Hello and welcome back to my blog! For my first blog
assignment, I discussed my preference for constructivism as an educational
pedagogy, and I provided a few examples of technological resources that could
be used to engage 21st century learners. My most recent blog was a
personal reflection on the feedback I received from classmates and fellow
educators, as well as a commentary on my career goals. After reviewing my
previous posts, I have highlighted a few of my core beliefs which I feel emerged
from my musings, and which also shape who I believe I am as an educator. It
will be interesting to see what elements I will be able to add as I journey
through this course and into teacher’s college next year.
Backwards design is a new part of my teaching pedagogy which
I have not discussed as of yet. Since this process is new to me as of this
school year, I am still learning how to successfully use this approach as a
method of creating an aligned curriculum unit with a rich culminating performance
assessment task (RPAT). It is going to be challenging to create a unit which
targets four subject areas, as well as a selection of 21st century
literacies; however, I am already seeing the connections between subjects
during the initial stages of scanning the front matter and curriculum
expectations for Big Ideas (Know), Big Skills (Do), and Big Values/Attitudes
(Be). I am looking forward to collaborating with my peers to create this
engaging and informative curriculum unit, so stay tuned for updates!
In the spring after my second year of university, I had the
wonderful opportunity of travelling to a country called Namibia, which is
located in the south of Africa. This was a volunteer trip offered through Brock
University where we got to teach students at an afterschool centre in math and
English. Alas, I wish I had known about the backwards design process back then!
But even without formally knowing the theory and classroom management
techniques that I have learned since then, I believe that my core beliefs as an
educator still were able to shine through in my math lesson designs. Looking
back, I tried my best to make multiplication (the targeted unit for my grade 4
classroom) hands-on and engaging for my students by using math centers and games
in an attempt to reach students with various learning styles. Although there
were limited resources in terms of technology, I was able to use simple items,
such as dice and dominoes, to make math come alive for my students. Here’s a
picture of my rambunctious grade 4 students!
As an educator, I feel that it is important to reflect on
your prior teaching experiences in order to continuously improve your teaching
ability. I want to demonstrate to my students the value of being a lifelong
learner, and to do this I must be one myself. So, knowing what I do now about
the importance of teaching an aligned curriculum unit, I am going to brainstorm
ideas that I believe would have strengthened my lessons. Right off the bat, I
would have loved to connect what we were learning to the children’s lives in
order to make math meaningful and relevant. They have a garden on the side of
the school, and if I was there for a longer period of time I think designing
and implementing the garden using multiplication skills would have been an excellent
RPAT! One logical connection would be with the science curriculum, as students
are learning about habitats and how plants and animals work together to form ecosystems
at this age. Not only would the students be able to design the layout of the
garden using math skills, they would also need to learn what types of plants to
grow and how to take care of them. This can also connect to environmental
literacy by making students aware of the responsibility that we all have to
take care of the environment, and how to use the environment to give back to
the local community (e.g. by feeding the children at the centre with food grown
from the garden).
Language skills could be included by reading relevant literature about gardening along the way, and comprehension and research skills could be enhanced by learning new vocabulary through exploring available media, such as books. Students could also study their local climate and environment, and a comparison with Canada could be made. This would also facilitate a connection to global literacy, as it is important for children to realize that they are a part of a global community. One way I was hoping to encourage my students to broaden their worldviews was by bringing them bracelets that children from Canada had made for them. I liked the idea of children making friendships around the world, and if there had been the appropriate technology it would have been interesting to make a Skype call from Namibia to Canada, or another country. This would also be a great way to include technological literacy in the classroom. Of course, I was restricted in time on that trip since it was only 5 weeks, and I am also still learning all of the components which make up a successful 21st century educator. These are just some ways that I could have enhanced my lessons to provide my students with a richer worldview, and to practice aligning my lessons to produce a rich culminating task which effectively assesses what my students have learned.
Language skills could be included by reading relevant literature about gardening along the way, and comprehension and research skills could be enhanced by learning new vocabulary through exploring available media, such as books. Students could also study their local climate and environment, and a comparison with Canada could be made. This would also facilitate a connection to global literacy, as it is important for children to realize that they are a part of a global community. One way I was hoping to encourage my students to broaden their worldviews was by bringing them bracelets that children from Canada had made for them. I liked the idea of children making friendships around the world, and if there had been the appropriate technology it would have been interesting to make a Skype call from Namibia to Canada, or another country. This would also be a great way to include technological literacy in the classroom. Of course, I was restricted in time on that trip since it was only 5 weeks, and I am also still learning all of the components which make up a successful 21st century educator. These are just some ways that I could have enhanced my lessons to provide my students with a richer worldview, and to practice aligning my lessons to produce a rich culminating task which effectively assesses what my students have learned.
Finally, I would like to conclude this blog by mentioning a few highlights I have found from some of the blogs and twitter sites I have been following. The first is a website called Learning Bird (https://www.learningbird.com/iamateacher) which is an online tutoring option for students that provides them with a database of lessons that can reach students of all learning styles and preferences. Teachers can upload their lesson plans and get paid every time a student accesses that lesson! I think it is a great opportunity for both teachers and students, so I encourage my fellow educators to check it out.
One insight I loved from Emily Gibbons (www.theliteracynest.com) was this
list of “Top Ten S’Cool Tools of 2014” (https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-12-31-counting-down-the-top-ten-s-cool-tools-of-2014).
I encourage you to save this link as it provides a lot of examples of different
technological apps and websites which can be used to promote 21st
century learning in the classroom. In particular, I like OfficeMix because it
allows you to make your PowerPoints more engaging through adding interactive
quizzes, videos, etc. This is an example of a PowerPoint created from OfficeMix
and I encourage you to watch it because it is on the topic of embedding
technology in the Fine Arts classroom. It had some great ideas of how to use
technology to create online documentation of art work and musical compositions.
Check it out here: https://mix.office.com/watch/rtltg7vrgdr9
and also consider downloading OfficeMix to create your own educational videos
which you can use in your teaching! You need PowerPoint 2013 in order to run
OfficeMix.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Michelle
Photo retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com/heathere1030/teaching-inspiration/
Course content drawn from:
References
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W.
(2014). Interweaving curriculum and
classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Don
Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
