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ED677 Final Make

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZSMWTozT4h0smw4FxMgN1LIZ5AtCH8NY76GZfPpz0U8/edit?usp=sharing

Above is the link to my Final Make Lesson Plan on Google Docs.  The document can be viewed by all Arcadia students.

I learned quite a bit from my final make of this connected learning class. First, to summarize my final make, I decided to develop a lesson plan that is centered around student production of reflective writing pieces.  My major inquiry questions throughout this semester were the following:

1.)   How can I prepare students for their immediate and distant future while incorporating science in the process?

2.)   How can I get students motivated and inspired in and fields of science?

3.)   How can I get students to realize that science is part of their everyday life and culture since birth?  

4.)   How can I get my students to relate to each others lives and communities to build a stronger connection between ALL of us in the classroom?

5.)   Can I get my students to realize that we all have more in common with one another then we think?

 In my final make lesson, students are asked to reflect upon their past and present with a focus on how science has affected their lives, cultures, and communities.  My students would then write about their reflections and share the ideas in a class discussion where all ideas would be recorded to see if there are any similarities in the wide range of backgrounds my students have in my school.  Students would then create a reflection on how they believe science will change and affect their futures when it comes to their daily lives, careers, culture, and communities.  After again discussing their futuristic science ideas, students will create graphic organizer charts on large chart paper that could be hung around the room for all to see.  

The entire point of this lesson was to build interest in science and cause students to develop a stronger understanding of how much science is involved with their lives.  I wanted students to realize how much they have in common with each other even though they come from a large variety of backgrounds and cultures.  I wanted to inspire some students to think about their futures and maybe build enough interest to get my students thinking about a career in science.  I wanted my students to brainstorm and support each others ideas on how they could use science to help their communities or to reflect on how they could make an impact on the world in the future in any way.  I wanted to instill the idea that everybody in my room has an opportunity to share their ideas and to understand that everyone can make a difference in the present and future.

I think that my lesson has touched on all of the learning principles and most of the design principles of connected learning.  Obviously my lesson was student-centered and focused on a shared purpose which everyone was able to discuss as a class after each reflection. The reflections were definitely peer supported as most of the time the students bounced dozens of ideas off each other. My entire lesson would not work if it was not driven by student interest.  Students enjoyed the activity and loved finding common interest with their classmates. I made my connected learning activity focused specifically on science which is obviously academically oriented.  I also feel my lesson at least touches on the openly networked concept where my students could do some reflecting across a multiple day lesson in and about multiple settings such as their home and community.  I must admit the one thing my lesson does lack is an online platform to share our thought as a class.  I did not incorporate this because many of my student’s home lives are not the best and some do not have access to the internet (believe it or not).  Some of my students do not have cell phones and computers, I find that for past projects plenty of my students asked about the local library as a place to access computers and the internet.  So because I wanted to keep everyone on an even level, I decided not to incorporate an online portion to my lesson.

I learned that my lesson was successful!  I found that although my students were hesitant at first, they all began to buy into this idea of reflecting on their past and present with a focus on science specifically.  I learned that my students built bonds that were not present before this activity through simply sharing stories of things from their own cultures.  I felt a sense of comradery being built as a class throughout the lesson.  I learned that my students, even the ones who were very low academically, could participate in this kind of lesson plan.  Nobody felt left out regardless of intellect, culture, or language barriers.  I found that my students generally enjoyed sharing their reflections and recording all of the similar ideas the students made, which were a lot, even though the backgrounds were different.  Students were truly able to connect with one another which shows how much we all really do have in common.  To be honest, some kids hated the actual writing part of the process, but I feel most enjoyed this lesson enough to not even think of it as a class assignment.  This year was more of a test run for next year which I will actually implement towards the very beginning of the year.  This lesson could also work as some form of an ice breaker to students in a brand new class.  I learned that my students can take this idea of a past-present-future scientific reflective writing memoir seriously and that most students thoroughly enjoyed sharing their reflections and making connections with others in the class.  I also learned that this is a work in progress in which I can always make modifications to and build follow up activities for it.  I felt that I have grown a lot this semester when it comes to knowing how to create lessons that are centered around the connected learning principles and equity. For me, this is just the first of many lessons I plan to develop that are focused on finding a shared purpose from common interests that we discover in my science class.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Ed677 Self Assessment

In what ways have you been successful this semester?

Looking back on this semester I felt that I succeeded my personal mission of putting in the time and work to understand concepts that are new or unfamiliar to me.  I enjoyed taking my time to examine the readings and watch the videos that were provided on a weekly basis.  I learned to truly love blogging.  I have never blogged anything until the beginning of this class and I thought it was a huge success for me to confidently share my thoughts on a range of topics to colleagues.  I also felt at ease throughout this semester when reading other blogs from this class. I never got around to making comments to others work but my personal blogging was definitely a success.  I was successful in producing my weekly makes. I took pride in my work and I hope that it showed.  The find 5 Fridays turned out to be quite enjoyable every week.  I tried to keep it light and fun with most of the resources I had which allowed me to not stress over that weekly activity.  Most importantly, I was successful at going from an educator who had an idea about connected learning to an educator that cannot wait to implement the concept into my class on a more regular basis next school year.  I feel that my understanding of connected learning and equity have grown to the point where I could be a champion of these concepts in my school.  I hope to encourage teachers who are unaware of these ideas to try out connected learning in their classroom.  I know I was successful at completing this class when I am thinking about equity and compassion on a daily basis without giving any thought of this class in the process.  I am happy that I took this class and I have grown to enjoy the concepts of connected learning and everything that goes with it.  I know my development doesn’t stop here, but I can say that I have added more strategies to my “teaching repertoire” because of this class.

In what ways do you still want to improve?

