#ed 677

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F5F 4/15  Interviews on App

With the idea for my app in mind, I decided to interview a member of each audience, student, parent, and teacher, which would be involved.  Below are the questions I asked during my interviews:

Question 1: Have you ever used a QR code App before on a smart device? If not, would you be willing to learn how?

Question 2:  What are some ways that communication between parent and teacher outside of school be improved?

Question 3: What is your interpretation of the effectiveness and practicality of my idea for the “Couch Classroom” app?

Each response below is paraphrased.

Interview 1 (One of my 5th grade students)  

The student had not ever used a QR code reader and wasn’t exactly sure what a QR code was! When I showed one the child immediately recognized it and said that they had always wondered what those were for!  She explained she would absolutely want to know how to use QR codes. When asked about communicating with parents at home about assignments, she explained that sometimes she completely forgets how to do math problems and, when mom tries to help, she confuses her more!  When I mentioned a teacher being able to “virtually” appear to explain better, she thought it was “so cool”. After explaining the app, she showed excitement over the idea. She commented that not only would it help her, but it would help mom too, because sometimes mom doesn’t understand what she is saying when she is trying to explain the directions! Overall, she loved the idea. 

Interview 2 ( Colleague: 5th grade math teacher) 

The teacher had heard of QR codes but never used a code reader before. She was intrigued when I explained that it could have educational value. When asked about communication at home, she explained that she tries very hard to send worksheets home that demonstrate problem-solving skills for each topic because she understands the parent frustrations with “new math” concepts. However, even with examples as a guide, students come in the next day with work not done because they were confused or she receives an email from a parent explaining both the adult and child were lost at home working on it. After explaining the app, she said it sounded fabulous. Her only concerns were how to ensure QR codes are available when needed. Also, she is not familiar with screen casting and was unsure of how each teacher who is not “tech-savvy” would feel about the app.

Interview 3 (Colleague: Asked as a Parent)

My colleague and cooperating teacher has three children, 18, 15, and 13. She too had never used a QR code reader before, but has seen them often. She said that the majority of her communication is via email, and they attempt to tackle home assignments they best they can when working with her children. When I explained my idea for the app, she also said she could see how this could easily help struggling parents. She commented with all of the technology at our hands today, this would be a great way to open those lines of communication further and alleviate unneeded stress and confusion over home assignments. 

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Seek 7 Sunday 4/10

1. This is a quote from Dartmouth on the benefits for collaborative learning and writing:  “For the past three decades, educators have recognized the value of learning collaboratively. Educators widely recognize that students do not learn well when they are isolated "receivers" of knowledge. Indeed, students must overcome isolation in order to learn to write. Collaborative learning exercises—such as peer review workshops, collaborative research assignments, group presentations, collaborative papers and discussion groups—are important components of our writing classrooms because they encourage active learning, giving students the opportunity to become more deeply engaged with their writing, and with one another."   The site has great advice on how to include cooperative learning into the writing curriculum. 

2. This video called “Critical Friends” from The Teaching Channel emphasizes the positive effects of peer review on young, developing writers. 

3. This video from vimeo is called “Austin’s Butterfly”. While working with the facilitator, the students get to “see” how a young boy learns to improve his drawing of a monarch butterfly all based on peer feedback and review. The students see the bigger picture that each critique, suggestion, and piece of input helps Austin improve the quality of his drawing. 

4. This resource from Beth’s Blog discusses “Peeragogy”, quite an interesting concept to support the foundation for peer-driven learning experiences. Peeragogy comes from Howard Reihngold’s thoughts on using social media in conjunction with peer learning and feedback.

5.  

