Reflections on My Personal Story So Far

Now that I am in my 4^th year of my undergraduate degree, I am really starting to realize where my passions lie and what direction I’d like to go in after I achieve my teaching degree. I have come to value the metacognitive process of reflection, as reflecting allows me to recognize how my past experiences throughout my time at university have shaped my future career decisions. Drake, Reid, and Kolohon (2014) describe this as one’s personal story, which is situated within cultural, global, and universal contexts. This blog will look at how my personal story is constantly being reshaped based on my ongoing learning experiences within this course and in my other classes.

One way that I am blending the old story with the new story is by combining my drive to help children learn through new ways of teaching with technology. I found this inspiring blog (which you can access here:http://www.speechtechie.com/) where Sean Sweeney posts his knowledge about how to implement interactive technology in the classroom to help your students with language-based curricula.

One of his examples that I particularly like is the StoryPatch App (http://storypatch.com/) which helps students to create a narrative by illuminating the essential parts of a story (such as characters, setting, plot, etc.). I enjoy that you can personalize instruction based on the level of assistance the app provides for the child. For example, you can start by building a story with help where students choose from a selection of choices. As students increase their ability to write quality stories, they have the option of creating a story without help, which allows them to have complete control over the story writing process. Using an app helps bring the story to life and could be a potential motivator for students who struggle with writing or are uninterested in reading. Here is the YouTube video which describes how the app works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fwQlp3dcp0 

 Drake et al. (2014) also describe how educators have shifted their views from seeing assessment as an end product to using assessment throughout the learning process as a way to continually adapt instruction to meet student needs effectively. Ongoing assessment requires teachers to constantly make observations and look at both the processes and the products that children undergo or produce. This new way of thinking also aligns with my belief in the constructivist philosophy, which involves students drawing on their prior experiences to actively construct their understandings of the world and to reflect on themselves as learners (Drake et al., 2014). Personally, I am curious as to how I can connect the 21^st century literacies with the constructivist philosophy in the classroom. Right away, I see a possible connection with environmental literacy by having students reflect on the personal impact they have on the environment by tracking the ecological footprint they are leaving on the world based on their daily choices. A cool resource to use can be found here: https://islandwood.org/footprint-calculator/ As I engage with more course material, I will continue to reflect on concrete ways that I can incorporate the different literacies into the classroom experience. Hopefully, I will be able to put some of these ideas into practice when I am engaged in teacher education placements next year.

Another avenue that has been presented to me as a way to include 21^st century teaching ideals in my teaching bag of tricks is the use of video games in the classroom. A game that I was recently introduced to, entitled Prodigy, is a math-based adventure game that is based on the Ontario curriculum. You can access this game here:https://www.prodigygame.com/Play/ I was amazed that I had not come across this game yet, and I am currently using it with a girl in Grade 6 who I tutor in math. I love that the online game is free, and that it adapts the questions to the student’s math skill level. Overall, I am learning that even if a video game is not aligned with the curriculum, it can still be used to teach 21^st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my musings for this week! Stay tuned for future updates on how my personal story continues to develop as I engage in new experiences.

-Michelle

Photo from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/454652524857065154/

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21^st century learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.