Like I have mentioned in many of my blogs this semester, we as educators are never finished improving. I will always say that I need to improve in some way.  When it comes to connected learning, I feel like I need to improve on the actual connected learning lessons that I implement to my class.  In the second half of the semester I started incorporating connected learning lessons in my classes with mixed results.  I was happy to begin bringing the theories into practice.  I know through simple trial and error that I will learn how to fine tune my connected learning lessons for my science classrooms.  All it takes is time and effort and I will never stop trying to improve myself.  I am bit of a perfectionist and I love refining my ideas until my lessons are as strong as possible.

   How does your successes and reflections on improvement inform your thoughts and questions about connected learning and teaching moving forward?

I think there is an obvious connection between reflections on improvement and questions on connected learning and teaching.  The pose/wobble/flow aspects of this class really helped me to understand this connection. I am a very big fan of reflection as a way to grow.  Using these methods in this connected learning class was no different.  Only after reflecting back on my teaching and learning will there be a chance of growth and development to occur. Throughout the semester I have been very successful at reflecting on the readings, videos, and blogs and using those reflections to develop answers to my questions in connected learning and equity. I don’t think learning would happen in this kind of class without a large amount of self reflection to help guide me through it.  Moving forward I will continue the practice of reflection (just as I am doing right now coincidentally) to continually improve upon my practices to include connected learning and equity lessons in my class.

What are your goals forward?

Halfway through this semester I set goals for myself to be completed by the end of the semester.  Now that the end of the semester is upon us I can gladly say that I completed those goals. But like I mentioned earlier in this assessment, development never ends.  It is a life-long process.  So even though my goal of taking connected learning from theory to practice has been completed for this semester, my new goal is to continue to develop ideas for connected learning and equity that would perfectly suit my science classroom. I need to build lessons that fit my style of teaching.  I need to constantly reflect on how I can improve upon these connected learning lessons. My goal is to carry over what I have learned this semester into the new school year where I can start fresh and gradually refine my lessons over time.  I enjoyed this class and I am going to carry forward all that I have learned and translate that into successful lessons in my school.  Another goal of mine is to consistently build student interest in science over the next school year through connected learning and equity lessons while encouraging students to think about their future and their community.  I will never stop my process of achieving these goals.

 Christina,

I want to say thank you for all the resources you have provided this semester and I appreciate your help on any questions I had!

[moosesykes-blog1]

FlipGrid Process Reflection for My Final Project

So the process of bouncing questions off colleagues using flipgrid was a new one for me. Just to mention again for the readers, my final project is designed to focus students on understanding how much science is involved in their everyday lives.  It is an activity designed to reflect on their lives in the past and present and to think of instances where science has made direct impacts on them in anyway at all.  They would create reflective writing samples on their thoughts and follow up with a future writing sample which focuses students on how science will grow and change their lives in the future.  The goal is to get students thinking about science more on a daily basis and perhaps inspire kids to pursue more scientific thought going forward into their futures. Some of the questions I had for my final make on flipgrid were, if this type of assignment was an appropriate one for lower level 7th graders.  Another question I had was simply to see if other people besides myself thought this was an interesting assignment for kids and if students would care and take it seriously.  I wanted to make sure that I was going down the right path with making this a connected learning lesson that could be enjoyable and beneficial to my class while incorporating every single student regardless of achievement level or language in the process.

Before making my video describing my final make and the dilemma questions that go with it, I was able to watch what others from the class have recorded.  Just seeing all the questions that others had help put my mind at ease and helped me get on track so to speak.  Honestly, I have struggled at times to find a perfect lesson to implement for my final make in this class and I wrestled with a lot of ideas.  When I finally settled in on one of the ideas, I found myself asking a lot of questions about the idea I decided on.  For whatever reason it is, I felt out of my element a little bit which I believe many times can be a good thing to help with some kind of growth in life.  

But I digress, I enjoyed watching my colleagues’ videos which helped me develop my video. After I made my video and responded to my groups videos, I was able to go back through and see what response videos everybody made for each group.  Jullette from my group was extremely helpful with her input from the many questions I had about my lesson.  She gave me another perspective which caused me to think about my lesson in ways I didn’t think of before.  From her suggestions I am going to modify how I am going to begin my lesson.  Instead of diving right in to a reflective writing assignment, I am going to ask my students in a group discussion/survey-type activity about every day things that they believe is science.  I am going to access some prior knowledge before diving straight in to the writing.  My original plan was to have the students jump in to an individual reflective piece without any real discussion on the matter because I was interested to see what pure thoughts they have on the matter.  But after seeing the responses to my questions, it might be more beneficial to the students to make mention of some scientific instruments that are used daily in their lives such as cell phones for example.  Jullette mentioned that she was support staff so it really helped to gain a perspective from somebody other than another classroom teacher.  I am also going to include a major discussion after the writing piece where all the students share their ideas and to see how similar all their ideas will be.  I believe this will allow students to see how everybody thinks of science and I think most will have similar responses which will help everybody gain common interest for this activity.  The discussion that follows will really allow students to connect to other class members by finding similar thinking in what they believe science is.  I feel that all of my questions (and I had a few of them) were answered in a way which will help me reflect more on my lesson before implementing it.  As I am writing this blog my mind is still reflecting on my questions and the responses I got.  This entire process was beneficial and helped me gain more confidence in my project.  The modifications that I have made and will continue to make all started with the videos that I watched on flipgrid.  Shout out to Jullette for adding her perspective to my project.  Time is getting short for this semester and I am still working on some things for my project but I am much closer now to actually conducting this in my class confidently because of this process.  I am much more excited now to get the ball rolling in class with my activity to see how it will play out with my students.  Lastly, I realize that this is a work in progress and I need to understand that the perfect lesson takes time and plenty of trial and error to materialize. This week’s process was a good step in the right direction for me.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Final Make Idea

Past, Present, and Future Scientific Self.

Honestly I have been struggling at times to develop a great Final Project that I can use in my science class that incorporates all of what we have learned with Connected Learning and equity.  My dilemma has been trying to tie science into connected learning ideas that would fit the students in my specific classroom.  Many of my students are far below where they should be maturity wise.  My goal is to connect science with their lives, community, and culture.  I want them to simply realize how important science is to every day life.  If my students can start to understand the value of science, perhaps it would spark some kind of interest in it.  Any deep scientific thought would be great for some of my troublesome classes.  I have gone back and forth on a few ideas and even bounced ideas off of my professor this week while slowly progressing toward my goal of settling on one final project.

