Good Day Fellow 21st Century Educators,
In many ways it is difficult for me to reflect on the changes in my thinking due to the excellent exposure to technology and 21st century learning that I have received in this course. I am just now embarking on my teaching career and currently getting my room and my mind ready for the challenges that await. In addition, to that my students will be very young, only in the 1st grade. First grade seemed to be too early on in the primaries for some of the topics we have touched on. Nevertheless, I have tried to stretch my mind to find ways to include the technologies and concepts from the course in my thinking about the upcoming first graders I will be learning with.
This course has keyed me in to the ideas not just of 21st century learners, a concept I am well acquainted with, but to also look ahead at the 21st century skills they will need to thrive as adults. This is an important area of connection. Many of the ideas I have heard about and indeed many of my own conceptions and notions about today’s students have been primarily focuses on using technology to get their attention and to get them engaged. Much to my surprise, I hadn’t really focused on teaching them how to use the technology as a tool going forward. In widening my focus a few degrees, the course materials have solidified my ideas concerning what my first graders can, and more importantly need to be able to do with available technology.
On major focus of the class has been on the use of web 2.0 based collaborative and social networking tools. Previously, I had not grasped the power and ease of use afforded by these fantastic tools. As the weeks have unfolded, I have had many new ideas of how I can use blogs, wikis and podcasting in my first grade class and in our school. I have already had conversations with our school it specialist to determine what access I am able to provide to my students, and how I might be able to mange it. I am confident that as I step through the days of this first year, that many more opportunities for technology deployment will arise, and I feel better equipped to use them when they do.
This class has also served to get my mind more focused on creating an environment where my students can build their own learning, rather than a stage for my lessons and teaching. I had a strong belief before, that my classroom should be a place that belongs to me and the students together, but many of the ideas from class have given me specific methods and really galvanized my resolve to get my students to take responsibility for their own learning.
In light of what I have learned I will be using tool oriented language with my students. In effect getting them to see that the knowledge they are building for, themselves as tangible tools they can use to solve problems and to create. I knew before that I would have to help the children understand and set goals for themselves. I know now that that has to be a much more specific and focused part of their 1st grade year. I had planned on using morning meetings as community builder, and now I can see so much better how vital that is, and that I must give the students a good amount of ownership in those meetings each day.
As this year unfolds, I will be implementing a plan to build the students’ understanding and use of technology terminology and practices. It is my first long term goal to create an underlying curriculum that will guide my students to understand universal terms like cut , copy, paste, and menu as they pertain to using a computer. I want to move them from having to watch another person move the mouse around the desktop in order to follow along, and move them to where they understand the terms and instructions well enough to use their ears to follow those same instructions. In short, they should be able to make their way through a new program or web application because they have a feel for the environment, and understand the jargon found there.
Secondly I would like to get them to the point that they can pickup and use technology devices like still digital cameras, digital camcorders and digital voice recorders by them selves. This will require that they become familiar with a few universal symbols (arrow, skip, play pause stop, etc.) that a surprising number of our digital natives haven’t really keyed into yet. With a basis in the meaning of the symbology of technology they will be better equipped to figure out how to use equipment that may not be familiar with them initially. again I will do this by having some exploration opportunities early on to make them aware of their use and capabilities so that as the year progresses they might suggest their use to create.
David
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Space Age Wiz Kids - Podcast
Here is a link to my PodBean page where you will find an interesting interview with 3 public school students. Our topic is the use of technology in and out of school. Enjoy...
http://mrpickles.podbean.com/
http://mrpickles.podbean.com/
Monday, July 27, 2009
Good Day
Have a look at the website for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This is a partnership of education, community, industry and government leaders who have heard the wake-up call to America’s citizens loud and clear. I embrace the ideas espoused by the partnership and its leaders…will you? More importantly… will our co-workers, administrators and most especially the parents of our children?
