So I am finishing my third semester at ECU. My major is Birth-K Education and I have not had one single class that deals with how or what you actually teach kids. Don't get me wrong - I've had some pretty incredible courses but in general they are more about typical and atypical development of young children. Infants and Toddlers, Introduction to Children and Families, Special Education, Early Intervention, Cultural Diversity and Intro to American Education. The EDUC class was more a history and survey course about what it means to be a teacher, not really how to be a teacher. For my Technology in Education classroom my final project was developing a lesson plan incorporating NCSCOS (North Carolina Standard Course of Study) goals and objectives and using the Smart Board technology as part of the lesson. And of course, the technology wasn't the challenging part for me. First of all, NC, even though it has a PreK program, does not have NCSCOS goals for PreK - so I picked Kindergarten goals. Then it dawned on me that I had to come up with something to capture the attention of 10 - 14 four year olds for 45 minutes.
PANIC....
Not really panic but a deep breath - a bunch of internet research (thank you internet I have no idea what I did before you existed) and about four hours later I had a passable plan.
I chose to do a lesson on colors - Primary and how to create secondary colors. I chose this mostly because it is a subject that is endlessly fascinating to Nate right now. He is constantly asking questions like - what color does blue and purple make? What color does red and red make? Or my favorite, what color does green and pink make? - I had to laugh at that one... and my answer was "you know... I'm not sure."
So back to my lesson - I was able to apply NCSCOS goals from Computers/Technology, Mathematics and Visual arts and write up my plan. I began with a short (20min) interactive Smart Board activity reviewing the six basic colors via a rainbow. Then labeling the primary colors. The first activity was to overlay shapes of varying colors to reveal the "new" or secondary color. After that I created a couple of sorting and labeling activities and ended with a review on the SmartBoard. Then to the fun part. Once we had established what colors we could create with Red Blue and Yellow I send them to the art area where we create a class mural of a rainbow using only Red Blue and Yellow paint.
Sounds like fun huh?
The Smart Notebook software was fun to learn. I'm sure I only scratched the surface of what its capable of. I wish I could post a sample but you have to have the software to run the activity. There are pdf print outs of it on my portfolio page if you are interested.
http://portfolio.coe.ecu.edu/students/campbellsa10/Campbell%20EDTC%205010%20SMART%20Activity.pdf
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Does getting angry mean I am learning?
So much of what I am reading/researching/studying makes me so frustrated.... In training to become a PreK teacher, at first I thought,” whew… at least I don’t have to teach to the tests.” There are many other challenges, but that’s not one of them. Well I am rapidly learning that that isn’t the case. PreK and Kindergarten children may not take the standardized tests, but the implications of those tests are trickling down into how classrooms for our youngest children are structured. Adults are expecting more and more from children and with high expectations come high retention rates, more discipline problems, a wider gap between the successful and the struggling students, and more frustration for parents and teachers alike.
One of the effects of our society’s mostly Essentialist philosophy of education is that we are expecting higher and higher benchmarks for our children without really evaluating if they are ready to meet them. If you set the mark too high you will always have a high rate of failure. That is not to say that we should lower our expectations in the classroom, but should adjust them to fit the needs of individual students instead of scientific age ranges. Statistics are helpful, but only when applied to a group. Statistics have as little bearing on individual children as stereotypes do. Children enter a PreK program for a variety of reasons including developmental delays, less than ideal home environments, poverty or a combination of different risk factors. It will be my job to prepare them for kindergarten. But what exactly is kindergarten today?
A study by The Gesell Institute for Human Development, says “despite ramped-up expectations, including overtly academic work in kindergarten, study results reveal remarkable stability around ages at which most children reach cognitive milestones such as being able to count four pennies or draw a circle.”[1] Four and five year olds have the same physical and developmental abilities they have always had. It is our expectations that have changed. What we are teaching 5 year olds may be to read, write, and deal with complex shapes, but are they actually absorbing the information?
The study suggests that the play time is really where our children learn. Play based learning “smooth(s) over developmental ranges, allowing children to work on skills without feeling judged.” (Guddemi). Critics say today’s kids are different, smarter, have larger responsibilities and are ready for bigger challenges – but can’t we meet in the middle. Provide play and exploration activities that both encourage exploration and challenge them to learn? This same theory can be applied to project based learning or multi age classrooms in later years. Providing more individualized activities is a strain on the individual teacher as it requires more preparation and an acute insight in the personalities of each of her students. This is especially true in the early grades as the benchmarks for progress are much more subtle. Students cannot be judged based on their answers on tests, each students progress is tracked through observation and discussion with other educators and parents.