           Some of my main inquiry questions this year for me have been, “How can I prepare students for their immediate and distant future while incorporating science in the process.”  “How can I get kids motivated and inspired in the field of science?”  “How can I get kids to realize that science is part of their every day life and culture since birth?”   I reflected on these questions for a while and I came up with an idea I could implement in my classroom.  It hit me as I was reflecting on my many project ideas.  I realized how much reflection has helped me in this class and maybe the same could happen for my students.  Maybe self reflection with a focus on science about their past and present can help them to the realize how important science is to everyone.  Perhaps some meditation on how science will affect their futures would be a great way to get kids to think about science more than just a subject in school.

           For my final project I think I am going to have students reflect on their scientific past, and present, while also asking students to think about how science will affect their lives in the future.  I would break down this writing assignment into a past, present, and future section.  I am going to ask my students to write a page each for their past, present and future based on writing prompts that I will provide. (you will see below.)  On the back of each page, I will ask students to draw a version of themselves involving some kind of scientific concept for each time period.  I am still kicking around some ideas for this activity but the whole point is to get kids thinking about science in ways they might not have without being prompted to.  Hopefully they will realize how much science is in each of their lives as they reflect. These are the questions I am thinking abut asking my students for each of the three periods of time.

 Past-  

Looking back now, how has science affected your culture and life growing up?

What scientific concepts did you love as a little kid?  

Did you have any interest in science when you were much younger?  Explain Why or why not.

Draw yourself and how science has affected your past as a child in one way.

 Present-

How have your feelings about science changed in present day?

How does science affect your daily life now?

What were your favorite concepts in science class this school year?

What do you love about science currently?  What is your favorite field within science?

How can you currently make a positive impact in your community using science?

Draw yourself in a present day situation where you are affected by science concept.

 Future-

If you had to choose a career in science, what would it be and why?

What fields of sciences will continue to grow in importance in the future?

How can you make positive changes to your community in the future using science?

How do you think science will impact your daily life in the future?  Think about the very distant and not so distant future.

Draw your future science-self.

  It is definitely a work in progress, given my 7th grade students level of achievement this school year, but at least I have a concrete direction for my final make of the year.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Friday

Week of 4/1/19

A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools

https://startempathy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/StartEmpathy_Toolkit.pdf

This resource is a tool kit in the form of a pdf file.  This empathy toolkit provides real stories and examples of how empathy can be incorporated into every classroom.  Included in the toolkit is a “roadmap” that allows the educator to journey down a step by step process of implementing empathy in schools.  The toolkit is very artistic and can easily grab any educators’ attention to read through.  There are also plenty of lesson examples to modify for any classroom.

   40 Kindness Activities and Empathy Worksheets for Students and Adults

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/kindness-activities-empathy-worksheets/

This is a webpage dedicated to providing numerous activities focusing on empathy in school.  Each lesson gives in-depth details about how to carry out the activity.  There are various types of activities covering empathy and many of them come included with worksheets.  These are perfect for any classroom looking to squeeze in some time to focus on empathy.

  13 Games that Teach Empathy

https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/13-top-games-that-teach-empathy

This is an awesome website that provides cool interactive games to help demonstrate what empathy looks like for students to learn.  There are many different genres of games made for kids of all ages.  All games are focused on teaching kids how to understand how others feel or sharing the same feelings as others do.

 THE (UN)KNOWABLE SELF AND OTHERS: CRITICAL EMPATHY AND EXPRESSIVISM

https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/expressivism/leake.pdf

This is more geared toward a scholarly article more than a resource for empathy.  This article dives into empathy and expressivism.  This is an interesting article that breaks down how shifting perspective from self to another is an important piece to empathy.  The article talks about expressivism which I was unfamiliar with but seems to mean in this regard to empathy all about how to communicate empathy.  It talks about morality and how there are different views of what is right and wrong. It discusses the relationship between the empathizer and empathized.   Ultimately the connection of feelings between two people and the communication that follows is extremely important.  Listening with understanding and point of view are huge focal points in this article. I still am trying to grasp expressivism fully (I am little confused by this term still)  but the empathy focus is a great read.

  Popular Science Videos for Current Events

https://www.popsci.com/tags/video

This is a website dedicated to popular science videos.  This is a great resource for current event days in class.  There is a variety of topics within science and most videos seem like they can be enjoyable and interesting for students.  Perfect for any teacher looking to fill in some extra time free time for a class period.  The hope is that these current events videos could build interest levels in students when they see how science ties into everyday life.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Friday

Week of 3/25/19

Connected Learning Alliance

https://clalliance.org/connected-learning-in-teaching-practice/

This is the website for the Connected Learning Alliance.  This is a great website to visit for information on how to teach connected learning in your classroom.  Our instructor, Christina Cantrell, is an active instructor for this website.  There are multiple resources, publications, and blogs that all cater to how to implement connected learning in any kind of classroom.

 On-Ramps, Lane Changes, Detours and Destinations: Building Connected Learning Pathways in Hive NYC through Brokering Future Learning Opportunities

http://www.kyliepeppler.com/Docs/2015_Peppler_Hive-WhitePaper_OnRampsLaneChanges.pdf

This is a study done by Hive Research Lab.  It’s a great read about how a collection of New York museums, libraries, and community organizations attempted to create a “network of learning” for the kids of the city.  They wanted to build a system where “youth may encounter a wide range of production-centered learning experiences and be supported by adults and peers in ways that could lead to future opportunities in personal, academic, professional, and civic realms”.  This paper sheds light on a familiar practice and concern among the Hive Lab community and discusses how to maximize it so that the youth in the programs gain valuable social, human, and cultural knowledge that will allow them to build interest and their futures.

