Joining this Innovative Learning program in August, I had very limited ideas and expectations of what it would be like. I never actually thought I would get my master's degree, but the opportunity presented itself, and here I am right in the middle of the journey! This semester has been a lot of things for me- but most of all it has been inspiring. I have already taken little bits and pieces from this program and implemented them into my teaching practice. Looking back at all of my posted work and blogs from the past few months, it's easy for me to see what stood out to me the most- and to recall what impacted me as a teacher, and spoke to me as a learner myself. I can immediately think of three main concepts that were explored this semester that I have taken to heart.
I am a leader. This program has given me more confidence in myself as a teacher and a professional. I feel good about what I am doing in my classroom. I was asked by my principal to share at a staff meeting for the first time about implementing goal setting and student led conferences with students. I learned how easy it can be to do research in my own classroom, and watching other teachers around the world give TED talks, write articles and blogs, and speak at conferences, etc. has made me realize that my research and ideas have the potential to be powerful, and that I actually have the ability to influence changes in education in both big and small ways. I feel that obtaining this degree will also enhance these opportunities for me. Our student's futures are unpredictable. Throughout the learning in this course, it has been touched on repeatedly- by authors, speakers, writers, professors and teachers- how the rapidly accelerating pace of change in technology and development of information and ideas is putting us in a context of teaching students for a future that we have no understanding of. This has reminded me to focus on those 21st century skills more in my classroom and to be a little less concerned with things like reading logs, homework, math facts, etc. It is the learning strategies that the students are going to need. We as teachers will never know it all in this ever changing environment, and our students will be in the same position regardless of the career field they choose. We need to train them to be the creators of the new content, the authors, artists, leaders and activists that the future needs. Creativity is a valuable learning activity. I have learned how important it is to be mindful of this on a daily basis- it has helped me to see different kinds of potential in my students. Take the student who is often distracted and never seems to be paying attention, and observe them during art class to find untapped potential, unlimited creativity and uncontrollable focus. We have to remember that these students might learn in a way that doesn't look traditional, but they are just as valuable as the child who has all of their multiplication facts memorized. In taking creativity into account more in my classroom- I allowed the third graders time to create either a song, skit, or dance while the second graders were at a special music practice- and was amazed with what they came up with in 20 minutes. This was another reminder to me that children are born creative, and like Sir Ken Robinson speaks about, we tend to educate them out of it. I have also allowed the implementation of doodling in my classroom. The rule about doodling is that the students must still be able to do their work, and participate in the classroom conversation and/or partner talks. The majority of my class now elects to bring a blank paper, pencil and clipboard to the carpet during read aloud time- and they are completely able to multi-task drawing and listening to the story. Some of them even illustrate what they hear in the story, and it's adorable. As their guide, I'm trying my best not to control what they draw during doodling time, or to even suggest that they draw something from the story- but I must admit that having been brought up in the traditional 20th century classroom setting, and being a teacher (if you've ever met one of us you might know that we enjoy being in charge- just a little bit) this is my newest challenge. I'm excited to find out what other challenges I will face in the upcoming two semesters of this program, and what other little pieces I can take from the learning and make my own.
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As an elementary school teacher with 2nd and 3rd grade students filling her classroom, I believe that my feelings and thoughts about flipped learning and challenge based learning will vary greatly from teachers of middle or high school students. With that being said, I will explore the two within the context of my teaching, and that of other grade levels and subjects, here.