The idea of developmental readiness extends far beyond kindergarten and our traditional structure does not serve this aspect of student readiness. Regularities of schooling, a term coined by Seymour Sarason, describes the traditions of schools that are taken for granted even when other ways of organizing schools are available. Peer grouping is only a part of this and it also includes how teachers see the role of parents and the greater community, the asymmetrical teacher/student power structure, how classrooms are structured and how the typical school day is structured.[2] When looking at education, it seems as if we should first look not at what we teach, but how we are teaching it.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
End of the Semester
The semester is coming to an end and with it comes the flurry of exams, final projects and term papers. And although this has been one of the most challenging semesters, it has been a very informative one as well. Nine hours (3 courses) may have been too many, but I've plowed through and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In my Child and Family Relations class - Infant and Toddler Curriculum I have spent one morning a week in an infant/toddler classroom at Dartmouth Hitchcock Child Care Center. Even though I have my own son, the challenges and rewards of working with nine growing children has been profound. They have reminded me why I am embarking on this educational adventure. They are full of life, in the moment and extraordinarily curious. Its too bad we lose that as adults, if we could all take more time with what is actually happening NOW maybe we wouldn't be so stressed!
My Cultural Diversity class has been an interesting journey. Cultural Diversity is so interconnected with current events, human rights, politics and education that the discussions and explorations have led to Human Trafficking, Civil Rights, Diverse Workplaces and Multicultural society - and how all these things impact our interactions and relationships with students and co-workers. And no matter how angry or frustrated I got with the subject matter, it is reassuring to know that it will be my job to impress on young people that the color of our skin, the gods we pray (or don't pray) to or the foods we eat are just part of what makes us special and important. The only way to rid our world of prejudice is to model an accepting and curious example for them. We need to see what we have in common and what we can learn from each other and stop being afraid of what's different.
And finally my Technology in the Classroom course - what a wild ride. Much of the technology itself; Google Docs, Powerpoint, Databases among others were not new to me. I have used many of these things in my working life for many different reasons. But now I am learning how to use these everyday tools to teach students how to think out side the box, collaborate, problem solve and use new tools to their own advantage.
And this blog... I would never have started a blog without it being assigned. And I got a slow start, not knowing what to say, worrying about if I had any followers, wondering if it was "right" but I actually learned that it can be a personal tool regardless of its audience. I can read back and see what I was learning, what topics interested me and what has changed and grown over time. I think I'm going to keep it up even after the semester ends.
So here I go, to finish my very first lesson plan.
on a SmartBoard none the less :)
In my Child and Family Relations class - Infant and Toddler Curriculum I have spent one morning a week in an infant/toddler classroom at Dartmouth Hitchcock Child Care Center. Even though I have my own son, the challenges and rewards of working with nine growing children has been profound. They have reminded me why I am embarking on this educational adventure. They are full of life, in the moment and extraordinarily curious. Its too bad we lose that as adults, if we could all take more time with what is actually happening NOW maybe we wouldn't be so stressed!
My Cultural Diversity class has been an interesting journey. Cultural Diversity is so interconnected with current events, human rights, politics and education that the discussions and explorations have led to Human Trafficking, Civil Rights, Diverse Workplaces and Multicultural society - and how all these things impact our interactions and relationships with students and co-workers. And no matter how angry or frustrated I got with the subject matter, it is reassuring to know that it will be my job to impress on young people that the color of our skin, the gods we pray (or don't pray) to or the foods we eat are just part of what makes us special and important. The only way to rid our world of prejudice is to model an accepting and curious example for them. We need to see what we have in common and what we can learn from each other and stop being afraid of what's different.
And finally my Technology in the Classroom course - what a wild ride. Much of the technology itself; Google Docs, Powerpoint, Databases among others were not new to me. I have used many of these things in my working life for many different reasons. But now I am learning how to use these everyday tools to teach students how to think out side the box, collaborate, problem solve and use new tools to their own advantage.
And this blog... I would never have started a blog without it being assigned. And I got a slow start, not knowing what to say, worrying about if I had any followers, wondering if it was "right" but I actually learned that it can be a personal tool regardless of its audience. I can read back and see what I was learning, what topics interested me and what has changed and grown over time. I think I'm going to keep it up even after the semester ends.