 The Effects of Problem-Based Active Learning in Science Education on Students’ Academic Achievement, Attitude and Concept Learning

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED495669.pdf

This is a straight up scientific study on the effects that problem based learning has on attitude and learning.  This study goes in-depth with the data they collected.  I feel this ties into connected learning because the problems are based on real life scenarios.  This kind of learning can help kids understand how things work in the real world and perhaps spark an interest in it.  Problem based learning can go hand in hand with the overall concept of connected learning in the classroom.

 Technology Resources for the Science Classroom

https://www.resa.net/curriculum/curriculum/science/technology/classroom/

This is a link to access various technological resources for any science classroom.  The webpage includes links to many different kinds of science activities that incorporate technology in some way.  Some science technology links include interactive games, online textbooks, technology tutorials, and science articles and activities that can go with it.  This is a great resource for any science teacher who wants to ad more technologies to the lesson plan.

  7 April Fools Pranks for Teachers

https://www.weareteachers.com/7-april-fools-pranks-for-teachers-that-will-melt-the-minds-of-students/?utm_source=WAT_MDR&utm_medium=Enews&utm_campaign=WAT_Enews032819

For my fifth find of the day I wanted to keep it light.  This is a webpage al about fun pranks that teachers can perform in class.  April Fool’s Day is right around the corner, so check out this page if you are looking at injecting some harmless fun for that day into your classroom.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Weekly Readings/Watching Reflection for ED677

After going through all of the readings and videos for this week, I wrote down a few things that I thought more about as I reflected on all the information.

           I had some thoughts after reading chapter 5 of Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom.  The “open network” concept seems like it could be a positive experience for teachers. It seems to me that open networks are about connecting to each other (just as we have been reading about all semester).  I feel in this modern day society, people use this principle all the time regardless if in the education field or not.  To me, its all about using technology to enable interactions across a range of different areas.  But as you search through the areas, you will find specific people focusing on specific contexts.  This is how an educator can learn and grow as a professional.  This open network concept is something that happens all the time but could be used to our advantage as teachers.  We can use these connections to help each other with strategies or resources for any subject area.  The connection is there we just need to know how to use it.

           The personalized learning reading stood out to me as well.  Just like everything else within connected learning, this concept leads teachers to adapt to every students’ goals and interests.  What I like about personalized learning is in the name itself, personalization.  It is important for teachers to recognize every student as an individual and understand that every student learns a bit differently.  Students all come from different backgrounds and enjoy and dislike different things.  A teacher can use all of this information to his/her advantage.  Another thing that I need to understand better is how much students will change in a year.  Especially in the grades I teach right now, 7th and 8th grade.  It is important to have an ongoing process of adapting instruction based on these changes.

           The Weapons of Math Destruction video is very interesting to me.  I never really thought about hidden algorithms in models that are biased because the way the formulas are written.  What makes this worse is that the people who build these type of programs are not held accountable for the skewed numbers that appear.  These obscure numbers do not represent real life data and its not good if people are being judged on these numbers regardless of what it is for. The lady mentions how algorithms are a set of secret rules and it is surprising how much these people who develop these programs get away with.  This video fits for our class because it displays the opposite of equity.  It shows how some dice are loaded from the start and does not give everybody a fair opportunity when being judged by these programs.  I can relate to the teacher example with the teacher rating system.  I never understood the formula for these rating systems and now I have a stronger understanding of why the system does not produce accurate representations.

           I enjoyed the readings and videos from this week.  The ones mentioned above are the ones that seem to stick in my head and had me think more about them.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Equity Slide Reflection

I struggled at first with figuring out exactly how to put into words a major idea that I have learned from Equity in Connected Learning and teaching.  I decided that opportunity has been my biggest focus inside my classroom since the beginning of this connected learning class.  The opportunity idea within equity has made a major impact on the way I view my class and the way I think as a professional educator.

           I think the implications for all of us as educators having this shared purpose are positive and beneficial to everyone. This classes shared purpose helps us as educators share common strategies with colleagues.  Our shared purpose from this class allows us as educators to improve upon our classes as we build knowledge of equity within connected learning.  Our shared purpose will therefor benefit the students we teach or will teach.  This common ground allows everyone to learn and make a positive impact in our schools.  As I think of some inquiry questions from this year I realize that everyone in this grad class have similar questions.  I realized that we, again, have a shared purpose with the questions we use when we reflect on our days.  We are all in the same boat which is a good thing.  As an educator, I want other people to have the same thoughts and feelings as myself.  I want everyone to understand my frustrations as much as I try to understand other teachers. Our shared purpose as a class is much more than this slide building activity for this week.  Our shared purpose is making education better for not only the students, but for ourselves and the community.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Friday-Shared Purpose

TEDx-Shared Common Purpose Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC3inLuWoyQ

This is a link to a TED Talk event on shared purpose.  It features Larry Kesslin and his views on shared purpose in the classroom.  It’s about 20 minutes long and covers the basics of shared purposes and the strategies that go with it.

 Developing a Shared Purpose (Part of a larger website)

https://www.teacherpowered.org/guide/storming/governance/purpose

This link takes you to a page within a website covering steps to create a teacher-powered school.  There are multiple concepts that you can click on.  One of the featured concepts they focus on is developing a shared purpose.  This site is great to find resources and teacher samples of how the shared purpose ideas works in actual classrooms.  This is a great resource when looking to initially introduce shared learning into the classroom.

  Discussion Starters: Lesson from Pioneers

https://www.teacherpowered.org/files/attachments/Shared-Purpose.pdf

This is a pdf article covering shared purpose.  This article features many “pioneers” to shared purpose and ideas on how to incorporate shared purpose into all levels of education. There are even steps you can follow on how to become a shared purpose “expert”.

 Finding Meaning and Creating a Shared Purpose is Key to Productivity

https://focus.kornferry.com/employee-engagement/finding-meaning-and-creating-a-shared-purpose-is-key-to-productivity/

This article is more focused on the production side of shared purpose.  This article has a much more broad idea for shared purpose using it more widely then just in an education setting.  This article also discusses the results that follow when shared purpose is applied to any situation.

