Digital natives, digital creators ...illiterate writers?

The Knew Illiteracy - North&South October 2014 

"If teachers themselves aren't confident to teach writing skills, you're going to have problems." 

(Jonathan Anderson -director of Kip McGrath) 

This worries me, as someone who over thinks things, I spent a lot of time agonising over my spelling ability before I started teachers college. Do I need to be able to write and spell to be a teacher? Do I need to understand all parts of speech, the correct use of the apostrophe and what an Oxford comma is? 

Jo Morris president of New Zealand association for Teachers of English states essays she wrote in the 1970's and that received excellence then are not up to current levels of deep thinking we expect from students now.  I agree, due to conceptual education we have moved on from writing recounts of our holidays and are now expecting students to inquire into the world around them and report, narrative or explain that world. 

Should we let kids go with their content and ideas or should we drill them with punctuation, grammar and spelling? There is also the debate of should we teach handwriting?

This article argues both sides of the debate. Students in 2014 are creative thinkers but lack the skills to write in correct sentences. Society is craving creativity yet we consistantly judge students on the surface features of their writing. Spelling, hand writing and grammar are all things that can be fixed by a word processor. By the time students get to us in year 7 what changes can we make to their atrocious unreadable handwriting? Students often say when asked what their goal is in writing they say they want to improve their handwriting. 

There is research to prove more text is being written and read than ever before, however most if it is concise and web-based. We should encourage students to read more traditional texts, such as novels, but also share and model concise digital web-based texts that are well written. 

Next term I plan on teaching my class cyber-safety and look at how we communicate now and in the past. I want them to view and analyse blogs, tweets and status updates and determine what makes them 'good' just like we would with exemplar pieces of writing. I will attempt to ensure our own are grammatically correct.

Term 3 Reflection

My reflection this term was taken from

http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/ 

My class completed it as well. 

1. What have you learnt about in term 3? Has it been easy or difficult to learn? Why?
   I have learnt many things this term. It has been a roller coaster. I have struggled at times to keep things straight in my head. I have learnt that the hardest part of my job isn't the planning, or organisation or the kids - it is the working with adults, and leading. 
2. What is something (eg a sport, hobbies, cultural etc) that you have learnt outside of school? Why do you do take part in these activities? I have learnt a lot about science. I am studying and currently doing really well. I have had 3 A's this term even though I have been busy with school science fair, and managing my work load. 
3. What words would you use to describe term 3 for you and your class? Busy, learning, happy. It is a good place to be in room 9. Generally we are happy, and get on. There has been a few issues with girls - but that has settled down again. 
4. What praise has your teacher given you this term? I am horrible at giving myself praise. I beat myself up when things aren't going the way I want them to. I have been told by other teachers that I am doing a good job. 
5. What has been one challenge that you have faced in term 3? How have you beaten this challenge? There have been many challenges this term. Science fair was a big one. It was about dealing with the unknown, and managing that. Dealing with staff - and having to be a leader and confront people about things not being done correctly. Also talking to people about 
6. Did you have any goals for term 3? How did you achieve them? My goals are usually very large, and I tend to over plan for the term. I didn't acheive everything I wanted to. However my students did work towards some really aceheivable authentic tasks for inquiry. I love how they really embraced the feedback I gave them after science fair and took off on their own journey, questioning themselves, and making sure they asked questions of others. 
7. What advice do your teachers, friends and families give you about learning? What does it mean?  Learning never stops, this has been something I have always known. I am a curious person, and google is really my friend. I read non-stop, and so does my family. I am very grateful to them for the love of learning, and the love of books, reading and knowledge. 
8. What goals or aims do you have for term 4 and how do you plan to achieve them? Term 4 I want to plan a unit without trying to worry about what I need to fit in school curriculum wise. I am worried about this - I know time is short again but I think I can have some authentic positive learning experiences for my students. I am also really looking forward to Adventure week - white water rafting is going to be REALLY cool. 
9. What do you think you will be doing in 10 years and what will you be learning? In 10years I hope still to be a classroom teacher. Possibly a team leader - but I love the time I spend with my class. I would potentially want to teach at a small rural school sometime - but I still love the idea of an intermediate and how it challenges students at a time in their lives they are challenging the norms in their lives. Potentially I could be studying towards my masters - although I think I will be doing my own Dora Explorer  as per normal. 
10. What does it mean to be a life long learner and why is this important? I strongly believe that learning never stops. Technology changes around us so fast that it is impossible for anyone to stop learning - if you want to participate in society you need to be willing to learn new ways of doing things. I for one will not ever stop learning, exploring and going on adventures. 

