After reading another one of Rusul Alrubail's blog posts on Peer feedback, I wanted to write about it on my blog. I love her blog posts because I want to be an English teacher and she offers great strategies and activities for reading and writing. Peer feedback can be done from K-12 and I would argue that peer assessment helps to build moral literacy and problem solving skills. By assessing their peer's work or presentation, students learn how to be kind in their feedback but also students have to be critical thinkers in order to help their peers improve their work. In turn, this helps students assess their own work critically as well.
A great technique to use at any age is "Two stars and a wish," wherein students when marking their peers, provide two positive aspects of the work but one aspect that could use improvement. When volunteering in a grade 1 classroom this was very effective in teaching children how to communicate appropriately and kindly with one another, thus helping them to be morally literate for the future. In fourth year university, my education class also used "Two stars and a wish," proving that it can be useful at any age.
Rusul's blog post also outlines ways to introduce peer feedback into the class:
"Have students focus on the positive aspects of the work before pointing out areas of improvement.
Show students how they can phrase things constructively. Instead of “I don’t understand the point of your introduction,” try this: “Your thesis statement can be stronger. Can you provide examples?”
Provide students with categories/areas to focus on when giving feedback, for example: Grammar, structure, sentences, creativity, etc."
Dear Readers, If you are a 90's kid, the above video will strongly resonates with you. I remember seeing this commercial and immediately asking my Mom if I could "Please, Please, Please have a miniature hippo." This commercial illustrates the importance of incorporating media literacy into the classroom. We live in an era surrounded by various media outlets that bombard
us with messages through text, images, and sound (Considine, Horton &
Moorman, 2009). Scharerr (2005) argues that students should learn to be skeptical of media messages and teachers should incorporate media literacy into their curriculum's in order to teach students to think more critically about media practices.
It is important to recognize how the media effects young girls especially. As Bullen (2009) illustrates, the media affects young girls
on a powerful level: “images of women as powerless, passive victims noted
primarily for their bodies and sex rather than their minds and capabilities”
(p., 149). The media perpetuates these gender stereotypes; as prospective
teachers, we should work towards teaching our students to challenge these
assumptions.
As a prospective teacher, one could show their future class
an advertisement or a commercial for a specific large corporation. After
showing the media message, the class could discus as a group, what ideologies
the message is perpetuating. Teachers should encourage their students to
deconstruct and challenge these assumptions. By making connections between
social issues and how media perpetuates them, students will become more media
literate and this will help change how young people are influenced by the
media.
However, media can be used in the classroom in a positive way, as Rusul Alrubail's blog post on Edutopia illustrates. As a prospective English teacher, I plan to incorporate social media in the classroom to allow other platforms for students to express their abilities to write. As Rusul points out, blogging is becoming present in a lot of high school English curriculum's and its a great way to access creative writing skills. Moreover, Twitter is an excellent test of clarity and brevity. Lastly, Instagram combines visual components with written components.
Rusul provides a list of how these outlets can strengthen student's ability to write:
"Consistency: Teachers need to work out a plan with students to make writing on social media platforms a consistent practice in the classroom. Working with the students’ needs, skills and abilities would help the teacher and the student figure out a goal of how much writing needs to be done per week to improve on a specific set of writing skills.
Feedback: The power of peer feedback undeniably helps students to improve their writing. However, it also helps to foster a culture of writing accountability among peers. Peers now feel the need to write, comment and improve in order for them to share their work with their peers.
Confidence: Publishing work publicly is often a very nerve wracking and a scary experience for many students. Though with practice, encouragement, and positive feedback, students are able to gain confidence in themselves to be able to write and share more of their work in the digital world. This confidence doesn’t necessarily translate to stronger writing; however, the more confidence students have when it comes to writing, the more it’s an enjoyable task that they’re engaged with and actually look forward to doing.
Collaboration: When students are exposed to writing from their peers by way of feedback and collaboration, especially when it’s live collaboration (Google doc/Twitter), students are able to develop stronger ideas, find convincing evidence and be creative in composition generally.
In the same study above, 50% of teachers say today’s digital technologies make it EASIER for them to shape or improve student writing. There are so many reasons to incorporate the use of social media in the classroom, but one of the most important reasons is to help strengthen student writing." Hope this was educational! With every good wish, Miss Roberts
Work Cited
Bullen, B. R. (2009). The Power and impact of
gender-specific media literacy. Youth
Media Reporter. (6), 149-152.
