Voice Thread on Bullying

My VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/share/567753/

I really enjoyed using VoiceThread to make an interactive project for my class. I can foresee using this website to view existing VoiceThreads and also having the students make their own. For this application, I chose to focus on a guidance type lesson. My school is very proactive in the field of Character Education, and has been wonderful over the years incorporating these real life skills into our everyday lessons so they do not seem forced. Thus far in our program, we have focused particularly on bullying. Our guidance counselor does a unit every year in every grade on what bullies are, why they bully, and what to do as the victim. The lesson are received well, and I think that our students have a fairly good handle on these concepts.
Before the school year ended a few teachers and I decided that we needed to do more to focus on the bystander’s role, as that affects most of the students. There are so many songs, TV shows, movies, lessons, etc. that empower the victim and help correct the bully (all good ideas by the way). We found, however that there is not enough out there to show the bystanders, which are the majority of the students, what to do besides “tell a teacher.” I decided to make a VoiceThread that let the students know that I have been in their shoes, and I know it isn’t as easy as running to the nearest adult. I posted three pictures, speaking about the role of the bully, the victim’s role, and lastly the bystander’s role. I asked my students to post either an experience they have had as a bystander or what they would do in the future when they are one (knowing that situation is inevitable). I envision my students jumping right on this, and would open it up to the whole school. My students from last year already know how to post on VoiceThread, so perhaps they could post first to show other what to do. I also believe it would be powerful to see if others, who are not in our school, post their reactions so that the students could see other’s experiences.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Dr. Orey (Laureate Education, 2008), speaks about jigsaws as great way for classes to work collaboratively. I wholeheartedly agree that jigsaws can be beneficial in teaching students the topic at hand by making them experts and teachers themselves. As Dr. Orey explains, teaching another person is one of the best ways to solidifying knowledge (Laureate Education, 2008), so this learning theory capitalizes on that idea. In my classroom, while we are studying explorers, I have my students create a Help Wanted Poster as one of our culminating activities. We start by having students talk about what they have learned about explorers in general, and why most explorers ventured out. I then break the students in 4-6 groups and assign them an explorer they might not have heard of (ex: NOT Columbus!). Students research in their groups using books, newspaper articles, and their textbook to find out basic information about their explorer. Next year, I would like to add in a technological component and ask my students to research their explorer online as well. After the groups become experts, students go back to their original groups and share their newfound knowledge with the others and they all use their knowledge to create a generic Help Wanted poster for an explorer. I would like to alter this as well, and give groups the choice of creating a paper and pen poster, or a virtual one using Publisher or PowerPoint. Everyone would have to do the same project, but this would give them the choice of medium.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Social learning theories [Motion picture]. Bridging

learning theory, instruction, and technology . Baltimore : Orey.

Constructivism in Practice

Project and experimental type lessons are clear examples of constructionist/constructivist learning theories. Using an Excel spreadsheet as Mrs. Omar does in Pitler et al.’s book (2007) to figure out how much interest someone would earn within various investments situations lets students find out results on their own with the teach doing the work for them. By using these real life examples I feel that students get so much more out of the content we teach. Dr. Orey explains in the video that PowerPoint is another great tool to create constructionist lessons, by letting students create a presentation to showcase their knowledge and understanding of the academic content. Every fall as we wrap up our Native American unit, I have my class split into groups and study a specific tribe of Native Americans. The group members break up which facets of the tribe they want to report on (food, shelter, men’s roles, women’s roles, etc.) and turn their knowledge into a PowerPoint presentation that they show to their parents. It really impresses their parents how they not only retained SO much information from their research but they also learned technological skills by creating a presentation.
Projects like these that support constructionist/constructivist learning generate enthusiasm in schools and let students see that their effort really pays off!

Cognitivism in Practice

By using software such as concept mapping, advanced graphic organizers, and note taking strategies teachers can hone in on student’s prior knowledge and use it to create connections to the material being taught. “Advance organizers help students focus their learning ((Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.73).” Most students have used graphic organizers such as webs either on paper or digitally before, but to provide some of the information in the “bubbles” beforehand helps to focus the student in knowing what to take notes on. Programs such as Kidspiration, Inspiration, PowerPoint, and online wikis and blogs can help to create tools to make learning easier. Teachers should be giving verbal or visual cues to tell students what they are about to learn (Pitler et. Al, 2007, p.77), not hinting information at them to trick them; by using a simple advance graphic organizer to show the essential question for the lesson the children will know their objective and be more focused in their attention. Without knowing what the point of the lesson is, it is very difficult for students to know what parts of the lesson to pay closest attention to.

References

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom

instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behaviorism in Practice

I love the idea of using a spreadsheet to correlate effort data with my students. Previously, I have used RubiStar (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.162) to create various rubrics to assess my students, always including effort as portion of their grade. I have also created rubrics for students to assess themselves, either individually or as a group. I have never thought of making electronic rubrics for the students to use however, and think that is an idea that not only would show how important effort is in life, but also teach valuable technology skills. By having my students assess their effort and then see the correlation between their effort and their grades, they would (hopefully) be more motivated to try harder in school. This idea is linked to positive reinforcement. When a person receives a positive response to a behavior or action, they are more apt to repeat that action (Orey, 2001).

Similarly, to use the spelling and grammar tool in Word (Pitler et al., 2007, p.190) is a fabulous idea to increase my students’ vocabulary and self-esteem. Most of my students are familiar with typing research reports in Word and using the thesaurus to find better vocabulary, but often they do not choose the correct synonym. If I teach them to use the research tools, in conjunction with the thesaurus they will have a better grasp on new words. By checking their written grade level in Word, my students will be spurred to increase their “score” and make it almost a competition with themselves to have a higher grade level while still focused and understandable for a fourth grader. Behaviorist techniques can be tweaked in ways I never thought of to help make students increase their effort, motivation, and behavior in the classroom!

References

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved

from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom

instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.