Hello, I am assuming this will be a space for the participants of the 21st Century Skills class to communicate. I am exited about tomorrow's class, this is a topic I am particularly interested in. I am the librarian at the Middle School and I look forward to meeting the other attendees, and the instructor! Vicki Wright
Like Vicki, I too am excited about the course but at the same time I am very anxious about it. I do not have the confidence that my students have when it comes to working with the technologies of today so I anticipate having some difficulties with completing the tasks required.
Hi, I'm also really looking forward to the course and have begun to explore some of the course content. What really struck me today was the sheer volume of interactions that occur every second on the web and the effect it must have on students who are growing up surrounded by this technology. Not only are many students interacting with more peers in more schools, states, countries and continents than I ever had the opportunity to - they are also interacting in such public and visual ways. Some questions that occur to me are how do we structure our schools so that we meet the needs of students by making learning as exciting as visiting Facebook? Is there a way to meet educational goals in the social commons students digitally inhabit? Are we measuring with our assessments what students really need to be successful in such a rapidly evolving world? Phew! There is so much to consider!
Well, I feel like I am walking in a “wiki” wonderland, leaving my digital footprints as I go. I am feeling the adrenalin flowing but also I am a little apprehensive right now. There is so much to learn and in such an unknown territory for me. I am glad to have such wonderful colleagues there to share in this adventure with.
I am also feeling many emotions, both overwhelmed and empowered at the potential of all these tools. I agree with Geri that it will not be easy to integrate these tools into the curricular standards that we need to meet - however, I believe we must make the effort. And truly the payoff will be more engaged, motivated students happily contributing in creative and collaborative ways. And because of this engagement and motivation they will be actively involved in more memorable experiences that will carry them through the test and into the future. It is scary, but I am willing with the help of my colleagues to create learning experiences incorporating the tools that we will be experimenting with in the class. By putting our heads together the possibilities are incredible. Our students are different today than they were say 10 years ago, so much more connected digitally. The challenge will be how to meet them where they are technologically and how to exploit all the wonderful informational and communication sources available at their fingertips to improve and enhance their educational experience. Together, I know we can do this!
Thought I'd try to jump into the technology, so here is the refelction blog I wrote for last Thursday's session....
I entered the library at the Silver Lake Middle School for a graduate course on The Three C’s of 21st Century Skills, expecting to start a course on more effective teaching tools and techniques for the classroom of the 21st Century. Little did I expect, though, that I would soon be immersed in a new world, certainly futuristic in a sense, of online and internet jargon, terms, websites and tools that were all foreign and strange to me. Now don’t get the wrong impression. I consider myself to be fairly technologically literate, having been in the IT corporate world for 22 years before my return to teaching. I am a frequent user of technology in the classroom, with web access, MS Office tools such as PowerPoint and Publisher, UnitedStreaming, TrackStar, YouTube and even a SmartBoard. At home I am an avid user of Facebook, and have used Skype to stay in touch with my daughter when she was in Ireland for a semester and to keep in contact with distant siblings and families. I surf, I blog, I search, I Bing, I Google, I Snapfish and I do a host of many other online activities. But today was different.
Wiki!
As soon as I entered the library and heard that term for the first time that I knew that this course was to be something different. I immediately felt that I was somewhere new, somewhere foreign and somewhat anxious that I did not know something that everyone else in the class must know! Soon there were other terms:
Kiva Twitter Chatzi Diigo Wikispaces Ning
And in those first minutes of the class we were introduced to many different online sites that all seemed so strange. A feeling of excitement, anticipation and anxiety came over me as we were continually being shown different products. We went to the computers to explore a Wiki site for the Innovation 3 course we were taking, and immediately found multiple pages and links that seemed to take us to many new sites, documents, menus and outlines. It all seemed too much to grasp as were explored the Wiki. But the idea was to make ourselves familiar with the format and structure of a Wiki site, and to try and learn how to navigate through the screens. Realizing that the intent was not to absorb all the material but to become comfortable with the movement through the screens, I then became more relaxed as I continued on the pages.
