It can be easy to let fear take over our decisions. Many people have avoided life-altering things such as applying for medical school or buying a business due to fear. The safe route is not ideal in the "age of acceleration" as stated in the article, It's P.Q. and C.Q. as much as I.Q. I can admit that within my teaching experience I have taken the "safe" route at times. I am learning that veering left off of that route can spark passion and curiosity.
I have been comparing the concepts of the Passion Quotient (PQ), Curiosity Quotient (CQ) , and Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Many different IQ tests over many years have determined who is "smart enough". This deems to be problematic. "Smart" people can get frustrated when a problem is not easily solved. This reminds me of a lesson I teach my first graders. We discuss growth mindset and how it is so important to show grit when we run into a problem we cannot solve right away. I experienced practicing grit while I explored the problem of incorporating technology into classrooms daily. I discuss this more in my previous blog about A Beautiful Question. To help encourage people to take risks I have included Tom Friedman's Advice:
After reflecting on these steps, I published a podcast explaining how passion and curiosity have driven some of my decisions within my career and life. I hope you enjoy and see the connections I have made throughout this process.
References: Friedman, T. L. (2013, January 30). It's P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html
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One of the biggest lessons I have learned as a teacher is being able to learn from mistakes, asking for help, and self-reflection. One of the benefits of teaching is that we are surrounded by co-workers who are able to help us do these things. It is important for educators to communicate ideas and collaborate. This will benefit our learning classroom learning environments and school culture. I recently created a survey to understand my co-workers better. I have been working on finding a solution to a wicked problem. This problem is:
The problem still exists even though I was able to see that my co-workers use technology and understand that students benefit from this. I want to help my co-workers understand that using technology is much more than keeping a child busy or practicing addition problems. I want my co-workers to see that using technology has research-based evidence. I also would like my co-workers to look outside of their classrooms and learn from each other. One way I can ensure this is by challenging myself to presenting my colleagues with a Professional Development based on my personalized creation. Professional Development to support my colleagues’ learning:
Next, I wanted to use the data collected to create a plan. I learned the teachers in my school found that the two best learning techniques that help students learn are: 1. Small group instruction 2. Technology Part of my personalized creation plan included learning goals for my PD. I will take these two learning techniques and help teachers find a way to incorporate both of these aspects into their classrooms. I believe small group instruction is so important and so do my co-workers. Through discussion and planning we will decide on a way that we can pull small groups while using technology. This is also an important learning goal because we do not have 1:1 technology, so small group instruction will be easier to utilize with technology in this way. I also want to ensure teachers that technology is a tool that can be used for all students. During this process I wanted to work towards solving a wicked problem that effects not only teachers but students as well. I have personally seen students with academic needs and emotional needs benefit from the use of technology. In order to ensure that my Professional Development includes meaningful discussion around this topic. I will share the images below in a handout. This includes math and readings strategies that are currently practiced in out school. Some of the ways include interactive games, vocabulary tools, online stories, and khan academy. Part of my wicked solution is to find math and reading lessons that teachers can easily integrate into their classrooms. Teachers can prioritize the ways in which we can incorporate technology. This will also help give other teachers ideas that they can explore more deeply. Below I have created a video to display my Wicked Problem and the process looking forward. While I was creating this I kept in mind my goals. Next, I created a layout for my Professional Development plan. I have gotten the chance to present a technology tool to my colleagues in the past. There was not as much discussion had between co-workers due to time constraints. In the future, I would like my colleagues to have structured conversations and collaborations surrounding my wicked problem. I believe this will result in a progression towards finding a solution! References:
A survey can say a lot. It can give insight, drive decisions, and encourage change. I recently sent a survey to my fellow teachers to understand their perspectives and experiences. The purpose of this survey was to help me solve a Wicked Problem:
I wanted to get a better understanding of who was using technology inside our school, how they were using it, and how they felt about technology. So what will I do with this information? My goal is to guide teachers in my district. Eventually, I would like to present a professional development based on technology integration. I would also like to help my co-workers better pedagogy and content knowledge along-side technology, also known as the TPACK framework. There is a lot of importance to help teachers understand TPACK. This is because it can guide their instructional practices to use technology in a meaningful and creative way. Below I have included a video surrounding my survey experience, data findings, and future plan. Image created by author. In my survey, teachers were able to come up with many benefits to using technology inside of the classroom. The information I was given is important because it shows me that many teachers see technology in a positive light and would be willing to jump on board with me. It is important to have teacher "buy-in". Some of the benefits of technology that were stated included:
Image created by author. Image created by author. In order to get a better understanding of how my co-workers use technology in their math and reading blocks. Most teachers use iPads and chromebooks in their classrooms. Unfortunately, our school does not have one to one technology. I think it is great to see teachers are still utilizing what they have to the best of their ability. I noticed that teachers were able to utilize technology more with reading than math. I believe this is due to the curriculums we use. Our reading curriculum is called McGraw-Hill and the online technology is called ConnectEd. There are many interactive games, vocabulary tools, and stories on this app. I found that teachers also use their smart boards, projectors, online videos, flip charts, graphic organizers, and khan academy. Unfortunately our math curriculum does not have math programs built in. Due to this, part of my solution to my Wicked Problem is to find math activities and lessons that teachers could integrate into their classrooms. Image created by author. Image created by author. After all is said and done, I still have a wicked problem. How can I get these teachers to integrate technology into their math and reading lessons in a meaningful way? Well, I don't believe it will happen overnight. Even though teachers seem on board with technology (for the most part), it will still take some convincing and teaching. There is still a lack of understanding. What tools work best? What types of lessons should I use technology in? My goal is to start small and engage in as many conversations as possible. I would like to start by doing a professional development that revolves around technology and education. I have enjoyed picking the brains of my colleagues and look forward to getting one step closer to a Wicked Solution.
