I have been dappling with the idea of a scope and sequence for ICT. My first instinct when I hear the words ICT scope and sequence is to cringe. I have always found the idea of a scope and sequence restricting and irrelevant but I also understand that teachers have a varied level of competence and confidence in teaching and using technology. Therefore I have come around to the use of a scope and sequence being beneficial, not binding.
So I started to play around with what I thought a scope and sequence should be. After looking at some examples I certainly came up with what I didn’t want the scope and sequence to be.
- A document cut and pasted from various places
- A reworded curriculum
- Irrelevant
- Too wordy
- Impracticable
- Only about word processing
Today I finished the first draft of what I am calling a Scope and Continuum. I really wanted it to have a continuum of gradual learning experiences for students whilst retaining scope for it to be used in a variety of ways.
I used Richard Olsen’s Ideaslab White Paper on Understanding Virtual Pedagogies as the framework for online learning as well as CyberSmart’s concepts of Digital Citizenship. I then wanted to offer ideas for applications for a variety of devices, using different platforms and integrating it with learning systems we have in place in Victorian Schools (The application is a work in progress, as you will see.)
Now after spending quite a few hours in putting it all together I am certainly having second thoughts.
- Is it too wordy?
- Have I missed the point?
- What have I left out?
- Do the skills and understandings even create a continuum?
- Is it too restricting?
- Would it even help anyone?
- Have I got Richard’s White Paper completely wrong?
And what better way to help me answer these questions than by putting it out to my personal learning network for some feedback.
So I would love to have your feedback. What do you think about scope and sequences? Is there a need for them? What do you think I should take out or include?
You can view the Scope and Continuum here and add comments directly to the document or share your thoughts in the blog comments. And I would love some ideas for applicationstoo!
Posted in ICT Tagged: continuum, curriculum, DIgital Technologies, ICT, scope, sequence May 10, 2012
I love putting myself in the student’s shoes. It gives you a sense of what we as teachers put them through during a learning experience.
For some time now I have heard many people talking about the game Minecraft. I really wanted to know more about it but had put it in the too hard basket after making a couple of attempts to work it out.
Minecraft is a 3D game of blocks where you are dropped into a world with limited tools and need to use the resources around you to survive from the monsters, which come out at night. It is a little like being dropped into the middle of Legoland. Like the real world you are subject to the elements of the environment you are dropped into, like snow or rain. In the first day you are dropped into a new world the race is on to find shelter before night falls.
Yesterday, I finally decided to set aside a couple of hours and have a play.
In their shoes lesson number 1: It takes me a long time to take a risk and have a go.
Before I signed up I had a look around the Minecraft website. Although there was plenty of information on it, most of it made little sense to me. That was until I saw a video about surviving your first day in Minecraft.
In their shoes lesson number 2: I need to do more than reading to understand. When I see something in action it makes more sense.
So it was time to jump. I signed up and I felt confident that I knew what to do during my first day in my new world after watching the video.
Somehow I survived my first night with my life in tact. How I am not sure. By daylight I realised how to get out of the game and head back to the tutorials.
In their shoes lesson number 3: I don’t remember anything if I haven’t applied it.
After watching the tutorials for a second and then third time I felt confident to get back in and have another go. This time I made progress. In the first day I was able to make a crafting table and then I had time to go digging for coal. That is when I found that if you mine down far enough you will come across lava. And lava will kill you if you fall in it! Obvious? Well, I realise that now!
Back to the tutorials I went. This time I found that I could change some settings and make the monsters disappear. <sigh of relief>
In their shoes lesson number 4: I don’t learn under pressure.
So I spent the next six hours slowly making my way through a few achievements and learning the ways of the world in Minecraft, with the help of the peaceful setting. I have now built a house with doors, lit a path between my house and where I am mining for resources and this afternoon I even put a lovely garden of flowers along the side of the house.
In their shoes lesson number 5: Learning something new takes time
So what did I learn?
In the first few hours in Minecraft I learnt:
- It rains a lot in the jungle.
- A good sense of direction in life does not equate to a good sense of direction in a game.
- Lava kills.
- Creepers are mean.
- You can’t break a rock with your fist.
- The days go very quickly when you are working hard.
I also learnt a lot about me:
- I don’t like violence or scary things.
- I like to have order (The first thing I built was a shed to store my tools and at the end of every day I organise my inventory)
- I am a creature of habit.
