week 8: PBS Digital Citizenship videos

 I explored PBS’ Digital Citizenship Technological Literacy curriculum geared towards middle school and high school students. It is a collection of 43 videos as part of a larger technology curriculum also exploring Knowledge of Technology, Use of Devices and Technology Systems and Critical Thinking. The engaging videos range on average from 5-10 minutes and cover a variety of questions and topics on the area of digital citizenship that are of interest to middle schoolers and high schoolers. Some examples of video titles are: Should Schools Monitor Students Online? and Is the Internet Making You Meaner? 

I like that these videos are geared towards secondary kids with relevant topics very applicable to their everyday digital centered lives. The video clips cover a range of ideas and are engaging, but also informative. I also like that there are a racially diverse group of people leading the clips, although it includes mostly young adults as the narrators. I also like that the videos aren’t that long. They could be used to introduce a topic and segway into a class discussion. 

It does not appear that there are lesson plans associated with the videos, although I think some of the other topics on the PBS Learning Media do have lesson plans attached. It’s also not clear if the videos are associated with a set of standards.

I taught one section of computer applications for the first time last year and that curriculum relies heavily on Common Sense Media. Both resources have relevant engaging clips and activities. Common Sense Media is much more of a curriculum than PBS as they have different sets of lessons for each grade level and are connected to standards. I haven’t largely considered what my role is as a math teacher to strengthen students’ digital citizenship skills and understanding. I could see myself using PBS videos as a stand alone resource to support discussion on a certain topic in my classroom, but I imagine it would be infrequently as there is so much math I need to cover. 

week 8: summary of Everything You Need to Know About Building a Great Screencast Video

 This article describes a Washington DC teacher who transformed his traditional mathematics classroom. He created a self-paced learning environment where students proceed through each lesson with an instructional video the teacher recorded and then show their mastery with an exit ticket. This method allowed him to spend more time in small groups with students who are struggling and reframed the traditional practice of moving on with material regardless or not if the student has mastered it. 

He shared that video length is crucial to consider as any video longer than 9 minutes drastically decreases student engagement. He also suggested embedding formative assessment questions throughout the video to help keep students engaged by using a platform like edpuzzle. He emphasized the importance of minimizing text and that whenever the teacher is saying something, change should be occurring on the screen. He iterated the importance of planning the video ahead of time and shared research that shows that students are more engaged when it is their own teacher delivering content. Finally, he described different resources such as Screencast-O-Matic and Explain Everything. 

I’ve read in-depth about a teacher using a similar learning model before. It has always piqued my interest as I think that there needs to be something to help math class seem less scary. I know in my district next year the plan is to teach 3 math lessons a week instead of 5, to help provide more opportunities for mastery with the very real gaps created by the pandemic. A self-paced method might support the plan to cover fewer lessons and allow more time for practice. I want to explore and consider if a model like the one described in this article would be doable in my classroom. 

week 7: Building/strengthening relationships online

I believe we are created to be in relationship with others and in relationship with God. Relationships with others have been extra challenging in this season of stay at home. I mentor and meet weekly with a 17 year old girl. Most of our visits are currently restricted to zoom. When I meet with her, I am competing for her attention with Minecraft as she would play that all day long if permitted and talking with people isn’t her favorite. I’ve had to get really creative with how to have meaningful interactions with her over zoom as we’ve had a couple of visits that were total duds and awkward. This past week we played pictionary on a website called scribl.io and it was a blast. There was a lot of laughing and a request from her to play another round. I think shared experiences are crucial when forming a relationship and although I’d prefer to meet with her in person, I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the options available online. I will say other things I’ve tried like watching a live zoo camera didn’t go over as well.

My district is virtual this entire year. One of my students with a disability this year greatly benefits from the peer interaction provided at school along with the interaction she gets through Special Olympics which is not currently operating. On top of that, her dad died unexpectedly less than 6 months ago. I connected with her mom this past week and asked if the student would like to meet weekly over google meets with me and a couple of other kids as a time to interact and socialize with peers. Mom was thrilled. I’m trying to brainstorm activities like scribl.io mentioned above or sharing a favorite youtube video that I can use as something to talk about during these meetings. I am a little nervous that I won’t be able to understand the student when she speaks. This has happened once already and I feel badly about it. My current plan is if I can’t understand her is to ask her to type it out in the chat.

Even though virtual relationships are NOT ideal and I think staying virtual the entire year is harmful to my students, I am glad that there are resources and opportunities via technology to have shared experiences and build relationships.

week 7: summary of How Decision Fatigue Ruins Your Day (and How to Beat It)

This article discussed how it’s valuable for teachers to develop simplification strategies in their daily personal and school routine in order to not run into the hurdle of decision fatigue. Teachers are constantly transitioning from one thing to another and making on the spot decisions about pedagogy and classroom management. This is exhausting, especially for a new teacher. Once we reach decision fatigue, we are not productive, jumping around from point A to point B and engaging in destructive habits. I remember my first year teaching. I always stayed late after school because I had so much left to get done, but I would eat like 5+ jolly ranchers as I was working. Not a smart choice, but my brain was so tired and sugar tasted good.

Teachers need to develop habits and routines across their entire day where they know what to expect and less decisions need to be made. In the classroom, this looks like having a clear classroom management plan where the student knows and the teacher knows what will occur when certain behaviors happen. At home, this looks like simplifying meal prep/menu for the week, having a basic wardrobe without a lot of bells and whistles and developing a consistent morning/evening routine.

