Final Project, Student Engagement

 

Picture this: an eight-year-old little girl in Coventry, Rhode Island with dirty blonde hair, Christmas pjs, and a smile from ear to ear. This little girl just woke up on Christmas morning to a brand-new chalk board, a chalk holder (so her fingers won’t get dirty during lessons), and a message from Santa reading “Merry Christmas Allison!”. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. My Nana was a teacher for first and second graders for 40 years, I loved going to school, and I always loved my teachers, no matter how demanding or confusing the school work was. 

As a student, I enjoyed “getting my hands dirty” and having the opportunity to be creative. My favorite projects have been ones where I can use my creative and visual brain to demonstrate and interact with my learning. These included a diorama on White-Cheeked Gibbons, an artistic posterboard on Dian Fossey, my own chocolate company for mini-society, and a diorama on Dante’s Inferno for my sophomore year college class. 

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, I was in a technology boom where computers and the internet transformed into something society could not live without. Computers in school were being used to complete formal writing projects and free time was spent experimenting with Microsoft Paint. Each year that I advanced in school, technology became more and more prominent and necessary to reach proficiency in class. By the time I was in high school there was an “Intro to Tech” class that was required during freshman year. It taught all of the ins and outs of computer processing and basic functions like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Most of the people I went to college with had computers, although there were some who relied on using the computer labs to finish papers. I experimented with PCs and Macs and took notes during lectures using an iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard. 

This change in technology took the place of more hands-on activities. As I got older, there were fewer and fewer opportunities to express my learning in a more creative ways. Was this because I was getting older, and these opportunities were for “little kids”?  Or was this because society was moving towards a more digital format where poster boards and paint were a thing of the past?

Fast Forward to my fifth year of being a teacher. I was on maternity leave when the world shut down due to Covid-19. I had my son on March 6th, 2020, and schools had their last day of classes on March 13th. I thought I had the most perfectly timed maternity leave and that when I returned to school in the fall, we would be past all of the distant learning insanity. Boy, was I wrong. When I returned in the fall, my school had a model where kindergarten to second grade was learning in-person and third grade through sixth grade was learning online. Early elementary school parents had the choice to keep students home with the expectation they would be online every day for a full school day, keeping up with the lessons taught to students in school. As a second-grade teacher, I was required to get really confident with all of the online options. I learned how to share my iPad screen with my computer, then share my computer screen with my smartboard, all while having zoom on in the background and sharing my screen with my zoom learners at home. After all was said and done, I then was able to teach a lesson to my whole class with 15 in person students and 3 distant learners simultaneously. 

My distance learning set up for the first day of school in 2020

Today in the classroom I use technology to aide in my lessons and there is not a day that I do not rely on my projector or Doc Camera. After moving from a brand-new charter school to the oldest school building in Woonsocket, I had to adapt my teaching style from digital anchor charts on my smartboard to chalkboards and chart paper. While I do not use technology as the main focus of my lessons, it is still a necessity for me to deliver instruction to my students and for my students to achieve their learning goals. Using Scott Noon’s 4-Tier Model of Teacher Training in Technology, I consider myself technocrat. I use my iPad to lesson plan, use a projector and computer to aid in lessons, but don’t transform my lessons to center around the use of media and student technology. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but I do seem to be the person in school that my colleagues ask to fix their projectors or document cameras. 

The aftershock that occurred after the technology explosion following distance learning left a pandemic sized whole in hands-on learning. I have witnessed some professionals become reliant on using technology in the classroom in place of incorporating more hands-on learning strategies that can activate students’ creativity and engage learners in the content. On the reverse side, I also see some teachers become tired of relying on technology, because they don’t want to have to worry about troubleshooting technology problems during lessons. I believe allowing a space for creativity with hands-on opportunities in lessons allows students to express themselves and learn authentically, and therefore are more engaged in their learning. But what does this mean in a post pandemic world? 