 The Leadership Paradox of Shared Purpose

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2015/02/16/the-leadership-paradox-of-shared-purpose/#3a4b2de04034

This is an article from Forbes which talks about how shared purpose could work in a adult/professional setting.  I felt this was a good change from the other shared purpose article because it covers how this idea can work across many different settings.  This article has data to backup the information. I felt that it was an interesting article even though education was not the main focus.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Map/Timeline of my Educational Life

As I sit here looking at my map/timeline of my educational life, I realize how many people have impacted my life over the years.  All of these people who helped me progress in my education had a common interest, which was me succeeding in life.  I would say this common interest is a perfect example of a shared purpose.  My family, teachers, coaches, and even friends have all helped me develop into the person I am today.  They all worked unknowingly together on the same goal, even if they weren’t really trying to.  That goal was to make a positive change in somebody, that somebody being me.  The result was what I am today and what I will continue to be.  All of the positive people in my life took an interest in me for different reasons, but the goal was the same.  They all shared the same purpose and those still in my life will continue to do so. They all made a difference in my life that allowed me to grow as an individual.  I can consider the people in my life my very own “community”.  This community of mentors and peers has allowed me to become the person I am today and without them, I wouldn’t be the same person by any means.  Perhaps without them I wouldn’t be a person who wants to make a positive impact in a community like they did for me.  The importance to have these people in my life cannot be understated.  I am the product of their shared purpose.

        The implications of my journey has led me to become a teacher who wants to do same for future adults.  When I teach, I find that parts of me are from the people who helped me grow.  I hear their voices in my head guiding me still sometimes when a problem arises.   I want to teach my students in a similar way that I was taught.  I strive to have my students understand that I want to instill a positive change in them in some way, any way.  I want to build them into future contributors to the community.  It is almost like carrying on a legacy. Many great people have made me who I am today and I wish to help the next generation in the same way.  I want to assist in their growth and help them in any positive way I can.  Now I have a shared purpose with the educators in my school and the parents in the community to teach these kids how to grow into successful adults.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Friday

Week of 3/4/19

Be an Opportunity Maker

https://www.ted.com/talks/kare_anderson_be_an_opportunity_maker

Great Ted Talk video on how to create opportunity in your classroom.  Equal opportunity is a huge part of connected learning and this video covers how a teacher can achieve that in the classroom.

 Build Positive Peer Culture

http://reclaimingjournal.com/sites/default/files/journal-article-pdfs/14_3_Laursen.pdf

This is an article that discusses empowering youth, relationships between teacher and student, and developing positive peer cultures in school.  The article is not too long and contains a lot of great information for teachers to check out.

 Information and communication technology (ICT) in education

https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/issue-briefs/improve-learning/curriculum-and-materials/information-and-communication-technology-ict

This is a resource from the International Institute for Educational Planning.  This is essentially a guide on the proper ways to use technology in the classroom.  This guide has been proven to be successful and it covers what works for students from across the world and how technology fits in to the educational setting.

 Solving the Achievement Gap Through Equity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQbu_3M0_Q

This Ted Talks video through youtube is perfect for what we are learning about equity so far.  This video is of an independently organized event with Dr. Lindsay Ott as the host. She discusses many strategies on how equity can work in a classroom setting and how to close that very wide achievement gap.

 Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective

http://life-slc.org/docs/barron-self-sustainedlearning.pdf

I think this paper is more along the lines of a scientific article but it goes along with connected learning.  The basic framework of the paper highlights the need to better understand how learning outside school relates to learning within schools or other formal organizations, and how learning in school can lead to learning activities outside school. One of the main focuses of connected learning.

[moosesykes-blog1]

A Letter about Passion

This week I was assigned to think about the implications of learning when interests and passions are involved.  I think learning is maximized when it is driven by one’s self interests.  People will only be motivated to learn something if it interests them in some way.  One cannot force children to learn.  The old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” resounds with me as I reflect on this assignment.  Kids will learn much more if they are focusing on a passion of theirs. The key is to harness these passions and interests and use it as an advantage for learning in the classroom.  As per the assignment requests, below you will find a “letter” describing something I am passionate about.

 Open Letter to the Community

To the reader,

           What are my interests?  What am I really passionate about?  I took some time to look inside myself and decipher which things in my life I am truly passionate about.  I thought first about hobbies.  I already made a large blog about my interests as a child with video games so I won’t dive back into that again.  But what else?  Football? Fishing and Hunting?  Should I express my passion for my wonderful family and friends?  I began to think more about more professional-like passions.  What is my main passion in education?  It didn’t take me long to come up with an answer.  Science! Yes, science is my major passion in education and life.  I then realized that I was always interested in science from a very young age.  The purpose of this letter is to show the reader how my interests of science turned into a career, which is a key component of connected learning.  As a kid, I found much interest in all forms of sciences.  I found myself looking through scientific encyclopedias on my own time to discover more about my curiosities.  After learning something in school on any particular day, I would dive deeper into that concept at home with more research.  Through my science passion, I found myself wanting to learn more and more about the many fields within science.  I always paid extra attention in science classes growing up. The funny thing was that I didn’t even notice how much I was learning.  I didn’t look at it like I was building my scientific knowledge from an educational or academic standpoint.  I was simply generally interested in exploring the many, many concepts science has to offer.  My passion to pursue science grew overtime.  When it came time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I knew that science had to be involved.  I was able to look back and really see the impact science had on my life as a kid and how much I have grown to love it.  I never connected the dots that something I loved as a kid could be something I can realistically pursue a career in as an adult.  I decided that teaching science was the right thing for me. I LOVE talking science with people. It makes the difference any time I sit back and wonder if I should have been a teacher.  No matter how problematic some kids are, there are always some kids like me, who are interested in learning more about how the world and universe works.  That is what honestly drives me as a teacher.  Discussing and creating curiosity in science class is such a large part of me. My goal is simply to prepare kids for the future and maybe get them a little interested in science along the way. I can say my passion for science continues to grow and I enjoy the days in class when I can  go in-depth and share what I know about science any concepts the students bring up.  I often find myself at night on the couch next to my wife reading some kind of science article, all the while my wife yells “stop playing on your phone!”  This letter is a perfect example of why it is so important to have students connect education to interests.  The quality of learning is on a whole other level when kids are passionate about what they are supposed to learn.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Inquiry Questions from my Wobbles

I have been thinking and wobbling a lot on one subject this entire year.  My largest wobble this year is about the quality of work I am getting back from my students.  This leads me to ask some questions about my methods and teaching.  My inquiry questions that come from this problem always lead back to a few central questions:  

1.)  Is my work at the appropriate level for my classes?

