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Thursday, September 25, 2014
7 - Concept Map - Modes of Transportation
Modes of
Transportation
I. on
the sidewalk
Some people don't drive to nearby places. Instead
they walk or ride bikes on the sidewalk. Other ways to travel on the sidewalk
are roller blades, skateboards, and scooters. These are normally used for fun
in neighborhoods.
A. bicycles
B. skateboards
C. roller
blades
D. scooters
II. in
the air
Sometimes people need to travel very long distances
in a short amount of time. They use airplanes for this. Airplanes fly high
above the ground at super fast speeds. Helicopters are not as fast as airplanes,
but still fly high above the ground. News-people fly over busy streets in
helicopters to tell adults what traffic is like or if there are any big wrecks.
Police use helicopters to fly over the woods to help find people are lost.
A. planes
B. helicopters
III. on
tracks
A long time ago, there were no long roads to connect
towns because people had no cars or trucks to drive on them. Instead, people
went from place to place on trains. Some trains carry people. Other trains
carry stuff like building materials. Trains are not as popular now as they used
to be, but you can still ride them all over the United States.
A. trains
that carry people
B. trains
that carry stuff
IV. on
the water
Sometimes people need to travel over oceans or
rivers. For this, they travel in large boats such as sailboats or cruise ships.
Ships also carry stuff across oceans to other countries. These large boats that
carry stuff are called cargo ships. Kayaks and canoes are small boats for one
or two people to use in lakes or rivers. These small boats are mainly used for
fun, not for travel.
A. sailboats
B. cargo
ships
C. kayaks
and canoes
V. on
the streets
The most popular way to move from place to place is
to drive on the street. People drive to school or work in their cars and trucks.
Cars fit more people, so they are great for family trips to the grocery store.
Trucks can carry more stuff in the back, so they are great for moving stuff
around town or going camping. Another important type of street vehicle is the
service vehicle. These help keep us safe. Police cars chase down bad guys. Fire
trucks rush to save burning buildings. Ambulances get hurt people to doctors
fast.
A. cars
B. trucks
C. service
vehicles
paragraph here
1. fire
trucks
2. police
cars
3. ambulance
VI. street vehicles video
VII. fun video!
Common Core
Standards:
Comprehension and Collaboration:
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
6 - Podcast Review
Listening to a podcast was much more enjoyable than reading an article. Especially in professional development literature, articles can be dry or uninteresting to read. Rather than zoning out or just skimming over the words with my eyes, the podcast gave me something to hold my attention. Additionally, If I'm interested in a topic, I read slowly in order to absorb maximum amounts of information. The podcast plays at the same speed no matter what mood I'm in. I did not wonder if I had time to sit down and listen to the podcast because it is a specified length. Besides, I could do other things while listening to it. The podcast was a very convenient way to get information.
Education for Innovation - Technological Design
The first podcast I listened to was about problem solving techniques using technology education classes. Teachers should be able to show kids how to solve problems with technology. Technology and engineering are big parts of our culture now and need to be deliberately taught in our schools. They shouldn't be integrated, but taught as their own lessons. They gave an example lesson that used the "3 Little Pigs" story to teach students they had to make something that must stand up to a real test. The kids build little houses out of provided materials. The houses needed to remain standing after being blown by a hair dryer. I thought this was a very interesting idea that I had never thought of before. It really makes sense to teach our children technology and engineering lessons in school, although I do not know where we would find the time.
PBS News Hour - Could Students Benefit From Year-Round School?
The second podcast I listened to was about the benefits of a year round school schedule. The school that the podcast focused on had four 9 week quarters with 3 weeks of vacation between each. One parent said that children were never tired of school because they always had just had a long break. Teachers from that school say that the schedule provides more stability, consistency, and less reteaching. Snow days can be made up before standardized testing. For struggling students, an optional extra week of school during the break is a good time for extra help. Parents also said that childcare is weird to find 3 weeks at a time, 4 times a year. Although nearly everyone involved seems to enjoy it more, there is no evidence that year round school has improved student performance. Children with disabilities, from families with low incomes, or who speak English as a second language do a little better in year round school. Sports events are difficult to schedule between schools if school calendars are different. School staff also have a harder time keeping a second job. There are definitely pros and cons to year round school, but it seems like an idea that should be put into action in more areas.