It is no secret that students today have an enormous knowledge on technology, trends, influencers, and what Tik-Tok is viral at any given moment. Today there is a very real chance that a three-year-old knows how to navigate a smart phone more than a fifty-three-year-old. This means that some of the older ways of engaging learners in a typical reading lesson may not work the same way it used to. In an effort to keep students engaged, there needs to be a seamless blend of traditional and new practices while also incorporating opportunities to use creativity and hands on learning to achieve learning goals. Pre-pandemic in 2006, Ken Robinson stated “And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this — he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it?”. Even before the heavy use of technology in instruction and lessons, creativity was at risk of becoming extinct in school settings. Now, in a post-pandemic world, this risk is greater than ever. 

A six-year-old’s response to the classic “what do you want to be when you are older?”  has changed from fireman or basketball player to YouTuber or gamer. YouTube seems to be a unifier across students, despite race, gender, or language. Using the knowledge of students’ interests allows teachers to incorporate their interests in lessons. I also know that students are motivated when they are able to use scissors, glue, markers, and construction paper. Utilizing these two aspects, I decided to bring them together to demonstrate comprehension of their books from their guided reading groups. 

To address the problem of student engagement students will complete a summative project where they will be able to work with their guided reading groups to create a YouTube show based on their texts. This show will be a talk show where they can interview each other based on the content of the book. Students will be kept in their guided reading groups to ensure that text choices are appropriate for students’ reading levels.  Students can act as the characters to demonstrate comprehension and understanding of the plots of their books. This particular project will be aimed to assess story elements but can be adapted to assess other areas of story comprehension. 

This project will also combine students interest, creativity, and demonstration on text comprehension. Students will have the ability to use craft materials to create a set for their interview, character accessories and costumes. The “YouTube show” will be recorded and presented to the class using the projector, just like if we were watching a video during lessons. Recording their YouTube shows also gives parents an opportunity to be a part of the project by sharing it on ClassDojo (as long as students have the appropriate media permissions). 

Engaging students in this way promotes active learning. Mike Wesch says “developing wisdom requires active learning,” this is true for both teachers and students. This project allows students to continue their learning over three different mediums and increase their engagement with promotes interest in future lessons. Instead of competing with today’s media frenzy, teachers (including myself) need to work to bring the two worlds together and combine it with hands on learning. Before learning about the different ways to engage students, I would have never thought about letting my students host their own internet show. By incorporating creativity through tactile learning, technology, content, and student interests, I believe students will be more engaged in their learning. 

References

(N.d.). Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? | TED Talk. Retrieved July 2, 2023, from https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity/transcript. 

Are You a Techno-Constructivist?. Education World. (n.d.). https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech005.shtml 

YouTube. (2016, April 15). What Baby George taught me about learning | dr. Michael Wesch | tedxmhk. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7dbl0rJS0 

7/3/23- Turkle Video and Article

How do you feel about the issues Turkle raises in her article and Ted Talk? Did the pandemic change the way you feel about yourself (personally and professionally) in relation to technology?

    Sherry Turkle discussed many "hot button" and current topics in her ted talk and in her Times article.  It was refreshing and interesting to witness the change in her opinions based on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was 11 years ago when Sherry Turkle gave her Ted Talk. She brought up some convincing points about how relying on technology is harming the formation genuine human connections. I don't know if it is just because of my generation, but I found myself disagreeing with this particular point. I know many couples who started their relationship on digital platforms. These relationships started because two consenting individuals were able to develop a connection through the use of a few exchanged messages. 

I understand that this doesn't mean people will fall in love at first message, but I do disagree with the notion that it is impossible to form such connections. 

                         

    Turkle understood the necessity of distance and technology aiding in forming connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were thwarted into a reality of virtual reality and relied on these forms of technology and digital messages to uphold these established connections. Turkle transitioned her stance from "alone together" to "together alone." Turkle's take on how distance not only enhanced our connections to others but also gave us the unique opportunity to take a look at the problems that lurk in our country. 

  "We are in a better position to see our country as from the outside. It's hard, of course, because we are wrapped in an American myth. It involves words like "melting pot" and images of new citizens pledging allegiance for the first time and being welcomed into an American family. It doesn't include images of riots at the Capitol. You have to step out of the Fourth of July Parade to see that."

