#4 LET IT GO!

      Oh man, I will never forget that first time I learned to ride a bike. My dad talked me through the mechanics of the bike and how it worked probably 100 times. I had it all figured out. Thank goodness for the training wheels or I would have more injuries than Evel Knievel!  However, the training wheels had to disappear at sometime and that day I am sure my dad found out it was hard to let go. This relationship is a teacher/student learning experience. Students are filled with information on how to do things and where to find answers but the teacher does not know what the result is until they allow students to fail and discover.  If the student fails, then the teacher should reassess what needs to be learned. This is the data that Chris Lehman in his webinar talks about as driving the curriculum. His whole purpose behind the discussion is to promote inquiry based learning and I love that he says "it is not about us it is about the kids." Anytime we find something that interests us we are more likely to be involved and dig deeper. I also think that his outlook on "we want kids to understand how they think and how they learn" is important to the growth of any student. This will allow them to harness the power of thought and knowledge because they can then design the study skills that are customized for themselves. I think that it would be wonderful for every student, no matter the age, to have a personalized education plan that fits them perfect and who better to figure that out than the student. No one knows you better than yourself!
      "It is not about control, it is about support." This statement from Lehmann is a huge obstacle for any adult who is responsible for a classroom full of students to overcome. When I heard this I gave a sigh of relief because this is exactly what I want. I want to be able to facilitate and mediate rather than lecture. I love to talk about the things that I  am interested in but I also like to listen to others talk about the same topics. I have tried in the past to layout the end for students and tell them to fill in the meat of the subject so we can have an educated discussion as a review. My hardest part was hooking the kids. I think my tactics for questioning are what is lacking.
     During the webinar I love that they addressed technology, the use of the cloud and how some schools lack the technology to succeed. This is such a disservice to the students, they are missing out on a large part of the 21st century and must be given the access to technology and the internet. " the world is changing and education needs to remain relevant." this is something that is at the heart of all educators and any blockers of this philosophy need to be pushed to the side in order to make education environments current.
      Assessment became a great discussion among the participants and it is very eye opening to consider an education world with no pass or fail assessments. I agree students are over assessed.   There is no reason that a test should be used to measure passing or failing a course. However, there must be a way to determine growth and learning. That is why I like the ideas involved in inquiry based and project based learning. It is time for me to be better at letting go once the knowledge needed to explore are established.

Reflective Searching

   

    The always exciting task of weeding through the internet to find valuable and credible information is becoming harder everyday because of the massive amounts of information we share. I think that I am a pretty good “information detective”, aka searcher. I like to have a challenge of trying to find something on the internet because I am certain it is all there. In the past there are things that others can’t find and even though I will spend an hour searching I feel like I can find if it is there. As a teacher and a prospective teacher librarian it is important to be able to curate resources to help my students stay streamlined during different projects and research. I like the beginning of, Joyce Valenza’s article, (http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Valenza2012-v29n1p20.html) where she says “Digital curators can prevent oversaturation by filtering and diverting the onslaught and by directing what is worth sharing into more gentle and continuous streams..” This is exactly where I get my motivation to curate for students. It makes sure they are not overwhelmed by fluff when looking for meaningful support. The other quote I like from the same source is, “Librarians can synchronize communities.” This is a huge statement and so important to notice, a curator could provide a whole community the information they need to accomplish a project and providing them with the same information can cause them to all be on the same page. The same information causes a harmonious mesh of knowledge amongst different people!? WOW!  Absolutely, I believe this to be true because any group of people who monitor the same news outlet, will begin to have the same beliefs and the same underlying opinions as the others who monitor that outlet. If librarians are curating for a school community wouldn’t it be awesome if all of the information that was disseminated was homogenous? Then all of the faculty would cruise through different articles or resources and share with their peers causing a jigsaw mix of information that all correlates.   I almost feel as though the search for information on the internet is a game. A hide and seek at times that becomes frustrating which makes it even more intense for me to find it. We are not all a part of the Google Generation. There are still people who do not know how to ask questions to Google to help be more efficient in their jobs. For instance, over half of my students do not realize they can talk to their phone and ask google very specific questions, to which they will be provided an answer. I use Google for timers, clocks, and sometimes math problems (I am not very good at math). One of the largest commonalities between my students and I, is that we are very dependent on Google. Most people have seen the question “who did we ask before Google?” I know the answer because I have been around long enough to see the transition into the Google age. Teachers, books, magazines, and people were our outlet for useless trivia and important questions. The beauty of curation is that it allows you to create a filter bubble in a sense. It provides parameters for other users and keeps them within a certain set of boundaries. This takes me back to the “synchronizes communities” statement. This curation when shared with a community allows the users to roam within the safe haven that has been created. Thus, creating a common knowledge base on a certain topic to which all would become familiar with just by reading, and talking with one another about the subject. On Beth’s Blog (http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/#sthash.ja79VSw2.dpuf ) she tells us,”content curator cherry picks the best content that is important and relevant to share with their community.” This is the creation of a type of filter bubble.

Resource overview

  The four resources shown in our folder are:

• Oxford English Dictionary -Birthday Word
• PLN and Twitter Resource Wiki
• Wordpress
• Edublogs

These are all method for the sharing  of information. Information takes place in different formats and each of these allows a different format. The first, Oxford English Dictionary, is one where a person could go to find information on the meaning, pronunciation, origin, and examples of how to use a word in the English language. The PLN and Twitter wiki, is a place where someone new to PLN's or Twitter can go for a lesson of how to use each platform. The PLN is a place where someone could keep large amounts of networking in one easy to use and easy to navigate site. Twitter is social networking at its best, I think it is best because it limits you to the amount of unnecessary banter that can sometimes become part of the social world. Wordpress is a hosting website, that will allow you to create a site or a blog for presentation of different types information delivery. You can find any topic that a person has decided to use as a platform. Last, is Edublogs, I am least familiar with this but from exploring it seems to be a blog site that is based on education to allow for easy access to other education subjects. Keeping things in a close topic allows for easy navigation and discovery.

     I think that there is one large connection between these links, information. They all are delivery systems with one common theme. Using these resources will allow me to explore in any easy way the inquiry learning that I am hoping to master soon. The use of inquiry based learning is one that I see a value in but I need to become more versed in the creation of lessons for it.  

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog for #Frit7234!

   I am interested to see what this summer has to hold for me and my family. We are moving from Georgia to the beautiful state of Maine. My wife is ready to return home and most of our preparations are done. We will be packing up the moving trucks on May 30th and rolling out the next day hoping to arrive in South Portland on June 1st. We have been planning this move for a while and it is a good thing because my mother in law suffered a stroke about a month and a half ago. The timing for us could not be better, this way we can go and help take care of things for her parents. We have two adorable kids a soon to be 4 year old girl and her 10 month old little brother. Life has been crazy the past 3 years with new babies, me earning my masters in Instructional Technology along with our normal duties of our jobs. I look forward to this summer semester and what it will bring.

   Two goals for me this semester are, to improve on my inquiry based learning that I have begun this year and to become better at Infographics. I love Infographics but have not been very efficient at creating them.

Although I have begun my professional learning with my home school, I am still in the infant stages of creating lessons and using it often. I am hoping that this class will allow me to become proficient with the use of inquiry based learning or at least help me increase my abilities to create with it.