Checking for Understanding

Check out my podcast with my students about the states of matter:

Students' Understanding of Matter

PQ + CQ > IQ

Make Something, With Something...Be Creative.

Creativity and passion go hand in hand with education.  If a teacher is not passionate...teaching with be difficult.  If a teacher is not creative...teaching will be difficult.  Technology opens up an endless world of creativity and passion.  I use both every day in my job as a second grade teacher...take a look...

Wordle

Communities of Practice

After creating and sending out a survey asking about how teachers utilize technology I learned that technology in my building and district is being used but not to its fullest ability.  Many teachers use SMART boards but when making that statement in the survey they followed up with something vague, like I use mine for EVERYTHING.  What is everything?  How does it help you in getting your students to their learning goals?  Many teachers use their computers for personal use when it comes to their teaching jobs for things like attendance, lesson plans, grading, etc.  Some use laptops and internet to help their students go deeper with their learning.  But teachers who don't have a full class such as reading interventionists and resource room teachers seemed a little lost when it comes to ways of integrating technology into their work.
A trend that I saw was that many teachers were unsure of what to ask when it comes to what they want to learn or what they want to know more about.  It seemed that educators are unaware of what is out there in terms of what could help them with their students involving technology.  One comment was that a teacher was curious about how a SMART board can be used as more than just a fancy white board - I think it's unfair that some teachers know all the tips and tricks to having something like a SMART board and some teachers don't know how to turn one on. I was kind of shocked that more teachers were not curious about the iPad.  This technology would be PERFECT for teachers who work one on one with students. The truth seems to be that their just isn't enough education for teachers involving educational technology.  Also, the wealth isn't being shared.  Teachers need this kind of learning to be successful and it is so uneven within buildings and districts.  How are we supposed to ensure that all students are getting the same quality education when it is so different from district to district or even building to building within the same district?

Getting a Balanced Diet of Information

I will be the first to admit that my infodiet is very imbalanced.  For quite some time I have been told to read a newspaper or look up articles online so that I know what's happening in the world.  As an educator I have fought this with excuses like "I don't have time to sit down and read," or "It's not interesting to me," or "I just don't want to."  With this being said, understanding current events IS important for educators.  I also have a hard time hearing things and sorting through important vs. not.  Take what happened at Sandy Hook for instance, I was completely captivated by those horrible events, but because I don't listen to the news, I believed EVERYTHING I was told and much of the information surrounding that tragedy was incorrect on the first day.  To fix this problem of hearing and passing along information that may or may not be true I used this assignment to "get in the know."  I began following @CNN on Twitter.  This way I'm finding out news and understanding real world issues around me and I'm not sifting through the viewpoints of others.  Due to the fact that news stations are biased based on politics, I began following @FoxNews as well to get multiple viewpoints.

Politics is another topic that is crucial to education that puts me out of my comfort zone.  I vote democrat based on my career and I'm not a fan of Michigan's current governor.  I'm not saying I'm eager to get into any political debates but it would be nice to be able to defend myself on issues related to education.  For this reason, I chose to also follow @CSPAN to keep myself updated on politics and information.  Something else that can help me stay informed and give me some things to talk about and understand is the Michigan Department of Education, @mieducation.  I think that this is a good decision for my infodiet because I don't pay attention to things that are probably really useful pieces of information.  For example, I had absolutely no idea that Common Core Standards were being questioned and put on hold in the state of Michigan. What? Why?  I have been working so hard to understand them and teach them and gain success for my students with these standards and now and the end of the first year...we're reconsidering.  It was shocking but interesting information that I did not know because I've been too busy using my free time to figure out what's going on, on Facebook.

I also wanted to use this assignment to find out more about technology in order to take it to my students.  I'm constantly worried about what I'm teaching, how I'm teaching, should I have done it this way or tried it that way, what's going to happen next year with my students, are they ready for 3rd grade, the MEAP is happening to them next year...  It's always on my mind, how can I make them more prepared?  I found this page on Twitter called Next Generation Learning Challenges, @NextGenLC.  This page has a wealth of information that I am excited to sift through.  I appreciated the research I got to do with this assignment and it helped me realize that if anything, I at least WANT to be interested.



Technology for Students with ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a growing problem in classrooms.  ADHD is a disorder that inhibits the executive functioning in individuals; in other words, it affects how people are able to self regulate their emotions and behaviors.  Little is known about the causes of ADHD but studies have lead to several possible explanations.  In one study that researches the relationship between ADHD and family environment and parenting practices discovered a higher amount of ADHD cases in students who come from families with lower levels of organization and higher levels of conflict (Schroeder & Kelley, 2008).  Children learn the ability to control themselves, first, in their most familiar environment.  Schroeder and Kelley firmly present findings that environment and genetics is a huge factor in students with ADHD. 

The affects of ADHD in children are many.  One of the biggest affects on students is academic performance and social relationships.  Students with attention problems are limited in their opportunities to acquire social skills through observational learning. Students with ADHD also miss out on learning opportunities in the classroom whether is be because they are disruption and are removed or because of inattention and missing the experience (Kawabata, Tseng, & Shur-Fen Gau, 2011).  Teachers, myself included, can be guilty of removing a distracting child from the classroom if it becomes so big that it is taking from more than just the child's educational experiences.  As an educator, it is hard to find the correct response to a child who can not control his/her ability to pay attention.

