As I reflect on what I have
learned throughout the duration of this course, it is clear to me that my
outlook on teaching has changed. I have grown up in classrooms where the
teacher lectured to the students, without much leeway for students to shape
their own learning experiences. I knew that I did not want to be this kind of
teacher, but until this year I was unaware of how important it is to help
students cultivate skills and values that will shape them into better human
beings. Thus, the purpose of this reflection will be to discuss how I can
incorporate a couple of the literacies into my future teaching practice by
drawing on examples from inspiring teacher bloggers.
21st century
literacies are so important for today’s children and youth to learn because
they provide students with big ideas and skills that they can transfer to all
areas of their lives and they help them to grow in all domains, such as academically
and emotionally. Although it is intimidating to think about everything 21st
century teachers are required to do in the classroom, this digital curation is
an excellent way to start brainstorming how I can be an innovative classroom
teacher. Two of the literacies really stood out to me for the purpose of this
curation: technological literacy and global literacy. Lots of excellent
educators are blogging about using technology in the classroom with their
students and creating global connections with students around the world.
Therefore, I challenge those who are reading this to be inspired to think
outside the box to help your students learn both the essential curriculum
content and the important 21st century skills and literacies they
will need to be successful in the future.
Technological
Literacy
Aviva
Dunsinger is an incredible educator who uses technology in amazing ways in her
classroom. In one of her blogs, she talks about how every student is different
and some may be more ready than others to use technology to accomplish tasks. I
believe that this is important to keep in mind, as educators should frequently
reflect on their practices to ensure that they are meeting each student’s
needs. One simple way that students can become independent learners is by using
Google microphone. Aviva’s pupils used this method as an aid to help them spell
unfamiliar words. Here is an example (drawn from this blog link): http://adunsiger.com/2015/03/07/being-ready/
3D printers are fascinating to
me, and Aviva mentions her struggles with the idea of implementing this technological
device in the classroom due to the complexity of its structure. I find her
blogs captivating because she is a great role model as an educator. Even if she
is unsure of something she is thinking about implementing in the classroom, she
blogs about it so that she can share her opinions with others to get different
perspectives. This is admirable because it demonstrates that she is willing to
be vulnerable and flexible when it comes to growing as an educator. Even though
she didn’t use the 3D printer with her Grade 1 students, she saw how this
device could be implemented in a kindergarten classroom to encourage
inquiry-based learning. Read more here: http://adunsiger.com/2015/03/14/thinking-and-learning-in-3-d/
Angie Harrison wrote a blog about
how she struggled to get her students to grasp the difference between
constructing 2D and 3D shapes. She contacted Aviva for inspiration, and she
decided to incorporate this concept into the inquiries that children produced
throughout the year. My favourite example is when Angie had her class conduct a
Skype call with other students who taught her own students about Chinese New
Year. Then the children constructed Chinese Lanterns. Read more here: http://techieang.edublogs.org/2014/06/22/explicitly-teaching-2d-3d/
I love the idea of using Skype to connect with students from around the world,
as well as for a way of consulting with experts in the field, such as a
favourite author.
Another blogger who is working
hard to provide her students with opportunities to interact with technology is
Jocelyn Sutherland. I believe that
blogging is an excellent way of documenting one’s learning, and now that I have
read Jocelyn’s blog, I am inspired to try it even with very young children! She
argues that there are many benefits to blogging with young students, including
the fact that students are able to connect with others around the world and
they are able to take pride in their work. She provides a helpful video which
shows how one student used an app called Easy Blogger Jr. (available on the App
store) to post a blog about his hundreds chart that we worked so hard to make.
Watch the adorable video here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=swCACsz1ScM
Check out this link for more information: http://jocelynsutherland.com/2014/11/05/blogging-with-6-year-olds/
Technology can also be used to
enhance one’s teaching practice, and in this case, students can learn the many
different uses of technology during their engagement in the lessons. Jocelyn is
a big fan of inquiry, and she really goes into great depth with her students
during this process in the form of an Exhibition. One example that caught my
eye involved the “sorting out” phase of the Inquiry cycle, where students
examined the impact that simple machines have on their lives. Her classroom is
also very interesting to me because she works with students of different levels
of English proficiency. In order to stimulate discussion, Jocelyn provided
keynote images and had her students brainstorm whether they showed a positive
or a negative impact. She understood that she had to build up her students’
schemas about simple machines first by teaching vocabulary and definitions, but
I love that she did it in such a way that the students were engaged in the
process. This video shows how she has her students use different colour cubes
to create statements and/or listen and repeat the new vocabulary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kipeeSHPIA&feature=youtu.be
Read more to see how her students began to narrow down their inquiry process to
discover more about simple machines here: http://jocelynsutherland.com/2013/02/20/week-6-of-exhibition-putting-the-i-in-inquiry-for-eal-students/
Overall, these examples highlight
to me how important it is for 21st century educators to be open to
use new technologies in the classroom. Also, I admire these educators for being
open to learning from their students rather than being stuck in the traditional
role of the teacher being the lecturer of academic content. Combining backwards
design curriculum units with technology will help me create exceptional lesson
plans which inspire my students to be lifelong learners, and I can’t wait to
try it out!
