Some of you saw "Race to Nowhere" tonight while the rest of us engaged in a discussion about the use of wikispaces. We also practiced using Jing and looked at the Kahn Academy that provides screencasts for just about every math problem one could encounter. Talk about your experiences tonight in such a way as to help each other expand their own thinking about teaching and learning. See you all in two weeks!
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I went to the showing of "The Race to Nowhere" and let me start off by saying I highly recommend it. This was more then a movie, it was a documentary, and it touched on so many different points, and it was amazing to see how school affects everyone in a community. Here the students told you how they felt, they told you about the truth behind the education system.
Here they talked about the stress students go through on a daily basis them trying to get straight A's, trying to be in all AP classes, having sports, clubs, community service, tutoring, working, and then hours of homework. They do not get a break, and they do not get to be kids. As one of the parents in the video said, "I'm afraid our children are going to sue us for stealing their childhood." They are so concerned with good grades, to go to a good college that they are not learning anything, they are memorizing and stressing themselves out to the point that they are getting sick.
One parent told her story about her 14 year old daughters suicide. She had no idea, there were no clues, no depressive behaviors, just on bad failing math grade. Students were saying they wouldn't eat because eating made them tired and they needed to go through the entire night doing homework. (Which at the high school level kids should be getting 9.25 hours a night, most are averaging about 6). The destructive behaviors to be perfect, to go nowhere is not acceptable.
Students in 3rd grade were coming home with hours of homework, and how can we justify that? Kids are not suppose to be in school for 7 hours, plus 5 hours of homework, at any age! They need to be outside, socializing, having a life, being a family, being active, not buried in a textbook all day. What kind of life is that? There were so many points brought up in this documentary, it is eye opening, and will make you remember, and want to change this for your children. We need to let them be kids, not doing 12+ hours of school work, we need to all ban together and let our children live, let them understand that there are multiple ways to be successful and that the true meaning behind being successful is being happy and healthy!
Before the lesson on wikispaces the other night I thought the main purpose for a wikispace is for one person to display information for people to see. But what I discovered was that a wikispace can be an area where many people can contribute. For educational purposes, the wikispace can be a great space for students to respond to a question posed by the teacher or by a classmate. Students can contribute what they want onto the wikispace. With math, there are many topics that can be confusing so to have an outlet for students to add resources or ideas about the topic can be very helpful. Some students might want to work on practice problems while other students might want to add videos that explain the uses of the topic. The students take the question and explore it, adding what they believe is important.
I think Jing is a great tool. I think this tool will definitely help me when I am a teacher. My mentor teacher uses geometry sketchpad which is a great online tool that helps students discover geometry theorems. I think Jing will help because making a video that shows the students how to use geometry sketchpad would be very helpful. The students can go back to the video every time they are confused. The students do many labs in the class. Each lab allows the students to discover something different about geometry. Students can create their own videos showing classmates how they did the lab. Students who need help with the lab can watch their classmates’ videos which show the step by step explanations. The students learn from making the video and the other students learn by watching the video.
The Kahn Academy website is great and I love how there are so many videos on math. I will definitely show my students the website for the purposes of my students uses it as a resource on their own time.
Can't wait to see it myself... I am glad that you found the time meaningful and will "remember." We definitely need to allow "kids to be kids." We also need to make learning meaningful, not just about memorizing!
Our last class definitely opened my eyes to all of the possibilities that are open to use as teachers. We just need to be able to use creativity in the classroom in order to come up with ways to effectively teach our students. One day when I have my own classroom it will be up to me to think out of the box when it comes to teaching and really use effective teaching practices and strategies that I have learned.
I was never really aware of all the possibilities that exist for using wikispaces. I also taught that is was a tool for one person to add information. Wikispaces can be a collaborative tool that allow students to access and add information from any area that has internet access. This is great because students can learn and expand upon their thinking outside of the classroom as well. They also allow students to take ownership of their work and feel proud about sharing information or even teaching their peers.
I was really excited about the tool Jing because this was something I have never seen or used before. This is a great way to teach or reinforce students in a different way which allows us as teachers to reach students with different learning styles. This tool also allows students to work on speaking skills as well as their ability to comprehend a certain subject. For example, if the student use jing to teach the other students how to solve a two-step equation the teacher will realize that the student understands the concept and will be able to assess them. There are so great tools and strategies available to educators these days, we just need to use a little creativity to infuse them in the classroom and to better teach our students.
