To describe the aspects of my own teaching I need to retain within my classroom, I must first think about what I need to let go of. With that being said the following blog will discuss two aspects that I feel I need to retain within the classroom, open space and confidence, and two aspects of my teaching that I need to let go of, fear and authority.
When I refer to open space as a an aspect of teaching that I am determinded to keep in my classroom I am refering to a daily allocation of free time for the students to share. I feel that as a science teacher we feel so much pressure to fill the students with information that only a small handful of them will use to pursue a career. School for me is not just a place of lecture, but an environment in which people can share with each other, affording the opportunity for true learning. By allowing students at the secondary level free time to talk about what they saw in the media or on the internet I am not only providing an opportunity for the students to learn from each other, but to introduce each other to new forms of media and literacies that they may be unfamiliar with. From Richardsons article on pg. 129 we are aware that the internet is becoming, ‘the most comprehensive source of information in history. There is no doubt that the ability of our teachers and students to use that knowledge effectively is of the highest importance.” If this holds true and it is that important for teachers and students to have a solid knowledge base regarding the internet than who better to learn from than each other.
I would also like to hold onto not just my confidence that teachers are essential to students understanding. Mackey on pg. 339 touches on the accomplishments of multi-literate youth, “the development of defiance and defensiveness in teenagers and of a negative despair in many adults that may actually prevent them from seeing the real accomplishments of multi-literate young people.” I know that as teachers we should embrace what our multi-literate students are capable of produce without us, through engaging in the internet and mass-media, and praise them for this accomplishment. While doing this I feel that as a teacher I cannot forget that even though they can do so much on their own that I am a vital part of their education to help them understanding these new forms of literacies and texts in which they are creating, interpreting and engaging in.
In addition to the above paragaraph my ability to maintain confidence in the imporatnce of teachers is controlled by the degree to which I can let go of my fear of new technology. Everytime I feel like I have finally got up to speed with the advances in technology something new pops out. I have to realise that part of my job as a teacher today is to keep up with new technology, realize I will not master all of it, but at a minimum be aware of what is out there. The fear of technology can be detrimental to a teacher as it can limit our students learning opportunities. As Richardson says on page 130, “teachers are employing Weblogs and wikis and the like in ways that are transforming the curriculum and allowing learning to continue long after the class ends.”
Last, but not least I need to let go of the need to be the sole authority in my classroom. I tend to forget that students are the best teachers when I am standing at the front of the classroom. With the world wide web students also have millions of other teachers out there who they can also learn from. Richardson says on pg. 132, “As our access to content increases, so does our access to other teachers.” This is a revolutionary time for students to have access to some many variety of teachers through various mediums. I need to let go of my fear of losing my authority and embrace all the opportunities my students have in front of them and remain confident in the importance I hold as part of their educational journey.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Focal Blog Prompt #2
Traditionally, the science class room limits its core texts to a large over priced text book and boring posters or labelled diagrams hung on the walls. This teaching approach limits the students’ ability to engage in the text and in turn the teachers’ ability to engage the students. Posters and labelled diagrams although they can help build students understand of an abstract concept they are usually underutilized and overlooked by the digital youth of today. The traditional science textbook tends to provide the most barriers to student learning because for many they seem unapproachable. Science texts are overwhelming for most students as they tend to not simplify information, but only make it seem extremely complex.
A great alternative text for a science class is online news sources such as the BBC or Al Jazeera . They provide students with an alternative to the regular dull text book by allowing them to engage with information through a computer. In addition, online news sources often have links to past stories on the same topic or other similar topics, which help to bridge students understanding and provide direction for further learning. It is also an alternative form to the traditional print newspaper because you can’t just pick it up and be directly engaged, you must connect yourself to the internet and at a minimum pass through a homepage that could also draw your attention or provide a link to a similar news story provided by a different source. Online newspapers have the potential to be multimodal tools for learning as long as the students engage in more than just the print. The day a print newspaper is printed it is outdated by the next day, but online sources as long as they are constantly updated can keep students up to date by the minute as to what is happening. As the article we were given from the Calgary Herald put it, “newspapers are ‘living text books’.
To use online newspapers in my class to bridge my students learning I would have them compare what they have learnt from two different news sources on the same scientific story. After comparing the two articles they would then need use and develop their critical thinking strategies to create their own article of what they believe the truth to be. We know from our reading by Callahan that critical analysis and critical viewing involve an understanding of the political agendas, biases, stereotypes and hidden messages that are hidden in texts. What better text than a biased newspaper to afford the students the opportunity to develop their critical analysis skills. My teaching philosophy revolves around a sound development of critical thinking skills while having students engage not only in reading texts, but in creating them and connecting the students directly to the texts they are engaged in. Miller said that,” DV composing creates another school connection to the media rich sphere of youth culture.” I agree fully, but it goes beyond DV creating. That is why I feel that having students engage with online newspapers and letting them have a go at creating their own, provides the students the opportunity to have their hand in their media rich culture while developing their critical thinking skills.