I looked at this site in conjunction with a masters level class that I am taking via the online Walden University. The professor asked us to have a look and answer a few questions about it. One of the questions was,”What information on the site surprised you?” Little on the site actually surprised me except the small number of states listed as being on-board as partners. I was especially dismayed to see that my home state, the “Old Dominion” Virginia was absent. Our civil war era breakaway brethren in West Virginia are on board but not us. I hope that will change soon and I will do my part by sharing the Partnership’s information with my colleagues and administrators as I continue to learn more about it.
I’ve checked out many of the articles and links on the site and have found them interesting and engaging. Though I don’t disagree with anything I’ve seen thus far, something did occur to me. The fact that the partnership needs to exist is proof positive that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana
I am excited that education is slowly turning to embrace competition, collaboration and communication as 21st century skills, but it isn’t really new is it? The U.S. has a long history of using these very same skills to overcome adversity and lead the world (usually) in innovation and advances in science, medicine etc. It seems to me that somewhere in the eighties our country became fat, dumb, and happy, thinking we had arrived at a permanent position at the top of the heap. We should have known that there is no permanent top of the heap and continued to work hard to be world leaders instead of becoming a nation of consumers (see Santayana quote above!). I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised… as George Bernard Shaw once said, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”
The problem now is regaining that pull – together, can-do esprit de corps that shaped our past and apply it going forward using our 21st century skills that are remarkably reminiscent of our 19th and 20th century skills, (think Manhattan Project, Apple Computer, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc, though on a global scale).
I am very excited for my future students; because I am entering the classroom at a time when “teaching to the test” is at least very suspect, if not on its way out. It is also a time when overly done self esteem sillyisms are also being re-cast to reflect the actual world that we live in. For example “everybody is a winner” becomes “everyone wins when we work together to solve our problems” (yay!).
I think that this latest economic snafu and revelations about the greed and devil-may-care attitude of big corporate America may finally have woken up many to the idea that self-reliance and cooperation might be great things after all. What does it mean for my students and for me? It means working together to build their knowledge using the best practices available. Showing through example how competing with one’s self to be the best student is the best way to ensure readiness for the work world of the future. It also means using our classroom community to demonstrate how things get done well when people work together instead of separately.
It also means being up-front with students about how they learn. Discussing metacognition with primary grade children may seem futile to some, but even kindergarteners begin to grasp the importance of understanding how to learn not just what to learn (Partnership, n.d.). Students I have worked with have responded well to up-front discussions about using mnemonic devices and the techniques used by good readers to comprehend. Kindergarten and first grade students who can master video games through repetitious learning and through the clever application of so called “cheats” can learn to be equally adept at “working the system “of their own mind to get better results.
It also means bringing to bear all of the resources and technologies available to create a safe and comfortable learning environment where students feel free and encouraged to be creative in their work and problem solving. Higher level thinking and problem solving will be the hallmark of the highest paid workers of the future; a future that will have few middle level jobs and more highly skilled and very low skilled jobs available (Levy, 2006). It also means building bridges between home and school so parents will also feel comfortable and safe engaging their children’s education as facilitator and collaborating participant. I look forward to the challenges of teaching 21st century skills and watching as my students become empowered to change the world in which they live.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st
century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf
Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for
twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New
Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62.
Have a look at the website for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This is a partnership of education, community, industry and government leaders who have heard the wake-up call to America’s citizens loud and clear. I embrace the ideas espoused by the partnership and its leaders…will you? More importantly… will our co-workers, administrators and most especially the parents of our children?
I looked at this site in conjunction with a masters level class that I am taking via the online Walden University. The professor asked us to have a look and answer a few questions about it. One of the questions was,”What information on the site surprised you?” Little on the site actually surprised me except the small number of states listed as being on-board as partners. I was especially dismayed to see that my home state, the “Old Dominion” Virginia was absent. Our civil war era breakaway brethren in West Virginia are on board but not us. I hope that will change soon and I will do my part by sharing the Partnership’s information with my colleagues and administrators as I continue to learn more about it.
