Blog Post #6: Student Inquiry and Mini-Lesson Ideas

Why do kids come to school? I’ll be honest with you, most of my kids come to school because they have to, their parents make them, for the social life, and sadly (this breaks my heart) for two meals a day. I don’t think many of my kids wake up in the morning and say “Hey I can’t wait to learn something new today at school!” For smaller kids, they actually might do that, but I teach high school and that love for learning and questioning just isn’t as strong at that age. I discussed this in my blog post from last week. Dr. Gerstein stated that: “Questioning comes naturally to children and seems to become a lost art and skill as people age.” The resources in this week’s module would help to give a reason for kids to want to come to school other than just because they have to. Inquiry learning is the key to making kids WANT to come to school to LEARN. Neil Stephenson discussed in his blog that kids are changing. We now live in what he calls the “knowledge society.” Kids today want to know why they are asked to do something. They don’t just want to do it to please their teacher. They want to know the point or purpose of it. That’s great! However, if their teacher says “Because we have to,” that’s not really inspiring. Stephenson pointed out that inquiry learning can, “…increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and ‘research-based disposition’ towards teaching and learning. Who doesn’t want that for their students?!?!? I also loved his comparison of some classrooms to learning about baseball and the history of the game, but never actually getting to play! (so sad!)

Also, I want to add that I absolutely love Diana Laufenberg. I loved her Ted Talk. After reading the article by Tina Barseghian and the other resources linked in this module, I really started reflecting on my own teaching practices. Next school year I definitely want to put these ideas into action. I want my classroom to be inquiry based! With all the excitement that I have to start this journey, I also have some fears. However, after reading Barseghian’s advice to realize that failure can and will happen, I’m not as freaked out. I feel like if we, as teachers, try to get our students questioning things, creating things, extending their brains, etc. we have succeeded. Inquiry learning means students can and will fail and that we will too. Everything is not always going to work out like we want it to. We’ve all had that lesson plan that we thought was so jam up, then we implemented it and said to ourselves, “I will never do this again!” If you haven’t then your lucky. I could share my failed attempt to make the Nullification Crisis super fun, but that’s a whole other story! 

I do believe that technology is a key component in creating an inquiry based classroom, but I don’t think it should be used as a crutch. I loved that  at the end of the Langwitches blog she included a quote from Dr. Gil Perl “First of all, we learned that it’s not necessarily the teacher who tweets the pics uploaded to her Instagram account from her iPhone and remixes 3D animation with Khan Academy videos and soundtracks ripped from YouTube, then Snapchats herself doing it.” That’s definitely not what inquiry learning is about. 

Teachers by now should realize that the world we live in is becoming totally dependent on technology. When my kids get to college and into the real world I want them to know how to research using Galileo, how to use a blog for their benefit, how to embed things, how to create a website, etc. I also want them to know how to use the plethora of information out there to their advantage, not be overwhelmed by it. So, if we as educators want our kids to be successful when they leave us, we can’t do that if they are still dependent on us. As much as some educators hate it, the world has changed. Technology should not be used just to excite kids, (because some of them don’t even like it because it’s more challenging) it should be used to enhance and extend learning. Whether we like it or not it’s here to stay.

My Definition of Inquiry Wordle:

Rough Draft Ideas for my Mini-Lessons….Advice and Ideas Appreciated :)

I will be using the following standard from the U.S. History Georgia Performance Standards:

SUSH25 The student will describe changes in national politics since 1968. 

g. Analyze the response of President George W. Bush to the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States, the war against terrorism, and the subsequent American interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

1. Authenticity: I figured a great lesson to implement inquiry learning would be SSUSH25g since it deals with terrorism. I remember my last classes of the year were super curious about ISIS and 9/11. Everytime I teach 9/11 I have to remember this years’ kids were like 2 and 3 years old when it happened so they really don’t remember it. It’s really easy to get kids interested in terrorism because it is an ongoing topic.