Prezi Xtranormal Flickr RSS Tagging Tweets
More terms and new jargon were soon introduced. Many of the products were quite sophisticated and intriguing, and I found myself wanting to learn how to use many of them. We were again at the computers signing up for many of these tools, creating new screen names and passwords, recording what I had signed onto and how I did that. An exercise had us sign onto a blog site where we read an entry about math education using global statistics and making numbers real. I saw how opening up classrooms to the entire world would help to make our teaching more relevant and meaningful. I do use an essential question in my own classroom, “How does this relate to the world around you?”, and I immediately began to get excited about using these 21st century tools to open up new doors of exploration for my own students. Of course I still had much to learn, but I was beginning to see the possibilities for my own education, as well as that of my students. The ability to link into colleagues and peers around the world, to share ideas, to become more creative in presenting material and to be able to utilize technology more effectively – all of these were coursing through my mind. But it’s a journey with many steps, and using the watermelon analogy, we will take it one slice at a time.
Funny, as I am typing this blog an email came across from Wikispaces, stating that I had signed up, and asking me if I was ready to create my own WikiSpaces page. Ummm…..not quite yet!
I share many of the same emotions of my colleagues. I feel as though I am travelling an unchartered course in unfamiliar waters. I am most comfortable in the privacy of my nondigitally imprinted self. I am willing to take "baby" steps, however, I don't know how far they will take me. I dip my toe in the digital ocean and find it veeeery Cold. BRRRRRR!
Here I am doing my first post. I am sure my posts will get better as I progress in this course. I am hoping that this course will help me with many of my fears I have with writing things online and attaching my name to it. I do admit I am on facebook but that was it before this class. Even being on that is known as a bad thing being a teacher even though I don't post anything too crazy.I am still skeptical with me blogging because of my name being attached to writing. But I guess I will learn that it is not a bad thing and I will be increasing my digital footprint! I am wondering how to incorporate this type of technology into my classroom with it being a first grade classroom.
Hi everyone, I am a grade 7 math teacher at Silver Lake Regional Middle School. I have always tried to stay current with technology that can be used in the classroom. So, I enrolled in this class feeling very confident.
However, I left last Tuesday's class feeling very "over-wiki-whelmed". I stepped away from it for a couple days and then started to use some fo the tools Dennis suggested to us. I am slowly but surely building confidence in navigating around the tools. I am still feeling unsure about how I will use all of these tools.
I did view Vicki's video that she posted on PING and I found it enlightening and it made me think about social networking in a different context other than Facebook.
One idea that I have had over the past few days is to use one of these tools to facilitate math competitions for the Middle School Math Team. Traditionally, we have had just one other school (in the next town over)with which to compete. Due to budget issues and the lack of funding for extracurricular activites in surrounding school the math team doesn't have meets as frequently as I would like.
I was wondering if I could find other math teams in other parts of the state or country who would be willing to have a math meet online using skype or some other video feed system. I thought I might use Twitter to search for other Middle School Math Teams.
Hello. This is my first post also. I agree also that I have a fear of posting certain things online. I have a facebook, but mostly just to catch up with friends. I am looking forward to learning and using all of the new tools that we will be learning in this course.
I've enjoyed reading your comments, and agree with all of them (well, those words that I could understand). I feel like a complete neophyte with all of this new information. I'm intrigued and a little overwhelmed, but mostly, I am determined to learn. I tend to adapt to change fairly slowly, so this could be a real challenge for me. And I certainly feel a kinship with my students as they encounter new concepts with varying degrees of trepidation. Onward into the fray!
I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments. It's very comforting for me to know that we share some of the same feelings. I too am a rookie to many of these new learning and sharing opportunities. As a 4th grade teacher, in some ways I feel 9 or 10 all over again. I'm both a little anxious about all the things I don't know, but also very excited about the tools I could be using with my class. I have resisted facebook, twitter, and blogging as areas where I could either get myself in trouble...or find myself totally immmersed (addicted). It's nice to know I have people to guide me as well as share the journey with.
Are we the problem or the solution? How do we make math compelling? How do we make students want to learn? How do we give them a purpose for memorizing multiplication tables and learning complicated formulas? What about other subjects? Is it possible to get students excited about prepositions or sentence structure? Can we foster creativity in learning or as Sir Kenneth Robinson states cause children to be “educated out of it.” Are we the problem or are we the solution?
