Throughout this class, I have found that it is more than okay to be myself, even in "formal" classroom settings. This class has helped me to understand that my teaching is enhanced when it is coming from my natural snark. That is not to say, that I am using sarcasm to belittle my students, rather I try to inject some humor into what might be considered rather dry subject matter. That aside, the technology piece of this class has helped enrich the learning in my classes.
I found the reading of Dervin to be rather dense. Which was good because, it helped me to become a better teacher, as I was able to put myself into their shoes for a moment and look for useful strategies. Baggio was especially helpful, in that it was written in a very casual style that made it very understand. I appreciated her style and approach to visual learning. As the semester concludes, I am still concerned, and unclear about my capstone. I know that many before me have endured and I can look to some colleagues for some guidance. It will be very interesting to create a culminating project that I can display to my friends, colleagues and family. I am excited to see where my learning will continue!
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Watching the video from MIshra, I was reminded that TPACK is a synthesis of good teaching. It is not about about using technology as a replacement in the classroom, but more as a tool that can enhance student learning. Technology should be used in conjunction with good teaching practices, curriculum, and technology to design the best lessons for student understanding and learning retention. It is not something that should be thought of as a stand alone.
I appreciated his analogy of the dripping faucet and fire hose- it is exactly how teaching in the technological age feels like! It feels like there is constantly the next best website coming out daily-great, but how do we, as teachers incorporate it into learning? How do we get the most bang for the buck? I think that the answer to that sage question is: trial and error, communication, and practice. Try out the latest and greatest to see if it's right for you. Communicate with your teaching peers to hear what they are using and adapting. Practice what you think you want students to try in a lesson. If you incorporate those aspects into your teaching, then you might be on your way to using TPACK. I am hoping to narrow my DQ down to data analysis and statistics. Here are some useful sites:
I hope that you are able to check out some of these websites. I use all of them, but not all at the same time. Crap. I have not been paying attention to the crap I put into my slideshows and they have turned out like, well, crap. If only I had followed the CRAP method introduced by Baggio, my slides would have been more meaningful to my learner.
The idea that presentations should follow a model such as: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity (or CRAP), is important for anyone, especially teachers who are trying to get a point across in a way that might be more effective for students. I can also argue that many students, especially the cursive font-loving kind, could really benefit from this method. CRAP essentially lays out a method all presenters should follow if they want their audience to actually learn anything. Contrast, or keep your fonts to an acceptable amount and size is important, as well as remembering that black and white are probably the best colors to stick with. After all, hundreds of years of reading black print on light colored paper can't be wrong. Repetition in learning is important, because it allows short term memories to be exchanged for long-term meaning, thus making learning stick. (Think multiplication tables). Alignment. Wow, I would really love for my 6th graders to get this straight! For the love that is all things chocolaty and delicious, align from the left! As Americans, we are taught to read left to right, so it should only be natural that we align our text, pictures, etc the same way. And finally, proximity. If you are going to put text and possibly pictures on a page, then make them cohesive and related. No has time to read bullet points that don't match the picture. If you follow the simple steps to laying out a presentation, you too can make CRAP happen, but this time it's a good thing. When I reflect on my practice I need to consider many aspects what goes into a lesson. I never realized before that there was a name for it: SITE, which stands for Sociocultural, Informational, Technical and Educational. I will reflect on SITE using a standard math lesson.
Sociocultural: When looking at math standards, I need to know if my students have any background knowledge of the information. What do they already know? Are there any deficits? What is going on in their life that is going to effect the outcome of this lesson? Informational: What is their motivation? How can I connect this to their lives? How can I make them understand that they will use this later in life? Technical: How can they apply their skills? Can they apply their learning to one problem? A problem that has hidden procedures? A PrBL?Could they demonstrate their learning to another person? Educational: Ok, I learned it, now what? How does this apply to my life? Can I use this skill in a different setting? Looking at the SITE model, I realize that this method can be applied to my teaching, especially PrBL's in math. I should be using this model to develop authentic, rich work for my students to deepen their learning. I hope to use this as a guide in future lesson planning. When I think of my end user, or my target audience, I think of my students. While I understand that we also have to focus on the adults we are in class with, ultimately it my students that should benefit most.