The problem I was having with developing my wikispace was the problem I had when I began to drive. My driving instructor kept telling me not to look directly infront of the car but 3 seconds down the road. I had no idea what he meant and I continued to look directly in front of the car. It wasn't till I was driving months later that I had an ah moment and finally figured out what my driving instructor was talking about. I wasn't seeing what my wikispace could be but instead kept looking at what it wasn't.
I am now looking at it as a teaching tool for myself. I place I can go to to get information and a place to build as my career in education grows. I still have along way to go but I able to see 3 seconds ahead. I hope I am making sense!!!
Great reflections thus far. One thought that has come to my mind over and over again is this: "Think back to the best teacher you had in your own education... what was it about that person, or the class, that made it the best?" We know that today's children are "connected" constantly and they "unplug" or "disconnect" in terms of their use of 21st Century tools when they come to school. How do we keep them engaged?... how were you engaged? Did you have a natural interest in the subject of the "best" class or was it something the teacher did?
Thank you, Nicolle, for pointing out that Jing "allows students to work on speaking skills." I hadn't thought of this, and now I am even more compelled to use the tool. It is true that students will have to articulate themselves clearly in order for the tool to be most useful to other students as well as for assessment. In this way, you can be working on any subject, and you are also integrating ELA and of course the 21st century skill communication. I like that Jing incorporates both visual and auditory learning.
The only thing I want to be sure I remain cognizant of is that while many students will likely opt to refer to all these technological resources for review and extra help, I must still make in person help available. As a tutor in a writing center at a community college in Queens, I find that most students prefer to come in and work one-on-one with a tutor (as opposed to using the online tutoring system) because they are able to ask questions and gain more clarity more quickly. Also, just because a student is able to follow a video, it does not necessarily mean they have a clear understanding of the material. I think it is certainly beneficial to use Kahn Academy, for example, but I like Jing because students can make the videos and this is more telling of the student's understanding.
On Wednesday I went to see the video "Race to Nowhere". I have to agree with Kristin when I say you must see this video. It is so educational and is so important for future teachers, teachers, and anyone who has children in their lives in some way. In the video the students speak about their difficulties in dealing with the workload from their teachers and the pressure they feel they are under from school and their parents. These students try to keep straight A's, participate in extra curricular activities such as clubs and sports. They try to hold jobs and at the same time as doing all these other things they come home late and start homework or studying that can take at least 3 to 4 hours a night.
One part in the video a principal was speaking about when she first become principal of the school she is in. She was told that her school has a big drug problem. Immediately she thought the drugs the students were taking were marijuana, or stimulant drugs. The drugs these students were taking were prescription drugs to help them stay awake at night so they will be able to do their homework and drugs that will be able to get them to go to sleep. I found this to be quite disturbing. Why are we giving our students so much work and putting so much pressure on them where they have to be taking these prescription drugs?
One story that really stuck with me was the story of a 14 year old girl who took her life because of the amount of stress and pressure she was under to get good grades. Children are loosing their lives and childhood because of the amount of work they have to get done and the amount of hours it takes for them to do it.
I agree that school and academics is important, but when did it become the center of a child's life? Children deserve to have a childhood where they can go out and play with their friends and not stress over school at age 8.
Changes need to be made now before more and more children take their lives, drop out of school, or go deeper and deeper into taking drugs. Changes start with this video, "Race to Nowhere". It should be mandatory for all parents and educators to watch this.
Last class, we further discussed wikispaces and their potential in the classroom. It took awhile for many of us to understand that a wikispace isn't just a site to post pictures, websites, video clips, etc. It's a forum for discussion, creativity, and constructivism in education. While wikispaces are still semi-foreign to me, I was able to understand how to better navigate the site and how to personalize a space that has endless possibilities. Whats so great about wikispaces is that they are unique! I definitely intend to use them as a future educator. My cousin, who has children in elementary and middle school, informed me that their teachers use wikispaces and that she loves them! It was interesting to get a parent's perspective on technology in the classroom.
We were also introduced to Jing and Kahn Academy, two other fantastic tools. I thought Jing was so cool that I spread the word about it. I never knew how to make tutorials and I am confident that Jing is a tool I will be using a lot in the future. Jing is a fantastic collaboration tool because you can show people what you are seeing even if you aren't in the same room or even the same country. Kahn Academy was also an eye opening resource. While I wouldn't rely on Kahn Academy as a teaching tool, it makes for a great supplement. I would definitely suggest that students go home and use Kahn Academy if they run into a problem during their homework.
I am grateful for all of the interesting and useful resources I am learning in this class. I have a strong feeling they will come in handy in the very near future!
