Looking Back
Typically, I feel nervous about new experiences. My first day as an MSU Urban STEM-WIPRO fellow this year proved to be different. As I trekked in the hot sun over the 18th street bridge to catch the train from Chinatown to Loyola I was confident I had won something better than the lottery! I felt extremely excited and optimistic! I made my way up to our first meeting area where I was met with an even warmer welcome by the MSU instructors. This particular day marked the beginning of a new teaching journey!
We began immediately with introductions and a fun getting to know you “Clicker” activity led using the facilitator’s cell phone. Bam! Immediately I thought - I have to use this one in my own class! Little did I know, that just about every few minutes for the next few weeks, I was going to be introduced to multitudes of tech repurposing ideas as well as teaching practices and strategies to use with my students.
That was pretty much the theme of my own thinking for the first day. Ideas I might use with my students - This Day in History, World of Wonder, Tech Tips, Quickfire challenges! However, it quickly became an experience which prompted me to do a lot of self reflection and assessment on my comfort and ability to use technology, my own teaching practices, and my level of risk taking. A side note, everything about that day was quick. So quick, I didn’t even want to step out for a bathroom break! And another Bam! It occurred to me there was an intense need to set a quicker pace when I return to the classroom this fall. With the quicker pace I found I felt a stronger sense of purpose and, perhaps that can be beneficial for my own students.
When it came time that first morning to complete the Shoot and Tweet assignment, I had no problem heading out in the world to take pictures. But signing up for Twitter and creating my first tweet was a huge undertaking for me as was creating a web presence via a personal website later in the week. I had tried to make myself sign up for Twitter and create a website about two years ago, but there was much hesitation. When I had to think of a Twitter handle, that’s where I stopped. I was unsure where it would all lead to and how it would impact my teaching. That first day as a fellow, we had to. And I did. And I’m still alive. So I’d say I learned the first day and throughout the two weeks that although I’m uncomfortable with various teaching practices, such as authentic student inquiry, technology, programs and social media - I can leap and I won’t drown. More importantly, this fellowship will take me to another level of my professional teaching career.
Throughout the face-to-face sessions we worked energetically around the main themes of the Wonder-Driven Inquiry Cycle, Learning in STEM, Teaching with Technology (TPACK), and Teacher/Classroom Practices. As a result, I made a some huge shifts in my thinking and my approach to planning. The first was pushing myself to wonder, to ask more questions, be open minded, practices I admittedly hadn’t made a regular habit. Often getting caught up in planning labs and working my way through my curriculum - I began to take too much at face value. How could I teach science this way? I could not. I hit a wall where students would research any topic I put out there, present it and that was it. There was no intrinsic value for them, there was no connection. But they understood the content, or did they?
The second major shift came from the readings and videos and my level of engagement while collaborating with other fellows - I became mentally ready to take on the idea of authentic student inquiry coupled with technological repurposing. I believe the beginning of this fellowship has provided me with a good foundation for setting up a learning environment for my students in which they can use their questions and knowledge to create change. Some of our first few assigned readings for this fellowship, What knowledge is of most worth:Teacher knowledge for 21st century learning; Too Cool for School? No Way! Using the TPACK framework; and Cosmos really drove the point for me that technology is here and our students use it. And I can use it, too! So meet them where they’re at and repurpose technology in order to use it as a tool for constructing student knowledge - analyzing, evaluating, creating and thus, hit the top tier of Bloom’s taxonomy! And most importantly, give students authentic opportunities to show what they know!
Looking Forward
So, looking to the future I have a great deal more confidence, knowledge, and support to make the changes I need to this fall. It wasn’t until around the 4th year of my teaching that I began to dabble in constructivist ideas of student learning. My classroom that year was a place guided by student questions, input, choice, and creation. Later as I began switching content areas and grade levels, I often felt like a first year teacher and resorted to that “cover the content” mentality. There just didn’t seem to be a way to address the questions students were asking. The last few years I have begun to take steps toward more student inquiry, but lacking resources and support, it has been painfully slow. I feel going forward that is no longer the case.
I have grand ideas and practical steps in mind in order to create a learning environment that values the individual and the skills, ideas and needs they each bring to the classroom learning community. Student inquiry projects, problem based learning, knowledge-building communities will be planned out to support my students in the deep authentic engagement within science and most importantly, connect them to each other and their community. For the remainder of the summer, I have two books in mind to read and a list of routines to revise. I’ll be spending time double checking apps and programs available to me at school and finally, begin the process of laying out some model inquiries to use as the needs of my students arise.
Bibliography
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., Terry, L. (2013). What Knowledge is of most worth: Teacher knowledge for 21st Century Learning. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, (29) 4, 127 – 140.
Mishra, P. & Koehler. M. J. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Using the TPACK framework: You can have your hot tools and teach with them, too. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(7), 14-18.
Sagan, Carl (2013). Cosmos. Random House, New York.
Watson, B. & Kopnicek, R. (1990). Teaching for conceptual change: Confronting children’s experience. Phi Delta Kappan, p. 680 – 684.