There are so many reasons not to question our teaching practices. We’re too busy, we’ve always done it this way, we have to teach to the test, there is no extra time in the day. And, our reasons are in many ways true. Yet, we also may feel a sense of unease at the end of the day. Did we touch any hearts? Did we help to move students toward a more essential life? Did we do what we expect of our students – did we do our best?
An article like this - “Math Made Compelling: The Kiva Renaissance” – is an opportunity to stop and look deeply within ourselves. What are the personal connections we are helping students make to the subjects we teach? Jen Whiffin’s students analyzed data that they came to care about and learned how fortunate they were. In doing so, their math skills grew but so did their hearts.
This year these students have already (re)loaned $775 that has come back to them and have raised an additional $1,300. Each time they make a loan, students research, analyze, collaborate and use math skills. I have no doubt that this is a project they will remember throughout their lives. This is a project that as a teacher, I too would remember throughout my life.
If we are to incorporate the vital 21st Century Skills of creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem solving and communication and collaboration into our lessons, we must be prepared to simply begin. No doubt we will not be perfect or complete in our first efforts but perhaps that is not what is important. If we begin to reach out, we may be surprised by the arms that reach back and the hearts we touch.
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." -- Vincent Van Gogh
My earlier post was the reflection from last week's Kiva blog activity, so today I'll make some comments on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills article. I read the paper with a sense of agreement and acknowledgement, as we all have experienced the changing technologies and methods of learning over the years. We're here in this class continuing to upgrade our skills and technical knowledge. The main point that I took from the article was the tying of classroom learning to real world experiences - whether it be math learning, or language arts, science, foreign language - any of the disciplines we share with our students. We need to make it real so our students can then internalize the material and more importantly apply it to the real world. As a science teacher I always enjoy the teaching of tides, and land and sea breezes to my kids on the cape. They have all seen the changing of the current in the Cape Cod Canal, but never knew why! Or why traffic on the cape is dreadful in the summer, with those darn sea breezes cooling everything down so that the hordes off-Cape come on down over the bridges to escape the heat. Of course this is done tongue-in-cheek, but it does make it real for the students. The challenge is to get them to think outside of the text and see the world about them. And if we can become more literate in technology tools so that we can better converse with our students and colleagues – all the better. Another thought…I had the chance to play with Xtranormal.com, the site to create an animated video. I made a 2-minute video over the weekend which I then used in class on Monday to introduce an Open-Response assignment. It really was a hit with the kids, and I gave them highlights of how it was made, and encouraged them to explore the free site when it comes time to do projects in any of their classes. We’ll see how that goes.
As evidence of my inexperience- this is the second time I have attempted to comment here. The first attempt evaporated?!
Boy, rewriting a comment causes it (and me) to lose some energy.
I am very excited to learn about the digital tools that we have been introduced to. The possibilites do seem endless. I am concerned, though, that I will have to be very careful not to lose track of the content that my students should be learning while they make use of these tools.
21st century skills won't get our students too far if they have an inadequate understanding of history or science, etc. Right??
Kivamath post response In response to the article we read as a class about linking students to their world for "real world" lessons in compassion and math. I am excited to read this article at this particular moment in time. I am a middle school special education teacher working with students with autism and asperger's syndrome. This is my 2nd year at the middle school and my intention here is to build a teaching repertoire with little distinction between work and play. I can see where my math program could use many improvements after reading this article on the Internet. I understand what she meant by "follow your heart", when you are starting off the curriculum. Emotional engagement is a very powerful medium when it comes to inspiring young minds. I saw a question posed in the article asking if the content was grade appropriate. In a safe and supported environment this information could be very empowering for a young child. Understanding that you can have an impact at such a young age would do wonders for a young persons self-esteem. Students might just learn to enjoy math and see it as a wing man rather than a hindrance. Posted by AnnieB at 2:58 PM
I’m starting my 36th year at Silver Lake. I taught 7th & 8th grade Math for 11 years and then in 1985 started the computer class which I have taught ever since. Needless to say things have changed tremendously since the class was started. It has been a wonderful journey because the landscape is constantly changing.