2) Deep Understanding: We will discuss the topic and discuss together what they will need to learn in order to master the topic. I will have  the students create their own learning targets. If some of them create learning targets that don’t exactly hit the mark, we (as a class) will try to perfect them. I can try to lead them in the right direction also.

3) Performance of Understanding: Students will be set into a real world situation. I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do here. I want them to maybe pretend they are an advisor to the president, or something along those lines. I want to force them to have to see why the terrorists/ISIS believe the are right in their actions and how our nation should respond. I want them to be forced to see the repercussions of every action that the US would take. (Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :) )

4) Assessment for Learning: Once again, not 100% sure what I’m doing in this part either, but I definitely want them to self-reflect. How are their ideas changing? How do we deal with terrorism? I would like them to create a plan to deal with ISIS/terrorists today. Something that would have short term goals and long term goals, how would they attain those goals?

5) Appropriate Use of Technology: To start out (after they have established their learning targets) I would like to use a curation resource like Pearltrees to have articles, readings, video links, news stories, etc. linked for them to dig through before they start their own research. They need a base of information on terrorism. After they have achieved a level of understanding on what terrorism is I would like for them to create a Twitter account or some sort of social networking account so that they can discuss terrorism outside of school. The reason I picked this standard is because terrorism and ISIS are always in the news today. So, I would expect them to research on their own and hopefully watch the news and tweet/discuss what is going on with terrorism today. How is our nation responding, what are we doing, what are our plans, etc.

6) Connecting with Experts: I have a cousin who is currently stationed in Afganistan and his role is to advise the Defense Ministry. I would LOVE it if we could Skype with him and allow the kids to ask him questions if that would be possible(not sure). If that didn’t work, we could always invite a college professor in our town who knows more about the subject than I do or someone who has served and is willing to discuss it. I’m not sure if this would work, some veterans don’t want to talk about it and others do. Even if we got a veteran from another war, they could at least give the students the aspect of what it’s like to be in a war zone, something that none of them have ever experienced or maybe even thought about.

7) Student Success: I will try to make sure that resources are readily available for students who learn in different ways. I could set up a website and link articles and news reports/videos every night or ever so often and have them respond to one of them through their social networking account they set up. I would encourage them to respond to one another. Instead of making them all read, they could watch a news clip. If they don’t have wifi at home, they could do it in the library. Our school has wifi that they can connect to also. I could give them time to do it during class on their phone if we had to. (BYOD policy)

8) Ethical Citizenship: I feel like I lucked up on this part of the mini-lesson. I feel that if we (me and the students) can do this right, then they should feel more knowledgable on an important current event/topic. I also feel that if done correctly they should be forced to reflect on their ideas on terrorism and what the US should do about it. Did their opinions change?

Note: I have a lot of kids who say, “We should just go blow them up!- obviously it’s not that easy nor is that how modern day war is fought. Sometimes they’ll say we did it to Japan during WWII, why not? and we have a discussion. But I feel as though if we do this right and everything goes smoothly (fingers crossed) they could not say these things. They would be forced to really think about the actions the US should take and the consequences of those actions. 

Also, any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

Blog Post #5: Reflection and the Growth Mindset/Essential Questions

My learning goals from blog post #1 were to gain confidence in my tech skills, to develop my PLN to the best of my ability, and to share new ideas with others and gain new ideas from classmates. I would definitely say that I have gained confidence in my tech skills. I don’t freak out when I hear the words Web 2.0 tool! I know that I can figure it out eventually. I also feel like my PLN is developing nicely. Although, I don’t think you’ll ever be “done” with a PLN. It needs to be an ongoing professional project! I also feel as though I have accomplished my third goal, which was to learn something from my classmates. I definitely feel as though I am learning from my classmates and through the module assignments (which make me learn something new every week.) I don’t really feel like I need to change my goals, and I don’t think they are 100% attainable. They are a work in progress, you can never learn everything about everything!

