blog post #2

Both books talk about Collaborative learning. What are some of the challenges you see in implementing this in your classrooms?

The biggest challenge I see in implementing collaborative learning in the classroom is the initial time that it takes to prepare. It takes time to reinvent your curriculum to meet the requirements of collaboration. It is just easier to do it like it has always been done. I think that the key is to create collaborative lessons in a slow progression, one or two a year and build on them each year.

Collaborative learning also takes time to train the students how to work in a group setting, modeling your expectations so that they know what a well functioning group looks like. This is something that I have witnessed in many classrooms, students are grouped to work on an assignment but they are not really told what the expectations are for the group. In this situation you will usually have one person that takes control, one that argues with everything the leader says, one or two that look totally frustrated by the bickering and one that just sits back and takes a free ride.

I found an excellent article on the ISTE web site about reinventing your classroom. It has stories from teachers that have made the move to project based learning. http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/REINVT-excerpt.pdf

I also found a web site that has tutorial videos about implementing project based learning into your curriculum. There is a ton of information on this site that I found useful. http://www.bie.org/

Here is one of the videos from the site that I found interesting.


video from The Buck Institute for Education, problem based learning page http://www.bie.org/

Video Games in the Classroom

Video games in the classroom


I have had a hard time trying to choose a video game that could be used in the classroom. Not because I don’t see any value in them but because there are so many and so many possibilities that it is hard to choose just one.

If you were to use Farmville you could teach geometry concepts. You have to be able to use spatial concepts to figure out how to arrange everything on your farm for the maximum use of land. You have to plan where you are placing items to be able to access them as well. If you have corner plots that are blocked from view they are difficult to plant and harvest which may cost you revenue. Also with the trees you have to think about where they will be placed as to not block access to the land around them.

The game Angry Birds you have to think about angles and trajectories. This is a game that kids will keep working with until they get it figured out. If you gave them a worksheet with the same idea they would give up quickly, but in the video game format they will keep trying until they succeed. You can then take some of these concepts and have them build some of the structures out of blocks and test how stable they are and what they need to change to improve their structural integrity. There are many geometry and physics concepts in most video games. Even in a simple pool game you have to problem solve and use angles and force and motion ideas to be successful.

I have found through Rice University a Crime Scene Investigation simulation game that has some really awesome components. You can compare DNA samples, look at bullet fragments and match them, you can observe a animated autopsy and have each step explained. They give you facts and evidence from a crime and you have to walk through each step of the investigation to solve the crime. http://forensics.rice.edu/ Check it out !! It has the characters from CSI: Nevada. I had a whole summer science program built around this web site. We were going to start with the web adventure and then have speakers from local law enforcement talk to them about crime scene investigation. Then I was going to set up a mock crime scene and have them use all the concepts that they learned from the web adventure and the speakers and short mini lessons to solve the crime. I was going to have them do finger printing, hair sample analysis, foot print casting, fiber analysis and interview suspects. Unfortunately this did not happen because I was denied my grant and the school couldn’t afford to fund the program. I still have all the plans so maybe sometime in the future it still may come to be.

There are so many choices where you can take your students on web adventures or have them learn specific concepts through video games. Even just the problem solving and critical thinking skills that it takes to be successful in these games can be built upon in the classroom. This is something that is being talked about more all the time. We discussed this concept in my Visual Literacy class last semester, Dr. Z was telling me about someone doing their research on this idea and I found several articles on the topic as well. I think it will be a fun addition to the classroom and for some kids will really get them excited about learning. I believe if you really tried you could find many games that would teach a concept that kids can relate to and then take it away with them and apply that concept to a real world situation. It will take thought and planning, not just random games with the claim of educational value, but could be a great addition to your curriculum.

Image from Rice University CSI web site, http://forensics.rice.edu/

Visual Symbols in My Life

There are so many symbols that we see every day that it is hard to isolate a few to add here. But right now is such a busy time for me. All my classwork for the semester is due today, I have many end of the year things going on at school and am trying to get summer school set up and scheduled for the elementary and high school kids at Janesville, I start my new courses next week, I am in my usual spring mode of applying for jobs, planning a trip to Florida in June, helping to plan my daughters wedding in July, and just the everyday things that a person has to do. I am sure my husband is wishing I was doing more of the everyday things this week, we may be getting kind of hungry soon if one of us does not find time to go to the grocery store. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining it is just the time of year, so many things to do and they always all come at once. That is why my first two symbols are a calendar and a clock.

Over the past couple of weeks about the only thing that I have really identified with as a visual symbol is:

I have been fueled with Diet Coke and chocolate, I have my computer on and my phone closeby almost all the time, I visit the IAREAP web site on a daily basis and when not teaching, I am surrounded by text books and articles and have been working on building two web sites. One for my library course and one for the new preschool in Waverly.

I am winding down this semester and getting ready for the next, only a one week break.

