The Most Beautiful Question

Everyone should have a driving question that helps motivate and encourage them, as well as essentially guiding them through life. “…it can get deep in your head, to the point that you may find yourself working on it both consciously and unconsciously.” (Berger, p. 211). This question can guide the rest of the questions that push you through life, and questions that help you strive to more forward and accomplish goals. So what’s your beautiful question?

I continued to think about this idea of my most beautiful question and what that means. While I do like the idea of one big important question that drives you, I thought about a smaller, but still beautiful set of questions that drive me daily. While these questions might originate from my beautiful question, they pertain in particular to teaching. Teaching is a passion, so I believe a question that drives me daily in my passion is a worthy question.

How do I help kids “get it” (it being the lightbulb moment where they understand)?

How can I help kids love school?

On a daily basis I use these questions to decide whether a lesson is worth it, how I should teach, what activities I plan, how I talk to students, how I build relationships. Everything I do at school is driven by those questions.

Throughout my masters program, I have found a passion within a passion with educational technology. I am continuously amazed by all of the possibilities technology opens within education and how exciting they are. I am endlessly curious about how to use technology more effectively in my students and how to use it to extend and enhance the curriculum we already teach to extend, differentiate and personalize instruction to reach more students at the level they need. While my students are young, they are still extremely capable of being successful with technology and as long as I’m willing to expand my knowledge I will continue to improve my use of technology in the classroom. This infographic demonstrates that passion and growing curiosity and how I intend to continue to grow in this area throughout my career.

My curiosity and passion pushes me forward with technology and my newfound understanding of the importance of questioning will continue to help me improve on this skill. I no longer see questions as something to solve, but instead as a tool to push me towards a bigger solution.

References

Berger, W. (2014) A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Bloomsbury.

Wicked Problem Project-Solutions

The wicked problem project is coming to a close and the entire process has been very eye opening for me. The wicked problem my group looked into was “How do we sustain innovation through leadership change?” This problem is particularly wicked because there are many layers of people involved, from administration to teachers to support staff and students, leadership change can rock an entire building and effectively halt any innovation. So how can we stop that halt?

This problem seemed overwhelming at first. Our first step was to question the question. We found patterns within our questions that led us to overarching ideas we could research and look into to help us narrow our questions to a few that would lead us to solutions. I created an infographic that explained the problem from my understanding at this point, and the essential questions that my team decided would guide our path to solutions. We also created a survey to gather information from peers and colleagues that we could use to further inform our research which gave us excellent data to use.

Our last step was to decide on solutions. We meet multiple times via Zoom to discuss the problem face to face and decided on three solutions, or more realistically steps towards a solution. Since this problem is so wicked, there is no solution that will solve it entirely. We decided on three steps schools can take that would prevent a leadership change from entirely halting innovation that is occurring in that school, particularly innovation involving technology. To view our solutions, please see our multimodal presentation.

This project challenged my thinking and expanded my view on not only problems (especially wicked ones) but also on questioning. We used questions over and over to eventually lead us to solutions. The power of questioning and following those questions to wherever they might take you is truly incredible and a skill I will carry with me as I continue to innovate and challenge those wicked problems I am sure to come across.

Wicked Problem Survey

We are still chugging forwards with our wicked problem-sustaining innovation through leadership change. This problem is wicked first and foremost because there is not one clear cut solution, but a multitude of things that could contribute to a solution. There is also many players in the game, with teachers, administrators, support staff and students all being affected and playing a role. Leadership change typically affects all of those members of a school community and can halt innovation and change. We are looking for ways to prevent this from happening. Through our research, we have found that leadership has a very distinct, pyramid-like shape with one person in charge of a group of people. We’ve also found that leadership opportunities for teachers are not as common as expected, and leadership opportunities being given to students are even fewer.

We also questioned how to support teachers in taking leadership roles. Teachers are not trained to be leaders, but instead are put on committees or in roles that they feel unprepared or unqualified for. We wondered, how can we train teachers so they are comfortable taking on leadership roles within their school community? How can more trained leaders change school culture, especially during a leadership change.