- The environmentalist in me shows through in a game. (I couldn’t kill an animal. The kids in my class are looking into whether I can survive in Minecraft as a vegetarian and today they showed me how to make shears so I can get wool from the sheep without killing it!)
- When I become frustrated (like being lost for 45 minutes) I like to take a break, walk away and then come back to what I am doing.
This morning I couldn’t wait to get to school and share all I had done with the boys in my class (I don’t have any girls playing Minecraft. Yet!)
The first 20 minutes of school was a great conversation about what I had done. They were all bending over backwards to share with me what I could do next. In that time I was able to connect with them more than any other time this year.
Now I can’t wait to see where this Minecraft journey will take us. And what I can learn next.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: game, gaming, learning, minecraft March 20, 2012
Today is Safer Internet Day and I, like many teachers, organised a day filled with activities based around the safe use of the Internet. It fits in perfectly to our ‘Creating Our Learning Environment’ program, which we run in the first two weeks of school.
The year 3/4 students I am teaching have a varying background of safety online so it was it was really about getting back to basics with them. I used the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) website resources and they were so easy to follow and really got to the crux of the message I wanted to deliver to students with clear and easy to follow ideas.
Our day started with a treasure hunt to find some strategically placed cards with letters (spelling out iPads). One team had precise clues whilst the others had vague ones. It was a great example to show what looking through the internet is like and how easy it is to become frustrated and lost. And of course how important it is to be specific and accurate.
The main concepts we covered were about the information we put on the Internet and how to look for web pages safely, especially what to do when we come across inappropriate material. The student’s responses were very clever and well thought out and although I have known this group of kids for a few days, I was already proud of the maturity they showed with how to deal with inappropriate material. So much so that I am looking forward to sharing lots of technology with them this year with the faith that they will grow to become digital citizens who respect the online world.
Our top Tips from today:
- Always use a complex 7 password
- Don’t share your password with anyone
- Always share what you are doing with your parents
- Use an avatar and online name
- It is unlikely you will win a prize – it is spam!
- Don’t go online when you are angry or upset
- Use a Safe Search
- Be specific and accurate in your searches
- If you are unsure always ask an adult
As an ironic touch to the day, we had server problems this afternoon and everything I had planned to do online wasn’t possible. We had to do some flexible teaching, continuing to cover the concept without the Internet! It did get me thinking if it is possible to teach internet safety without the Internet.
Today I was able to continue the discussion and students were able to share examples but I do wonder how much of an effect it had on students. Especially compared to actually receiving spam in their inbox, or having an inappropriate page pop up that they needed to report and close. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we need to experience everything to be able to say we are Internet Safe Savvy but we do need to be able to experience the Internet.
I firmly believe that Internet Safety is not something that we teach on one day in February every year. It should be taught at all the opportunities we have, whether a discussion from a child’s experience, using the Internet or from a TV show. Internet safety is important and we need to ensure we keep it important all year round.
You can also read more of my safety tips for parents and students here on the ACMA Blog
Posted in ICT Tagged: ACMA, cyber, day, internet, safer, safer_internet_day, safety February 7, 2012
I woke to the buzz on twitter this morning of an article about teachers and how they are becoming makeshift parents in the Herald Sun. The article supplied a lot of data from the 800 or so surveyed teachers and loosely examined the role of teachers and parents in a child’s upbringing. There was one piece of data which really peaked my interest – 3 out of 5 teachers felt students did not respect them. Wow! But this alone was not what got my heart rate going. It was when I read the comments from readers! There were very few chastising teachers like you might expect, but many reflecting on the youth of today and how disrespectful, undisciplined and disgracefully behaved they are.
Image: ‘Grandpa’
I, on the other hand, have a very different view of the youth of today. I feel I am completely respected by the students I teach and more importantly I respect them.The article did get me thinking about what I believe are the characteristics of youth today and I came up with these few:
Honesty: I recently took part in a day preparing students for the transition to Secondary College, organised by the Reach Foundation and was in awe at the way the staff (most around 20 years old) were able to articulate and share feelings. Students were sharing how they felt, fears they had and describing experiences without hesitation. And no topic was swept under the carpet or skimmed over. Everything was talked about, out in the open, because an experience shared by one, will have a message for others. I find this is true in my classroom and am often surprised by how mature students are about what is going on around them and how it makes them feel.
