Unnamed 11/07/2013

• Dear Teacher, Johnny Isn’t Sick. He’s Just Boycotting the Test. - NYTimes.com

  "Ms. Chajet’s objection is not to testing itself, but to the way tests are being used to evaluate schools and teachers. "

  tags: Blog

• Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

  Testing out my diigo skills

  tags: Blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Unnamed 11/06/2013

• Dear Teacher, Johnny Isn’t Sick. He’s Just Boycotting the Test. - NYTimes.com

  "Ms. Chajet’s objection is not to testing itself, but to the way tests are being used to evaluate schools and teachers. "

  tags: Blog

• Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

  Testing out my diigo skills

  tags: Blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Growth as a Blogger and a Teacher

The most notable way that I have grown as being public as a teacher this quarter has been via Pinterest and through blogging back and forth with my cooperating teacher.

At the beginning of Winter Quarter, I started a blog for my daily reflections. I did this at my field supervisors suggestion, because I am experiencing so much right now, and it will be helpful to reflect back and see how much I've learned over time. It is also a space for me to think back and reflect on any obstacles or problems I ran into during the day. I decided to give my cooperating teacher accessibility to the blog as well, and now I can gain her insight and feedback on the days as well. I've found this to be useful in my current placement as my cooperating teacher and I don't often have time to chat during the day (we are so ridiculously busy!) but having my thoughts and questions up on the blog gives her a chance to see them and to comment back on them when she has the time. This is an example of me actively seeking and giving feedback on my professional thinking and it is directly applied to my growth as a kindergarten teacher in my main teaching placement. 

Pinterest and the teachers I have followed has helped me to delve into professional conversations happening in the community of teaching. I feel like my unique placement of kindergarten is really supported by a site like pinterest, where you can see exactly how other teachers modeled their thinking and exactly how they gave visual support to their students. I have been talking to my CT about implementing a sort of "kindness campaign" in our classroom (we both agree that it is definitely needed!) and I've been using Pinterest to get ideas of how to embark on something like that in our class. I've been looking into books like "How Full is Your Bucket" and all the assorted workshops and projects that you can have students do along with reading the book. I've found that my students retain the knowledge best when they can visually see and kinesthetically act out what they are going to do. Pinterest has provided me a plethora of ways to do this!

Thinking About Science and Technology Integration

Ever since our resume workshop this week, I've been really focused on how to bring more technology into the classroom in my main placement. This week my CT and I had some great conversations of things we can do each day to utilize the technology we already have!

One thing we've started to do this week is to use the ActivBoard to help us to do interactive writing with our students. Each student gets to use a whiteboard, and students take turns using the ActivBoard to write words for everyone to see. We began by having students brainstorm things that they are experts on. This is going to lead up to our "All About Books" which will be the focus of their writing in March. They've learned about all kinds of features that can go into informational books and so pretty soon they will be making their own All About Books! 

I'm about to start helping to take on a science unit where students will get to observe and interact with guppies, worms, snails, and other small creatures. Something that works really well for our students is having them work in small groups, so we thought we would have science centers where groups could rotate around the room. This made me think of- of course- technology integration! Because we don't have the luxury of having 24+ iPads, my CT and I could make use of our personal iPads in a small group setting. 

I'm not exactly sure what this will look like yet but I have some ideas. I've been perusing around the educational app website on Apple.com, and I've found a few interesting ideas for science stations with my students. One app I found is called "Sid's Science Fair". It engages players in experiential learning, and it's for ages 3-6. It looks like something where I could tailor it to focus on exactly what we were focusing on that day. I also thought we could use an iPad (or iPod even) for students to draw what they see. A simple drawing app could be used for this. We would focus on labeling parts of our diagram and then I could use a dictation program to help record what they say about their new found knowledge of all things worm/slug/insect! 

Another really relevant app for what we'll be taking on is called "Meet the Insects Village Edition". It provides information, pictures, videos all tailored for "little explorers". It includes an observation journal where students can upload their own photos. 

Science Methods and Implications for my Teaching

This week I was really reflecting on the science my students are experiencing in my placement. My students come to school equipped with knowledge of the natural world and with a model for inquiry. I think it's so important to use what students know and to build on it to push their thinking even further. I keep thinking of the possibilities for my kindergarteners. 

In our science methods course, we did a little self-documentation this week where we included pictures of science in our everyday lives. We also included pictures of culture in our everyday lives, and pictures of what we are experts at. What my self-documented practices really illuminated for me was that I see and experience science in my everyday life. 