I went to see the movie and I must say it hit me hard. I could relate to some parts of the movie which I guess affected me the most. I was a student who hated being in school. School consumed more than half of my waking hours and I wanted nothing more to do with it. My parents also made sure I was highly involved with after school activities and community involvement. I was that stressed overwhelmed child just memorizing facts until my senior year of high school. My senior year I had amazing teachers who emphasized understanding rather than memorization and on top of it they understood the stressful hectic lives we lived at home. These teachers changed my view of school and I began to love it. This made me want to be a teacher. I hope to always keep in mind the pressures that today's world hold on our students and I always want to try and aid them in living their childhood to the fullest. As educators, lets let them have fun.
It took us a while to really understand and see the point of a wikispace within the classroom. We all thought about the basics of a wikispace, like how you can put pictures, have discussions, put videos, etc... But we didn't think outside the box until later into class about how we can use a wikispace to enhance lessons and how wikispaces can benefit the different styles of learning. Teachers can use wikispaces as a form of assessment and they can use a wikispace to target all types of learning, since all children learn differently. It is awesome that we have an advantage as teachers to implement a wikispace into our classroom. The Kahn Academy website is awesome for teachers and students. Students can go back online and look at what ever topic they learned in class, and watch a video about it. It's good for students who might forget the lesson that day or for students who need extra time to go back and listen again to the lesson. I would definitely use Jing in my class. I have seen it used in some workshops I have attended to show us the new IEPs and other things. It's very helpful and great for teachers/students.
This class did a great job at opening my eyes to even more technological tools that teachers can use in the classroom. Similar to what other people have been saying, I didn’t realize all that wikispaces had to offer. In addition to serving as a place where someone could create different pages and put links on them, wikispaces could be used for collaboration and communication where students and teacher interact, share ideas, pose questions and so on- it is also a great place where students can help their classmates. Using wikispaces is extremely beneficial to the classroom because it serves as almost a database (where students can have access to school resources and different lessons) and blog (where students can bring up things they may have difficulty in or where they can expand on someone elses thoughts.)
Jing was such an interesting tool because it allowed you to ‘show’ someone how to access something or teach them- you can show them on the screen and speak directly onto it. It is also simple enough to use that both teachers and students will be able to use it.
The Kahn Academy was also an amazing website because it has problems and solutions for any math problems one could come up with. This is an excellent tool because if a child is having problems, you can direct them to this website for further assistance.
To answer the professors question- in order to keep students engaged we have to let them know about the tools available. Wikispaces and jing, for example, are such simple tools that allow students to pose questions or comments on their own time. By showing students they can interact in the comfort of their own home-they may be more willing to engage in a discussion or post on one of these tools. Using these tools will also keep students engaged because they are both easy and fun to use. In school, my favorite teacher would engage the class through humor, technology, and group assignments. This was a nice change from the teachers that just ‘taught.’ By creating an interesting class, students are most likely to be engaged because it is something different and allows them to be active in the classroom-which is basically the main point of 21st century learning.
Everytime I come in to class, there is always something new and exciting! I honestly have to say that technology has so many ways to help motivate kids learn and I wish I had these tools back when I was in elementary school. Jing is such a great tool where you can display a visual and an auditory way to teach something. Furthermore, repetion! I remember sitting back in class in the 5th grade and not getting math. My math teacher was so quick to teach a lesson and it was easy to get lost. I hated asking her questions where she would repeat herself and I still wont get it. I felt like I was bothering her. With my horrible experience in the 5th grade math class, I know for sure if I had access to JING I would have done better. I would have learned in my own pace, go home and repeat the lesson till I get it.
Our class two weeks ago really helped all of us view wikispaces (and all technology really) in a much more useful and beneficial way. We constructed a list of the uses of wikispaces, realizing that we were missing the whole point. A wikispace does allow for posting hw and for posting notes, but it is much more. As Laura J said, it can be an outlet for students, where they can post things they are confused about, share possible answers. It is a living notebook/journal which enhances every lesson. Each student's learning style can be found in a wikispace: visual, audio, tutorial. And the best part is, it is hands on for the students.
Jing is another great tool that allows the user to video record their computer actions. Students can demoknstrate how they found certain websites and then share it on a wikispace! As Nicolle says, this provides ownership over learnin, which makes learning more meaningful.