Education for Innovation - Technological Design
The first podcast I listened to was about problem solving techniques using technology education classes. Teachers should be able to show kids how to solve problems with technology. Technology and engineering are big parts of our culture now and need to be deliberately taught in our schools. They shouldn't be integrated, but taught as their own lessons. They gave an example lesson that used the "3 Little Pigs" story to teach students they had to make something that must stand up to a real test. The kids build little houses out of provided materials. The houses needed to remain standing after being blown by a hair dryer. I thought this was a very interesting idea that I had never thought of before. It really makes sense to teach our children technology and engineering lessons in school, although I do not know where we would find the time.
PBS News Hour - Could Students Benefit From Year-Round School?
The second podcast I listened to was about the benefits of a year round school schedule. The school that the podcast focused on had four 9 week quarters with 3 weeks of vacation between each. One parent said that children were never tired of school because they always had just had a long break. Teachers from that school say that the schedule provides more stability, consistency, and less reteaching. Snow days can be made up before standardized testing. For struggling students, an optional extra week of school during the break is a good time for extra help. Parents also said that childcare is weird to find 3 weeks at a time, 4 times a year. Although nearly everyone involved seems to enjoy it more, there is no evidence that year round school has improved student performance. Children with disabilities, from families with low incomes, or who speak English as a second language do a little better in year round school. Sports events are difficult to schedule between schools if school calendars are different. School staff also have a harder time keeping a second job. There are definitely pros and cons to year round school, but it seems like an idea that should be put into action in more areas.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
5 - Reaction to Shutterfly Article
The article "How Shutterfly and Other Social Sites Leave Your Kids Vulnerable to Hackers" by Dana Liebelson focuses on social sites' ineffective security measures. Several sites used for youth sports team management use minimal safety procedures, not even encrypting sensitive information. This makes them very easy to hack into. This could potentially pose a huge threat to children.
I was terribly disappointed that the article named the software needed to hack into team accounts. That is simply irresponsible. I think that information security is a huge problem in our society right now. To be able to hack into a child's home address and soccer schedule is truly terrifying. I wish the article had cited more of their information in order to seem more reliable.
I was terribly disappointed that the article named the software needed to hack into team accounts. That is simply irresponsible. I think that information security is a huge problem in our society right now. To be able to hack into a child's home address and soccer schedule is truly terrifying. I wish the article had cited more of their information in order to seem more reliable.
Monday, September 22, 2014
4 - Reaction to "Tech Taking Over Schools" Article
The article "With Tech Taking Over in Schools, Worries Rise" by Natasha Singer is an overview of the legal measures currently being taken to protect students' information. Since technology has become more and more common in schools, people are concerned that the students' information can be sold by educational technology companies to third parties who may use the info in undesirable ways. For example, students in some schools pay for lunch with a bio-metric palm scan or are surveyed about their religion. It is not ok for this information or their school records regarding academics, discipline, medication, or personal hardships to be available for someone to buy or sell for non-research purposes. Many states have laws in place protecting some student information. California is currently trying to pass a bill to extremely limit the use of student information. It will be the most extensive law of its kind so far.
This law was very eye-opening. I had no idea that students' information was so vulnerable to being shared. It makes me very upset thinking about the ways these students could potentially be targeted later in life. Technology is a huge part of teaching nowadays, but I think that it must be handled in a way that makes student safety the highest priority. Using bio-metrics in schools sounds really unsafe anyway. I do not think I would be comfortable knowing that my children's palm scan was in a database. I like that the article included information from the National Conference of State Legislatures to back up the stance on the issue.
This law was very eye-opening. I had no idea that students' information was so vulnerable to being shared. It makes me very upset thinking about the ways these students could potentially be targeted later in life. Technology is a huge part of teaching nowadays, but I think that it must be handled in a way that makes student safety the highest priority. Using bio-metrics in schools sounds really unsafe anyway. I do not think I would be comfortable knowing that my children's palm scan was in a database. I like that the article included information from the National Conference of State Legislatures to back up the stance on the issue.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
3 - Review and Reflection on NMC Report
The NMC produces an annual report of technology they expect to influence education in big ways in the near future. Policies for education around the world are changing to include more technology. Many leaders in the field of education, and even President Obama (who is not a key figure in the field but apparently has policy-making privileges) have decided that the current school system just doesn't work anymore.
