Questioning for Life

Throughout CEP 812, I read a book by Warren Berger, titled, A More Beautiful Question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas (2014). Berger says, “Questions (the right ones, anyway) are good at generating momentum, which is why change-makers so often use them as a starting point” (p. 266). In order to know what changes to make to improve something, we need to start asking questions. I have also learned about the importance of looking at a question from multiple perspectives to gain better insight as to how to begin to solve a problem (Berger, 2014, p. 259). We have talked about the importance of questioning, and how it allows us to explore new ideas and ways of thinking.

I have a passion to make a difference in the lives of all my students.  I strive to differentiate instruction and learn different teaching techniques to meet every students’ individual learning needs.  Technology has allowed me to present content to my students in a purposeful way. Dr. Mishra stated in his keynote speech at the 21st Century Learning Conference (2015), “There is no such thing as an educational technology.  What we have is a variety of different technologies and our job as educators is to repurpose, and customize them for our needs.”

Image retrieved from tpack.org

Although I have taken a hiatus from the classroom for the past 2 years, I am looking forward to taking the ideas and concepts I have learned and apply them to my teaching when I return. Thomas L. Friedman’s article, It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. (2013), Friedman argues that we need P.Q. (passion quotient) and C.Q. (curiosity quotient) to be a lifelong learner and successful in the 21^st century. Educators need to be passionate about all of the students in their classroom and their understanding of the content. We need to take into consideration how to best teach our students. Be curious and question daily decisions. I have reflected on the following:

(a) How I bring passion and curiosity to my work as an educator

(b) How questioning, impacts my passion and curiosity in the classroom

(c) How technology plays a significant role

I want to continue to express my passion for education and engage in self-reflection in order to become an even better teacher. In Thinglink below, I portray more about how I bring passion and curiosity to my work as an educator, and how I use questioning based on passion and curiosity, and the technology plays in my classroom. Click on embedded content if it does not show, please click on the following link: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1108807029423603713

References

Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

Friedman, T. L. (2013, January 30). It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html

https://www.thinglink.com/

Mishra, P. (2015, July). 21CLI – Punya Mishra – Keynote Speaker (4th Annual Conference). Retrieved June 22, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xf5tD-XOzQ&feature=youtu.be

Is there a Solution?

Throughout CEP 812, my partner and I have been working on tackling the wicked problem of Personalized Learning. We have generated why questions to help us better understand the problem and then narrowed down our questions to drive our research, and conduct a survey and send it to our PLN (personal learning network). We have been working on asking more insightful questions based on Warren Berger’s book A More Beautiful Question. Warren Berger discusses the importance of asking the right questions. He says “you know you are asking a good question when people get engaged in the question. If you have a question you need to share it with people and see what kind of reaction you get.”

Our survey responses helped us realized there is not one straightforward solution to our wicked problem, but there are several tools and strategies we can use as educators to help us create a more personalized learning environment for our students. What our survey also provided us with is how important it is to look at all problems from different perspectives.

Pictured below is how we viewed our wicked problem from the perspectives of several different stakeholders.

Proposed Solutions:

If we as educators presented the content to appeal to students learning needs versus a one size fits all approach, students would be setting their own learning goals, engage in reflection, and monitoring their progress towards meeting their goals. We understand as educators we struggle with class sizes, time, and curriculum, we feel with the following suggestions you can make your classroom a more personalized learning environment for your students. If we as educators adapted our teaching methods to include technology infrastructure to appeal to 21-century student learning styles, we could provide a more customizable and differentiated approach to our instruction. It is often difficult to teach students at their individual learning level, but technology can help make this easier. 

Check out the link to our presentation to help personalize learning for your students:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTradQmXR1pZfEiZyc9GKzOjdg3JPHo0Oek7u_1e8sehFZXjP-hLvBNRXZBxpAAlxRH4jJ5_BVUnCmj/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=30000

References

Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

Personalized Learning

Throughout CEP 812, I have been working on a group project to solve the wicked problem: Personalized Learning. This is a wicked problem because there are several perspectives to consider, and there is not just one solution.

