Click on the link to view my Close Reading on Situated Learning:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/175OsazjoiBBSNEVFdZUr72dN1eUZLdEEyoMprBO0pok/edit?usp=sharing Post Reflection: Quote: "Such knowledge is of course important: but a deeper sense of the value of participation to the community and the learner lies in becoming part of the community" (Lave and Wenger, paragraph #29). I chose this quote because it made me think of how easily a person can become part of a community when immersed in that community. When a person travels to a different country, they quickly learn the customs, mannerisms, way of speaking, way of dressing, belief systems, etc. all in an attempt to fit in as quickly as possible. They quickly learn what works and what is acceptable behavior within that community and apply it without questioning it. It works and gets them what they need, so they immediately put it into practice and produce the behavior that yields the results they desire. Question: If we have all this research of evidence of how we learn best, why do we insist on decontextualizing knowledge and teaching in an unnatural way that goes against the way we naturally learn? Connection: A connection I had to this article was that it reminded me a lot of the google plus communities and twitter because it talked about newcomers learning by doing and having access to more experienced members of the communities in order to learn by doing. It spoke of "gaining access to resources through growing involvement" and that resonated with me due to the fact that this semester much of our learning took place in that manner. The more we were involved with each other, the more we learned. Through Twitter chats we learned by actively participating and letting other, more experienced members, guide us through the process. In the Google + communities we learn by observing the types of interactions others have and accessing information that others post. We participate by contributing what we feel others will find useful and we learn about the community by joining it and actively participating in it. Epiphany: An epiphany I had involved the following: The group changes its identity as it sees fit and it also changes its goals and objectives depending on where it is headed and what they wish to accomplish. Lots of room for flexibility depending on who's involved and everyone's unique needs. This epiphany reminds me of when I first started teaching that they use to drill into our heads that assessment drives instruction in the classroom. Lessons should be student-driven. We should have room for flexibility and be able to adapt once we see the need. It also seems that if you possess the 7 Survival Skills, then you will have no problem learning because you are taking responsibility for your own learning process and monitoring your acquisition of knowledge. When you are involved in your own learning, you cannot be left behind. As a result, when you exhibit the 7 survival skills, you cannot possibly be left out of any community's learning process because you will just be naturally involved as an active participant. Defining the skills as I understand them:
Survival Skill #1: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving-->Critical thinking involves being able to approach problems from a different angle based on what you know so far of how that problem resulted in the first place. Tony Wagner says, "We need to approach problems and challenges as a learner as opposed to a knower" (p.17). I interpret that to mean that you are open-minded and willing to learn new information, approaches and strategies in order to come up with a different, and informed, solution to a challenge. How would I incorporate this skill in my classroom? The common core task performance tasks that students have to solve during math time consist of students having to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills in order to be able to successfully solve those math word-problems. For that reason, it is very easy for me to commit to developing this survival skill in my students. I will measure my success by the amount of students who will finally be able to solve these math tasks without my assistance. Right now they can solve them, but with lots of scaffolding. Survival Skill #2: Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence-->I interpret this survival skill to mean that students possess digital citizenship when collaborating on-line through different platforms where they have the opportunity to communicate with each other in a respectful and constructive way. To lead by influence means to be so passionate about what you are doing, that others want to take your lead and follow your example to also be involved in whatever it is you're modeling just by you being so passionate about it. You are so passionate and respectful in your endeavor that you don't have to tell others what to do. You just become an influential figure that others are more than happy to do what they see working for you. How would I incorporate this skill in my classroom? Once we get the iPads, students will have an opportunity to display digital citizenship skills and develop their leadership skills to become influential amongst their peers. I am definitely able to commit to developing this skill amongst my students because it is a must if they are going to be using iPads. I will measure my success by the amount of cyber-bullying that happens or doesn't happen. Survival Skill #3: Agility and Ability-->I interpret this skill to mean that the student can easily adapt to last-minute changes as well as possess a set of skills in order to be a flexible employee in the future. Students who possess this survival skill cannot limit themselves to a specialty. They cannot claim to be an expert in just one thing. They have to have the flexibility to adapt to the demands of this fast-changing society and develop the new set of expected skills on-demand so that they do not find themselves out of work. How would I incorporate this skill in my classroom? We currently have classroom jobs for every student in the classroom. Although I know that some of them are better at certain jobs than others, they must all have the opportunity to develop a different set of skills so that at any given moment they can carry out that responsibility if needed. I will measure my success by how confident each student feels in carrying out a task that is normally out of their realm. Survival Skill #4: Initiative and Entrepreneurialism-->I interpret this skill to mean that a student who possesses this skill is proactive and uses their leadership skills to be innovative, creative and think outside the box. I had a student last year who used to pay really close attention to the math lessons so that later, while walking in line to the cafeteria, he could share with me his proposal for a new project using the iPods integrating math. I would always approve of his proposals because it met all the requirements. I'm not too sure if I could commit to this survival skill because I'm not sure yet how I would develop this skill within each student. If I would implement this survival skill I would