The first blog that I read, was called "Practical Theory," in which Chris Lehmann posted "The Kids Are As Smart As You," on October 4th. After reading this I constructed a response that I was quite happy with, but then found that I could not post the comment! His latest posting from November 11th seems to be the only posting that can actively be commented on. I wondered if the response function is deactivated for a particular post after a certain amount of time. After spending half an hour trying to figure out why I could not comment I decided to abandon this and just find other blogs to comment on. Since I spent the time constructing a response, I will paste it along with a link to the blog I would have responded to, at the end of this posting.
The second blog post I found interesting was called "When the batteries die, break out the crayons," which was posted by Chris Ludwig on his blog Science Education on the Edge. In his post, he talked about how technology can be a great asset to a classroom, but it is dangerous to rely on it for lessons. At one point during his teaching career he had a classroom set of iPad 2's to read electronically on, instead of using very old textbooks. His idea worked for a while, but when the media specialist left his school there was nobody to help fix technology when it malfunctioned or broke. Since this event, he has had to decrease the amount of technology he uses and go back to good old fashioned paper and pencil. This post resonated with me because while I definitely like trying to use technology in the classroom, I think there needs to be a limit. I would not want to rely on it, incase something happened like it did in his example. I know when I use technology I get distracted, so I can imagine that students would as well. This might cause them to take away less than they would from using paper. I must add that it really does depend on what technology is being used though!
As I thought about what I wanted to say in response, I was instantly reminded of experiences I am currently having in my student teaching. The high school I am placed at uses an online book on a "glitchy" website and I recently experienced Internet connection issues when I was teaching a lesson. This inspired me to write about these examples to illustrate that just like him, I too think going back to paper does have its benefits. While it might decrease the engagement factor in some instances, it can increase the critical thinking skills that students use. Here I was thinking about how sometimes when reading from a screen we are more interested in scrolling past things and reading more on a superficial level. This obviously occurs for textbooks as well, but with iPads there are a ton of applications students can distract themselves with. Finally, I decided to ask him how he feels about the BYOD initiative. He mentioned that he had to go back to paper because he no longer has enough enough iPad's to go around, but he did not mention having the students bring in they own technology. He has not yet responded, but I would be very interested in hearing what he has to say about BYOD.
Here is a link to the blog post: http://see.ludwig.lajuntaschools.org/?p=1104
*EDIT: Chris Ludwig has since responded alerting me that he will be posting his thoughts on BYOD soon!
The third blog I read was Edutopia, where Stacey Goodman posted "Does Your Classroom Tell a Story?" This one sparked my interest because he wrote about bringing in items like toys, objects related to the content, popular culture objects, and nostalgic items to spark curiosity and discussion in the classroom. I immediately thought about fostering a teacher-student connection, which has been a hot topic in the MAC program. Anything that can get students to begin questioning things around them is a step towards them questioning what they learn in school. As teachers, we will want to shift the cognitive load to the students and have them engage in metacognition, so I think Goodman's ideas can definitely help with this goal. When students see an object, whether or not it is related to the subject in that classroom, they might become curious and ask other students or the teacher about it. Even if it doesn't lead into a discussion about the content, discussing the object can be beneficial just to help the students learn how to have a discussion.
His post got me thinking about what I can bring to my own classroom, so I generated a couple of ideas to include in my response, such as bringing in my anatomy project from high school, in which I dissected a cat and then boiled its bones to rebuild the skeleton. As a future biology teacher, I think this is something students might marvel at. Additionally, I started thinking about one of the teachers at Huron High School that I observe. She has so many objects in her room (it is extremely cluttered) that students have something to look at no matter which way they are facing. The objects range from biology related to personal objects, but students seem very fascinated with both types. I think this has helped her foster a student-teacher relationship, so I wanted to include it in my post to illustrate that there are other teachers who seem to be on the same page as him. In my methods course we are constantly thinking about bringing in objects or materials to engage our students with scientific phenomena, so I think Goodman's post can possibly help me think of new items to bring in. I don't necessarily have to bring in an item that is clearly related to biology if I can find something unrelated that I will be able to connect the content to. I did want to express my concern with distractions though, so I decided to include that in my response. I have not received a response yet and he has not responded to any other comments, so I am not really expecting a response, though it would be wonderful to receive one.
Here is the link to the blog post: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/does-your-classroom-tell-story-stacey-goodman#comment-157446
Though I have never read an edublog before, the several that I did read for this assignment showed me that there are teachers out there who have wonderful ideas that I can adapt for my own practice.
As promised, here is the initial blog I intended on posting a response to but found myself unable to do so because of a disabled comments section:
http://practicaltheory.org/blog/2014/10/04/the-kids-are-as-smart-as-you/
My response:
As a teaching intern, this post immediately struck me as something I would like to bookmark and refer back to. As a student I always held the view that the teacher held all of the knowledge and it was his or her job to basically fill my head with that knowledge. As an aspiring teacher, I realize that this was a transmissionist viewpoint and I should be thinking of teaching from a constructivist viewpoint.
Rather than acting as a superior, I think it is important to demonstrate to students that they all have their own legitimate viewpoints and ideas which should be valued in school. Even if a student is struggling to understand intro physics, he or she is still smart and might have knowledge about a topic that I don’t have. This is where I think connecting the personal funds of knowledge a student brings to the table with academic funds funds of knowledge is crucial. Bridging the gap not only benefits the students, but it benefits the teachers by helping them develop a better teacher-student relationship. If I have learned anything from my education courses, it is that teachers must use a student focused lens if they want to truly understand their students as people. Doing so can provide insight and hopefully allow the teacher to illustrate to the students how smart, creative, and influential they really are.
It is interesting that you bring up the idea of “say more…” because this is a technique that I have come to rely on. The Talk Science Primer by Michaels and O’Connor (2012) provides a variety of talk moves similar to this one. Putting the cognitive load on the students to use metacognition and think critically is such a key practice that I hope all teachers, whether future or veteran, consider each and every day.
Our goal as teacher’s shouldn’t solely be to fill our students’ heads with content, rather it should incorporate the idea of shaping them into capable citizens.
Hey April,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. Like you, I am new to the edublogger world and didn't quite know what I was walking into. I find it somewhat comical, given the numerous edubloggers out there, that you and I both ended up reading and responding to the same edubloggers: Chris Ludwig and Chris Lehmann. What does that say about their blogging style or topics? What does that say about the type of information and topics that you and I are looking for? Regardless, virtual "high-five" for good tastes, I guess.
Although we found the same edubloggers, it seems we commented on different posts. I appreciated reading your comments about Ludwig's "When the batteries die, break out the crayons" post. Like you, it is easy for me to see the potential benefits of technology in the classroom, but I also feel as though there should be a limit. There is something about hands-on, tactile, feel-the-mud-squeeze-through-your-fingers type of learning that simply cannot be facilitated through technology. For example, I would rather hold a leaf in my hand than look at a picture of it on the screen. What are your thoughts?
Additionally, I really appreciated your insights on the power of bringing in objects or content related phenomena into the classroom. The discipline of biology lends itself very well to this strategy, and I believe this type of action can positively impact the learning that can take place. Yet, as great as it is to bring materials into the classroom, have you ever thought about taking students outside of the classroom, bringing the students to the materials? There are lots of real leaves outside that students could find...
Best,
Jesse