One possible solution to this issue in education is the multiple intelligence approach.  Students with ADHD are often underserved in an education system (Schiduan, Case, & Faryniarz, 2002).  Each and every student is smart in some way, even those with ADHD.  It is hard for those students with ADHD to shine because they are typically smart in ways that aren't noticed in a traditional classroom (Schiduan, Case, & Faryniarz, 2002).

The multiple intelligence approach to ADHD would be easy to do using technology.  However, because of the diverse nature of the approach and of each student with ADHD, there is not one program that would suffice for everyone.  Luanne Eris Fose, Ph.D has outlined several technology resources that can aide in students with various intelligences. In my classroom, I have a student who is not diagnosed but exhibits many of the symptoms that I have read about.  This student makes very obnoxious noises a great deal of the school day and has a very hard time controlling his body, he's always wiggling.  He also has a hard time making and maintaining relationships with other students and he has frequent angry outbursts about very minor incidents.  I have noticed that he works his hardest with complex math and focuses the most with this subject.  He also pays a great deal of attention to detail and likes games like Pokemon and Ninjago which deal with logic and skill.  I'm going to label him as a Logical-Mathematical Learner.  These learners are very good with numbers, math, and logic to understand patterns (Fose, 3).  Something like PuzzleMaker might be helpful with a student like mine.  It gives him the time and to dissect and create a problem to solve using the logical skills he possesses but does not often get to use in class every day.  Something else that may help this student, although it is more related to the Verbal/Linguistic form of intelligence is Shadow Poetry.  There are several forms of technology that can be used to support each intelligence, which can in turn help students with ADHD, if teachers are willing to find out more about their students in order to help them.

Citations:

Kawabata, Y., Tseng, W. L., & Shur-Fen Gau, S. (2011). Symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and social and school adjustment: The moderating rules of age and parenting. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40(2), 177-188. 

 Schirduan, V., Case, K., & Faryniarz, J. (2002). How adhd students are smart. The Educational Forum, 66(4), 324-328.

Schroeder, V. M., & Kelley, M. L. (2008). Associations between family environment, parenting practices, and executive functioning of children with and without adhd. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 18(2), 227-235. 

Why Are We Stupid?

According to James Paul Gee, it would seem that humans have countless opportunities to be smart but many times they simply pass us by.  I gathered that some things were not our own doing, such as our minds being shaped for conditions that differ greatly from the modern world that we live in (Gee, 11).  Other things are completely our doing, such as treating minds like bank accounts in our schools; depositing endless information an expecting to withdraw whenever we feel the need.  I think our education system is a large factor when it comes to the limitations that face for solving complex problems.  We don’t provide, or having not been providing prior experiences for our students but many times we just expect them to have relevant ones.  We expect our students to have clear goals…how?  We also wait for them to act when they have not been readily prepared to do so.  How can we expect to mold problem solving minds, when the tools they need to do so aren’t given to them?

In schools, students are not given enough prior experiences.  Until recently, school has not been based on problem solving.  This was, in itself, a problem.  Students were not given enough experiences with the concepts that they were being asked to learn.  Memorization was simply expected and assessed.  How can we expect any person, especially a child, to learn something that is not connected to them in some way.  If we want our students to learn to be problem solvers, we need to provide them with experience to solve problems related to the concepts they should learn to master.  Only through experience, will situations be meaningful.  This is where teachers must really step up as mentors.

Having a clear goal is another limitation.  In school, students either want to get a good grade or they are too wrapped up in things going on at home that they don’t quite care about what they’re learning.  The grade, after reading, now seems meaningless. I work myself to the bone every year trying to teach concepts to kids so that they can pass on the district assessment.  I’m nervous, they’re stressed out, we get the results and we move on only to realize that they teacher the next year has to reteach the concepts I worked so hard to teach them the previous year.  Why does this happen?  The concept was only meaningful or connected enough to achieve the goal of a passing grade.  A passing grade is a short term goal.  This goes back to the idea of treating the human memory being treated like a bank account (Gee, 27).  Information is deposited and can be withdrawn without being altered.  It is hard to remember, when worried about tests, that human memory is affected by needs, feelings, and purpose (Gee, 27).

Due to a lack of prior experiences, or a false expectation of those experiences, and weak goals humans cannot be expected to act in a way that will create a good response from the world.  Because of these shortcomings we act and make mistakes, or repeat mistakes.  We work to make quick fixes that are convenient and we don’t seem to think things through.  We don’t seem to weigh out options and choose the best scenario.  We work short term and fast which hinders us in the long run.

This being said, I posted in angel, shortly after I had begun reading about how the circuit of reflective action echoes the common core standards that have emerged in the U.S.  Although not perfect, I feel that it follows the process and is a good start for schools to begin to build meaning with what they are learning.  CCSS gives teachers a better opportunity to be mentors.  It creates long term goals, as concepts are carried over year after year.  It also gives students countless opportunities to act and solve problems.

CEP 812 Screencast

I created a screencast that explains a problem I was having with fact fluency within my classroom.  It was hard for me to motivate students to practice their basic math facts at home.  Because so many students weren't practicing, many of them were below grade level.  A solution to my problem came with a wonderful website called Xtramath.  It uses games and personalized challenges to help kids make growth with their fact fluency.  I have found in my classroom that it really does work and many of my students are now making appropriate growth.