References:
This week I explored a very wicked problem. This problem involves using technology within the classroom. Most schools have some technology that they can provide to their teachers, but how do teachers use this technology? The problem that I am striving to solve is:
I created a technology and curriculum survey to help me understand how my co-workers utilize and integrate technology into their lesson plans. Knowing how they already use it will guide me to understanding their routines, content that is addressed, and delivery. While creating this survey, it was a challenge to think of how I could create questions that would give me the answers I needed. I originally stuck to yes and no questions. After reflecting and revising I included questions that were open ended and gave me more information. These questions require the survey-taker to expand on their personal experiences. Below are three important questions that will hopefully give me more insight on my Wicked Problem. Image created by author. The design process involved creating a rough draft, redesigning questions, and reflecting on what I need to get out of this survey. I believe I will get a good idea of how teachers use technology in my school along with how I can possibly get closer to solving my Wicked Problem. References:
This week, I started looking deeper into the stages of questioning. I decided to check back at my Question Quickfire and look at how these questions revolve around my role as a teacher, my educational practices, and issues surrounding technology. After reviewing these questions, I decided to sort them based on their characteristics and general idea. This helped me decide on how these questions differ from each other. I categorized my questions into three different groupings and finally was able to understand how to prioritize and understand each question. Some of these questions were based more on "me" as a teacher and my personal goals. The questions under the "we" problem were directed towards teachers and educators as a population. The "techy" questions all revolved around technology. Below I have included an image of my categorization process. Image taken by author. I wanted to share my thought process through a visual thinking tool called VideoScribe. It was my first time using anything like this and I really enjoyed it. While using this, I explained the benefits and power behind inquiry, questions, and how I plan to use these questions to guide my practice as an educator. After reading Warren Berger’s (2014) A More Beautiful Question, I discovered that asking why has to do with seeing and understanding. Asking the "why" questions helps discover what it is that we want to accomplish out of the question. I explored questioning in a few different ways this week: 1. Creating categories to place questions within 2. Understanding how questions are different from one another 3. Deciding how questions are similar 4. Prioritizing questions It was challenging to find the underlying topic of each question and deciding on how to group each question. As the process progressed, it became easier and clicked! References
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: the power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury. Questions, questions, questions. As I reflect on my week of exploring the idea of a question, I realize that there is more to it than just a question mark at the end. I am often the type of person to ask a lot of questions in any kind of setting. I like to question new people that I meet, I am not afraid to ask questions during meetings, and I even question myself (more often than I should). Although, what constitutes a quality question? I challenged myself to something called a "Question Quickfire". I gave myself 5 minutes to think of as many questions as I could. These questions mainly revolved around my career as an educator. During the 5 minute time period, I felt stumped. For some reason when I was given a certain amount of time to brainstorm I was overthinking every question I wrote down. I felt stressed and checked my timer 5 different times throughout the process. Finally, I was able to complete this task and was content with the questions I came up with but not how many I could create. The funny part is, I am not afraid to ask questions to my students, colleagues, or friends. Although, for some reason this task was difficult for me. During this, I enjoyed exploring a new tech tool called Lino. Lino is an interactive sticky note board. This helped me organize my thoughts during the Quickfire. The purpose was to challenge myself by allowing my brain to flow. Below I have included my questions during this Quickfire activity. I challenge you to choose a topic and see how many questions you can come up with! I recently started reading Warren Berger's (2014) A More Beautiful Question. While diving into the first two chapters, I questioned everything I ever knew about questions. One thing in particular that popped out to me was the power of questioning within a school setting. As a teacher, I want my students to feel comfortable to inquire. As a first grade teacher, there are times I should give my students more opportunities to ask questions. This can be difficult because of time crunches and staying on task. In the book's introduction it shows that teacher's often reward students when they get the correct answers as opposed to asking quality questions. After reading A Beautiful Question, I was able to connect science to the idea of questioning. Berger (2014) described how divergent thinking is a key ingredient to questions. In fact, trying to come up with alternative ideas creates a large amount of creative brain stimulus and can be very rewarding for an individual. This applies to students in my classroom because the idea of creative questioning could effect their engagement and motivation within the classroom (2014, p. 17). A large part of student behavior and success relies on student engagement. In my own practice, I often try to keep instruction perky and explicit. I allow my students time to talk and discuss. Although, Berger suggests recognizing the decline of student engagement with the increase of age. In fact, studies have shown that only 45% of high school students are engaged and interested in their learning (2014, p. 45). I often wonder if this is because of the lack of hands-on exploration. I recall my high school courses involved a lot of lecturing and note taking. What a daunting experience. So how do we fix this? Is there a solution? Can we change education? All of these questions run through my mind as I question the projection of education. The answer may not be obvious now but I am determined to adjust my own teaching. How can I start? Luckily, Berger (2014) provides a series of steps to help incorporate questioning into my own classroom (pg. 65): Step 1: Teachers design a Questions Focus Step 2: Students produce Questions (No help from the teacher) Step 3: Students improve their questions (opening and closing them) Step 4: Students prioritize their questions (three favorites) Step 5: Students and teachers decide on next steps Step 6: Students reflect on what they have learned I look forward to trying these six steps in hopes that my students and I can both feel more comfortable looking closer to find a more beautiful question. References:
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: the power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury. |
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