As technology makes its way into more and more areas of our daily lives, it must make its way into the classroom as well. Teachers are now expected to be competent using various kinds of technology in the classroom, in communication with parents, and in staying in touch with the education community. In order to make this happen, teachers need proper training. In Singapore, teachers are provided with up to 100 hours of training per year. I think the US needs to step up its game in terms of teacher training since we have just completely changed the standards to which we are to teach.
One of the focuses of this article is the idea of the Flipped Classroom. Students in a "flipped" classroom watch videos at home to learn specified concepts, then hone their skills with the teacher in class.
Another trend this article observes is one of "deeper learning approaches." This involves letting the students have more control of their learning and doing many exploratory activities rather than strict lecture. Engaging activities make students more invested in their learning. Projects, often using technology, are a large component of this trend. One class utilized iMovie for their projects. Once again, teachers need new kinds of training if they are expected to teach in a new manner.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials online available free of charge and free to be edited/copied. They seem like communal educational resources to me, like Wikipedia, but more professional. Some schools have this concept written into their policies, but there are not many like that. I wonder if you have to be affiliated with a school to access these, or if they are available to the general public. --- I just checked. It is available to any and all who find it. There are a ton of subjects and education levels. People can add things to it on the website. Now I wonder how you can check to see if the item you choose is from a reputable source.
A Hybrid classroom utilizes technology and basic internet skills to involve students in both a real and a virtual classroom. They can do group projects and have individualized help from the teacher in the classroom while doing readings or watching videos at home on their own time. I think this is a great idea. I feel like there just isn't enough time to teach a class everything they need to learn in the traditional classroom. I firmly believe that students now are expected to learn more things and at a deeper level than students were 50 years ago, but the school system has not changed to take that into account. This could be an effective way to combat this issue. Teachers would, of course, need further training to accomplish this effectively. There could be a million ways to screw this up.
Technology has definitely gotten more intuitive recently! My new phone pauses videos for me when I turn my head away from the screen and also calls the person whose texts I am viewing simply by my raising the phone to my ear. I can also scroll through emails or web pages with a wave of my hand. While this may be incredibly convenient and entertaining for my personal use, imagine how students can use this kind of stuff. In the Smithsonian museums I saw walls of buttons and touchscreens for people to interact with to further learn about the exhibits. It sure beat reading plaques. In addition to this kind of technology which just makes everything so much easier to get to and look at, people are now working on creating screens which can change textures. That scares me a lot, but I can see how it could be useful in a learning environment. Dissection assignments could be really cool with feelable frog screens. Of course, integrating the newest technologies into classrooms across the country would take an impossible amount of money and training, so I don't foresee it happening anytime soon.
There is another trend to completely renovate the way the school system works. Students sitting in rows of desk until the bell rings is an outdated approach to learning, or so it is thought by many. Students in some schools do not even use typical classrooms, but instead learn in varied environments such as warehouses or staircases. Students could use devices in this kind of environment to do work collaboratively or on their own. This concept reminds me of summer camps where students are under the instruction of several "teachers" and many activities are happening at once. I do not think I am very fond of this idea. I think structure is a very important part of a learning environment, although it does not have to be strict or constant. I also think this concept is very vague and should be put into more detailed plan before it can be really considered; however, detailed plans might go against the entire point of this idea.
All these new ideas pose several challenges to the current school system. Policies would have to be re-written. A way to keep student information safe amid so much technology use would have to be devised.
"Authentic learning" is a term used to describe the kind of learning that transpires when the students get to experience what they are being taught. For example, students can read about leaves and stems for hours without connecting it to their lives in their minds, but if they grow a plant and touch the leaves and stems, they will understand much more. There are currently few standards that directly address "authentic learning," but Common Core works to incorporate it into the classroom more.