I do think online learning has minimized many of the classroom management decisions. I've felt overwhelmed this year for sure, but it's a different kind of stress online than in person. In fact, I'm grateful that the masters program ended up being this year as I think I'm able to juggle it a lot better than I would if I was in-person. 

My guess is that decision fatigue impacts everyone differently and some people benefit from the strategies listed in this article more so than others. I can see how these habits would be especially helpful when one has a family and not only are you making decisions for yourself, you’re also making lots of decisions for little ones. I did not grow up in a house that had well established habits to simplify chaos, so this is something I continue to push myself to better develop.

This is an excellent and applicable article and I would encourage peers to read it. 

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/teacher-decision-fatigue/

week 6: tech gone bad

With all the technology we are using daily, there are unique challenges to protect our kids and maintain the integrity of learning. I’ve had two experiences recently that make me frustrated because while they still could have occurred in-person learning, it seems like technology makes it extra hard to control.

The first is a student cheating on an assessment by using the photomath app to solve the problem. Both she and her mom became very angry and defensive when I called her out on it. I’m still 100% sure she cheated. The situation made me upset because my sole intent was wanting her to understand the concepts, not wanting to sneak up and say “gotchya!” If I were to redo how I would have handled it I would have been a little less accusatory and I also would have reminded her I can’t accept her quiz because she did not show her work.

The second situation occurred this Friday late morning when a student was sexually inappropriate on camera during a google meet. This did not occur in my class, however I talked with the teacher who witnessed it. The teacher kept saying he did not want to look at classroom relay or use classroom relay to record it as he did not want that saved to his computer. I thought his decision was very wise and proactive to protect himself. The student is now going through a due-process hearing.

Teachers need to be prepared for these situations and respond swiftly. I think I’ve learned that while setting expectations and being proactive is crucial, there are also things that happen daily that I have to do my best to handle in the moment.

week 6: summary of Organizing Your Time with Google Calendar

This post summarizes Jennifer’s positive experience with switching her schedule from a planner to google calendar. She shares that google calendar has more flexibility because she doesn’t need to erase or draw arrows on her planner when something changes. It is also more easily portable as it is accessible on any device and doesn’t require her to carry her planner around. To conclude the post, Jennifer shares a video she created to show the basic features of google calendar.

I have not used google calendar myself prior to being “forced” to with virtual learning this school year. I think it’s a great tool. It has an easy to use interface and I like how it’s simple to invite other people to an event. The appointment slot with google meet conferencing feature has worked great for parent teacher conferences this year. I also think it’s interesting how a person can set up their calendar so when others invite them to an event it shows what time is blocked off. That said, I’m still partial to my planner because I like writing things down and it feels easier to reference past or upcoming dates on paper. I can see myself switching to google calendar slowly.

week 5: DESMOS

DESMOS is a software website that is a math teacher’s dream. It houses a free online graphing and scientific calculator. Additionally, there are hundreds of interactive mathematics activities most applicable to 6-12th grade mathematics. These interactive lessons often present a fun context or problem that students solve in the process of learning math such as playing battleship by graphing lines or correct the proportions of chocolate and milk in a cup of chocolate milk. In addition to many already prepared activities, you can also create your own lessons using DESMOS’ slide formats.

One of my favorite things about the DESMOS activities is the easy to use teacher interface. The teacher can pace the lesson, see collective class responses, see individual student responses, present preselected student responses and anonymize student answers. It’s also easy to share the student dashboard with other co-teachers. The graphing and scientific calculators are very user friendly and colorful.

This past week, I taught a virtual syroncous lesson over two days using DESMOS. It was an Engage New York lesson that was put into DESMOS form by a colleague at another middle school. I liked that it was easy for her to share her lesson with other 7th grade teachers. I also liked that I have the ability to pace the lesson and easily come back to it with all my students’ work saved the following day to finish. 

I have not yet played around with the computation layer/coding needed to write a DESMOS lesson, but I want to find time to do so. It’s been neat to see what my colleagues and math coach have developed. I like how DESMOS is always free. I also like that there are “professional” precreated really neat activities, but that teachers are also able to create their own activities. I saw something on teacher social media space talking about how a social studies teacher was using DESMOS. I want to look into this more. It sounds very neat and something I wouldn’t have predicted practical.

week 5: summary of How Khan Academy is bringing Learning to the Masses

One of my colleagues is a huge fan of Khan Academy, largely evident by her sticker charts and the kids I teach the following year who tell me “Mrs. W loved Khan Academy.” I think Khan Academy is a website loaded full of resources that wasn’t used as readily when I was in middle/high school. Personally, I took advantage of Khan Academy last summer when I spent some time reviewing all the really cool higher level mathematics that I’ve learned, but have since forgotten since I teach middle school.

This article summarized an interview Jennifer Gonzalez had with the founder of Khan Academy, Sal Khan. It discusses Khan Academy’s Mastery Learning system recently developed. This mastery system takes the student through a course, tracking what they already know and giving them videos and practice questions for what they still need to learn. This mastery platform was Khan Academy’s goal from the get-go as it allows students to go at their pace and receive differentiated instruction.

I appreciate that Khan noted that the online mastery system is not meant to replace human teacher instruction, but rather supplement it. Khan Academy provides immediate feedback which is beneficial both to student learning and teacher monitoring of class and individual progress.

The article ends with a quote from Khan describing how our educational system radically developed during the Industrial Revolution. He presents Khan Academy’s mastery system as a way for society to keep up with the new educational demands required to navigate globalization. And as a solution for individuals to personally advance in their knowledge of a discipline.