measure it by how often students would "seek out new opportunities, ideas, and strategies for improvement" (Wagner, p.32). Survival Skill #5: Effective Oral and Written Communication-->I interpret this skill to mean that a student can be effectively understood whether they are communicating through spoken language or written language. Students must be very diplomatic, respectful and sensitive towards other people regardless of whether they are communicating in person or through written language. How would I incorporate this skill in my classroom? I can commit to this survival skill in the classroom because our students need to develop communication skills, both written and spoken, in order to be responsible and contributing members of society. I would measure my success by how clearly and eloquently students can communicate through their written work and oral delivery of their presentations. Survival Skill #6: Accessing and Analyzing Information-->I interpret this survival skill as meaning that the student is able to sift through a tremendous amount of information and decide what is useful for their purpose depending on their objective, purpose or goal. I can commit to this survival skill because it is essential that students be able to navigate through the many resources that the web has to offer and decide what to spend their time on and what is not worth their time. I can measure my success by providing different resources to my students doing a quick "check for comprehension" to see if the students can determine which links are useful in meeting their objective and which are not relevant to the task at hand. Survival Skill #7: Curiosity and Imagination-->I interpret this survival skill to mean that the child can use the knowledge that they possess to springboard off of it and create something completely new, while asking the type of questions that inspire others and expand their imagination. I can commit to this survival skill because part of NGSS is to teach students to ask questions that generate curiosity and intrigue the imagination. How would I incorporate this skill into my classroom? Through science lessons where we practice generating questions that inspire students to look forward to the next topics and arouse their curiosity, I can foster this seventh survival skill. I am choosing to add Empathy as another survival skill because I feel it is very important for students to be able to put themselves in someone else's shoes if they are going to interact with individuals globally. Part of the Design Thinking Process includes that students develop empathy so that they can fulfill their audience's expectations. If they do not understand their audience, then they will not be able to communicate effectively and have that special and important connection. I would incorporate this survival skill into my classroom because I find it easy to integrate into every subject area. I can definitely commit to integrating this survival skill into my lessons this school year. We are also practicing the 7 Habits by Stephen Covey at my school, so it will be in alignment with current behavioral expectations. My QQCE for Chapters 7,8,9:
Quote: "The three dimensions of learning--knowing, making, and playing--are already beginning to emerge within the fabric of the digital world itself: Just look at what kids do today on social network and social media sites" (Thomas & Seely Brown, Location 1398). For me, this quote summed up best the information I learned in the last three chapters because it includes the main important components of the process of learning and supports that statement with evidence of how kids presently engage in learning which yields the best results because it comes naturally to them to immerse themselves in that type of environment. Question: A question I have is why have schools not included the play component traditionally if this is not a new discovery? According to Wikipedia, in 1938 a Dutch historian and cultural theorist named Johan Huizinga, wrote a book titled Homo Ludens ("Man the Player") in which he "discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens_(book)). So it is not that we are barely now discovering that play is an important component of learning. That has been known for a long time, but maybe it is now acceptable? But why? Why wasn't it acceptable before? Why did school have to be so serious? Connection: As I read through these last three chapters, I kept thinking about the gamefication in which we engaged toward the end of EDL621. That element of play was definitely engaging and even fostered a competitive and addicting environment, almost to the point of obsession! Ha! If I can engage my students to learn, including that very important element of play, to the point that they have a healthy competition going on amongst them, that encourages them to want to perform better each time, then I will feel I have done my job of providing them with an engaging learning environment. Epiphany: An epiphany I had while reading these chapters had to do with our 20% projects and how important they are in our learning as we learn how to learn through the use of 21st century skills. It is important that we go through this process so that we understand how to guide our students to learn, while experimenting, playing and forming and asking guiding questions. Turns out that creativity, imagination and play are more important than knowing answers and facts. Anyone can Google answers, but how will you use that information? How will you apply it? How will you use your creativity, through play, to come up with your own idea using the information at your fingertips? This 20% Project is teaching us how to learn from others through different forums while engaged in something we are passionate about. Once we learn how to learn and collaborate using the digital tools available to us, we can teach our students to navigate the internet and use as many digital tools to their advantage in a safe, structured and guided environment. Blog Post for Chapters 1-3:
Quote: "Play, questioning, and-perhaps most important-imagination lie at the very heart of arc-of-life learning" (A New Culture of Learning, Loc 71). I chose this quote because for me it summed up the point of these first three chapters. In order to learn, your affective filter needs to be low and what better way to lower your affective filter than through play-based learning? Engaging in play-based learning, along with being encouraged, and taught how to, ask effective questions that spark the imagination is the type of environment in which I strive to immerse my students. This type of environment produces less anxiety, if any at all, while students are working hard in such a fun environment which fosters their imagination and generates creativity in an organic manner where they are not consumers of knowledge, but rather producers of ideas as they share their thoughts and connections with each other. Question: Do we have this new culture of learning, in which we help create the learning environment ONLY because we have all this technology that facilitates this new acceptable culture in which it is okay to not know things and