What's your silver lining? During these unprecedented times, it can be challenging to see the light at the end of the tunnel but it's important to remind ourselves of the positive things in our life during these negative times. While taking Michigan State Universities CEP 811 course, I was assigned to take one picture daily. Now that I am at the end of the course, I have gone back and complied all the pictures from the last eight weeks. These images became a quick reminder that even with all the craziness and sadness in our world right now, I can find daily happiness.
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As I gear up to start prepping for the start of a new school year, I was able to virtually layout my classroom and think about how I could redesign my teaching space. Below you will see a before and after picture of the basic structure of my second grade classroom. I found a website called, Classroom Architect, which supported my classroom structure due to the access to furniture that you more often see as well as the labels that are part of the structure, making it more easy for viewers to understand.
As I was assigned to complete this task of redesigning my work place, I personally designed it in a way that is possible for me and my school district. When looking at the pictures, yes, there is not a major change. However, realistically I can't change where the cabinets, shelves or projector are. This causes my overall room structure to not be redesigned. The before picture is how I set up my classroom last year as a first year teacher and the after shows a new structure that I would like to try out. The major changes are the flexible seating that I would like to include as a teacher moving forward. This idea of flexible seating helps to better support students who may prefer their own desk or those who do better in a smaller group. With the flexible seating comes flexible seating options such as a desk where students can stand or a round table where students sit on an exercise ball. Due to the cost and resources available I think that the small changes that you can see are possible and something I will try as I begin to restructure my classroom for the new school year. I have created an innovative learning experience for my second graders through the use of Makey Makey and Scratch. Makey Makey allows you to connect objects to computer programs through mimicking a keyboard and mouse, while Scratch is an online programming language which has programs that supports the Makey Makey tool. My lesson plan includes the practice of understanding the coins, a penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Through the use of this learning experience students will have a better understanding of the different coins based on looks as well as how much each coin is worth.
After drafting this lesson plan, I was provided great feedback from two of my masters courses colleagues as well as one of my professors from this course. This feedback helped me to view my lesson from a variety of lenses and challenged me to think deeper about the plans for my second graders. One peer specifically viewed the lesson through a UDL lens, Universal Design for Learning while another suggested comments from the stand point of a student with ADHD, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Some changes I made due to the feedback that I was provided was including more step-by-step instruction for my lesson, having students work with a peer to accomplish the task assigned as well as thinking about how this lesson could be extended for continued learning building off this lesson. One colleague challenged me to think about having a portion of the lesson where students do their own project, however, with this new tool and a newer concept of money I think that having a peer to work together will create more success for most students. Take a look at the image below, it shows a portion of my lesson plan with the great feedback that I received from my peers. Not only did I receive feedback but I also had the experience to provide feedback to other colleagues. One review I took the UDL lens while another one I took the lens of supporting a student was ADHD. Both of these experiences I found very useful. Not only to help those who wrote the lessons but it challenged me to think about how I should step back and think about these lenses for my own lessons moving forward. Specifically intersectionality and making sure that as I plan and process this lesson I am not discriminating any students or the privileges that they have. This week was exactly what is was set up to be. This content challenged me to think deeper and reflect on not only my own teaching but also taking the time to reflect on two of my peers lesson planing based on different perspectives. I realized the challenge of creating the "perfect" lesson plan as I worked through the content this week, as a teacher you have to think of all these different lenses and strive to maximize learning for every student in your classroom.
Through the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as well as intersectionality, I learned more about how as an educator I can better take down the barriers many have in the classroom as well as oppress the discrimination that may take place within a daily lesson. There are many videos that I watched during the course of this week that stuck with me as well as provided me a better understanding as I explored these two important findings. Let's dive in! This week I worked on broadening my media, specifically via my teacher Twitter account @MissCook14. I use this account to connect with colleagues, peers from my MAET program, professors as well as other inspiring educators. My teacher Twitter account is new as of this year therefore, I was not following many accounts. I only had room to grow who I was following versus unfollowing any accounts. Having the task to dig deeper and connect with other accounts provided me with tips, tricks and motivation.
Eli Pariser enlightened me more about the discussion of filter bubbles. He discussed the idea that the internet includes "invisible algorithmic editing of the web" (2011). He progressed on and stated that "if I search for something and you search for something even right now at the very same time, we may get very different search results" (2011). These bubbles can cause us to not see the world in the bigger picture and only be exposed to information from one side. It can be important to be aware of these filter bubbles and make an effort to continue to broaden your knowledge and use a variety of media to acquire information. I created a Jamboard including the eleven new accounts that I followed this week, take a look at the image below! This week I had the experience of learning a variety of new content including remix culture as well as learning how to use media legally and ethically. One quote that stuck out to me as I was enlightening myself on these ideas was, "it can be even harder to break them of the habit of doing a Google image search and grabbing the first relevant and powerful image they seek" (Woodall, 2017). This quote stuck with me because this is something that I have personally done over the last few years. However, after diving into a variety of different resources that can provide me with usable media, I realized how many websites are available with images and videos that we can use legally and ethically.
While I continue to learn new ideas and content, I always seem to "put on my teacher hat" on. After reading the article, Teaching Kids About Copyright, I took away some great ideas and tips as an elementary teacher. In the article, Woodall states that, "teachers simply need to teach some key concepts, share some tools, and model digital citizenship in terms of copyright explicitly in the classroom" (2017). She goes on to discuss ways that educators can provide this support to their students and how important these lessons can be for students growing up in such a technology driven era. This past week I dove into many ideas and resources that revolved around learning, failing and making. Many of my current educational thoughts were challenged and as an educator I thought about how my findings can support my future teachings and influence the second graders in my classroom. I believe that we are all life long learners and as we continue on through life we will continue to learn, fail and make as people and educators.
One video that stuck with me and I have encouraged educators in my family as well as coworkers to take the time to watch is, RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms. RSA Animate challenges the idea of "how do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century?" (2010). They believe that the education system today is, "trying to meet the future with what they did in the past" (The RSA, 2010). The video emphasizes the idea of moving away from standardized tests, which many may agree or disagree with but they go on to say that "our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth" (The RSA, 2010). This video puts an emphasis on the high expectations we have for students and challenges that idea that our education system may not be taking all the right avenues to lead our youth to be the most successful in the future. |
Work by Claire Cook is licensed under
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