My partner and I initially brainstormed “why” questions to help us understand the depth of the problem, these questions help guide us through our research. We met virtually through Zoom, an information communication technology, to begin to analyze our questions. We categorized our questions and then prioritized them based on which questions we thought were the most important to the problem. We then conducted a round-robin discussion, in which the two of us discussed the problem from the point of view of an innovative teacher, administrator, parent, and homeschool parent. Considering these different viewpoints helped us prioritize our “why” questions. The three critical “why” questions we chose are:

1. Parent: Why does my student say their bored?
2. Administrator: Why doesn’t your standardized test scores align with your classroom assessment data?
3. Innovative Educator: Why don’t students have the opportunity to use a variety of technology tools?
4. Homeschool parent: Why arent Public Schools utilizing Personalized Learning?

The next step was to list out “what if” questions, which help imagine solutions (Berger, p. 93).

1. What if we as educators allow students to generate their own learning goals?
2. What if students could access advanced technologies to progress through the curriculum?
3. What if classroom environments focused on student reflection and feedback?

We then created a survey and sent it to our PLN (personal learning network) to gather and analyze data to help drive us towards a solution to our wicked problem. Our survey sample was 12 K-12 classroom teachers. We created our survey to help understand how our solution might be perceived by and impact others. The responses we received helped us understand there is not one specific solution or technology tool that can help us solve our wicked problem. There are a variety of different solutions!

Stay tuned… and check out next weeks blog post to see how our questions, survey, and research come together to help us generate solutions to our wicked problem of Personalized Learning in 21st-Century education.

 

References

Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

Image retrevied from:  https://www.google.com/searchonlaized+leanring&oq=personlaized+leanring&gs

Wicked Problem Infographic

Why is Personalized Learning a wicked problem in 21st-Century education?

The week in CEP 812 we were asked to create an Infographic which presents the complexity of our Wicked Problem. After analyzing Personalized Learning from the perspectives of several different Stakeholders: a Parent, Administrator, Innovative Educator, and Homeschool Parent. I have gained a more in-depth understanding of the complexities of Personalized Learning.

This week my partner and I had a lengthy discussion, in which we prioritized four questions to guide our research-based off the perspective of a specific Stakeholder.

1. Parent: Why does my student say their bored?
2. Administrator: Why doesn’t your standardized test scores align with your classroom assessment data?
3. Innovative Educator: Why don’t students have the opportunity to use a variety of technology tools?
4. Homeschool parent: Why arent Public Schools utilizing Personalized Learning?

* How could technology infrastructure make personalized learning more effective and efficient for all Stakeholders?

Additionally, this week’s readings IDEO  & Standford d.school directly correlated by expressing the importance of breaking down problems into smaller pieces in order to fully understand the problem at hand. Design thinking allows us to tackle some of our biggest challenges.

Design Thinking for Educators is…
“A creative process that helps you design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community. The toolkit provides you with instructions to explore Design Thinking (IDEO).”

References:

Design Thinking for Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2018, from https://www.ideo.com/post/design-thinking-for-educators

My Info Diet… is it healthy?

This week in CEP 812, I learned about Info Diets — the information we consume and share. James Paul Gee (2013) states in his book The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning, that everything we view is customizable (p.117-118). J.P. Gee explains that we tend to join groups that spark our interest and avoid ones in which we don’t find any interest.

I have always been curious as to why my Facebook and Instagram feed contains items in which I have expressed interest in. Eli Pariser discusses in his TED Talk Beware Online “Filter Bubbles” (2011) he explained why this happens….. Facebook and Google have algorithms that are designed to customize what is displayed on your feed based on items and links you have clicked on. One result of the customized feeds is it provides us with very little diversity amongst the items we view on the internet and Social Media. Eli Pariser also makes a point “The Internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see.” These algorithms are controlling what we see, causing us to lose out on information that may be useful, challenge, and uncomfortable.

In college, I had set up a Twitter account but never found it useful or interesting. After enrolling in my first CEP course at Michigan State, I was required to use Twitter, start following my fellow classmates, professors, and even tweet out links to certain assignments using a variety of hashtags. It was challenging at first to navigate and understand the purpose of Twitter and hashtags. I was a little apprehensive and uncomfortable with the thought of publicly sharing my Master’s coursework. This week I took the initiative to explore and follow 10 new Twitter accounts: @PLTWorg Project Lead the Way is a program that I have utilized with my Academically Gifted students for the past two years. This week they tweeted out a video of a 5th-grade student becoming a designer and creator. It was amazing to see students of all ages engaging in PLTW. Project Lead The Way provides transformative learning experiences for PreK-12 students and teachers across the U.S. We create an engaging, hands-on classroom environment and empower students to develop in-demand knowledge and skills they need to thrive. We also provide teachers with the training, resources, and support they need to engage students in real-world learning.