So here I go, to finish my very first lesson plan.
on a SmartBoard none the less :)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Building an educated workforce requires an investment | building, investment, educated - Jacksonville Daily News
This is a letter from a teacher near my hometown in the school system where my mom works as a tutor to give struggling High School students the boost they need to graduate. My mom is a retired teacher, she taught 8th grade English for 30 years, and now she spends 20 hours a week with the forgotten, disinterested, overwhelmed or bored... she helps these kids graduate.. The teacher who wrote this letter, my mom, and thousands of other dedicated professionals deserve better. And so do our students. Its a great read!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Adopt and Adapt
And about an hour after I did my blog post I read the article for the unit assignment for this week. And the schools in Maine were sited as a great example. -
this is a great article on Adapting education to fit our new technological world.
http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
this is a great article on Adapting education to fit our new technological world.
http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
10 years after laptops come to Maine schools, educators say technology levels playing field for students
We live in New England now (which is more like one big state than five or six little ones) and I came across this article while looking into educational resources up here. In 2001 the Governor of Maine proposed giving a laptop to every 7th grader in the state. And it passed - every 7th and 8th grader and every teacher of grades 7-12 in Maine have laptops. A good majority of the high school students in the state have them as well.
Of course its not free - it costs taxpayers about $11 million a year or about $250 bucks per student. But to me that seems like a really, really good deal. Arming our students with the one tool that can make or break their success in the employment markets of the future should be done at any price. Kids love computers, they love games and surfing the internet and chatting with each other - and all of these things can be applied to education. There's a teacher in NC using World Of Warcraft in his classroom. (1) Chatting with each other can lead to collaborative projects and teaching students to gather information quickly and effectively via the internet is pretty much a no brainer.
But this laptop decision had a marked effect on many other areas of education in Maine. Writing scores have improved, in one district the number of students needing remedial math assistance has been cut in half and math scores overall have improved by over 40%. And when everyone gets a laptop, everyone gets the boost. Family income in this case is no barrier to progress - all students have equal access to technology.
Of course its not free - it costs taxpayers about $11 million a year or about $250 bucks per student. But to me that seems like a really, really good deal. Arming our students with the one tool that can make or break their success in the employment markets of the future should be done at any price. Kids love computers, they love games and surfing the internet and chatting with each other - and all of these things can be applied to education. There's a teacher in NC using World Of Warcraft in his classroom. (1) Chatting with each other can lead to collaborative projects and teaching students to gather information quickly and effectively via the internet is pretty much a no brainer.
But this laptop decision had a marked effect on many other areas of education in Maine. Writing scores have improved, in one district the number of students needing remedial math assistance has been cut in half and math scores overall have improved by over 40%. And when everyone gets a laptop, everyone gets the boost. Family income in this case is no barrier to progress - all students have equal access to technology.
“Every middle school student in Maine has equal access to the technology and tools," Bucciantini said. "It's as important now as having a textbook and pencil, possibly more so.” (2)
Students are creating movies in PE class, documentaries in social studies, multi media in civics and many math classes have gotten rid of text books entirely.
One of the quotes I really identified with was the parent who said the laptops revolutionized science projects. I remember the hours with poster board and glue sticks and can't even imagine the types of projects students are able to produce today with the wealth of available software and tools. And many of them, as we've used in our class this semester, are free.
Critics say then students will spend too much time on Facebook or surfing the web... Hey critics - they are doing that ANYWAY! Or playing video games or the like - but if they are flipping back and forth between google chat posts and their homework - well, at least they don't have the computer propped up on a closed textbook.
New Hampshire (where I live) is WAY behind the curve on this front but maybe positive results like those in Maine will show legislators and educators that the old way isn't what will work for our kids - computers are here to stay so teaching them to use the technology effectively and responsibility is truly the best education we can offer.
check out the full article below - its a great read.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Technology's Role in a Multi Cultural Society
One of the courses I'm taking this semester is Diversity in Education. We are discussing how and why we should encourage diversity and a multicultural basis behind our teaching practice. The more I think on this the more I realize that technology has a huge role to play in this task. Just think of all the current event revolving around the use of Internet resources - Twitter, Facebook and Google have all played huge roles in the uprisings in the Middle East, my FB feed is full of posts on budget talks and union rallies and the big vs small government debates. This media has the potential to pull Americans out of their isolated world view and back onto the world stage. I'm sure if you asked many students today where they get their news (source not form of retrieval) they would all list local or national sources. TV news, US newspapers, NPR, and of course Jon Stewart. But for far too long we have remained focused much more on national events and not global. The internet allows teachers to send students to resources outside mainstream media. Have students do a project using BBC resources or research public opinion in Canada or find a story on Al Jazeera - we need to teach them that our national view, much like our personal ones, are not the only perspectives. And it is easier than ever to do just that. For until we begin to see from a global perspective, we cannot hope to meet on common ground with those of differing backgrounds, cultures and religious beliefs.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)