Monica's Driving Question: Does the use of multiple digital platforms/tools build emerging reader stamina?
As I continue to build a bridge between my practice, I feel as though I will always have a need for the bridge. I am always learning changing and growing and teaching new materials and learning new grade levels and expanding my knowledge as an educator and a learner. This, of course, is all great! (As I am in the middle of a transition of not knowing what school site I will be teaching at next year or what I will be teaching.) It reminds me that I need to always be asking the End User questions and reflecting on my goals for the End User to always be the priority and the focal point of my teaching experience. However, the End User is always changing and there are so many kinds of End Users that I will be targeting throughout my path. This is an ongoing process to meet the needs of the whole student. So as I reflect on the SITE Model I realize first and foremost that I always need to have a connection with the student to start the process of understanding them. Their basic needs to be met first with their personal motives and values understood in their socio-culture. As I again reflect on my own experiences, I realize that words don't teach, but experiences do. My most memorable memories from anything are when my five senses are heightened and I engage in a new and expanding experiment that actually teaches me. This clarifies that my active memory only puts items into my long term memory when I experience fun and games and use my senses and emotions to really feel the experience. As Baggio says, I need to know my audience. My audience enjoys technology and games and learns best when having fun. My driving question is all about finding ways for my unfocused audience to learn through technological games that teach and practice focus. My problem that is arising is that the games either cost or the district is blocking them and the kids aren't allowed to play again. I'm not sure how to pursue my technology use of focus games with so many blocks on the free ones. The engagement is through the roof, but I am going to have to get creative on how to continue to pursue the games on focus and sustained concentration because the motivation and incentive is a very powerful tool increasing school attendance on Tuesdays, when I teach Tech Tuesday games and playful activities to engage students that struggle with reading. Students are enjoying it so much that other teachers are using it as a leverage to finish the work in their class before they are able to come to mine. I am really enjoying breaking down the motivations of the End User. So much so that I am starting to use a Forced Choice survey that breaks down what motivates the student to work hard and for what types of incentives. I am thinking about making it into a Google Form to do with whole groups for the beginning of next year. I have only been using it with really challenging behavior problems and the results are fascinating.
0 Comments
Bobbe Baggio: The Visual Connection, You Listen with Your Eyes
Driving Question: Does the use of multiple digital platforms/tools build emerging reader stamina? When I look at making my learning directed toward a different target audience than my students, it scares me a little because adults are judgmental and not as easily impressed. They think they have been around the block (at many school sites and have adopted many curriculums) and many times think they know everything. It is intimidating to say the least when you look out into a see of seasoned teachers that have taught all day and the last thing they want to do is learn something new that doesn't interest them.
I have tried playing music as teachers walk into the meeting, playing team building and digital games and the same blank, annoyed faces are staring back at me as the one when we are learning how to score assessments or collaborate to assess data. Should I be taking this personally? Am I not as interesting as I think? Or, is it that unless the learner wants to learn, you can't make them? I have experienced the latter. If the interest and choice of learning is not there with adults then there mood and energy drain the room like a clogged toilet (insert appropriate image here). According to Baggio in "The Visual Connection", "context is key" and don't distract from the message with visuals that don't apply or use extra wording. I agree that our staff meetings could use some "levity, brevity and repetition"(p80), but when it comes to "new, creative and different,"(p74) we are not there...yet! As far as the objectives and context the meetings are on point, but how does the one in front of the room hook the audience and get adults to want to learn something that will make their job easier? With my group it seems like the emotional ploy is the one that pulls at their heart strings and works the most frequently. I think that this could be where I could influence them to change their practice; with the emotional message using visual strategies. There is so much great information out there to learn and we have a teacher on our campus that is a genius when it comes to trying new things and using technology and innovation in her classroom. For the past few years I have always wondered why she isn't sharing her knowledge and skills with the rest of the site? And now I know. I tried to do a CIP time with technology for our site and whenever we have these optional times to learn something new from peers the same 3-4 teachers show up every time. It could be about the library resources, technology or really anything else and teachers won't come if it's optional? Even when there is choice in learning something new, these teachers opt out. When they don't want to learn or change or expand there is very little to work with. I am trying to find a place where I go to a training that interests me and other like-minded people join. It creates a more positive environment, like Cohort 16. All people who want to sharpen their skills and expand their knowledge and passions, thrive and grow from each other. Baggio has some great ideas on how to make the presentation portion more interesting and I am going to make sure that those strategies are used to help smooth the way to a more positive learning culture in my time left at the school site this year. I mean, what do I have to loose? I am going to give it all I've got and see where it takes me. Wish me luck! As a learner, the reason that I wanted to become a teacher was to play more games at school because that was my favorite time to learn. My teachers played Jeopardy, buzz games, group competitions, etc to get me excited about learning and studying subject materials. I am definitely a visual learner that needs hands on practice and experience to teach my brain to go through the kinesthetic movements for muscle memory purposes. I do enjoy drawing and doodling while listening to retain the information. That being said, I took the "What is your learning style quiz" and the results shocked me after reading that most people are Visual Learners. My Results: 36% Visual Learner, 32% Auditory and 36% Kinesthetic Learner I couldn't be more well rounded in my learning styles. I would love to do this with my staff and with my students for their own learning purposes and for teachers to empathize with their students and to reach more learning styles with each lesson. As a teacher, with many kinds of learners with disabilities and various styles of learning I realize that attention to the subject at hand is so crucial to student learning. As I studied goal setting and mindfulness towards learning to read with already struggling readers last semester, it is really glaring back at me how important SLANT and paying attention and active listening are during direct instruction and the students ability for intake of information into their brain. There really is something to be said for designing content in a way that learners can better conceive, process and connect to it. Overall, I found that these readings were very helpful and a powerful tool for my place in the workplace right now. I took copious notes, even though I had trouble tracking much of the brain anatomy talk. My favorite reading was the Visual Connection because it really related to all parts of my life and I could access that information and use it immediately to figure out people in my life and make connections with them today as a result. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2019
Categories |
Photo used under Creative Commons from ulricaloeb