Achieve 3000 is a program my students access weekly. It is an online program that provides differentiated instruction with a goal of improving reading comprehension based off students Lexile scores. I started following @Achieve3000, this week they tweeted out a professional development ED webinar opportunity called Developing Assessment-Capable learners. I also explored and started following several other accounts to add some diversity to my info diet: @MEAonline, @BetsyDeVosED, @math4sci, @EducationWeek, @icetner4edu, @PTECHNETWORK ‏, @LAUSD_LMS, @DiscoveryEd.

Media Scholar Henry Jenkins stated in his video Participatory Culture and Civic Engagement, that we are learning from each other, and skills are being passed from some who knows a little more to someone who knows a little less. We share to learn from one another. Before my Master’s courses, I only ever learned from others, and never shared my work with others for them to learn from. We need to be contributors of new media literacies, not just the learners.

Let’s Learn, Explore, Create, SHARE!

References

Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

DMLResearchHub. (2011, August 04). Media Scholar Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture and Civic Engagement [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZ4ph3dSmY&feature=youtu.be

TED. (2011). Beware online “filter bubbles” | Eli Pariser [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=419&v=B8ofWFx525s

Why we stop Questioning?

This week in CEP 812 we were asked to respond to Chapter 2 “Why we stop questioning?” in A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. The topic discussed in Chapter two I found to be most intriguing is why we stop questioning after preschool. This particularly caught my attention because I’m a mom of an 18-month-old boy. He has not reached the questioning phase, YET!

Warren Berger states between the ages of two and five a kid will ask an average of 40,000 questions. Kids are constantly connecting stimuli or thoughts. And as they’re making these mental connections, they’re seeking more information and clarification by way of questions (Berger, 2016, p.41). Children are constantly encountering things they cannot classify or label. So part of what they are doing when questioning is asking adults to help them with the job of categorizing what they experience around them, labeling it, and putting it into the filing cabinets of their brains (p.41). As this happens rapid brain growth is occurring.

Kids brains have a quadrillion connections that or more than three times the number in an adult brain. “Between the ages of 4 and 5, children are ideally suited for questioning: They have gained the language skills to ask, their brains are still expansive, highly connective mode, and they are seeing things without labels or assumptions” (p.42). Kids are explorers. Pre-school age kids are more likely to ask questions because their environment is often relaxed and unstructured providing more time for free play and exploration. By the time kids reach school-age academic rigor has been put into play, which is when questioning by kids really begins to disappear. As educators, we can address this problem by doing a better job of teaching creativity to children (p. 44).

I’m looking forward to entering the questioning phase more now with my son then prior to reading. I now know how critical this time is for his brain development and a way for him to make connections to the world around him. Although this time can be frustrating as a parent, I want my son to grow up and continue to ask questions and make connections. Allowing him to thrive as a life-long learner, problem solver, creator, and inventor. I want him to explore the world around him by experimenting and continue to exhibit signs of creativity and curiosity. For e.g. a couple of months ago I watched my son pick up two medium size rocks from our front yard. He stood and looked at them one at a time. He then lightly hit them together, after he heard a little sound he hit them together again this time a little harder. Although he didn’t verbally turn his question into a “what if” the curiosity was churning in his brain, “What if I hit them together harder will it make a louder sound?”. It was amazing to see him explore and experiment with something as small as two rocks. The curiosity of little kids is truly something remarkable if you take the time to observe their behaviors, even though they may not be verbally asking questions.

As an elementary educator, I want to promote questioning by continuously providing my student’s opportunities to ask questions and receive answers. It will allow my students to be engaged and interested in learning. We as teachers are often under pressure to follow mandated guidelines which can cause us to be less receptive to students’ ideas and inquiries, but I believe it is an important aspect to engaged successful learning. I want to be an educator that supports innovative thinkers and/or questioners. I feel as though we are doing a disservice to our students by teaching the pure memorization of basic knowledge and facts. We need to be the change and acquire a teaching approach that creates and produces students who are life-long learners, better adapters to change, by enabling them to be more BEAUTIFUL questioners (p.49).

BE THE CHANGE!

References

Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

Image Retrived from: https://svgsilh.com/image/1829459.html

Defining Problems of Practice

This week in CEP 812 we were asked to identify an ill-structured problem of practice (ones that students face routinely in everyday life). We had to critically analyze the affordances of a web-based tool or app we reviewed through the lens of a particular learning need that we choose to investigate.

