The Week in Review

My class project.

I chose to do a Six Word Memoir using the web application Animoto because the Six Word Memoir is a lesson I have taught for a number of years and I have wanted to try Animoto.  The Six Word Memoir is a very short, but powerful, writing piece.  This type of memoir is fun to do at the beginning of the year as a way for my students and me to get to know each other.  The idea to use Animoto came from a student’s senior project presentation this year.  She used Animoto for both her introduction and her conclusion and the judges in her room were very impressed with it.  I also participated in a National WritingProject Webinar where a teacher in the Midwest talked about how much fun she had taking her Six Word Memoir lesson to the next level while presenting it using Animoto.  Right there, I was sold on the idea of using Animoto in my classroom this coming school year.

Animoto will enhance the Six Word Memoir because it allows the student to present the memoir creatively and in a more personal way.  A few years ago students took their memoirs and added a visual component to it, which basically meant they drew a picture.  A couple of students asked to use photos, either personal or Google images, and since I thought that was using technology I said yes right away.  The world has changed drastically and now there are so many ways kids can be creative in the classroom using technology.  As students use Animoto, they add images, as well as connect music, videos and background styles to their memoir.

In addition to connecting Animoto to the classroom curriculum, it is a tool that I think many scholars we discussed in this class would like.  As I began this class, I was intimidated by the technology component.  I am considerably older than many of the teachers so I certainly identified as a digital immigrant as coined by Prensky in his article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”.  Prensky describes me perfectly when he writes, “Those of us that were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are … Digital Immigrants.” I am fascinated by technology but even though it intimidates me, I am not too afraid to take it on.  I was pleasantly surprised that most of the young teachers in our course identified as being an immigrant as well. 

Another scholar we discussed in class, Michael Wesch, would like Animoto because he proved through extensive research how important curiosity and imagination are to student learning in a digital world.  I can have students write Six Word Memoirs with a pen and paper, but to have them produce a video that goes along with the theme of the memoir giving them lots of digital choice in the outcome is a powerful assignment Wesch would like.  The technology is not replacing the content since it is still a Six Word Memoir; however, the technology enhances the lesson and the final assessment.  The kids will have fun using the tool allowing for a more enjoyable learning experience and I will have fun assessing the memoir making my teaching more enjoyable.  In John Waters article “MichaelWesch:  It’s a Pull, Pull World”, he quotes Wesch saying, “The new media landscape is a ‘pull’ environment.  Nothing is pushed to you from the Web, which makes it essential that we inspire students to seek out the knowledge that’s out there. The content isn’t fundamentally different, but the environment just demands more curiosity and imagination.”  I think  all the technology we studied in this class connects to Wesch  because we all need to use technology appropriately and students need to be taught how to do that.  Many times during this course I heard teachers say that they didn’t really know a particular web application well, but once they showed their students the basics, it was amazing what they produced.  I cannot tell you how exciting that type of teaching and learning is for me.  I love to watch my students grow while learning something new they discovered without me.  By using more technology in my classroom, maybe students will see the relevance of school and the skills we are trying to teach them.

But I do have some concerns about this new digital world with regard to my disadvantaged students.  The critical side of me questions the logistics of how technology will work in my particular classroom and in my particular school.  How do I require students to use technology outside school when a number of my students don’t know where they are sleeping on a given night?  In this course many teachers talked about how handouts and assignments on paper get lost in kids’ backpacks and there are some tools available online to help end the backpack-black-hole.  But if we require students to go home and post an entry on a blog and they do not have access to the Internet, how is that different from the backpack problem?  The disadvantaged kid is still disadvantaged.  I know some people will argue that most kids today have access in some way to technology, but that is not the case with many kids in my school.  In his article,  "Bridging the New Digital Divide" , Finkel raises many points about how superintendents and administrators are trying to grapple with technology while at the same time getting kids college and career ready in a new digital world.  Most of the article focused on teachers integrating technology into their classroom, but part of the article was about the student as well.  I think we all agree when Finkle quotes a superintendent saying, “[Technology] is an equalizer.  We’ve got to use the technology as a leverage or a force in the classroom to help focus on what people call these 21st-century skills, or soft skills: the ability to communicate with others, to think analytically.”  I guess I’m just looking for someone to really think about the kids and how the new digital world could leave kids behind now more than ever before.  The Sugata Mitra TED talk we saw during the course proves my point perfectly.  Once Mitra put a computer in a kid’s hands, anywhere in the world, he or she excelled. In my opinion, putting some form of digital device in kids’ hands is a high priority in America, not just for superintendents and administrators but politicians as well.  If America wants to educate all kids AND be on top intellectually, academically, and economically, then we must level the playing field for all kids by giving them full access to the digital world both in and out of school.

