These past two months where we have been secluded to our homes has been anything but normal. This pandemic has created a state of constant stress. I worry if my students are getting the supports they need to be emotionally stable and if they have the tools to continue learning. I worry for the parents of these students as they tackle many roles inside the household and hoping they can balance them all. This list of worries goes on and on, making my mind a chaotic state of being.
On the other hand, this time of quarantine has also brought calmness and a time for reflection. I have had time to sit back and reflect on the positive aspects of this downtime. I've had time to lay in a hammock or on the grass to read as many books as I would have normally read in a year. I have experimented with new recipes that I would have normally kicked to the curb because I deemed them too complex. I have been able to make and create for my students, my own classes, or just for myself. Lastly, I have been able to reflect on my intersectionality and how my drive to be maker in all these different ways are just a small piece of my identity Overall, I do not love the concept of secluded downtime in its entirety, but I cherish the little positives that have come out of it. Check out my video below where each day of this unprecedented time has been captured by a photo to show the stillness that this pandemic has created in my life.
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Imagine having unlimited resources and money to design the classroom of your dreams. You could pick anything you wanted that would fit into that perfect vision of a classroom. When you snap back to reality, you know that there are desks or tables that have been there for years already waiting for you to make a configuration that you have made in years past. But you can always dream right? This is where my dream classroom comes to life, on Roomstyler, a digital design tool that lets you create your perfect classroom. First, let's take a look at my current second grade classroom: The current state of my second grade classroom is far from what I wish it to be. There are dull colors on the wall, there is only one best place for a class meeting, and the worst of all, there is no invitation for student collaboration. When looking back at the teaching philosophy that I made a few years back, this design goes against a lot of what I believe in as a teacher. But when you are given limited resources, you make the best out of the situation. Now to my dream classroom: Now this layout is a much better representation of what my teaching philosophy and my schools vision encompasses. The space is inviting and acknowledges that collaboration is welcomed in this room for learning. Let's break down the decisions I made for this space to be a success! Collaboration: Project Based Learning (PBL) and Constructionism values sense-making and collaborating. In this classroom there are several open spaces and tables instead of desks that spark this collaboration that is needed. Students learn from each other, we need to give them the opportunities to do so. I also have several individual desks because of the Personalized Learning Model. Students have preferences on how they learn and that might be by themselves, so there should be options for that choice. Furniture: Throughout this dream classroom, I also presented the students with seating choices. The Third Teacher developed 79 ideas that showcase that the design of the classroom matters. One of her ideas showcase that students need dynamic chairs to absorb student movement and not restrict them! Therefore the pink dots in the picture are wobbly chairs, regular chairs, pillows, beanbags, and a futon. This gives the students a freedom to move but also give student choice from the Personalized Learning Model. Technology: Instead of having the SmartBoard mounted on a wall like my previous classroom, I chose to make the board/TV moveable. This allows for many other spaces in the classroom to become a learning area. It can be moved to the table for a small group lesson, to student tables to help with collaboration on the PBL projects, and many other places even outside of the classroom. Calm Space: There is growing research about how we can support students that come to school with trauma and there needs to be a space for them to breathe and calm down. Therefore I have a "Calm Down Corner" by the door for these very instances. Giving these students a space where they can think and regulate away from everyone else is crucial for not only that student but the classroom community. There were many other decisions when designing my classroom including a cool blue paint color instead of the off-white, positioning my teacher table to see more of my classroom, and multiple others. I would also love my classroom to have makerspace area but my classroom now is way too small. This learning space enables powerful learning experiences for students to collaborate with one another, make choices, and start to be in control of their learning. I can't wait until I get the opportunity to bring this design activity to life in my classroom!
Personalized learning is an educational approach that is growing and spreading throughout the schools, my elementary school included. As this approach is growing, there are many questions that are being asked, many of them happen to be from me. Some of the questions have a right answer, other questions don't have answers yet, and then there are questions where there are exact right answers. My wicked question falls into the latter. I want to know how can we incorporate technology into personalized learning.
