Photo by Good Free Photos on Unsplash This is my last homework assigned blog post. The reality hasn't sunk in yet that this experience is through. Thinking back to when I began, it kind of just happened. I had no idea when the deadline to sign up was when I sent my first e-mail to inquire. I only managed to get in after classes had begun because someone else changed their mind last minute and there was an extra spot. I certainly felt bewildered at first and scrambled to get my bearings, but I always have faith that if many others have come through this, so can I, no matter the rushed start.
It has been quite a lot of work for me on top of a full time teaching job. My hat goes off to those who have completed this program while working and taking care of a family. I cannot fathom it. While the workload is real, the teachers are understanding and know what it's like to be on the go as a classroom teacher. I have appreciated so much, their patience and guidance. Yes, it has been a lot of work but it has also accomplished its purpose. I have learned things that have changed my thinking and increased my skill level. If I were to enter a course and leave with a review of what I learned in a teacher credential or beginning teacher support program, then it wouldn't be worth it. I like to learn, and I have found what I was looking for by going through these classes. I feel like I have also been very blessed to be a part of a cohort full of experienced and talented teachers who each bring something special to the mix. They have also been my teachers and for that I am grateful. Being back on the other side of the desk is also important every once in a while to keep the student perspective at the forefront of my mind. I know my students are excited for an upcoming break, and I am too. However, I will continue my learning journey, simply in a less structured way but with greater insight as I take what I've learned from this experience into future school years.
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Photo by Chris Benson on Unsplash Well, this is the cap on the 703 blog posts for my class on transliteracy. As a teacher, it's easy for me to steep in the world of academia, communicating in one sole fashion. Through this class, I've learned that the production and consumption of important messages can take many more shapes than written word. Not only can they, but they must take different shapes. In the world of academics, traditionally, messages were communicated by a filled page of text, but through this course I have learned that messages are even, and especially conveyed in the empty spaces!
Accessibility has been a key word for me this trimester. Is what I'm creating and trying to communicate accessible? Am I sticking to a familiar or traditional format when other formats would make my message accessible to a wider audience? By taking away from this course baby-step skills in video editing and...I don't want to say graphic design but maybe...visual element assemblage, I have begun to think about other areas of my career and life in which I'd like to use these skills to communicate a message in a meaningful and memorable way. Learning about the importance of making our messages accessible to our audience has made me think about how I emphasize this in my own classroom. If the visual, verbal, and auditory are all just as powerful in terms of clearly communicating a message, we should be designing instruction in the same way for kids from day one and teaching them transliteracy skills as they learn to communicate their own stories and thinking with the world. The title of the 703 class is Extending Human Capacity via Transliteracy. Well, it has certainly done what the title sets out to do, in my life anyways. I have been stretched through the exercises in this class, in ways completely unlike the stretching in the previous classes. At the beginning of the course, it was completely daunting to hear the list of items we would create: logo, infographic, executive summary, academic research poster, mini-documentary. However, knowing what the goals were from the beginning helped me pace myself...I know what you're thinking...I haven't necessarily been ahead of the game but if I wouldn't have known there were other big projects, I could have easily spent all my homework time for the 8 class periods on any one of these projects alone, especially the mini-documentary. As much as just saying that word made me sweat bullets initially, I really did enjoy the video making process. I think I like details...and if left unhindered, I can spend a lot of time on them...(not good for trying to get classwork turned in). I loved filming shots, editing clips, and putting the finishing touches on my project. I really struggled when it came to diving in to academic writing again after a long break. My research paper is really long...I thought I wouldn't be able to gather the right tidbits of information to condense into one academic research poster. Not only that but my tables and graphs are detailed and complex. I knew I would have to recreate some simpler graphs which meant sifting through and re-compiling data. Thankfully, one day I had a miraculous burst of energy and got tons done in one evening. As stated by my instructor and classmates, once I wrote the short executive summary of my paper, the pieces of the academic poster easily fell into place. I did have to recreate some data graphs but it was also a good refresher of all that hard work and interesting findings from research in the fall. I have learned through the Extending Human Capacity via Transliteracy course that accessibility is key. I wouldn't label myself a storyteller or an artist but if I don't employ some artistic and storytelling techniques in what I have to share, there won't be many listening to my message. And what good is one's message if no one hears it? Time management...It's been a kicker this year. This past week I had a week long (plus a day) spring break. I managed to dedicate some time to my mini-documentary and my capstone website pages but I also took some much needed time to relax. I focused in on cutting the minutes down on my mini-documentary but I am to the point where if I cut out any more of my A-roll content, my story doesn't make sense. I'm a little worried that I will have to re-record. But perhaps I can just re-narrate and create a voiceover. Since I used my friend's recording equipment (thank you Christian!), adding to my story line means asking to use the recording equipment again...I really dislike asking for help. This year has really made me face that dislike several times. As far as strategies to get my work done and focus my energies, over the course of this masters program, I've really only been able to work on Sundays and weekday evenings when things aren't crazy at school. The content assignments for this transliteracy course usually take me a few days because I need to retake shots or wait for a particular scenario in the classroom that I need to film. In the past I've run into trouble not finishing these types of assignments before my blog post is due and have felt like I can't write my blog until I can reflect on EVERYTHING else. Unfortunately only now I realize often that just won't be possible. So I'll reflect on what I can and continue to work on assignments until Thursday. A blog post is something I know how to do, whereas the assignments are usually something new or involve a skill I'm still desperately trying to develop. This means, they get put off, or I need multiple runs at them. I think translating what I've learned about time management and assignment completion to my students, I would say the following:
Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash This week we are reflecting on Touro University's values and how our research and subsequent growth, aligns with them:
But now the question is, how will I use what I've learned to make a change in the world around me? Undoubtedly, researching this topic in depth has changed the way I will continue to teach. I will continue to experiment with ways to help my students grow into even more independent learners who motivate each other to grow. I want to share what I've learned with others at my site but also understand that each teacher is on their own learning journey and they often feel their plate of practices is often full. Without being over-zealous, I'd like to at the very least, make sure that what I've learned is made available to any who would like to try it out and or improve on it. I feel that, if implemented correctly, peer teaching can not only alleviate the teacher load but leads to better quality instruction and higher student engagement which in turn, increases learning. It's a win, win, win! And why wouldn't I want to share that with others? As educators we all learn and "steal" from each other. Whatever I've learned is free for the taking. I want to deepen my understanding of my own research topic and broaden and improve my strategies. A big goal ever since last summer has been improving my social media presence. Over the pandemic year, I've relied heavily on Facebook groups for resources and learning. I've created a spreadsheet that I shared with other educators in a Facebook group specifically for Spanish math lessons in my curriculum and grade level and it has been a huge life-saver. I need to now broaden my social media horizon. I've learned a lot from fantastic educators who have shared what they know online and through social media. If I have anything to share, I'd like to make it available to others as well. Photo by Nima Sarram on Unsplash TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
What a teacher lingo mouthful, right? Through the Innovative Learning Masters Program, I have become familiar with the TPACK model. The TPACK model depicts the integration of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge practices into multiple learning settings. In today's world, educators need to be well versed in technology, not just for their own organizational well-being but to ensure their students' preparedness for a world of ever changing technology. I used to have to provide students 30 minutes per day of practice on a reading foundational skills online learning platform. It felt impossible to dedicate anymore time to technology in our already packed school day. While teaching virtually during a pandemic has been a challenge, one silver lining has been the head first dive into technology. It's been a sink or swim world and I have been trying my best to doggie paddle my way through. Even though I'm still a big fan of paper and pencil work for primary aged students, I have so many more tools in my belt for engaging students in learning. As I waded through my action research in the classroom, I had to deepen my understanding and comfortability with the technological tools available to me in order to effectively deliver content knowledge in the area of math. After teaching second grade for over 8 years, I was happy not to struggle too much with content knowledge, successfully predicting what was up ahead in our math learning journey. Without effective teaching strategies, or pedagogy, however, this content knowledge and any technology skills I had would be of little use. A teacher's effectiveness in today's world largely depends on the ability to grow in, and integrate all three of these domains into one's teaching practice, especially in the world of virtual learning. The balance of all three of these elements looks different in each particular grade level and community of learners. Older and younger students need different content knowledge, different pedagogical strategies, and different levels of technology integration and skills in order to succeed in learning. Keeping these three components and their balanced integration at the forefront of the teaching practice is what leads to success in learning for students of all ages. Today I made my first attempt at shooting A roll footage for my mini-documentary about my action research. I would love to make something funny or at least clever but usually my work is serious because that is what I know how to do. Learning to simply put pieces of footage together in a way that hopefully ends up making sense, is where my energies will have to go for now. I wrote out my serious storyline and serious questions and went over them a couple times. Then I proceded to record my serious interview. Despite the title of my last blog post for this class, I have actually been looking forward to the challenge of putting this project together. However, when it came time to actually record, my optimism started to wane. It was the perfect cloudy day for filming with natural light. Thank goodness I had begun cleaning my room prior to the weekend because even with the clean surfaces, I had to move plants and other items around multiple times before I finally got some kind of shot that seemed clean enough, though I'm still not sure. Next came positioning the cell phone and fixing it to the window frame with gobs of tape that ended up sticking more to itself than to anything else. It was a struggle. I filmed one interview with the reverse camera on so I got a long clip of the window frame. I got another interview in time-laps mode because somehow my finger switched the video settings on the touch screen before recording. That was a fun one to watch. I keep thinking I will do more takes and just use the best one. But at some point I need to realize, I've worked hard, this is new, and it's never going to be perfect. It reminds me of my students in the early stages of the year when I would have them record a simple response to a question on Seesaw with the microphone. Some of them, surprisingly even those that LOVED talking constantly in class, were completely paralyzed and would start the recording over multiple times (sounds familiar). I only realized this when I had to work one on one with one student in a Zoom breakout room. All I wanted was a simple quick voiced response but it was a big deal for students, something I hadn't anticipated. Oh the funny tricks our minds play on us when we encounter new challenges. I will try, I will be content, and I will grow. Photo by pawel szvmanski on Unsplash I am on the final leg of my masters journey. This final leg involves making a mini-documentary. That's right, this 2nd grade teacher will become a documentary film-maker. How, you might ask...I don't know. But I did learn some good tips today to help me identify the characteristics that differentiate a good documentary from an unclear one.