2.)  Do I need to lower my expectations for the quality of work my students produce?

This might seem out of the ordinary if you are a teacher from a school district outside of the Philadelphia Public School System, but these questions have been burning in my mind all year.

        The problem is about 75% percent of my students are not at the appropriate grade level with either English, math, or reading skills.  I have a lot of special ed students and ESL students as well.  Most of my students who are not special ed or ESL still do not perform work that a “typical” 7th grader can do.  What makes my wobble worse is that every year the students seem to get lazier and the problem becomes worse.  I can’t officially prove that, but, I truly believe that each year I get kids who are lazier than the last and have no clue how to actually act like a 7th grader.  These kids act like they are in 4th grade or even lower.  Most do not know what responsibility is or how to even attempt to work hard.  There are, of course, some kids who are mature for their age and act appropriately. They are respectful, resourceful, and take responsibility for their actions.  These students are greatly outnumbered by the ones who seem completely unprepared for middle school.  You can instantly tell which group every single one of my students falls into simply through observation during individual classwork time.  

        So back to my major inquiry questions.  Since most of my students have been “babied” throughout their lives and have not been held accountable, they cannot perform tasks that middle school students should easily be able to carry out.  I also understand at the same time that some of these kids are like this because of issues in the past of abuse or neglect.  Most students can’t carry out tasks like taking notes and studying for a test (most of my students NEVER study), hand in the appropriate amount of homework, not LOSING papers that are due in class, bringing a pencil and notebook to class every single day, keeping hands to themselves, dressing appropriately for school etc.  Now again, you might be thinking, “yeah, that is typical 7th grade behavior”.  In my school, the students have been enabled their whole lives so there are very little expectations for what they can accomplish by the time they get to me in either 7th or 8th grade. This year has ben particularly bad with students literally knowing nothing outside of comic books, pop culture, and Fortnite the videogame.  Again, I do not mean to make it sound like none of my students act age appropriate, but the majority of them are clueless on how to be an actual student in the school setting.

        So my wobble comes down to questions from within.  I worry for my student’s futures.  What will become of them if they can’t carry out simple tasks like tying shoes and telling time?  How am I suppose to demand a certain level of work when some kids can barely read and write or they lose EVERYTHING?  My philosophy has always been to try to prepare students for the future.  Prepare them for high school so when they get there they aren’t completely lost.  Prepare kids to be respectful and responsible because they will be in the real world eventually whether they like it or not.  The students who act their age succeed quite well in my classes.  In fact, I have many former students visit me during half days from the high school down the street.  When they visit me they thank me for teaching them the way I did, which has helped them transition well into the high school setting. These visits make me feel great and help me stay focused on my goals to prepare kids for the next level.  Those kinds of visits are the ones that keep me going as a teacher and let me know that I am making a difference, I am doing something right.

So again I go back to my inquiry, is my work at the appropriate level for my classes? Do I need to lower my expectations for the quality of work my students produce?  I struggle with these questions.  I do not want to “babyfi” my class but at the same time, I do not want the work to be too hard for this new breed of student that is becoming more prevalent in my school. I differentiate my work quite a bit but even at the low end of my differentiation, students are not producing age appropriate work by any means.  

I have been trying to use my knowledge of connected learning and equity to help solve my problems.  I WANT to make my lessons more interactive and interesting.  I WANT to tie as many student interests into my science class as possible, but these kids act like they are 5 years old.  I WANT to build interest in science through some common ground to have students start to think about a career.  I DO NOT work well with younger grades.  7th grade is actually the lowest I can go. The students get excited over the smallest little thing which triggers them into carrying on which, then, takes way too long time to settle them back down in a 45-minute period. Learning will NEVER be where it should be because of the behavior that occurs when we do activities.  Honestly my biggest strength is classroom management, too. The kids aren’t bad for the most part and they understand what the expectations are for behaviors in my class.  They are respectful to me for the most part which is tough to ask from some groups.  They honestly just cannot control themselves.  I truly believe they don’t mean to be this way, they really can’t help it. Years of allowing these kids to pass on through the system without repercussions starts to really hurt them in middle school. So this is what drives me when I think about how connected learning and equity can be designed to fit into my classroom.  I have done a lot of reflecting on this topic throughout the school year, especially since I started ED677.  I don’t have any concrete solutions to my wobble and inquiry questions yet but connected learning must be a strategy that I employ to discover the answer.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Friday

Week of 2/25/19

This week’s Find 5 will be based on my inquiry questions that I have been focusing on in ED677.  I also included a technology article as well which could help with the connected learning concept in the classroom.

 25 Sure Fire Strategies for Handling Difficult Students

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/25-sure-fire-strategies-handling-difficult-students/

Pertaining to my inquiry questions from my main wobble this year, I decided to search the internet for tips on handling misbehaved and immature students.  I stumbled upon this article from scholastic which produced a large variety of tips to help any teacher with management in the classroom.

 Teaching Strategies for Students Who Need Extra Attention

https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-students-who-need-extra-attention

This is a great article on how to handle behavioral challenged students or students with some kind of special needs.  I have a lot of these type of students in my class and I get an overwhelmed feeling sometimes when trying to teach these classes.  I have so many students that need my help in some way during the class period.  I feel like those class periods are a whirlwind when I never get to take a second to collect my thoughts.  Its an awful feeling and I do my absolute best to help all the kids I can with their needs.  This is a good article if you are in a similar situation.