to ask questions about the topics we wish to learn more about? Connection: Through places like Twitter and our Google+ communities we are encouraged to ask as many questions as we need to in order to satisfy our thirst for that which we are passionate about. It is not stigmatizing to not know something and we are not trying to prove how much we know about a certain topic, but rather, we are constantly trying to think of the type of questions that will guide us toward future success within an encouraging and supportive environment with the guidance of others who are also just as passionate about the topic at hand as we are. Epiphany: The new theory of learning: Connectivism, helps define our new culture of learning. Cultivating our PLN has allowed me to learn how to learn from others (A New Culture of Learning, Location 135). We are no longer limited to learning only from institutions of learning. If we learn to develop the art of learning from others, we will find a new type of freedom that involves realizing that we are surrounded by limitless possibilities where potential is all around us. My QQCE for chapters 4,5,6:
Quote: "The collective is, in the most basic sense, a group constantly playing with and reimagining its own identity (Thomas and Seely Brown, Location 703). This quote speaks to me because we are active participants in our learning communities and as we add and contribute our perspectives, we change and shift our goals and who we are as a collective identity. Question: When did we move from private diaries to public blogs? What happened? Why did it all of a sudden become acceptable to publicize our private thoughts globally? Was it when we realized that being transparent learners actually benefits everyone? Connection: As I read through chapters 4,5, and 6, it affirmed the power of belonging to a learning community, collaborating and being transparent learners. When we face a difficult situation in our profession, we are no longer left all alone to face it by ourselves. Fortunately, though twitter chats, google + communities, twitter and other public, or private, forums we can take advantage of the fact that we are all connected and have so much support from our colleagues to help us solve our challenges and get us through difficult times. We celebrate and share our successes together and we also solve our difficulties together. Just like it is no longer about what I know, but rather what WE know, it is also no longer MY problem, but OUR problem and we solve it together through our collective expertise. "In short, even if a problem is not your particular problem, you can learn by watching how it is worked out (Thomas and Seely Brown, Location 912). Epiphany: The more I continue to read about this new culture of learning, the more I believe and understand the saying, "You shape your own reality." You help shape the learning communities in which you choose to participate and those learning communities also influence you, your thoughts, and your experiences. With just your mere presence, you help co-create any environment with which you choose to interact. Your thoughts, actions, beliefs determine in what direction you are headed. It was in this chapter that I felt I finally really got to know the author as a person. He suddenly came to life for me and I felt a connection with him. As I read chapter four of The Global Achievement Gap, I could feel Tony Wagner's genuine passion and curiosity for wanting to learn more about the profession and it is very sad and disappointing that his experience in the field of teaching was such a negative one. However, it prompted him to want to research possible solutions to the dismal situation he experienced and witnessed. He offers some great ideas to implement and I'm very proud to say that I work for a school district that actually practices many of these suggestions. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or if it's a result of his research. I'm sure it's the latter because our superintendent wouldn't be having us engage in practices that are not research-based.
One of the practices Tony Wagner believes is very powerful is a "learning walk". At our school district, out in Lakeside, we refer to them as "instructional rounds". Every school in our district participates in these "learning walks". This is the second school year that we plan them and they prove to be very productive for EVERYONE. The norms and expectations were established at the beginning of last school year and they are conducted in a most respectful and productive manner. Of course, we always briefly review the norms prior to conducting our learning walks. I was glad to see it being talked about in this book. Tony Wagner also talks about his experiences as a student-teacher. Unfortunately, his master teachers didn't really cover much with him. They didn't share their thoughts or perspectives with him. I was very fortunate to have had master teachers who did share their private thoughts with me and gave me a lot of background information so that I could understand why certain things were taking place. They were definitely transparent learners around me. Maybe I work at an exceptional school because everyone always tries to state, even their frustrations, in the most positive way possible and everyone is always wanting to learn from each other at our campus. We understand that the more we collaborate, the more we will grow as a staff and the more our students will benefit from us being open towards each other. We also teach Stephen Covey's Seven Habits to our students and we internalize those habits so that we model them in the most natural way possible. I believe that helps tremendously in ensuring that our campus is an innovative one in which we believe in being problem-solvers, not complainers. We believe in collaborating and sharing (being transparent learners), not working individually and selfishly. We welcome visitors onto our campus during learning walks and we know that we can only grow and become stronger as a united staff. As far as research is concerned regarding master degree programs that were in place up until 2005, it was disturbing to read that not a single example of an effective educational leadership prep program in the U.S. could be found (Wagner, 2010). I'm glad that I didn't pursue a master's degree back then! I am very confident that all this research was taken into consideration when the master's degree program I am currently in was being designed. I am also in a program called I.D.E.A.S 2.0 in which we are focusing on developing many of the skills that Tony Wagner has researched and refers to as being critical for effective teaching. Reading this chapter resonated with me because I kept making connections to many of the teaching practices we are working on refining through the I.D.E.A.S. 2.0 grant and through the master's degree program. This chapter validated and confirmed that we are on the right track to ensuring best practices for our students! |
CristalSpanish Immersion teacher at Riverview Language Academy. Archives
December 2014
Categories |
My Reflections
My thoughts and connections after watching videos and reading selections.