 -Turkle, 2021

     

7/3/23- Six, Going on Sixteen

        I think about one student and situation in particular when I taught 2nd grade in Providence. This was in 2019, I had a little boy student who spent a lot of time with his aunts and uncles, who in reality were only 5 or 6 years older than him. There was a new student who was an adorable girl (we will call her L). She was bubbly, funny, and despite her being unfamiliar with her new school, was quickly making friends with everyone in the class. Now, the little boy was smitten. Students having crushes in second grade was not new (but now looking back now, seems so young to understand those feelings). The boy, who we will call V, wrote a note to L with the intent of winning her over. He wrote one of the most graphic and explicit notes I have ever come across that expressed his "feelings" for her. It quickly was being passed around the hallway at pack up time like wild fire. Ordinarily, I would not be happy that my class was significantly below reading grade level but in this moment I was. I quickly saw the commotion and swooped in, grabbed the note, and interviewed the surrounding students to see if anyone was able to read and understand what he said. If anyone, never-mind a seven year-old, wrote this note I would be shocked and caught off guard. I was confused, shocked, angry and overall sad that this boy not only knew these explicit words and phrases but also knew how to use these explicit words. 

    The idea that media is sexualizing young kids seems to be a struggle that is affecting the youth at younger and younger ages. In this article, McLaughlin expressed her concerns about the "age compression" (McLaughlin, 2016), where students at younger ages are doing what older children used to do. McLaughlin describes how on the first day of kindergarten she sat next to a student at lunch and that student said that the other table was the popular table because they had nice clothes. When asked how she knew that, she said she learned it from the Disney Channel. 

    Media, toys, and overexposure to mature topics are maturing the youth at a rapid rate. Students are constantly absorbing information from TV and the internet that teaches them about things they are not emotionally able to understand. Kids today are also robbed of a chance for creativity and imagination. The newest toys they are advertised consist of over-sexualized dolls which perpetuate negative body images and toys with buttons, lights, and sounds that take away the chance to use imagine what that toy could sound like.  

    McLaughlin was able to adjust her curriculum for her 5-7 year olds to compensate for the age compression she was noticing in her students. She reconnected her class to nature, organized a screen free game night for her school, a toy lending library, and a TV free week. This allowed students to feel bored, which sparks creativity and imagination.

          

7/3/23- Easel.ly tutorial

 

7/3/23- A school in the cloud

 How does this Ted Talk make you think about your role with young people in an online environment?

    When we think about technology and the internet evolving, it can be daunting. I wonder about what could possibly come next, how much further can we go? We hold mini computers in our pockets every day and only use a small portion of it's functions.  My husband and I joke how people should never say "I don't know" any more when there is a search engine in your pocket. He always says "Just google it!". We are able to teach ourselves so much in such a small amount of time.

    Sugata Mitra gave this TED Talk in 2013, think back to 10 years ago and how much technology has progressed since then. Imagine what his experiment would look like now? These students, with very little content knowledge were able to teach themselves not only how to use a computer, but to learn from the computer as well. This speaks to how students have access to a wealth of knowledge at their disposal. While the future of technology can be daunting to some, kids who grow up with these tools are able to adapt at a much quicker speed.

    When we give students the tools and the freedom to explore and teach themselves, their is no limit to what they can learn. However, like what Uncle Ben in Spiderman says, "with great power comes great responsibility." Just because students have access to unlimited learning, does not mean that students should be able to explore this resource without structure and boundaries.   

1,000 × 1,000

6/30/23- 1619

 After listening to the 1619 Project, write a blog reflecting on two things:  1) the content/structure of the podcast and 2) your thoughts on using podcasts with students/youth as an educational tool.

    I remember first getting my iPod touch and seeing the podcast app. I had no clue what it was. I remember googling it and seeing the result: "A podcast is essentially a talk radio series on demand." Which then lead me to search the app to see if they had my favorite radio program, Giovanni and Kim in the Morning, 92 ProFM (spoiler alert, it didn't). That's when I realized these were something different. I didn't start listening to them regularly until a few years ago, and now they are all I listen to in the car, (unless I have Maxwell with me, then it is Spidey and His Amazing Friends Soundtrack on repeat).

