21st Century Learning is a term that I have bought into hook, line, and sinker. I used that term and made it sound so good. I used the rhetoric, and now I realize that much of that is just that, rhetoric. People want to make headlines by constantly saying that they are teaching these “new” skills when those were the skills that were being taught all along. As stated in one paper, “It is clear that not all of the knowledge and skills present in 21st Century Frameworks are unique and novel to this century” (Kereluik, 131). These authors go on to state that “the world of the future will continue to depend on specialized knowledge (or domain knowledge) and high level cognitive skills.” (Kereluik, 131). But, they go further and say that everything really has changed, and that is where I think I am at right now.
I’ve been going to conferences and seminars for years. I’ve tried multiple arts integration programs, including, but not limited to, drama, mime (yes, mime), dance, and visual arts. I was part of Steppenwolf Theaters Actor in the classroom and have used many theater techniques championed by Jeffrey Wilhelm. I have created stories in mime focused on language art and math. Students worked on dance in cross curricular situations. Visual arts has been used in multiple ways in my classroom as well. All of that to say that I have always struggled with how do I integrate that content seamlessly with the arts. Additionally, I have really had difficulty building around “big ideas” in my instruction. What is a “big idea”? How do you build your instruction from that? How do those big ideas integrate into the set mathematics curriculum?
While I do have my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, I know from my work with the Everyday Mathematics authors that writing a curriculum is a rigorous process that most teachers, if not all, should not attempt without a lot of experience. So, when I realized that we were going to have to write a project focused around a “big idea,” I got scared. I didn’t feel like I had to “unsee” concepts like Margie, but I did need to really step back and start with content first. (Girod, 4)
I really appreciated the TPACK article by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler because it gave a framework for thinking about these ideas. I think it takes a great deal of time and experience to be able to see how you really can integrate pedagogy, content, and technology. I used to feel great about having my students complete a Powerpoint slide show. That was years ago, but I still have had struggles knowing when technology will enhance instruction. That article by Mishra and Koehler sparked the idea of using music with ratios. Later that day, I happened to be listening to a podcast where a drummer said that he thought in patterns. That was such a great connection.
Those first couple of days I thought deeply about how I could provide experiences, but not just because they were experiences. Initially, I was thinking about how I could cultivate the creative mind-set as discussed by Henriksen and Mishra. I looked for, as they said, an “open-minded awareness of interesting things in the world around them, looking for innovative ideas for the classroom.” I got very excited about doing 3D printing and robotics, as well as the Makerspace ideas. But, after rethinking those ideas through the TPACK framework, with an emphasis on content, I realized I was sinking back into my past ways of just doing something in the classroom because it sounds cool, but not because it really fits with content. It is at this point that I will say that I believe that many of the ideas I listed above are being used but are really missing a content base. I realize that learning the scientific method is valid, but it seems to me that a lot of content is being missed in favor of things that are “fun and enjoyable.” I feel like STEM is really more about sTEm. Or, more truthfully, sTE, with math being a forgotten commodity. Plenty of teachers can be heard Plus, with art being added, math will get pushed farther away, literally and figuratively.
As I continued to play around with the ImagineIt project, I really liked the article by Chip Heath and Dan Heath entitled “Teaching that Sticks.” In it, they list several ways that teachers can make their teaching more memorable. I have loved the idea of struggle, they term it “unexpected,” for many years, and have worked to create experiences that do provide some cognitive dissonance so that students are really forced to examine their understanding of a mathematical concept. For instance, I use a lesson on the number line and start off by asking students to put zero on the number line. There are many students that have a hard time accepting that zero can be anywhere on the line if no other numbers are labeled on it yet. I’ve also loved story for a long time, and I completely agree with Heath and Heath in that story is a natural hook for all students.
Keeping all of this in mind, I decided that I wanted to bring out the understanding inside of students and have them be able to show their learning. Hence the name, #MAKEITVISIBLE, for my ImagineIt project. I took a long time to hone in on the concepts that I eventually decided to focus on. I was aided in my research at the end of phase 3 by an article about big ideas, written by Randall Charles. I thought bigger in terms of big ideas for the project, in that I want my students to be able to show their knowledge and communicate their learning. But, within the context of math, the big ideas in Charles’ article were extremely helpful in framing the concepts I want to focus on, namely variables, ratios, and measurement.
I am excited about this year and the way that everything seems to be falling together. I really think that the technology that I will be using will enhance learning and content, as well as be fun and entertaining.
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., Terry, L. (2013). What Knowledge is of most worth: Teacher knowledge for 21st Century Learning. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, (29) 4, 127 – 140.
Girod, M. (2001). Teaching for Aesthetic Understanding. Dissertation. Michigan State University.
Henriksen, D and Mishra, P. (2013). Learning from Creative Teachers. Educational Leadership, (70) 5. http://punya.educ.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Creative-Teachers-Henriksen-Mishra2013.pdf.
