The end of the first marking period approaches and students and teachers are still reeling from the transition back to five full days a week compared to last year's hybrid/virtual learning. I can’t help but feel just as overwhelmed now as I did my first year of teaching. Last year, material needed to be cut, we just couldn’t cover it all. This year I am finding it harder than ever to go back to teaching every little topic in Algebra 1. I have always struggled to fit all the topics in the year that I am meant to teach and it hurts to move on from a topic I know my students don’t fully understand. The biggest challenge in math is content: when and how much of it needs to be covered. And I also wonder, when will we finally give up the ‘inch deep, mile wide’ approach to education? Another problem I have struggled with since being hired into my current district is how to collaborate effectively with my colleagues. The math teachers all have differing opinions on what is best for students regarding math education. Even though my school has monthly Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) where we are meant to collaborate in our department to come up with new activities, labs, projects, etc. we instead focus on updating our common assessments. Isn't the best use of our time to improve the material we are presenting to our students? Will my department ever be able to find common ground and work to create something unique and innovative for our students? I do have a wide learning network (see below), but how do I make it work better? My biggest hope is that throughout my graduate courses I will begin to find some of the answers to these questions.
References Misura, M. (2021, September 24). Marissa's Professional Learning Network [Image]. Popplet. app.popplet.com/#/p/6753802
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We as educators have been talking about and trying to bring in the 21st century skills we know are crucial to our students' success outside of the classroom for years. Knowing these things are important to my students' success I didn’t fully embrace or understand them for my own learning process during my graduate courses Networked Learning Project. Four weeks ago we were asked to pick something that we had always wanted to learn and using only digital resources document our learning process along the way. At the conclusion of these weeks now, I feel like I didn’t improve my hand lettering skills as much as I would have liked, but I did learn a lot through this process. Watch my journey below. After I sat down at what would be my final attempt at lettering before I ‘turned my project’ in, I realized that my discouragement was of my own making. It occurred to me that if I was to improve, what I needed was that intentional and repetitive practice that Bransford et al. (2000) mentioned. If I want my handwriting to be more interesting naturally and have those skills transfer to my everyday writing I would need to practice more than experts (Bransford et al. 2000). Each resource I encountered stressed the way to improve was practice, practice, practice. Giving our students (and ourselves) time to practice is so important to gain deep understanding. I needed to keep in mind that I won’t be able to just google and be better. This is true about math as well - we all have that calculator in our pocket, but to gain deep number sense comes from doing simple mathematics in interesting ways, understanding basic operations and what they will do with numbers requires practice and patience. This can be extended to all subject areas, bringing those 3 C’s, creativity, collaboration, and communication (Rich 2010) to the classroom, or my digital classroom in this case, cannot be overstated. Had I reached out to my ‘affinity space’s’ I may have found more success (Gee 2018). Encouraging our students to collaborate with one another in the classroom and investigate resources on their own at home can enrich our entire learning environment. Another thing I noticed was that if I had had a guide to take me to the holy grail of hand lettering I may have felt a bit more on the right path and less discouraged throughout my journey. We as educators need to think of ourselves as guides rather than the keepers of knowledge (Garza 2020). If we encourage our students to be the leaders in the classroom then we can better tailor our lessons to fit their needs and guide them through their learning process rather than just tell them the facts. It was interesting to read about kerning (letter spacing) and serif vs script fonts, but without experiencing it for myself I will never really understand these things. Educators also need to keep in mind that not all students come to the table with the same set of tools or the same exposure to resources or technology (Molinari 2011). Teaching students digital literacy is necessary as I learned quickly last year. One of the mistakes I made was linking my students to desmos, a web-based graphing calculator, and not giving them instruction on how to use the tool. Many students grew frustrated with it and dreaded every time we used it, likely because they did not understand how it could benefit them because they didn’t know how to interact with it. My first lesson this year was an exploring desmos activity. As I think of this networked learning method as it relates to improving my teaching I had so many powerful take-aways. As teachers we can guide our students through the unhelpful top 10 guides and lack-of current updates in subreddits and to the content and producers of content that will show them how to be successful. We can show them how and when to use technology to enhance their learning. And ultimately through that we will cultivate a classroom that promotes creativity, collaboration, and communication and will hopefully lead us (finally) into the 21st century. Resources
Misura, M. (2021, October 16). CEP 810 NPL Final [Video]. YouTube. youtu.be/QnKKgv7anLk 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 Rich, E. (2010, October 11). How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-do-you-define-21st-century-learning/2010/10 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/ Molinari, A. (2011, August). Let’s Bridge the Digital Divide! [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/aleph_molinari_let_s_bridge_the_digital_divide Garza, K. (Host). (2020, January 15). Diversity & Equity in 21st Century Learning (No. 4) [Audio podcast episode]. