Highlights of Blogging: EDC533

       There are a few main thrusts in my blogging that are highlights. My blogging highlights the ways in which I have more thoughtfully considered the needs of the 21st century learner and how to better meet these needs. I have also considered  the role of technology in student learning and curriculum development.  Throughout my blogging, I used commentary from Hayes Jacobs fairly frequently as her ideas and perspectives assist us in meeting the needs of the 21st century learner.
       In thoughtfully considering the needs of the 21st century learner my blogging helped me to focus on the importance of preparing the student for the increased connection to our global world that technology now offers us. I was happy to report about how my own subject of World Language fits in so critically to prepare our students for the language and cultural awareness necessary to function with increased global connectivity.
      In my blogging, I have thought about the role of technology from a student’s perspective and how this is viewed both positively and negatively. It shed great light for me as a teacher upon what the student believes about technology;  its usage to them for their learning, and socializing, as well as technology as a pervasive component of their reality. This generation has great hopes and great fears about how technology will operate in their lives. In conducting this research, I learned a lot about how I will structure technology usage in my classroom. It will definitely be included, but not without thorough reflection as to how technology functions to enhance learning, on the part of both teacher and student.    
  My blogging also helped me to investigate more fully the role of technology for the future of language learning. With all of new technology and its improvements in translation capabilities, it has directed me to think about what this means for the future of language learning and has brought up many questions. All in all I have enjoyed blogging as a means to more thoughtfully consider my own role the curriculum  development process.

These are my first three baby steps to curriculum change in my classroom: Add the technology.....rubric changes.......assessment changes!

              Having put into practice a little about what Hayes Jacobs talks about in Curriculum 21, especially concerning assessments, I will talk about what I am currently doing,... and what I aspire to be doing in my classroom, in terms of  changing curriculum in my middle level World Language classroom.
             First of all, the changes that I have been making this year in my classroom curriculum are within the areas of assessment, rubric development, and additional technology. I am interested and excited to be creating curriculum that builds global cultural awareness, in repsonse to our technology enhanced  connectivity to the world.  I have done a little in this area, but I am interested in developing more as I feel it is of great importance to this generation's future. Perhaps this will also lead to stronger communication ties with the Spanish speaking world.
             Having done a little work this year with creating new assessments, I can see the wisdom of Jacobs when she counsels us to begin with one thing at a time, and then the rest will fall into place accordingly. Jacobs specifically counsels us that we should actually start with changing our assessments first, as this will lay the foundation for an unfolding of change. Naturally, with the addition of technology into student performance based assessments, both the rubric and the assessment itself has to be augmented. So, there we have it! It became a cyclic operation.....add the technology........rubric must change......assessment changes! At least, that is where I am at right now! I am well  aware of the additional progress that must be made if I am to bring my students into World Language learning in the 21st century, and to sufficiently fill their imaginative and creative learning desires.
           I am happy to report that my online professional development has been the most important experience that I could have received to assist me in making technology changes to my curriculum. I have brought podcasting into the classroom, and am really excited to set up a VoiceThread with some classes as it will allow us to practice our communication skills in Spanish in a really fun way!
             And so it goes.... I will continue to make these changes until all of my curricula has been upgraded to
the 21st century... an exciting journey for the teacher also!

Transition Issues for the Ninth Grader: What Can Both Levels (Middle and HS) Do Better?

  It saddens me to see our middle school student supported so much during the middle years, and then to know full well that these support systems will not be in place for them next year. I joined a mentor program this year, hoping to be of some assistance to kids in need of connecting with previous support systems at the middle level. Transition issues, unfortunately quite vexing indeed! One of the areas that we as teachers feel powerless at times in making a  difference.  So much disconnect between levels from elementary to middle and middle to high, causing so many problems for students which are severely detrimental to a positive,  educational experience. The questions raised are: How do we best confront and deal with these issues? What can we as teachers do to assist our students in experiencing positive transition experience? We may sometimes think that the special education student will experience the most difficulty with transitioning between levels, however upon further investigation we see that the grade level and student most affected by transition issues is the ninth grader. Ninth grade level students are at the highest risk for problems with  transition issues; problems which will result in student drop out and or non promotion to the next year. In Curriculum 21, Hayes Jacobs promotes the many options that we now have due to the flexibility of technology which address these ninth grade transition issues.
   Focusing on the ninth grader and the difficulty that they experience, here are some of their issues: “On average, ninth graders report being less involved in school activities and perceive the need for more school organization. They also indicate lower self -esteem and higher rates of depression than middle school students (Barber &Olsen,2004).”
 Looking at “The First Year of High School: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet.” by Elizabeth Williams and Scott Richman, AIR, at betterhighschools.org,  “Research has shown us that resources and strategies that include the following practices will support and guide smooth transitions into high school: “aligned standards and curriculum, team teaching, catch up course work in the first semester using the double block schedule, student advisories. at risk benchmarks, academic benchmarks, and adolescent literacy initiatives.”
 Here is where technology which transcends issues of time and space in the scheduled curriculum can help.  I know a few school systems that would benefit by putting this research into practice, and utilizing more technology to assist in their transition issues.(I’m sure you do too!)

