BLOG #5 792 TPACK Reflection After jumping into the Innovative Learning masters program I quickly learned about TPACK, which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Don’t let this scare you off. It is a big fancy name but if you break it down like the graphic below nicely shows, we quickly see that TPACK is simply the three big realms teachers work in. As a science teacher, my content is all the science skills and standards that my student will learn in a year. Content answers the question “What am I going to teach?” Science fascinates me. I love teaching science and learning new stuff every year as our world’s scientific knowledge expands. I would have to say that of the three realms, content is my home base. Pedagogical Knowledge encompasses all the ways teachers teach. We can think of this as the “How?”. How am I going to teach the science content? Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge a teacher uses to make the subject matter understandable for students. For my class, this included as many inquiry and hands-on labs as I could create, plus debates, discussions, group projects, Cornell notes, and games. For me, pedagogy was always about making students feel like scientists and having a lot of fun. Pedagogy was definitely my other comfortable spot. The third area of TPACK is Technological Knowledge and this was surely my weakest point. My other two areas were so satisfying and made my teaching so relevant to students that I didn’t really push myself in the technology realm. I used Google slides for notes and group presentations, Google forms for quizzes sometimes, and Kahoot! and Quizlet for vocabulary review, plus some digital videos for content, but seriously I was not tech-savvy. I learned new tools at a very slow pace and just did not focus on it. Most of my students had much better technical skills than I did. Then March 2020 arrived and we were thrust into virtual teaching and learning as Shelter in Place orders closed down schools for the remainder of the year due to the Covid pandemic. Over the next 3 months, my TK “muscle” would be forced to grow and become stronger as I added tool after tool to my teacher “Tool Kit” in order to reach my students virtually. In my reference list you can view some of my favorite tech tools that I can no longer teach without. This has been a technology transformational journey for me and it also influenced and grew my skills and knowledge in Pedagogy and Content. For my students and for me personally, I have experienced that synergistic sweet spot where the content, pedagogy, and technology all overlap. One important idea I would add to TPACK is a foundation of social-emotional learning (SEL). I put the heart behind the TPACK graphic to symbolize this. SEL is still so foundational to student learning. At the base of all this learning, students must first feel cared for, confident, capable, and like they belong and are known. SEL must come first and be intertwined throughout TPACK for powerful learning to happen. BLOG #5 705 Lights, Camera, Action, Oh my! You would think after over a full year of being on camera every day seeing my own face on the Zoom screen that I would have just gotten used to it right? What is it about the camera that seems so different from the image I see in the mirror on a daily basis? I went over to my classroom to film. Luckily they had not started cleaning my hallway yet. It felt good to be in my traditional teaching space. I just get such a content feeling being in my classroom. The space holds all the beautiful teaching moment memories and all the future teaching hope for me. I dug around and found an adapter for my phone that I used with our school microscopes. Next I disassembled one of the lights that my husband had gotten for me to use while teaching online. It had a tripod attached that I discovered I could use with the phone adapter. Bingo! Now I had my phone camera on a tripod! Let the filming begin! It takes me a while to warm up to speaking in front of the camera. I felt very nervous to start with and so the “Um” monster was running full force. Sometimes I just had to stop, delete, and try again. Where is my assistant with the clapper board that should be shouting, “Affinity Groups, Take 5!” As I watch myself afterward I have to laugh because right before I turn off the camera I smile, surely I was thinking, “Oh so serious, you forgot to smile Betsy!” But it ends up being such a crazy little smile in silence right before I turn the camera off. I also cringe somewhat because I have a little bit of a sleepy eye on my right eye. I don’t usually think about it but sometimes in photos and videos I notice it more and get self conscious about it. The other challenge besides controlling my “ums” and general nervousness is that I did start to visualize the whole script in my brain. The challenge is that real life and my real camera skills are drastically different than what I was visualizing. This makes me feel kind of disappointed. I have seen my own students work through this same problem with group projects. They usually come up with very elaborate plans. Middle schoolers are still very idealistic and they will dream up the most amazing project plans. Then they start actually working on the plan and have to adjust and re-adjust their vision and goals. Even more challenging for my kids is the fact that usually there are 4 kids with slightly different visions and goals all trying to meld their ideas into one fantastic project plan, which still has to be scaled down smaller and smaller in order to complete it under the time and material constraints. This is when a little distance from the project helps. I know for myself that I am very critical of my own work right when I am near completion because those old visions of what I really wanted to create are still lingering in my brain. When I finally just push through and finish it, then let it rest and get away from it for a while, I am almost always pleasantly surprised at what I produced. I have seen the same pattern with my students. They are very critical until it is truly done and turned in. Then when we do gallery walks or presentations and they have had some space away from the work, they see it in a new light and usually feel accomplished and satisfied. I have shared with them one of my favorite sayings from a scrapbooking affinity group I belong to, “Done is better than perfect.” I wouldn’t want a brain surgeon to live by this motto, but for middle school science students, it works. Growth mindset is something I really believe in and I think I can do a better job with myself and my students by taking the time to reflect on the growth being made and celebrating that growth along the way instead of focusing so much on the final product. To be very honest, getting that phone adapter connected to a tripod for filming myself was a big high five in my brain. Also getting my media loaded into WeWideo was another little hurdle for me. I just struggle with technology. I use the same safe digital “pathways” all the time and when I have to learn a new trail to get to a new place I do experience the learning pit. I need some reminders for myself that it is a process and I will get out of that pit if I keep moving forward.