  How can I get immature students to listen and behave themselves?

https://withoutstress.com/immature-students-behavior/

This is an article that focuses solely on immature student behavior.  This articles provides strategies for how to deal with immature kids.  This article is about a 1st grade classroom but I feel that the ideas in this article can translate to older grades. Especially the way my students have been acting this year.

 Facing Race Issues In the Classroom: How To Connect With Students

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/34806/how-can-teachers-address-race-issues-in-class-ask-students

This is a great article about dealing with race issues in the class and some strategies that can help you connect with them and each other.  This can directly relate to what we are learning with connected learning and establishing an equity in the class environment.

 25 Teacher Tools for Technology

https://www.teacherswithapps.com/blog-25-teacher-tools-for-leveraging-technology/

This is a link to a website that lists 25 additional technology tools that educators can use to leverage learning in the classroom.  Each tool that is listed is followed by a small explanation.  This webpage can be a great resource for teachers who are looking to find new tools or for teachers who are unfamiliar with technology. Technology can be a little intimidating at times with all the new tools at our disposal but this list is perfect for new ways to integrate technology into the class.  These technologies can be used to help connect student interests to education.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Educational Wobble Reflection

I took time to pay extra attention to my struggles that I experienced this past week in my school. I organized these struggles below and prioritized them from most personally scrutinized to least.  I found that I struggled especially with the the first three above the rest on this list.

 1.)   Extreme feeling of being overwhelmed by dozens of “extra needy” children during class activities-  I get asked too many questions about the work, one after another, which is extremely time consuming.  I am the only professional in the classroom for that class and I feel that I don’t have enough time to meet all of their needs.  I need to be “zen-like” to succeed.

2.)   Covering Classes that I do not know- this has just become a struggle recently when many many teachers have been out on serious medical leave for weeks.  Usually not enough substitutes come for the day which causes administration to spring a “coverage” on the teachers at the very last second. This causes me to struggle with organization for my classes that day.  I also struggle with dealing with students from classes I am not familiar with and trying to get them to actually do work.  Again a certain pose of calmness could benefit me.

3.)   Diverse Class loves to argue- I have one class that has developed into a major problem in the last couple weeks due to students being transferred in.  The students are respectful to me but are extremely disrespectful to each other. The class loves to argue with each other and it usually is centered around different cultures.

4.)   Making time for push-in staff- I am usually so involved with working with my students that I tend to ignore the push in staff.

5.)   Allowing students to go to the bathroom has begun to get tricky because of all the students who walk the halls and start trouble.

 I think that each of my struggles above can create a new pose for me.  I have a certain mentality when it comes to my classroom.  My way of thinking sometimes gets challenged such as in the struggles listed above.  Sometimes I expect things to run smoothly and have a specific flow to them and when things go different from the plan, the “wobble” part begins.

I like to think that I have a calming, problem solving pose that I present to my class but when problems arise like the ones above, I have to step out of my comfort zone to deal with something unexpected.  

           As I sit back and make inquiries on my wobbles, I realize that reflecting on the unexpected challenges is something I do all of the time as a professional educator.  I just never called it a pose/wobble/flow and so forth.  The insights that I am discovering from my inquiry have been about mainly focusing on staying in a calm pose as much as humanly possible. Everything will work out as long as a teacher can keep the emotion levels down and stay focused on the problem at hand.  Sometimes it may not be humanly possible while dealing with some the kids in my class, but it has become a main focus to grow from my wobble.  I get an anxious uncontrollable feeling that starts to creep into my head when things don’t go the way I planned.  The same sensation many other teachers experience most likely I’m sure.  Another insight from my inquiries was the understanding that everything will be fine in the long run.  The wobble feeling will pass and a solution will present itself if reflection is present. I am realizing this fact more and more as I experience struggles throughout my career.  When I experience something that causes a wobble, at the moment, it is not fun, however any wobble allows for professional growth. From wobbles throughout my career, I feel that my amount of poses has expanded countless times.  The moments of wobble allow for reflection which in turn allows me to build from the experience.  Simply put, there are some circumstances that cannot be adequately addressed immediately, but with time, an educator can learn when these wobble moments occur and how to build from them.

           I experience the “flow” when things are going according to schedule or when I successfully diffuse an unexpected situation wherever that may be.  Basically anytime I gain a sense of pride and accomplishment is the times when I am “feeling the flow”.  Granted, this does not happen too often in my school setting, but when it does, it is so sweet to experience.  Sometimes the kids give me such a sense of pride and happiness which, in turn, tells me that I am doing at least something right.  There are just times where I get into such a groove that nothing can affect me even when a wobble occurs.  When I am in the flow, situations don’t seem to arise as often.  Perhaps the students pick up on when teachers are in that type of groove.  

           When I begin to reflect on my student’s work, a range of emotions set in.  Some kids in my class complete perfect work.  Some of my other students understand the concepts but struggle to complete quality work.  Then there are the ones who choose not to do the work for whatever reason.  So it is tough for me to pinpoint exactly what my classroom’s overall culture is because of how severely different my students can be. If I could describe my kids into three categories based off of the pose/wobble/flow concept, I could describe the students who produce quality work as my students that are in the flow.  They have a sense of accomplishment with their tasks and that rubs off on me.  My average classes can be described as my normal pose.  I say this because they know what kind of mindset I have and what kind of mindset they need to have to be successful in my class.  They put in effort but the quality of work is just not there yet. These kids are striving to be better still though.  Then you have the wobble.  The kids that purposely don’t do the work.  These are the same kids that create most of the problems in the first place. One good quality I have as a teacher is understanding who my students are.  After reading the wobble article, I came to an understanding that without these types of problematic kids giving me so many crazy circumstances over the years or creating a wobble for me to deal with, I might not have grown to who I am now as an educator.  This was the point in my reflective thought that I was finally able to understand why the wobble is so important for development.  