"Individualized learning," is another concept that I only understand in vague terms. In my gifted classes in elementary school, we got to pick the topics we studied at the beginning of the year. It was great, but I can promise you we didn't pick algebra. I worry that if students get too much control of what and how they learn, important subject matters may fall through the cracks. However, I definitely believe that learning should be somewhat individualized. Perhaps students should have more freedom in what kind of projects they use to represent information the class learned as a whole.
I understand that students need more practice with complex thinking and communication in today's technologically led world. They need to be able to think about how individual elements work together to become something else. They need to be able to simply and effectively explain complicated ideas using different mediums. I think that was essentially the point of my Technical Writing class in college, so I suppose students should be learning that earlier now. I think it is fascinating that English children learn computer programming so they truly understand the technology at hand. I know how to use mine, but my understanding of the programming is the same as my understanding of magic shows. I wish our school aged children got more education about the actual technology instead of just its uses.
Student data security is a huge issue with technologically based education plans. Right now basically anything you put on the internet is available to anyone else who tries hard enough to get to it. That is not an acceptable state of affairs if the safety and security of millions of children is at stake.
I do not see the competing models of schooling as a challenge so much as I see it as an opportunity. This seems to be a good way for a student to get the individualized learning he or she needs. If there are many different types of learning environments available, it is more likely that students will find one that fits them well. Logistically speaking, though, it would be a nightmare to have so many different kinds of schools running in the same area.
Keeping normal schools relevant will be a big task for educational leaders of the near future. Students need school for the same reason young adults need a college degree. To prove they have learned how to work with people, to complete tasks, and be a productive person in a workplace environment. "Grit" is a person's willingness to work through a difficult problem or assignment. It is one of the most important outcomes of traditional schooling.
I really found the chart at the bottom of page 33 very interesting and enjoyed that it was so clearly put together. I think it summarized pages worth of information in a very small space that left me encouraged to look up really neat things.
Bring Your Own Device sounds like it could be overwhelming for instructors trying to work with many different kinds of tablets or laptops or smartphones which all work differently.
Cloud Computing could be a great resource for teachers planning lesson plans together or working on grade-wide curriculum, but I do not think it should be used for elementary aged students' work until security issues have been resolved.
Gamification sounds like a great idea, to some extent. Many complex ideas could be learned more easily through games. For example, satellite signals could be taught by bouncing ping pong balls around. However, not everything should be taught through gaming. Students also need to learn how to do boring tasks for extended periods of time since at this time that is what the job market is mostly made up of.
Learning Analytics sounds fascinating. I really enjoy seeing data analyzed into usable information. I think it could help the education system immensely.
I see how "the Internet of Things" could and will be a useful part of our future, but at the moment it really creeps me out. I do not see why everything we do must be connected over the internet. Its weird. It also seems vulnerable. What if someone hacks your refrigerator? However, classroom manipulatives that use the internet could be really helpful. I feel the same way about wearable technology.
This NMC article was very eye-opening about things that could very possibly happen in my teaching career. It has given me a lot of things to think about and examine through further research. Quite honestly, I do not look forward to teaching during a time when my expected teaching style will completely change every few years. It terrifies me to think that with the inclusion of the internet and technology in my classroom, everything I do will be available for constant scrutiny. It also excites me that I will be able to learn new skills throughout my career and that I will be working in such an interconnected field.
As technology makes its way into more and more areas of our daily lives, it must make its way into the classroom as well. Teachers are now expected to be competent using various kinds of technology in the classroom, in communication with parents, and in staying in touch with the education community. In order to make this happen, teachers need proper training. In Singapore, teachers are provided with up to 100 hours of training per year. I think the US needs to step up its game in terms of teacher training since we have just completely changed the standards to which we are to teach.
One of the focuses of this article is the idea of the Flipped Classroom. Students in a "flipped" classroom watch videos at home to learn specified concepts, then hone their skills with the teacher in class.
