This is a poster that I made using Piktochart. It outlines the expectations that I have for use of tablets in my classroom. C.A.R.E stands for Choose Actions the Respect Everyone (and Everything). It is a broad term used to help students reflect on and manage their behaviour. In this case, if refers to how they care for the classroom tablets. Tech Supporters refers to one of our weekly classroom jobs that the students are responsible for.
1 Comment
I recently read 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn by Leo Babauta on Zen Habits. The author’s thesis is that our many of our current schooling practices do not prepare students for a world that is constantly changing and unpredictable. This is obviously not an uncommon belief. Rather than stopping at defining the problem, Babauta succinctly outlines the skills he believes are essential to prepare students to excel in our ever-changing world. Many of these essential skills echo the research on social emotional learning and character education published by researchers like Martin Seligman (PERMA, Learned Optimism), Angela Duckworth (Grit) and Carol Dweck (Growth Mindset). Skills, such as finding passions, being happy alone, and dealing with change, are often left off formal curriculum documents. Many believe that it is the role of the parents to foster these social emotional skills, but there are an abundance of reasons why this doesn’t happen for a large number of children. This article provided a well-written reminder that is timely and significant. As I go about designing lessons and decided which learning objectives to focus on, I am making choices that could drastically impact the how well my students are able to live happy, productive lives when they are adults. The term “hidden curriculum” comes to mind as I finish this post. Hidden curriculum refers to the unintended, unexamined lessons, attitudes and values that students learn in school. We all need to be careful that the hidden lessons students learn about risk-taking, asking questions, problem-solving, and dealing with change in our classrooms are not in opposition to the actual skills they will need to flourish. Each of us has a digital footprint that we leave behind as we use the internet. When I analyzed my own digital footprint, I found a link to my school profile and my Edmodo account, a few articles about campaigns and events that I ran as part of my job at Lakehead University, and a couple links to forums that I had asked questions in. Nothing to be ashamed of... But also very little that accurately represented me. Little to help future employers, colleagues or even students learn about my skills, accomplishments, and passions. The notion that having a digital footprint that paints a negative image of oneself can be harmful, isn’t new to me. It is something that I have been cautioned about at teacher's college, on placements, and at teaching jobs. I have tightened my privacy settings on social media like Facebook. I have never been one to post the kind of images or comments that I wouldn’t be fine with my students, my grandmother, or my students’ grandparents seeing. The aspect of it that I hadn’t thoroughly considered, however, is that having a neutral or non-existent online presence can be damaging in its own way. I can now see how in an age where so many endeavors rely at least to some degree of technology, it is important not only to hone my digital skills, but also to market myself as technologically literate. Developing a strong PLN can serve a wide range of purposes for educators. Strengthening mine through tools like Twitter, Edmodo and blogging would help to better cultivate a more positive and active digital footprint. In addition, I think that it is important that I start sharing resources that I create with other educators and writing about my own experiences, so that I can be a better contributor and collaborator. Once again, Common Sense Media has some fantastic tools for teaching students about their digital footprints. In addition, there are some informative graphics here on the impact of our digital footprints based on a few studies of admissions officers and employers. Last night, we discussed ISTE Standards for Students in our Framingham EDU 932 class. While each standard develops vital skills and abilities for 21st century learners, I believe that number 2 “Digital Citizen” is the most important for me to address in my classroom. I believe the success of the other standards rely, to some degree, on the basic pillars that standard #2 cultivates to ensure safe and positive learning. For instance, if students are going out into the digital world to communicate and collaborate through social media, they need to have respect for the permanence and impact of the digital identity that they will create. In addition, if we expect them to communicate their ideas and problem-solve in meaningful ways, we need to teach them about what safe and positive online interactions look like. Writing about this reminds me of an “Ah ha” moment that I had early in my career working in Korea. I was teaching a gifted group of students who often flew through material and had an obvious thirst for challenge. I decided to start to incorporate some experiential and team based learning activities into the class. Before I knew it, my “gifted” students were having meltdowns and unable to complete even some basic teamwork activities. I quickly realized how different the tasks I was asking them to complete were from their previous experiences, and that there were skills they needed to be taught that I took for granted. I think this is the same with my students. They can easily navigate devices, websites and the newest applications, but haven’t necessarily been taught about or encouraged to reflect upon what it means to be a safe, responsible and respectful digital citizen. Related Resource of the Day: Digital Compass- Common Sense Media This is a site that I stumbled upon in previous class that I intend to use in the future! It is packed with lessons plans for K-12, games and fun activities! |
AuthorPassionate educator. Avid explorer. ArchivesCategories
All
|