We started with Radio Shack TRS-80s & Commodore Pets. We moved on to Apple IIs, Apple Macs, and then finally Windows machines. Somewhere along the way the Web was developed and now we have Web 2.0. You can’t get complacent or the technology will pass you by. That is the reason I decided to join this class. I was starting to get the feeling that I had been slowing down and was starting to fall behind.
So now I’m ready to wiki, blog, NING, Twitter, Wordle and anything else Dennis sends our way.
Had some interesting experiences at school today...I asked the kids if they knew about WIKI and half the class is using them in the Media classes! So we signed onto their sites and I saw what they had. What a great way for interdisciplinary work. Now I have to find a way to use them in my own class. Would love to see if I can incorporate something like Wiki into homework assignments or project tasks. Dennis??
Oh my gosh! You have all captured bits and pieces of what I have been feeling since our first week of class! I'm glad I'm not alone and am feeling a bit more brave. I'm still confused on the sites. I'm even having trouble navigating around this blog site(s)?. I can't seem to hold on to the screen where everyone's individual blog posts are. Anyway, as I think about the possibilities for my classroom which are still completely unclear to me, I realize I just need to get more competent at using the web myself first. I'm not sure what next.
I was just looking through these again and realized that I am not listed as a contributor even though I had written a post. I wonder what I need to do.
Hello, I am assuming this will be a space for the participants of the 21st Century Skills class to communicate. I am exited about tomorrow's class, this is a topic I am particularly interested in. I am the librarian at the Middle School and I look forward to meeting the other attendees, and the instructor!
ReplyDeleteVicki Wright
Oops I typed exited instead of excited - I guess I was toooooo excited!!! Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHello fellow classmates.
ReplyDeleteLike Vicki, I too am excited about the course but at the same time I am very anxious about it. I do not have the confidence that my students have when it comes to working with the technologies of today so I anticipate having some difficulties with completing the tasks required.
I look forward to any and all help from everyone.
Mr.Mean (as in mathematically average)
ie: Joe Basile
Hi, I'm also really looking forward to the course and have begun to explore some of the course content. What really struck me today was the sheer volume of interactions that occur every second on the web and the effect it must have on students who are growing up surrounded by this technology. Not only are many students interacting with more peers in more schools, states, countries and continents than I ever had the opportunity to - they are also interacting in such public and visual ways. Some questions that occur to me are how do we structure our schools so that we meet the needs of students by making learning as exciting as visiting Facebook? Is there a way to meet educational goals in the social commons students digitally inhabit? Are we measuring with our assessments what students really need to be successful in such a rapidly evolving world? Phew! There is so much to consider!
ReplyDeleteWell, I feel like I am walking in a “wiki” wonderland, leaving my digital footprints as I go. I am feeling the adrenalin flowing but also I am a little apprehensive right now. There is so much to learn and in such an unknown territory for me. I am glad to have such wonderful colleagues there to share in this adventure with.
ReplyDeleteDigitdiva ( a.k.a. Roberta Cappella)
I am also feeling many emotions, both overwhelmed and empowered at the potential of all these tools. I agree with Geri that it will not be easy to integrate these tools into the curricular standards that we need to meet - however, I believe we must make the effort. And truly the payoff will be more engaged, motivated students happily contributing in creative and collaborative ways. And because of this engagement and motivation they will be actively involved in more memorable experiences that will carry them through the test and into the future. It is scary, but I am willing with the help of my colleagues to create learning experiences incorporating the tools that we will be experimenting with in the class. By putting our heads together the possibilities are incredible. Our students are different today than they were say 10 years ago, so much more connected digitally. The challenge will be how to meet them where they are technologically and how to exploit all the wonderful informational and communication sources available at their fingertips to improve and enhance their educational experience. Together, I know we can do this!
ReplyDeleteThought I'd try to jump into the technology, so here is the refelction blog I wrote for last Thursday's session....