BLOG #4 792 Capstone - Comparing Mission Statements NVUSD Mission Statement: Transforming lives by instilling and inspiring lifelong learning in every student. As I searched around our district website I was surprised at how little I found about technology and 21st-century learning. We talk about it all the time in staff meetings and district trainings. I feel like it has been a very big focus for years now and yet it does not seem to be clearly spelled out in our district mission statement. I get that mission statements are often kind of broad, especially for a big company or district in order to actually include everything the district does under one big mission umbrella. But it was still a little puzzling to me that the word “technology” was absent. I wondered if the people writing the mission statement assumed that “technology proficient” would be implied because of the world we live in today. I decided to create a wordle of the student goals section of our Strategic Plan and then decided to compare it with a couple of other school districts. It is really interesting to compare the missions, student learning goals (see the wordles), and the logos of each district. After comparing, I decided NVUSD is looking pretty good. Our mission statement is actually a nice short sentence that you could explain to someone in an elevator conversation if you ever get past the awkward moment of watching the floor numbers zooming past in silence. There is always room for improvement, but our mission statement and wordle look a lot like Santa Clara Unified. If it works for the Silicon Valley people we must be in the ballpark! I like that our district plan as far as students has a focus on the words “support students” similar to Santa Clara’s “develop students”. St. Helena’s goals were really short as the Wordle exhibits. San Diego County's Mission Statement was rather wordy and their Wordle shows a very broad spectrum of ways to support and evaluate students. It is interesting that graduation is such a focus, while other districts put more stress on creating "lifelong learners". The last phrase in Palo Alto’s #1 priority, which they refer to as “promises”- there is something sweet about that- is what I think echoed in my brain the most and may find it’s way up onto a wall in my classroom.
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One of the biggest hurdles for me will be figuring out how to use WeVideo. Students at our school learn how to use We Video in our Speech and Debate class. WeVideo is how they put together our weekly video bulletin. I have used it about 3 times and did not find it to be very intuitive. I hope through my capstone I will finally get the hang of it. I am still also trying to figure out how I can have teachers as my main audience, but then some “How To” sections for student leaders to organize their own affinity groups. |
BLOG #3 797 The Big Reason and Next Steps 3 Big Reasons
Three events were synergistically the catalyst for my research topic. First, we were all experiencing a worldwide pandemic. The summer before school started I attended the Learn Shift conference and became inspired to increase my skills in teaching online by adding more technology-based tools to my “teacher toolbox”. I heard about the scholarship program that Napa Learns offers if you get your Masters at Touro. I talked with my family about going back to school to get my Masters since I needed to learn all these new technology skills to teach online and they were very supportive. I was excited to get started.