Why I use twitter

Twitter used to be a place here I could see what my favourite celebrity was wearing, and thinking. It was a place to be a voyeur. Always watching, forever silent. I'm not entirely sure where I turned towards Twitter as an educational tool. I do remember why I started using it at school for my class. I had a "lovely" year 8 class, that had no passion for writing. They didn't see the point, they had no audience other than me, and writing had no purpose. They admitted only likeing writing if it was a text message, or a Facebook post. I wanted to give them an audience, and a social media platform that was relveant and real to them. I needed to give them an authentic reason to write. I couldn't use Facebook - it was blocked very rightly by our schools filter system. So @room9_BIS was launched. It was a way to share, and give them an audience. I thought they would be much more excited about using Twitter at school than they were. We tweeted a few things. Then radio silence fell. It was a bit of a fail for me. I felt that I had chosen something exciting for them, and their reaction was lack luster. I wrote it off after having to run it all myself. 

Looking back I wasn't ready to let it go, and give my students free range with social media. I decided to wait for the start of the school year, so I could start day 1 and make it rountine, expected and the norm. 2014 started with a bright faced, excited bunch of Y7 students. One of the first things we did was tweet how we were feeling. Once again I took control. I had to set expectations and be sure they were safe online before taking off the training wheels.

Whilst exploring our twitter feed as part of "@room9_BIS Twitter 101" we came across @mathspirates and the Maths like a Pirate challenges. Again we started tweeting, this time using the pirate challenge as our purpose for tweeting. They gave us a reason and an audience. This time I let go. I logged our classroom iPads onto our class twitter account and let them go after a brief chat about how we should act on Twitter. I was expecting one of them to slip up, make a mistake...but nothing. We have been using twitter in the classroom for most of the year and students have our class account signed in on their personal devices and there have been no issues. 

We communicate weekly with classes, educators and experts around New Zealand and the world. I would say daily, but sometimes we get busy. Inquiry presentations are easy to share - one click and then students are linked with a scientist or author. They ask questions, share exciting events or just write concise book reviews.

Personally I have a digital learning network I can ask questions of, or find resources of note. I personally and professionally using Twitter after the GAFE Sumit in Auckland earlier this year. I eventually want to become a Google Certified Teacher - advice given at the summit was you need to share and collaborate as part of a community, why not start already via Twitter. Thus ending my vouyerisum and started my fledgling status as a tweeter. Nothing like a little incentive to get people moving. 

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion | TED Radio Hour on NPR

I relate to this video. I think it is extremely important to have relationships with our students. I am not there to make friends with my students, however I am there to make them feel comfortable, safe and happy at school.



I teach because I want students to learn, and to be happy with their learning. I think my job is to:



Help students not afraid to take risks.

Never give up on them

Help them be the best that they can possibly be

Challenge students thinking, and help them to step outside of their comfort zone.

Dyslexia - the strengths

Instead of focusing on the negative the struggles and standards they are failing - I am always trying to persuade students in my class that they have strengths they need to use to their advantage.

As a teacher I see many students struggling, not all have labels that explain their difficulties, or have files of strategies that help them. My main goal and philosophy as a teacher is that school should be a place that students want to be. In order to achieve this I ask students regularly about what they want to learn, and how they best learn. Most students know what they want to know more about, and what they love to do. I just need to make these things fit the curriculum in our tight and busy timetable. 

Dyslexic students are usually creative thinkers. They often solve problems in ways that other students haven't even thought of. 

Things that my students have been excessively good at include drawing, using devices to take photos and annotate, comic books, hands on tasks, and project based learning. Inquiry is often an area that allows our students who struggle to fly. They have questions, and find their own way to answer them. 

I know some of my statements are generalisations, and are based on my own experiences as a learner with difficulties and my brothers experiences at school as a dyslexic student. 

Student Lead Conferences

Plus

Great to see students confidently talking about their learning with their parents.

The 107 things my class identified we had done so far this year.

Hearing students use words that they didn't know at the start of the term, but confidently used the, in ways that made sense.

Independent students, I didn't have to lead them to speak, they were able to articulate their learning.

Students were able to show their parents their work on the wall, and all students had multiple pieces on display.

Minus

That one parent who demands to speak to me, and just wants to know numbers and doesn't seem to care their child has had their own successes regardless of national standards

Being at school 11hours two days in a row. This is partly my fault, but early mornings mean successfully set up day for myself.

The parents who don't book appointments

Challenge-Interesting-Change

I wouldn't change anything. Although maybe re-educating parents that it's important for all children to share their learning and where they spend 25hours each week. 

Work free weekends

I had an amazing weekend - but had what expense? I had the Sunday night guilt's. I shouldn't have done that - I should have gone to school.
I know this isn't just a JOB - it is a vocation. It is something that I am never going to be finished doing. However there is a limit to how much time I can spend doing this job - so occasionally I take time out to have adventures.