I’ve checked out many of the articles and links on the site and have found them interesting and engaging. Though I don’t disagree with anything I’ve seen thus far, something did occur to me. The fact that the partnership needs to exist is proof positive that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana
I am excited that education is slowly turning to embrace competition, collaboration and communication as 21st century skills, but it isn’t really new is it? The U.S. has a long history of using these very same skills to overcome adversity and lead the world (usually) in innovation and advances in science, medicine etc. It seems to me that somewhere in the eighties our country became fat, dumb, and happy, thinking we had arrived at a permanent position at the top of the heap. We should have known that there is no permanent top of the heap and continued to work hard to be world leaders instead of becoming a nation of consumers (see Santayana quote above!). I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised… as George Bernard Shaw once said, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”
The problem now is regaining that pull – together, can-do esprit de corps that shaped our past and apply it going forward using our 21st century skills that are remarkably reminiscent of our 19th and 20th century skills, (think Manhattan Project, Apple Computer, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc, though on a global scale).
I am very excited for my future students; because I am entering the classroom at a time when “teaching to the test” is at least very suspect, if not on its way out. It is also a time when overly done self esteem sillyisms are also being re-cast to reflect the actual world that we live in. For example “everybody is a winner” becomes “everyone wins when we work together to solve our problems” (yay!).
I think that this latest economic snafu and revelations about the greed and devil-may-care attitude of big corporate America may finally have woken up many to the idea that self-reliance and cooperation might be great things after all. What does it mean for my students and for me? It means working together to build their knowledge using the best practices available. Showing through example how competing with one’s self to be the best student is the best way to ensure readiness for the work world of the future. It also means using our classroom community to demonstrate how things get done well when people work together instead of separately.
It also means being up-front with students about how they learn. Discussing metacognition with primary grade children may seem futile to some, but even kindergarteners begin to grasp the importance of understanding how to learn not just what to learn (Partnership, n.d.). Students I have worked with have responded well to up-front discussions about using mnemonic devices and the techniques used by good readers to comprehend. Kindergarten and first grade students who can master video games through repetitious learning and through the clever application of so called “cheats” can learn to be equally adept at “working the system “of their own mind to get better results.
It also means bringing to bear all of the resources and technologies available to create a safe and comfortable learning environment where students feel free and encouraged to be creative in their work and problem solving. Higher level thinking and problem solving will be the hallmark of the highest paid workers of the future; a future that will have few middle level jobs and more highly skilled and very low skilled jobs available (Levy, 2006). It also means building bridges between home and school so parents will also feel comfortable and safe engaging their children’s education as facilitator and collaborating participant. I look forward to the challenges of teaching 21st century skills and watching as my students become empowered to change the world in which they live.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st
century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf
Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for
twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New
Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
KinderBlogging!
Good Day!
This week I read a lot about blogs and how they might possibly be useful in an educational setting. I got the distinct impression from the reading that the author primarily had older children in mind (versus primary children in kindergarten and 1st grade fir example). I could well be mistaken, but it got me thinking about the children who are at the very first part of their educational careers, many of whom don't know their ABC's let alone how to type or use a computer efficiently.
I started with my conviction that young children, pre-school and Kindergarten, can be taught to use a computer. Both of my sons had access and some training as early as daycare pre-school and daycare using simple computer programs with guidance. (
Next I propose teaching them the concepts of cut, copy, and paste buy having them… well cut, copy and paste, really at first, then virtually. The hands on project provides context for the virtual world.
Okay that was the pre-cursor for blogging.
Clearly, even the most astute youngster is not going to hop on a PC and hammer out their own blog in pre-k- 1st grade. They first need to get the idea of what they are and most importantly the idea of collaborating.
While the kiddies are learning about the hardware side of things, I would use what I have decided to call a classroom “PLOG” to get the ball rolling. PLOG stands for “Paper LOG). On a Monday I would present a question that I thought might be interesting to them, e.g. “What do you think of the new Transformers movie? Like or Not Like?”