The second event that caused me to look for another way to create feelings of connection and belonging between middle schoolers happened the Sunday before the second week of school began. I was looking at my students’ schedule in AERIES, just trying to learn names and faces. As I looked at the schedules a feeling of dread came over me. Our kids were not teamed. In my head that Sunday night, and maybe out loud in my living room, the realization was more like this, “OUR KIDS ARE NOT TEAMED!” Teaming has been foundational to Redwood as long as I have been there. If you went to Redwood you can probably still name the team you were on- Panthers, Eagles, Wolves, Geckos, etc. Somewhere in the mid 90’s, the animal teams were retired and college teams were used. Students found themselves on the Hornets, the Aggies, the Seawolves, the Bear, etc. I work within an academic team with four other core teachers to support and know 160ish students that we all share. Teams handle recognition, field trips, celebrations, assemblies, homework clinics, and a fair amount of discipline. Through teaming we also connect the core academics by collaborating on projects and sharing resources. Most of all teams allow kids to connect with other kids and get to know teachers better. To start a year like 2020-2021 (virtual due to the pandemic) without our traditional team support system was a blow.
The third event happened early on in the Master’s program. We were all assigned a book to read and report on. Abie and I chose James Paul Gee’s Good Video Games + Good Learning. One of my big takeaways from this book was the power of affinity groups. Affinity groups connect people through a shared passion or experience. Gee talks a lot about the powerful learning that is shared through video game based affinity groups and the nurturing communities that build around these groups as people teach and learn from each other. Since I couldn’t count on the usual team structure at my school to create a sense of belonging and community, I wondered if affinity groups in class could create some of those same social connections and collaborative work experiences. I feel passionate about young people finding those connections at school that will create a healthy & stimulating learning environment where they feel safe, known, and supported. They learn and grow academically but equally important as they grow socially and personally. Have you ever had a really amazing camp experience where you made new friends and shared adventures with them, learned cool stuff, grew personally stronger as a person, and kind of hated to go home because the experience was so powerful? That is my secret dream for the middle school experience.
Next Steps
When my Masters is finished and school gets started in August, I plan to share with my classes what I learned from my research as I review with them the scientific method. I will reestablish affinity groups again for the group activities and labs we do in science. I want to try some of the ideas that my students suggested at the end of my research. A repeated suggestion was to have certain days where the affinity groups could actually do something together in class related to their interest. The art group could do an art project together, the cooking group could make some food together, the video game group could play a game together, etc. The purpose would be to create some shared experiences together and encourage friendships. I am also interested to see how affinity groups affect feelings of connection, engagement, and sharing ideas when ALL students are back in person. The hybrid groups, some students virtual and some in person, were successful in some groups and unsuccessful in others this past spring. To have everyone in person will make the affinity groups more effective I suspect. I would like to collect data again this fall and test the affinity groups again. I am hoping my content partner will give affinity groups a try also and we can compare results. After that, I will share my results with my school “world”, my team and staff. People can look at my results and give it a try. It will be interesting to compare results with people that teach in other content areas besides science.
I am also planning on creating a few lessons to use at the start of the year that will educate my students about affinity groups. I want them to understand what they are and how they can be used to enhance learning as a person connects with other people with similar interests. I realized that empowering students to create their own affinity groups is important. There are affinity groups out there for all kinds of interests. I want to make students aware of this so they can plug into something they have always wanted to learn about, but also be able to create their own as needed as they move through school and life. I was thinking about study groups as a type of affinity group, whether student-organized or teacher-organized, so learners can connect and help each other. Recently my husband started a new hobby, building and flying RC airplanes. He joined an online forum to learn how to do certain building tricks and when he began flying out at Kennedy Park he started meeting other RC fans. He has made some new friends because they have a common interest in flying and they share project ideas and tips. It’s an affinity group for RC airplane builders. Affinity groups are for everybody, at any age or stage of life
When my Masters is finished and school gets started in August, I plan to share with my classes what I learned from my research as I review with them the scientific method. I will reestablish affinity groups again for the group activities and labs we do in science. I want to try some of the ideas that my students suggested at the end of my research. A repeated suggestion was to have certain days where the affinity groups could actually do something together in class related to their interest. The art group could do an art project together, the cooking group could make some food together, the video game group could play a game together, etc. The purpose would be to create some shared experiences together and encourage friendships. I am also interested to see how affinity groups affect feelings of connection, engagement, and sharing ideas when ALL students are back in person. The hybrid groups, some students virtual and some in person, were successful in some groups and unsuccessful in others this past spring. To have everyone in person will make the affinity groups more effective I suspect. I would like to collect data again this fall and test the affinity groups again. I am hoping my content partner will give affinity groups a try also and we can compare results. After that, I will share my results with my school “world”, my team and staff. People can look at my results and give it a try. It will be interesting to compare results with people that teach in other content areas besides science.