I already knew a little bit about the growth mindset because we had a guest speaker at our school discuss it with the teachers in each department. I really enjoyed looking through all of this week’s resources. I feel as though the growth mindset is something that was instilled in me as a child. My parents always pushed me to try hard no matter if I was good at something or not. They never made me feel dumb or “not good enough” for not doing good if I tried. I’m glad they instilled that in me, because had they not I would feel dumb every time I had to create something for this class. Take this week’s assignment to create a curated resource list using a Web 2.0 tool for example. I created a Pearltree account never having used this Web 2.0 tool before. If I had the fixed mindset that Carol Dweck discusses in her article Even Geniuses Work Hard I would never have even started this masters program, much less been able to figure out Pearltrees! In Dweck’s  article I loved that she included ideas to use in the classroom for helping foster a learning environment focused on the growth mindset. Too many kids shut down just because they think they can’t do something. If you implement some of Dweck’s ideas in the classroom no child should feel bad about themselves for not understanding something. I loved that she said teachers should use the word “yet” all the time! A student might say “I don’ get this.” Your reply should be “Yet!”

Dweck's video interview below was very insightful. I liked that she included the idea to include a workshop on the growth mindset for students. I don’t feel like this should be hidden from students, they should know so they can try to change their fixed mindsets if they have them. I loved listening to her talk because it is very motivating. At the beginning of every module, a small piece of me wants to freak out, because I know at that moment I probably don’t know what Dr. Green wants us to do. But, with my growth mindset, I am able to tell myself that I can figure it out. Once I do figure something out, it feels so good!

I feel like I need to do a better job in my classroom rewarding students for choosing to do challenging tasks, even if they don’t succeed at first. Instead of rewarding the kids who always do good on assignments, I need to also reward and praise the kids who tried really hard, but may have come up short of success at first.

I like the idea of having students create their own essential questions or learning targets. The article Learners Should be Developing their own Essential Questions had some very interesting facts that made me question what I do in my own classroom. Sometimes I find my students are more interested in spouting out answers instead of thinking and then asking a good question. I definitely need to allow my students to think about what they need to be learning. I like how Dr. Gerstein pointed out in her article that, “Questioning comes naturally to children and seems to become a lost art and skill as people age.” It’s true- small children ask tons of questions, but the older kids get it seems as though the less they ask. I need to try to turn this around in my classroom and encourage questioning and inquisitiveness! 

In conclusion, the growth mindset and the student-creation of essential questions all tie in together. If we, as teachers, can encourage students to challenge themselves, try new things, wonder about the world, and ask questions, then that means that we have done our job. As teachers, we want our kids to be life-long learners, not to get stuck in a rut and be happy to stay there. We want them to be confident life-long learners!

image credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/562035228470436929/

Blog Post #4: Letting Go!!!

While reading the first resource for this week Great Teaching Means Letting Go I really thought it was interesting that the author compared teaching to coaching his soccer team. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me also. This was my first year as the tennis coach for SHS (it's actually my first year coaching anything!) so I can totally relate. You can run drills all day long, but sometimes, the kids will not use what they have learned in the real match that counts. 

With that being said, I found the following quote from the Great Teaching Means Letting Go post to be profound: "Our instincts as teachers cause us to over-help rather than under-help. But our kids deserve to become autonomous learners." He exactly right. Our kids deserve to be self-reliant learners. It's not fair to send them off to college not knowing how to learn and research on their own. I also agree with his statement on over-helping. I believe that it is truly in a teacher's personality to want to help kids. I feel like that's probably why we all got into teaching- to help kids. But we have to understand that in order to help them become more proficient learners and students we've got to back off a little bit. They need to have the opportunity to fail and learn a lesson from that failure. Speaking from personal experience, I have learned a great deal from all of my failures. I can truthfully say, that when I look back it's the failures that I learned the most from, not the success stories in my life.

While watching Chris Lehmann's video- Inquiry: The Very First Step In the Process of Learning I found the following quote to be very insightful: "It is not about control, it is about support." I really like that! This made me think back to my first year of teaching. My department chair was really good as "letting go" and she actually won teacher of the year for our school and the county. Looking back, I know now that she is a great teacher. But in the moment, when she would tell me some of the things she was doing in her classroom, I would think "Oh my god! That's out of control!" —-But, the kids were learning!!!  Her test scores were great. I know that it's not all about test scores, like Chris Lehmann says. But what she was doing was working, her students were learning history and enjoying it!