Sherry Turkle

I think of all the readings, I like Sherry Turkle's the best.  She claims that we are in such a plugged-in society that we are all forgetting to connect with one another on a more personal, human level.  There is nothing like speaking to someone, face-to-face, as we try to work out a problem or tell a funny story to our family and friends.  It is through this form of communication that true love and connection can happen.  I have never allowed technology at the dinner table with the exception of the TV during a crisis or something truly important that the family wants to check out together.  My family tries really hard to be together during dinner time.  It doesn't always happen and sometimes we may eat quite late to be sure we can all eat and talk together, however, it is truly my favorite time of the day (not sure if it's the food, conversation, or wine ... probably all three)!

I do feel as though there is a place for social media though.  I know I would not know so much about my grandbabies that will be arriving soon if it were not for social media.  My step-daughter works crazy hours and is in school full-time so I get bits and pieces of how she and Anderson are doing through texting, Instagram and twitter.   My step-son lives in Miami and they face-time with us once a week.  Seeing little Ryan growing beautifully each week is such a gift that I would not have had if it were not for social media.  I guess I would receive pictures and such but it is not the same.  It is a face-to-face connection that I look forward to.  Also, it was through face-time that they told us they were pregnant.  We certainly had a human to human experience that night.  I cried like a baby and my husband teared up.  What a moment I will never forget!!

When I think about Turkle and Wesch, I really don't think of them as having opposing sides.  I think of Wesch as a person that is focusing on teachers connecting with students and Turkle as connecting with human beings in general.  I think they both have very valid arguments but these arguments are not opposing, just different.  I'm not sure if that makes sense.

I look forward to talking about this article!

Freedom Writers

The article I chose to reflect on is “Freedom Writers, White Teacher to the Rescue” by Chela Delgado.  Delgado is the community action coordinator at the June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco.  Delgado argues that the movie Freedom Writers is unrealistic in its portrayal of a white teacher changing the lives of her students of color. Delgado raises a number of questions at the beginning of her piece, two of which I found most interesting:  “Is it the young white teachers saving kids of color?” and “Is it the guilt I feel as a teacher who may not have succeeded as well as these superheroes?”

Over the past year I have been reading quite a bit on the “white culture of power” and how important it is for white teachers to be sensitive to the needs of their students of color.  I guess I’m trying to figure out, after all the readings, why some people believe white teachers cannot teach black students or Hispanic students or any students that don't look like them.  I have also wondered along the way, why there aren’t more teachers of color teaching students of color.  At least in Rhode Island, it appears to be a predominantly white profession.  I feel as though it is important for all teachers to be sensitive to their students’ needs and to pay attention to the culture and environment these kids live in every day.  As a teacher, I think it is my obligation to know my students very well in order to reach them and teach them to the best of my ability.  I do a lot of community building at the beginning of the year since I teach a very diverse group of kids.  Some years the community building works better than others, however, I have a good baseline in which to find ways to connect to my student’s lives.  I think it is important for any good teacher, no matter what color, to find ways to connect the curriculum to the student.  I also find it fascinating to watch my students talk to the class and teach us all something new, something interesting about their lives.  I don’t pretend to like the things my students like.  For instance, I am old and white and I don’t really like hip-hop music.  I love country music which is the last genre my black students want to listen to.  They would see right through me if I came into class playing the latest hip-hop songs.  However, I am constantly asking them to connect literature to a song, a movie, an app, something that they are interested in. Then they have the opportunity to show me what they like as I am showing them why the themes in literature are timeless.  There have been many, many times my students have chosen a song from a genre or group that I did not think I would like, and I was pleasantly surprised that I loved the song, bought the song, and now have it as part of my playlist.