As homework, we were provided with several sample mini-documentaries and capstone videos to analyze for clarity and effective story telling. Some of the older capstone videos I watched did not have a clear story line or purpose, other than stating multiple times the main idea in a phrase. The B-roll video didn't really support a story effectively. I really enjoyed the video, Teach Like a Youtuber, by Professor Mike, on how to create effective instructional videos without being on camera. The creator, talked about the need to include several reasons why your subject (X) is important. I've always been a fan of no text on screen while there is audio narration. My brain cannot take both in at once. One sample video had final take home points appear as gradually appearing text on a black background at the end of the video with only music in the background. I like this quiet moment to take away the main points. I saw several great examples of visuals that support the narration in the video samples provided and articles that supported this idea. Hopefully I can put some of it into practice. I've made very simple videos before with photos as B-roll. I really loved the experience. But now I'm nervous and excited to expand the B-roll to video clips. I think the biggest hurdle right now is writing the narrative. What is it that I want to say? I'll head back to my short video presentation for NapaLearns that I showed back in December and decide what I like and what I want to change from there. That first video felt more like a promotional video and this time around I'd love to tell a compelling story instead. It's easy to agree that my research topic, peer-teaching, is a nice idea. But with my final capstone video I would like viewers to feel the initial need and then resulting joy at implementing a strategy that brought students together and improved learning. Transforming lives by instilling and inspiring lifelong learning in every student...sounds pretty good, right? This is the mission statement of my school district and our assignment this week is to analyze it. Is it all-encompassing? What are the 21st century learning goals? First, I'd like to say how I love the aspiration to inspire LIFELONG learning in EVERY student. A true acknowledgement of this means we lay aside the compulsion to constantly teach knowledge and instead teach skills and habits for continued learning. Within the past year, the district has certainly stepped up its technology game due to the need for virtual learning. This has provided students now and in the future, if we continue with a 1:1 device to student ratio, with access to tools to develop these skills. However, just because we have technology, doesn't mean we are completely hitting the target. In this community, we have students who come from a huge range of home support. The top needs of many of our students are counseling, assistive technology, one-on-one instructional aides, and more small group targeted learning opportunities. These are areas, from my observations, that are constantly pushed to the side as less important. SST meetings are in actuality parent teacher conferences where new solutions, intervention ideas, support personnel, and resources are supposed to magically appear. At a minimum, 3 months must pass without intervention from another expert in order to request that other experts take a look at the student's needs. Often, the year runs out and the next teacher starts out all over again. The district has employed dedicated resource specialists and counselors but they are overburdened and I don't think that we are really inspiring life-long learning in these many students whose needs aren't being met. In order to be inspired by adults in their life, students need to be seen and known. Merging schools, especially middle schools, creates less meaningful adult connection and a larger sea of students who get lost in the waves anonymity. I love the array of programs offered in our many schools but I hope as a district we steer ourselves even more towards becoming an inspiration of lifelong learning for every single student that we are given the opportunity to affect. ...I'm starting this blog post with three dots...The three dots represent a deep breath. I just typed my last word of this post moments ago and was scrolling to place an image when the handy trackpad interpreted my scroll down as a command to go "back"...back to a blank page... Now that I have practiced some calm down techniques, I will briefly share my logo design journey. My district-purchased teacher iPad was a big motivator for me to get using Adobe Fresco to create something great. Shortly after getting started, I needed a tutorial from a good friend who also happens to have a degree in graphic design. Despite the magnificent tools in the app, you also need to have some drawing experience and a steady hand, even though the smoother tool really helps with that. I sketched a bit on the iPad and then moved to Canva after I had an idea of the elements I wanted. There, I could easily search for the design elements and colors I wanted in my logo and simply played with position, font, and spacing. Having others look it over with a critical eye has also really helped. One element I'm still trying to get right is the heavy border on my overlapping speech bubbles. I wanted to create a transparent overlay effect like a Venn diagram where two shades make a third where they meet in the middle. However, when I made one thought bubble transparent, the border also became opaque. I'll have to keep fiddling or recreate it in Adobe Fresco. The most difficult part, I think, is creating an infographic that matches the design of my logo. Of course I won't find a template that perfectly matches my fonts and colors, so I have basically chosen a template and switched out every single element of it; a lesson in patience. Also, what kind of stories do you tell in an infographic? Your action research journey? Prescribed steps for success? Cool tools to use? Stats on why your prescribed idea is important? As of right now, I'm still working on it, but no doubt, by the time you read this, you'll be able to see what kind of mash-up of those elements I've come up with. |
Minna NummelinLife-long learner and dual language 2nd grade teacher. Archives
April 2021
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