Flipped Learning This is a concept I have heard of over the past few years. It involves students doing some learning at home and the majority of the work at school. I appreciate this concept, particularly because I have felt that traditional homework is a waste of time for both the student and the teacher. It adds stress to the student and work for the teacher with little to no feedback and often no learning value. My Classroom Context This year in my 2/3 combo class, with authorization and encouragement from the principal, I have eliminated traditional homework and only send home collaborative family projects related to something we are studying or discussing at school once per month. Students are also expected to read at home 20-30 minutes 4-5 days per week, and to work on an online math program at a self- driven pace to supplement the time they spend on it at school. I have chosen this model to relieve stress from young learners, to allow students to spend more quality time with their families, to relieve frustration of parents who have limited understanding of new math teaching strategies, and to give students more freedom in what they learn and do outside of school- with extracurricular activities in mind. Another driving force behind this model is that there tends to be one or two students in a class who do not complete their homework. At this age, it tends to be more of a family issue than a student issue. If a 7-9 year old student is never reminded or prompted to complete his/her homework by an adult at home, or given time and space to do so, it is rare that it is going to happen. I believe that these students do need to take responsibility for their own learning, but at a developmentally appropriate age. Other Classroom Contexts As students get older, I do see value in being able to manage some homework as a part of their daily lives- and for this age group, I think flipped learning is a great idea as it has the potential to allow students to spend their time at home doing valuable learning as opposed to busy work, to receive more feedback from their teachers, and to explore concepts alone with the chance to process and inquire before coming together for a conversation or activity related to the learning. Cons The biggest challenge I see with flipped learning is that students do not have equitable access to technology at their homes, so students without that access would be either unable to complete the assignment, or would be spending class time watching the content and missing out on the designed accompanying activity, singling them out and defeating the purpose of the flip. Pros Using content as homework though, does eliminate the stress and frustration many students feel when working to complete assignments at home. Students could record questions about the content for the teacher to answer during the following session if they are confused. This seems like an extremely valuable model of teaching and learning, and while I do see it's challenges- I hope we are able to overcome those and give learners in the upcoming years more valuable home learning experiences. Summary I will not be using flipped learning for my current research project, or in my elementary class this year. I would definitely consider flipped learning in the future, and especially for older grade level learners. I can see myself sending home content videos to elementary school students to watch and reflect on, and being able to come together to have a discussion or work on a project would be very nice. At this point in time I still have too many issues with the equity of the flipped model at an elementary school level to implement it, but I can see that this is where we are heading in the future and I am excited to see it happen. Challenge Based Learning Challenge based learning is something that I have seen a desperate need for in education, especially in recent years. After looking at Apple's model for CBL, I can actually see how this type of learning is weaving it's way into modern curriculum and teaching practice. There are elements of CBL in PBL (project based learning) which has become a prominent method of teaching and learning in the past few years. My Classroom Context This year I have a group of very capable students, and I often feel that they become easily bored with the curriculum or content and are in need of a challenge. When I give these students group work, or have them write down questions they have- they light up. They come alive and interact with each other, they engage in problem solving, and they are completely immersed in the work. Our new language arts curriculum begins each unit with an "essential question" that students explore throughout the content of the unit, which is why I feel that this model is already presenting itself to us in small ways. Recently, I created a math challenge binder, out of necessity, for students who find the math work we are exploring too easy. If they can quickly show me they can understand and apply the current concepts, they can go pick a challenge page out of this binder to work on. They are multiple step problems that build on and extend concepts we've covered, and add an element of puzzle or something to be figured out. The students work together on these, and they talk about strategies, draw, write, sketch, inference and eventually agree on an answer. If students could always be this engaged in the learning, school would be a very different place than it is currently in the majority of classroom settings. Other Classroom Contexts This model seems to me to be capable of spanning all grade levels and content areas. Students love to be challenged and tend to rise to the occasion when presented with one. It seems like a great way to get students involved in the world around them through learning and working together. Cons The only negative that I can think of in relation to this model of teaching and learning are those students who are unable, unmotivated or unwilling to participate in group learning. This can be a challenge for them and for others in their group. Maybe it is possible that this student explores the challenge on their own rather than in a group. This model could pose a challenge for educators who are not used to teaching in this type of environment. Overall, I think this is an excellent model and can't think of many reasons not to use it! Pros Challenge based learning allows students to interact with and have an impact on their real world community. You start with a theme and a question and then there is a challenge that students begin to explore possible solutions to. This is unique because there isn't a specific answer that students are trying to find, but probably every group of students who explored the challenge would come to a different conclusion, or have a slightly different outcome based on their approach to the challenge. Students are engaged in high levels of questioning, evaluating and problem solving. Students are often collaborating as well, which provides them with 21st century skills they will need in the workplace. Summary I can already see that I use a bit of challenged based learning in my classroom and I definitely plan to use more. I am going to explore more resources for creating challenged based learning activities within my classroom context. I can see this being helpful for my current group of students, and for all my future students as well! I am looking forward to more curriculum switching to this model and allowing students and educators a little more freedom in the discoveries they make while learning together. I'm collecting data on growth mindset and goal setting from my 2nd and 3rd grade students. I am collecting this data for my research project- which aims to discover if there is a correlation between growth mindset and goal setting in relation to student math achievement.