We created a survey to get more data and information from professionals in the same field. We question how other view leadership, how strongly they feel their voices are being heard, what choices these people would like their voices heard more on and how satisfied they feel with their current leadership. This will give us more accurate information on the topic so that we can begin finding solutions that will solve the issue of how to sustain innovation through leadership change. The survey can be found here. If you fit in the educational profession and feel that you would like to contribute to our data, please take our survey!

Wicked Problem Infographic

This week I met with my think tank for the Wicked Problem Project to discuss our topic and come to some conclusions as a group. Together, we decided on these three defining questions as we move forward:

1. Why does leadership look like a pyramid? With one person in charge of a group underneath? How can that be restructured? What could it look like?
2. Why do we leave innovation up to teachers, principals, superintendents? Why don’t we give more leadership opportunities to students? Why are we not spending the time teaching them to be innovators?
3. Why don’t we change the way we teach/train leaders?

We decided on these questions because we found ourselves moving our questioning towards the overall structure of leadership and what it looks like, as well as what it could look like instead. We are hoping moving forward to come to some outside of the box solutions to solve the wicked problem of sustaining innovation through leadership change in schools. We discussed the ideas of teacher leaders, student leaders, and leadership teams. These ideas all allow innovation to continue to move forward, even if a change occurs that would typically bring innovation to a halt.

Below is an infographic about some of the research and ideas that led us to our questions. This link will also take you to a larger version that is easier to see!

 

How Do I Stop Filtering My Own Information?

What is a filter bubble? A filter bubble is a concept discussed by Pariser (2011) that is created by both the internet and an individual’s unawareness of the algorithms that are being implemented into their lives daily. What I follow on social media and what I search for decides what suggestions for future viewing are given to me by those websites. Being unaware of all the information a person is missing creates a filter around the information they are receiving, giving them limited information and a limited view.

After thinking about filter bubbles more closely, I examined my own. I was getting most of my information from blogs written by other teachers, usually to gain ideas about instruction. I really wasn’t following any sources that examine education more critically or that take any sort of strong stance. By leaving these out of my information diet, I was limiting myself to any critical thinking about my profession or to anyone outside of my colleagues’ opinions about major educational topics. I was doing myself a great disservice by not involving myself more fully in broad topics that affect me and my job on a daily basis. I am falling into the concerns that both Pariser (2011) and Gee (2013) discuss. I was only following what I wanted to see or what interested me most, never stretching outside of that. This also is assisted in the filter system that the internet is based around. Advertisements, auto finishing and suggestions are based around what I have already searched or looked at. A typically useful tool was limiting my views and the input I was receiving. I was creating an environment where I only saw one type of materials based around education, which stunts my professional growth.

Image Source

I actually have two twitter accounts, one that I use personally and another for professional purposes. My personal twitter is full of friends and family, and celebrities that have nothing to do with education. When I started this week, my professional twitter was more or less only for my graduate program. I decided that expanding on my professional twitter could be a great resource for me to gather information without being overwhelmed with unrelated information every time I open Twitter.

I decided to begin to regularly follow some hashtags so that I could see a conversation about the topic in general as opposed to one individual’s viewpoint. I followed #charterschools #procommoncore #antipublicschool as well as following specific twitter accounts associated with multiple perspectives on education. Those accounts include @edutopia @advocatefored @edudemic. When looking further into the wicked problem of innovation with leadership change, I turned mostly to hashtags. I followed #edinnovation #innovationforeducation #leadershipineducation and #educationalleadership. Below are some of the feeds on the hashtags or the twitter accounts specifically, as examples of the conversations I was able to read and become involved in.

These hashtags specifically showed me how much is available in terms of information and how one hashtag can show you multiple viewpoints. The #charterschools brought up conversations and articles for both pro and anti charter schools, which gave me a well rounded beginning view of the topic. Being able to see many perspectives assists me in being a well informed professional. I will continue to seek out information not just that I necessarily agree with, but also that challenges my thinking and pushes me to think outside the box.