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Interest Driven Learning

        As educators, at all ages, we strive to foster students who are self-directed learners; individuals who desire to learn and broaden their base of knowledge. Doing so is not an easy feat, especially if the content does not hold a child’s interest. Being able to learn while being driven by personal interest is an extremely powerful tool in the classroom.  As students ourselves, looking back through the past or even until present day, it’s easy to recall which classes, subjects, etc., we benefited from the most, retained knowledge from, or connected to. Naturally, our own levels of competency and interest are what drives us to gain more from one class from the next.  As stated by Nicole Mirra in this week’s chapter on interest driven learning, Mirra states this type of learning is, “...a concept based in the seemingly common-sense notion that students will gain more knowledge and skills at higher levels of intellectual rigor when their learning originates from issues or activities that innately captivate them.” (p. 10)

    I am a 5th grade writing teacher. I, myself as a young student, always excelled with ease through my English courses, so having a knack for this ever important skill served me very well throughout my educational and professional career. However, developing skills to write does not come easy for all and does not necessarily support equity.  In those instances, I have had countless students I’ve supported who felt frustrated with their progress as developing writers. My grade level is the first stop for them in terms of lengthy, organized essays. I can completely sympathize with how a 5 paragraph essay can be a daunting task to 10-11 year olds; they can be even for adults! So, whenever I am selecting topics/prompts, I always make sure that the child has a way to express themselves based upon their personal interests and passions. With each assignment, those same students who at first were petrified, begin to thrive and grow with each assignment. We always begin the year of essay writing with writing about a talent, skill, or hobby. That lays the groundwork that writing....can be fun!  Next, we write opinion essays which allow them to voice their own beliefs, usually on a school-related topic for debate or current event. This assignment teaches them to have a “voice.” Towards the end of the year, the students write about a person in their lives that they admire, either personally or celebrities, well-known individuals, etc. By the end of 5th grade, many of those same students who approached writing with a great deal of depredation advance to the next grade with confidence and the desire to further foster their skills as young writers. I have “interest” to thank for that.  

As stated in this week’s chapter, the pressures of standardized testing doesn’t allow much time for interest-driven or passion-based exploration. However, I have tried to merge the expectations set by the state for students to “cite evidence” within their writing to news topics that they have the choice to select from. Scholastic SCOPE magazine provides many non-biased articles that allow my writers to weigh pros and cons, make informed decisions, and then express their thoughts through writing. Even giving them the opportunity to choose topics of intrigue to them is my way of allowing interest to drive the instruction. 

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Seek 7 Sunday 3/27

1. This openly-networked community, Digital Is, is a great way to share and connect with other writing teachers. Some topics discussed in the blogs are the use of infographics, digital writing, the use of comic strips, etc. This is exactly why such arenas are so valuable; one teacher discusses her use of the characters from “The Walking Dead: to teach ethics! How brilliant and engaging for the students! 

2. Great site on openly-networked learning through and between art museums. This online community asks the question how museums can closely connect with in school and out of school digital literacy practices; very cool. 

3. This blog from Mom-mentum, entitled “Encouraging Children to Celebrate Differences”, relates to my inquiry question, which is how can I create connected learning between my writing curriculum and our community’s celebrating differences night on diversity?  This site is actually created and blogged often by parents of children who either do or do not have learning disabilities, and, for those who do not, these “moms” blog in the hope of their children gaining a deep respect and appreciation for diversity. “I hope my children will grow up recognizing differences as positive aspects to be celebrated—not as excuses to judge, exclude or hate.” 

4. Great blog to support children who face the learning challenges of being diagnosed ADHD. This blog, SmartKids, has the following mission and is also an open network: “ Our mission is to educate, guide and inspire parents of children with learning disabilities or ADHD. Our aim is to help parents realize their children’s significant gifts and talents, and to show that with their love, guidance, and the right support, their children can live happy and productive lives.”

5. This blog, ShutDown Learner, addresses many of the challenges which are put on display for Celebrating Differences Night, which are all topics my writing students will be connecting to and gaining a deeper understanding of what it is like to be a learner with dislexia, dyspgraphia, etc...

