Hope for the Homeless Board Builder

We, as teachers, must teach our students respect by showing respect. Where does this fit into our rigorous curriculum? As Gardner states, “if one wishes to raise individuals who are respectful of differences across groups, a special burden is accordingly placed on education in the social sciences, the human sciences, the arts, and literature” (p. 114). Children are always watching what the adults around them are doing and listening to what they are saying. I have caught myself, on multiple occasions, saying things that are meaningless to me, but full of meaning to my students. By showing students what they say and do has an effect on others, we are developing their respectful mind.

According to Gardner, “the task for educators becomes clear: if we are to fashion persons who respect differences, we need to provide models and offer lessons that encourage such a sympathetic stance” (p. 110). The lesson I have developed is one that I would use with my BIONIC (Believe It Or Not, I Care) Club. The students in my building come from, mostly, lower SES. Students who have little or no food on the weekends, and students who may not have a safe place to live are more abundant than most realize. This lesson focuses on homelessness in our hometown. While it may not be something that is stated, many of our students can identify with this problem. In order to teach them how to react respectfully when coming in contact with someone who is homeless, they need to understand what is happening and how to help change it. 

The assessment piece of my lesson calls for an action plan. “Educators should prepare young persons for a life marked by good work” (Gardner, p. 127). Having students develop a plan of action puts them in the driver seat. Their ethical mind is developed by taking action, while interacting with people from another “class” than themselves develops their respectful mind.

Board Builder is a great tool for students to use in the classroom to develop all five minds. An extension for my lesson would be for students to create their own board to share with others about the given topic. They can easily enter media straight from Discovery Education, or upload content from another source. They can then share their board in a public forum to share with others. I have used this resource before and will continue to use it as long as it is available.

Reference:

Gardner, Howard (2009-02-01). Five Minds for the Future. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

Final Video Blog

Spotlight on Strategies

After having trouble trying to decide what strategy to choose, I finally decided to go with problem solving. In my classroom right now, we are, as you know, working on our Mission to Mars challenge. A big part of this is problem solving. My students have a set goal they are working toward, with me as a facilitator. They have to use their problem solving strategies in order to figure out what elements their habitat must include. Another reason I went with problem solving is based around the push of the CCSS. Common core pushes for students to be able to not only solve problems, but to explain their reasoning. Because of this, I feel teachers should be integrating more problem solving into their curriculum. 

With today's technology being so ever present in our students' lives, it is important that we use that technology in our classroom as a part of our every day routine. When problem solving, there is a lot of research that must be done. When I was in elementary school, we had to go to encyclopedias to find the information we needed. (I remember copying pages out of an encyclopedia for my senior research paper.) Today, students can simply ask Google or any other well-known search engine for their answer. However, true problem solving can't be figured out by asking a single question.

Using digital media to enhance problem solving not only gives students an edge in their research, it also has the potential to tap into resources that most students, myself included, never knew possible. Next week, my 6^th graders will be talking to an expert from NASA about their project. They have been researching and planning their habitat for a week and are excited to be able to ask someone who may have many of the answers they need. They will be writing questions they want to ask the expert before they actually talk to him. They will then have their video call and learn the answers to their questions. My hope is that the answers that are given will get them thinking and steer them in a direction I could never have done.

Digital media and problem solving go hand in hand in the sense students have access to more information than they ever knew possible. Using this information when problem solving can lead them in a whole new direction.

Content Creation and Digital Media

After working in a technology rich classroom for a few years, I have become someone who loves having my students create digital projects. When looking at this week's blog post prompt, I decided to go digital and have my students respond using Edmodo. Here is one response that really stood out to me.

"I prefer doing digital projects because I'm spend like 75% of my time in front of a computer screen, plus I'm not the best artist but digitally I'm awesome."

Last quarter, when I had my students choose their medium for their final novel projects, this student really excelled with his project. He chose to use Scratch to create an animation, instead of making a model. However, when we do art projects, he really rushes through his project and doesn't care to take his time on it. 

Another student said she wanted to be able to play games in class. Her reasoning was that they would be learning, but to them it would just be playing games. This particular student is a huge fan of Minecraft and wants to be able to use it in class. 

I am working on incorporating more and more options for digital creation among many of my students in order to meet the needs and interests of all.

Creativity in the Classroom: My version of Heaven

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original." -Sir Ken Robinson
"We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it." -Sir Ken Robinson
"The creator stands out in terms of temperament, personality, and stance. She is perennially dissatisfied with current work, current standards, current questions, current answers. She strikes out in unfamiliar directions and enjoys—or at least accepts—being different from the pack." -Howard Gardner


These three quotes really stood out to me this week during my readings and viewings. Being that I have always taught intermediate elementary grades, I find that much of the creativity my first couple years only existed in Art class. We didn't color pictures, and we didn't create pieces of art. However, we sure did practice for those state assessments! Where is the creativity in reading a passage and answering multiple choice questions about it???

Then, I discovered the power of technology and digital media! I was pretty sure I had died and gone to heaven. My first year of using technology in my classroom was very centered around trying to find activities and create lessons using the tech. Then, I learned to turn things around. The technology wasn't my curriculum, but it sure did enhance it! Instead of giving my students a test at the end of a story in reading class, I had them create a comic strip or a slide show. I learned very quickly that the power of creativity lies in the options my students are presented with. 

As for the question of "Do schools kill creativity," I don't believe they do it on purpose. With all the high stakes tests and even higher teacher responsibilities, teachers don't feel they have "time" for their students to be creative. There is so much stress put on teachers today. All the negativity that weighs down on teachers causes us to lose steam, thus dampening creativity because it requires a bit of chaos. 


References:
Ken Robinson - "Do Schools Kill Creativity" on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) 
Gardner, Howard (2009-02-01). Five Minds for the Future (p. 83). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.