Moving in the Direction of 21st Century Literacy.

      While reading chapter 11 entitled: Power Down or Power Up? by Alan November in Curriculum 21, by Hayes Jacobs, a few statements called out to me. The first statement that hit me, ...“the real problem is not adding technology to the current organization of the classroom but changing the culture of teaching and learning.” This statement prodded me to think about my experience thus far with          technology in the classroom.  One popular statement comes to mind. "Technology for technology’s sake." We teachers have all heard this a few times,  I’m sure.  Any teacher who has felt pressured into adding more technology into the classroom when she wasn’t ready for it, can identify with that statement. Any teacher who has even used minimal technology in the classroom, can understand some of the problems presented when students are using the Internet.  Finally, any teacher who has been grappling with wanting to add more technology in the classroom, and has then encountered the blockers to that implementation, both technologically and socially, can relate also! A confusing time for teachers. We want to take those necessary steps forward; feeling the initial excitement of all that technology has to offer and wanting to share this with students, only to be thwarted by censorship. So, I am in accordance with November on the need to change the culture of teaching and learning, with regard to the newest technology available that will enhance the learning environment.
    In the midst of all the controversy and tension of cultural shifts in teaching and learning as a result of our newest technology, November believes that.... “we should be providing students with guided opportunities and teachable moments that allow them to practice and hone their research skills.”  Again, another statement that I agree with and can happily add, one with which I am confident and comfortable. Confident, because I know I have provided these necessary research opportunities for students.  Comfortable, because as we negotiate the waters of cultural shift tensions, waiting for the inevitable tide to turn,  dealing with the blockers, controls, and censorship tendencies of the school community, at least we are doing the very best that we can to move in the direction of 21st century literacy. 

Interview #2 in a series of 2- What are the positive aspects of technology use in classroom and beyond?

              Once again I was amazed at the eloquent articulation of sixth graders, as well as their grasp on life in the digital age in their classroom and beyond. For this second interview,  I asked students to reflect upon the positive side of life in the digital age. Appearing to be slightly less animated than when I had asked them about the negative side of technology, they took the question seriously and jotted down a few notes about their feelings. A few interesting things came up during  discussion moments later, and the discussion took a surprising turn. Students were considering all types of technology not just their laptops, but phones, iPods, all video media, electronic devices and even cars. This was not my intended prompt for them, but this was their assumption about technology in general; that it should have broad inclusion of all things mentioned.  They all agreed that technology can make things more convenient especially in researching for schoolwork. It keeps you organized, contacted and updated was one mature  response. It's helpful for receiving quick information such as an environmental hazard, or a storm. One student remarked that he appreciated being able to write on a keyboard since he has poor penmanship. They included that it is easier to communicate with technology and to keep up with cultural awareness, online translators can be helpful with this, they thought. "It's entertaining."
            Even as the task at hand was to analyze the positive aspects of technology in their lives, students couldn't seem to resist talking about its negative aspects, much to my dismay as I tried to steer them back to the main interrogation. "More technology is not necessarily better," added one student, "because it does affect the environment, such as car emissions. Some people call it progress, but it's really a downfall because because of the bad effects it has." "It's good  to have a break and be disconnected for a while. People get angry when technology doesn't work. Then you realize that it's causing you stress, maybe you should get away from it," was another response.
           I don't think it's necessary to elaborate on the fact that these students verbal, written and analytical skills have clearly been increased due to their increased exposure to text. Maybe I should have them read  Hamlet's Blackberry, by William Powers? Based on their observations, I'm sure they would like it!