Resilience: If you think about what the youth of today experience at any given time you may be surprised at how they get through a day. Each day they see more pain, loss and heartbreak on the news, in the newspaper or on their phones, more so than any other generation. We definitely feel more globally responsible than ever before and with this comes a heavy emotional toll, which I believe our younger generations deal with very well.
Socially Strong: I know, we have all heard it, ‘Children today have no social skills, all they do is sit on the computer.’ But before you judge them think of how much more difficult it is to juggle 4 or 5 conversations, type, read SMS speak and understand what people mean without the help of voice and facial gestures, all at the same time. And that is not to mention the number of social circles they are part of.
Adaptable: The world and society is changing at such a rapid speed these days and our youth has adapted quickly to this. Yes, they are making mistakes and learning as they go but they are certainly not giving up. A impostor on facebook would cause me to shut down my account forever but for the students I teach it is an opportunity for them to learn how to fix and and ensure it doesn’t happen again. Rather than giving up they adapt their lives and actions to ensure they survive.
I could continue to go on here but I guess the real question is how do I earn the respect of students? I understand that respect doesn’t come to me just because they call me Miss Cashen, because I am a teacher or because I am older. I must earn it. I listen to what they have to say. I treat them like an equal because they are an equal. I value their ideas and trust they can accomplish anything, even if they go about it differently than I do. Their ideas, thoughts and experiences are no less important than mine because they are younger. I do not judge them.
Let’s show the youth of today a little respect, not put them down. They are the key to our future.
Image: ‘one, one, one’
Posted in Reflecting ,Uncategorized January 30, 2012
Over the past 18 months I have been lucky enough to build a wonderful personal learning network, mostly through Twitter and blogging. I couldn’t begin to list the ways it has helped me to further my learning and my teaching.
This year, participating in the PLP Connect U project, I have continued to build a connected network of wonderful educators who inspire me to learn more, teach better and share often. These connections allow me to bring experiences into the classroom I know would not have been possible before, such as the learning we did yesterday.
Our inquiry unit for this term is, ‘How do we design and create furniture for a particular purpose?’ After spending the last few weeks learning about the design and features of different chairs we are now delving into the design process of making our own model chairs. It soon became evident we needed some skills in woodworking from someone with a greater knowledge than mine.
With perfect timing I happened upon the blog, which the PLP Connect U – Animals and Habitats team were using to share their experience of Project Based Learning. They had made possum boxes at one of their schools and it was obvious they needed some woodworking skills to produce this. It was time to do some investigating.
After an email to Ben Gallagher, he was able to suggest a student who had worked on the boxes and was happy to do an Elluminate session with us.
So yesterday the kids all crowded around the Interactive Whiteboard to hear Harris’ presentation. It was amazing! Harris worked through the slide show he had prepared, sharing with us tips for using a hammer, a drill and saws as well as how to choose the correct wood. He spoke with such confidence and the students were mesmerised by his expertise. He then answered our questions without hesitation. We did have a few technical hitches where our class didn’t have a microphone but it certainly didn’t matter, especially as we now have the recording.
As a teacher it was such a powerful experience to watch our expert share his knowledge with the class. And he wasn’t an expert in the traditional sense but someone who was confident in his knowledge and willing to share it. The students in the class listened attentively and took on board all of his advice. Can teaching and learning be any more authentic?
How have you connected with an expert, classroom or teacher?
Do you have a similar classroom experience to share?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Connection, elluminate, inquiry, PLP, PLPConnectU, Woodwork November 29, 2011
Yes I know – it is a disputed topic. And I am not going to list the rights and wrongs of it here. (I will save that for another day!)
Instead I would like to share a new idea I have started this term. But first I will give you a bit of a background of the evolution of my homework.
Fresh from University I remember hearing positives and negatives from homework instantly. There is too much. There is not enough. It is too hard. It is too easy. What does it have to do with what the students are learning? Why haven’t you marked it? I am sure you too have heard it all.
So like a fresh graduate I tried to do it all. Personalised and levelled homework, set especially for the needs of individual students, which I would read through and write feedback for each week.
Drowning under a mountain of paper by net_efekt @Flickr
It didn’t take me long and I realised I couldn’t keep up. My classroom teaching was falling victim to me organising homework. So I started to set open ended tasks each week, which would be based on work we had covered. Better? – yes.
