My First Attempt at a TED-Ed Lesson

This week I was asked to create my first lesson on the TED-Ed platform. I have been working a lot with literacy and story comprehension strategies this semester so I chose to center my lesson around the fable of The Three Little Pigs.

This lesson asks students to view one animated version of the fable and answer multiple choice questions about it. Then, students are asked to skim an advanced article about the meaning of the fable. Afterward, students watch another animated version of the fable--this one being far more detailed--and then compare and contrast the two videos. Finally, students must answer a discussion question about the meaning of "being prepared."

The objectives of this activity are as follows:
SWBAT answer basic comprehension questions about The Three Little Pigs.
SW compare and contrast two different versions of the same story.
SWBAT understand the meaning of "being prepared" and explain it in writing when talking about the third little pig.
SW practice skim reading strategies.

The first three objectives can be assessed within the TED-Ed lesson itself, as students answer multiple choice comprehension questions within the lesson, and answer short-answer discussion questions within the lesson. As the lesson creator, I will be able to monitor the student responses and see which areas of the lesson gave students a hard time. If I had a real classroom, I would make sure to go over these answers in class and reinforce the trouble areas through further activities.
The four and final objective cannot be measured on an online platform, and I'll be honest in admitting that I only included it because the assignment called for two links to be included in the lesson.

Flipping the Approach

The idea of a "flipped classroom" is gaining popularity, especially among ESL teachers! If you haven't heard about "flipped classrooms," basically the idea is very similar to any college seminar class:

1.) Teach yourself by watching teacher selected/ prepared videos or texts before class.
2.) Arrive at class having already digested the content material and spend class time collaborating and working with others on comprehension activities directly relating to what you have read or watched ahead of time.
3.) Reflect on what you have learned and practiced through some sort of writing or final statement of understanding.

According to Flipping your Classroom: A Primer and Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom, this strategy of using class time to work on comprehension of pre-learned materials can work well for any age, not just university students. This approach can increase students comprehension, collaboration skills, and critical thinking!

What I connected to the most from the above articles was the idea that often times students go home after a lecture and are unable to complete their homework due to a lack of full understanding. I remember struggling with this all the time in high school. By moving the traditional "homework" into class time, students are able to access help from both the teacher and other students when they get stuck. This is a huge advantage, and something that has definitely peaked my interested in trying a "flipped" approach in the future.

#langchat is a Go!

This morning I participated in a Twitter chat for World Language teachers. The chat is held on Twitter every Saturday morning from 10-11am EST and is linked through the hashtag "langchat."
(By setting your twitter feed to view "All Posts" when searching a tag, new tweets containing your chosen hashtag are popping up on the feed every few seconds, resulting in a Chat environment.)
When I joined the #langchat conversation, I tweeted to introduce myself to the group and was instantly welcomed in by several people, which made the activity feel even more like a chat. There was a chat leader, a woman named Collene, who posted three questions to the group dealing with cross-subject collaboration and language learning. Other tweeters responded to the questions, essentially brainstorming answers rather than really discussing or talking back to one another too much. That being said, some people did respond to others' posts by retweeting and commenting on them.

The topic of this particular chat--cross subject collaboration--was something that I have been discussing in other classes as well, which made it very relate-able to me.
I can see, even from only this one experience, that teacher Twitter Chats are a useful tool. You can gain whole lists of ideas on any given teacher-topic each week! (depending on the weekly topic.) Despite having a deep seeded dislike of Twitter as a social media platform, using it as a chat platform was more agreeable to me than I expected, especially once I downloaded the app on my phone. The view was very easy to read and refresh and I could keep up with the Q & A's flow easily.

Introduction to Twitter for Professional Development

This week, as I have been exploring Twitter through my online course about using technology in the classroom, I keep hearing about Twitter Chats. We are required to participate in one for our class, but even as I read some articles about how Twitter is useful for professional development the topic came up over and over again.

