Every two weeks, the students have the opportunity to explore a Junior Scholastic magazine. Often, on the first day it is presented, we choose one article to focus on. In this issue, there was an article on the economic promise of multiple African countries. This aligned perfectly with the culmination of the students' global journey research projects on a chosen African country.
After reading the article together, answering some questions, and discussing different parts, I asked the students to form five small groups. Their task within their group, was to create a word splat (brainstormed list of words) that related to the article as a google doc. This could include words from the actual article, reactions to the article, feelings around aspects of the article, etc. I explained tagxedo (unfortunately I wasn't able to show them/create it right there because of incompatible software for the iPad and school computers) and what these words that they were brainstorming would be used to create. I had them share their google docs with me and that evening I created the tagxedo shown!
I projected the image the next day during their time to work on their global journey projects and they all loved it! I will definitely use this tool again! I found it to be a fun and effective way to get students to think about a certain topic and what words are important. It presents the student produced information in an extremely interesting and visual way. Now if I could only get it to work at school for the students to do themselves...
WOW! I cannot believe this is truly the mid-point in our semester! How fast the time does go when it seems that every minute, of every day is filled! When considering the development of my personal learning network thus far I think I am on the right track, although definitely not exceeding expectations. I have never been an online resident, more of a visitor (to quote the ideas of Dr. White and his continuum of internet users). Unfortunately, I do not find myself naturally using all of the resources connecting individuals and spreading ideas as a resident. For example, when I find something really interesting, I am much more inclined to share it with the person sitting next to me than immediately thinking to tweet it or write a blog post about it... this is something I am still working towards.
Although I have adopted blogging as a way to communicate my thoughts and ideas within my PLN, I do not find myself really enjoying it. As a child, and to this day, I don't really enjoy keeping a journal or diary. To me, blogging is very similar. However, I do understand the importance and necessity of writing about my thoughts and ideas as I cultivate a PLN. Because I don't necessarily enjoy blogging, or automatically find myself gravitating towards doing it, I do believe it is something I need to work on. Thought of the moment: Maybe by creating more of a visual blog I would enjoy it more. At this point we have been provided with SO MANY incredible tools to exhibit ideas: dropcanvas, storify, edcanvas, etc. (Thank you Professor Heil!) Maybe if I tried out some of these as a way of blogging I would find it more enjoyable? I'll have to try it! (any suggestions?) Within that same context, I do enjoy reading the blogs of my classmates and others. I love hearing about the new ideas people have and reading about their passions and reflections; especially those of my classmates. As I'm writing this I'm realizing how unfair it is to only enjoy others while not enjoying contributing my own. I think this returns to the idea of online residents and visitors and I am still closer to the visitor end of the continuum. I think I am doing a fair job of commenting and collaborating with others and the development of their PLN's, however, I do also see room for improvement.
Tweeting is something I need to work on. I have attempted to tweet things that are of interest to me and also have tried to tweet things that I think will be of interest to others. But I'm not sure if I'm really doing it right. It seems like tweeting has it's own language and it's own rules and I'm not sure if I am completely up to speed on full twitter etiquette. When do you retweet something vs replying to a tweet vs favoriting a tweet? How do you say thank you to someone for tweeting something to you? When retweeting something, is it bad to remove the @____? I am still working to develop my tweeting skills but do believe that it is something that I will learn by doing. (...any suggestions are also welcome)
I have really adopted the use of Learnist, which seems to fit my learning style of visually exciting as well as providing useful information. I have created multiple boards and recently connected one of them to my blog (thanks for the idea Bernice!) :)... and even wrote some code to make it look extra cool (thanks Professor Heil!) I plan to continue using Learnist as my way to organize a "library" of information. This platform is serving and will continue to serve as a place to read, archive, and grow my PLN.
Plan for the Future: - Continue to use Learnist as my major platform to organize and archive information. - Use other tools (edcanvas, .....) to attempt to make blogging more enjoyable - and in turn, increase my blogging habits. - Continue to comment on my peers blogs with room for improvement about being more active. - Use twitter more to get more comfortable (tweet at least 10 times/week) - Explore more! Cultivating an exceptional PLN requires exploration - this is something I love to do in the world, hopefully I can translate this into the online world. This will also automatically lend itself to cultivating a PLN with more depth and diversity. - Don't get overwhelmed by ALL that is out there! (continuously need to give myself this reminder)
I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the class my cooperating teacher is teaching at USD. The class is Children's Literature and I was able to attend the session that focused on Character Education. Along with a multitude of incredible ideas to incorporate character education into a classroom, she also provided a piece of insight that really stuck out to me: character education should not be thought of as a subject, but rather a way of running a classroom. Just as we do not turn on and off who we are as compassionate, thoughtful, empathetic people throughout the day (although there may be times when these characteristics may be more or less apparent) it should be the same in our classroom. By fostering an environment of character education throughout the school day, integrating it into all subject areas and designing the "feel" of the room around ultimate respect and caring for others, we will be more successful at giving our students the opportunity to flourish as they continuously grow. Rather than thinking about character education as a subject that is taught at a certain time, in a certain way, the view needs to be shifted to thinking about how we can cultivate and model empathy, compassion, and kindness (to name a few).
Here are some incredible ideas on how this can be done from my cooperating teacher:
1. The first and foremost rule of the classroom that is always being thought about:
TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
2. Provide students with numerous examples of caring and people who make a difference. Hopefully, one or more of these people/actions will speak to one or multiple students and inspire them to get involved.
Ryan's Well Foundation
Spirit Bear Youth Coalition
UNICEF
World Children's Prize
3. Highlight important characteristics through inspirational quotes each day of the first couple weeks of school.
4. Picture Books (with kids as the main characters) The Teddy Bear One Smile (This benefits the Pay it Forward Foundation) Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed (related to math/counting) Boxes for Katje Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco (Patricia Polacco has written many stories, often based on true stories like this one, that have a very powerful meaning)
5. Think about a year long program that you might want to start within the classroom. For example, in this classroom, we do random acts of kindness. Each week the students write the random acts of kindness they performed that week on strips of paper. Each month, the strips are connected as a chain and onto the previous month's chain. The (very long) chain is displayed in the classroom- reminding us to perform random acts of kindness.
This is really cool! I am really enjoying using Learnist as a tool to add to my PLN! I have created a few boards and am really enjoying exploring ALL of the resources available! I am still a little overwhelmed by the inifite amount of prospective information, however, it has made it easier to stick with one tool of exploration. It was also extremely special to be able to participate in the live discussion with Farb. This has made the tool that much more personalized and relevant!
As a very visual person, I love the pictures and the layout of the tool. I am finding very interesting boards that include articles that relate to so many of my interests!
Along with my boards that organize and contain all of the educationally related articles I am interested in, I have also created a board on Raku Pottery. Raku is an exciting method of firing pottery that involves removing red hot pieces from a kiln and placing them into a barrel of combustible materials. I absolutely love the unpredictability that Raku produces! I have also participated in pit firings (as seen in the picture) which are a little more controlled but still produce the same unpredictable results. Since moving to California and starting this program, I have not had time to find or even really think about pottery. Through Learnist I have rekindled (...fire reference) some of this creativity and spirit! I am looking forward to continuing to explore!
Filling the pit at sunset. Seapoint Beach, Kittery, Maine.
Let it burn!
Retrieving the pieces from the pit the following morning.