I am not sure what resource I will be creating, but for example, if it is similar to my driving question, then I am looking specifically at PrBL. In case you are not familiar with PrBL, it is Problem Based Learning, specifically named for math projects. The idea being that math should not focus on weeks long projects, but rather shorter 1-2 day problems that students can work on collaboratively. What I would like, is to hone the PrBL's to make them more meaningful for students. I would want my end product to be resource-rich, just enough inquiry to catch their attention, and sprinkle in some frustration so that they can problem-solve with their peers, type of problem. It's my goal in this program to develop better learning materials and outcomes for my students. 1. Some key ideas that I have picked up from this week's reading is that you are not able to take in new information if you have emotional baggage surrounding the subject. This loose interpretation comes from Baggio's idea that there are three main modes of learning. The first is what she calls affective domain ( or how you feel), the second if the cognitive domain (what you think), and the final is conative domain (your instincts). What is interesting, is that we have students in our classes everyday who are shifting between the domains, possibly from lesson to lesson. For example, think of student who might excel in Language Arts, but suddenly becomes resistant to math concepts. Perhaps, that student has been told in the past that they weren't as "good" at math. That student now has some negative feelings towards math and therefore is less receptive to new ideas. As teachers, it's important that we address those feelings and help students move towards a more positive outlook.
A second idea, came from the Clark reading, in that our technology instruction needs to be strategic. We should not be using technology for the sake of saying we used a piece of tech. Instruction. or training, as the author call its, needs to be meaningful to the learner. 2. My driving question was : What are the impacts of PrBL in the mathematics classroom? My new question might be: What meaningful impacts can PrBL have in the mathematics classroom? 3. Some of my new need to knows might be? Are students continuing to make progress using PrBL? How can we make the PrBL's more impactful? What technology resources are available for PrBL's? How many is too many? How does the inquiry cycle manifest itself in my work setting? This is a difficult question to answer. I guess how I approach inquiry at work is dependent of what I am trying to accomplish.
Am I trying to create a lesson that is meaningful to the students? Then I would approach the task, most likely a PrBL from their viewpoint. Foe example, we have been working on Algebra in my math classes, more specifically distributive property. To show the students that algebra is an everyday skill, they are going to research an amusement park and find the cost of their family attending for the day. The scenario can also be run with the student attending with a group of friends. Am I trying to ensure that they learn a vast amount of skills in a ridiculously small amount of time? I might ask them to create a powerpoint or other visual concept that explains how they learned the material. Recently, my ELA class has been working Greek Gods/Goddesses while reading Percy Jackson : The Lightning Thief. Since the students had limited knowledge of Greek mythology. After a brief reading on teacher chosen myths, a God/Goddess chart, the students worked in groups to create posters that explained their myth to the rest of the class. Or is the case, where I am trying to learn or gain knowledge from a site or resource I have never used before? If this is the instance, then I am going to ask my colleagues or worst case scenario, do a google search. If it is a website or resource the students are trying to show me, then I would rather they teach me what they know. The best example, I have of that is the math game, Prodigy. I had never heard of it before last year, but one of my students wanted it approved for free time, so she had to play a few rounds to show me how it worked. It was/is fabulous in terms of a math resource, and many of my students are thankful she introduced me to the game. As with the master's program, my inquiry is varied and ever evolving. I have learned and used some resources these past few months. I have also learned of some resources, that I will never use in the classroom as they are not applicable. It will be interesting to see where the next stages of the program take my inquiry. The Dervin text, From the Minds Eye..., was an interesting, yet difficult read. I generally like to consider myself an educated person, but I found the text demanding, taxing and in need of several rereads! However, this is an important read in terms of how does one make sense of words, situations, interactions, relationships, etc.
The author breaks down her argument into several smaller (!) ideas, such as the hierarchy of knowledge, bridging the sense-making gap, and four types of survey strategies. On page 09 of the handout, there is an illustration depicting the visual representation of bridging the gap between knowledge held and knowledge needed. In any given situation, a person has questions or needs and the gap arises from finding the answers to those questions or needs. An idea arises that knowledge can be gained, but first the gaps standing in the way of that obtainment need to be overcome. One of her secondary ideas, was that researchers are only focused on their experiences and interactions. This idea should be turned around- what is it the learner needs to know? How can we fill that knowledge gap? How did their interactions and experiences shape the questions they were asking? These types of abstract questions are fascinating! I cannot imagine, however, how one might try to break down the dense information from this text for say, high-schoolers. In looking through the iCare, I noticed that there was a youtube video in which the presenter had broken down the major ideas of the text and used visuals to present their meaning. Therefore, if it was insisted that I teach this to young learners, I would take a similar approach. I would either create a power-point or other form of visual tool that helped break down the ideas into smaller more manageable chunks. It will be interesting to see how this text influences the rest of the reading throughout the semester. |
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