Click on the button below to see my Discovery Education Board on Lunar Phases. I decided to use Discovery Education Board Builder for this project since I have not used it to create a board yet. I attended a training on this tool that was offered by my district so I had some background knowledge, but have never used it like I have used Glogster in the past. Now that I have completed a board, I can certainly see this tool as something that I could use with my fourth graders. One of my science units is Astronomy, including the solar system and the lunar phases. I created a board that I can use with my lessons on the lunar phases. With this board, students will learn about the lunar phases through different modes. I included a video from Discovery Education that introduces the moon and some basic facts about the moon. The other video included is from EdPuzzle; this video talks about the lunar phases. This video pauses at different points throughout the video for students to answer comprehension questions. Another resource I included is an article that talks about the lunar phases and what they look like all over the world. I chose this article because it gets students to think about the bigger picture. After reading the article, students will complete a short answer question via Google Forms.
As Gardner stated in Five Minds for the Future, children need to know what they are learning and also need to know how their learning can be put to use (Gardner 2008). In the Google Form I created, students are asked to relate their learning from the article to their life. In the article Is it the Full Moon at the Same Time Around the World?, students will learn that the lunar phases are consistent worldwide. The author of this article, Ezzie Spencer, ties the concept of lunar phases to the bigger picture of our world, stating “in this chaotic world, with so much difference and sadness and love – that we are all unified together on the same globe, under the same sky, watching the same moon" (Spencer 2016). As a writing prompt, students will reflect about what lesson they can take away from Spencer’s statement, engaging their respectful and ethical mind. References 1. Discovery Education. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2017, from https://app.discoveryeducation.com/builders/boards?assetGuid=d14e2c24-be35-0f39-fff1-ceb74b0d0fde&includeHeader=true&layout=default 2. Gardner, H. (2008). Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 3. Is the Full Moon the Same Time Around The World? | Lunar Abundance. (2017, January 27). Retrieved February 26, 2017, from http://www.lunarabundance.com/full-moon-same-time-around-the-world/ In their book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis discuss strategies to implement into the classroom that prepare your students to collaborate globally. While there are some strategies that I use in my classroom, there are still many that I have yet to touch upon in my 4th grade world. In my classroom, we are still working on appropriate behavior with technology. My students have used Google Classroom and Padlet as tools to share ideas and comment on ideas from their peers. These types of activities have been incorporated into many subjects throughout the day. I know my students are excited when they are given tasks like this because often times they will log on when they get home and will comment some more (when normally they dread doing school work at home!).
Moving forward, I would like to incorporate some videosharing into my classroom, beginning with my students as a self-contained class and then branching out to collaborate with other 4th grade classes. Another idea I particularly liked was having students reach out to an expert which my students would love, but that would be something they would have to be prepared for. Starting with the basics is such important step so then students are able to build on the skills they already know while still maintaining their respectful mind and use of technology. In their chat on YouTube, Vicki Davis said "you can't have a world class education without the world; it's not talking to the world or at the world, it's interacting with the world" (Davis 2014). Understanding how to collaborate and have a conversation, without just talking at someone, is one of the important foundational skills that I focus on with my 4th graders. References T. (2014, January 16). Julie Lindsay & Vicki Davis on "Flattening Classrooms" Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZuwIhjQvA My Spotlight on Strategies (SOS) addresses the topic of conversation in the classroom. Now, as teachers, we all know that students are constantly talking and conversing on a frequent basis in the classroom. Why not take what students are already great at, and use it to their own advantage! Introducing and implementing purposeful, academic conversations in the classroom is a great way to provide students with opportunities to relate to their peers and to the content being taught, as opposed to the back-and-forth “telling” that happens often.
The example I shared for my SOS was an activity that I have used many times in my 4th grade classroom, Conversation Dots. I was introduced to this activity at a training on the Student-Centered Classroom. This activity gets students involved in a conversation with their peers, requiring them to share their ideas as well as listen to the ideas of their peers. This activity can be implemented into any lesson in any subject. Teaching students how to effectively have a conversation is an important life skill. Not only does conversation benefit students in the classroom, but it is also something that will be present all throughout their lives. Conversations help students deepen their understanding in a purposeful way. While Conversation Dots is an activity that is mostly used with paper and pencil, I have facilitated this in my 4th grade classroom using GAFE. I shared a Conversation Dots template with my students via Google Docs, which gave students access to the document and they could type their ideas. After typing their ideas in response to their question, students still had a verbal discussion about their responses. With 4th graders, typing is a challenging activity. I hope to build my students stamina with typing so that in the future they can type more detailed answers, and then can respond to their peers electronically via Google Docs. While digital media is very important and beneficial in this day and age, sometimes there are teachable moments that do not always lend itself to technology. Teaching students how to have a conversation is a skill that does not require digital media, but as students prove they have a good foundation of conversational skills, digital media can be introduced to support and build upon those skills. In my 4th grade classroom, I try to implement different digital media tools whenever possible. I have incorporated digital media tools into the different content areas that I teach and have found that my students are really enjoying using technology. While sometimes it is hectic getting things set up, explained, modeled and problem-solved, it is well worth it in the end as my students prove they are able to produce creative and one-of-a-kind work. I created a survey via Google Forms and shared it with my students, having them work with a partner or partners so answer the questions. The three questions I asked them were: 1. Why is digital media and technology important in the classroom? 2. How does digital media and technology help you be creative in the classroom? 3. Is there anything you would change about technology in the classroom? If so, what is it? Below are their responses: After reading these results, it is clear that my students enjoy using technology to help them achieve their learning (as most students would). As far as creativity goes (question #2), my favorite response was "it helps me be creative by letting us do assignments in different ways." This response in a way reinforces what was been my goal so far this year, which was to introduce different digital media tools to my students in hopes that they are able to use different tools to express themselves and their ideas. It seems they are understanding that there is not only one way to do things. Now my students know that if one tool is not right for the job, they get another one out of their toolbox and give it a try!