During last week’s discussion about wikispaces, the class seemed to have difficulty trying to figure out just how to use a wikispace in an effective and interactive way. When we began to talk about the idea of allowing our students to “create” the lesson on the wikispace, it was obvious where the real mental block came from. This transfer of responsibility is something that many teachers struggle with. The mentality is “what if they do it wrong?” or “I’m the teacher, it’s my job to teach not the students.” However, this is what 21st Century skills and constructivism are all about. By allowing the students to be active participants in the learning process, true learning can take place, not rote memorization. If they get something wrong or post something inaccurate, it will make them remember that mistake and do better the next time around and that is what learning is all about. The same concept applies to the screencasts found on the Kahn Academy website. Teachers should utilize these resources instead of shying away from them because they feel that the teacher in the classroom should do these lessons. Instead of doubting the usefulness of these tools or feeling insecure about shifting some responsibility onto the students, teachers should embrace these advances and make the most of every learning tool that is available. Applications like Jing show us just how easy and user-friendly a tutorial video can be for students to learn how to use these educational websites like Kahn or a wikispace. We have the tools, now we just need to USE them!
Our previous class helped me a lot when it came to the use of wikispaces. I feel like I didn’t really know much about how to embed a video, or posting a link onto it. During the class I realized that a wikispace can be used as something more than just a place to post notes, homework or demonstration videos. It can also be a place where students can come together and work on projects together, or have discussions on various topics. Learning how to use a wikispace helped me remember that the point of using technology isn’t just about making everything look pretty. It’s about using it to enhance a lesson by having students use it to their best ability. The purpose of technology such as SMART boards or Wikispaces isn’t about having another space where teachers can write the homework or do nows, but about having the students take part in an interactive learning experience. I found Jing to be a very useful tool as well. I would like to explore it more but I found that it can be used to create tutorials for students. This way, students can rewind and forward the video and learn concepts at their own pace. Also, by putting these videos on a wikispace, these videos are always available to them which makes them a reliable source.
Our Last class definitely opened up my eyes to more creative and fun ways to teach certain topics.
The video we saw on the kahn method i thought was a great way to help students learn a topic or even review a certain topic.
I felt this method was a fun and creative way to learn, by explaining concepts like math and formulas to students in ways that they will understand, that may be different from how they learned it in class.
Wikispaces can be used as reference tool for lessons or concepts that students may miss. Also, it is a good resource for posting class assignments and or notices or notes that both the students and parents can view. This is a good way to keep both students and parents up to date and involved in the class and the assignments.
Before taking this course, I will admit that I did not even know what a wikispace was. I remember Professor talking about wikispaces in our first class, and I know that I was one of the few who had the "deer in headlights" look. Last class allowed me to acquire a lot more knowledge, not only about wikispaces, but how to effectively use them in the classroom. Because it is a blank tablet, the possibilities are endless. Anyone can create a wikispace, but it's how we incorporate creativity and utilize it with our students that is the challenge. The wikispace allows us to engage with our students anywhere/anytime. When I think back to those best teachers, they were the ones who did communicate with me, allowed me to be creative in the classroom and encouraged group work. My most memorable teacher was my first grade teacher because she did have us engage in a lot of group work activities. Even back in '91, students in Mrs. Sherera's class were collaborating and working together. This is most likely why I still remember this class today.
As with many things out there on the world wide web, I was not aware of the Khan Academy website, but was pleased to learn about this informative site. A GREAT tool for highschool students, teachers, and parents. Recently, a colleague expressed that her high-school son was having trouble understanding the math content. When Professor introduced the site, I immediately texted my friend to share the information. (Not in class of course) :). She was grateful because not only did the tutorials help her son, they were of assistance to her.
Before taking this course, I will admit that I did not even know what a wikispace was. I remember Professor talking about wikispaces in our first class, and I know that I was one of the few who had the "deer in headlights" look. Last class allowed me to acquire a lot more knowledge, not only about wikispaces, but how to effectively use them in the classroom. Because it is a blank tablet, the possibilities are endless. Anyone can create a wikispace, but it's how we incorporate creativity and utilize it with our students that is the challenge. The wikispace allows us to engage with our students anywhere/anytime. When I think back to those best teachers, they were the ones who did communicate with me, allowed me to be creative in the classroom and encouraged group work. My most memorable teacher was my first grade teacher because she did have us engage in a lot of group work activities. Even back in '91, students in Mrs. Sherera's class were collaborating and working together. This is most likely why I still remember this class today.
As with many things out there on the world wide web, I was not aware of the Khan Academy website, but was pleased to learn about this informative site. A GREAT tool for highschool students, teachers, and parents. Recently, a colleague expressed that her high-school son was having trouble understanding the math content. When Professor introduced the site, I immediately texted my friend to share the information. (Not in class of course) :). She was grateful because not only did the tutorials help her son, they were of assistance to her
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