I have lived in Marlborough for 3.5years this weekend for the first time I went out on a boat, explored the Queen Charlotte Sound and watched my friends dive for scallops. I relaxed, read my book and enjoyed the sunshine. I attempted to catch a fish, I drove a boat. These were new things for me and were exciting. I was learning new things, and I was doing them outside of school.

I know its important to have time away from school - I try very hard not to take work home with me. However in this technological day and age I am at finger tip reach of all my students. I get emails, I get sent writing work, I get asked questions and I have parents asking me about home learning. I try very hard to have device free days - but always get suckered into checking Twitter or Facebook, which in turn leads to me checking my school email.

Reasons for having time out for myself:

• Stress less
• Relax more
• more to share with my students
• BALANCE

What do you do to get away from school? How do you re-charge your batteries? Do you have any advice for someone who is a self declared work-a-holic?

What I learnt today

I realise each day I learn a lot of things. Not just fun facts, and how to teach a new strategy in maths, but I learn more about myself and my students each day. When I decided to call my blog For the Love of Learning, I didn't think about my daily learning, just about the fact that I have a love of learning, and that I want my students to love learning. I want to challenge myself to learn something new each week: and not just recognise that I am learning new things, but share them too. In a world where I have WALTs and WILFs...what about WILT? What I learnt today?

What is something new you have learnt this week?

Science Magic

Something to ponder: students and teachers A question: Is this science? Or is it magic?
How is this happening?
Why?
Can you support your hypothesis?

NoS: Investigating science, Communicating in science, Understanding about science, Participating and Contributing

After being challenged to answer the question - is this science or magic by @sciencealive on Twitter I took the same video to my class, and asked them the same question. Here is the resulting twitter conversation my class had. It is an example of Nature of Science being challenged in science - opening up my students ideas of What is Science, and how to communicate their ideas.

Material World: Being a Scientist: Doing Chemistry

I really enjoy Chemistry as a subject and specifically cannot remember ever not enjoying the subject. (Except for possibly writing chemical equations and solving what chemical change had occurred?) Hands on experiments have always been interesting to me and I have always wondered about how things work and why things happen. To me Chemistry seeks to explain things.  

Compared to my Living world investigation I have had much more fun. This is something I could see myself sharing with students and seeing them enjoy. The fun was definitely in the hands on experimenting. Creating a mess, and seeing my question and wondering being answered. 

I choose to investigate bubbles. Who doesn't like blowing bubbles? So I set up my home chemistry lab (Kitchen Bench) and proceed to make a mess.

Wine Glasses make excellent home beakers - because they were higher off the bench it allowed me to see what I was creating. 

Not for human consumption!

Caught in the act! 

RESULTS! Bubble!

Assignment Material World:

Reasons behind

I have always loved school. I couldn't wait to go to school and learn more. I love books, reading, art,  drama etc. 

However I have had trouble with writing, spelling and processing for as long as I could remember. School was hard, I worked my butt off and still only scraped by pass rates. I "failed" U.E and couldn't go to University with my school friends. When I was 20 before I applied to The University of Auckland for "Special Admission". I was accepted and had assistance from the Student Learning Services. I will never forget the diagnosis I received from
the psychology department - the words jumped off the page "specific learning difficulties" and "profound spelling difficulty". They haunted my 3 years at university. It did mean that when I left university with my Arts degree, I was really proud. 

For all of that, I have always loved reading, and learning. I have always been curious and wanted to know more, and figure out what would happen if, and what next.

I do have a lot of hook ups about our education system, the teachers I had and how they labelled students like me as failures. Failures because my writing wasn't up to standard, and my handwriting was shocking and because I constantly asked why I had to do things that way, and why I had to learn the way they wanted me to. Don't get me wrong, I had some great teachers too. 

I became a teacher because of my love of learning, and because of those great teachers who taught me in a way that was flexible and encouraging. Those great teachers I had, who sparked curiosity and inspired students to ask questions, and find their own style of learning. They also gave me an opportunity to explore the world around me in an authentic way. They definitely didn't make me copy screeds of information from the blackboard and expect me to understand it. 

I aspire to inspire. I want all my students to learn, and love learning. To be curious, life long learners regardless of difficulties. 

Reflecting

I find it hard to write. I have words in my head, and they come easily enough out my mouth (just ask anyone who has spent five minutes with me). I find using Twitter and Facebook easy ways to communicate because they have limited space for me to write, and I can use pictures to say what I want. As I have made my way through my teaching career I have found it harder and harder to reflect on my learning and my students learning in written form. I am constantly reflecting in my head, and in conversations with colleges. However I am getting to a point in my career where I have multiple responsibilities, and I am struggling to keep my wonderings and next steps clear. This will be my space to reflect, question, share and wonder.