    The 1619 used pauses, music, and story telling to educate it's audience on a topic that is not easy to talk about. Starting with the personal story of Uncle Eddie drew me in as a listener, had me immediately yelling "THIS IS WHY WE NEED UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE," and wanting to know more about the topic of the episode. Within the story telling in the first eight minutes, there were moments where Nikole Hannah-Jones paused after moments of joy and sorrow to let us as the listeners absorb the impact of her relationship with her uncle. Under the moments of despair and love, a soft melody played in the background, as if it was telling the listener "hey, pay attention here!"

    The podcast continued these moments of pausing in between to let the listeners pick up on the severity of the content matter, the impact of the decisions that the American Health Association made, and the discrimination and unjust treatment towards black people in the health care industry. This podcast taught me about the transition of the emancipation of slaves and the lack of support they received to transition into society.

    I think podcasts can be a very engaging way to teach content. However there are some limitations. I am a 1st grade ESL teacher and many of my emergent bilingual learners are newcomers with limited english proficiency. I think listening to a long podcast would be asking for chaos in a classroom full of littles and would have to be tailored, chunked, and extra engaging. Also, this can be an isolating activity for students who do not speak english. I think creating a podcast would be an amazing and engaging project for older students. I can imagine upper elementary to high school age students having to find people to interview and using different programs to edit and add some of the structures that are common in podcasts.

6/27- Disney

 What is your relationship to Disney culture?  How does Christiansen validate or challenge your views?

    
    I was a Disney princess kid. I grew up obsessed with The Little Mermaid, practicing my Ariel hair flip in the pool and refusing to separate my legs to mimic a mermaid tail. Once I got older, I realized the negative message the princess trope was telling vulnerable children, even still, Ariel had a special place in my heart Although if you ask me what my favorite Disney movie is now I will say Hercules- can you even listen to the soundtrack without singing along? Even as I type this and listen to Zero to Hero playing in my head, I am struggling to support it. While this movie is based on greek mythology and the story of Hercules, it tells little boys that you are nothing without a chiseled chest and strong arms and little girls that they need a man, a godly man, to save them.    

 Christiansen validated my views. I have come from a place where I can critique but also still find pleasure in Disney. I recognize the problem that the princess stereotype portrays but cannot escape the nostalgia that Disney provides. I find my self trying to counteract and balance what Christiansen says:

    "But what am I teaching them if the lesson ends there? That it is enough to be critical without taking    action? That we can quietly rebel in the privacy of the classroom while we practice our writing skills but we don't really have to do anything about the problems we uncover, nor do we need to create anything to take the place of what we've expelled? Those are not the lessons I intend to teach" (2016, p. 183). 

 It is important to recognize the problematic features of Disney media. As a parent, I work hard to teach my son important values and to try to reverse the effect that current, stereotypical media can have on him. I know that we will never fully be able to protect him from some of the toxic masculinity. I make sure he has access to well rounded examples and models in his immediate environment. 

He picked this dress out himself while searching for some new summer clothes at Target.

Letting go of gender stereotypes, see what I did there?

 

    I know Disney has come a long way from the classic tales that were so harmful in the past, but I also know it has a much longer way to go. After these readings, I learned that it is okay to be mad at Disney and to understand it does not promote the values of feminism and other harsh racial stereotypes, but I feel as long as you take action to course correct, it is okay to belt out with Meg as she realizes she is in love with Hercules. In accordance with Christiansen, we need to recognize harmful stereotypes in popular media and take action to course correct the negative impact they have. 

From our trip to Disneyland in August '22

*** As I was reading and preparing for tomorrow,  two more recent pop-culture moments spoke to me. One is a song that was popular on tik-tok and the other is a portion of a TedTalk that was made popular by Beyonce's song, Flawless. I wanted to share them here! Enjoy! 

(warning: may contain explicit language)