 

References

Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan

Pariser, E.  (2011, March).  Beware online “filter bubbles”.  Retrieved on May 29, 2018 from https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en

How do we get kids to keep questioning?

As I was reading chapter 2 of A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, I was really struck by the idea that questioning dramatically decreases after the age of four. I work with five and six year olds, so their questioning is still higher than most students in elementary school, but to know that it decreases so greatly after preschool was very surprising.

Berger discusses the reasons behind young children’s questions- their brains still being in an “expansive, highly connective mode” (2014, pg. 42) accompanied by their lack of inhibitions and assumptions creates the perfect questioner. They are endlessly curious and want to know more about the world around them, and adults are their vessels for understanding. He also discusses a study about the question “why” and the results found that students aren’t just trying to get attention but are instead deeply invested in the answer and continue to question until they are satisfied. This was very eye opening to me because the constant asking of “why?” happens often in kindergarten, but to know what is happening in their heads when they are asking is so useful that I found myself wondering-why haven’t I looked into this before and how can I support their questions while still covering necessary content?

When Berger discusses the change from preschool to elementary school, he says “Preschoolers are entering a stimulation-rich environment…seemingly ideal conditions for questioning.” (2014, pg. 42). They are in a situation built for exploration, inquiry and discovery. This environment used to follow to kindergarten and then wean off as they get older, but as demands have changed so has kindergarten. My classroom is now focused on academics, not a play based, experience rich environment. This is something I battle with daily, as my degree in child development and experiences at MSU’s Child Development Lab taught me how valuable that play based environment is.

When I was hired 3 years ago as a kindergarten teacher and started in my classroom, I realized what a delicate balance the grade really should be. Everything I had learned in school was about play based learning, setting up an environment for students to learn while exploring and inquiring and enjoying themselves. When I was handed curriculum and expectations, I was immediately overwhelmed with how to balance what I had to do with what I wanted to do. While I see some teachers pull away from play, I continue to always find ways to incorporate play into the content we are required to cover. It’s not an easy task, but in my third year I feel like I have really found my footing a little more with it.

This year we were trained in NGSS, the Next Generation Science Standards, which are very inquiry based. The students are given or shown a phenomenon and then are pushed to question why it happened to help guide them towards finding an answer. This really intrigued me because of the experience based nature of the standards and the structure that gave students a chance to explore and wonder, but the questioning was foreign to me in that I have always been the question asker. These two chapters really urges me to want to put the asking out to my students and let them guide the learning, hopefully with higher engagement!

 

NGSS in action! Instead of statements for hypothesis or explanation, creating questions could be a great substitute to get students invested. The training I went to included tons of questioning activities to implement when teaching.

 

References:

Berger, W. (2014). A More Beautiful Question: The Power Of Inquiry To Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

National Science Teachers Association. (2016, Feb. 23). NGSS: How Practices Change. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jal6uAlZcsw&t=87s

Engaging Students with ADHD Through Technology

I have a student in my classroom with severe ADHD. He struggles with most daily tasks because of a lack on attention and focus, on top of extreme hyperactivity and an inability to sit still. Students with ADHD have “pervasive and developmentally inappropriate difficulties with attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity” according to the American Psychiatric Association (as cited in DuPaul, Whyandt and Janusis, 2011). This special need makes it extremely hard for my student to focus during independent work time, as he cannot attend to a task without several reminders or help redirecting himself back to it. This is an issue that I will likely continue coming back to, due to the fact that ADHD in students seems to be an issue that I see more frequently and is not decreasing.

When reading about ill structured issues and of this student, I couldn’t help but think of his engagement and how difficult it is to keep him engaged during small group activities. In kindergarten, we use small groups multiple times a day so that I can differentiate and teach students skills that they need the most. During these times, my student with ADHD struggles to focus and is often wandering over to talk to me or distracting peers.

The issue I wanted to find a solution for is how to keep him actively engaged in a small group activity (typically during center rotations) to minimize his distractions and increase his productivity during that time.