Considnine,
D., Horton, J., & G. Moorman. (2009). Teaching and reading the Millennial
generation through media literacy. Journal
of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 52(6), 471-481.
Scharrer, E. (2005).
Sixth graders take on television: Media literacy and critical attitudes of television
violence. The research was supported by a service learning grant from the
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of University of
Massachusetts Amherst. Communication
Research Reports. 22(4), 325-333.
After reading a blog post on Edutopia by Beth Holland, I wanted to post on Project-Based Learning.
Has a student ever asked you, "Why am I learning this?" or "Why do I need to know this"? or "When I am ever going to use this knowledge in real life?" Education should not be about memorization or standardization. Instead, students should be engaged and excited about what they learning. Project-based learning allows students to research a particular topic for an extended period of a time, allowing students to engage in challenging and complex problem solving.
As Holland laments, project-based learning "encourages students to engage in inquiry, explore real-world contexts, and share their learning. As an instructional framework, it allows teachers to achieve these goals while still meeting curriculum requirements."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzCGNnU_WM
As the above video illustrates, project-based learning begins with an authentic question or a real-world problem that needs to be solved. It is important that the driving question is something interesting to the students so they are compelled to learn. This gives students ownership of their learning and gives them the critical thinking skills they need to be productive and active 21st century citizens.
I believe that project-based learning helps to tackle many 21st century literacy's. For example, as the above video illustrates, project-based learning often explores environmental concerns. Project-based learning allows for the students to actively engage in the environmental concerns happening within their community and they work to solve the problems. This leads to environmentally literate students who can eventually make a change in the world at large.
Here is a list of what is required to begin project-based learning.
“the twenty-first century
classroom is a connected networked classroom” (Drake, Reid and Kolohon, 2014, p., 24).
Dear Passionate Educators,
Merle Hureta and her blog post on Edutopia Coding in the Classroom: A long Overdue Inclusion, strongly encouraged me write this blog post. We live in a world that is dominated by technological innovations
(Ingerman & Collier-Reed, 2011). Coding is becoming an important part of educational curriculum's across the globe as a way to promote technological literacy and to equipped students with 21st century skills. However, according to this CBC 2015 article, Canadian schools are "lagging" behind to implement coding into their schools and it is important that we catch up! After conducting an interview with Seymour Papert, an advocate for teaching children how to code, Schwartz (1999) wrote: "anyone who has witnessed a toddler using a computer has probably experienced a sense of awe at that child's facility with what for adults can be an infinitely frustrating gadget. It's one thing for a child to play a computer game; it's another thing altogether for a child to build his or her own game. And this, according to Papert, is where the computer's true power as an educational medium lies -- in the ability to facilitate and extend children's awesome natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, draw conclusions -- in short to learn -- all by themselves. It is this very drive, Papert contends, that is squelched by our current educational system." (Schwartz, 1999). As this quote illustrates, coding can begin at a very young age. Also, as Merle's blog highlights, coding is a new type of literacy in the 21st century and students who are taught to master coding are better prepared for "a technical revolution that spans cultures and language boundaries. That's because coding isn't just a language. It's a way of thinking about problem solving." I remember being in elementary school and learning how to type and use a computer at the most basic level. In the 21st century however, children who come to elementary school will probably know more about technology than you as a teacher. According to Sweeney (2010), students do not view technology as something new or complicated. Thus, implementing coding into elementary lab periods needs to happen. Code.org is a great resource for elementary level teachers to incorporate coding into their curriculum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OJlxaOIQMA
Above is a quick video illustrating Code.org's coding curriculum and how beneficial but also fun it can be for young students.
Lastly, this website examines some of the main reasons why coding should be implemented into curriculum's such as:
1) Programming as a basic literacy in the digital age
2) Programming can change the world
3)You have an idea for then next big innovation? Great. Can you bring it to life?”
4) Programming doesn't have to be hard to learn.
Thanks for reading!
With every good wish,
Miss Roberts
Work Cited
Drake,
S. M., Reid, J. L. & W. Kolohon. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and
assessment: Engaging 21st Century Learners. Toronto, ON: Oxford University
Press. Ingerman,
A. & B. Collier-Reed. (2011). Technological literacy reconsidered: A model
for enactment. (21), 137-148.
Schwartz, D. (1999). Ghost in the Machine: Seymour Papert on How Computers Fundamentally Change the Way Kids Learn. Retrieved from:
Sweeny,
M. S. (2010). Writing for the instant messaging and text messaging generation:
Using new literacies to support writing instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 54(2), 121-130.