In Education World's article Using Twitter for Professional Development, they describe Twitter chats as a cheap and easy method of professional development. According to Dr. Peter Dewitt, practicing teachers around the world are the true experts in the education field, as they have continuing firsthand knowledge about what's going on in classrooms from year to year. For this reason, connecting with other teachers seems to be the best method to improve our craft. This is an idea that I have been exploring for awhile now, and according to the article, Twitter Chats are one of the best ways to accomplish this. Apparently groups of teachers live chat by posting questions and responses to one another at a designated time using an specific hashtag.

I'll be honest in admitting that Twitter has never been a site that interested me in the slightest. Despite the fact that links can be added to tweets, making them intellectually worth more than just 140 characters, as the article mentioned, I still find the site to be one of the least visually pleasing of all the social connectivity sites I have explored (other than diigo.) However, I am somewhat intrigued to experience a Twitter Chat and see what all of the fuss is about.

The Educator's PLN

The Educator's PLN (or personal learning network) is a great resource to help educators connect on the web. In order to join this site, you must first sign up and then be approved by the administrators. When creating your account, you can also link other accounts into the network, such as your twitter, diigo, and linkedin profiles.

There are a lot of helpful resources on The Educator's PLN, including a chat forum for teachers to discuss their struggles and successes in the classroom, links to teacher podcasts and education blogs, and various advice articles related to teaching.

As someone who is new to twitter, I found one particular resource useful. Under the Resources tab, there is a list of twitter hashtags related to education!  I am sure that I will make use of this list to help me get the most out of twitter in my professional future.  There are also plenty of articles being shared by teachers in this network every day, which means that I can go to this site whenever a question arises in my classroom--since someone else is bound to have experienced the same problem!
While I haven't exhausted the possibilities that The Educators PLN has to offer to teachers as of yet, as I haven't been fully approved by the admins, I can already see how helpful this site will be--not only for connecting specifically on this website but also for intertwining the networks of all the accounts I have set up for this class so far.

Checking out ePals

This week I spent some time exploring the ePals website, a site that helps teachers guide their students in global connection making through interactive culture or language projects.

The current global cultural challenge featured on the website, for example, helps students learn about and take on the role of a folklorist. Students can read about the work of professional folklorists, do research projects of their own by documenting local traditions, and submit their final project to the website. I think this project is a wonderful opportunity to study community, journalistic style writing, and cultural differences. I also like this project because it gives students a major goal to work toward in their study--having them produce a final piece that will be submitted for something outside of my classroom. This could really motivate students to work hard and create a final piece that interests them and that they can be proud of.
Another cool thing about the ePals website is how customizable it is. As a teacher searching to make connections with other classrooms, I can narrow down my search by type of desired collaboration (cultural, language, or subject area,) age range of students, languages spoken, and country of origin.
Based on the fact that the Folklorist Challenge is labeled with the year 2016, I assume that there willl be a new challenge on this website each year. I am excited to see what challenges come up in the future and I will definitely consider having my class participate in them someday.

These Learners Today...

Today’s learner is like a bundle of nerves—perhaps on more than one level, considering how much stress and anxiety young people tend to internalize these days. But on a more academic front, the process of learning is very different than it once was. In a video titled The Changing Nature of Knowledge discussing modern day learning, George Siemens addresses how the process of learning has shifted toward community style information sharing, saying, "Today because of the complex environment that we're in, learning isn't something that's exclusively limited or occurs exclusively within an individual’s mind," rather, as he notes in another video titled The Impact of Social Software on Learning, "Our learning today is one of forming networks with each other."   

The idea of networks instantly made me think of the nervous system. 

Each bundle of nerves within our body is connected to others in the same system and continually receives information in a circuit. The nerves may then use the information to cause the body to take action in some way. Similarly, the modern learner is connected to others who share similar interests or fields of study. Just as in a body,  new information is entering the circuit and shifting the structure of our field all the time! In his seminal article on this topic, titled Connectivity: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, Siemens confirms this analogy, noting that, "Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired." While the nerves may not always cause the body to react to new stimuli, the learner also has the choice to simply stay up-to-date on what is happening in his or her area rather than acting--or, as Siemens puts it, "staying current."