I researched and found a technology tool that will aid students who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder also known as ADHA. According to Mental Health Disorders in Adolescents: A Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Professionals ADHD affects 5 to 8 percent of children and adolescents and it is believed to be the most common mental health disorder diagnosed in childhood. Symptoms of ADHD are:

• Difficulty maintaining attention during school work or other activities
• Being Easily Distracted
• Careless mistakes or lack of attention to detail in school work
• The appearance of not listening, even when being address directly
• Difficulty following directions
• Frequently failing to finish school assignments
• Difficulties with organization
• Complaints of feeling bored
• Avoidance or dislike tasks that require sustained attention
• Forgetfulness, e.g., not remembering to turn in completed homework assignments or to bring home materials and books to complete an assignment
• A tendency to lose things
• Excessive talking or activity
• Frequent fidgeting or getting out of one’s seat when required to sit still in the classroom
• Often feeling restless
• Having trouble quietly engaging in an activity on one’s own
• Difficulty waiting for one’s turn
• Impulsive blurting or making comments
• Interrupting

Goldstein, M., Hazen, E., & Goldstein, M. (2011 p.156)

After taking a closer look at the list above, I choose to focus on forgetfulness, e.g., not remembering to turn in completed homework assignments or bring home materials or book needed to complete an assignment and organization. I explored a new technology tool called Google Keep, is especially suited to address several of the symptoms listed above. Organizational skills are key to all students academic success, students have to be able to turn in assignments on time, be prepared with their materials, and keep track of due dates.

Google Keep is a user-friendly technology tool and app for all upper elementary students it allows students to add to-dos, homework, calendar events, reminders, projects lists, and notes. With this tool, you can quickly add and delete notes and reminders. It also provides students with a fun technological way to stay organized and provides a space to keep everything. This tool can be helpful to students by granting them quick access to their Google Keep Account before, after, or during school, while also having access to it at home. Parents can also access the account to type up quick reminders for their child. For example, a parent or guardian could type: “Reminder: Turn in your field trip money to your teacher” and when the student accesses their account upon arrival to their classroom they can log in and view the reminder. Google Keep can also be utilized by a teacher to send a quick note home. Prior to digital technology notes used to get lost during the end of the day pack up and dismissal, or left in the students’ mailboxes.

Google Keep is a 21st Century tool that gets rid of those displeasing sticky notes, paper planners, and long paper list to do’s. It is a fast and user-friendly way to stay organized and be as efficient as possible, especially for students who may become easily frustrated. The organization skill provides more time for learning!

Google Keep offers several features that are helpful to the user. There is a reminder button which allows you to set a date and a time for a reminder notification. You are able to easily move notes in any way you choose e.g. order of importance. Notes can have pictures/images, color, checkboxes, you can also copy it to your Google Docs. Google keep can also be SHARED! Google Keep can be accessed from a computer or a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet. As teachers, we can implement Google Keep to improve organizational skills. Educational advocates can work with the parents to develop an appropriate plan to help meet a child’s academic needs. (Goldstein, M., Hazen, E., & Goldstein, M. 2011 p.163) Our job as educators is to help all of our students thrive academically!

Below you will find a screencast demonstrating how this tool can be used. If the embedded video does not work, copy and paste the link below. https://youtu.be/Q9f1TDY1Yzc

Reference

Goldstein, M., Hazen, E., & Goldstein, M. (2011). Mental Health Disorders in Adolescents: A Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Professionals. New Brunswick, USA: Rutgers University Press.

(n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2018, from https://keep.google.com/

CEP 811 Final Reflection

As CEP 811 wraps-up I have taken time to reflect on my own personal learning as well as my classroom instruction over the course of the past 7 weeks. From how our classroom design influences our student’s learning experiences, to the importance of implementing Maker Education inspired lessons, research, and philosophies.

It’s time that we make changes in education that increase our students success and problem-solving skills. We can provide students with the skills necessary to be problem solvers, inventors, creators, and collaborative team members. “Learning through making reaches across the divide of formal and informal learning, pushes us to think more extensively about where and how learning happens” (Halverson, E.R & Sheridan, K. 2014 p.498).

The Maker Movement will allow us to focus on our students’ interest, encourage discovery through exploration, spark creativity, and build community. As makers, we will build a community, and turn our students into young makers.

References

Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465.

Assessment Reflection

This week in CEP 811, we were asked as educators charged with the assessment of student learning, I would assess creative problem solving during maker inspired lessons in the following ways. The following ways are how I plan on assessing students that pairs with 21st Century learning and problem-solving. 