After introducing the question, I would spend the rest of the first week doing shared writing where a few children per day answer the question and I write down their answer with their name. After everyone in my class had a chance to voice their opinion I would move the page to the wall outside of my room, with a pen on a string, and encourage my fellow teachers to have their students neatly respond to the question, adding any comments about the answers already given as well. Next stop the main hallway where any person walking by could add to it. At the end of the second week the paper would make its way back to my class for discussion.
This is a scaffolding exercise geared towards getting the children to be comfortable with the idea of sharing their thoughts and having others share theirs as well as comments about the comments of others.
Next Round I would do essentially the same thing with a different question, but the shared writing would be via a Word document projected for the classes to see, then printed out with additions each day and posted so they can read what is new. This next step is meant to expose the children to their words in print, and to create the idea of posts being added each day electronically, and the PLOG being available with those new posts (new printed copy each day.
This time when the paper goes outside the class, it will have a URL where it can be found on my actual blog for teachers and students on my hall to comment. People can still add their comments in writing and I will add them myself. Each day, the updated PLOG with written changes entered and e-additions made will be posted anew. The PLOG will then move again to the front hall where it can be added to by the general populace. Finally the Monday after the second week, the Whole document will be posted and reflected upon by my class as in the first round.
For the next and final PLOG round, the entries will all be made electronically and then printed out for my students and others to see. The PLOG will still make its journey, but only electronic comments will be added. To make it easy, the URL of my blog and a class email address will be included in case any folks aren’t comfortable with blogging yet. again after the two weeks, the PLOG will be review3ed and discussed.
FINALLY, the class BLOG will be created. During the 6 weeks of PLOGGING along, I will be discussing what a blog by our class would look like, what its purpose would be, making a list of possible topics etc. Also during this time, students would be actively engaged in learning the alphabet, partially through the use of the keyboard. Hopefully, one or two students will surface as being proficient enough at keyboarding hunt and peck style to be the class blog keepers, entering the classes’ responses as they are given in the initial stages, and any responses later on.
My hope is that instead of being the lone PLOGGER when I start the process that I would have at least other team or grade level members that would do essentially the same thing and thus create a mini-blogmunity at our school that could eventually transition to a real blog together.
Ideas for PLOG and BLOG content…
What content would Kindergarteners put on a blog after they really got rolling? The answer it simple… YES! Content is the answer. The regular content in any grade level provides a ton of opportunities for authentic and engaging blogging. If every teacher on a grade level had a blog, they could divide the curriculum up by subject, Teacher 1 – math blog, teacher 2 Language arts, Teacher 3 literature, teacher 4 science, etc. The beauty is that though each class is responsible for hosting a particular topic, the whole grade level, and school and perhaps the world can contribute to each one.
Please respond and let me know what you think or if you have seen something like it before.
Thanks,
David
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Back to school
It's like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure without the phone booth! One minute I was wearing a cap and gown getting my diploma and the next I was back in school again!
I am enrolled at Walden U working towards my masters in ED. The focus? Integrating technology in the classroom of course! I am currently enrolled in the first of the core content classes and learning a lot about what is on the cutting edge today.
It is very validating to discover that many of the things I've been doing with technology in the classroom fit in very well with the new pedagogical ideas that are emerging from the technology enabled 21st century classroom. It is also exciting to see all of the tools that are available now or are emerging as the web 2.0 continues to develop.
I think the most valuable aspect of integrating technology into the classroom is the way it encourages and facilitates collaboration and co-teaching between educators and students. Ideally it also creates an environment of collaboration and sharing among teachers as well, unfortunately some "old school" teachers are resistant to new ideas and view 21st century learning tools as a fad or as toys.
To those teachers I respectfully submit that using new methods and technology to improve teaching is a centuries old trend. The Socratic method of teaching was a giant advance in pedagogy. Then there was the invention of the blackboard which perhaps the first big step in collaboration, allowing whole groups of students to collaborate at once. Even the venerable overhead projector heralded a new era of teacher student interaction and by the way time savings as materials were re-usable from year to year.