I am hoping that my yearly quest for employment will come to an end this year by finding a position that I can stay with for the long haul, one that doesn't end up on the chopping block, one that is an awesome fit for my background and experience.

This course has taught me a great deal about visual literacy and I have enjoyed coming to class and participating in the discussion. Always an enlightening experience. The video clips from our favorite movies last week were a lot of fun and I now have a list of must see movies if I find some free time this summer. I have watched more YouTube videos this semester than I have at any other time in my life and I have had some good laughs from many of them.

I love being in the classroom both as a student as a teacher and this has been a great start on my journy to a masters degree. I look forward to what comes next.

A moving sight!

I debated for a few days if I should add this to my blog. The video below was taken by someone in the funeral procession for Spc. Don Nichols. The support from the community was an awesome sight. It is an emotional experience to watch the video even though it is very poor quality.  I did not personally know this young solider and most of the people lining the streets did not either, but their pride in the people who serve our country and the support that was offered to this family was amazing. I can not even imagine what they were feeling as they rode through these communities and saw all the people lining the streets with flags. This is a visual image that will not soon be forgotten but hopefully not soon repeated.

PSA from my childhood Aha moment

Watching the PSA's in class last night made me think of the ones I saw when I was a kid. This is the one I remember most. They were very corny but the tunes stuck in your head.



This one is a little disturbing. The pot of boiling water should scare any kid out of the kitchen.

There are several from the 70's about the constitution. They talk about different aspects of the document but all end with the tag line, "The Constitution is for everyone, even kids."

There were a lotof PSA's in the seventies that were geared toward kids. There was even the hour long After School Specials that were basically PSA's that told a story. Usually about topics like stranger danger, bullying, peer pressure, drugs and teenage drinking. They must have been somewhat effective since I remember most of them and I watched them over 30 years ago. OK now I feel old.
The youth oriented PSA's of my time were not as in your face as the ones that we watched last night, like the ones for crack and texting while driving. Maybe that is what is needed now to make people listen but I think I like the ones above better. I know I drove home last night singing, "grab yourself a hunk-a, a slab or slice or chunk-a, grab yourself a hunk of cheese!!"

you want to watch something silly you have to watch Shaun the Sheep. He is awesome
I love cartoons and this one is one of my current favorites. It is completely clean and child safe, I first saw it on the Disney channel and my four year old loves it, even if she doesn't get all the humor.


I also love old Bugs Bunny cartoons, they are so politically incorrect that they are funny.  This one is one of my all time favorites.
I looked forward to watching cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. Now they say all the ones I watched are too violent. But when I watch cartoons with my daughter now they are awful. They are not funny, they aren't fun in any way and they have way too adult themes to them. Why do they insist on making cartoons that are for teenagers instead of for little kids.

This one is very teenaged themed and is is on during the time that is slotted for little kids. The creators of kids shows need to do a better job of making kid approriate programming. That is why I really try to keep Amelia on PBS. This one is surprisingly from Disney.Catoons are a great stress reliever, that is what got me watching them today and I thought I would share them with all of you.

Aha for 4-11-11

Facination with Disaster

It seems that there has been nothing on television and on the internet news sources lately but stories about disasters. When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan there was nothing but pictures and stories everywhere. I will admit I spent time watching the videos and looking at the pictures. They were amazing, the amount of devestation.

I have a friend that lives in Japan so I was trying to look at maps and photos to see if the area she lives in was affected. She lives around Kobe so she was safe from the worst of the damage.
Why are we so facinated by the misfortune of others. Millions of photos can be found on the internet showing natural and some un-natural disasters.

Floods from history as well as more recent and local events.

Forest fires, I personally witnessed one of the biggest in the history of Yellowstone in 1988. I lived in Cody that summer and there were some times when it looked like dusk at 10:00 in the morning. I would have a layer of ash on my car when I would leave work at night. Driving throught the Sunlight Basin and having fire on both sides of the road was an experience I don't really need to repeat.

Tornados in Iowa City and Parkersburg were both disasters that hit very close to home and affected people I knew in both locations.

All these events capture our attention and can be seen everywhere right after they happen. The internet provides us the opportunity to see many home videos and photos that are not included on the news, some of which you wish you hadn't viewed. I think back to when I was a kid, yes that was a very long time ago, and we would see articles in the newspapers and there might be a brief story on the nightly news but we didn't have access to the vast amount of information that is out there now. We as a world are so much more connected almost instantly. It might have taken days for news of the Japan earthquake to reach our local news but today it is with in minutes and we are hearing about it or seeing it on the news. It is amazing to me still how the sharing of information has changed over a very short amount of time.
My thoughts are a little deep today and maybe that is because I wonder how long will the earthquakes in Japan be called aftershocks and you have to wonder how they will recover from all that was lost.
The world's facination with disaster will not go away but it is certainly fed a much larger diet in this age of instant communication.