The required readings from Module 3 really allowed me to reflect on time; time I spend searching the internet seeking out resources and new ideas for my students, time I wish I had in the classroom to devote to greater technology implementation, time to devote to expanding my personal learning network, time, time time! Unfortunately, this is a challenge that affects most of us. Then I thought about my students. How can I impact their education the most? How do I meet their educational standards and provide them the opportunity to practice and master 21st century skills? One step at a time, right! I have been looking for ways to bring more opportunities for my students to work with and create digital images and more opportunity to communicate orally. Again, with limited class time and resources, how could I cram in more activities into the curriculum?! Well, thanks to this week's readings, I have found the tools! First, Flickr captured my attention immediately! I can't wait to copy David Jakes's idea of creating an imaged version of famous poems with my students, especially since middle schoolers love poetry (sarcasm). I really hope to engage more of my students in our writing lessons and units with the assistance of digital images! I also am interested in using podcasts in my classroom but will need to investigate my options and do a few trials prior to implementing.
Recently, I have been working to improve a unit in my curriculum to make it more engaging for my students. This unit used to center around one topic, Titanic, and offered a scavenger hunt type approach for students to uncover factual information surrounding this historic event. Students would then answer a few additional questions that would require them to take their thinking to a higher level and extend their understanding of every aspect of the event. The revamp of this unit has left me with three topics for students to research and analyze. I decided to keep Titanic as one of my topics specifically for my struggling students because they already have a great deal of background knowledge on the topic. This knowledge then allows them to focus their attention on each of the primary sources' purposes rather than the content. The two new topics are the Triangle Factory Fire, for the intermediate students, and the Hindenburg disaster, for the above average students. All students will be exposed to excerpts of informational text and historical fiction from their textbooks regarding the Triangle Factory Fire. This will assist the those students assigned this topic in building their background knowledge prior to their research. The Hindenburg disaster will not be taught in the classroom but additional texts will be available for those students to build their understanding prior to analyzing their primary sources. After the students have completed their research and analysis of primary sources, the groups will discuss and debate their findings and conclusions in a Socratic circle. The remaining groups will then evaluate and discuss the shared information in a private online chatroom.
R.M.S. Titanic
On April 14, 1912 this luxury liner sideswiped an iceberg and sank to the ocean floor hours later on April 15, 1912. More than 1,500 people lost their lives in this disaster.
The Triangle Factory Fire
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory caught fire and burned, killing 145 workers.
Hindenburg
On May 6, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, N.J., on the first of its scheduled 1937 trans-Atlantic crossings, the Hindenburg burst into flames and was completely destroyed. Thirty-six of the 97 persons aboard were killed.
The Socratic circle is divided into an inner and outer circle. The inner circle discusses a topic orally while the outer circle listens and critiques the discussion.
I am also adding two K12 educational podcasts to my blog:
The Cornerstone for Teachers: Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers
I was able to find this podcast by searching the education and K12 podcasts through iTunes.
Truth for Teachers is designed to speak life, encouragement, and truth into the minds and hearts of educators and get teachers energized for the week ahead.
As education continues to present struggles for educators, this podcast strives to motivate educators and refresh negative mindsets. Angela offers great tips and tricks for the classroom and is determined to help educators face all of the challenges the educational environment presents. This will be a great addition to my weekly routine, and I look forward to improving my mindset!
Middle School Matters
I was able to find this podcast by searching the education and K12 podcasts through iTunes.
Middle School Matters is designed for and focused on Middle School Educators. They provide news, conversation on relevant topics, and links to other great sites, and want to reach out to other middle school educators.
This podcast is great for middle level educators. Through their light hearted banter, they share great resources for and are constantly discussing the latest technology. Their website contains links and other resources discussed in their podcast for easy access. As an educator, I need quick access to resources and appreciate humor when discussing middle school students.
Hey Samantha, I really enjoyed reading your blog! Great job! I found it interesting that you created one Socratic circle among the three topics. My first thought was wouldn’t it be more beneficial to break the topics up between days or is this already your standard process for discussion? Did you assign your topics to your students or did you allow them to choose? I think the idea of a group discussion allows everyone to learn something from one another and can easily be cloned into any environment, for any subject, and to any age. I know when I am in an educational setting I felt I would take more away from an in depth conversation among peers than I did from sitting through a PowerPoint lecture.
ReplyDeleteThe new resources you posted are great! They add a new dimension to learning from other people who have the same daily struggles you encounter. You have a great blog! I look forward to seeing what other resources you post in the future and how I can relate them to my older students!
Great links and material. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYour point about our use of time, and how we must prioritize our efforts hit home with me. This is truly an understated, yet crucial life skill, often neglected with our students. Especially in virtual learning environments, the myriad sources available and ocean of information can figuratively “drown” our students, if we don’t model and teach them how to plan their efforts to maximize their work time. The key skill along these lines that I struggle the most to impart to my middle schoolers is how to discern credible sources.
I will follow the development of your disaster research unit with great interest. I’ll bet student interest is very high. (Is it human nature that we are fascinated with disaster?)
Since I, too, share your plight, I especially like your comment about the challenge of getting middleschoolers interested in poetry. I plan to try your idea of adding images to give students a visual context for the poetry they read.
Thanks again for the great ideas. Keep ‘em coming!
Blog Post 2 - Debra Eaton Comment
ReplyDeleteThis blog post demonstrates evidence of critical thinking (application, analysis, synthesis, and/or evaluation). Samantha states how she could use the blog as an educator. She jumped right in and stated that the blog will be a good way to
manage resources and incorporate online content in to her curriculum. This blog post introduces new ideas because Samantha discusses how as a educator she can enhance the students learning through online tools. she seemed interested in Flickr to share photos with her kids and she liked podcasts. This blog post adds a real-life example of how the tools could be used for your personal and/or professional work to stimulate learning because Samantha actually tested soem of the ideas and posted photos and podcasts to her blog. Nice job!
Samantha, I can really see Flickr helping you draw your students closer to possibly enjoying the idea of poetry. It is always a great thing when you can help your students make fun and personal connections with the content, especially when it is content that they start of with no interest in.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the socratic circle. I have not seen this method before but I think this is a great way to help students learn! It can benefit them all in so many ways!
Samantha, I can really see Flickr helping you draw your students closer to possibly enjoying the idea of poetry. It is always a great thing when you can help your students make fun and personal connections with the content, especially when it is content that they start of with no interest in.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the socratic circle. I have not seen this method before but I think this is a great way to help students learn! It can benefit them all in so many ways!
What a great example Samantha. Students will love this media rich and easy to share space. Atmosphere is very inviting!
ReplyDelete