I also like that Chris Lehmann stressed that teachers are absolutely necessary. Even though he discussed that we need to let go and allow students to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, he stressed the importance of a teacher. He said that parents’ work schedules, fragmented families, etc. causes students to need someone there that they can trust at all times. I also really liked that he said the goal of teaching is for your students to create something that is their own. The goal of teaching is not to create a productive workforce or to get great scores on a test. The goal is to make sure your students leave you with a sense of empowerment over their own learning.

In closing, I do see a connection between inquiry learning, instructional technology, and great teaching. A great teacher makes learning fun and relevant. A great teacher is not the “holder of all knowledge." A great teacher makes students question the world around them and makes students want to learn more. I also believe that in order to relate to students today and make learning relevant technology needs to be present in the classroom. Technology is what connects them to the world. It’s like Chris Lehmann stated in the video, a student’s Iphone in his pocket contains more information than his teacher. We are teaching students wisdom, not random facts! We need to teach them how to harness that power and use it to their own benefit, not lecture for an hour. We need to let go and allow them to make their own mistakes!

Blog Post #3: Reflective Searching

 I see myself as a horizontal information seeker and a skimmer. I definitely go to Google first. I also feel as though I am part of the Google Generation. After reading and watching all of this week’s articles and resources I really started to realize that I am just like my students in some ways. I realized that I actually do some of the things that astound me about them. When I did the Google Challenge the first places I went were Google and Wikipedia (as much as I hate to admit it- but hey- I found one of the answers on Wikipedia!) I definitely realized I am a skimmer and a horizontal research seeker. I skim to find what I want to see or if the page even has what I’m look for and then I’m on to another page, probably never to return. 

I remember when I was in college working on my bachelor’s in history and having to write research papers I would love to go to the ASU library and find any book that had to do with my research paper and check it out. I would leave sometimes with at least 15 books! Of course I wouldn’t read them all!! I would find what I was looking for or what I needed for my paper and then I was done with that specific book, most times for good. Sometimes I would find articles on Galileo or EBSCO, but my favorite place to start was the library. I liked to be able to actually hold the book and bookmark a page. Since starting my Master’s in Instructional Technology I realize there has never been a time that I have gone to a library for anything related to my work on this degree. EVERYTHING has obviously been online. I feel as though I have adapted to this rather well. I started thinking that even though when I was working on my Bachelor’s degree I went to the library and now I go to the internet, my method of finding information has stayed the same- skimming! I feel as though my students, whose ages range from 15-18, research the same way. They skim for key words or something that “sounds right.” The main difference between my research methods and those of my students is the fact that most of them cannot differentiate between a  reliable source and a bogus one. I am a news junkie and some of my students know that. Sometimes they will come in with outlandish news they read on the internet. I ask them what website they found it on and ask them have they read it on more mainstream, credible news websites also. Usually we “Google” it and then they will realize their “news” is incorrect. 

This module has given me ideas for teaching my own students about filtering websites and refining searches. I had no idea you could upload an image to Google images and search for a match. I also had no idea you could choose colors in a Google image search. I also had never really used the advanced option search in Google. I definitely will be teaching my students how to search for things in Google using the different symbols that help refine a search. (That was too awesome for me- I knew you could do it, I just didn’t know how!)

After watching the ted.com video on filter bubbles I was really shocked. I knew that websites had memories and that even your email account knew what you searched for. I usually have ads that appear to the side of my gmail account for items that I have previously searched for. But, I did not know that I could research something and my friend could research the same thing and we could get different results. That was really shocking to me and kind of freaky honestly. To make sure we don’t stay inside our own little filter bubble we need to make sure we look at different viewpoints on things. If you google something don’t always go to the same news source. Also, you could use different search engines. The main thing to remember is to keep your mind open always try to learn something new everyday. If you are content staying inside your own little filter bubble, then that's where you'll stay. It takes a conscious effort to bust down the barriers of your filter bubble!

