Post 6

It's so easy for students to get information from the internet or their parents. Some students even come to school and tell me "my mommy/daddy taught me to do addition this way" and it's so confusing because the child doesn't understand the process. That's where it's up to us as teachers to show students what they can do with what they learn. It's about application nowadays and how they can use this knowledge in different ways. Even when I was in elementary when I learned math it was always about getting the answer, never about how or why this method works. Once I got to high school, in one math class in particular, I had to teach myself how formulas worked out. I would use the teacher edition of the book to get the answer and work backwards to determine how and why the answer was correct and applied it to anything else. That's what education is all about now. In my school inquiry based learning ties into our idea of STEM/PBL. Our goal is to make our activities relevant to students through real life connections, hands on projects/games/activities, and working within our community (sometimes by class, sometimes by grade level). It really solidifies this newly acquired knowledge for the students to be able to see how what they've learned applies to the real world.

I want to do my mini lesson on community leaders in the 2nd grade. The focus will start with Creek and Cherokee figures and branch off to other leaders, past or present, that students choose.

Lesson 1 Questions:

1. Who were the Creek?
2. Who were the Cherokee?

Students will work in groups to use textbooks, readers, and online resources to write down basics about the natives. Where they lived, what they ate, how they acquired food, and important people. 

Lesson 2 Questions:

1. Who were important people from these tribes?
2. Were there any other important people in Georgia at the same time?

Students will work in groups to use textbooks, readers, and online resources to discover who these important people were. We will discuss Tomochichi, Musgrove, Sequoyah, and Oglethorpe. Afterwards students will discuss why these people were important. 

Lesson 3 Questions:

1. What are traits/characteristics of a good leader?
2. Do you know any leaders, past or present, with these traits?
3. Do you know any leaders, past or present, without these traits? 

Students will work together to brainstorm traits then create a poster of one the leaders from lesson 2 or a new leader they verify with me. They will write down the traits they have decided then choose 2-3 traits and explain why these are important for a leader to have. Afterwards students will discuss with the class what they decided. 

Goals Updated

Looking back at my goals, I realize I don't need to necessarily change them, but I can expand on them using resources from our class. For instance, I wanted students to become lifelong learners who can effectively use the resources around them to solve problems. I learned that in order to do that my students need to have a growth mindset which honestly is something new to me. I hadn't heard it before growing up in school and I learned about it somewhat this past year. In Even Geniuses Work Hard it said that "Students with a growth mindset may tackle such work with excitement, whereas students with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks." (Dweck, 2010). That's the kind of mentality I want to foster in my classroom. I want students to expect mistakes and to grow from them instead of turning tail and running the other direction. In order for me to foster this mindset I know I need to have a growth mindset as well. I need to "let it go" and allow myself to make mistakes here and there and to allow my students more independence. Once I can comfortably do that my students will see that everyone needs to grow and they'll have to rely on their skills to complete certain tasks because they need to learn how to do that. This will have to be taught during the first weeks of  school and become a continuous part of our classroom. I have to make sure I have resources readily available and have taught my students how to use some of them (think dictionaries or technology) so that they can do it on their own. There is a lot to do on my part, but that's something I need to realize now so that my students can get where I want them to be. 

Dweck, C. (2010, September). Even geniuses work hard. Educational leadership, 68 (1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Even-Geniuses-Work-Hard.aspx

Letting Go

Looking at the articles for this week were very eye opening and actually concerns of mine in teaching especially the article by Wiggins. I taught 2nd grade this past year and my students depended on me for a lot and even though I wanted them to be more autonomous, I couldn't quite figure out how to get that done. The closest my students came to being autonomous and generally creative was when we did our markets for economics. I gave them their requirements (paper goods only, $12, 10 items at least) and they came up with awesome ideas, buy one get one sales, lottery prizes, and more to get their classmates interested in their business because of what we learned. They took it and were actually able to apply it to make their businesses more appealing and I was extremely proud of them. They understood our vocabulary on a higher level. Also, many students were proud when they completely sold out of their goods in the first round of shopping. I was too!

This was truly the only time I "let go" during instructional time. I like having a certain order and method to our time even though I understand that's not always beneficial. I have to work harder to relinquish control to my students. Students need to be given the chance to learn on their own and apply what we learned in their way on their own time because they'll surprise us and themselves. Once again with our economics project I was pleasantly surprised! I remember one of my goals as a teacher was to create life long learners and after this first year of mine I know more than ever that can't truly happen unless I allow my students to take the reins once I've adequately equipped them with strategies and skills they can use throughout my class and in the real world. I need to give them ample opportunities to show what they know and expand on their thinking as well as what we learn in class. My instruction needs to become more explicit in the sense of making sure my students know why they're learning what they are and why it will be important to them. 

Wiggins, G. (2016). Great teaching means letting go. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/great-teaching-means-letting-go/

Reflective Searching

I learned early on that typing in an entire phrase or one singular word into Google wasn't going to get me the results I wanted. I attribute that to the fact that I was around technology at home and in school throughout my education. I had computer classes in elementary that taught me about typing and I used similar programs at home. After that I learned what I should and should not do on the internet in middle school. That included researching methods, what we now call "fake news", and to be careful what I share with others. I even learned how to build a website (long forgotten information honestly and a little obsolete) in middle school. Everything came full circle in high school where I had to really learn how to research for papers. I was taught hints and tips to find exactly what I need and how to spot a credible versus an incredible source which boiled down to "Can you site this source?". If not, we couldn't use it. 

That has stuck with me throughout college and now. It has allowed me to find almost anything I need except for maybe more obscure concepts or new information. I hardly ever need to go to page two of Google because I can use resources from other sites that I know are credible. I can use what they found and create different pathways that are more specific to my needs. 

Because of how I was raised in the technology age and the curriculum from all of my schools I think that I learned good research habits early on. I don't think I'm an expert and it still may take me longer than I like, but I can trust I can find good material the first or second time in my searches. 

Resources
Information behaviour of the researcher of the future. (2008). University College London

Resources

I noticed that all four sources talk about rethinking the way we use the tools we have access to. Lirenman (2012) talks about using twitter for her PLN to re-imagine ways to utilize technology. The Mindshift (2013) article discusses how we should or could think about how we present curriculum to students. How can we get students to become more accountable for their learning? Alexander (2013) briefly touches on how he uses social media to input and output information. He explores different avenues of sharing (podcasts, email, social media) to gather information he couldn't find elsewhere. The Infowhelm (2010) video discusses how much technology has become prevalent and challenges us to think about how we may need to change the way we educate our students. 

The focus of Lirenmen and Alexander are more about using social media in ways to improve how we gather information from fellow teachers. Whereas Mindshift and Infowhelm focus more on students and how our curriculum may need to shift to accommodate for how much people are now exposed to and involved in technology. 

After reading/watching these articles I can say that my goals are more prevalent than ever. I will need to obtain a different skill set in order to properly prepare my students for the future in technology. I teach 2nd grade and they have technology classes within their specials rotations, but I can see that's not enough. They still struggle with the fundamentals such as logging in, typing in a website, and locating the websites, from the google results, that I have on the board. They will be using technology more than I ever did in school and in order to use they will need to change their skill set as well as their mindset. They need to be able to think critically about what they find as they grow older especially when anyone can post whatever they want anywhere they want. 

Goals

I have several goals for myself in this class. My main goals would include learning how to facilitate student learning through inquiry based learning. I want my students to be lifelong learners and inquiry based learning would help me help them achieve that. 

I also want to be able to effectively utilize these resources in the classroom. I want to be able to show students how to use the information I have learned to help them achieve so much more.