When looking for a technology tool that would help with ADHD and focus, I realized there is nothing that is created specifically for focus that a young student could use independently. There were many online tools for checklists or reminders to double check answers before turning things in to prevent rushing but nothing for young kids so I began to look more deeply into what engages kids with ADHD and what was necessary to keep them focused.

According to DuPaul, Weyandt and Janusis (2011), students with ADHD benefit from frequent praise upon task completion, shorter assignments or chunking assignments into shorter pieces, and providing students with choices. All of these antecedent based strategies are found to help students focus on a task longer, and be more successful in completing an activity. I found a website called Splash Math that could be used during small group centers that hits all of these areas and can be used to maintain focus and attention in ADHD students. Even better, it’s also aligned to the common core and is totally kindergarten appropriate, which is very difficult to find when it comes to technology!

Splash Math covers all the suggestions listed above in the following ways:

Praise: For each assignment, kids can earn coins and stars. The little hippo pops up with a green checkmark for immediate praise and then reward with the coin visibly added to the bank. This feedback is immediate and exciting for kids in my student’s age range and they can then use their coins to buy animals for their various “worlds”. This is extremely motivating for students and gives them the satisfaction of earning something while they practice all the skills I need them to.

Chunking of Assignments: Within each standard, there are levels students achieve. The separation of each activity and chunking of a smaller group of activities together helps students feel more successful as they accomplish more in a smaller amount of time. For students with ADHD, this can help them continue to stay focused on a task because they are seeing more immediate success. They also have the option to switch to a new standard or activity whenever they want and Splash Math saves their spot.

Choice: When students log in, they are given a choice of activities that they can choose from. They choose the topic or area in math they would like to practice, and the website links them to games that match that standard. Teachers also have control in reassigning standards that students have not mastered so they get additional practice while also still feeling as if they have choice in what they are doing.

Overall, Splash Math is an awesome math resource and great for keeping the attention of students with ADHD. The only downside is the cost, at $240 a year for the premium content but teachers can get a trial that lasts for several months for free!

Below is a screencast walking through what Splash Math looks like for students and as a teacher and how to effectively use it for students!

 

References

DuPaul, G. J., Weyandt, L. L., & Janusis, G. M. (2011). ADHD in the classroom: Effective intervention strategies. Theory into Practice, 50(1), 35-42. doi:10.1080/00405841.2011.534935

CEP811 Reflection

Looking back on this semester of CEP811, I find myself looking at technology with a completely different mindset that has me really excited. This class was one of the more difficult classes that I’ve taken because it challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself in ways I honestly didn’t want to, but am grateful that I did! Experiencing all of the different technology we did was a really great learning experience for me. There were times when I thought I would love the project and ended up being really challenged and frustrating (SketchUp) and others that I thought would frustrate me that I ended up really enjoying (the infographic). My personal experiences have changed how I view technology as a tool for various needs.

As an educator, the biggest thing I’ve taken away from CEP811 is the fact that technology is not there just to use it, but to better learning for students. This was a mind shift to see technology not as something that’s just there, but instead as a tool to help my students. This had already changed how I plan on using my (brand new!) class set of Chromebooks, and any new technology that I’m able to get my hands on in the future. I also have been using that mind set when using my SmartBoard and making sure that I’m helping my students grow, not just using it because it’s there.

Another big take away was the confidence I now have about using technology in education. My district is preparing for a very big transition and I am fortunate enough to be part of the technology implementation committee to consider what technology to purchase in our district to further student learning. Prior to this class, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to sit in a meeting with experienced teachers and state my opinions or views on technology and what will be most beneficial.

Overall, my views on technology in education have shifted and evolved and I’m a lot more confident moving into more of a leadership role when it comes to technology at my school and district. I am excited to see how 811 is built upon in 812 and very grateful for the opportunity to be challenged and grow so much in just 7 short weeks!

Assessing Creativity

This semester I have been pushed outside my comfort zone and made to exercise creativity in a variety of formats that I never would have explored on my own. All of these activities not only promoted my creativity, but led me to think about how I could do this for my students as well. To wrap it all up, this week we learned about assessing creativity, how to go about it and why it’s important.

