The intense engagement on the faces of these teens is not excitement in solving math problems , or is it ? I have often spend time listening to my students talk about video games and wished we could harness that engagement and energy an channel that for the good of math. There is no question that we have a serious math education problem in the United States and even right here in Napa Valley Unified School District. I have been teaching these struggling Math students for years in the past I was charged with helping students pass the high school exit exam which was so defeating for so many students. Today I am working to help students who are very bright pass the first high school level math class they have ever past in their high school career many are 11th graders. I have a very brilliant girl in my class who joined my class 7 weeks ago and she has picked up the coding so quickly and she has completed all of my assignments. I gave an "End User" type survey last week and one thing she said was that she is excited to be passing her first math class ! She is very bright we have a system that is not meeting the needs of our students and we can't change quick enough in my opinion.
Gamification is definitely part of the change that needs to occur ! I have explored some really exciting games and apps that I want to incorporate into my class. I am very excited to restructure my class, my practice, and make a new experience for my math students. The addition of Google Classroom I think is perfect timing for me to make this change. Here is the list of math related sites/apps I am planning on using Desmos, Youcubed, Teaching math with Google Apps, Quizizz, Quizlet. I most say I left this search feeling that something is missing for us upper grade math teachers. I looked at Prodigy and it is so awesome it is like a real video game and THAT is what we need for high school. I just haven't found something like that for teaching Algebra or higher. I found a site for something called Math Trip which is coming but it doesn't look as cool. I think we need something with the look of Class Craft for teaching Math. There is a movement happening but it is behind the need we have I think. Our high school students play complex realistic looking video games if we want to reach them where they are we need to build something like that. I have never been a video game player but I watch my husband play and I am always asking questions it is crazy how real it looks. I WANT TO FIGURE THIS OUT ! Who can we ask ? Who would fund or work on this ? Is there something out there that I can't find ? It is just another example of how behind education is with what our students are experiencing. I feel we are just at the tip of the full potential that Gamifying our classrooms could truly have on Education. I do see that game -based- learning will totally support students mastery and I also like how gaming supports the model of personalized learning as well. I feel like these are all such exciting tools in our teacher tool box and it is our charge to find the right balance/combination of how best to organize our classes and present this exciting technology. Game - based - learning is an excellent example of technology being used for a new and innovative purpose. This movement is also demonstrating that education is trying to meet our students where they are to really become more aware of their needs, interests, and culture. True Innovative Teaching Playing is the work of childhood ! Read this in a Tweet this morning and it really is so true our big high school boys are still kids and they do need to play more life is so serious most of the time. After watching the gaming videos it opened my mind to why video games are popular and I think I might play a game for change so I can become more immersed into this culture of gaming.
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There is so much going on in my head, so many questions, wonders, reflections, ideas I am becoming an Innovative Teacher. As I was reading the amazing book "The Innovators Mindset " everything started to make sense a bit more for me. The author George Couros lists 8 characteristics of an Innovative Teacher and I want to list them because they apply to all of us I think. 1. Empathetic 2. Problem Finders/ Solvers 3. Risk Takers 4. Networked 5. Observant 6. Creators 7. Resilient 8. Reflective These Characteristics fit into all of the models and pedagogy we have been learning. He then goes on to pose a question which will be my driving question the rest of my teacher career; Would you want to be a learner in your classroom ? Well I am striving to make the answer yes everyday but this is a process, it means we are reflective and open to change. Change is hard, it takes time, but change is good and necessary. For me the ideas in the Innovators Mindset just helped me see the purpose for all the many different things we have been learning. With that said if I was talking to a group of teacher sharing my journey I would start by saying that as educators we must be innovative in guiding our students to become innovators. I would be very clear that the world is changing very rapidly and we should not be teaching our student the same way we were taught or at least how I was taught VHS class of 1984. If we were more reflective as a system the need for change is evident and has been for many years, it is clear that we live in a very different would now then in 1984 (unless you were reading a scifi novel with that title). It is that feeling that I wasn't connecting, that something needed to change that pushed me to earn my Masters. My love of teaching and supporting my student had me searching for new and innovative ways to present information which guided students on a journey to learn and create. Clark has us ask who has a need? As I read Clark it made me see the value of routine, structure, even a regular process to support our students learning. There is still room for creativity but things need to be clear , expectations need to be clear, the process needs to be clear. She talked about the content having a real purpose that could be incorporated to support the learning. Baggio made me really think about my learning environment and how it supports the construction of knowledge. The revelation of truly understanding being a visual learner was monumental and all teachers need a heighten awareness to this topic. She really presented best practices for us to use to create the Class we would want to be in as George Couros mentioned. Dervin made me really take more time to evaluate individual circumstances; to bridge the gap I understand the need for the end user much better and for me it is the SITE Model that guided me. The SITE models set of questions really make me think more about individuals needs is a structured and organized way. I have always made modifications and really tried to understand students needs but actually taking the time to ask them all and giving them a voice in this process is awesome and fellow teachers we all need a system for doing this and I recommend the SITE model for helping you. The following questions are my End User Focus: 1. Who are the learners? 2. What values do the learners hold? 3. What will motivate the learner? 4. Which tools , systems, and techniques will assist learners to realize goals or values that are important to them ? 5. How do these tools, systems, and techniques form paths to goal achievement? 6. How will learners recognize opportunities offered by tools and techniques and how will learners perceive these tools and techniques might be linked to their goals and values? 7. What skills do learners need to access information and knowledge about how to achieve their goals to uphold their values? 8. What assistance would improve this access? Pebble in the Pond Model this resonated with me because I do think this is how I operate I see a problem then the ripples start . Problem Student success in Math 1 Analysis Students have failed multiple time I need a different system Strategies 1. Get to know your end user / students SITE Model / Dervin 2. Research see what is out there. Netwrk make connections. 3. I found C-Stem curriculum Design Design a plan to implement and try and reflect and redesign .... Production create a Capstone and tell people about your success. I will be using TPACK and SAMR as my models to design and create change. TPACK is the fancy pencil Lisa was talking about it is not tech for the sake of tech it is tech because it creates new and meaningful learning opportunities. I want to strive to hit the sweet spot in the middle of this model and will use this a goal when planning. The SAMR model is what I really identify with is planning and working on my driving question "What is it about coding that allows struggling math students to succeed? " As I look at how teaching traditional math concepts with coding I see it really engages my students and the students who traditionally struggle the most are excelling. With the SAMR maodel guiding me I feel many of the coding lessons that I am teaching are in the transformation portion of the model which is where I want them.