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ucpnm-cfb0a2 We continued to think about what it means to be a 21st century learner in my graduate class this week. Specifically what that looks like in our classroom by coming up with a lesson. Truth be told, I have been finding it hard this year to get back to my normal classroom routine. Pre-Covid-19 my students were situated in groups, I start each lesson with an activity to get them thinking, talking, and problem solving within their groups, then we come together as a class and talk about what we discovered or what questions they still have, take some notes, do more examples, rinse and repeat. A lot of these routines are specifically fostering the 21st century skills we want our students to engage with and develop (communication, creativity, and collaboration), but after last year I felt out of practice and unsure how to dive back in. As I read through Hobbs 5 core competencies provided to us in class, I slowly began to realize each of these instructional methods calls back to my normal routine. Access or “sharing appropriate and relevant information and using media texts and technology tools” (Hobbs 2011) is ALWAYS the question I ask myself before bringing technology to my students. How will this enhance their learning? Or is it an unnecessary barrier that takes away from the content I want them to learn? Making sure I am asking my students open-ended questions or having them engage with their group task to problem solve and analyze what is making sense and what isn't not only builds up their value as a voice in the classroom but guides my instruction further. By pushing students during this time to come up with creative ways to solve a problem, can you draw a picture? Which numbers make sense here? What is too much or too little? After the group task as we debrief their ideas are validated or pushed back on, perhaps they hear something new they hadn't considered. The opportunity to reflect on their thoughts help push them to be more successful later. And finally, they get to act on their new knowledge by trying new problems, or because they have gained confidence this time they will work harder on the next task. Reading these methods helped me remember and regain the confidence to let my students struggle and not hold their hand like I felt I had to last year. The lesson I decided to give a new look to is an initial introduction to graphing in two variables as it relates to a visual story for my Algebra 1 students. First they will interact with a desmos activity that has embedded videos for them to watch and sketch a graphical representation of some story happening over time. It will then show the ‘answer’ overlaid on their sketch, students are given the opportunity to try a few more times after we discuss as a class what they noticed and wondered about the video, the graph and how it relates to mathematics (watch my attempt below). Then they are going to create their own short video that includes two variables, time and some other measurement changing, that they will share with other groups by drawing, by hand, each other's graphical stories. I love bringing creativity to a math classroom. I do, however, worry about timing (will students come up with an idea, record a video, and share in the remaining class time?) I also worry if students will feel safe using their phone or know how to use their Chromebook to do this if not. However, the 21st century skills they can begin to develop through this activity are so important - communication within their small group and the whole group, thinking creatively about what measurement they can record changing over time within our limited classroom space, collaborating with one another and finding each other's strengths and weaknesses - who should record? What are some unique ways to think about how to graph? How can they support each other to come up with an interesting graphical story? The risk of them derailing or running out of time is worth the potential outcome as they work through it and find success. Resources
Hobbs, R. (2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Corwin/Sage. Misura, M. (2021, October 10) Lesson Preview. [Video]. YouTube. youtu.be/yqw9yC3IDYI I am beginning to understand better my own students' struggles with balancing all the work that they have to do for school and on top of that do the things they enjoy! For our graduate course we were asked to learn something new that we have an interest in and use 21st century technology and skills to practice. My pick of hand lettering has been very interesting to read and learn about so far. Looking at examples as I scroll mindlessly on my phone while eating dinner or trying to grade papers is entertaining, but getting in that intentional practice I need as recommended by Bransford et.al has been a challenge with everything else I have going on! That being said I did have some inspiration about a week and a half ago when it started feeling a bit colder and I sat down to have some hot apple cider in a mug with a quote from the tv show, The Office, on it. Watch my short video clip below to see my progress so far! I have learned that spacing, or Kerning is important as well as making sure letters are all angled the same way (my geometry skills are coming in handy here!) The website, lettering-daily.com has been my biggest guide so far and I also followed christiane.schwaenke on Instagram for ideas on how to draw my letters, or the type of font I choose to use for each word. I haven't had enough time to fully explore /r/handlettering as an 'affinity space' to learn from others, but I plan to spend a lot of time there this upcoming week. 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. Lettering Daily. (2021) The Ultimate Hand Lettering Guide for Beginners. Lettering Daily. https://www.lettering-daily.com/ultimate-hand-lettering-guide/ Misura, M. (2021). The Office Mug. [Image]. Misura, M. (2021, October 10). NLP practice 1 [Video]. YouTube. youtu.be/fyOo00o16Gc Misura, M. (2021). First Draft. [Image]. In my exploration this week on learning in the 21st century I was overwhelmed by the amount of conversation being had on these skills. The educational community seems to see the value, necessity, and the urgency with which these skills should be taught to our students yet we are still struggling as educators to fully bring these skills into the classroom 21 years later. We were introduced to the 3 C’s: creativity, communication, and collaboration through the Education Week article, How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? But truly there are so many more skills to consider and I ended up discussing a few of them in the video below. The quote, "be curious rather than certain" by Margaret Wheatley really spoke to me this week, as I am always searching for ways to make learning math interesting for my students. Little did I know, I was bringing some of these 21st century skills into my classroom and sparking the curiosity of my students. Now that I am more aware of them I definitely want to incorporate more, my weak spot definitely being the technology component (thank goodness for my graduate class!) An example of this is that I force my students to NOT use a calculator to build their numeracy skills and perhaps you may argue in the 21st century when I have a calculator in my pocket at all times, is this a skill my students need? I feel pretty strongly that having a strong understanding of numeracy is perhaps the MOST important skill I can impart on my students. When they forget the quadratic formula they will hopefully still remember how to quickly calculate (without reaching in their pocket) a 30% savings while they are shopping at the store. References
Rich, E. (2010, October 11). How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-do-you-define-21st-century-learning/2010/10 Marissa Misura. (2021, October 3). 21st Century Learning [Video]. YouTube. youtu.be/qBbJbJU0K1E |
AuthorMarissa McGregor, high school math teacher extraordinaire. I love my husband, daughter, and family dearly. Archives
August 2022
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