Quantitative Data
This weekend I watched 5 videos on creativity, the brain, motivation and changing education paradigms. Each video is linked here, with my main take-aways from watching them. The new culture of learning in a world of constant flux | John Seeley Brown
Key Ideas: John Seeley Brown spoke about the rapid pace at which our world is changing, and he alluded to the fact that there is no end in sight, and how everything that’s happening now has to do with creating new things, rather than delivering old, explicit ideas. It is now essential to be curious- students have immediate access to so much information today. Seeley says that the ability to participate in study groups is the most effective indicator of how well a student will do in college- because these groups make knowledge personal, they allow students to teach each other, explain, analyze, create, problem solve, etc. He spoke about how we are now able to create context and not simply content. We can figure out how to make things go viral. We can blog and have a conversation rather than just writing about what we know. We need to create a culture of lifelong learning for our students, because that is the world we are living in- and we don’t know what more the future will hold. My Thoughts: We as teachers should focus on equipping students with skills and allowing them to explore and create, because anything we could explicitly teach them- any facts, information, connection- is readily available to them at all times via a quick search or download on a mobile device. We should be allowing them all the time they want and need to work together with others. I think we as teachers often think the collaboration skill is important to help develop- but tend to forget what a huge impact study groups can have on student engagement and learning. What I’m wondering about here is the students who are unmotivated to participate in a group learning setting- because as he spoke about college students, this was an elective situation. I wonder if we could make it elective in our classrooms as well- what if these groups were so successful that unmotivated students would get tired of working alone on “text book” work and decide on their own accord to join a group? Five minds for the future | Howard Gardner Key Ideas: Gardner spoke about how in the past people would work hard to get an education and then be done learning- they’d use what they knew to get through the rest of their career. Today however, we are in a culture of constant change and lifelong learning. Gardner places value on creativity, and says something that characterizes creative people is their willingness to fail, try again, and continue challenging themselves. He said that creativity is really a judgement other people make about you- and it has happened after artists have died that others decided their work had value. He spoke about how school is all about content like science and math, and the importance of respect and ethics. In America, we have a situation where we want to be the best and people are often willing to sacrifice honesty to get fame or power in their position. He says the five minds are: Identity, privacy, ownership/authorship, credibility, and participation. These are the necessary skills he believes kids need to survive this ever changing environment. My Thoughts: Howard Gardner is very interesting to listen to, because he has developed the multiple intelligences theory- which I think is going to be very important in education in the upcoming years as I believe it should be right now. In this particular talk I felt that he jumped around to his many innovative ideas, but something that stuck out to me was that in today’s world we really need to be an expert at something, and if not- we are going to always work for someone who is. The importance of creativity and the ethics behind it are incredibly important skills to teach our students- not that we can teach a student to be creative, but we can allow them opportunity that at school we often squander, which brings us to our next talk: Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson Key Ideas: Sir Ken Robinson also touched on the popular notion that we have no idea what the future holds in this quickly changing world. He argues that creativity is now as important as literacy. In school kids are scared of being wrong and making a mistake is the worst thing one can do. He has evaluated a common hierarchy of subjects as follows: Math and language Science and social studies Art and music Drama and dance The last two lines are often completely ignored. We have highly gifted people going through the education system thinking they’re not good enough because their skills don’t match up with the standardized hierarchy that has been created. The academic inflation that has occurred has made many college degrees irrelevant. My Thoughts: This talk made me particularly sad for students who are going through non-changing school systems in an ever-changing world. We have largely ignored so many of humanity’s skills and talents for such a