I suppose I should count myself as fortunate to be accepting of new technology. If I had been born just a few years earlier I would have missed out on being in the first generation of children to be in the formative years when digital technology took off like a rocket. (I'm proud to be in the generation that had to set the clock on the VCR for all of the adults who found the whole thing mystifying!)
I have spent considerably time reflecting on my interactions with veteran teachers who clearly are not and are not going to be on board with the 21st century learning environment. My initial reaction is that many of them need to exit the profession before their distain for change eclipses the many successful years of teaching they may have had, making them angry and potentially crabby. The second thing that comes to mind when I consider them more deeply is that it is a real shame that they are not more open to changes because theier teaching experience is not made obsolete by technology, quite to the contrary. The technology they reject provides a platform from which they could share their experience and knowledge with a larger potentially world wide audience.
It is a shame really because the ability to adopt and utilize new technology has always has always only required one key thing... having an open mind. Every new thing that we encounter whether it is another human being or a new gizmo; requires our spending time with that thing to become comfortable and figure out how it works. The first step though is having an open mind about it so we can be at ease and comfortable moving forward.
David Crouse
I am enrolled at Walden U working towards my masters in ED. The focus? Integrating technology in the classroom of course! I am currently enrolled in the first of the core content classes and learning a lot about what is on the cutting edge today.
It is very validating to discover that many of the things I've been doing with technology in the classroom fit in very well with the new pedagogical ideas that are emerging from the technology enabled 21st century classroom. It is also exciting to see all of the tools that are available now or are emerging as the web 2.0 continues to develop.
I think the most valuable aspect of integrating technology into the classroom is the way it encourages and facilitates collaboration and co-teaching between educators and students. Ideally it also creates an environment of collaboration and sharing among teachers as well, unfortunately some "old school" teachers are resistant to new ideas and view 21st century learning tools as a fad or as toys.
To those teachers I respectfully submit that using new methods and technology to improve teaching is a centuries old trend. The Socratic method of teaching was a giant advance in pedagogy. Then there was the invention of the blackboard which perhaps the first big step in collaboration, allowing whole groups of students to collaborate at once. Even the venerable overhead projector heralded a new era of teacher student interaction and by the way time savings as materials were re-usable from year to year.
I suppose I should count myself as fortunate to be accepting of new technology. If I had been born just a few years earlier I would have missed out on being in the first generation of children to be in the formative years when digital technology took off like a rocket. (I'm proud to be in the generation that had to set the clock on the VCR for all of the adults who found the whole thing mystifying!)
I have spent considerably time reflecting on my interactions with veteran teachers who clearly are not and are not going to be on board with the 21st century learning environment. My initial reaction is that many of them need to exit the profession before their distain for change eclipses the many successful years of teaching they may have had, making them angry and potentially crabby. The second thing that comes to mind when I consider them more deeply is that it is a real shame that they are not more open to changes because theier teaching experience is not made obsolete by technology, quite to the contrary. The technology they reject provides a platform from which they could share their experience and knowledge with a larger potentially world wide audience.
It is a shame really because the ability to adopt and utilize new technology has always has always only required one key thing... having an open mind. Every new thing that we encounter whether it is another human being or a new gizmo; requires our spending time with that thing to become comfortable and figure out how it works. The first step though is having an open mind about it so we can be at ease and comfortable moving forward.
David Crouse
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Second Verse NOT same as the first!
Wow! What a final week it has been. Still a few hiccups, but so much great information. My cooperating teacher was very rigorous but in a good way. I really feel that she did a great service to me, kicking my rear in gear! She treated me with as much care and consideration for my success as she does with her smaller students. I am honored to have been able to serve and learn in her classroom.
On Friday she and the students had a farewell party for me during "Fun Friday" they all made me cards and there were lots of hugs and one purple stuffed gorilla given to me as well. I'm looking forward to emailing Ms. S. and her great kids about how things are going in my next placement, and to see how they are coming along. It is hard to leave them, although I will get to see them Monday evening, as they are performing their Greece Rome and Mali presentation at 7 and I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Moving forward, I've met my next teacher, at the next school. This school has little in common with my last one, although oddly, their mascot name is "The Braves" and the school I just left is as well. hmm. The room number of the new placement is 126, my last...326. Okay that's a little coincidental.
