Month: January 2016

Makerspace and inquiry learning

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Today I observed the progress and the process my students have made since two weeks ago. Today they have managed to run the Raspberry Pi by themselves from the power of Google searching, completed the props for stop-motion videos and are almost ready to make a presentation of their leanings. After some debrief with my SA, I was able to put meaning to my observations more than ever in relation to fostering a connection with my students. I have witnessed those who can come up with new ideas, those that need to cling on to someone and those that think in black and white. These students behave accordingly to their nature such as those who are willing to try new ideas, those who don’t venture outside their comfort zone and those who derail easily. It’s made me realized I don’t really know my kids that well and am barely scratching the surface. In the morning I have trouble remembering their names after 2 weeks and I wish I can be there more just to learn more about them. But this is exactly what my inquiry is about, to throw challenges at students that can be solved with the aid of technology. This also affords for them to connect with me and at the same time allowing them to connect to the world. This actually expands my original intent and actually answers my question to what is “Meaningful” use of technology. It’s a shame that I cannot be there every time it happens and see the full result of student progression but I am glad to get a glimpse of it. I can make some sense of what I have seen and see the potential of meaningful technology in a classroom. I now need to start thinking about the objectives and big ideas for lessons involving technology and what opportunities they will provide. After that I can start thinking how to be able to come up with my own activities or use of technology in lessons so that it could be very meaningful and goes along with my teaching philosophy and inquiry question.

References

Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom.

Classroom Climate and observations

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Classroom setup with lighting, mats, groups all depends on the group but find the one that works and invest in it, it’ll pay off long term. Took years of different groups, age, to figure out, letting go and being COURAGEOUS goes a long way especially intermediate → primary

Mats strategy – inattentive ones up front, behaved in the middle, those who needs to move and will not disrupt others at the back. Middle ones are preferably smaller in stature

Lights: Lamps are very calming and most of all keeps the VOLUME DOWN. Mentioned that it’s at least 2 noise level plus when ceiling lights are on. Sounds like souls getting sucked out when flipped on at the end of the day.

Strategies, kids are anxious because they are competitive and wants to catch up if not be the best despite parents not applying pressure. Notice if anyone does that and alleviate that pressure as best as we can as teachers

Teach multiple strategies and MAKE SURE to teach them to throw a strategy away if it doesn’t work for them. Ex. You guys love this strategy? Well I hate it, didn’t even want to teach it. But see, that works for you, you should use it, even though it doesn’t work for me even if you explain it to me!

Music: in sketching activity, the silence was needed in order for them to think, music on later when they started working helped elevate their productivity, also provided a cover for kids to talk quietly among each other to support peer to peer learning. Although this ended up with some pairs of sketches that looked very similar to each other.

Teacher has this strategy where she just reads on her chair in the corner and reads. It becomes a sort of magnet and kids will gravitate over if they want to, it’s calming for the end of the day instead of the hustle we have, must observe its effects!

 

 

 

 

 

Does Assessment Kill Student Creativity?

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No, assessment should not kill student creativity. It should serve as a guideline to foster specific creativity.

 

“Creativity is the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context.” (Beghetto, 2005, p. 255)

 

Posting best work may deviate the openness or creativity. (Beghetto, 2005, p. 257)

 

Coming from a design undergraduate study, I wholeheartedly agree with this article. My instructors have always critiqued everyone’s work while highlighting the ones that he or she thinks is the “path” we should innovate towards. While this does stifle some innovation, the article seems to concur that this is an acceptable method to guide students toward the appropriate social context in which the assignment was designed for. In interactive arts and technology, not only do we design projects that are novel and functional but also aesthetically pleasing. That was something that I thought I can add toward my own teaching when I assess projects during reading, but on second thought… elementary students probably have no prior knowledge whatsoever on visual art or spatial design. Maybe I can save that for a higher grade or scaffold them beforehand. Overall I agree that by only highlighting the best works, it adds unnecessary stress to students not highlighted and is frustrating because from past experience it means I have to work through a different mindset or ideas I am unfamiliar with. Creativity is about the uniqueness of an idea, it is nothing unique when we have 30 of the same project handed in. I took note that although we should promote creativity in our classrooms, it can also be seen as disruptive. Creativity usually means a deviation from the intended lesson plan and its outcome. In order to support creativity, teachers will have to put in more time and effort to cater to unique assessments that may or may not be supported realistically due to time constraints. Perhaps creativity should be promoted in Art, Science, English and others while others like Math will be more structured and creativity will be discouraged? I am going to stick with my initial reaction to the title. Though in the back of my head I feel the skill mastery being the objective ultimately is a better way of teaching knowledge, even though I am not sure if this is widely supported by the curriculum.

Reference

Beghetto, R. A. (2005, September). Does assessment kill student creativity?. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 254-263). Taylor & Francis Group.