Another trend this article observes is one of "deeper learning approaches." This involves letting the students have more control of their learning and doing many exploratory activities rather than strict lecture. Engaging activities make students more invested in their learning. Projects, often using technology, are a large component of this trend. One class utilized iMovie for their projects. Once again, teachers need new kinds of training if they are expected to teach in a new manner.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials online available free of charge and free to be edited/copied. They seem like communal educational resources to me, like Wikipedia, but more professional. Some schools have this concept written into their policies, but there are not many like that. I wonder if you have to be affiliated with a school to access these, or if they are available to the general public. --- I just checked. It is available to any and all who find it. There are a ton of subjects and education levels. People can add things to it on the website. Now I wonder how you can check to see if the item you choose is from a reputable source.
A Hybrid classroom utilizes technology and basic internet skills to involve students in both a real and a virtual classroom. They can do group projects and have individualized help from the teacher in the classroom while doing readings or watching videos at home on their own time. I think this is a great idea. I feel like there just isn't enough time to teach a class everything they need to learn in the traditional classroom. I firmly believe that students now are expected to learn more things and at a deeper level than students were 50 years ago, but the school system has not changed to take that into account. This could be an effective way to combat this issue. Teachers would, of course, need further training to accomplish this effectively. There could be a million ways to screw this up.
Technology has definitely gotten more intuitive recently! My new phone pauses videos for me when I turn my head away from the screen and also calls the person whose texts I am viewing simply by my raising the phone to my ear. I can also scroll through emails or web pages with a wave of my hand. While this may be incredibly convenient and entertaining for my personal use, imagine how students can use this kind of stuff. In the Smithsonian museums I saw walls of buttons and touchscreens for people to interact with to further learn about the exhibits. It sure beat reading plaques. In addition to this kind of technology which just makes everything so much easier to get to and look at, people are now working on creating screens which can change textures. That scares me a lot, but I can see how it could be useful in a learning environment. Dissection assignments could be really cool with feelable frog screens. Of course, integrating the newest technologies into classrooms across the country would take an impossible amount of money and training, so I don't foresee it happening anytime soon.
There is another trend to completely renovate the way the school system works. Students sitting in rows of desk until the bell rings is an outdated approach to learning, or so it is thought by many. Students in some schools do not even use typical classrooms, but instead learn in varied environments such as warehouses or staircases. Students could use devices in this kind of environment to do work collaboratively or on their own. This concept reminds me of summer camps where students are under the instruction of several "teachers" and many activities are happening at once. I do not think I am very fond of this idea. I think structure is a very important part of a learning environment, although it does not have to be strict or constant. I also think this concept is very vague and should be put into more detailed plan before it can be really considered; however, detailed plans might go against the entire point of this idea.
All these new ideas pose several challenges to the current school system. Policies would have to be re-written. A way to keep student information safe amid so much technology use would have to be devised.
"Authentic learning" is a term used to describe the kind of learning that transpires when the students get to experience what they are being taught. For example, students can read about leaves and stems for hours without connecting it to their lives in their minds, but if they grow a plant and touch the leaves and stems, they will understand much more. There are currently few standards that directly address "authentic learning," but Common Core works to incorporate it into the classroom more.
"Individualized learning," is another concept that I only understand in vague terms. In my gifted classes in elementary school, we got to pick the topics we studied at the beginning of the year. It was great, but I can promise you we didn't pick algebra. I worry that if students get too much control of what and how they learn, important subject matters may fall through the cracks. However, I definitely believe that learning should be somewhat individualized. Perhaps students should have more freedom in what kind of projects they use to represent information the class learned as a whole.
I understand that students need more practice with complex thinking and communication in today's technologically led world. They need to be able to think about how individual elements work together to become something else. They need to be able to simply and effectively explain complicated ideas using different mediums. I think that was essentially the point of my Technical Writing class in college, so I suppose students should be learning that earlier now. I think it is fascinating that English children learn computer programming so they truly understand the technology at hand. I know how to use mine, but my understanding of the programming is the same as my understanding of magic shows. I wish our school aged children got more education about the actual technology instead of just its uses.
Student data security is a huge issue with technologically based education plans. Right now basically anything you put on the internet is available to anyone else who tries hard enough to get to it. That is not an acceptable state of affairs if the safety and security of millions of children is at stake.
I do not see the competing models of schooling as a challenge so much as I see it as an opportunity. This seems to be a good way for a student to get the individualized learning he or she needs. If there are many different types of learning environments available, it is more likely that students will find one that fits them well. Logistically speaking, though, it would be a nightmare to have so many different kinds of schools running in the same area.
