Reflections

I have spent the majority of my time over the week of my spring break thinking through my learning that I have done since joining the Learning and Teaching with Technology master's diploma course. It's been good to give it such a concentrated effort, not only to leave my April a little freer for birthday parties and things such as full-time teaching, but to take serious time to reflect. I have learned a lot, but as the saying goes "The more I learn, the more I know I have to learn." The more I learn, the more I realize how stupid I really am!

I think I have made huge progress in each of the 5 capacities of the program. The learning curve has been steep and many times I have not wanted to travel this road as it has been hard work. I thought I was joining the "T-Lite" program, a precursor to this course which by reputation was much lighter in the workload than we have encountered. Oftentimes, I would think I was much too old for this. I have had to learn a whole new language and way of doing things.

I have changed as a teacher, as an educator. I used to hold myself as the "keeper of the knowledge" that students needed to learn, but I am learning to see myself rather as a facilitator to the children doing their own exploration of learning. I'm still figuring out how to do this effectively, but rather than deciding how to do it on my own, I am trying to let the children be learners with me on this journey.

The technology, which I thought would be foremost in this program, has been a interesting, and sometimes overwhelming, side dish. I have enjoyed dabbling in twitter, diigo, online PLN's, etc., but the main change has been inside me and my pedagogy. I did not expect this. I had thought I would learn lots of technology (read computer) things to do with my class to enhance the lessons I would plan. Instead, I have been forced to examine what I teach and why I teach it. What would be the best way to engage the learners? What research verification do I have to support it?

I have learned to look at myself as a teacher-inquirer. I reflect, reflect and reflect on those reflections! (inside joke) During a classtime, I think nothing of grabbing my camera to record something that is happening. Later I will remember what it is that I thought was noteworthy and think about it. Let me rephrase that...I will REFLECT on it. I have learned how to ask good questions and then follow a plan to discover the answers.

I am not quite so hesitant to put myself and my ideas out there in the global community. People who post on the world wide web aren't some super brains, (well, some of them probably are, but I'm not referring to them!), but just ordinary folk like me who are trying their best to make education a good thing for the children in their care, JUST LIKE ME! So I will continue to offer my ideas, continue to ramble on about my reading groups, my discipline issues, etc., because somewhere out there, someone else is probably going through the same thing, or has gone through it and now has some good ideas for me.

And now...I am taking a break. See you after the weekend!

Tweets about blogs...

So...as I continue to work on my final portfolio, I explored more blogs, tweets, etc. to see what other people are saying about things I'm learning. I came across a tweet from Tom Whitby where he refers people to his blog post "To blog or not to blog". I enjoyed the entry, but more so the comments after. In particular, I resonated with one response from a teacher who is starting to blog reluctantly. What got me was Tom's response to this teacher, which stated in my edited format.... "Never hesitate to offer your professional opinion. You are working day to day with children. You have been educated as to methods and Pedagogy. You are an expert in education with experience. Never doubt your expertise. ... Blog with confidence, but be reflective and flexible. That is what being an educator is about, Relevance...."

So here I am...blogging about my work as a teacher. Blogging to engage in this cycle of reflection and action. I don't think I have too many followers, and that's okay. If someone does stumble upon my blog, they can rest assured that I am just another educator trying to do my best in my situation with my students. And if by chance a parent stumbles on my blog, hopefully they will appreciate my attempts to articulate what I am trying to do in the classroom with his/her child. In fact, I would love to have parents interact with me on this level, as well as the daily, "How was ...insert child's name...'s day?"

And another tweet pointed me to another blog by Maurice Elias (via Edutopia) entitled "What's the Secret to Effective Classroom Management? According to her research (David Brookes in "The Social Animal"), a classroom that is productive, engaging and well-managed is a class where children have a strong positive relationship with their teacher, and vice-versa. When a classroom is based on trust, students are able to pursue goals of higher learning, not just getting the right answer. "Learning is work of the head and work of the heart."

Hmm, that makes me pause. With the classroom management issues I've been having in my room this year, I often find it easiest to slip into my authoritarian mode and make the kids want to obey me because they're too frightened to find out what would happen if they didn't. And yet, that doesn't bring out the best in the students or in myself, even though it feels better for a little while. How can I make sure that the students are doing their best? How can I encourage this trust factor? Is my struggle with reading groups developing this trust? The last few times of doing it, I am starting to feel that way. They are learning to work independently and productively for an extended period of time. Hopefully that's because they are working to please not only me, but also themselves. They are trusting. Another quote I find very relevant for my class .. "Those concerned about classroom management must simultaneously be concerned about student learning. Both thrive only when there are trusting, respectful, caring relationships between students and teachers. When the latter are in place, rules will be effective and the majority of students will be engaged learners."

I love this whole new world that twitter, blogs, PLN's, etc has opened up for me. And what I'm also enjoying is taking these discussions and putting them out there where other people than educator's are, ie facebook. (See previous blog)

till next time.

Today's Reading Group Experience-- POSITIVE!

Two major things made reading groups today an even better experience. One, I'm sad to say, was the absence of 5 students, 4 of which are some of my more active and off-task students, AND...I had help today. An EA was able to be in my group all day because her student wasn't there today. So today's experience was REALLY good. Whew. That's the first time I've felt like that. I was able to work with my small groups, some of which were significantly smaller because of the absentees.

Once again, I was very clear with each student about what they were to do during the independent study time. Maybe this is just getting easier because they are starting to get used to it. I certainly hope so.

