Sugata Mitra- A School In the Cloud

How does this Ted Talk make you think about your role with young people in an online environment? 

I know children are curious. When we spark their curiosity, learning starts to happen. I was perplexed by Sugata Mitra’s  ideas at first because I felt like he was getting at the elimination of teachers. Let’s just use computers to teach students and teachers are not needed for learning to happen. But in a way, it is true. The students will learn with or without us. The technology peaks their interests and to learn they need a question and encouragement. He goes on to discuss how teachers are mediators and guides. Teachers are there to encourage like the “granny” and pose questions. A question begins an investigation and the students, without the teachers help, go off and try to answer it. The teacher is watching over for health and safety. Learning happens when the students collaborate. In all of the video examples he showed us, we see this. 

I know when I was evaluated the administrators were looking for less teacher talk and more student collaboration. They wanted me to just teach a mini lesson, compose a question, and allow the students to come up with an answer. I remember planning math word problems and the students had to work together to solve them as I was walking around the room monitoring and questioning groups. Our job is to allow them to explore and not just to give them all the answers. 

The one thing I think that Sugata Mitra is missing is that human connection piece. A computer and a teacher as a guide is not enough to meet all the needs of a child. They need to be nurtured, learn social skills, learn to have conversations with others, and learn to be kind. I think just giving them words of encouragement is not going to fill that need. 

Moana

How does it feel to think about Disney through the critical lenses posed by Christensen and my slides? How did these frameworks help you think about Moana?

Disney movies are tools to manipulate youth. Children develop distorted views of children outside of their race because they do not have exposure to experiences of other cultures. It is the secondhand exposure to things like movies and cartoons that shape their thinking. They begin learning stereotypes and hidden messages/secrets about who and what is important.   The children think it's acceptable because they are not learning about it in an unsafe space. They feel comfortable sitting on their couches watching a movie with their parents. It is important to teach children to question and critique what they see. It gives them more power to teach others about the inequalities and stereotypes they see. Princess culture is all about the dress, the hair, the makeup, being thin, finding a man, whiteness, and those who are not white have a difficult time feeling beautiful/ good about themselves while watching. People are making a lot of money marketing princess branded items to children.  Sometimes producers of movies or cartoons will change the race of the characters but other injustices still remain. I think this is where Moana falls. Moana is not the typical princess. She is not white, tall and thin. She doesn’t wear shiny extravagant clothes.  She stands up to the men in the film with so much sass and she is not out to get a man, rather she is out to accomplish a goal of restoring the heart to the island. I think she takes on stereotypical manly roles and fights against what she is “supposed to do”. However, her father is placing her into this leadership role and he doesn’t respect her wishes of going beyond the reef. She wasn’t supported by him unless she did what he wanted. The men in the film were large and muscular. They acted full of themselves and seemed abusive in nature. Maui believed Moana couldn’t do anything he could do. He treated her as if she was not important and literally threw her around. She had animal sidekicks and her Gramma was this motherly figure who pushes her to do what she wants. This reminds of Cinderella when she has the Fairy Godmother there to assist her on her journey to the ball. Cinderella also had the little mice to help get her ready. The movie ends in a “happily ever after” moment  with the heart of the island being restored. There was also an evil character, Te Ka which is typical in Disney movies. The setup of the story line and how things play out are similar to other Disney movies. This is why I think some injustices/stereotypes still remain and need to be discussed.

Duolingo Tutorial

I looked at many of the tools before deciding to do my tutorial on Duolingo. This tool is right up my alley! I love learning languages and you really have to practice. This application makes it easy and fun. Instead of jumping to the basics, I took a quiz in French. I was surprised at how much French I remembered since high school. I love how the lessons are in labeled categories and you receive rewards. I chose to practice for 10 minutes a day on the app and it will even remind you on Facebook to practice. I am excited to try this out to learn a new language. My students could also use this to get some practice learning English. They could do this on their parent's phones, their tablets, or their computers. Best part, it is free! Check it out! 

Chapter Summary - My Year With Nike- Rachel Blouse

In “My Year with Nike” by Rachel Clouse, she talks about how her fourth grade class was asked by Nike to attend four field trips. The deal was if they attended these field trips they would receive funding for items the school needs. Title 1 Schools like hers really rely on outside funding and often get sucked into these types of partnerships with big corporations. The students would get free things like t-shirts with the iconic Nike swoosh logo. She felt uncomfortable about the situation because she believes marketing has no place in schools. Her uncomfortableness wasn’t noticed because of the excitement of the kids and other teachers. She felt as if she wouldn’t be heard and would be criticized for speaking out against it. She really wanted to emphasize that if Nike has all this money, why not just donate it to the schools? Why do they need to advertise to the children? On their first field trip, they made the students watch Nike commercials and after a health discussion they gave the students soda to drink. Nike appears in the children’s eyes as this great company when in reality they are running exploitative sweatshops and not paying their workers a livable wage. So many students in urban districts take pride in the way they dress. This marketing was directly targeted to them and how to get this population to buy more Nike products. She wants to get her students to focus on the messages the media is sending them. She wants her students to question the media but she’s unsure of how to go about teaching it without receiving flack from administrators. She decided to do an advertising lesson about where their sneakers were made to try and get them to realize the influence the media has on their choices. Rachel mentions how she would much rather have enthusiastic Nike workers come into her classroom and read to the students. This is more beneficial to her than giving the students free Nike products.

Simon Sinek

What do you make of Sinek’s theory of The Golden Circle? How does this resonate with the work you have been doing about your own beliefs? Do you have a WHY?

Sinek’s Golden Circle is composed of what, how, and why. Sinek explains that when we start from our “what” and end at our “why”, we lose meaning/ feeling. No one cares and most people think this way. It’s the people who don’t that begin to stand out.  We don’t stand out when we start with what we want. When you start from your “why” and end with your “what”, people start to believe what you believe. They want to follow your lead not for you but for themselves. It takes a few people to try this before it actually works and people follow along.  

When I think of my classroom, I think of the content and curriculum being the what. It’s what we have to teach, we teach it using strategies (how), and we do it because that’s our job. The students don’t really care because the work is meaningless. It doesn’t connect to anything they care about or their lives. When you teach from your beliefs and your “why” you begin to make a difference. It shapes your teaching and shows the students why you love learning and they should too. The students will then not just show up because of you but show up for themselves.  We have the power as educators to inspire our students to take pride in their own beliefs. You will love what you do, when you do what you believe in. Always go back to your “why” when planning for a lesson. If you can’t answer questions about why you are teaching it, then maybe you shouldn’t be teaching it. If you believe students work best when in groups, do not put them in rows. 

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” 

Add Hacking

Project Ideas

I want to be able to reorganize the way my students access assignments and applications on their technology. I believe students learn best on computers when navigation and access to assignments are more user friendly. They can spend more time doing work and less time figuring out how to navigate through the technology. (More learning, less teacher involvement, work at your own pace, fostering independent learners, less disruptions, everyone knows what they are expected to do and how to do it...)

This past year, I implemented a new reading curriculum called American Reading Company. It took me all year to get myself organized and actually understand the program. I have to do a lot of individual conferences with students, set up centers for group work, and allow for 30 minutes of independent reading time a day. I think all of those steps are important for their development. They need to be able to have time with me alone, work in groups, and have time to read quietly. I am thinking of creating a virtual schedule with symbols to click on, a progress board, and a way for them to access all of their applications they need in one place.