Then I wanted to give students more ownership in their homework. Hence came the grid with a range of ‘activities’ students could do, usually based around an inquiry unit we were doing. I even extended it to include a presentation to the class.
Now this year it has started to take some more changes. Still using the grid with a list of activities, I used this to help students reflect on how the learn for our term 1 inquiry topic, how do I learn best?
Students could pick from a range of tasks based around the multiple intelligences but they also had to reflect on them. When it came to the presentation students would discuss why they chose the music tasks first, whether it was to get it out of the way or because they new it would be shorter. They would discuss how some tasks were harder than others or if they need help with some and not others. The students were all reflecting on how they learnt and realised that sometimes we had to work hard and other times things came really easy.
Finally I thought. I am onto a winner here! But still by the time it got to the end of the term only half the students had completed the expected homework or remembered to bring it back to school.
So this term I put it back to the kids. I shared with the kids the issues I had from the previous term and asked them what we could do to have more students completing homework. I asked the students who had never returned homework, what stopped them from doing so.
Now you might be expecting me to give you all of these great answers but actually I don’t have any. If anything I realised that kids do or choose not to do homework for a plethora of reasons.
But I did discover something. Kids are curious. Well, actually I already knew that but just hadn’t applied it to homework. I also realised they wanted a bit more freedom. And they wanted the opportunity to learn ‘weird stuff!’
So this term we have a set of questions students are endeavouring to answer in their homework. There are 15 in total, with the opportunity to make up your own. And even the types of questions vary:
What is magic?
Who is the best superhero?
What is radiation?
What are the affects of uncovered food?
How do people in different professions use mathematics in their lives?
Are certain foods better eaten together?
Does the Internet make learning easier?
The kids can take any angle they like with these and present them in any way. And boy, they are keen. On the first week of school we had 90% of students return their homework. The day after I shared the question I had a reluctant ‘homeworker’ deliver his report on what radiation is. On presentation day we had magic tricks, surveys, PowerPoint presentations, artwork, animations, photography and some great discussions.
Will it change again next term? Probably! But it is nice to see the kids more empowered by their homework and wanting to learn.
Check out the Homework Grid
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: curious, empowered, grid, homework, student November 3, 2011
Quite often in our class the kids will ask me questions. Especially questions I have no idea of the answer. And I think that is great.
But what used to happen is I would say the standard response of, “Mmmm. I am not sure. Interesting. Maybe we could investigate this.” And of course never find time to come back to it.
So a few weeks ago we started to wonder what happens to all those random questions. Do they get answered? Or do they just stay floating around? Did we think we would be better people if we were more dedicated to answering our random questions?
Random? I hear you say. Things like;
- Where does the word Pyjamas come from?
- Why do leaves fall off trees?
- Is water alive?
So we decided it was time to start respecting these questions some more.
ENTER RANDOM WALL OF QUESTIONS
So how does it work?
- Students think of random question and writes it in a cloud on the wall.
- Students and teachers walk past the wall and ponder the question.
- The wrench is added to the wall to suggest ways we could find out the answer to the question.
- When an answer is found it is written on a brick to be added to our wall.
What are some of the questions the kids have come up with?
- How much wind speed would it take to fell a tree?
- Why do watermelon have two different coloured seeds?
- How do I sleep?
- What would it be like if there was an extra letter in the alphabet?
- What does the ‘san’ mean at the end of a person’s name in Japanese
So now we are looking forward to answering some of the puzzling questions.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: curious, inquiry, questions, random, wall October 29, 2011
This week I came across a tweet from @willie42 sharing the website “Draw a Stickman.” On this website you draw a stickman which then fights a dragon, puts out a fire and saves itself from a shark. You really need to visit the site to see what I am talking about but as it finishes, the letters – BE CREATIVE, are left behind from the flooding water. After spending some time ‘playing’ with the stick man I then sent it on to my sister, who in turn sent it on to her kids.
Today, during a conversation with my niece, the topic of the stickman came up. We spoke of how we had come to try the website a few times over and that it was always the same. That got me thinking that, in fact, both of us had gone back to play it again. Why? Well at first it was to see if the story would change. Maybe this comes from our inner belief that there aways to be something else, something more!
We did soon discover, however, that each of us had also gone back to improve our drawings. Not because we were going to display our work. Not for a sticker to wear on our shirts. Not even for bragging rights of having a great stick man. We did it purely from wanting to improving ourselves. To do something better.