I am very passionate about this blog and want to continue posting! I came across a great Canadian educational blog by Paul W. Bennett. It is called Educhatter and offers a lot of great information and resources for teachers. One particular post really stood out to me, as I am very passionate about mental health awareness and ways to manage stress and anxiety in the classroom. As a student in high school, I was a very shy, introverted kid who did not participate in class discussions and often missed out on opportunities to showcase my true abilities. This was because I had high levels of stress and anxiety caused by school, but also issues I carried with me from home and outside school activities. According to the Canadian Coalition for Children and Youth Mental Health,
the mental health of students is the “number one issue facing schools today” (Whitley, 2012, p., 56).
Now that I am a prospective teacher, it is really important to me that I incorporate mental health literacy into my classrooms and help students manage their stress and anxiety.
Schools themselves are a source of stress for many students. To name a few, bullying, academic expectations and peer pressure are common igniters of stress and anxiety in youth. Educhatter had a great post titled Kids and Stress: Are Kids more "Stressed" today - and if so why?.
As his post illustrates, the classroom climate consist of Warriors but also Worriers and teachers are responsible for accommodating for all the various needs and abilities that make up the classroom. Paul's blog offered an article from the Globe and Mail that discusses how the Toronto District School Board implemented Mindfulness meditation practices into their classrooms to help students manage stress. Meditation is a great way to reduce stress and allows students to clear their heads, relax their bodies and focus on their breathing.
Students should be educated on what mental health disorders are and how meditation can help counteract these issues. As Skre (2003) illustrates, “Stigma attached to mental illness is the main obstacle to provision of care for
mental health problems”(p.2), and because of this stigma, only 1 in 5 children suffering from a mental health issue seek the treatment they require (Whitley, 2012). Therefore, it is extremely important as educators that we work to break the stigma around mental health disorders by appropriately educating our students and incorporating mental health literacy into every and any curriculum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw71zanwMnY
The above video illustrates the scientific benefits of meditation and how meditating can help counteract stress, anxiety and even depression.
A way to incorporate meditation into the classroom is a simple breathing activity. This can be a great way to begin your lesson in order to calm students down, especially after a lunch period or first thing in the morning. Students are asked to close their eyes, take deep breaths in and out and simply focus on their breathing. Stretching is another activity that is really beneficial and can help students with high energy release that energy so they are ready to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeXuf7sOpzA
The above video illustrates a teacher performing a group meditation with her class through the form of yoga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCqmFpKiLD0
This video outlines the benefits of incorporating meditation practices into schools.
Lastly, as Paul's post illustrates, not all stress is bad and it is important to educate students about this as well. In a CBC Interview with Dr. Stan Kutcher, he laments:
“Stress is useful for us, it helps the body tune itself, it is a method by which we learn how to adapt to our environment either by changing ourselves or by changing our environment. There is good stress, which is positive, it helps kids learn how to pick themselves up and dust themselves off, and start all over again. That’s part of resilience. That’s part of learning how to deal with life, but sometimes there’s also stress that is bad for you and part of the deal is understanding which is which.”
Thank you for reading my post and I hope it was educational!
With every good wish,
Miss Roberts
Work Cited
Skre, I. (2013). A school intervention for mental health literacy in adolescents: Effects of a non-randomized cluster controlled trial.
BMC Public Health, 1-16.
Whitley, J. (2012). Promoting Mental Health Literacy Among Educators: Critical in School-Based Prevention and Intervention.
Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 56-70.
The web is an amazing resource for educators to use. It can be used in every curriculum and should be used! In following a Canadian educational blogger Paul W. Bennett, I came across an interest blog titled Googlization of Education: What Happens When Google Appropriates a School System? and it really encouraged me to create this blog post. As a University student, I often take advantage of Google and its many free resources, but do elementary or high school students know about these resources? Do they use them as a part of their education? It is up to us as prospective teachers to bring this into our classrooms and help our students attain 21st century skills. In Paul's blog post, he explores Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and how its being implemented into schools across Canada. Summits have been held in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and BC as well as Nova Scotia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFUl0KcIkA
The above video illustrates what Google Apps for Education is all about!