Ms. B, the new teacher, is very affable. She has plenty of experience to share, and has told me that she welcomes my creativity and tech savvy. The school is older, and though she has 3 desktops and a laptop in the room, There is no room mounted projector and the monitor in the room doesn't work with the computer thought it is supposed to. (I'll be checking into that for sure.)
The school does have Smartboards and cows that can be checked out and I will be availing myself of them I'm sure. I also plan to assemble a portable technology ensemble that I can go back and forth with. A friend in the networking biz. has offered to loan me an old underused projector, and I have several good movie screens and that's a start!
It will be interesting, I have been really fortunate in my career thus far, in that the places I have spent the most time in have all been team work oriented. Mrs. B says that isn't so at her school. Disappointing, but what can you do? Mrs. B and I will be a team and that will be fine.
Until later.
David
On Friday she and the students had a farewell party for me during "Fun Friday" they all made me cards and there were lots of hugs and one purple stuffed gorilla given to me as well. I'm looking forward to emailing Ms. S. and her great kids about how things are going in my next placement, and to see how they are coming along. It is hard to leave them, although I will get to see them Monday evening, as they are performing their Greece Rome and Mali presentation at 7 and I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Moving forward, I've met my next teacher, at the next school. This school has little in common with my last one, although oddly, their mascot name is "The Braves" and the school I just left is as well. hmm. The room number of the new placement is 126, my last...326. Okay that's a little coincidental.
Ms. B, the new teacher, is very affable. She has plenty of experience to share, and has told me that she welcomes my creativity and tech savvy. The school is older, and though she has 3 desktops and a laptop in the room, There is no room mounted projector and the monitor in the room doesn't work with the computer thought it is supposed to. (I'll be checking into that for sure.)
The school does have Smartboards and cows that can be checked out and I will be availing myself of them I'm sure. I also plan to assemble a portable technology ensemble that I can go back and forth with. A friend in the networking biz. has offered to loan me an old underused projector, and I have several good movie screens and that's a start!
It will be interesting, I have been really fortunate in my career thus far, in that the places I have spent the most time in have all been team work oriented. Mrs. B says that isn't so at her school. Disappointing, but what can you do? Mrs. B and I will be a team and that will be fine.
Until later.
David
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Nearing the end of stage 1
It is amazing to realize that I've only been student teaching in Ms. S's class for eight weeks next Friday. It seems like a year! Though I got off to a rocky start, things have worked out pretty well. I know that I still have a lot to learn, but as my advisor and Ms. S have said, when I go to the next placement, I will know exactly what to work on.
I hate leaving students midstream like this because it's disruptive to them and they will have to re-adjust to a different room dynamic, but it's the nature of the beast I suppose. I hope to be able to send an email every once in a while and hopefuly get a response. I will be going back in two Fridays to see the 3rd grade presentation of the Greece, Rome and Mali performance they are doing. Ms. S. invited me to come back and I definitely want to be there to support the kids.
I'm having a little trepidation because I don't have any idea what rescources will be available in the next school. All of my teaching thus far has been in Va Beach, so it will be interesting to see how things are done in Chesapeake.
Until later ......
I hate leaving students midstream like this because it's disruptive to them and they will have to re-adjust to a different room dynamic, but it's the nature of the beast I suppose. I hope to be able to send an email every once in a while and hopefuly get a response. I will be going back in two Fridays to see the 3rd grade presentation of the Greece, Rome and Mali performance they are doing. Ms. S. invited me to come back and I definitely want to be there to support the kids.
I'm having a little trepidation because I don't have any idea what rescources will be available in the next school. All of my teaching thus far has been in Va Beach, so it will be interesting to see how things are done in Chesapeake.
Until later ......
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