My question has become an ongoing challenge of mine, as I look to implement various aspects of personalized learning in my classroom. It feels like everything that I have tried so far doesn't seem to work for my students and my teaching style. It has become very frustrating to figure out the way that works best for us. This is entirely why the topic of personalized learning and technology has become the focal point of my Wicked Problem Project! I want answers and solutions! During my Wicked Problem Project I did the following:
In my Prezi below I explore what a wicked problem is and I take you through my wicked problem about personalized learning and technology. Check it out! ​ The LessonDeveloping a lesson plan for my second graders has become second nature to me. But designing a lesson plan with new technology, thinking about students through a intersectionality lens, and using the UDL framework was not second nature at all. It took time, feedback, creativity and research. I decided to explore an innovative technology tool called Makey Makey where you can make your own controller out of every day items instead of using your keyboard. I played with this for awhile and learned how to play a piano game by pushing on keys on a piano I drew on paper. This playing was super fun, but I struggled to find a connection to Makey Makey to a lesson for my second graders. They don't learn circuits in this grade, so what could I do with it? It took some time and thought and it was decided that I wouldn't use the Makey Makey as the focal point of a lesson but rather a resource for a different concept entirely: Money! Click on the link below to explore my Money Makey Makey Lesson! Money Makey Makey Lesson The Designing of the LessonThe first draft of my lesson was not a home run, but it got me to first base. There were missing details, there were questions that I still had about the technology, and at points, I was not meeting the needs of all the learners that could be in a classroom. It took time and feedback from my peers and professor to help me think more critically about the UDL framework and the intersectionality lens. I took their feedback and polished my lesson to become what it is now. One of my peers gave feedback from a UDL perspective and the other was an intersectionality perspective specifically a male EL (English Learner) students with a learning disability.
I took a lot of what they were suggesting and incorporated them into my lesson plan. For example, instead of using the Makey Makey as an assessment, I used it as a practice tool and the assessment came later on Seesaw. There were also suggestions that I did not change in my lesson plan. There were suggestions about pairing students up with partners while using the Makey Makey and while that was a great idea, it does not comply what we are trying to accomplish at our elementary school. We are implementing personalized learning into our classrooms where choice is a big component. Students get to choose if they work with a partner, alone, etc. and if I took away that choice and learner preference with given partners, I would not be following the model put in place. It was a grand idea, just wouldn't fit in my classroom! I took a lot of what they said to heart and I believe that my lesson plan helps meet the needs of more learners that I will come across in my classroom for many, many years. Giving Feedback to OthersNot only was I getting feedback from other students in my Graduate course, but I was able to give them feedback from another perspective as well! I believe challenging my own thoughts and thinking through a different perspective like UDL and intersectionality and leaving feedback was more rewarding then reading what others put in my own lesson. When you are giving someone feedback you have to really know that perspective which requires research. I learned so much during that research period and had fun doing it!
Where did the idea come from?I have been toying with the idea of Personalized Learning in the classroom for almost nine months now and I am still unsure of how I can implement technology with this concept that best fits the needs of my students. This idea stemmed a beautiful wicked question: How can we incorporate technology into Personalized Learning? There is not right or wrong answer to this question, but the intent of the question is to bring about some solutions that could help me in the long run. A survey is one perfect way to help see through the eyes of other educators on how they tackle this problem. Survey MakingThe actual designing of the survey was not hard at all, the developing of the questions was the tough part to tackle. The hardest part of making the questions was zeroing in on what exactly do I want to know from my survey takers. This took some time, brain power, lots of revisions, and help from colleagues. I started with 12 questions in my first draft and by the time I made the final survey, I used three of my original questions and the rest were all new!
The designing of the survey took no time at all. I developed many questions that resulted in branching (example - if you answered yes, you will get prompted with another one to explain why you chose yes) throughout my survey. I did not want my survey takers to be burdened with figuring out what questions that actually needed to answer so I programmed the survey for the ease of the volunteers. Developing a survey was not the most challenging task that I have encountered so far, but it still was a challenge to get it just right for my wicked problem .