Redefinition: Tech allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable My students are learning a new language as they create codes to solve math problems. They write their own codes, they modifiy code, and they trouble shoot/ debug code all while working through Math 1 content (TPACK). Modification: Tech allows for significant task redesign. This technology is creating change school wide we have 2 teachers teaching with this curriculum we have 10 students on our robotics teams the energy from the students is facilitating the change. Blogging has become a way for me to reflect and sort out where I am and what I need to think about more deeply. Thank you for reading this long blog. My motivation is that I can't keep teaching math the same way to students who have failed it multiple times they deserve a new approach maybe all Math 1 students deserve some innovative change. Adjusting the pace + Adjusting the learning approach + Leveraging student interests/experiences = Personalized learning Graphic from Xyleme This is an image of what my brain feels like and I LOVE IT ! I am learning so much and I am really realizing that learning feels so amazing I want to work to improve my classes so my students experience this feel more than they are right now. They are learning but they are not feeling the same excitement and ownership of their learning as I am. Why ? I have been reflecting on that a lot lately, the power of reflection is highly underestimated. One thing I have realized is that we have a personalized learning model that really works for me. Ours is of course more personalized sine we have more freedom to decide how and when to get our work done but I do think our students could do this to a degree in class and then possibly do different pieces of work from home if needed. For me sometimes I need to be locked away to read and really understand other times I can be out and do work while life happens around me. I want to create a learning environment that is more personalized, giving students more choice, and more voice, I want to update my teaching! This weeks homework was all about exploring tools that will do just that for me , help me update my teaching. I have now experienced Snag-it, Screencastify, Screen Cast o Matic,Adobe Spark,Voice Thread, Kaizena, Powtoon, Flip Grid, We Video. Before starting this Masters program I had used We Video, this teacher was in need of a serious upgrade and I am not ashamed to say it. I am so excited about all we have learned and I am going to keep myself in the loop so I continue to stay updated. The tools I really enjoy are the tools for screen casting and presentations. I am going to have students use these programs next year. Just last week I gave my students creative freedom on a project and a student introduced me to Powtoon it was great I had her show it to the class and another group of students tried it. As George Couros says in his book The Innovators Mindset learning is creating something with your knowledge and all these programs support that. I am going to be using powtoon, screencast o matis, voice thread, all to help students create with their knowledge on topics of Climate change this week. They are good at making Google Slides and I am working on teaching them some Baggio tips and then they must add voice over/ video. These will be on display at the Makers Faire. I must say the single thing I am most excited about using is Google Classrooms I think this is going to be the best tool for me to create my personal learning model. I know this was not really on the iCare but I spent Saturday with Alice Keeler and I became inspired. What I am most excited about is the ability to make personal comments to students and then have them respond back to me. Through this class I was searching for a tool to help me do that I was trying to figure out how I could use blogging to assist but it still wasn't what I wanted. Alice Keeler again reminded of the powerful impact feedback has on learning but then even more important demonstrated the tool to do just that. For my lesson this week I am going to explore Google Classroom and assign students work from there so that I can give personal feedback. I will still use ECHO grade book but will now put work in Google Classroom I want to see the impact of personal feedback. I am going to try this with my most challenging math classes and see if this will improve their grades. I will also introduce some creation tools like screen cast and We Video. There is so much learning in the area of Google for education and I am excited this will keep me learning more next year as well. I would highly recommend an Alice Keeler training she is a wealth of knowledge. My lesson plan that I will try this week will be using Google Classroom and giving some personal feedback because that is what I think my students need the most. I will create a screen cast to teach them how to use the basics of Google Classroom and how to join and find my class. I will also use slides and spread sheets more as I learned from Alice. Learning is awesome it makes me feel so alive and I am so excited to learn with all of you in the cohort. For the first time in a long time I am super excited to work and plan over the Summer so I can incorporate many of the new tools, strategies, philosophies, and ideas into my classroom. I am excited to start the new year off with Google Classroom and redesign my practice ! Graphic from Vanderbilt Teaching Center
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Julie LovieJulie Lovie Is a Math and Science teacher at Valley Oak High School with 25 years experience in teaching at a continuation high school. Julie Also teaches at Napa valley Adult School in the High School Diploma Program. She is passionate about the environment, loves gardening, and learning. Archives
June 2019
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