I am also planning on creating a few lessons to use at the start of the year that will educate my students about affinity groups. I want them to understand what they are and how they can be used to enhance learning as a person connects with other people with similar interests. I realized that empowering students to create their own affinity groups is important. There are affinity groups out there for all kinds of interests. I want to make students aware of this so they can plug into something they have always wanted to learn about, but also be able to create their own as needed as they move through school and life. I was thinking about study groups as a type of affinity group, whether student-organized or teacher-organized, so learners can connect and help each other. Recently my husband started a new hobby, building and flying RC airplanes. He joined an online forum to learn how to do certain building tricks and when he began flying out at Kennedy Park he started meeting other RC fans. He has made some new friends because they have a common interest in flying and they share project ideas and tips. It’s an affinity group for RC airplane builders. Affinity groups are for everybody, at any age or stage of life
BLOG #3 703 LOGO MAKING ADVENTURES
This could be very dangerous folks. I have been introduced to the world of logo making! When we began thinking about logos and doodling around with ideas I felt overwhelmed. When I compared what my brain was imagining with what my doodles were exhibiting and then what products I could observe on the Innovative Learning website, I just wondered, “How will I get from here to there?” Well, then I met Logomakr!
I found Logomakr very easy to use. The instructional video went over the main features and a lot of the other features were very intuitive. I enjoyed previewing different logo images and font choices. The number of choices is a good and bad thing. So many options mean you are not limited which is good, and with so many options your choices are limitless, which can be bad, especially if you are a fiddler like me. I just keep playing around with different fonts and locations, changing colors on the images. This is fiddling heaven. I leave it for a while, then come back, “let me try this instead.” The fact that it is all just a click away to change or revert back makes the process easier for me. My brain keeps saying, “Let’s see, try it.”
So far the only hurdle I have found is that I wanted to create a large first letter on my title so that I could use an acronym for part of my logo. What I was going for is
Affinity
Groups 4
Engagement
but I couldn’t figure out how to enlarge just that first letter. I have to keep looking at it because I’m not one hundred percent sold on my logo yet and AGE may be too cheesy. The creative options and ease of use made me want to create logos for all kinds of things. My team at Redwood could use a logo refresh, the Whitt family probably needs a logo, my science department cries for a logo, and certainly my own classroom, my home away from home, room C-7, deserves a logo of identification.
This could be very dangerous folks. I have been introduced to the world of logo making! When we began thinking about logos and doodling around with ideas I felt overwhelmed. When I compared what my brain was imagining with what my doodles were exhibiting and then what products I could observe on the Innovative Learning website, I just wondered, “How will I get from here to there?” Well, then I met Logomakr!
I found Logomakr very easy to use. The instructional video went over the main features and a lot of the other features were very intuitive. I enjoyed previewing different logo images and font choices. The number of choices is a good and bad thing. So many options mean you are not limited which is good, and with so many options your choices are limitless, which can be bad, especially if you are a fiddler like me. I just keep playing around with different fonts and locations, changing colors on the images. This is fiddling heaven. I leave it for a while, then come back, “let me try this instead.” The fact that it is all just a click away to change or revert back makes the process easier for me. My brain keeps saying, “Let’s see, try it.”
So far the only hurdle I have found is that I wanted to create a large first letter on my title so that I could use an acronym for part of my logo. What I was going for is
Affinity
Groups 4
Engagement
but I couldn’t figure out how to enlarge just that first letter. I have to keep looking at it because I’m not one hundred percent sold on my logo yet and AGE may be too cheesy. The creative options and ease of use made me want to create logos for all kinds of things. My team at Redwood could use a logo refresh, the Whitt family probably needs a logo, my science department cries for a logo, and certainly my own classroom, my home away from home, room C-7, deserves a logo of identification.
Author
Hello! Welcome to my blog! This will be a fun place to share thoughts about teaching and learning. I am a middle school science teacher at Redwood. When I'm not teaching, I'm hanging out at home with my family or enjoying nature somewhere in the valley.
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