Charles, Randall. "Big Ideas and Understandings as the Foundation for Elementary and Middle School Mathematics." Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership 7.3 (2005): 9-24. Jaymctighe.com. Web. 6 Aug. 2015. <http://jaymctighe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MATH-Big-Ideas_NCSM_Spr05v73p9-24.pdf>.
I’ve been going to conferences and seminars for years. I’ve tried multiple arts integration programs, including, but not limited to, drama, mime (yes, mime), dance, and visual arts. I was part of Steppenwolf Theaters Actor in the classroom and have used many theater techniques championed by Jeffrey Wilhelm. I have created stories in mime focused on language art and math. Students worked on dance in cross curricular situations. Visual arts has been used in multiple ways in my classroom as well. All of that to say that I have always struggled with how do I integrate that content seamlessly with the arts. Additionally, I have really had difficulty building around “big ideas” in my instruction. What is a “big idea”? How do you build your instruction from that? How do those big ideas integrate into the set mathematics curriculum?
While I do have my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, I know from my work with the Everyday Mathematics authors that writing a curriculum is a rigorous process that most teachers, if not all, should not attempt without a lot of experience. So, when I realized that we were going to have to write a project focused around a “big idea,” I got scared. I didn’t feel like I had to “unsee” concepts like Margie, but I did need to really step back and start with content first. (Girod, 4)
I really appreciated the TPACK article by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler because it gave a framework for thinking about these ideas. I think it takes a great deal of time and experience to be able to see how you really can integrate pedagogy, content, and technology. I used to feel great about having my students complete a Powerpoint slide show. That was years ago, but I still have had struggles knowing when technology will enhance instruction. That article by Mishra and Koehler sparked the idea of using music with ratios. Later that day, I happened to be listening to a podcast where a drummer said that he thought in patterns. That was such a great connection.
Those first couple of days I thought deeply about how I could provide experiences, but not just because they were experiences. Initially, I was thinking about how I could cultivate the creative mind-set as discussed by Henriksen and Mishra. I looked for, as they said, an “open-minded awareness of interesting things in the world around them, looking for innovative ideas for the classroom.” I got very excited about doing 3D printing and robotics, as well as the Makerspace ideas. But, after rethinking those ideas through the TPACK framework, with an emphasis on content, I realized I was sinking back into my past ways of just doing something in the classroom because it sounds cool, but not because it really fits with content. It is at this point that I will say that I believe that many of the ideas I listed above are being used but are really missing a content base. I realize that learning the scientific method is valid, but it seems to me that a lot of content is being missed in favor of things that are “fun and enjoyable.” I feel like STEM is really more about sTEm. Or, more truthfully, sTE, with math being a forgotten commodity. Plenty of teachers can be heard Plus, with art being added, math will get pushed farther away, literally and figuratively.
As I continued to play around with the ImagineIt project, I really liked the article by Chip Heath and Dan Heath entitled “Teaching that Sticks.” In it, they list several ways that teachers can make their teaching more memorable. I have loved the idea of struggle, they term it “unexpected,” for many years, and have worked to create experiences that do provide some cognitive dissonance so that students are really forced to examine their understanding of a mathematical concept. For instance, I use a lesson on the number line and start off by asking students to put zero on the number line. There are many students that have a hard time accepting that zero can be anywhere on the line if no other numbers are labeled on it yet. I’ve also loved story for a long time, and I completely agree with Heath and Heath in that story is a natural hook for all students.
Keeping all of this in mind, I decided that I wanted to bring out the understanding inside of students and have them be able to show their learning. Hence the name, #MAKEITVISIBLE, for my ImagineIt project. I took a long time to hone in on the concepts that I eventually decided to focus on. I was aided in my research at the end of phase 3 by an article about big ideas, written by Randall Charles. I thought bigger in terms of big ideas for the project, in that I want my students to be able to show their knowledge and communicate their learning. But, within the context of math, the big ideas in Charles’ article were extremely helpful in framing the concepts I want to focus on, namely variables, ratios, and measurement.
I am excited about this year and the way that everything seems to be falling together. I really think that the technology that I will be using will enhance learning and content, as well as be fun and entertaining.
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., Terry, L. (2013). What Knowledge is of most worth: Teacher knowledge for 21st Century Learning. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, (29) 4, 127 – 140.
Girod, M. (2001). Teaching for Aesthetic Understanding. Dissertation. Michigan State University.
Henriksen, D and Mishra, P. (2013). Learning from Creative Teachers. Educational Leadership, (70) 5. http://punya.educ.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Creative-Teachers-Henriksen-Mishra2013.pdf.
Charles, Randall. "Big Ideas and Understandings as the Foundation for Elementary and Middle School Mathematics." Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership 7.3 (2005): 9-24. Jaymctighe.com. Web. 6 Aug. 2015. <http://jaymctighe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MATH-Big-Ideas_NCSM_Spr05v73p9-24.pdf>.