As educators, are we killing the creativity in our students without knowing it? Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk Do Schools Kill Creativity had me laughing while also making me feel sad and worried for the future of education. It's no secret that the system of education has changed over the years, creating many curricular changes and leaving some subjects by the wayside. Some of the effects these changes haven't truly been considered or thought out, which is hurting our students and their intelligence in the long run.
I found Sir Ken Robinson's views on intelligence to be quite spot on. His thoughts were: "one, it's diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain... intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn't divided into compartments. In fact, creativity -- which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value -- more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things" (Robinson 2006). After hearing Sir Ken Robinson's views, I believe that schools play a big role in the development of children, especially their sense of creativity. Our current system of education and its' philosophy is not helping that cause. To foster creativity in the classroom, students should be given opportunities to discover their learning through the means in which they prefer or choose. One way to support this philosophy is through the use of digital media tools. With a simple thing like access to the internet, there is a plethora of tools that encourage students to think outside of the box and find different solutions for problems, as opposed to solving a problem with one answer and only one path to find that answer. For example, if teaching how to add and subtract fractions in math, the teacher could pull many different strategies for students to manipulate. Students could watch a video on EdPuzzle (either one that the teacher created or a video from the EdPuzzle library) and the student is responsible for answering the embedded questions. The teacher could teach this lesson using the SmartBoard and have students manipulate the problems written on the board. Also using the SmartBoard the teacher could use Gynzy to show interactive manipulatives like fraction bars. Students could create their own version of this lesson using ShowMe, where they record themselves solving the problems as a way to teach their peers. The teacher could create a Kahoot or Quizizz as a formative assessment the includes problems from the lesson to see which students need reteaching and which students are ready for enrichment. As we know, not every student learns the same way, and not every student is strong in each subject. The important thing to remember is that... that's okay! As soon as we harp on students and drill this content into them, that is when they lose their drive and creativity. It is up to us as educators to make the curriculum accessible for each and every student, and digital media is a great way to do that while also keeping creativity alive in students. Resources: 1. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from http://www.showme.com/ 2. EDpuzzle. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://edpuzzle.com/ 3. Get the most out of your smart board. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://www.gynzy.com/en/corporate 4. Making Learning Awesome! (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://getkahoot.com/ 5. Quizizz: Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://quizizz.com/ 6. Robinson, K. (n.d.). Do schools kill creativity? Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity I created this presentation with the learning outcome in mind that students would become aware of the importance of using etiquette when working with technology. This is the first year that my school has implemented a PBIS behavior matrix which has laid the foundation for behavior expectations in the different areas of our school (classroom, hallway, cafeteria, recess, bathroom, and bus). One critical area that is missing from our matrix is technology. While planning this technology etiquette lesson, I knew that in order to engage my students’ synthesizing minds I had to make it real-world relevant so they could relate this information to other learning. I decided to add a performance task into my lesson, challenging students to become a writer for our school PBIS team, requiring them to brainstorm expectations to follow when using technology. This performance task has students thinking across disciplines and making learning connections between those different areas, powering up that synthesizing mind.
In Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner states that in order to achieve a disciplined mind, one must “approach the topic in a number of ways” (Gardner 2007 I created my media-infused presentation with just that: lots of different media that all convey the importance of etiquette with technology. Gardner states “any lesson is more likely to be understood if it has been approached through diverse entry points” (Gardner 2007). I included images, audio clips, videos, a sharing tool called Padlet, and a summarizing tool called Kahoot in my presentation to engage the disciplined minds of my students. All of these medias combined made for a very successful presentation that my students had a lot of fun with. My outcomes for this lesson were met as my students put their minds together to come up with some great behavior expectations to follow when using technology. Digital media for the win! Follow the link below or use the QR code to see my Google Slides presentation. References Gardner, H. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Padlet is the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://www.padlet.com/ Getakahoot.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2017, from http://www.getakahoot.com/ Google Slides Presentation I used eduClipper for the first time to find some resources for my upcoming fractions chapter. I was surprised by the number of resources available on eduClipper. One thing I liked was the amount of video resources available; this is beneficial to me since I am trying out a blended learning approach to math. I also clipped some anchor charts that will help introduce and reinforce the use of fraction vocabulary terms.
Here is the link to my eduClipper board (I used Google's URL shortener since the link provided was very lengthy). Resource: What you create and share matters! (n.d.). Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://educlipper.net/ As an activation strategy or a reflective writing activity I often have my students take a couple minutes to look at an image and reflect on it. On a 3-column See Think Wonder chart, students write down what they see in the image, what they think is happening in the image, and what questions they have about the image. I chose to use iPiccy to add text to a photo of Antarctica. I will use this as an activating strategy for our upcoming story we will read, Antarctic Journal. iPiccy was extremely easy to use and I can see this being a useful resource for me as well as for my students to use.
Resources: 1. What's it like in Antarctica? (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/antarctica environment/whats-it-like-in-Antarctica.php 2. IPiccy Photo Editor is Awesome! (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.ipiccy.com/ |
AuthorMy name is Emily Wolford and I am a 4th grade teacher in Harrisburg, PA currently working towards my Master's in Instructional Media through Wilkes University. Archives
March 2017
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