A great alternative text for a science class is online news sources such as the BBC or Al Jazeera . They provide students with an alternative to the regular dull text book by allowing them to engage with information through a computer. In addition, online news sources often have links to past stories on the same topic or other similar topics, which help to bridge students understanding and provide direction for further learning. It is also an alternative form to the traditional print newspaper because you can’t just pick it up and be directly engaged, you must connect yourself to the internet and at a minimum pass through a homepage that could also draw your attention or provide a link to a similar news story provided by a different source. Online newspapers have the potential to be multimodal tools for learning as long as the students engage in more than just the print. The day a print newspaper is printed it is outdated by the next day, but online sources as long as they are constantly updated can keep students up to date by the minute as to what is happening. As the article we were given from the Calgary Herald put it, “newspapers are ‘living text books’.
To use online newspapers in my class to bridge my students learning I would have them compare what they have learnt from two different news sources on the same scientific story. After comparing the two articles they would then need use and develop their critical thinking strategies to create their own article of what they believe the truth to be. We know from our reading by Callahan that critical analysis and critical viewing involve an understanding of the political agendas, biases, stereotypes and hidden messages that are hidden in texts. What better text than a biased newspaper to afford the students the opportunity to develop their critical analysis skills. My teaching philosophy revolves around a sound development of critical thinking skills while having students engage not only in reading texts, but in creating them and connecting the students directly to the texts they are engaged in. Miller said that,” DV composing creates another school connection to the media rich sphere of youth culture.” I agree fully, but it goes beyond DV creating. That is why I feel that having students engage with online newspapers and letting them have a go at creating their own, provides the students the opportunity to have their hand in their media rich culture while developing their critical thinking skills.
Focal Blog Prompt #1
What are alternative texts and what do I privilege in my daily interactions with core and alternative texts?
When we think of texts we think of words, books, numbers, even logos, but what are we missing? Claudia Wallis puts it best in The Multitasking Generation article, “Thousands of years of evolution created human physical communication – facial expressions, body language....” In addition, Margaret Mackey defined a contemporary literate experience as an ‘interpretation of recorded symbolic representation.’ Are facial expression and body language not interpretations and additions to speech? Are words and text in its simplest form not symbolic representations of speech? If this is true, which I propose is true, the most primitive core text is speech, the alphabet that represents speech and the words that we create from those representations.
If the core texts are speech and the written word then what is an alternative text? When I think of the word alternative I think of a choice, an alternative, as simple as do or don’t, yes or no. Therefore the alternative to speech is silence; the alternative to the written word is a blank page. I cannot define an alternative text as simply something different from a core text, but as a supplement and/or an alternative presentation to our core texts, speech and the written word.
In my daily interactions I interact with the core text of speech continually as do I with the written word in the forms of talking, reading and writing. I also lift words off paper and send them to friends by means of text messages or instant messaging. I read newspapers containing the core text of words, but I do so online reading international newspapers in Swahili, not by holding the print in my hands. When I hear the phone ring I answer using the core text of speech in an alternative digital form that does not allow me to interpret facial expressions and body language that accompany traditional speech. I also deal with alternative texts such as blogs, websites, etc., that frustrate me. As Margaret MacKey said, “what is our attitude to a textual world where many of us now feel incompetent....” Is it not outstanding how we as a species have the power to take core texts and deliver them in such an alternative manner that we no longer have the ability to interpret and recognize our ‘recorded symbolic representations’ of speech and word?
What forms of text types and teaching approaches did I observe during my practicum?
I obviously observed speech and the written word in my practicum, but I observed the power of speech. How a teacher delivered their lecture, whether it was with conviction or not, defined how the students engaged with the teacher. If a teacher spoke in dull language, a blank face and little body language the students were disengaged. Yet, when a teacher walked in the room and their body language and facial expressions showed their passions for their subject and their voice drew in the students it created an environment where the students were engaged and listening attentively. No matter what forms of an alternative text a teacher, including myself, used the most powerful was speech.
Alternative forms of text and speech that I used and observed were power points, videos, mind maps and activities that engaged the students with their core text books. For example, by having my students read their core text and then find three internet articles that supported what their text book was saying it involved the students with an alternative form of the written word and taught them to critically think about what their text was saying. In scienc,e an entertaining video is an invaluable tool for linking the core text of speech and word with pictures and diagrams simultaneously that help students reach a deeper level of understanding.
