In reading an article this week called, Affinity spaces: How young people live and learn online and out of school that discusses how we learn, teach, and share within our social and cultural settings, or ‘affinity spaces’ I couldn’t help but think about my own experiences with video games and then more recently modern board games. I remember my first experience going to a board game meet up and not having any clue what I was getting into. I was completely blown away by the design of the game and the new people I was meeting. The creativity I had in playing how I wanted and that my choices and the choices of the other players truly mattered was amazing to me, I simply could not wait to try more. I have always loved to learn new things and from new people. During my master’s coursework we have been asked to learn something new as part of an ongoing NLP, or Network Learning Project. To say that I was excited is a bit of an understatement, I had so many different ideas of what I might want to learn but finally landed on hand lettering or calligraphy. In my initial google searches and YouTube video previews I found that there is actually a difference between hand lettering and calligraphy. The website, lettering-daily.com explains that hand lettering is more about drawing the letters out and calligraphy is simply writing. After exploring a few videos that were just basic tips, and looking at a few Instagram posts for inspiration I landed on the fact that I am just going to start writing slowly and repetitively for a few days and see how it goes! References
Gee, J.P. (2018, February 26). Affinity spaces: How young people live and learn online and out of school. Phi Delta Kappan. http://www.kappanonline.org/gee-affinity-spaces-young-people-live-learn-online-school/ Lettering Daily. (2021) The Ultimate Hand Lettering Guide for Beginners. Lettering Daily. https://www.lettering-daily.com/ultimate-hand-lettering-guide/ Misura, M. (2021). Get Started. [Image].
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This week during my graduate course we were asked to think about Professional Learning Networks, or PLN, which is “a network you create to learn from and share ideas with” (Common Sense Education 2017). I was worried about this as I often seclude myself at work and can be a homebody. However, it did get me thinking about one of the biggest changes I made in my classroom: creating ISNs, or Interactive Student Notebooks with my students. The idea behind an ISN is to be creative with notetaking and split pages into teacher led practice then student driven activities. Because this organized my class period better, I had more time for my students to complete hands-on activities and do labs in class to deepen their understanding. No one I knew personally was doing this, so I began searching for resources online. Looking at my finished mind map I feel that I have been productive in TAKING from my social media PLN space, but I would love to figure out how to give back. After reading an article this week about self-initiated professional learning, I think I have experienced this a bit! After feeling less than inspired by some of my Professional Development opportunities in the past I began searching them out online. The teachers I follow on Instagram held their own PD over the summer, I attended a PD titled ‘Math Medic’ which was run by a group of math teachers that worked together in the same district and came up with the idea of ‘Experience First, Formalize Later’ or EFFL. The biggest hole in my map is engaging in meaningful learning within my own school district. Perhaps the next step for me is to set up a PD for or with my colleagues that focuses on the benefits of ISNs in the classroom. References
Common Sense Education. (2017, July 21). What's a PLN? And 3 ways teachers can get connected [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju54C5A3RCw&feature=emb_logo Tour, E. (2017). Teachers' self-initiated professional learning through personal learning networks. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 26(2), 179-192. https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/doi/full/10.1080/1475939X.2016.1196236 I can admit, I have a bit of a ‘junk food’ tv obsession. Chopped in particular, has always been a favorite of mine, the contestants of the show are given mystery ingredients and a short period of time to come up with something delicious. These ingredients often don’t go together, however within a short span of time they come up with something amazing. This week in my graduate course we were asked to do something similar. The video below is my first attempt at a ‘quickfire’ activity which is meant to get us thinking about information in new and different ways. In the title, the acronym TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) is a framework that helps educators to understand how each of these different facets of education work together with each other. As my silly cooking video tries to illustrate, just because you have a tool doesn’t mean it is suited to the task. The TPACK framework along with the graphic below helps us understand the many different barriers that come with introducing technology to the classroom. I often think about how students' cultural and economic backgrounds play into their success or failure in my classroom and after reading Do Artifacts Have Politics? I can’t help but wonder about the additional barriers that can be added when we introduce technology. Oftentimes in my own classroom I refrain from using our TI - 83 calculators because it often requires its own lesson to navigate which with our current curriculum is near impossible, I rather have my students learn how to do the math by hand. The technology of the calculator is a barrier, the lack of access to an expensive tool is a barrier, this all can lead to the success or failure in a classroom setting if not considered beforehand. References Dietrich, Lisa. (2018). Unpack TPACK in Your Classroom. Pressbooks. techandcurriculum.pressbooks.com/chapter/tpack/ Marissa Misura. (2021, September 14). Cooking with TPACK [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/rDMJl70uFQc Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/stable/20024652 Throughout my 10 years of teaching I cannot count how many students have said to me 'well math isn't my thing' or how many parents show up at parent teacher conferences excusing their son or daughters abilities with their own inabilities with math. It always makes me wonder, you wouldn't make the same excuse in your English class. This is definitely an unfair comparison on my part, but I have always had the mindset that you can learn anything if you open your mind to it, give it the time it deserves, and practice. As I began reading for my graduate course this week, How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school by Bransford et al. (2000) I was instantly reminded of a book a colleague and I read together a few years ago. In Bransford et al. the transfer of knowledge is presented as something that is crucial to deep understanding and is achieved through student -led classrooms, among other things mentioned in an essay I wrote. My colleague and I both, individually came across the website youcubed.org by Jo Boaler where she presents ideas about how we learn and teach math. Soon after we saw the release of her book Limitless Mind that discusses brain studies about fixed mindsets versus a growth mindset and its relationship with learning mathematics. The video below, from Jo Boaler’s week of inspirational math is something I show my students the first week of school. As a teacher, knowing that learning math is a challenge for students is important. Understanding that students going through the struggle to get through a problem is key to deep meaning-making in mathematics can be even harder for teachers as we just want our students to succeed. However, through our failures we learn and mistakes are powerful. References Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368. Boaler, J. (2019). Limitless Mind. HarperOne. Cheryl Teolis. (2016, May 15). Day 1 Mindset & Practice [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/3e9a4Hjc9SM The past few months, weeks, and days have been filled with so many things. This past June I began wedding planning (surprisingly difficult for a girl who, although I grew up with two sisters, struggles to find my ‘girly’ side). And though David and I have been together for eight years we didn’t really have a plan for our big day. We chose to have the party at our house as an excuse to save money and get work done on the house (which completely defeated the original purpose), but who knew painting the outside of your house would be such a challenge. That was not enough for us though. We began our graduate program and for someone who hasn’t been in a classroom as a student in 8 years this was absolutely scarier than getting married. The summer winds down, the wedding day goes off without a hitch, and back to school meetings and assignments from MSU start to roll in. Navigating an online learning platform for the first time was scary (I am starting to appreciate my poor students' plight from last year). Specifically “1.9 Explore APA Style and Formatting” had me thinking, what have I gotten myself into. The first week of teaching was exhilarating but exhausting. This is always the time of year when I feel most inspired to try new things and for years I have bounced around the idea of creating compelling and engaging content for students and math learners outside of just my students. I am hoping through the course of my new classes I find the courage and skills to finally make use of technology in my classroom and at home in a meaningful way. Personally, my motto tends to be, why not do everything all at once? |
AuthorMarissa McGregor, high school math teacher extraordinaire. I love my husband, daughter, and family dearly. Archives
August 2022
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