Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Giving Tree

As I reflect on my learning in EDU554, I recall an amazing story titled, The Giving Tree, By Shel Silverstein.
The giving tree [Book]
Watch the Video
The Giving Tree (image retrieved from)

This is a story about a tree that continues to give and give and give without expecting anything in return.  The young boy takes and takes and takes until there isn't anything left for the tree to give.  The story concludes with the boy being overwhelmed by all of his wants, and decides he must now rest on the left over stump...and think...and reflect...

This story reminds me of the many resources we as teachers have at our finger tips.  We are the "little boy" who will take and take and take all of these resources and put them on a shelf for future use.  Until one day we decide that those resources aren't what we really want so we seek out new resources, better resources.  And those older books, articles, and magazines go untouched and underappreciated.  So the tree (our professors, learning communities, Personal Learning Networks, Parents, Adminstrators) give us new resources (technology) to use.  So you see, the greatest growth of an educator is to not just take all of these resources, but decide how can we implement them so we can grow new trees (new learning for our students). 

So we begin with a small seed that is planted in each one of us as educators.  How we decide to nurture this seed is up to us.  Will we decide to implement these new technolgies in our daily classrooms?  Or will we forget to water, give space to grow new ideas, and provide sunlight in a loving and caring environment for our learning to grow? 
I decided to nurture my seed! 
I began by implementing a variety of technologies to implement in my classroom.  I have planted a seed of excitement for learning new technologies in each one of my students.  This excitement spread to other teachers who are now planting this same seed.

It is my inspiration from "The Giving Tree" that will foster this learning, and continue the use of technology so that in future learning, my students become more attentive to task, involved in their learning process, and become a successful 21st century thinker.  I know that my students will not be the little boy who takes and takes and takes, or the tree that gives and gives and gives, but instead will be the seed that can grow, and be planted in others in a cooperative learning environment.

Resources:

Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. New York: Harper and Row, 1964

Wah, Elaine.  The Giving Tree (Video).  YouTube, 2007.
      Video retrieved from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUDBrz16Irk&feature=related

Friday, May 27, 2011

So You Think You Can Dance?

Why learn a new dance when so many are still dancing to the same song?

I am sure you have heard many of your colleagues say just this...Why teach my students technology standards...it won't help them on the achievement tests, or teach them how to write, or help all of the behavior issues of little Johnny?!  The speaker of this statement is clearly saying, "I am a digital immigrant, and I am not comfortable with fixing something that isn't broken."  However, this statement couldn't be more false! 

In the educational system we are seeing more and more behavioral challenges, the need to differentiate instruction, the need to maximize instruction to a group of students with limited attention to task, and the list goes on.  It is so important for educators with a knack for technology to help facilitate other colleagues to take the plunge, or "learn a new song and dance".

I recently met with my second grade team to completely revamp their original "safe" poster making lesson on animals in Ohio habitats.  In order to get them on board I created a web quest and showed them how easy this instruction is to implement in the classroom.  I used my class as the model classroom.  I brought two other classes and their teachers into my room to demonstrate the lesson.  The students and teachers watched in amazement.  The teachers were especially excited to see the students remaining engaged in their own learning, the amount of differentiation available, and the excitement that previous research lessons have never created.

Then we broke the students up into cooperative learning teams.  There they used this web quest to create a "fact file" brochure in Microsoft Publisher.  The students took complete ownership of their learning, and demonstrated their learning in the printing of their final product.  Parents, teachers, students, and the principal were shocked to see that second grade students could create an informative document using a program that previously was geared toward adults in a professional world. 

At the conclusion of this project the two teachers who chose to stay with the poster product decided, that although they used the web quest for the student research, next year they would be pairing all students up to complete a product like we had created.  It was a success!  So the dance continues.  As I continue to learn more in my course at Indiana Wesleyan University, I will continue to find new steps in the "dance" we know called Teaching!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Do Not Google This In Class!

Wait, Stop, Do not go any further before reading this!  What you are about to read is EXTREMELY important to utilizing the internet in your classroom!  In a recent example of integrating technology into the classroom, I stumbled over a water cooler story about a classroom example of what NOT to do.  
The teacher began by introducing the unit of research using tradebooks, informational texts, magazines, and the internet.  Texts, as you can imagine, give you exactly what you are expecting, but are limited in what each will offer.  The internet is highly engaging, and offers endless towers of information, and are child-directed.  This could include videos, interactive games, images, articles, blogs, text, interviews, and the list goes on.  However here is where you must BEWARE!  When researching a subject you must be careful what exactly you are having the kids research, as well as, where they are looking for their information.
Mrs. "B" was having her students research animals; adaptations, descriptions, food cycle, habitats etc.  This sounds harmless, but here is where it gets interesting. Because the internet has such a wealth of information, your student may be linked to information that is completely NOT what they are looking for.  Several of the images that appeared for animal adaptations were highly inappropriate.  She also mentioned that after pulling up an animal video on youtube, the video to follow as a reccommendation was Britney Spears, "Slave."  Of course that showed up because of the albino boa constrictor used in her video.
I am sure teachers have endless experiences in which this type of situation has occured in their classroom.  So our school adopted an internet search engine called nettrekker.  This is a search engine that is safe for students because of content provided, as well as, tiering the readability, and content so it is specific to the child who is researching.  You can learn more about this search engine by going to http://www.nettrekker.com/us
With all of the infusion of technology into the classroom, students are using the computer for typing more than they used to.  However, the skills of typing are not being taught due to computer lab funding being cut.  Instead of focusing on standards or skills of teaching cursive, should teachers begin implementing instruction on typing?  Or could this be a homework assignment that the students practice on their own time?  There are several free typing practice websites out there for this instruction.