6. Home.Room is the official blog of the US Dept. of Ed. It also has many blogs that pertain to the topics of diverse learners, and contains many comments from parents and students identifying with many of the same academic struggles. 

7. Great blog for my inquiry topic: I’m a Scientist with a Learning Disability, and That’s Okay!  This would be a great way for students to gain an inside perspective of what it is like to function with LD, and also maybe post, ask questions to the author of the blog, or have open discussions amongst themselves. 

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Small Moves

I promise...this is not an attempt to score “brownie-points”, but much of the course content here at Arcadia have pushed me in the direction of making “small moves” not only myself towards open-networked learning, but for my students as well.

As a writing teacher, my students record the majority of their work in writer’s notebooks, the typical black and white composition books. Throughout my coursework, I have learned a great deal about the value of blogging, have discovered many go-to blogs that I myself use, but I also came to the realization through positing and blogging my own coursework how much more engaged I was in knowing my work was being viewed by a much larger audience. I decided that my final project would be to teach my students to become digital writers who post, collaborate, discuss, and publish their work in digital writing notebooks. Initially, the idea was based around the application of using google docs for students to engage in editing and revising with other students “outside” of the 4 walls of our classrooms. From that point, I realized having an open-network opened other doorways that lead into all levels of the writing process, from the initial brainstorming sessions, opinion debate article writing, to editing/revising, and lastly, publication. It is by publishing their work for the whole world to see that students would feel a sense of accomplishment, duty, and value into their own contributions, all of whom are working collaboratively to achieve the greater goal of fostering skills in written expression. This idea is still in its infancy, but definitely a small-move in the right direction. 

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Openly-Networked Learning

Similar to last week’s discussion of shared purpose, as human beings each of us can say the moments in which we learn the most about ourselves, professionally and personally, is through the exchange of ideas and conversations with like-minded people, or even others who come to the table with experiences, stories, anecdotes, and advice that are far from the world in which we live in. In Bud Hunt’s chapter on Openly-Networked Learning, he discussed his experiences that take place outside the boundaries of our classrooms and within the hours of a regular work day. He shares his first discoveries of communities of teachers who blog, share, post, and discuss, and how, soon enough, he became one of them, often videotaping himself analyzing his goals and objectives and sharing with others who would find his knowledge and wisdom meaningful in their own practices.

Hunt states, “ I improved as a teacher and as a learner through lots of little exchanges, wonders, and posts about what was happening in my classroom, what I wanted to happen, and how to bridge the gap between the two states.”  With this Web 2.0 world we live in, finding mediums to bridge gaps and open lines of communication across states, countries, or boundaries that separate school communities and actual community life, e.g. “in-school and out-of-school spaces”. Teachers must have the willingness to share and take from the sharing of others. Hunt goes on to state a significant point, saying, “ Seeking connection, meaning, and a better sense of purpose has been a human pursuit far longer than the Internet has existed to support these practices.... we can’t find everyone that we could possibly learn from and with, but we can find enough people who share our passions and can build loose networks to solve problems.” Hunt discusses the value of engaging with others that have the same “shared love”, whether the craft of teaching or the like. 

This week’s video was super cool; I like being able to actually see and listen to Bud Hunt. Sometimes it’s easy to overthink concepts, so it was comforting to hear right from the source what he defines an open-digital network to be, a network that people can find, access, and contribute to. I also enjoying seeing and hearing the “New Tech” High students’ opinions on where learning takes place, and, according to them, there is not one location, but learning takes place everywhere. 

I LOVE the Do Now Project, especially as a writing teacher. I without question see the value of social media outlets to foster written expression skills, however, typically the content is not enthralling. The Do Now Project gives students a sense of purpose to engage in a real way in such an openly networked arena. As it stated in the more about Do Now page, the project has many layers of learning, from civic duty to digital citizenship; in this way, students are learning skills necessary to be 21st century citizens that are productive members of our technology-driven communicative society.