ReplyDeleteI entered the library at the Silver Lake Middle School for a graduate course on The Three C’s of 21st Century Skills, expecting to start a course on more effective teaching tools and techniques for the classroom of the 21st Century. Little did I expect, though, that I would soon be immersed in a new world, certainly futuristic in a sense, of online and internet jargon, terms, websites and tools that were all foreign and strange to me. Now don’t get the wrong impression. I consider myself to be fairly technologically literate, having been in the IT corporate world for 22 years before my return to teaching. I am a frequent user of technology in the classroom, with web access, MS Office tools such as PowerPoint and Publisher, UnitedStreaming, TrackStar, YouTube and even a SmartBoard. At home I am an avid user of Facebook, and have used Skype to stay in touch with my daughter when she was in Ireland for a semester and to keep in contact with distant siblings and families. I surf, I blog, I search, I Bing, I Google, I Snapfish and I do a host of many other online activities. But today was different.
Wiki!
As soon as I entered the library and heard that term for the first time that I knew that this course was to be something different. I immediately felt that I was somewhere new, somewhere foreign and somewhat anxious that I did not know something that everyone else in the class must know! Soon there were other terms:
Kiva Twitter Chatzi Diigo Wikispaces Ning
And in those first minutes of the class we were introduced to many different online sites that all seemed so strange. A feeling of excitement, anticipation and anxiety came over me as we were continually being shown different products. We went to the computers to explore a Wiki site for the Innovation 3 course we were taking, and immediately found multiple pages and links that seemed to take us to many new sites, documents, menus and outlines. It all seemed too much to grasp as were explored the Wiki. But the idea was to make ourselves familiar with the format and structure of a Wiki site, and to try and learn how to navigate through the screens. Realizing that the intent was not to absorb all the material but to become comfortable with the movement through the screens, I then became more relaxed as I continued on the pages.
Prezi Xtranormal Flickr RSS Tagging Tweets
More terms and new jargon were soon introduced. Many of the products were quite sophisticated and intriguing, and I found myself wanting to learn how to use many of them. We were again at the computers signing up for many of these tools, creating new screen names and passwords, recording what I had signed onto and how I did that. An exercise had us sign onto a blog site where we read an entry about math education using global statistics and making numbers real. I saw how opening up classrooms to the entire world would help to make our teaching more relevant and meaningful. I do use an essential question in my own classroom, “How does this relate to the world around you?”, and I immediately began to get excited about using these 21st century tools to open up new doors of exploration for my own students. Of course I still had much to learn, but I was beginning to see the possibilities for my own education, as well as that of my students. The ability to link into colleagues and peers around the world, to share ideas, to become more creative in presenting material and to be able to utilize technology more effectively – all of these were coursing through my mind. But it’s a journey with many steps, and using the watermelon analogy, we will take it one slice at a time.
Funny, as I am typing this blog an email came across from Wikispaces, stating that I had signed up, and asking me if I was ready to create my own WikiSpaces page. Ummm…..not quite yet!
I share many of the same emotions of my colleagues. I feel as though I am travelling an unchartered course in unfamiliar waters. I am most comfortable in the privacy of my nondigitally imprinted self. I am willing to take "baby" steps, however, I don't know how far they will take me. I dip my toe in the digital ocean and find it veeeery Cold. BRRRRRR!
ReplyDeleteTerrified Tina
Here I am doing my first post. I am sure my posts will get better as I progress in this course. I am hoping that this course will help me with many of my fears I have with writing things online and attaching my name to it. I do admit I am on facebook but that was it before this class. Even being on that is known as a bad thing being a teacher even though I don't post anything too crazy.I am still skeptical with me blogging because of my name being attached to writing. But I guess I will learn that it is not a bad thing and I will be increasing my digital footprint! I am wondering how to incorporate this type of technology into my classroom with it being a first grade classroom.
ReplyDeleteOff to make my footprint bigger (carefully)!!
Hi everyone, I am a grade 7 math teacher at Silver Lake Regional Middle School. I have always tried to stay current with technology that can be used in the classroom. So, I enrolled in this class feeling very confident.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I left last Tuesday's class feeling very "over-wiki-whelmed". I stepped away from it for a couple days and then started to use some fo the tools Dennis suggested to us. I am slowly but surely building confidence in navigating around the tools. I am still feeling unsure about how I will use all of these tools.