One of my self documentation pictures showing science (weather/ the environment) in my everyday life.

My pictures regarding science in my everyday life predominantly included cooking and the environment. I see how greatly my culture is reflected here and I believe that there are some opportunities in this as I think they could be easily incorporated into my teaching. 

On Fridays, we have parent helpers come into our classroom to have a cooking lesson with groups of students. Students are already experiencing science in cooking- and I think we need to put a name to it! I think we need to be more explicit about how science is related to cooking and it would be so easy to include this in something we're already doing. 

Another topic I included often in my self-documented practices is the environment. After our workshop this quarter, I feel a real responsibility to my students to help them foster a love for our environment early on. I think there are some things that I could do in our class every day, and one of those things could be to incorporate a compost bin. Unfortunately my students throw away their vegetables frequently and those things could be going into a classroom compost bin. We also have a school garden that we have not visited thus far, and I think we could easily use our compost bin as even more of an excuse to make a trip over to the garden! Before we can teach children how they can save the world, they must first come to love the world (so said our groovy workshop lecturer)!

The Art of Video Games

This Saturday, I had a much needed day off, and David and I decided to go to the EMP to see "The Art of Video Games" exhibit. I'm generally not a huge fan of video games (with the exception of anything from the Nintendo 64) but I thought David would enjoy it, and I would enjoy the arts side of it. As soon as I got to the exhibit, I started thinking about my students and how video games could be an awesome influence for them. Art and technology really do go hand in hand, but it's something that I don't really hear too often.

Below is a picture I took from the exhibit that says "Games are a toolkit we use to create." I loved this quote! It made me think about Blooms Taxonomy of higher order thinking, and how creating is right up there at the top.

 Another favorite quote from my trip is in the picture posted to the right. It says "Games have so much freedom. You can go wherever you want." In our tech class we've been talking about using technology to help our kids experience things that they would not be able to before. If we're reading a book with a character from Thailand, how cool would it be for students to be able to quickly look at google maps to see Thailand. When we talk about technology, I didn't really think about including video games until now.

 I had to include this last picture because it was so suprising. It was from World of Warcraft, I think? I was blown away by the sketches here. Art and video games!


It was so fascinating to see how far we've come since the 1970's and 80's as far as technology for video games. They are so engaging, and I wonder if there could be a future for something like this in the classroom, and I wonder what that might look like? If we were to use something in the classrooms, like say Minecraft, that already has students so engaged, how could we use that as a tool for learning and creating?

Tracking the Trackers

"Just as the internet has opened up the world for each of us, it has also opened up each and every one of us to the world. And increasingly, the price that we're being asked to pay for this connectedness, is our privacy. With every click of the mouse, every touch of the screen, we are like Hansel and Gretel- leaving breadcrumbs, or personal information, everywhere we travel through the digital woods."
-Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers 

After discussing issues of online privacy this week, I saw this Ted Talks video and started watching. This Ted Talk is all about the information that is being collected about you as you surf the web. Before watching this video, I had no idea to what scale this was being done, or for what reason. After I watched this, for lack of a more fitting phrase, I was freaked out. I feel like there is a crowd of people following me (or according to Kovacs- stalking me?) wherever I go online.

“I am being stalked across the Web. And why is this happening? Pretty simple: It's huge business.”-Gary Kovacs.

What could this mean for our students? According to this Ted Talk, the example of a nine-year old girl was used, who web browsed something close to 4 sites and ended up having near 25 follow her. This is a process that could take less than a minute- easily! 

Taking a step back, the person who did this Ted Talk works for Mozilla (Firefox) and potentially wants you to install his software to "track the trackers". Just as he commented on why trackers are tracking people across the web, having you add his company's software significantly contributes to their business. I think referring to the web analytics tools to follow user behavior as "online stalkers" is a strong term, but it isn't a comfortable thing either, and I think it's because it's this thing that is mostly unknown. And there is such little regulation regarding it in our country. So for me it's something to keep thinking about and to be mindful of. 

The take home message for me after watching this video is that internet history is a permanent thing, and that students need practice in being safe students of the web. I think schools have a responsibility to teach ways to be safe online. What's so interesting is that those ways to be safe online are changing, and this Ted Talks video was a reminder of how quickly the web can change and how proactive users need to be about being safe on the web.