long time in the classroom that we’ve made dancers, artists, musicians, actors, chefs, and many many more groups of people feel as though they are not intelligent. Sir Ken Robinson is such an inspirational speaker, and I hope that his ideas about education keep spreading. In my classroom and at my school we have begun celebrating mistakes as we learn about growth mindset. It is a small but important step in the right direction. I try to incorporate creative projects and opportunities into my classroom, but it is definitely challenging when you have the curriculum and pacing guide in front of you, and standardized testing looming over you- to give time to other activities. After this talk I remember how important it is, and I plan to include more time for free thinking and various outlets of energy and intelligence into our school day. I already see my 2nd and 3rd graders falling victim to the notion that the kids who are “good at math” (can complete math problems quickly) are the smart ones. I’m trying to change their mindset, but I fear that every time I score their math assessments and help them correct it I am reinforcing this notion. It’s hard to know the right things to do, but I promise to keep the best interests of the student’s futures in mind. The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink Key Ideas: Dan Pink spoke about motivation, and how we have offered rewards for achievement for a long time- and how science shows that it is not actually effective to offer a reward when someone is working on a creative problem, or one that involves critical thinking skills. He went over the candle problem and how the motivation changed when the problem went from difficult to easy. My Thoughts: We need to be challenging our students and allowing them to think creatively, as this will actually intrinsically motivate them to push themselves harder and learn more. I can reward my students for giving me memorization or task completion, but if I give them more mentally stimulating material- they will be more motivated to participate, problem solve, and take ownership over their learning encouraging lifelong learning skills. RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms My Thoughts: I have seen this video before and I really appreciate Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas about education reform. I would love to teach in a world where students are grouped by interest rather than age, and are not graded on a standard for their grade level. It made me think of activities like gymnastics, dance, baseball, basketball...what if students had a cohort in which they played and learned together? They would have a different type of relationship and I imagine it would be quite effective for their education. When I was on teams throughout school, I was extremely close with the people on my team- we had a bond and shared a big interest. We traveled together and went through hard times together. When I think about classes I have been in throughout my educational career, the feelings I have about the students in my class are much different that those of teams I have been on. I’m imagining a team of students doing what they love together, and learning. It doesn’t have to be a sports team either- there could be groups for movie lovers, chess players, people who love video games, animal lovers...the possibilities for Sir Robinson’s model are simply endless, and I hope that in my lifetime I get to experience even an inkling of the change he is vying for, because I think it would be so exciting and so good for students, teachers, and the global community as a whole. Article: Can Creativity Be Taught? I agree with the author, August Turak, that most of our thinking is linear, and it can be challenging to think in creative ways. I struggle with this often. I see it everyday in my classroom, especially during math time. It seems like some students just tend to think in creative ways, while it is a challenge for others. I definitely see more creativity in some ways in education today than when I was in school- in my classroom, at least, with students asking more questions and creating inquiries, projects, new math strategies, group work etc. It seems that we have a long way to go still, but maybe we are on the right track. It seems to me, that creativity can’t be taught per se, because that seems to go against the very nature of creativity- but it can be encouraged, fostered, grown, built upon and invested into by educators, and people we spend time with. Creativity is all around us. Look for it. Encourage it. Be it. Article 1: “Using Performance Feedback and Goal Setting to Improve Elementary Students’ Writing Fluency: A Randomized Controlled Trial” By: Elizabeth A. Koenig, Tanya L. Eckert, and Bridget O. Hier
Article 2: “Growth Mindset, Performance Avoidance, and Academic Behaviors in Clark County School District” by: Jason Snipes and Loan Tran
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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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