I did view Vicki's video that she posted on PING and I found it enlightening and it made me think about social networking in a different context other than Facebook.
One idea that I have had over the past few days is to use one of these tools to facilitate math competitions for the Middle School Math Team. Traditionally, we have had just one other school (in the next town over)with which to compete. Due to budget issues and the lack of funding for extracurricular activites in surrounding school the math team doesn't have meets as frequently as I would like.
I was wondering if I could find other math teams in other parts of the state or country who would be willing to have a math meet online using skype or some other video feed system. I thought I might use Twitter to search for other Middle School Math Teams.
See you all on Tuesday.
Pam Sanford
I'm back from Peaks Island, Portland, ME. Great trip.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful garden of reflections I find here. I am impressed with each of you. You are models for your students.
What does learning look like? See above.
What does a PLN look like in the making? See above.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
Dennis
Hello. This is my first post also. I agree also that I have a fear of posting certain things online. I have a facebook, but mostly just to catch up with friends. I am looking forward to learning and using all of the new tools that we will be learning in this course.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading your comments, and agree with all of them (well, those words that I could understand). I feel like a complete neophyte with all of this new information. I'm intrigued and a little overwhelmed, but mostly, I am determined to learn. I tend to adapt to change fairly slowly, so this could be a real challenge for me. And I certainly feel a kinship with my students as they encounter new concepts with varying degrees of trepidation. Onward into the fray!
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading everyone's comments. It's very comforting for me to know that we share some of the same feelings. I too am a rookie to many of these new learning and sharing opportunities. As a 4th grade teacher, in some ways I feel 9 or 10 all over again. I'm both a little anxious about all the things I don't know, but also very excited about the tools I could be using with my class. I have resisted facebook, twitter, and blogging as areas where I could either get myself in trouble...or find myself totally immmersed (addicted). It's nice to know I have people to guide me as well as share the journey with.
ReplyDeleteAre we the problem or the solution?
ReplyDeleteHow do we make math compelling? How do we make students want to learn? How do we give them a purpose for memorizing multiplication tables and learning complicated formulas? What about other subjects? Is it possible to get students excited about prepositions or sentence structure? Can we foster creativity in learning or as Sir Kenneth Robinson states cause children to be “educated out of it.” Are we the problem or are we the solution?
There are so many reasons not to question our teaching practices. We’re too busy, we’ve always done it this way, we have to teach to the test, there is no extra time in the day. And, our reasons are in many ways true. Yet, we also may feel a sense of unease at the end of the day. Did we touch any hearts? Did we help to move students toward a more essential life? Did we do what we expect of our students – did we do our best?
An article like this - “Math Made Compelling: The Kiva Renaissance” – is an opportunity to stop and look deeply within ourselves. What are the personal connections we are helping students make to the subjects we teach? Jen Whiffin’s students analyzed data that they came to care about and learned how fortunate they were. In doing so, their math skills grew but so did their hearts.
This year these students have already (re)loaned $775 that has come back to them and have raised an additional $1,300. Each time they make a loan, students research, analyze, collaborate and use math skills. I have no doubt that this is a project they will remember throughout their lives. This is a project that as a teacher, I too would remember throughout my life.
If we are to incorporate the vital 21st Century Skills of creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem solving and communication and collaboration into our lessons, we must be prepared to simply begin. No doubt we will not be perfect or complete in our first efforts but perhaps that is not what is important. If we begin to reach out, we may be surprised by the arms that reach back and the hearts we touch.
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."