My advanced group went with the EA. I gave her the book they were studying, which is a high interest non-fiction text about space stations. They read the book, discussed and filled in a chart related to the space stations described.

My group 2 had finished a KWL chart last week when I let them look at a book about Rivers. Today, we discussed the table of contents and learned that we can look at the chapter titles and read only what we wanted to. So, we read those chapters that related to the questions we were wondering about.

Group 3 kids today were much calmer, due to the absense of 2 students who are so very boistrous. They were so confident in their reading and sight word drill. It was fun to be with them today.

Group 4 kids were only half there. They are the lowest group and I was so happy to be able to spend it with just the two that were there. I was able to listen to each one read, do a further lesson on the sight words and introduce two more: yes and no. They quite enjoyed it and are getting so very confident in their reading.

I even had time to take some pictures of the students as they worked without my direct supervision on paired hangman games using the word wall words, reading independently and doing a phonics worksheet about long vowel sounds.

Now my question is, how can I repeat that, even with all the students there? How can I continue to foster this environment of independence, quieter work and focus?

Reading Groups....a way that works in my room

As I've said before, my class is a behavioral challenge. Fully half of the children have some significant issues that seem to be manifested in a negative way within the classroom atmosphere. So..how can I do small group work with a few students and let the others be?? So far it's been tough. I've given them work to do, and for a few minutes at least, they've been able to do it. But after that it seems to disintegrate rapidly and my small group work is more often interupted by me having to get up and exert some discipline with a child or two or three at a time. So...what to do?

Well, on Thursday, I tried a slightly different tactic and it seemed to work. I basically had an individual plan for each student and was very clear on the work each person was expected to do with the time when I wasn't working with them. It took a long time before I was able to start my small group times. I wanted to make sure each child was focused on a specific task. And then, I was able to work with each group for about 10 minutes each. It wasn't long, and I did have to occasionally remind the others of what they were supposed to do, but for the most part, I felt like it was the most productive time of small guided readed groups.

Oh...and the reading groups themselves were fun. Each group is manifesting more confidence and enjoyment of the time in their groups than they did at the beginning.

So...we'll see whether it works again tomorrow. Here's hoping!

well...this is interesting. Facebook wins the discussion debate!

I found a great link on a fellow educator's blog. I watched the video, thought it was wonderful and decided to share it, too. So where would I reach the most people? No one seems to read my blog, so I did a little experiment. I posted the link on my facebook page. And within hours, I had people (educators and parents and grandparents) commenting, discussing and reposting it on their facebook pages. It's going viral. I'm trying to follow the discussion on their pages and it's interesting. I'm learning a lot more from following this then following any of the educator's blogs. I believe that in this age, we need to do a better job of reaching the parents and asking their opinions. They are concerned, if the responses are any indication, of what kind of education we are offering their children. Why can't schools acknowledge and reward their students for their specialties? Why is school just catering to people who will enter university? Why is that the "highest" level track? When I went to high school (or so many years ago), there weren't many options. We did have a woodworking and home economics electives, but basically there were two tracks: university entrance and the other. There was a definite hierarchy. I'm not sure much has changed...
Personally, I have noticed this with my children. All 4 of them found academics easier than the average student, but what they really wanted to do, what really inspired them, was the creative arts...music, drama, dance. And yet, I find myself wanting to encourage them to pursue "real" jobs, jobs that will be secure and financially viable. I'm too much of an old school educator. So I'm trying...

21st Century Learning

1. Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
2. Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
3. Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
4. Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
5. Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
6. Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

The above list is from the NCTE definition of skills that 21st learners need. So how do we need to teach? How am I helping my students to become proficient at these?

The first one makes me laugh and mad. My experience with technology for students in the district I am currently teaching in has not been positive. I have only had one semester of positive use out of the 4 that I have been working on this program. So, no...I haven't been able to help my students become proficient with the computer. This year, I can't even teach my kids to log on, as the laptops don't seem to connect to the internet very well in my room.

To build relationships and collaborate across cultures this year is not even really possible in my own classroom as I have a fairly homogeneous class. There is only one aboriginal student and one student from another culture, but both are very "Canadian." So I try to work on the concept of collaboration. In my class, that means showing respect and listening to others...both very difficult to achieve in my room. But we are working on it.

We haven't done any sharing and designing of information to share with the global community as a class. I, however, have built up a website to keep in contact with parents. This has taken on a slightly "global" perspective, as I have a father who does not get to see his child often as a member of our website. I was also able to communicate with one child who was gone for an extended period of time. I filmed our class singing "Happy Birthday" to her even when she was far away at her grandmother's home. This grandma is still a member of our website so that she can continue to touch base with her grandchild.

Analyze, synthesize....are my students in grade one even capable of this? What are some pre-skills I should be teaching them? Same with critiquing. And, seeing as they haven't had the opportunity to create anything online, they also haven't had the opportunity to critique other's work.

The ethical aspect of an online culture is something I have addressed more with the parents as we have talked about what websites/games are appropriate or not for their child. Surprisingly (duh!) the one child that used to yell about murdering all of us and how he was going to do it, has since quit that language since his parents no longer allow him to play violent video games.

Anyways, I feel hopeless at times. These children are in the digital age and experience it in their own homes (at least some of them), but without the opportunities to use it at school, I feel my hands are tied in showing them, leading them, having them using the technology in globally cooperative ways.