           The wobble just like everything else so far in this connected learning can be directly related to connected learning and equity.  The wobble concept is essentially a way where a teacher can build skills that are lacking in areas through experience and reflection.  This allows educators to develop better strategies and learn more about their identity in the classroom.  When a teacher learns from a wobble, a new pose can be created which will help student learning in some way.  When teachers experience enough wobbles, teachers can gain a stronger understanding on how their students work.  The more understanding a teacher has with how the students function in school, the more that equity can be achieved.  Equity is about proper accessibility and understanding for ALL students.  When a teacher has a strong understanding of how their students function, the teacher can use their new found ideas to build interest in the classroom.  Teachers must always reflect and build before forming an idea of how the class will react to different lessons.  This happens to all teachers when still feeling out each class at the beginning of the year.  Throughout the school year teachers will experience wobbles from the class and learn from it.  Thus building a stronger idea of what interest’s students and how to connect all the students in the class to a certain subject concept.

Here are  2 Wobble Stories for the Website STORRI from real educators that I enjoyed:

https://edblogs.columbia.edu/storri/2016/04/07/context-matters/

 Context Matters

This is a great story that helps teachers understand that a specific message from administration or another teacher does not mean it’s the overall message for all teachers.  Teachers want to help students in different ways and have different motivation tactics to help students gain an understanding. This story shows how students can interpret things differently and associate a message, good or bad, with all teachers and staff from the building.  The teachers’ wobble is all about context for message meanings within schools.  The way people say things or express something can send mixed messages to students which can affect other teachers.

  https://edblogs.columbia.edu/storri/2016/11/08/knowing-the-why/

Knowing the Why

This story actually from the same author as my first suggestion is about inquiry. Administration wants things run a certain way and teachers must go along with it even if they don’t understand or agree. The simple question of “why” may seem harmless but could cause problems if taken the wrong way.  The author asked the question why about curriculum for her poetry class out of pure innocent curiosity but not everyone you ask that question to will be understanding.  This wobble is something I experience as well.  Like the author mentions, sometimes I want to ask the question why for a better understanding, but it could be taken a different way.  For me the inquiry remains within for those reasons but it is a wobble nonetheless.

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Fridays

Week of 2/18

1.) 10 Free Ways To Grow As An Educator

https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2017/12/14/10-free-ways-to-grow-as-an-educator/

This is part of a blog for National Geographic.  This resource relates because this week’s main focus was reflecting on problems that arise in the classroom and growing from it.  This article talks more about ways educators can grow as professionals. Within each tip there are links to multiple resources in the form of articles, blogs, and podcasts.  A nice little resource when you have some time to look it over.

  2.) Video-Bridging Cultural Differences

https://www.ted.com/playlists/411/bridging_cultural_differences

Some of the articles required to read for grad class this week got me thinking more about culture and diversity in the classroom.  I looked around a bit a found a great Ted Talks video on ways educators can “bridge” the cultural gaps so that learning can be maximized.  I feel this relates quite well to connected learning and building equity in the classroom.

 3.) Examining the persistent tensions in US public schools

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/11/21/american-education-event-examines-persisting-tensions-in-public-schools/

This is an informative article that delves deeper into tensions in the public school systems across America by organizing a panel of experts on the topic.  I know first hand about the public school system in Philadelphia and I can relate to this article.  Tension was one of the main topics this week and exploring more about tension in specifically public schools is important to anybody planning to teach in a large public school system.  There is also a video that goes along with the articles.

 4.) GLOBALIZATION, LOCALIZATION, UNCERTAINTY AND WOBBLE: IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION

http://ijds.lemoyne.edu/journal/7_1/pdf/IJDS.7.1.10.Fecho.pdf

I found another in-depth article from Bob Fecho about the wobble in education.  This article also goes into great detail about how global and local education can relate and if education can ever keep up with technology.  Fecho theorizes about the uncertainty’s in the classroom and dialogical self practices.  A very deep read for sure.

 5.) Connected Learning Alliance Website

https://clalliance.org/about-connected-learning/

 This is just a general link to a website dedicated to connected learning.  Explore the website to find publications and resources that will help educators gain a deeper understanding of what connected learning is. The Connected Learning Alliance envisions a world where all young people have access to participatory, interest-driven learning that connects to educational, civic and career opportunities.  

[moosesykes-blog1]

Find 5 Fridays

Week of 2/11

1.) 24 Unique Maker Education Resources For Teaching & Learning

https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/24-unique-maker-education-resources-teaching-learning/

This is a great site for any educator looking for maker resources to use in the classroom.  There are various links to other sites but all links are centralized around some kind of maker activity.  Some of these activities will be implemented in my classroom in the near future.

2.) Dale Dougherty-The Maker Movement

TED-Talks Video- https://www.ted.com/talks/dale_dougherty_we_are_makers?language=en

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/INOV_a_00135

This is an interesting resource which I made into a 2 for 1.  The first link is a TED-Talks video featuring Dale Dougherty discussing maker education. The second link is a written document by Dougherty on the same topic.  He gives some great insight about what a maker entails.

3.) Investigating Instructional Strategies for Using Social Media in Formal and Informal Learning

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1027/2073?utm_campaign=elearni

This article is a study on how social media is being used in education.  The people involved in this study go in-depth with their thoughts on social media and education.  The authors conducted lengthy interviews for volunteers with teaching and/or administration experience.  The study provides support for social learning theories and offers strategies of how social media can be used to connect formal and informal learning. This article is very interesting and is not too long of a read.

4.) 10 Top Educational Apps For Kids

https://elearningindustry.com/10-top-educational-apps-for-kids

After developing an educational app of my own, I explored the internet for other apps that could be great for use in the standard classroom.  This website gives 10 apps that all teachers should check out.

5.) Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference?

http://www.sylviastipich.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Coursera-Piaget-_-Papert.pdf

After watching and reading resources on Constructionism for class, I realized that there is an educational concept known as Constructivism.  I found an article that highlights both concepts in case educators might get confused like I did.  From what I understand this is what the main difference between the two is.  Constructivism is more cognitive and Constructionism is more physical.