After a few more laughs of our similarities we then entered my nephew into the recount. Not only had he gone back to improve his drawing but also to bend the rules. ”I made my sword a flower but it still killed the dragon!”
And it didn’t stop there. Having a friend visiting we encouraged her to try the website and watched with anticipation to see what she would draw.
“It is not what I imagined.” she exclaimed!
“It is called draw a stickman. What were you expecting?”
Even the simple part of drawing a key was interesting. ”Oh – I drew my key on the other hand.”
“Really? I drew mine there because it had more room.”
“No. I put mine closest to the box. It is a stickman you know!”
The Draw a stickman website certainly showed me something about the way we learn and motivate ourselves. So what was it that got us attempting the game more than once?
- Inquisitive and curious nature.
- Inner competitiveness.
- Stretching the boundaries of the world as we know it.
- Creativity.
And the learning didn’t stop there. We then reflected on what we had done and out thinking around it. Finally we went back and tried it again. And yes, the next time I did draw the key in a different hand!
This is true learning. Innocent, authentic, creative, non judgmental. And it wasn’t about the stickman. Shouldn’t this be what learning looks like in our classrooms? Where students:
- Don’t feel confined by boundaries or worried about what others are thinking
- Are reflecting on what they are learning
- Feeling confident and comfortable to take risks
- Are willing to push the boundaries of society’s beliefs
- Are intrinsically motivated, not just trying to impress others
- Sharing their learning
- Are comfortable to have a different opinion to others
Wow – All this from a stickman!
Posted in Creativity ,Reflecting Tagged: Creativity, draw, man, stick, stickman October 6, 2011
Today I am lucky enough to be presenting at the VITTA conference in Melbourne. Not only is it a great opportunity to share my learning but learn from other and of course catching up with my ‘online friends.’
As part of one of my sessions I will be looking at the journey my blogging has taken over the last 15 months and some of the different tools I have used.
Here are some of the links I will be sharing today.
Global 2
My Class Blog
2KM and 2KJ
Linda Yollis
Proprofs – Games to embed
Poll Daddy – Add a poll to your posts
Answer Garden – Brainstorm
Page Plugins - Bling your posts
Animoto - Add slideshows
Smilebox – More slideshows
Box – Add documents
Slideshare - Add PowerPoint presentations
Vimeo - Great for video
Google Maps – Make your own map
Voki – Make talking avatars
Voice Thread – Send a message
Clustr Map - See who visits
Clarence Fisher - A blogging rubric
What tools can you recommend for use in blogs?
How have you used your blog for learning?
Please leave a comment.
Posted in Blogging Tagged: Blogging, conference, journey, presenting, session, VITTA August 29, 2011
I have been participating in the PLPConnectU project and I am having a fabulous time learning!
The project is based around building a network to bring about new learning specifically based around passion based, 21st Century learning. Our project began when we met face to face in March and since then we have developed a group of teachers working as a network to converse around a specific question (What is creativity?)
We are currently about half way through the project and already my ideas and beliefs have taken a huge turn. I guess one of my highlights of the project so far is how powerful a network is for forcing you to question what you believe in and more importantly why you believe in it. Just as I begin to be clear in my thoughts about what creativity is someone throws in a new question which takes me back to the drawing board.
I have also enjoyed the chance to sit in the shoes of my students. For each step of this project I have compared myself and my learning to that in my classroom, from how I chose the group I worked in to how I reflect on my learning.
I didn’t actually choose my group based on a passion of mine but the people I would be working with. I have seen the students in my class choose their teams based on similar reasoning. In fact we discussed this in my class recently with students choosing their groups based on their friends, groups most likely to succeed and based on what there passions are. All valid reasons in specific situations.
The topic choice was pretty much irrelevant in my decision to join this group which may be the reason I was completely on a different path to others in the group. With cretaivity given to the group as a beginning topic my mind first went to art and being artistic. But the power of the network soon changed my thinking to creativity as something I should be adding to all aspects of my classroom.
Many readings and discussion later I now have these questions I am reflecting on;
How do I encourage creativity in my classroom?
Do students feel creativively nurtured and supported in my classroom?
Does my teaching give opportunities for students to take their own initiative?
How can I be more creative in how I teach?
Posted in Reflecting ,Uncategorized Tagged: Creativity, PLP, PLPConnectU August 23, 2011
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