To do so, we were tasked with finishing the following sentence “As an educator charged with the assessment of student learning, I would assess creative problem solving during maker-inspired lessons in the following ways…” At first, this was overwhelming for me to process because how can I assess creativity and problem solving without using bias or judgment. Upon reading a blog post by Grant Wiggins (2012), it became clear to me that as long as you have clear criteria, it can be done. He discusses looking at writing and deciding whether it’s engaging or not, which is very easy to identify which was an example that really helped me. I think for me, the GRASPS model Wiggins uses would be extremely helpful in giving students clear criteria and understanding of a task and in turn, giving me clear criteria for assessment and feedback. G-the goal of the project, R-the role the student is taking, A-who is your audience, S-the situation the task is taking place in, P-product/performance and purpose (what are you doing and why) and S-standards and criteria for success (Wiggins, 2012). By making all of those very clear to students, you give them the freedom to be creative but also the structure of knowing what to do, who it is for and why they are doing it.

From what I’ve gathered this semester, freedom to choose and freedom to represent knowledge how students see fit can be a very powerful teaching tool. The GRASPS model would allow for this, while still giving students a rubric of sorts. I would begin my year my modeling this whole group, showing students how I am going to decide whether they are doing what is expected and gradually scaffolding it onto them. It’s important that students get feedback as soon as possible, which is very difficult in a typical classroom with 20-30 students to one adult. Learning how to take the expectations and decide if they are meeting them is a complex and difficult skill, but it also is a great skill for them to be building starting from the very beginning of their schooling. This would also lead to them understanding their learning process more fully and being able to self advocate for their learning needs when necessary. James Paul Gee discusses immediate feedback in relation to games and attempting to beat a level (2008), but translating this into the classroom is extremely easy. If students know what they need to do to be successful, they should be able to go back and try again until they meet their goals and can move forward. This puts the learning and assessment together, which makes it feel less like assessment and more like successful learning for students (Gee, 2008). Overall, I will try to open my students options up more during assignments and guide them towards learning goals and criteria as a basis for their learning so that they start to understand how to be successful without being told what to do for each and every step, which is what a lot of them strive for in kindergarten! This will lead to more successful, confident and creative learners!

 

Resources

GEE, J. P. (2010, JULY 20). RETRIEVED FEBRUARY 19, 2018, FROM HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JU3PWCD-EY0

Wiggins, G. (2012, February 3). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/on-assessing-for-creativity-yes-you-can-and-yes-you-should/

 

#MakerEd Infographic

I have learned so much in the past 7 weeks! This week’s assignment to create an infographic about the Maker Movement was really fun for me because it helped me realize how much I have learned and what I can articulate! Now that I know so much about an innovating and forward moving idea, I want to be able to share it.

I created my infographic as a tool for any educator who is brand new to the Maker Movement idea and concept. Any teacher, K-12 should be able to view the infographic and come away with a beginning overview of what #makered is and why it’s so awesome! While it’s impossible to fully explain such a complex idea in an infographic, this should be able to get wheels turning and conversations started. I used concepts I’ve learned throughout the whole semester from various sources (cited below) to put together one cohesive overview of what the Maker Movement is, why it’s worth a thought and how to get started.

Check out my infographic here!

 

 

Sources:

Childress, S., & Benson, S. (2014). Personalized learning for every student every day. The Phi Delta Kappan, 95(8), 33-38. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24374606

Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465.

Jacobs, J. (2018). Pacesetter in personalized learning. The Education Digest, 83(6), 32-41. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1985541941?accountid=12598

Sheridan, K. Halverson, E.R., Litts, B.K., Brahms, L, Jacobs-Priebe, L., & Owens, T. (2014) Learning in the making: A comparative case-study of three maker spaces. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 505-565.

Reimagining Learning: Richard Culatta at TEDxBeaconStreet. (2013, January 10). Retrieved January 23, 2018, from https://youtu.be/Z0uAuonMXrg