exposure to light inhibits the release of melatonin, a hormone essential for inducing sleep. Chronic fatigue is linked to obesity, depression, irritability, decreased reaction time and inability to focus, compounding the effects of both stress and technology use. Students may even be taking frequent microsleeps in class, unrecognizable to themselves or teachers. Socially, teens feel they are unable to log off, are afraid of missing something, find themselves occupied looking at random things, and fear being unable to respond to emergencies or to reach out to others if they are in crisis. Their phones are amulets, providing safety and connection (Turkle, 2011). They’re also under tremendous pressure to keep up their online appearances (Turkle, 2011). Students’ social media profiles, along with the likes, tweets, and comments entrenched in such systems, are a primary source of self-worth and identity creation. Adolescents need safe spaces to experiment with identity, and, while some teens continue to post provocative photos and status updates, many more understand the Internet as their permanent record, and fear sharing (or having others share) anything because it can easily be saved, copied, edited, pasted, and broadcast anonymously (Turkle, 2011, pp. 256-257). While the media tell us that teens are savvy tech users, Turkle (2011) also finds that they don’t actually understand the ins and outs of privacy, surveillance, and protection online. Restless and confused about life online, many teens resign themselves to anonymity, which has perils of its own. Rushkoff (2010) observes that online anonymity engenders mob mentality and incivility, encourages dehumanization of participants, and promotes lack of empathy and remorse for having wronged someone. For all the benefits technology provides, we must promote responsible use. Proposed Technology Policy The difficulty in creating a technology policy (as I found when attempting to create a fatigue management practice in my previous job) is that technology’s effects are so pervasive and so strong that responsible use requires a lifestyle change. People change when they have enough information and incentive (usually discomfort or fear of some kind) to do so. Ideally, the school will provide both to staff, students, and their parents in the form of workshops, literature, meetings, and initiatives (such as a student-led tech-lifestyle club designed to raise awareness of technology’s impact on students, as well as how to use technology to enhance learning, collaborate, and create). Lifestyle discussions need to be worked into the Digital Citizenship curriculum. I propose the following as a starting point. We, the staff and students of Hypothetical Affluent Middle School commit to:
References Anderssen, E. (2014, March 29). Digital overload: How we are seduced by distraction. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/digital-overload-how-we-are-seduced-by-distraction/article17725778/ Dakin, P. (2014, February 20). Re-Wiring Our Kids. Atlantic Voice. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Maritimes/Atlantic+Voice/ID/2438446358/ Education 4391 - YouTube in the Classroom. (2014). Additional Information. Retrieved from http://ed4391presentation.weebly.com/additional-information.html McRae, P. (2013, April 14). Rebirth of the Teaching Machine through the Seduction of Data Analytics: This Time It's Personal. Retrieved from http://www.philmcrae.com/2/post/2013/04/rebirth-of-the-teaching-maching-through-the-seduction-of-data-analytics-this-time-its-personal1.html Rushkoff, D. (2010). Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press. Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown Up Digital. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together. New York, NY: Basic Books. Another one?
On vacation, I am watching more cable TV than normal because my husband and I just have Netflix at home. In the past year, I think I finally reached my threshold of watching and reading stories--whether books, TV shows, movies, articles, or plays--about a white male. With cable, I can now see commercials and new movie trailers for white male stories, which simply adds to my exhaustion. It has become incredibly boring and irritating for me even to watch these snippets because it's clear that the creators are simply employing all of the formulaic tropes that accompany the white male story. There is a love interest featuring a skinny, white female, which almost always guarantees that the text fails the Bechdel test. There are supporting male characters, one of whom may be a person of colour, but who probably fails the racial equivalent of the Bechdel test. And even if the POC characters pass the test, they're often given roles that serve as comedic relief by means of racial stereotypes. I think this is one reason I found Orange is the New Black so incredibly refreshing: it shares new stories about female POCs, even while admitting that the skinny, white female lead is necessary to draw viewers in. OITNB also tells stories of lesbians and the story of one transgender woman, which are normally missing from or horribly parodied in white male stories, since these are almost always also heterosexual (and often homophobic) stories. The show also, to some extent, addresses physical disability (one of the guards lost his leg below the knee and uses a prosthetic) and mental disability and illness (while 'Crazy Eyes' is often parodied, we do get to know her as a whole person). I anticipate that my students will be about 50% female, 60% Asian (south and east), 20% Middle Eastern, 10% European, 10% a different ethnic background, and 10% LGBTQ. Some will have been born in Canada, and others will have immigrated during their lifetime. More than a few will have learning disabilities, especially in my 20-2 class. So, it's frustrating that the literature available to me (i.e., where I would not have to buy a whole new class set) for teaching English 10-1 and 20-2 this fall consists pretty much entirely of stories about white heterosexual males with no perceptible disabilities, written by white heterosexual males who were born sometime before 1960 and who lived in the UK or the USA. Fortunately, there is more variety available for teaching poetry, essays, short stories, and multimedia. I think my challenge will be to ensure that my students see their stories somehow represented (and good literature does feature universal themes), to help them to understand the cultural biases inherent in the texts, and to empower them to share their stories. I had originally planned on making this presentation into a Brainshark video, but my free account only allows me 15 minutes of recording time, so I was unable to do that and it's considerably complicated to make a timed PowerPoint presentation into a YouTube video. This attempt showed me that I have more to learn about "flipping" my classroom through direct instruction via technology (I think I'll eventually purchase Camtasia and a good mic).
Regardless, I wanted to make the information available to anyone who might benefit from it, so here is the PowerPoint with the "meat" of the presentation located in the "notes" section on each slide. For quick reference, I also want to include in this post the steps I plan to take to use social media in my classroom (references are in the PowerPoint).
I just learned about www.graphite.org. What a fantastic website and tool for teachers looking to integrate technology responsibly and effectively into the classroom! I love not having to reinvent the wheel.
Speaking of which, I am definitely guilty of spending countless hours scouring the Internet for the "best" tool or resource, usually by typing a keyword or two into Google or YouTube, and I really, really want to break that habit. I think one of the best methods we can use as beginning teachers is to query the other teachers in our school and department and find out what their "go-to" tools and resources are. We should ask them how they use them and why they consider them so valuable. Then, we can play around and see if we agree or whether there are some pitfalls or risks that the teacher might have overlooked.As an alternative, the next place on the list to search would be online through resource databases from the district or province. Alberta CORE is going to be a regular stop for me, in part because it consolidates resource from a whole bunch of online sources, and because it engages teachers and students in rating and commenting on the resources, saving me a bit of time with evaluation. I wish I could filter by subject area and grade in this resource. This is where Learn Alberta is pretty great: the resources have already been reviewed and vetted and align easily with curriculum. The criteria of "has been vetted by a seasoned teacher in the school" carries a lot of weight for me, thought it carries less weight the further away jurisdicationally the teacher is (school-->district-->province-->country). If a website meets this first criterion, it will (hopefully) address other really important criteria. These include:
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