As educators, we think of our lesson plans almost every day but we think about our individual students even more. We think about their learning in the classroom, their friendships, and even their life at home. We learn so much about our students and spend so much time with them that we end up learning a lot of pieces of their true identity! Knowing our students to the best of our abilities is the most essential puzzle piece when planning a lesson for them.
Universal Design for Learning framework or UDL provides teachers guidance to really think about each student in the classroom and how can we meet their needs. We think about our individual students with Autism, our Emergent Bilinguals, our students with Emotional Disturbances and many more identity pieces. We also have to think of student's that have more than one of these identity pieces in their repertoire and concoct a lesson to meet ALL of their unique needs. People that have these overlapping pieces in their identities that could result in discrimination or oppression have Intersectionality. As teachers we want to make sure these students are not oppressed in their learning because of who they are and give them tools/resources to succeed in the classroom and we can use UDL to do that! In the Prezi presentation below I explore the connections between UDL and Intersectionality in the classroom! References: National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) (2018, June 22). Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality? [video file] retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc While scrolling through social media on a daily basis, it never occurred to me that I typically see the same old information and rarely posts that challenge my thinking. Let's be honest, while going through facebook I usually see cooking and sports videos. That's because of the filter bubble. Eli Praiser (2011) describes the filter bubble as media outlets showing you posts that reinforce ideas that you already had or posts that follow your interests. I definitely had a filter bubble on my social media outlets, but this past week I have changed that. My "old" twitter consisted of personal friends, famous people, elementary school colleagues, and authors that tend to give away free books. I tried to think outside of my comfort zone to add people that I don't necessarily share views with and Betsy Devos was the first to pop up. Another thought occurred in my head as I clicked on that follow button. I'm just going to aggravated when I see her posts, but the beneficial part of following her is seeing how other people comment and challenge those thoughts. Those are the conversations I want to see! I also followed the United States Department of Education to stay more informed and Arne Duncan who was the Secretary of Education before Devos. I was able to find through a google search so many different people or organizations that expanded my interests and also presented new ideas. This included Dena Simmons who talks about making schools more equitable and safe and The Edvocate who also talks about diversity and has great classroom ideas. There are so many other advocates, authors, teachers, and leaders that popped up on my google search that I still need to explore and I'm genuinely excited to continue to grow my personal learning network throughout my career! References:
Pariser, E. (2011, February). Beware online “filter bubbles.” [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles/transcript Watching educational and instructional videos has always been beneficial for my learning but making them has never been a point of interest. I always have thought that making a video always seemed messy, challenging and overwhelming. I wasn't wrong. It has been extremely challenging the past couple of weeks to make different types of videos to display my learning and thoughts. Out of the videos that I have made so far, a Sketchnote video (or a video that closely resembles a Sketchnote video) wasn't as overwhelming as I assumed. I have always loved to write down my thoughts and doodles. When I was younger and there was any paper in sight, I would guarantee that I probably wrote on it, most likely my name in fancy letters. So writing words on a piece of paper while recording didn't bother me much. When I had to start pairing my voice up with the writing is when I came across some problems. I am not a big speaker, so I ran out of information to say when I still was writing or sorting out my questions. It is definitely not a perfect Sketchnote video but it's definitely a start and I wouldn't mind doing another one! I'm curious to see if I could incorporate this into the remote learning that is happening during this time of need. As I get more comfortable with using my voice in video, I can definitely see myself making Sketchnote videos for my students on topics if there isn't one already out there. (Why make another video if there is a great resource already made?) I would also find it extremely engaging to give this as a choice for presentations in their personalized learning units. Making a Sketchnote video is just another way for students to express their ideas and thoughts so why not give them the choice! References:
Wiersma, C. (2020, April 1). CEP 812 Question Quickfire. retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmmyuCecdgc&feature=youtu.be |
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