Blog Post #2

After reading and watching the resources for this blog post I really came away at first feeling a little bit overwhelmed myself. After reading resource 2, "My Daily Info-Wrangling Routine" I definitely felt overwhelmed. While reading his article, I found myself thinking "What is Pinboard, Diigo, etc.?" The resources really got me thinking about how students these days have unlimited access to all the information in the world, sometimes they just have no idea how to tap into it. After reflecting on this fact, I remembered a day in my own class that my students were allowed to use their phones in class for research. Our school has a BYOD policy. This was one of the first times this particular class had them out and I was astonished at how many of them had no idea where to go to look for information. The video Infowhelm and Information Fluency alluded to the same fact. At the end it asked if we were doing all we could as educators to teach our students how to use sources. That particular day in my classroom when my students were all over the place on the internet researching abolitionists I was totally taken aback!

After reading the articles I also felt as though I still have a long way to go before I am even digitally literate, as Karen Lienman likes to put it. I especially felt behind the times when I read "My Daily Info-Wrangling Routine." I found myself thinking, how on earth could anyone do all of that in one day!?

My favorite resource was "8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning." It might have been the fact that Diana Laufenberg teaches history and so do I. I found her comment on kids not wanting to come into class burning to learn about the War of 1812 totally relatable. I felt  as though I could relate to this article a little bit more because she discussed how kids won't take risks for you/themselves unless they know you have a vested interest in them. It reminded me of something my very first principal told us at a faculty meeting. He said "Kids don't care what you know until they know that you care." That statement stuck with me and I have found it to be entirely true throughout my first 3 years of teaching. I also liked her article because it gave me an idea I could use in my own classroom when we discuss immigration also!

I feel as though all of these resources are very similar in discussing how broad the world is now. We have information at our fingertips if we can just possess the skills to "weed" through the overwhelming amount of information that comes at us all day long through the different avenues of social media. I also feel like they all hinted to the fact that in order to truly give our students the skills they need, we (as teachers) will have to loosen the reigns of control and allow students to get there on their own. We will have to let them fail, as Diana Laufenberg said. Failure is good, as long as you learn from it.

These resources definitely are related to my learning goals. I have already had two great ideas I could use in my classroom by reading these 3 articles and watching the video. These articles also made me feel ok about not being digitally fluent. At first I felt overwhelmed, but after reflecting it made me realize that no one can 100% keep up with all of these educational and technological trends. As long as we are trying to utilize and learn more we are doing ok (in my opinion)! As Karen Lirenman stated, "Things are changing so quickly these days that it pretty much is impossible to keep up. That's not a bad thing, but it is what it is."

Blog Post #1

My name is Livia Morris and I am a high school US History teacher. This is my third year teaching and I love sharing my love for history with students!

My Learning Goals:
The first learning goal I am setting for myself involves my confidence in my "tech" skills. Right now, I would say my confidence level is at 20%. I literally feel nervous every time I have to use a new Web 2.0 tool and I know that's absolutely silly. I would like to become more comfortable with using the tools that I know I need in order to become an effective teacher/media specialist. Don't get me wrong, I love to learn new things, I just want the "worry" to go away, and confidence to replace it! During my first year teaching at Jefferson Co. High School, my department was given netbooks instead of textbooks. Looking back, I wish I had known more about utilizing technology in the classroom. I feel as though I definitely could have done more with the technology that was placed in my hands than I was able to at the time. Since starting this program I have learned a lot about utilizing technology, I just want to be more confident in using it!

The second learning goal I have set for myself is start developing my PLN to the best of my ability. I had to create a PLN for another class and I did everything I was supposed to for the assignment, I just wanted it to look cleaner. I hope to sharpen my skills and learn how to make things look "clean"!

My third learning goal is to share ideas with others and gain new ideas from my classmates and instructor that I can use in my own classroom.