Anyway, I’m ranting.  Delgado did make me think about her second question which is how teachers that do their job everyday with so many obstacles in their way, can compete with the Hollywood super-teacher mentality.  This one is hard because some teachers are at the right place and at the right time to make a significant impact on their community.  Is it luck?  Is it that this teacher is better than others?  We can all sit back and come up with excuses as to why some teachers appear to be so over-the-top awesome while others, equally as good, receive a “thanks, you really helped me overcome ___ and I appreciate your help” (isn’t it great when this happens?) from their students.  I don’t know, I think if we were in this profession for the sole purpose of getting lots of kudos, maybe we are in it for the wrong reasons.  I feel really good when a lesson goes well and I reach a student in a way that surprises us both.  I will still go see the teacher-hero movies because I find them to be inspiring.  Will I feel bad about myself that I’m not that teacher?  No, I won’t.  Although, I might walk away with an idea or something interesting that I may try in my classroom.

Happily Ever After ...

After reading Linda Christensen’s piece on cartoons and the role media plays in children’s lives, I found myself reflecting back to when I was a kid.  I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s when, in my little world, things appeared very simple.  When I was young, my brother, sister, and I did not have a television let alone a computer. It was during my middle school years that the show “The Magical World of Disney” aired on Sunday nights.  This Disney show aired mostly movies, or made for television shows, and not as many cartoons back in the 1970s.

Also, Disney World was quite foreign to me as a kid.  What I remember about Disney World was my friends talking about a large amusement park in Florida, which sounded much cooler than Rocky Point in Rhode Island.  I went to Disney World for the first time at 22 years old on my honeymoon.

Flash forward many years and now I am a young mother raising a little girl, Mandy, on my own.  When I got married in 1986 did I fall for the “Cinderella” story where I was going to marry Prince Charming and live “happily-ever-after”? Hell yeah!  Although I wouldn’t say I was counting on the life my mom had, remember the 1970s were also the “bra-burning” years, I did have a warped sense of what a “normal” life would be.

The first Disney movie I brought Mandy to was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” when she was two years old.  I was so excited to expose her to the “Wonderful World of Disney”.  Sadly, I felt quite cynical when the movie was over because I just thought it was so weird that this woman lived with seven men.  I didn’t really think about it too much until I brought Mandy to see the movie.  Long story short, my daughter did not grow up in the idealistic Disney fantasy world that many young people are exposed to.  From an early age she was told how ridiculous this cultural phenomenon was.  I felt bad sometimes because although her friends all thought that their blond, blue-eyed Prince Charming would arrive on a white horse some day, Mandy was told that Prince Charming simply did not exist.  Over the years we have had so many conversations about relationships and Disney, along with Reality Television, that it actually became fun to watch movies and television shows while we picked out all the crazy stereotypes.  

Wesch's Claim, 21st Century Kids and Learning

I think Wesch’s claim about 21^st century kids and learning is that how kids access information today is very different than the way they accessed information in the past.   Through technological advancements, teachers and students have valuable tools in which to enhance learning but it is not the end all, be all. 

He talks about various movements in education over many decades and how these movements came about and eventually faded away due to political reasons.  Whether the reasons were grounded in war policies or the economy, eventually educational movements tend to fade.  However, I found it interesting how Wesch brought politics into the conversation in order to make his point about the digital movement by saying, “The urgency of our movement is not grounded in a single political issue”. I wish I could talk to him directly about this.  It is hard for me to remove politics from the conversation when it comes to education because after this past year in Rhode Island I feel teachers were drowning in politics.  So any conversation about education must involve politics, right? But I do think I understand what he is saying.  It does not need to be a political issue to add technology and connect digitally in classrooms; teachers can simply do it on their own.  Through the many free tools available, teachers have the ability to enhance their lessons and unit plans while getting away from the blackboard and adding some fun technology.  Most likely this enhanced lesson/unit connects more closely to students' lives and helps them to be more engaged and more eager to come to class.  Perhaps teaching with the many fun tools available, and making mistakes with them, allows students to see their teachers learning right along with them.  Most of the content will still be there, it is how teachers deliver the content that needs to change.  I’m thinking that is what Wesch it trying to get across to the reader.