According to Paul's blog post, a Nova Scotia teacher Grant Frost laments that Google Apps for Education "provides every student and teacher user with their own g-mail account, as well as several useful applications, including Google Docs, a leading edge word processing program, Google Sheets, which outperforms Excel, and Google Slides, which is a more integrated multi-platform version of PowerPoint. Users also have access to Google Classroom, where, with a click of mouse and a one time code entry, they can sign up for a class and receive notifications about upcoming events, class assignments and ask about homework questions with their teacher via his/her cell phone at all times of the week."
As a prospective teacher, I plan to incorporate Google Apps for Education into my classroom as a way to incorporate technological literacy. It is a great way for students to work on group presentations from home through Google Docs, it allows them to create an email account and helps all students learn to operate Excel and Google Slides. As mentioned in an older post of mine, the flipped classroom model is something I am very supportive of. The flipped classroom model accompanies GAFE really well, as students can access lectures online as homework, and then come to class ready for open discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uEXJPw8Jwo
The above video illustrates GAFE in action!
Another great way to incorporate tech literacy and Google into the classroom is the use of "a Google a Day". It is a free site that strengthens student's ability to search and find answers through a game-like format. Each day, it asks students to answer three different questions that are answered through research. The quicker the students find the answers, the more points they earn.
Have you every wondered how to manage or minimize disruptive behaviour in the classroom? As prospective teachers, this is definitely something many of us worry about - especially me. Everyone knows the horror story of the student teacher, picked on by the 'naughty' students to the point of tears. As a potential teacher, this a huge fear of mine and so, I wanted to offer you some techniques to manage disruptive behaviour in your future classrooms. Surface behaviours, such as talking, whispering, passing notes, doodling, teasing and talking back are normal day to day interruptions that are a normal part of developmental behaviours (Levin, Nolan, Kerr, Elliot & Bajovic, 2014). Despite the terrifying horror stories, these are the type of interruptions that teachers face on a daily basis. To deal with these types of disruptive behaviours, teachers can use non-verbal or verbal interventions to deal with the issue. There are many ways to communicate non-verbally, such as simply looking, positioning your body and gesturing towards the disruptive student. This is surprisingly effective and it allows for classroom activities to continue without interruption. Verbal interventions include reminding the student that their behaviours are disruptive to their peers and to their own educational success. It is important however, to positively phrase and even use humour when directly reminding a disruptive student of the classroom rules (Levin, Nolan, Kerr, Elliot and Bajovic, 2014) In addition, this website offers good prevention and intervention techniques for new teachers to manage students who are misbehaving. According to Levin, Nolan, Kerr, Elliot and Bajovic (2014), physical arrangement of the classroom is crucial in managing misbehaviour. Retrieved from Google images. I have personally always liked this U shaped desk arrangement, as it allows the teacher to see every student and therefore they are able to minimize disruptive behaviour. Also, desks do not have to be moved for group work, as students can work with their neighbour or, chairs simply have to moved into the middle of the U to conduct group work. As expressed in Drake, Reid and Kolohon (2014), the Ministry of Education in Ontario recommends that teachers considering the individual learning styles of each student - whether that is an auditory learning, visual learning or a kinesthetic/tactile learner. I believe that, by changing your teaching style to cater to student's individual needs would be helpful in managing misbehaviour. Many students probably act out as a form of resistance or because they are not interested or do not understand the course material. Thus, by catering to student's different learning styles, disruptive behaviour could be minimized. With every good wish,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vucxpu0_zoI The above video is an example of a problem solving circle, another effective tool in managing misbehaviour. As the video illustrates, a problem solving circle brings the classroom together to discuss the student's perception of their work ethic, as well as discussing ways that they themselves could do differently/better to improve their learning. An important question to ask your students is "What will you do?" This is a student-directed strategy in which students can evaluate their behaviour and thus, on their own, work to improve that behaviour. Hope this was a helpful post! Miss Roberts Work Cited Drake, S., Reid, J. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Toward a new story of curriculum, instruction and assessment. In Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press. Levin, J., Nolan, J., Kerr, J., & Elliott, A., Bajovic, M. (2015). Principles of
Classroom Management: A Professional Decision-Making Model – Fourth Canadian
edition. Toronto, ON: Pearson.
A great technique to use at any age is "Two stars and a wish," wherein students when marking their peers, provide two positive aspects of the work but one aspect that could use improvement. When volunteering in a grade 1 classroom this was very effective in teaching children how to communicate appropriately and kindly with one another, thus helping them to be morally literate for the future. In fourth year university, my education class also used "Two stars and a wish," proving that it can be useful at any age.
Retrieved from Google images.