I started using Seesaw in the classroom last year after having a friend of mine send me an adorable video of her kindergarten son reading his journal in class. I loved how the student shared his work with his family, and she was able to share it with me, even though we live states away and I would likely never have the opportunity to see his kindergarten work! I instantly signed up for Seesaw and haven't looked back.
I had my 1st and 2nd graders last year use Seesaw on the iPads in class. They loved reading and showing their work to their families, and the families loved the glimpse into the classroom. I loved that it was all very secure (parents sign up with a special QR code that links to their students journal, the teacher approves them-along with all student work- and everything is private to only the approved students, parents, and teachers of the class. This year with my 2nd and 3rd graders, we have chromebooks, and although my students are allowed to share their work in whichever way they choose to, most of my students elect to do blog posts by creating notes that their family and other classmates can see and comment on. Most of the time they post their text response related to their language arts work for the unit, or their journal prompt response. It is such an easy and fun way to add audience and give students a voice using the internet in a very safe, secure, and powerful way.
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As I dove into the resources on digital literacy, I felt very confident about my 2nd and 3rd graders' abilities and skill sets when it comes to using digital tools for learning and creating. This year my students have learned a handful of new tools, and I must say that as the teacher of this group of students I simply have to introduce a new tool to them, and show them an example of how it could be used, and they will take off with it, figure out all of the features, and teach each other and myself.
Teaching digital literacy sounds pretty complicated, as it encompasses a lot, and I think a lot of teachers who did not grow up or begin their carreers with technology in the classroom feel overwhelmed by the amount of information and the possibilities out there. As a younger teacher at my school site with mostly veteran teachers, I feel that it has been my responsibility to intrucude my collegaues to a lot of digital tools. All of my colleagues are very open to trying the tools, and they find that once they use a tool in the classroom, it sticks with the students and they are able to manage it quite easily. I think that is the best approach to digital literacy. Explore one thing at a time, with your students. Have no expectation that this will be something you use in the classroom on a regular basis- just test it out and see if it works for you and your class. Students today are so used to being around techology constantly that it comes easily to mose of them, and has really become our responsibility to teach them how to use it for learning, and in an appropriate manner- which is why digital citizenship goes hand in hand with digital literacy. Throughout this program I have noticed that the things we study and discuss during our coursework or class affect me as a teacher in different ways. More often than not I am inspired to try something new in my classroom, make adjustments to the way I am already doing something, see the benefits in things that I have already implemented in my classroom, or remind me of valuable teaching strategies that I have forgotten about over time. It causes me to reflect on things that I do in my classroom, and to improve upon them in some way.
When we learned about creativity last semester, I changed up some schedules and procedures in my classroom to allow my students to make more choices and have more creative freedom in their work. As we studied action research, I started collecting data on my students and analyzing it for trends. When we talk about goal setting and student agency, I am reminded to keep up on the systems in place in my classroom and not let them slide off the agenda, because I realize the importance of them. As I’m learning and trying new things, I am creating my own inquiry cycle that is basically just me asking myself how I can be a better, more effective, and more innovative teacher. Thinking about the 7-10 year olds I have in my 2/3 combo classroom, there are many ways that I do, or can relate digital citizenship content to them directly. One thing I have done is show my students fake content from the internet. My favorite example is when I found a photo shopped picture of a man riding a giant chicken on April Fool's Day last year. I now use that picture to "teach" my class a mini lesson on these giant chickens that live in New Zealand, and talk about how you can actually ride them. After I tell them it's not true- we have a discussion about how anyone can make a website, and write on it whatever they'd like, even if it's entirely made up. This year I incorporated this element into a lesson on using the internet to research topics online. Using humor to connect to my classroom audience helps them connect to the point I am trying to make. Another way I can relate to my students is by learning what they are interested in on the internet. For example, I know that my current group of students mostly uses the internet to play Minecraft, and to browse youtube. Youtube is one of the biggest problem areas I've seen with children using the internet. It's easy for them to keep clicking recommended videos and find themselves watching something entirely inappropriate for their age, even if they started on a kid-friendly channel or video. I think that this would be one very relatable digital citizenship lesson for my students. Finally, I know that my students are interested in communicating with other people online. In my classroom we use Seesaw as a blog, and parent communication platform. I have had issues with students using their class work time instead of posting their own work or writing useful comments to chat with each other via the comments section of the blog. I can see that my students are ready and eager to communicate online in this way, however they need to learn how and when it is appropriate to do so. I am trying to teach them that on our class blog, we post our work and we can write useful comments back to other students about their work. For the time being, I had to take away the comment feature from them until they can begin to practice useful comment writing. This is where my Communication Lesson Plan will come in.
Reading Dervin’s work feels a little bit ironic. As you consider a text on sensemaking, one would hope that it was possible to make good sense of the reading about such a topic. However, when I read the text from Dervin, I found myself thinking more about how I was going to make sense of the content than I expected to. The main comprehension strategies I used to study the passage were note-taking and re-reading. As I tackled this complicated text about an abstract topic, I made sure that I was reading for understanding. When I had finished reading a section or sentence that I didn’t understand, I went back and looked at it again, trying to pull out key words or details that could help me make sense of what the author was trying to describe. From my own reading notes, I was able to conclude that sensemaking is about information and interaction. It’s the order of a system and how the user of said system bends to meet it. Sensemaking is related to personal experiences and the way people use information. Using the graphics and video of how other people interpret the reading about sensemaking helped me to understand it more thoroughly. After interacting with these inputs, I have concluded that sensemaking involves information meeting people’s minds where they are at. It’s a lot like bridging a gap and using differentiation strategies to meet people on the same level of thinking and understanding regarding a specific topic. Each person when they read Dervin’s text- or try to make sense of anything else that they see, read or experience brings with them their own lens, their own unique perspective, biases, misconceptions, life experiences, patterns of thinking and so much more when attempting to make sense of the task at hand. Thinking about my students in my classroom this concept feels overwhelming and frustrating- to try to meet every child where they are when I am presenting information. I must remember that all of my students are coming from different places of learning and understanding than myself and each other. This explains why I can teach a math concept 5 different ways, and the “Oh, I get it.” moment comes at a different time and place for nearly all of my students. They already have their own ideas about math, how numbers work, how their own brains work, whether or not they believe they are good at math, and so much more that affects the way they make sense of new information. If I had to teach sensemaking using Dervin’s writing to a group of high school students, I would probably approach it with a close reading jigsaw. I would split this text up into small sections and have students highlight only very important keywords, phrases and ideas. I would have students represent the information they obtained from the reading visually with words and pictures, connections, questions, and vocabulary; and then share out their work with their peers. Students would be encouraged to take their time and ask a lot of questions about the text. The class would have a discussion after this reading of the text and jigsaw activity. It wouldn’t be a closing discussion, rather a conversation starter about what sensemaking is and how it applies to student’s lives. I selected this graphic to represent sensemaking, because I feel that when I personally try to make sense of something, I need to communicate ideas with another person on the same topic. Whether that is being done in a face to face conversation, over the phone, via email or text, video, blog, article, etc. I find that when I have other people’s ideas to work with and someone to bounce my own ideas off of, making sense of something complex becomes so much simpler.
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AuthorKayla Bryant is an elementary school teacher in Napa, CA. This year she teaches a 2/3 combo class. She keeps a journal with funny quotes from her students, and enjoys learning and laughing alongside them. Some of her main educational interests are related to goal setting, growth mindset, and creativity. Archives
July 2018
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