-- Vincent Van Gogh
My earlier post was the reflection from last week's Kiva blog activity, so today I'll make some comments on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills article. I read the paper with a sense of agreement and acknowledgement, as we all have experienced the changing technologies and methods of learning over the years. We're here in this class continuing to upgrade our skills and technical knowledge. The main point that I took from the article was the tying of classroom learning to real world experiences - whether it be math learning, or language arts, science, foreign language - any of the disciplines we share with our students. We need to make it real so our students can then internalize the material and more importantly apply it to the real world. As a science teacher I always enjoy the teaching of tides, and land and sea breezes to my kids on the cape. They have all seen the changing of the current in the Cape Cod Canal, but never knew why! Or why traffic on the cape is dreadful in the summer, with those darn sea breezes cooling everything down so that the hordes off-Cape come on down over the bridges to escape the heat. Of course this is done tongue-in-cheek, but it does make it real for the students. The challenge is to get them to think outside of the text and see the world about them. And if we can become more literate in technology tools so that we can better converse with our students and colleagues – all the better.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought…I had the chance to play with Xtranormal.com, the site to create an animated video. I made a 2-minute video over the weekend which I then used in class on Monday to introduce an Open-Response assignment. It really was a hit with the kids, and I gave them highlights of how it was made, and encouraged them to explore the free site when it comes time to do projects in any of their classes. We’ll see how that goes.
And there we are…another slice of the watermelon!
As evidence of my inexperience- this is the second time I have attempted to comment here. The first attempt evaporated?!
ReplyDeleteBoy, rewriting a comment causes it (and me) to lose some energy.
I am very excited to learn about the digital tools that we have been introduced to. The possibilites do seem endless. I am concerned, though, that I will have to be very careful not to lose track of the content that my students should be learning while they make use of these tools.
21st century skills won't get our students too far if they have an inadequate understanding of history or science, etc. Right??
Kivamath post response
ReplyDeleteIn response to the article we read as a class about linking students to their world for "real world" lessons in compassion and math.
I am excited to read this article at this particular moment in time. I am a middle school special education teacher working with students with autism and asperger's syndrome. This is my 2nd year at the middle school and my intention here is to build a teaching repertoire with little distinction between work and play.
I can see where my math program could use many improvements after reading this article on the Internet. I understand what she meant by "follow your heart", when you are starting off the curriculum. Emotional engagement is a very powerful medium when it comes to inspiring young minds. I saw a question posed in the article asking if the content was grade appropriate. In a safe and supported environment this information could be very empowering for a young child. Understanding that you can have an impact at such a young age would do wonders for a young persons self-esteem. Students might just learn to enjoy math and see it as a wing man rather than a hindrance.
Posted by AnnieB at 2:58 PM
Hello Everybody,
ReplyDeleteI’m starting my 36th year at Silver Lake. I taught 7th & 8th grade Math for 11 years and then in 1985 started the computer class which I have taught ever since. Needless to say things have changed tremendously since the class was started. It has been a wonderful journey because the landscape is constantly changing.
We started with Radio Shack TRS-80s & Commodore Pets. We moved on to Apple IIs, Apple Macs, and then finally Windows machines. Somewhere along the way the Web was developed and now we have Web 2.0. You can’t get complacent or the technology will pass you by. That is the reason I decided to join this class. I was starting to get the feeling that I had been slowing down and was starting to fall behind.
So now I’m ready to wiki, blog, NING, Twitter, Wordle and anything else Dennis sends our way.
I’m back in the race!
Steve Hurlbut
Had some interesting experiences at school today...I asked the kids if they knew about WIKI and half the class is using them in the Media classes! So we signed onto their sites and I saw what they had. What a great way for interdisciplinary work. Now I have to find a way to use them in my own class. Would love to see if I can incorporate something like Wiki into homework assignments or project tasks. Dennis??
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! You have all captured bits and pieces of what I have been feeling since our first week of class! I'm glad I'm not alone and am feeling a bit more brave. I'm still confused on the sites. I'm even having trouble navigating around this blog site(s)?. I can't seem to hold on to the screen where everyone's individual blog posts are. Anyway, as I think about the possibilities for my classroom which are still completely unclear to me, I realize I just need to get more competent at using the web myself first. I'm not sure what next.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't my picture post with my comment?
ReplyDelete@lparker - Not sure. Does it show up in your dashboard? - the page that comes up when you log into Blogger.
ReplyDeleteDennis
Interesting. My picture doesn't show either with the above comment. It did show on earlier comments. Must be a problem at the Blogger server.
ReplyDeleteI was just looking through these again and realized that I am not listed as a contributor even though I had written a post. I wonder what I need to do.
ReplyDeleteTina