How can MacKey’s ‘asset model’ be applied in science (biology) and how can this approach help all learners to become literate in science?
If an asset model offers different areas that a student must be literate in or are assets for the students to become literate in then every one of MacKey’s categories would directly apply to science. If my students hope to pursue a career in science they will need to understand electronic images as our images of cells, etc., are advancing rapidly. In addition, my students need to also understanding how these images are created and more importantly how they are altered. Electronic text, wireless text, audio, video and online texts are already how scientists across the globe share information with each other. My students must have a solid understanding of the various alternative forms of text to fully grasp scientific concepts.
In regards to the above, although my science students could benefit from this type of asset model, they must not be limited to the alternative texts listed above. I not only mean that they must be literate in new forms of emerging alternative texts, but they must also be literate in traditional text on paper. Scientific literature in its purest form is how science got to where it is today. Months of passing literature and scientific reviews has passed down the foundation of our current scientific knowledge. I am not sure where science is headed, but students must be able to interpret the basic science behind all future discoveries and these basics are stored in dusty books in the form of text on paper.
When we think of texts we think of words, books, numbers, even logos, but what are we missing? Claudia Wallis puts it best in The Multitasking Generation article, “Thousands of years of evolution created human physical communication – facial expressions, body language....” In addition, Margaret Mackey defined a contemporary literate experience as an ‘interpretation of recorded symbolic representation.’ Are facial expression and body language not interpretations and additions to speech? Are words and text in its simplest form not symbolic representations of speech? If this is true, which I propose is true, the most primitive core text is speech, the alphabet that represents speech and the words that we create from those representations.
If the core texts are speech and the written word then what is an alternative text? When I think of the word alternative I think of a choice, an alternative, as simple as do or don’t, yes or no. Therefore the alternative to speech is silence; the alternative to the written word is a blank page. I cannot define an alternative text as simply something different from a core text, but as a supplement and/or an alternative presentation to our core texts, speech and the written word.
In my daily interactions I interact with the core text of speech continually as do I with the written word in the forms of talking, reading and writing. I also lift words off paper and send them to friends by means of text messages or instant messaging. I read newspapers containing the core text of words, but I do so online reading international newspapers in Swahili, not by holding the print in my hands. When I hear the phone ring I answer using the core text of speech in an alternative digital form that does not allow me to interpret facial expressions and body language that accompany traditional speech. I also deal with alternative texts such as blogs, websites, etc., that frustrate me. As Margaret MacKey said, “what is our attitude to a textual world where many of us now feel incompetent....” Is it not outstanding how we as a species have the power to take core texts and deliver them in such an alternative manner that we no longer have the ability to interpret and recognize our ‘recorded symbolic representations’ of speech and word?
What forms of text types and teaching approaches did I observe during my practicum?
I obviously observed speech and the written word in my practicum, but I observed the power of speech. How a teacher delivered their lecture, whether it was with conviction or not, defined how the students engaged with the teacher. If a teacher spoke in dull language, a blank face and little body language the students were disengaged. Yet, when a teacher walked in the room and their body language and facial expressions showed their passions for their subject and their voice drew in the students it created an environment where the students were engaged and listening attentively. No matter what forms of an alternative text a teacher, including myself, used the most powerful was speech.
Alternative forms of text and speech that I used and observed were power points, videos, mind maps and activities that engaged the students with their core text books. For example, by having my students read their core text and then find three internet articles that supported what their text book was saying it involved the students with an alternative form of the written word and taught them to critically think about what their text was saying. In scienc,e an entertaining video is an invaluable tool for linking the core text of speech and word with pictures and diagrams simultaneously that help students reach a deeper level of understanding.
How can MacKey’s ‘asset model’ be applied in science (biology) and how can this approach help all learners to become literate in science?
If an asset model offers different areas that a student must be literate in or are assets for the students to become literate in then every one of MacKey’s categories would directly apply to science. If my students hope to pursue a career in science they will need to understand electronic images as our images of cells, etc., are advancing rapidly. In addition, my students need to also understanding how these images are created and more importantly how they are altered. Electronic text, wireless text, audio, video and online texts are already how scientists across the globe share information with each other. My students must have a solid understanding of the various alternative forms of text to fully grasp scientific concepts.
In regards to the above, although my science students could benefit from this type of asset model, they must not be limited to the alternative texts listed above. I not only mean that they must be literate in new forms of emerging alternative texts, but they must also be literate in traditional text on paper. Scientific literature in its purest form is how science got to where it is today. Months of passing literature and scientific reviews has passed down the foundation of our current scientific knowledge. I am not sure where science is headed, but students must be able to interpret the basic science behind all future discoveries and these basics are stored in dusty books in the form of text on paper.
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