Review on Curriki as a Resource for Spanish: Middle Level

 This is a review on Curriki for teachers of Spanish on Curriki. Curriki is called the K-12 Open Curricula Community. it is described as a non profit, empowering educators to deliver and share curricula.  There is a lot of material  in Curriki, all written by teachers for teachers. When looking for specific material you have some search options. Your search is refined by grade and subject, and then by “type”. Your choices for type of resource are: any, interactive, video, podcast. The types of resource choices are: any, exercise, unit, lesson plan, games.

Some types of usage have more offerings than others. The “exercises” choice has the most to offer. I was hoping that there would be more material specifically for  Spanish. There is plenty of resource, however there are a variety of language offerings, so it is not specifically grouped for Spanish. You have to weed through the all of the other language offerings to find your subject. When you make your selected resource choice, the content is displayed. There is also a bar at the top which allows your to find more information regarding the resource, such as, standards connections and comments. I would definitely use some of the material in Curriki, and even found one lesson that I may use in class tomorrow! I could also add it to my portaportal site. So, a resource that could use occasionally with students and/or add it to my portaportal site. Students could even go to Curriki directly and work on material.  If you join and become a member of Curriki you can review the material and post a rating using a  5 star system, 1=lowest,  5= highest. The lesson plans are written by teachers and reviewed by teachers.  

Here comes the heads up: if you are choosing popular thematic lessons then you might find more extensive vocabulary and sentence grammar construction in Curriki resources ( the ones I checked at least).This can obviously be quite confusing for students, not to mention, frustrating for you, the teacher!  For example, in your instruction, if you have included only one word for the color “purple,” and the resource introduces another word for the color “purple,” it can be extremely frustrating for the learner who may now distrust you as their instructional source. You are now a source whose credibility is in serious question with your fifth grade! A source who may have given faulty information..... according to student developmental estimation! Anyway, many of the material resources had this extended vocabulary and grammar additions to basic thematic lessons. So you will have to decide whether or not it is suitable to what you have been teaching, or requiring students to understand at the time. Oh, the joys of second language teaching and finding appropriate resources!

Getting into the "Flow", Educational Nirvana.

Let me explain what I mean by getting into the flow when you are teaching. It’s a little bit like when you take advantage of a “teachable moment”, and the student makes the connections that you want them to make. Connections that will have an impact on their reality,( even if it’s just a critical perspective of their reality.)  Metaphysically speaking, that's pretty powerful! First and foremost, we as teachers want students to make powerful connections between their present and future reality with what they are learning.
         Here is a definition that I found on About.com: Elementary education. A teachable moment is “an unplanned opportunity that arises in a classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students.”  The article goes on to say, " that you can not plan for; rather it is a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized by the teacher.” Let’s take this a bit further to get into  the “flow”. I think getting into the flow might focus more about how this process works to be both mutually beneficial for both the teacher and the student.  The type of experience that empowers us to know that we are in the right place, doing the right thing,.. simply put. Hopefully, we have all had a lot of these “flow” experiences in our teaching and our students have benefited from them also. They truly are sacred moments when you feel as if you have had some influence on learning for students that will help them........ whenever they recall it, or put in into practice. I can remember some meaningful  lessons, classes and teachers words or phrases as a young student. They were never, ever  about the subject material. They were generally times when the teacher was really leveling with us about life and being grown up, or our future, things of that nature. Pretty powerful occurrences, I’ll say again...at the risk of being redundant ! I have revisited some of these experiences time and again, and interpreted them to help fit my reality.  Students also need to be given flexibility to develop their creativity. Space and time in the classroom are not structures to support creative thinking, planning and work.  Most teachers and schools need more time in the schedule.  More use of digital technology and technology in general can help us with this.
           The teachable moment as well as getting into the "flow" is organic.  We do have to suspend our lesson plans or schedule to accommodate such unplanned occurrences. Have you ever veered away from a teachable moment just because it wasn’t scheduled? Horrors,.....be honest?  Well we all have had to at some point, for some reason. What would happen if we actually structured our school space and time to allow for this teacher and student creativity nirvana? How do we structure our time in school to allow for more teachable moments, and the “flow?”  Why must we constantly circumvent this for testing, not enough time in the block, etc? We need more of this OHMMM and nirvana time. We crave it, both teacher and student. it is the essence of true learning and creativity. The flow lessons are the lessons that we live for... both as students, and as teachers. Daniel Pink has much to say about the way we structure our time so as to create creative flow for both teacher and student. Economic studies have shown that positive growth has always occured when workers are given flexible space and time. I’m psyched, I’m all all for it. I am hopeful that being more flexible with our time and space for educational purposes will be our  near future.