Typically, I feel nervous about new experiences. My first day as an MSU Urban STEM-WIPRO fellow this year proved to be different. As I trekked in the hot sun over the 18th street bridge to catch the train from Chinatown to Loyola I was confident I had won something better than the lottery! I felt extremely excited and optimistic! I made my way up to our first meeting area where I was met with an even warmer welcome by the MSU instructors. This particular day marked the beginning of a new teaching journey!
We began immediately with introductions and a fun getting to know you “Clicker” activity led using the facilitator’s cell phone. Bam! Immediately I thought - I have to use this one in my own class! Little did I know, that just about every few minutes for the next few weeks, I was going to be introduced to multitudes of tech repurposing ideas as well as teaching practices and strategies to use with my students.
That was pretty much the theme of my own thinking for the first day. Ideas I might use with my students - This Day in History, World of Wonder, Tech Tips, Quickfire challenges! However, it quickly became an experience which prompted me to do a lot of self reflection and assessment on my comfort and ability to use technology, my own teaching practices, and my level of risk taking. A side note, everything about that day was quick. So quick, I didn’t even want to step out for a bathroom break! And another Bam! It occurred to me there was an intense need to set a quicker pace when I return to the classroom this fall. With the quicker pace I found I felt a stronger sense of purpose and, perhaps that can be beneficial for my own students.
When it came time that first morning to complete the Shoot and Tweet assignment, I had no problem heading out in the world to take pictures. But signing up for Twitter and creating my first tweet was a huge undertaking for me as was creating a web presence via a personal website later in the week. I had tried to make myself sign up for Twitter and create a website about two years ago, but there was much hesitation. When I had to think of a Twitter handle, that’s where I stopped. I was unsure where it would all lead to and how it would impact my teaching. That first day as a fellow, we had to. And I did. And I’m still alive. So I’d say I learned the first day and throughout the two weeks that although I’m uncomfortable with various teaching practices, such as authentic student inquiry, technology, programs and social media - I can leap and I won’t drown. More importantly, this fellowship will take me to another level of my professional teaching career.
Throughout the face-to-face sessions we worked energetically around the main themes of the Wonder-Driven Inquiry Cycle, Learning in STEM, Teaching with Technology (TPACK), and Teacher/Classroom Practices. As a result, I made a some huge shifts in my thinking and my approach to planning. The first was pushing myself to wonder, to ask more questions, be open minded, practices I admittedly hadn’t made a regular habit. Often getting caught up in planning labs and working my way through my curriculum - I began to take too much at face value. How could I teach science this way? I could not. I hit a wall where students would research any topic I put out there, present it and that was it. There was no intrinsic value for them, there was no connection. But they understood the content, or did they?
The second major shift came from the readings and videos and my level of engagement while collaborating with other fellows - I became mentally ready to take on the idea of authentic student inquiry coupled with technological repurposing. I believe the beginning of this fellowship has provided me with a good foundation for setting up a learning environment for my students in which they can use their questions and knowledge to create change. Some of our first few assigned readings for this fellowship, What knowledge is of most worth:Teacher knowledge for 21st century learning; Too Cool for School? No Way! Using the TPACK framework; and Cosmos really drove the point for me that technology is here and our students use it. And I can use it, too! So meet them where they’re at and repurpose technology in order to use it as a tool for constructing student knowledge - analyzing, evaluating, creating and thus, hit the top tier of Bloom’s taxonomy! And most importantly, give students authentic opportunities to show what they know!
Looking Forward
So, looking to the future I have a great deal more confidence, knowledge, and support to make the changes I need to this fall. It wasn’t until around the 4th year of my teaching that I began to dabble in constructivist ideas of student learning. My classroom that year was a place guided by student questions, input, choice, and creation. Later as I began switching content areas and grade levels, I often felt like a first year teacher and resorted to that “cover the content” mentality. There just didn’t seem to be a way to address the questions students were asking. The last few years I have begun to take steps toward more student inquiry, but lacking resources and support, it has been painfully slow. I feel going forward that is no longer the case.
I have grand ideas and practical steps in mind in order to create a learning environment that values the individual and the skills, ideas and needs they each bring to the classroom learning community. Student inquiry projects, problem based learning, knowledge-building communities will be planned out to support my students in the deep authentic engagement within science and most importantly, connect them to each other and their community. For the remainder of the summer, I have two books in mind to read and a list of routines to revise. I’ll be spending time double checking apps and programs available to me at school and finally, begin the process of laying out some model inquiries to use as the needs of my students arise.
Bibliography
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., Terry, L. (2013). What Knowledge is of most worth: Teacher knowledge for 21st Century Learning. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, (29) 4, 127 – 140.
Mishra, P. & Koehler. M. J. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Using the TPACK framework: You can have your hot tools and teach with them, too. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(7), 14-18.
Sagan, Carl (2013). Cosmos. Random House, New York.
Watson, B. & Kopnicek, R. (1990). Teaching for conceptual change: Confronting children’s experience. Phi Delta Kappan, p. 680 – 684.