Grant Wiggins stated in his article On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should “The more we focus on impact – did you achieve the goal of such a performance? – instead of such abstract things as “focus” and “organization” or such indicators such as “eye contact” in speaking (which should not be criteria that are mandatory but indicators of the more general and appropriate criterion of “engaging the audience”), the more students can practice, get feedback, and self-assess and self-adjust on their own. Which is surely far more important than being totally dependent upon teacher feedback that is squeamish” (Wiggins, G. 2012). As teachers, we need to create the ongoing assessment. Assessment should not be just a “test” at the end of a lesson or unit.

Constant feedback sparks students innovation which leads to learning, creativity, and problem solving, and by providing immediate feedback students can learn from their mistakes and go back and try again. Not only do we need to coach our students, we need to learn alongside them. I experienced this when trying to code, and use my Makey Makey. It took several attempts and hours of watching video tutorials to learn how to make my Makey Makey interactive for my students.

Eric Isselhardt discusses in his case study Creating Schoolwide PBL Aligned to Common Core,“Rather than acting as directive teachers, our faculty members were more like coaches in a student-led inquiry environment. Rather than relying on books and worksheets, our faculty-led students through a less certain learning path. Rather than perceiving critical thinking as a “result” (of directive teaching), we saw it as essentially an immersion mode in which exploration informs and develops students’ thinking processes” (Isslehardt, E. 2013). In order to create lessons and ongoing assessment, we need to engage our students in inquiry-based learning, where they are problem-solving, creating, and collaborating with one another. Digital tools provide us with opportunities to collaborate and involve copious feedback. When I return to the classroom I plan on implementing continuous feedback for my students, to allow them to continue to learn and grow from their mistakes and turn them into substantial growth opportunities.

One of the most important aspects of learning is learning how to self-assess, reflect, and identify achievable goals and work towards higher achievement. We are harder on ourselves then anyone else is on us. I believe it is important for students to take ownership of their learning by constantly self-assessing, and setting their own achievable learning goals. This allows students to set standards for themselves and work towards their individual goals.

James Paul Gee discusses in his video On Grading with Games the importance of high expectations as well as learning along with your students regarding 21st Century technologies. As educators, we need to create environments that are not like traditional school. Innovation and creativity are key (Gee 2008). High expectations allow students to master new learning. High expectations result in the unlimited potential of each student that fosters high student performance. The importance of holding high expectations for students allows for progress and success in their cognitive, intellectual, social/emotional, moral/character, physical and sensory achievements.

Through maker inspired lesson plans my goal is to provide students with immediate feedback while also keeping in mind the importance of personalized learning. Teaching is not a one size fits all approach, we need to continue to move towards the maker movement, as well as philosophies and research behind 21st-century learning including collaborative problem solving, innovation, and technology integration.

References

Gee, Paul James (2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=JU3pwCD-ey0

Image retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos

Isslehardt, E. (2013, February 11). Creating Schoolwide PBL Aligned to Common Core [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/PBL-aligned-to-common-core-eric-isslehardt

Wiggins, G. (2012, February 3). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/on-assessing-for-creativity-yes-you-can-and-yes-you-should/

Maker Education Infographic Design

This week in CEP 811, we were asked to create a Maker Education Infographic Design to communicate what we have learned about Makers Education. I created my infographic to demonstrate the pros of implementing Makers Education as well as the benefits over that of traditional education. I used the ideas presented by Richard Culatta TEDx Talk: Reimagining Learning as well as Dr. Koehler and Dr. Mishra TPACK Framework to focus my ideas. Throughout this course, I have reflected on my teaching and have developed ways in which I can improve my classroom instruction and overall in my job as a professional educator and be apart of this Makers Movement.

Maker Education has many benefits, it provides students with opportunities to collaborate with their peers, be innovative, creative, inventive, problem solvers, researchers and much more.  “Learning through making reaches across the divide of formal and informal learning, pushes us to think more extensively about where and how learning happens” (Halverson, E.R & Sheridan, K. 2014 p.498). “But perhaps the greatest challenge to embracing the maker movement in K-12 schools, especially in our current accountability environment is the need to standardize, to define ‘what works’ for learning through making” (Halverson E.R & Sheridan K. 2014, p. 500). The Maker Movement will allow us to focus on our students’ interest, encourage discovery through exploration, spark creativity, and build community.