Keeping normal schools relevant will be a big task for educational leaders of the near future. Students need school for the same reason young adults need a college degree. To prove they have learned how to work with people, to complete tasks, and be a productive person in a workplace environment. "Grit" is a person's willingness to work through a difficult problem or assignment. It is one of the most important outcomes of traditional schooling.
I really found the chart at the bottom of page 33 very interesting and enjoyed that it was so clearly put together. I think it summarized pages worth of information in a very small space that left me encouraged to look up really neat things.
Bring Your Own Device sounds like it could be overwhelming for instructors trying to work with many different kinds of tablets or laptops or smartphones which all work differently.
Cloud Computing could be a great resource for teachers planning lesson plans together or working on grade-wide curriculum, but I do not think it should be used for elementary aged students' work until security issues have been resolved.
Gamification sounds like a great idea, to some extent. Many complex ideas could be learned more easily through games. For example, satellite signals could be taught by bouncing ping pong balls around. However, not everything should be taught through gaming. Students also need to learn how to do boring tasks for extended periods of time since at this time that is what the job market is mostly made up of.
Learning Analytics sounds fascinating. I really enjoy seeing data analyzed into usable information. I think it could help the education system immensely.
I see how "the Internet of Things" could and will be a useful part of our future, but at the moment it really creeps me out. I do not see why everything we do must be connected over the internet. Its weird. It also seems vulnerable. What if someone hacks your refrigerator? However, classroom manipulatives that use the internet could be really helpful. I feel the same way about wearable technology.
This NMC article was very eye-opening about things that could very possibly happen in my teaching career. It has given me a lot of things to think about and examine through further research. Quite honestly, I do not look forward to teaching during a time when my expected teaching style will completely change every few years. It terrifies me to think that with the inclusion of the internet and technology in my classroom, everything I do will be available for constant scrutiny. It also excites me that I will be able to learn new skills throughout my career and that I will be working in such an interconnected field.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
2 - reflection on Khan article
The article "Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart" communicates the importance of praising children for struggling to learn things. Apparently, the brain grows more through working through difficult problems than it does with comfortable learning exercises. This is not surprising at all, since it is in fact a muscle that needs to be stretched and pushed to grow.
The message of the article is simple enough. Children should be praised for struggling, not for innate intelligence. Putting into practice this type of praise encourages children to work hard at things outside their comfort zones, promoting a stronger willingness to learn difficult things for the rest of their lives. With this mindset, people are much more willing to struggle through particularly tough subjects or problems whereas with an innate intelligence mindset people are more willing to give up because they think they just aren't smart enough.
In my classroom, I will strive to impart this growth mindset to my students. I will actively praise students for struggling with problems and sticking it out to the end. I will encourage students to work through problems as if they are a puzzle, making tough subjects seem like a game that is to be fought for and accomplished. I will try to instil a sense of pride in students who work hard to learn new and difficult things. All the while, I will not belittle children to which subjects come easily, but instead I will encourage them to go deeper into these subjects to areas to the point where they have to struggle to succeed. Praise is such an important tool for children; I will try my best to use it appropriately to encourage growth, not stagnation, of the minds of my students.
The message of the article is simple enough. Children should be praised for struggling, not for innate intelligence. Putting into practice this type of praise encourages children to work hard at things outside their comfort zones, promoting a stronger willingness to learn difficult things for the rest of their lives. With this mindset, people are much more willing to struggle through particularly tough subjects or problems whereas with an innate intelligence mindset people are more willing to give up because they think they just aren't smart enough.
In my classroom, I will strive to impart this growth mindset to my students. I will actively praise students for struggling with problems and sticking it out to the end. I will encourage students to work through problems as if they are a puzzle, making tough subjects seem like a game that is to be fought for and accomplished. I will try to instil a sense of pride in students who work hard to learn new and difficult things. All the while, I will not belittle children to which subjects come easily, but instead I will encourage them to go deeper into these subjects to areas to the point where they have to struggle to succeed. Praise is such an important tool for children; I will try my best to use it appropriately to encourage growth, not stagnation, of the minds of my students.
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