Continuing the Journey with Zaretta Hammond

I began reading a book today that really grabbed my attention. Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond was just recently released and has taught me many things in just one day.

For example, on pages 12-13, she describes our jobs as educators as helping students to learn. "One of our key jobs in the early years is to help students become independent learners" (p. 13). We teach children and help them build their cognitive skills so that they can think complex concepts and learn independently.

On page 19, Hammond states that it is our job as educators to help students process what they are learning. We "mediate student learning based on what [we] know about how the brain learns and students' cultural models."

Over the course of my online classes I have been taking, I have learned much about many cognitive theories. I have learned about being culturally relevant. I have also learned a little about how the brain learns. What Hammond is stating is that all three go together. Culture affects how the brain learns. As educators, we must be aware of the cultures in our classrooms.

The question she challenged me with was "How do you support struggling students to become independent learners?" (p. 20) I think it is a valid question to ask ourselves as pre-service effective educators.

Hammond, Zaretta. Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigo Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2015.

Definition

What is a life-long learner?

Since I have decided to continue my educational blog, I figured I would talk about learning for a lifetime.

Is threre really any person on this planet who knows all there is to know about everything? No. Not one. I can tell you that every person is learning something every day. However, it means something completely meaningful when you learn intentionally. A life-long learner intentionally chooses to keep learning.

Intentional learning actually builds more brain connections. Learning helps to create new neurological pathways. Then as you continue to use the information, it becomes a part of you. However, if you don't use the information, you will lose it.

So, my question today is, what are you going to learn about today?

Final Project

It is already the end of the semester. In many ways, I am sad to see it go. I have enjoyed learning so many new tools for using technology in the classroom. One thing that I really enjoyed learning about was LiveBinder where I can keep all of my tools ready to use. I also enjoyed learning about the ReadWriteThink website. It is amazing where technology is heading for the near future. I think Agumented Reality will be very interesting to use with in classrooms around the country.

I will be using my blog in the future. I hope to continue my research to stay current on technology topics. I have found some very helpful websites which I can explore in the future and stay up-to-date. I hope to follow several of my coursemates' blogs as well. It is a neat way to keep in touch with coursemates throughout the time of being an online learner with United Tribes Technical College.

Bio Cube

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2tDSoIWU0LFX1g5M1JzMXV1eUE/view?usp=sharing

I created a bio cube using the website ReadWriteThink. This website is full of different activities to use in a classroom to help reinforce the lesson being taught. I will definitely be using this site again and again.

Digital Storytelling

I made my digital story using My StoryMaker.    One thing I did not like about this app is that I was unable to share a direct link to my story.  However, you can use this code:  SWL071  at http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm   to read the story I created.  It is a role reversal between a cat named Felix and a girl stuck up in a tree. My daughter loves cats and I thought of her while creating this story.    If you can view it, I hope you enjoy!

Open Education Sites: Open Ed

The other open education site I checked out was Open Ed found at https://www.opened.io. This time I signed up as a teacher. The program was user friendly until it came time to actually set up the mastery chart. Then I began to get confused.

This program also awards points for completing lessons. The teacher can assign suggested resources for the lessons. Or teachers can assign lessons from the world's largest common core lesson plan library which is found on the site.

This site was listed as the ISTE 2014 Best of Show. After I went to the help section of the site, I decided to change over to a student and see what things looked like from that perspective. There were videos showing teachers how to set up their accounts step-by-step. It looked more complicated than it was. As a student I was unable to see what lessons looked like since I needed a code to sign in.

There are lessons available for grades K-12. They are personalized and completely aligned with Common Core Standards. Students can play videos or games with the lessons. Assessments look like they could be very helpful. Another pro is that students and teachers can access the program from any device. The lesson content comes from well known publishers.

From what I can tell at this point, this app would be helpful in an Elementary classroom; however, it would be more beneficial for older students. Right now, it does not seem to grasp younger students' attention.

Open Education Sites: Khan Academy

This week,, my challenge was to visit open education sites and critique them. The first one I chose was Khan Academy found at https://www.khanacademy.org.. First of all, it struck my interest because it includes courses for K-College. This means that I can touch up on my Algebra II and maybe work on some Trig over the summer since I enjoy math.

It is a fun site that includes videos of teaching about the subject. The math modules included hints. At the end of the lesson, the student earns points, new avatars, and badges. There are plenty of rewards to keep the students' interest. So far I have earned 500 points and have mastered 4 skills. I also earned a badge and a new avatar just for completing the assessment short quiz.

There are lots of subjects to choose from. I even had my 10th grade son interested in the history of art lessons.

Teachers become the coaches for the students working through the lessons. Lessons are 5-20 minutes long which help to keep students engaged. The videos are conversational style instead of lectures. The site seems to protect the privacy of students. Teachers can add their whole class to the program.

This open education site would be helpful to fill in the gaps in school for subjects not offered in the school system. It can be used to "flip the classroom" when teachers assign a video for homework and students work on the problems during class time. The program is self-paced, individualized, and mastery-based. It would be a good program to use with Elementary students.

The only con that I have found so far is using my netbook, I cannot always see the buttons to close pop-ups or pages. Otherwise it has been very user friendly.