Global Literacy
Global
literacy is a concept that I’ve really come to value due to my love of
travelling and learning about different cultures. When I travelled to Namibia
with Brock University to do some volunteer teaching, I was interested in
helping the children both there and here to realize that they are connected
with students around the world (read more in my blog entitled “Reflecting on
Who I Am as an Educator” here: http://michellepottie.blogspot.ca/2015/02/reflecting-on-who-i-am-as-educator-blog_21.html).
I had some children from Canada create friendship bracelets: one for themselves
and one to give to my students in Africa. I also brought pictures of these kids
with me to show my Namibian students that there are people who care about them
halfway around the world. Although this is just an initial start to
understanding global literacy, I look forward to building on my passion of
connecting with people from various cultures by collecting examples of
inspiring teacher bloggers’ lessons to help shape my future teaching practice.
One
excellent example is Joanne Babalis’ “We Can See” Project, which was inspired
by Angie Harrison’s use of inquiry with her kindergarten students and involves
a number of educators. The purpose of this project is for children to discuss
with each other online about things they can discover in their communities. Using
blogs and twitter are great ways of broadening students’ worldviews, and it
provides children with many new experiences which they may not have been able
to have without accessing an online community. One student took a trip to India
and the photos were added to this project so that other students can learn what
India is like (read more here: http://wecanseeprojectsharingspace.blogspot.ca/2013/01/we-can-see-india-family-vacation.html)
Here is a video of some of the things they saw (and it definitely makes me want
to go to India!!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AGyTbs5Hr84
Karen
Lirenman is another primary educator who is teaching me so much about working
with technology! She wrote a blog post about using Twitter with her students
for a multitude of purposes, including creating math riddles for other
students. She provides many other examples, which you can read about here: http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca/2013/08/using-twitter-in-primary-classroom.html.
In terms of global literacy, Karen’s students were able to use Twitter to
connect with one of their favourite authors. She said that the students felt so
rewarded when the author, who is Ame Dyckman, answered every student’s
questions. Another time, students watched a live streaming from Discover
Education about an aboriginal community. Then, they tweeted out the key points
that they learned to synthesize their learning with the help of other’s
perspectives. I was surprised about the many applications of Twitter, but it is
clear to me now that it can be a great learning tool for children of all ages.
I love that
many of these wonderful teachers reside in Canada, and Kathy Cassidy is no
exception! Located in Saskatchewan, Kathy has her students create their own
blogs to document their learning so that other children can learn with them.
One of her blog posts that I found interesting was when her students had a
Skype call with Grade 7 students in New Hampshire. Her students were able to
make predictions about what moon rocks would be like, and then the older students
taught the younger ones about the facts they had learned regarding moon rocks. I
love the application of having older students become the experts on a topic,
and then allowing them to really consolidate their knowledge by teaching
younger students about the topic. To check out more of Kathy’s blog, click
here: http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/2014/10/19/moon-rocks/
Another
example I loved from Karen Lirenman is how she teamed up with an additional
educator’s class from Iowa to recreate The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric
Carle. Check out one example of their final product here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IlKQbkRY1Uw
I love how the students worked very hard to provide the
illustrations, text, and voice components of the story. I think this would be a
great example of project-based learning because students can really invest in
their product and they learn many skills along the way, especially when it
comes to working with others and using technology. Be sure to read more about
Karen and her students here: http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca/2013/10/co-creating-with-class-in-iowa.html
I also love
the idea of using field trips to stimulate discussion and provide real-life
world experiences for the children. Another great example from Jocelyn
Sutherland was one of the preliminary steps she took to help her students
prepare for their Exhibition on simple machines (see the example above). Jocelyn’s
students visited a local Indonesian school to learn about how marine life is
affected by water pollution. Check out her blog to see pictures from the
Exhibition and the organizer that she had her students fill out with the ideas
they would like to use for their own Exhibition (http://jocelynsutherland.com/2013/02/07/bridging-ib-schools-grade-5s-learn-from-local-indonesian-students/)
One final
educator who I want to highlight is Bianca Hewes. Although she teaches older
students, I found her blog very inspiring and I think her ideas could be
adapted for younger students. She created a year-end passion-based learning
project called “Cause We Care”, which was based off of the essential question: ‘How
can we raise awareness in our local community about a charity or cause we feel
passionately about?’ Bianca provides some examples of the causes that students chose,
including Human Trafficking, Autism, and Endangered Species. There are so many
amazing projects created by students that are having an impact on the world,
and it makes me so excited (click here for more examples: https://biancahewes.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/year-9-passion-driven-project-using-social-media-to-have-a-real-world-impact/)!
Here is an example of depression awareness that some students did for the
Beyond Blue Foundation. It is a very moving video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HALkp--bwOE
Above all, I love that educators are giving students the choice
of pursuing what they are passionate about, as I feel like that is the best way
to create a rich learning experience.
In
conclusion, I hope that this blog has inspired you to embrace 21st
century teaching and learning. I feel that it is important to keep reflecting
on who you are as an educator, to be open to learning from your students, and
to make connections with other inspiring teachers who are doing great things in
their classrooms. So best of luck to all you educators out there on your
learning adventure!
-Michelle
